The Stormbloods

[Tyriks]

THE STORMBLOODS

• Founding - 22nd Founding, M37
• Geneseed - Unknown
• Homeworld - Fleet based
• Fortress Monastery - The Dweller on the Threshold, a mobile space station
• Descendants - None
• Loyalties - Imperium
• Colors - Black with red trim (pics later)
• Icon - Undecided

 

HISTORY

I don't want to write up all the proposed history I have for this chapter because first I want some criticism of the idea behind them.  What I have been thinking is that they believe themselves to be a much older chapter than the records show, and that they at some point were censured for an unknown reason and as punishment had all of their history erased and their relics/honors revoked and their memories wiped.  They are on a mission to recover all the lost information and restore themselves.  They eat a lot of people in secret (when they can get away with it) and have found tons of little clues and a few big ones.

 

The catch, though, would be that there is some decent reasoning to think their omophagea is failing and is creating false memories, not exposing actual ones.  It would remain unclear with little hints here and there (I have already decided which is true) but nothing to make it a guarantee one way or the other.  I like the idea that even they don't necessarily know if they're the good guys fallen victim to power-hungry evil men, or rampaging cannibals for no reason.  

 

My concept for the Stormbloods is for them to be murky at best and sort of naively evil at worst.  I want them to think of themselves as champions of humanity, akin to the Salamanders, fighting injustice and corruption when they find it, but in actuality they view human life little better than the corrupt ones they fight against.  They would have no qualms about eating civilians en masse if they thought it would tell them what they need, but they rail against those they see doing similar things.  They just consider their own mission as important enough that it's okay for them.  I also like the ambiguity of their crusade.  I know the "truth" about them, but no one else needs to.  If I ever wrote something in depth, like short stories, I would try to keep this aspect going.  I also want to have a convenient reason to fight other Imperials without being traitor, so this makes it easier.  

 

What do people think of this?  Is it too much?

[Erasus]

Wow that pink text is totally illegible on my phone, I saw it all in my email anyway

[Tyriks]

Pink?  Should be the default white... I'll edit it and see.

 

They'd be largely eating Space Marines from other chapters, hoping to gain memories from previous bearers of the geneseed (convenient, since so many people play SM...).  But they'd go for anyone - not just people who might not be missed.  They'd be fine with attacking an Inquisitor and his troops if they thought they could get away with it, even though his disappearance would be noticed.  It's a big galaxy.

 

Also, other races who they might have fought before might have records to corroborate their stories.  Especially the Eldar, since they would notice minute details that would be very useful and also would still be around all these years later.  

[Erasus]

Yeah on the mobile version the background is white, so the pink is almost illegible, now you've changed it to white it's totally disappeared. It'll be there on the full version just not on the mobile version.

 

I'm not sure the geneseed of other space marines would yield much for the Chapter, it's secondary memories all crammed in, getting anything useful out of that could prove difficult.

On a side note, the one example I can remember of a marine eating geneseed and experiencing something from other lives is in a Black Library novel. The result was pretty much apocalyptical. Not sure is this is solely due to the nature of the situation and the marine in question. The immediate result was overwhelming stimuli then something close to if not death.

 

Are these guys essentially confused, raging cannibals?

 

If any other Chapter found out you'd eaten their dead, it'd be all out war with no alternative, no mercy til every one from one side is dead. That's a serious offence after all.

 

I like the concept of it. I just find it hard to put into practice as a loyalist Chapter, as borderline renegade as they are.

[Tyriks]

Yeah, I see it now. I don't know why it was pink, I just made it white thinking that was normal. I guess I'll make it gray?

 

I think your point is fair. In light of that, I think they'll try to use regular means of deciphering the truth primarily, except in highly secretive, ritualistic ceremonies that occur rarely.

 

So, they'll try to appear as codex compliant even when they aren't. Maybe they hang out around older warzones trying to find old equipment that might have records, or where they could get away with picking off a few stragglers, but wouldn't do it all the time.

[Erasus]

Thing is you need more than "they've a hidden past they're deciphering" because that's essentially Blood Ravens.

