The Silver Skulls Conspiracy

[FuriousFerret]

I posted this in the Uptramarine thread as well. Not sure how many folks head over that way.

 

I see in the old thread some brought up the idea of the mechanical faced Eikos Lamiad potentially being an insperation for the SS.

Godwin's Law.

 

 

[Lords of Preyspire]

Yup, went right for hitler.

[Lords of Preyspire]

Could'nt their gene-seed be chimeric?

Made up of both ultramarines and the loyalist iron warriors under guillimans command, their heraldry and icon in honour of Dantioch?

Hell, i wouldn't be surprised if guilliman adopted loyalists of traitor legions into his legion, whose gene-seed later made it into the second founding.

I don't hate the idea that it's made up of more than one legion. I was speaking to Sarah Cawkwell and she confirmed that GW wanted them to be ultramarines. She said that when she was writing the book she was pushing them towards white scars but got vetoed by GW. I can see a lot of white scar influence in the chapter, which is cool.

[lokkorex]

Wait, what?

 

Even though it's gw ip, it seems kinda rude to just steamroll over her ideas like that, considering she's like the only author with any interest in the silver skulls.

[BrotherGecko]

What my head cannon tells me is that part of the reason Guilliman comes up with the chapter system is to protect the loyalists from the traitor legions. We have the 30k conspiracy of the UM possibly absorbing the missing legions too. I would say that faced with either leaving the loyalists out to hang and facing retribution from an Imperium filled with rage during the scouring, Guilliman decides to hide them in a new chapter system. New paint, new identities, same loyalties.

 

The Silver Skulls are made up of collected loyalist IW. I doubt that Guilliman would allow for the waste of loyal astartes (especially ones that have proven their loyalty far beyond legions that never turned). On the founding of the SS, Guilliman allowed them to take up their colors and iconography, told to right the wrong of their legion and dubbed them the Silver Skulls after Guilliman's friend Dantioch. Danitoch becoming their symbol to achieve. An they bare his visage in battle.

 

Or so my head tells me. BL would be dumb to not write into the mythos a way for traitor legion loyalists to stay fighting for the Imperium.

Edited January 27, 2017 by BrotherGecko

[Lords of Preyspire]

Wait, what?

Even though it's gw ip, it seems kinda rude to just steamroll over her ideas like that, considering she's like the only author with any interest in the silver skulls.

I would I like to add that she said it was the only thing they asked her to move away from. Although Sarah said she was a little disappointed, she actually seemed happy with the free creative freedom she had apart from that.

 

Sarah also added that it was pleasing that this particular ultra chapter has gone a bit off the books.

 

It's given me a new motivation to do a shattered legion list with ultras and white scars. I know that the White scars affected the stories in the books, it makes sense to me to have them affect the heresy era silver skulls army that I'm making (to me at least).

What my head cannon tells me is that part of the reason Guilliman comes up with the chapter system is to protect the loyalists from the traitor legions. We have the 30k conspiracy of the UM possibly absorbing the missing legions too. I would say that faced with either leaving the loyalists out to hang and facing retribution from an Imperium filled with rage during the scouring, Guilliman decides to hide them in a new chapter system. New paint, new identities, same loyalties.

The Silver Skulls are made up of collected loyalist IW. I doubt that Guilliman would allow for the waste of loyal astartes (especially ones that have proven their loyalty far beyond legions that never turned). On the founding of the SS, Guilliman allowed them to take up their colors and iconography, told to right the wrong of their legion and dubbed them the Silver Skulls after Guilliman's friend Dantioch. Danitoch becoming their symbol to achieve. An they bare his visage in battle.

Or so my head tells me. BL would be dumb to not write into the mythos a way for traitor legion loyalists to stay fighting for the Imperium.

 

Yeah, I can see where your coming from and I agree with the thinking behind it. I personally find it a little on the nose to keep their old iconography and colour scheme, even as a symbol of defiance. I think it's possible that it is dantioch inspired and may well have an iron warrior element within its foundation. I personally would still like them to be a mostly ultramarine chapter.

 

If I was going for my perfect fan scenario (rhymes with fan-bank), it would be along the lines of a mix of mostly ultras with a selection of loyalist iron hands and white scars (after speaking to Sarah). Under the command of Tauro Nicodemus with a strong contingent of newly re established librarians. Sent out specifically to hunt down traitors.

Edited January 5, 2018 by Brother Tyler

[SickSix]

What my head cannon tells me is that part of the reason Guilliman comes up with the chapter system is to protect the loyalists from the traitor legions. We have the 30k conspiracy of the UM possibly absorbing the missing legions too. I would say that faced with either leaving the loyalists out to hang and facing retribution from an Imperium filled with rage during the scouring, Guilliman decides to hide them in a new chapter system. New paint, new identities, same loyalties.

 

The Silver Skulls are made up of collected loyalist IW. I doubt that Guilliman would allow for the waste of loyal astartes (especially ones that have proven their loyalty far beyond legions that never turned). On the founding of the SS, Guilliman allowed them to take up their colors and iconography, told to right the wrong of their legion and dubbed them the Silver Skulls after Guilliman's friend Dantioch. Danitoch becoming their symbol to achieve. An they bare his visage in battle.

 

Or so my head tells me. BL would be dumb to not write into the mythos a way for traitor legion loyalists to stay fighting for the Imperium.

I am resurrecting this thread. Sorry.

 

Brother Gecko that is a great theory for G-man breaking the legions. I don't think that is a primary reason but probably a secondary motivation. It makes perfect sense to me.

 

If the legions hadn't broken up, what would loyalists from traitor legions(LfTL) do? I highly doubt the other loyal legions would trust them enough to adopt them and would LfTL don another legions colors? Doubtful as well.

 

But form completely new 'Chapters' without their history being questioned? Absolutely.

[Brother Tyler]

My opinion (until official lore adjusts it) is that the Silver Skulls are descended from the Ultramarines Legion, just as the official lore says. However, the Iron Warriors of Dantioch's contingent that survived the Horus Heresy and the Scouring through to the 2nd Founding were probably part of the core leadership of the nascent Chapter. They, thus, heavily influenced the traditions and doctrine of the Silver Skulls, resulting in the complex Chapter that we know today. However, some of the current Chapter's traits were not a direct result of Iron Warriors Legion influence, but were evolutionary over the millennia. So there's probably no Iron Warrior gene-seed involved, merely teachings. It would be interesting if the Silver Skulls have some sarcophagi of some ancient Iron Warriors secreted away deep within their fortress-monastery. I could potentially see a few relics of those surviving Iron Warriors, possibly even items used by modern Silver Skulls Space Marines.

The theory that Roboute Guilliman incorporated the "survival" of the loyalists from the traitor legions into the new Chapter structure of the Codex Astartes is interesting, though I wouldn't go so far as to say that the re-structuring was based solely upon that purpose. I'd say it was merely a fortuitous coincidence that Guilliman took advantage of. If that is what happened, that is.

I'm curious if, with Roboute Guilliman's return, any revelations will be made concerning this mystery and others, questions about events that we can now pose to the actor responsible for them.