IA - The Nightguard

[MikhalLeNoir]

Okay. Can you lay out the whole nightguard structure please. Since when do he have a mournival?

[Nomus Sardauk]

Okay. Can you lay out the whole nightguard structure please. Since when do he have a mournival?

I believe he was just using the Mournival as an example, the NG don't actually have a group of that name.

[Sigismund229]

 

Okay. Can you lay out the whole nightguard structure please. Since when do he have a mournival?

I believe he was just using the Mournival as an example, the NG don't actually have a group of that name.

 

I was indeed just using them as an example. 

 

Basically a group of veteran Nightguard who act as the Nightguard's moral compass for want of a better term. They make sure the Nightguard remember their duty and all that

[MikhalLeNoir]

But would n't that be better achieved through a gathering of the tower masters. And they elect an representative who speaks for all of the towers?

 

Call him the watch master etc

[bluntblade]

I quite like the idea of an ASoIaF style division into "knights" and "rangers"

[Doctor Perils]

I quite like the idea of an ASoIaF style division into "knights" and "rangers"

Dibs on builders. :lol:

[Doctor Perils]

Sorry for the double post, but no one will see this otherwise:

 

So, for the Nightguard Fleet, are we resting on an ex-Warrior of Peace Admiral Yi-style character? So a disgraced officer in his legion, and he recreates his fame within the ranks of the Nightguard, and he essentially creates the Nightguard fleet from the ground-up, assembling the disparate elements that were dotted around the different towers into a cohesive whole?

 

Also, I can't remember if we'd decided that the Nightguard would help the Suzerainty, or would not? If they do, then how about the Drowned-Navigator Captain-style character I'd thought of could be based in part on Thomas Cochrane? (Just watched Master and Commander, sorry X) )

[bluntblade]

I don't remember if we decided anything about that, to be honest.

 

And never apologise for watching that movie. The books are brilliant too. Actually, I just realised Cochrane might be the basis for the events of one of those stories

[Sigismund229]

I imagine they'd be neutral to the Suzerainty. If they fight the warp fight with them , if they attack Imperial forces fight against them

[bluntblade]

I believe one of my early ideas was that the Tower master on Terra be a Grave Stalker and the mater of the Tower of Vigilance be a LB

Does anyone have ideas what the GS Tower Master could be like?

[bluntblade]

Here's my proposal, a variation on Blunt's:

 

Guard

 

Captain

 

Master

If we're going with this, could we get it edited into the first post?

 

Edit: err, click the link to the original post

[Sigismund229]

Some ideas I had for the Nightguard(evidently exam exhaustion does my creative brain some good)

 

-Seeing as the only other force designed with the capability to fight deamons at the time the Nightguard is founded are the Custodians, I imagine the Nightguard might take a few things from the Custodian school of thought. One thing I thought they might do is perhaps take a new name with each decade of service and etch it on the inside of their breastplate? All about layers of defence against deamons uqing their names against them

 

-Have an Initiate-Neophyte system with "new" recruits to teach them how to fight deamons.

 

-As the replacement of the GK as Malcador's pet project but being much longer standing, how about they full(or at least a lot of) access to forbidden and archeotech weaponry

 

-Having a Dark Angels/Mithraic system of internal ranks. So they have an outward rank, Battle Brother, Tower Master etc. but then also an internal rank indicated by various markings on their armour showing how far they're advanced through its internal hierarchy. The various levels of hierarchy indicate various levels experience fighting deamons and also perhaps knowledge of the warp.

 

-As a final initiation rite, do an exorcists. The aspirant/neophyte becomes possessed by a deamon and is locked in a cell for a week. After that week, the cell is opened and they are put through trials of purity to see if any deamonic taint remains on their soul. If no=they passed the test and can become full members of the Nightguard. If yes=they are never heard from again.

 

-Each Tower Master has a nr.2 who is essentially the on site exorcist.

 

-Said nr.2 carries a (name). Essentially a staff with one of those inquisition flaming torch things on top that doubles as a flamer.

 

-Nightguard pyschers wrap a white cloth over their eyes, relying instead on the "shadow sight"

 

-Thought of names for the sections:

Cohors/Ordos Eques(knights)

Cohors/Orders Veles(rangers)

[Sigismund229]

I've had some more thoughts regarding the Nightguard's organization. Seeing as we want to reference the Nights Watch and their Orders, why not organize the Nightguard along the lines of something like the Dark Angels' Hexagramaton?

 

So like so:

 

Cohors Purgans: Destroyers&Heavy Weapons guys. Use Unification wars era weapons that have been forbidden in the legions

 

Cohors Eques: Assault specialists who use two handed swords for extra knightly feel

 

Cohors Umbra/Veles: Recon

 

Cohors Nullus: Pariahs

 

Cohors Spiritus: Pyskers

 

Cohors Praetorians: Terminators??

 

Then within each of these Cohors there's six "grades" of rank: Primus, Secundus, Tertius etc.

 

So a Nightguard marine could be

 

Brother Lucius Kastor, Tertius of Cohors Purgans of the Tower of Vigilance.

 

Thoughts?

[Sigismund229]

Sorry for the double triple post. Been brainstorming ideas for Legiones Astartes(Nightguard) over lunch. Here are my ideas

 

Lavish Armouries: Among the vast legions, the Nightguard are a small brotherhood with access to the full array of Terra's diverse armouries. As a result, many are better equipped than captains of the legions. 

 

In a detachment using Legiones Astartes(Nightguard)

-Terminator Squads may be taken as Compulsory Troops choices. 