 

To be fair how many Chapters use 'civil war' as their tag line when the DA is about?

 

Hmm I liked the cannibalism. It's just that eating everyone was going to get your Chapter killed quicker than it deserved.

 

Maybe their cannibalism drives their hunt for their past? Hoping a cure or at least a reason for it is given?

You could move the prime investigators to Librarians? Using psyker powers to interrogate victims *cough* I mean potential sources?

 

I don't know, I don't want to be responsible for you killing the cannibalism trait. I just can't see loyalists doing it much. Whole Chapters have been caste out for it in the past.

 

I guess eating Chaos marines is too risky, taint wise.

They could eat each other at the end of service? . . . no . . .

Loyalist cannibals. . . . come on . . . . explain yourselves . .

 

Hmm

 

How about this? Oh wait you already have a past for them don't you? I never asked. Ok hear me out. I'm throwing this idea at you, take from it what you will. Mould it to your desired shape.

 

Original Stormblood world had various necrophagic cults, a mix of cannibals and fanatics. For whatever reason, maybe a warp storm, a psychic calamity occurs. This calamity imprints on the souls of every living person on the homeworld, like Sanguinius marking every Blood Angel. In the aftermath, the population is relocated, many cults deemed potential death cults by the Officio Assassinorium. The Chapter is blamed for the calamity, or its so horrednous no one can know, like the Storm Wardens and the Enslavers conflict, and subjected to an EoO. Supposedly pure geneseed is used to restart the Stormbloods. The new Chapter somehow, creative writing needed, inherits the necrophagic tendencies of their old culture. Maybe from far away survivors or from the original homeworld human stock? Long story short they must hunt down all those with the mark of this calamity and eat them to piece together what happened. This includes everyone who was evacuated. Death cult Assassins, Adepts, IG, Inquisitors. Whatever the survivors went off and became. Maybe in one or two instances, Aspirants for other Chapters. It's their only way to discover their past and why they are they way they are?

 

I'm sorry, I'm tired.

 

EDIT: looking back I realise this is pretty much just what you had before, ableit a more focussed and smaller target group to feast on.

[Tyriks]

Haha, yes it is in the same vein. I didn't mean I would cut the cannibalism out entirely, just that it would be a secret ritual, not something done as a routine part of cleanup after a fight. When they get a valuable captive, they keep it for a while to prep it and make sure no one suspects them, and then make a big event out of the ordeal. I like the idea of their librarians being in charge of it, I'll probably keep that.

 

I had thought about having them get addicted to the act, but I think it serves my intent better to have them actually hate it but feel like they have to do it sometimes. So they feel this big internal struggle sometimes about whether it's all worth it, but ultimately they keep deciding it is. Which would make it even worse if this is all in their heads...

 

I feel like the inclusion of the omophagea is bizarre to me. Anything a SM would want to gain knowledge from seems like something they'd get in trouble for eating, either for fear of tainting themselves or because it's too grotesque.

[Erasus]

Hello again!

 

Yeah I know what you mean, I believe it was originally put in to let Astartes use xenos tech and gain knowledge of their whereabouts in case they were captured or isolated. A kind of backup power. Like the Betcher's Gland.

 

Internal struggle and guilt is always good for character.

 

The secrecy and guilt smacks of the Blood Drinkers. Which isn't a bad thing. It just means there's precedent.

[Doctor Perils]

Oooh, Space Marine historian-super-sleuths? Verrrry interested I haven't read through the whole thing yet (I'll try and catch a moment to do it later) but this could have some serious potential: I would however be careful of how you tread around the Inquisition, as having a Space Marine's mind wiped is a serious indication of something not to be messed with.

Have you considered having some kind of specialist that roam affar from the chapter, looking up each clue without having to bother with a full company all the time? You probably have, but as I said, I haven't read it all yet

EDIT: I think that the cannibalism aspect is definitely interesting, but it shouldn't be the sole focus. Also, I'd gathered from a quick scanning that they'd been mind-wiped by the Inquisition, and now see that is wrong: the point is still interesting to keep in mind though.

