Wraith Wolves (W.i.P)

[slitth]

I started this topic to get a little feedback on my chapter, the Wraith Wolves.

As it is a work in progress, it will be every sporadic at first. So bear with me.

 

 

Introduction

Welcome brother.

You have come to be illuminated once again
Know this is the finally illumination that I can give you.
Know that you will ever know the full truth.
Know that will alway can tell you, but no one can tell you everything.
Trust that you be illuminated again when you are ready.
And accept that there are some thing you will never be ready to know.

I know that you have studied all the official document of our history.
After all the history of Wraith Wolves are well documented, going all the way back to our very beginning going the 5th founding.
All this is easily accessed by anyone with the right clearance.
But as with any well documented history, the only thing you have be studying is want the writer was you to know.

You are here to be illuminated, about what is unwritten.
Some you have already know, the rest will be true  illumination.
Let us begin.
 

 

Official Imperial datasheet

http://img15.deviantart.net/9217/i/2017/114/d/9/wraith_wolves_datasheet_by_slitth-da88ug9.jpg

 

This is what the Imperium knows of the Wraith Wolves.

 

Chapter Concept

 

The Wraith Wolves are part of an Alpha Legion operation called “Highgate”
An operation based on an old saying of the Alpha Legion.
"To manage and maintain flaws of man on an ongoing basis."
More specifically to maintain mankind ability to handle limitation.
As mankind had the unlucky tendency to forget vital lessons and ignore healthy limitation.

"In ignorance we forget our limitation. In our pride we go beyond them.
We do to accept the borders that are set and see them as a prison for our desires.
So in our foolish we cross the border that keeps out our death and destruction.”

To manage this flaw the Alpha Legion establish sparatoi forces within the Imperium
One of these forces are the Wraith Wolves.

The Wraith Wolves carry the gene-seed of Lion El'Jonson, but the Wraith Wolves view themselves as a part of the Alpha Legion.
And the loyalty are to primarch Alpharius Omegon, that they reverently referred to as their lord and primarch.
After all loyalty should be bound to the will of the worthy Legion and not the flesh of the servant.

They are followers of the Imperial Truth. And believe that gods are a undated concept that comes from humanity's failed attempt to understand great power and its place in the universe.
They understand there are creatures that do not follow the rules of the material universe,but they still bound by rules nonetheless. Rules that make them a resource that can be exploited.
 

The Imperium view them a fleet base chapter that was formed doing the 5th founded as a response to a request from the Inquisition

The request was planted by the Wraith Wolves to better allow them to operate with the bound of the Imperium.

They have a number of small hidden base that are all called Nowhere, this is to confuse enemies that try to infiltrate them.

 

Like all space marines they are skilled in many forms of fighting styles and tactics.

But they preferred tactic is make use of a large smoke screen that something contains element that affect equipment or flesh.

To be effective in such an environment that Wraith Wolves are required to wear their helmet and rely on the auto-sense

They also make use of a large number of servo-skulls to act as scouts and teleport beacon.

 

History

 

Edit in progress

 

Heraldry

 

Tactical Marine

http://orig08.deviantart.net/b911/f/2016/170/c/1/tactical_by_slitth-da6u9t6.jpg

 

Assault Marine

http://orig08.deviantart.net/1bc4/f/2016/170/a/7/assault_by_slitth-da6u9sj.jpg

 

Wraith Wolf Terminator Codicier

http://pre12.deviantart.net/d46f/th/pre/i/2016/156/b/1/finished_wraith_wolf_terminator_codicier_by_slitth-da52ezn.jpg

 

[

 

Purpose

“We have come to appreciate that Utopian goals are ultimately counter-intuitive to species survival.
No power can engender, or force to be engendered, a state of perfection. Because perfection is an absolute that cannot be attained by an imperfect species.
It is better to manage and maintain flaws of man on an ongoing basis.”