-Squads armed with combi bolters, bolters or bolt pistols may either take Special Ammunition for +? point per model or exchange their bolters or bolt pistols for Volkite Calivers or Volkite Serpentas for +? point per model

-Squads equiped with or with the option to take a close combat weapon may instead take a power weapon for +10 point per model

 

Unbreakable Vows: Abandoning their old lives, the Nightguard had little left to them save for duty. 

 

When their opposing detachment contains squads with Legiones Astartes(Insurrectionist) or drawn from the daemons army list, squads with Legiones Astartes(Nightguard) may reroll failed LD tests and gain the Preferred Enemy special rule. 

 

Unsung Heroes: Upon joining the Nightguard, a legionary is obliged to abandon his old name and life on the battlefield where he was recruited. He is listed as missing in action making him, to all intents and purposes, a dead man walking. None will ever know his name or deeds and yet, for a legionary of the Nightguard, his duty is worth more than any amount of praise. 

 

Your opponent may never gain VPs for destroying squads with Legiones Astartes(Nightguard).

 

The few: While each of their number is a veteran of the Great Crusade, the Nightguard are and have ever been few in numbers. As such, they lack the numbers to engage in the open warfare of the Insurrection. 

 

A force which uses Legiones Astartes(Nightguard) may never be taken as your army's primary detachment. 

[Sigismund229]

Idea. Thoughts?

The Inner Circle
The Nameless, The Lights in the Dark, The Nine

Within the Nightguard, there is an exclusive brotherhood known as the Inner Circle. Each of these nine brothers is a warrior without peer, a veteran of the war against the forces of the Immaterium and each wields one of the nine blades of light. Forged in the dying days of the Great Crusade by the last of the great smiths of the Terrawat clans, each of these blades glows with an unworldy light, banishing all darkness that stands before it and cutting through flesh real and immaterial alike. These nine brothers have no names, only duties which they use in place of their names, duties to the Emperor and the Nightguard.

The Herald(talks to other institutions when necessary)
The Pariah(high librarian but for pariahs)
The Pysker(high librarian)
The Healer(like a Apothecary Primus)
The Smith(like a high techmarine)
The Guardian(like a high chaplain, guides the Nightguard and keeps them focussed on their duty)
The Angel(the Nightguard's champion. I envisioned a Sanguinary guard esque jump pack)
The Exorcist(well...it's in the name)
The Wanderer(master of recruits)

Oh and yes they are meant as a reference to the Nazgul

[Kelborn]

Replace Mouth with Herald or something different. Sounds to LotR for me, imho.

 

Otherwise, I'm liking it. :)

[MikhalLeNoir]

I like them. Bit kel is right although not because of the lotr referenxe. I think mouth doesn't fit to the other. If you would use body parts then it would be fitting again. Mouth, eyes, heart, Soul( yeah no real body part), etc

[bluntblade]

We still haven't given the Nightguard much presence within the Crusade. For that matter, what prompts their creation in our verse when they don't exist in canon?

[Sigismund229]

We still haven't given the Nightguard much presence within the Crusade. For that matter, what prompts their creation in our verse when they don't exist in canon?

That's because they don"t have much to do in the Crusade, especially seeing as they're still forming.

 

And the reason was so to watch over the warp's impact on the Imperium while the Emperor builds the Webway. While the LB will still be needed to deal with the largest incursions, the Nightguard are there to handle "regular" sized incursions

[simison]

That kinda contradicts the LB lore since their daemon-hunting is supposed to be top secret. Alex only finds out about it after becoming Warmaster, and, even then, it's only after he pieces together the clues and a lesson from the Interex. 

 

Actually, do the spirit of the Nightguard contradict the Emperor's intentions of downplaying the threat of Chaos at this time? I still think the Nightguard should stay, but maybe they come into being later. 

[MikhalLeNoir]

They could be assembled by malcador who should know about Chaos. So AS a safeguard he establishes a top secret organization consisting of those worthy and those poor souls who may have had contact with Demons before the LB were called upon.

 

Instead if Kipling them they could be brainwashed and placed on the boarders if the warp Rifts. They are responsible for the frontiers between immaterium and materium and not flying through the Galaxy Hunting deamons.

[Sigismund229]

Well at this stage, the Nightguard are still secret. The only primarchs who know about them are Icarion and Alexandros(depending on how much Alex knows about Chaos). They can stay this way because at the outbreak of the Insurrection they're only 1000 strong. So they're established by the Emperor as a secret safe guard in much the same way as the Grey Knights were worked on in secret.

[simison]

Alright. I recommend that Icarion is the one who suggests their creation around mid-Great Crusade as his Legion becomes spread thin or after a particularly bloody victory. They are to be an early response force against a Chaos incursion, until the Lightning Bearers arrive. 

 

The Emperor agrees, and secretly recruits the first 1,000. 

[Sigismund229]

Alright. I recommend that Icarion is the one who suggests their creation around mid-Great Crusade as his Legion becomes spread thin or after a particularly bloody victory. They are to be an early response force against a Chaos incursion, until the Lightning Bearers arrive.

 

The Emperor agrees, and secretly recruits the first 1,000.

Well, and deal with deamonic incursions too small for the LB to bother with

[Kelborn]

The Nightguard could potentially work along with the Predators during the first years of the Insurrection, when the Preds are trying to find out more about Chaos and how to defeat it.

 

Would be more reasonable than to let them do their stuff on their own, right?