Now, I also am not too sure about the chapter name: it doesn't really fit into Astartes naming conventions. Have a look at this link :

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/132379-guide-to-diying/?p=1523409

[Tyriks]

I'm modifying it.  I want to keep the general theme but tone it down.  So, what I am thinking now would be (vague outline):

 

They were founded (I'll revisit when) and quickly became close with the Ecclesiarchy.  Their beliefs more closely align with the Ecclesiarchy than most chapters, believing fully in the divinity of the Emperor.  However, due to their involvement in official church business, they became aware of some secret or corruption (TBD) they weren't supposed to know about.  To cover their butts they very publicly discredited the Stormbloods by censuring them and "confiscating" all of their relics, trophies, honor scrolls and such they could get their hands on.  The priest or official in question used several other chapters this way, so they weren't worried about a direct reprisal.  I'm thinking the official in question maybe had planted some chapter serfs in the monastery who fabricated evidence, then sabotaged the defenses allowing the official's forces to get in there and steal stuff.

 

So, now, they are motivated by trying to get the artifacts back and clear their name.  They believe most of their relics were given away as rewards or payment to other marines for doing the priest's dirty work.  So, they eat people (secretly) to try to catch glimpses from their memories of their lost relics.  They will make a huge ritual out of collecting blood and flesh from the battlefield and then consuming it together afterwards.  They will probably not go after geneseed specifically because of how hard it would be to get away with that.  They will have recovered some of their relics by this point, but the galaxy is a big place, so probably not all.

 

The crime they supposedly committed might be a codex violation.  Something that would warrant a punishment but not outright excommunication, which I think would probably make the most sense if it was either a major violation of a minor rule or a minor violation of a major rule.  So, maybe being slightly over a thousand marines after a recruitment drive is a little more successful than expected, or if the chapter's hierarchy deviates (like giving a psyker too much authority), I think a priest or official could twist that into something discrediting.  Anything else might be too close to actual heresy, which I think would just start a war.  Maybe the priest meant it to be a lesson to keep them in line (intending to still work with them) but actually just went too far and the Stormbloods severed ties.  

 

Because of this, they will have deviated a great deal over time from the Ecclesiarchy.  Some would have been unintentional from being out of contact, but some would have been deliberate due to the broken trust and trying to sort of justify the animosity between them and the priesthood.  Now, they will believe that the Emperor was a god, but he had to infuse part of his divinity into each Primarch to make them (his "angels"), which is why he was able to be killed by Horus.  They will therefore pray to Sanguinius also, but not actually worship him, since he was not actually a god to them.  

[Tyriks]

As for the name, it fits what I have in mind.  They are Blood Angels, but that won't be obvious to them until a long way into their history.  So, I want to carry on the idea that, like BA, they are psychically gifted, but also the volatility that comes with being under the flaws of their geneseed.  So the name has a sort of twofold symbolism that I find fitting - first, that their blood is sort of magical (i.e. they've got lightning in their veins) and second, that their temperament is unstable and unpredictable (their blood is stormy).  Originally they were the Storm Angels and just the first company would be known as the Stormbloods, which I think would fit the typical SM naming conventions more closely, but Storm Angels sounds a little generic to me.  

 

In the same regard, I was toying with the idea that, perhaps because of their rituals or some other discipline, the Black Rage is slightly different for them.  My thinking was that, perhaps (I'm not at all certain about this so it might get cut) the Black Rage is very rare for them, but when it happens it happens big time.  Like having a brother fall to it sets off a chain reaction that often leads to all/most of an assault force falling to it.  This would be interesting to me, but only really from a fluff standpoint, since this would be hard to accurately depict on the tabletop (then again the DC as a whole doesn't make sense on the tabletop...).  Also I don't have a reason for it to be different, which I'm uncertain how important that is since it seems like all of the successors have something a little different about the rage in their fluff blurbs.  But this would add to the sense of unstable blood.

[Erasus]

Hello!