The Wraith Wolves they was given only one true goal by their lord and primarch.
To protect and defend the Imperium as it was envisioned by the Emperor.
They were commanded to cast off all former allegiances and all concepts of honour.
Only the task of  managing and maintaining flaws of the Imperium mattered. 
There is no tool they will not use, for one will achieve nothing by doing things by halves.
No one can go through live by only breathing out, one most breath in if one wish to live.
Nor can anyone can win a war, only can survive it though the expense of others.  
There is no rule or edict that they will to break in the service of this duty.
There is nothing that is taboo to a Wraith Wolf.
For to join the Wraith Wolves, is accepts the guild of all the wrong and crimes that was be commit by the ones that came before and the guild of all that have yet to be done.
They will consort with demons and traitors, they will infiltrate and manipulate their allies and they will kill a thousand innocent so a billion guilty my live.

“The Imperium has awaken from the dream of illumination, now we must do what must be done. While it lives through the horror of a dark reality.”

 

Gene-seed

[Doctor Perils]

Hi there slitth, is this project still on-going ? This article seems intriguing, but I'd like to make a few constructive comments if you don't mind. If you do mind, feel free to ignore me

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I think that there is a problem with your warband, and that is that you haven't got a single clear, concise theme: you obviously have a great imagination, but you seem to want to cram all of your ideas into this single DIY, and the result comes out a bit tangled.

Now, I know that it can be complicated to try and find a clear theme for an army, especially one that doesn't come off like it's copying other stuff, but if you put your mind to it, you'll find it easier then you think.

One of the reasons that it can be complicated is that you have to cut some of your ideas out from your first DIY, which can be difficult, because you don't want to lose all those ideas. There's a simple solution to this, and that is to start a second DIY However, you'll want to do that at a later time.

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A second comment that I'd like to make is that your article isn't really that well formated. I can see that you've made some effort, but with a tiny bit more, you might find that, not only you get more viewers, you might also grasp the concepts involved a lot better.

On this forum, a useful tag is

[basicheader=000000]title[/basicheader]

which allows ou to create titles that look like this :

title

That way, you'll be able to break up the components of your article into bite-sized pieces, with a lot less mix up:

For instance, you should place nearly all of the army's history in the "History" or "Origins" section, and keep the "timeline" and "geneseed" sections very light on new info, using them more as a place for quick access to the key information rather then a story-line format.

Also, don't hesitate to use a bullet-points list at the beginning of your article, giving important information, like date of founding (or beginning of operations), gene-seed used, base of operations and so-on (you can take inspiration from the many articles on 40k Wikia and Lexicanum for the elements you might want)

If I may, it might also be a good idea to write first in Word, OpenOffice or LibreOffice (or any other word processing software you prefer), in order to use the language verification tool.

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Another tip is to include one or two images related to your army, including colour scheme and chapter logo, as this will give it a visual identity, and reinforce their image in the reader's head. I imagine that the colour scheme in your avatar is the Wraith Wolves' one, so I'm sure you can find the Bolter and Chainsword painter again :)

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Specifics

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So, now I'll try and be a bit more specific for some stuff. I'll be going through it in more or less a linear fashion, as a first time reader would, so don't be surprised if I say something's missing but it turns out it's written down later.

You start by saying that the Wraith Wolves are a splinter of the Alpha Legion, who have chosen to reform around a new ideology. That's okay. You go on to say that they want to maintain the flaws of humanity.

However, you call them a chapter, a term that is reserved to loyalist space marines: this causes confusion. Are they loyalist, or are they traitors.

Then the rest of the first section described their allied daemon. Now this is a great start for removing information from this article to place it in another: If this Daemon is an ally (and therefore not part of this force), he deserves his own article, which will also free up space for the Wraith Wolves to expand.

Another point that needs to be made about him is that "Greater Daemon Lord" is not a usual term used by Games Workshop. You should specify "Daemon Prince" since he used to be mortal.