 

The Ecclesiarchy has surprisingly more power against Astartes than you'd think, the Night Reapers for example were severely punished for destroying a doomed Shrine World rather than dying defending it, they claimed it was a 'merciful end' but the Ecclesitchy took offence to them seeing the world as of 'neglible strategic worth'. Penitent Crusade ensued, along with the taking of their homeworld and no doubt their relics. They went Excommunicate Traitoros later but that's a different story, with less shrines and more xenos weaponry. Oh and a nice hunt by the Minotaurs and Red Hunters. Anyway! Something similar could happen to the Stormbloods? Saves you from the codex violations which usually aren't actually illegal as much as frowned on, seeing as the Codex is not entirely a legally binding article. Just abiding by it keeps the Inquistion at bay. Maybe the Ecclesiarchy had a different priority to the Stormbloods and when the Ecclesiarchy's priority was destroyed they blamed the Stormbloods? Like a spoilt child lashing out, they blamed the Chapter and had them punished for something that was not actually that bad or entirely their fault, but the Eccleaiarchy insisted otherwise?

 

Anywho

 

Many of the Sanguinius Successors have a more aggressive form of the rage, it has lower trigger points and so affects more brothers than in other Successors. How the Chapters cope is usually the focus of their differences. For example the Flesh Tearers are a Chapter who will soon meet their doom from the curse's advances. While the Angels Numinous take a harsh stance on those who have fallen. The two concepts don't preclude each other but the focus is different. How do the Stormbloods handle it? Will it destroy them? Are they taking extreme measures? Is it accepted sullenly or defiantly resisted? Are the DC celebrated, loathed or pitied?

 

War on the Ecclesiarchy is cool, puts in my mind a cool scene where they must assault a secret shrine world where one of their relics is supposedly kept. And Angel winged Astartes barrel into Penitent Engines guarding the door into the tomb. Like a classic vampire vs priest thing but less thematic and more cool.

 

Hmm I get what Lord Thorn is saying. Bloods sits awkwardly on the tongue, like sheeps or something else with the plural=single rule . . . heats? That works for my point right? . . .

 

Or Stormblood could sound like a Space Wolf surname, Erik Stormblood.

 

I'm trying to think of a suitable alternative that keeps the overall message intact, bear with me;

 

Storm Bearers? Since they must bear the storm in their blood?

 

Until, if ever, something comes up from either yourself or something you like from someone else, Stormbloods will do!

[Tyriks]

I could also say they were the Storm Blades until they found out they were Blood Angels. Instead of completely changing it, they went with the closest substitute. Or I could just go with Storm Blades officially but Stormbloods is a nickname or a company name. Storm Bearers I think just reminds me of Word Bearers, but these guys will be hard core anti-chaos, so they wouldn't want a name similar to known heretics. Otherwise I'd like that, it sounds good! I had in mind a sort of superstitious nature for them, seeing omens and similarities everywhere.

 

I like your idea about the Ecclesiarchy simply having different priorities and lashing out. I'll think on that. I haven't fully decided how they'll view the DC but I think they'll embrace it, viewing it as a sort of "good" version of demonic possession. In that regard they probably would be more likely to put survivors in stasis than kill them afterwards. I think they will be endangered by the rage, especially lately as the psychic backlash is causing more and more whole groups to fall, but they will be somewhat oblivious to the danger presented by it, confident that it's part of the divine plan.

 

They will also use their blood/flesh eating rituals to assuage the red thirst, but their view will be very hostile of giving in outside of these rituals.

[Erasus]

Hello again!

 

So they see the DC as touched by the Emperor? Or his representative Sanguinius, either way they're holy right?

 

Kind of like "and with the power given unto him by the Holy Emperor, Lord Sanguinius deigned to bless his sons with the Holy Wrath of the Golden Throne. Others, such as the eternally damned Warmaster, Horus, used this power selfishly, turning it upon themselves to imbue their bodies with its strength. Thus at the time of Reckoning, Horus and Sanguinius would face each other, one emboldened with selfish power, the other weakened by his selfless love for his Sons." Could be part of their belief in why Sanguinius died? Maybe they believe it was tainted at the end when he died, and so they must resist that 'power' by resisting the Thirst as its only part of themselves selfishly calling for it. Those who enter the Rage have transcended this thirst for power and instead embody the Holy Wrath of the Golden Throne. Maybe they see the 'power' as a storm in their blood, waiting to be released?

I'm sorry this concept seems kind of weak now, but I swear it was going somewhere good. . . could be a starting point of you haven't traveled down that road yet?

 

Sticking to this concept, maybe the Ecclesiarchy dispute arose when the Stormbloods viewed the Ecclesiarchal priority as giving in to selfishness rather than being selfless? So they went and did something else?

 

Feel free to reject this, might not fit in with what you have in mind.

 

In terms of the name, I will cite the Carmine Blades here when I say that discovering you're someone else can perfectly warrant a name change.

 

Wish I had more to offer but my mind is still waking up

[Tyriks]

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of them having the name Storm Blades (a name well within SM naming customs) but being known unofficially as the Stormbloods, perhaps even pejoratively by others. But most likely not, most likely it'll be an internal nickname, I don't think I want others to have much of an idea of what they do in their private meetings.

 

I was thinking they'd view Sanguinius's death as being intentional, not to weaken Horus so much as to make the "empowering" of the Death Company possible.

[Doctor Perils]

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of them having the name Storm Blades (a name well within SM naming customs) but being known unofficially as the Stormbloods, perhaps even pejoratively by others. But most likely not, most likely it'll be an internal nickname, I don't think I want others to have much of an idea of what they do in their private meetings.

 

I was thinking they'd view Sanguinius's death as being intentional, not to weaken Horus so much as to make the "empowering" of the Death Company possible.

That sounds great :)

[Tyriks]

Their recruitment comes from one world, nominally their homeworld.  After losing their relics, they relocated to battle barges that float around the sub-sector, making such invasions much harder in the future.  The world is a death world that couldn't keep enough of a population for the Stormbloods to keep up with their losses, so they made a deal with the other Imperial worlds in the sub-sector: in exchange for protection, they would send 1-5% each of their population to their recruitment world to keep the population up.  Most of the people sent are criminals or other unwanted elements of society, such as psykers (this will lead to them being slightly more psychic than the average chapter).  This suits the Stormbloods fine as it leads to some hardy people living on the planet and keeps the citizens a little happier and therefore easier to deal with.  They patrol the sub-sector anyway to keep their battle barges moving so they can't be easily attacked, so they are paying basically nothing.

 

I'm undecided what the world is like.  Maybe mostly mountainous with a slightly toxic environment, accounting for how hard it is for people to survive (and therefore how tough anyone who does would be).  I think I have some place names written down somewhere, so I might have a name for the planet.  

[Tyriks]

I'm considering how to treat Sanguinary Guard in my chapter. If they revere the Death Company, should I have my SG be the "second best" option, or go for the reverse and have them be the outcasts? I was toying with having them be brothers accused of some grievous sins (most likely just failing in some mission) and so now having to prove their righteousness by combat. So, in effect, the SG and DC would have their roles switched for me. I can't decide if I like it for the more complete mirroring effect or if it's too cheeky.

[Doctor Perils]

As in, those that compromise their honour have to give up their entire existence in the service of bodyguard for the chapter master? It could work rather well, though I'd recommend changing their name in that case.

[Tyriks]

Absolutely agreed on that point. I'll probably call my DC "exalted" anyway, maybe call SG "the repentant" (or could just change it to blood guard, as they must pay their debt in their own blood or the enemy's).

[Doctor Perils]

"Lacrimosan Guard"? Then you can paint all those blood drops blue for extra difference? (Or black, like black tears for murderers in prisons?)

[Tyriks]

I was thinking of reversing their colors, so the DC would be all silver and gold and the SG would be mostly black. Their armor would look so awesome in black!

[Claws and Effect]

I was thinking of reversing their colors, so the DC would be all silver and gold and the SG would be mostly black. Their armor would look so awesome in black!