Further, the way you describe him sounds like he would fit more as a Daemon Prince of Malal/Malice (link1, link2, link3)

In the next section, you suddenly start speaking about Word Bearers, and "the Broken Blade" which I suppose is an artefact, but I can't be too sure, since it isn't introduced.

Now, unfortunately, this seems to have little to do with the Wraith Wolves at this point, which makes it even harder to get an idea of what this is all about.

You then go on to talk about this battle barge, giving no more information about it. Since the Undeniable Truth is a Strike Cruiser, we know that it isn't the same as "The Barge".

If you want to keep this in the article, you should give more information on who they stole it from and how. If you don't want to go into too much detail on this, I'd keep it only as a small part of the "Base of Operations" section.

When the Alpha Legionnaires meet the Daemon, why does he accept to be used by them ? This is crucial information. Also, I have to be honnest and say that it doesn't sound very canon-friendly, either for his acceptance of the deal, or for actually working as a Geller Field or Navigator.

Also, normally, mother ships usually have several navigators, precisely to avoid this kind of situation: it would be interesting to find out why the main navigator, or all of them, actually die.

Suddenly, with the 5th founding, you start speaking about "the chapter". Which Chapter ? If you mean the splinter of the Alpha Legion, then that is most definitely not canon friendly, but it is also a common misconception. Even if the Inquisition classify their provenance, there is no way inquisitors are going to allow traitors back into the Imperium.

If you absolutely want to stick to that story line, that's okay; but in that case, you should only leave it as a quiet rumour. However, I can't see how they'd get away with a possessed starship.

Of course, I may be completely wrong about this chapter, but in that case you need to provide us with more information about who you are speaking about, who they are, and how they relate to the original splinter of the Alpha Legion.

In the purpose section, you speak about "maintaining flaws" as if it were good for mankind. That sounds weird to me, sorry. Of course, it might be my own philosophical views that don't allow me to understand.

However, it does show that I really haven't understood if these are loyalists or chaos, (or non-chaos renegades). Since they use Daemons and are "allied" with them, I'd be inclined to say Chaos, but since they want to maintain the Imperium I want to say Renegade... Yeah, I'm confused again.

You have to really say what side they are on: to me, it sounds like they are really radical (like some of the most radical of Inquisitors), but I have had to really think about it.

Now, the other problem I have with this is: okay, maintaining the Imperium, but against what? It's all well and good allying with Daemons, but there has to be a reeeeaaaallly good purpose to this alliance, because Daemons and the Imperium have diametrically opposed views.

Now the Geneseed section, which really should become your Origins section, and placed first and foremost in the article.

• If they are fighting for the Imperium, why are they Infiltrating it ?
• When do they start calling themselves the Wraith Wolves ? you hop between "Alpha Legion" and "Wraith Wolves" which is once again confusing.
• So they fight against the Death Guard. Fine, but a heads up of When, Where and Why are they fighting ?
• You use the specific number of progenoid glands that remain after the corruption of the others (Which I suppose is because of the sacred number of Tzeentch), but since we don't have any idea of the number of Wraith wolves at the beginning, this doesn't mean much: they could easily be ten, so losing half of their usable progenoid glands (two glands can be harvested from a marine) is bad, but I'm sure it's not quite as bad as what you're trying to get across. Are the Wraith Wolves 10, 100, 1000 strong ?
• If they don't trust the Daemon, why do they use it in the first place? He is taking them through the Warp on a daily basis???

And then suddenly you introduce probably the weirdest and wildest idea that I've seen in the 40k universe, both from official sources and DIYs.

What's even weirder is that it can actually work within the universe...

However, with the mentality of people inside that universe, I really can't see them accepting that kind of deal if they haven't already turned to chaos.

I think the main issue you have to sort out is what your allegiance is. Once that is done, find out who are your force's opponents, and why they are opposed. Then, I'd say that you should still try to find some limits that your army is not prepared to cross.

But, first and foremost, you should reorganise your article, and introduce things in a better order, starting with the most important.

That they are Alpha Legion seems irrelevant compared to the existence of this Egg. Tell the reader about this artefact in the introduction, not in the last three paragraphs.

[Nineswords]

 

Light info about the idea about the chapter.

 

They are a splinter group of the Alpha Legion that lost faith after the Horus Heresy and chosen to rebuild around an old concept.

To manage and maintain flaws of man on an ongoing basis.

 

They are allied to a great demon lords of tzeentch.

 

The demon has once a mortal who string of fate hidden so Tzeentch can only see it presence in the weave of destiny by how it pull and shift other strings.

Tzeentch has granted it demonhood and freedom to do as it will, knowing that it would be a demon that use little guile, but would adept in disrupting the schemes of the gods. Delighting in the chaos and change it brings to the game of the gods,

 

Purpose

 

“We have come to appreciate that Utopian goals are ultimately counter-intuitive to species survival.

No power can engender, or force to be engendered, a state of perfection. Because perfection is an absolute that cannot be attained by an imperfect species.

It is better to manage and maintain flaws of man on an ongoing basis.”

 

The Wraith Wolves have only one on true goal, to protect and defend the Imperium as it was envisioned by the Emperor.

To do this they have cast off all hold of allegiance and all concepts of honor, only the task of  managing and maintaining flaws of the Imperium mater.

There is no tool they will not use, for one will achieve nothing by doing things by halves.

No one can go through live by only breathing out, one most breath in if one wish to live.

Nor can anyone can win a war, only can survive it though the expense of others.  

There is no rule or edict that they will to break in the service of this duty.

There is nothing that is taboo to a Wraith Wolf.

For to join the Wraith Wolves, is accepts the guild of all the wrong and crimes that was be commit by the ones that came before and the guild of all that have yet to be done.

They will consort with demons and traitors, they will infiltrate and manipulate their allies and they will kill a thousand innocent so a billion guilty my live.

 

So I think there's a seed of an interesting idea, but I feel that you have needlessly complicated the basic premise. My apprehension stems from what you say is not the same as what they do, which could be spun as a great thing (intention vs reality), but right now it's falling a little flat.

 

Disregarding the Tzeenthch daemon plot entirely, I'd like to focus on the modus operandi of the Alpha Legion during the Great Crusade - firstly, after LEGION it is implied that the legion splits, initially into two different camps: those who follow Alpharius, and those who follow Omegon, as seen most notably in both The Serpent Beneath and The Seventh Serpent, at this point the legion has begun a path that encompasses the Third Paradox.

 

What is the Third Paradox? A paradox is seemingly absurd, contradictory statement or proposition that on further investigation holds to be true. It is reasonable to assume that the first two paradoxes are the ones presented by Gahet in LEGION:

 

The First Paradox: If the Emperor is victorious, stagnation will take hold in the Imperium - over the course of thousands of years Chaos will gradually be allowed to fester in decay and the Primordial Annihilator achieves ascendancy and the galaxy ends. 

 

The Second Paradox: Should the Warmaster achieve victory, a ‘brief’ century or two of violence will end the human race and the Primordial Annihilator is denied. The races of the galaxy live on due to the destruction of the human race.

 

The Third Paradox: The Alpha Legion follows a course of action that engenders the first two paradoxes, and therefore fulfil both and neither simultaneously - The Alpha Legion creates its own agenda, demonstrated further by Omegon’s theft of the corrupted Raven Guard Raptor Gene-tech and rejecting the Cabal’s agenda outright. However, in doing so, a schism forms within the Legion as the twin primarchs’ begin to differ ideologically on which course of action to follow. Ranko is aware of Omegon’s personal conflict on following a course of action that is not unified with Alpharius’. This statement seems to hold true, with this statement in DELIVERANCE LOST:

 

“As they had done so many times before, Alpharius and his Legion had stepped upon a narrow path, playing a part to two opposing sides to achieve a third, more desirable outcome.” (DELIVERANCE LOST)

 