 

That actually sounds really cool.

[Tyriks]

Command hierarchies: everyone in a command position spends time as a chaplain. If you're a promising veteran you become a chaplain, if you do well there and a position opens up that matches your skills, you get promoted to that. Librarians would probably be an exception, since they'd need training to control themselves, so they'd serve as chaplains after getting that training. This is to reflect their religious fervor - they don't want anyone without history preaching and inspiring to lead, and it lets them check out their theology. This wouldn't be reflected in games, since I can't do that, but fluff wise this is the way they get into command positions.

 

Librarians will have the added responsibility of finding good fights to get involved in. Historically, they will have had some measure of prophetic dreams, and they use these to determine where to go. This will be viewed as the most important role a librarian has, so the highest ranking librarian won't always be the strongest at warpcraft, but those with the most frequent and reliable visions. Blood priests will have 2 functions beyond normal: lead the repentant sanguinary guard back into the Emperor's grace, but also they seek out specific enemies in the battle to collect blood from for their rituals. Everyone collects a little here and there but he has to take down a high value target and gather up a lot of blood for their communion. Chaplains will be pretty normal for a BA successor, but they will be more like a junior captain (and more prolific, probably).

 

The Chapter Master leads, but is assisted by the Council of Elders, who is just the highest ranking person in each field. If they are unanimous, they can challenge the Chapter Master's decisions on theological matters, and they vote together to replace him when he dies.

[Tyriks]

I've been really struggling with a chapter logo. I think for the sake of convenience since GW can't seem to fathom that anyone would want to play a successor of BAs and the models are covered in winged blood drops, I'll just recolor that. Probably silver wings with a blue drop. It's that or come up with a reason why they like the BA logo more than their own.

 

I was originally thinking about having them find out about their heritage very recently, but I think now this might be part of what began their falling out with the Ecclesiarchy. Not only were they unaware of their lineage, but I think they will have been lied to about it in the hopes that their belief about their geneseed might make them more willing to be used by the Ecclesiarchy. Also, they will either have been founded to replace losses during the Age of Apostasy or Nova Terra Interregnum, or they simply hadn't achieved much before those but played a helpful role to the church in both. Then, the church reached out to them to build a long term working relationship because of the ban on them having their own (male) soldiers - compliant Space Marines are still autonomous.

 

Then, after several thousand years, research into the flaw leads them to realize they are Blood Angels. Up until then, every brother has hidden their shameful curse, thinking it was only them and fearing the heretic's punishment they would get. When it came out, they breathed a collective sigh of relief, but still tried to keep it away from the church. Being so religiously oriented, they searched for theological explanations, and came to the conclusion that Sanguinius willingly died to empower them as an act of the Emperor's divine will.

 

The Ecclesiarch they worked most closely with dismissed this. I think he will have been envious of marines, and therefore contemptuous, because of how highly the people esteemed them and how they were treated as demigods (but his whole job was manipulating them into doing what real humans wanted). So he insisted that Sanguinius merely lost the fight, that he was just like every other dead soldier, et cetera. This really rubbed the Storm Blades the wrong way, and they began to keep a critical eye that led to someone noticing whatever made them split.

 

Whatever then caused the rift I want to be something not theological at all. Like they caught him in a crime, using his power for personal gain. That seems most fitting, because the guy was at heart a politician who just thought the church was the easiest way to gain power. He was persuasive and manipulative but not actually religiously minded so he got the job of trying to direct external forces on behalf of the church.

 

Here's a thought: they come across a rogue trader smuggling illegal things and board him, but to get out of trouble he name drops the priest, saying he works directly for him. They don't believe him so they call the priest with a gun to RTs head and listen in, which confirms it but also informs the priest they know. He already had planted evidence or dug something up on them to blackmail them but their zeal demanded that they take the risk and not do what he wanted. Since he was a career politician, he had more friends on his side in the ensuing series of accusations, and so they were stripped of relics and various honors, and he got away unpunished. That's when they change their name and icons, too.