Or the Third Paradox is that Omegon has thought that the Cabal has lied to the AL and that they have fooled his legion into siding with Horus and that all they can now do is follow the path they are committed to (Epistolary Exander on B&C)

 

Consider: The First Paradox the Acuity’s vision, The Second Paradox that it is possible that Alpha Legion can create a more desirable outcome for themselves by serving both sides at the same time, but by doing so, the Third Paradox is that the Second Paradox can only be achieved by conscientiously splitting apart - with each Primarch pursuing the same goal through different means. This one makes the most sense to me, as I've always viewed the Alpha Legion's outcome is to maintain humanity's flaws and yet elevate the human race above all other galactic species, notably, this does not mean the Imperium, which is a theocratic culture, rather than humanity, the species. Reading the Serpent Beneath, I think it is Omegon who has come to this conclusion and has simply accepted that an ideological division needs to happen in order to best achieve the long term goals of the legion; in that the best course of action is a paradox, but one that is in keeping with legion doctrine (many heads).

 

Already there's a lot of scope for a great Alpha Legion faction: Horus has failed, but the Emperor's ascension as a god is contrary to all the teachings of the Imperial Truth and they can anticipate the Imperium's decline as a stagnant theocracy. Right there are the seeds for an interesting faction of Alpha Legionnaires who use their subtley and guile to enlighten humanity from the chains of dogma. One man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter and all that, and the ends justify the means. If these guys stand for the Imperium that was, then the Imperium that is should burn, and thus manage the flaws of man on an ongoing basis, despite the use of martial violence and a rather procrustean method (paraphrasing the conversation in LEGION).

 

Essentially, this faction has rejected its leaders and pursues the spirit of the Legion and the Imperium before the heresy and will use any means to do so. This makes them a solid target for the Imperium at large. 

[slitth]

Thank you for your feedback as you can see updates are on the way

[slitth]

I decided to take some time out from my slow updating of the post to reply to some of the feedback I have received.

I will write my answer in blue with the quotes.

Hi there slitth, is this project still on-going ? This article seems intriguing, but I'd like to make a few constructive comments if you don't mind. If you do mind, feel free to ignore me

Yes, It is still on-going and have be for many year. I just decided to post some of my more finish ideas here. And I are truly grateful for the feedback. It help the project along.

I think that there is a problem with your warband, and that is that you haven't got a single clear, concise theme.

Well I alway had the theme nailed down. I wanted to collect 2 types of forces.

The First is a terminator company. Inspired by the dark angels deathwing and the Space Hulk board game.

The second is a mobile force with a lot of aircrafts and infantry. Inspired by 1st Air Cavalry Division.

The backstorry have change a number of time as I get more information about the Warhammer 40k world. So that is a bit messy :-)

So, now I'll try and be a bit more specific for some stuff. I'll be going through it in more or less a linear fashion, as a first time reader would, so don't be surprised if I say something's missing but it turns out it's written down later.

You start by saying that the Wraith Wolves are a splinter of the Alpha Legion, who have chosen to reform around a new ideology. That's okay. You go on to say that they want to maintain the flaws of humanity.

However, you call them a chapter, a term that is reserved to loyalist space marines: this causes confusion. Are they loyalist, or are they traitors.

Well the Wraith Wolves are loyal to the Imperium of old. So they will strive to remove and limit some of humanity's flaws from that respective, such as faith in false gods or following xenos ideology.

Some of this can be done in the open, as slaying of chaos cultists or follows of the Tau's greater good are lauded and reward.

The more zelos followers that preach the Emperor is a god must be removed from the shadows or by manipulation someone else to do it for them.

But the really big task is manage and maintain the great masses of Imperium, something that they are unable to do, but that do not stop them from trying.

In some perspective they are akin to the Recongregators faction of the Inquisition. And are as much of a thread to the high lords of Terra's vison of the Imperium as the the Black legion is. They only difference is the Wraith Wolves are view as loyal, and the Black legion are viewed as traitors.

Another point that needs to be made about him is that "Greater Daemon Lord" is not a usual term used by Games Workshop. You should specify "Daemon Prince" since he used to be mortal.

Further, the way you describe him sounds like he would fit more as a Daemon Prince of Malal/Malice.

I call it a greater daemon lord because unlike daemon prince or greater demons, the demon within the Broken Blade cannot enter the material universe.

It limited to controlling things and people as a puppeteer might, but is unable to use little more that a fraction of is power when doing so.

So its puppet would be rank a little lower that a bloodletter in terms of threat on a normal battlefield, but fighting it on a ship in warp transit with a weaken gellar field or on a world close to the center of the Eye of Terror would be like taking on a Bloodthirster.

In short it's a different class of demon, therefore I give the a different name. And in the end names and tiles are just for show.

As for the Malal/Malice thing. Malal/Malice are about destroying or opposing chaos. The demon within the Broken Blade was made by Tzeentch to give it a playing piece

that calls no one master and is hard to predict. It is often aware of plots and schemes play out around it, and based on it own desires it will choose to aid or hinder them as it sees fit.

it is an expression of Tzeentch's desire to keep the great game of fate going and interesting. And not Malal wish to end it.

In the next section, you suddenly start speaking about Word Bearers, and "the Broken Blade" which I suppose is an artefact, but I can't be too sure, since it isn't introduced.

Now, unfortunately, this seems to have little to do with the Wraith Wolves at this point, which makes it even harder to get an idea of what this is all about.

You then go on to talk about this battle barge, giving no more information about it. Since the Undeniable Truth is a Strike Cruiser, we know that it isn't the same as "The Barge".

If you want to keep this in the article, you should give more information on who they stole it from and how. If you don't want to go into too much detail on this, I'd keep it only as a small part of the "Base of Operations" section.

When the Alpha Legionnaires meet the Daemon, why does he accept to be used by them ? This is crucial information. Also, I have to be honnest and say that it doesn't sound very canon-friendly, either for his acceptance of the deal, or for actually working as a Geller Field or Navigator.

Also, normally, mother ships usually have several navigators, precisely to avoid this kind of situation: it would be interesting to find out why the main navigator, or all of them, actually die.

I have not writed that part down in detail yet. But there is the short verion.

-It allows itself to be used because it was to be it the Wraith Wolves service at an opportune time. Like when they have problem with their gene-seed.

-Its also in it interest to let the think that they are it masters and they will always get the better deal when a bargain is struck.

-Anything can travel through the warp of the warp allows it. But most of the time the warp is not in a giving mood and you have to rely on protection like a Geller Field or a sponsor like a powerfull damon. An example of the latter would be how Erebus travels by the use of the Athame, his skill and the will of the pantheon.

-Anything can build a ship through the warp as long as they have the eye to see the way. A navigator can do this, I see no reason why a demon would be blind in its own realm.

You have to really say what side they are on: to me, it sounds like they are really radical (like some of the most radical of Inquisitors), but I have had to really think about it.

Now, the other problem I have with this is: okay, maintaining the Imperium, but against what? It's all well and good allying with Daemons, but there has to be a reeeeaaaallly good purpose to this alliance, because Daemons and the Imperium have diametrically opposed views.

They are protecting the Imperium and mankind against it own flaws. Like it's fallen sons, it's dependence on false belief, it's greed, it's inability if function or remain united without the use of force, and the list goes on and on.

They are followers of the Imperial Truth. To the warp and damon do not have the same supernatural mention to them.

The warp is power, an unstable resporece that you can use if you know how. Like using psykers, despite of how unpopular and unwanted they are.

And the Alpha Legion or former member of the Alpha Legion are nothing if not pragmatic. So using or siding demon would not be behind them if it aid there cause.

If not, then they would not have side with Horus. And if anything the Imperium is such a pure state that nothing is to drastic a measure in the attempt to restore the Imperium