BotL - Monthly fluff challenge

[bluntblade]

Worldburner Grenadiers

 

Few elites among the Legiones Astartes were as reviled as the Worldburners. Yucahu formed them from Destroyer squads, augmenting their weaponry so as to raze any environment in which they fought. This meant that they were rarely favoured in the Void Eagles’ preferred battlefields in the void, but in planetary engagements they took the field all too often, in the minds of many commanders.

 

To the already dreadful weapons of a Destroyer, they added gas and incendiary weapons, making them figures of surpassing terror among any infantry who stood in their way. With little interest in sowing terror for its own sake, the Worldburners moved rapidly, seeking to inflict destruction as rapidly as possible and leave easy pickings for their brothers. At battle’s end, they would return, systematically razing the field of battle.

[simison]

For every successful invention, though, there has been an equal failure. One such attempt was the infamous Baikonur Disaster. Given the importance of warships to the fleet-based Void Eagles, the Tech-Lords of Vernes desired to created a weapon that could pierce void shields and, in a single blow, completely disable an enemy warship for capture. With such a weapon, it was theorized that the Void Eagles could enter into an age of rapid expansion and unequaled void supremacy. Unfortunately, when the weapon was test-fired aboard the destroyer Baikonur, it detonated before launching, nearly destroying the Void Eagle vessel. Instead of increasing the fleets of the Void Eagles, the Fourth fleet received a large induction of dreadnoughts. When asked about the catastrophe, Calius answered that it was a necessary sacrifice for progress. 

Edited May 18, 2017 by simison

[Skalpynock]

I laughed. You got the 4th perfectly.

[bluntblade]

Early I know, but given my own ignorance about our XV, I'd like to suggest we tackle the Grave Stalkers next month.

[simison]

Duly noted.

 

June Fluff Challenge

 

Grave Stalkers - Blunt/Sig

Edited May 19, 2017 by simison

[Kelborn]

Don't know why (maybe it's because I'm currently into Deathwatch) but I'd like to do something for the Nightguard in June. :)

[simison]

Don't know why (maybe it's because I'm currently into Deathwatch) but I'd like to do something for the Nightguard in June.

 

Given that we're still early in the Insurrection, far removed from the Nightguard's eventual debut, and we have Legions who need some attention, I'm going to have to say no. The Nightguard, and other non-Legion forces, can come after we've covered the Legions.

[bluntblade]

I think Grave Stalkers have a pretty strong argument from that perspective. We could do with some characters, ships etc for the Day of Revelation

[Sigismund229]

I think Grave Stalkers have a pretty strong argument from that perspective. We could do with some characters, ships etc for the Day of Revelation

As the main person whose been writing the GS fluff up until now, I agree with this. I've also had a few ideas for Grave Stalker personalities that I've been wanting to flesh out for a while(and in fact started but then...well school happened) in addition to the work I did on the distinguishing features of the 10 Grave Stalker companies

[simison]

4^th Great Fleet

Commanded by Admiral Calius, the Void Eagles' Fourth Fleet are infamous for their peculiar idealism and esoteric weaponry among their brothers. The latter is rooted in an alliance with the Forges of Vernes. Despite its name, this planet is not a Mechanicum forgeworld, but home to a technocracy that supplies the Fourth Fleet in its on-going participation in the Great Crusade. More than willing to eschew Martian tradition for unknown innovation, Vernes and the Fourth Great Fleet have been a constant source of tension between the Void Eagles and the Mechanicum. The sole reason that the Brass Lord allows this to continue is Vernes' undeniable success in crafting weapons for Calius' fleet. Instead of the standard bolter, the marines of the Fourth wield a unique lightning rifle, capable of slaying organics and mechanical defenses without threatening bulkheads or ship integrity.

For every successful invention, though, there has been an equal failure. One such attempt was the infamous Baikonur Disaster. Given the importance of warships to the fleet-based Void Eagles, the Tech-Lords of Vernes desired to created a weapon that could pierce void shields and, in a single blow, completely disable an enemy warship for capture. With such a weapon, it was theorized that the Void Eagles could enter into an age of rapid expansion and unequaled void supremacy. Unfortunately, when the weapon was test-fired aboard the destroyer Baikonur, it detonated before launching, nearly destroying the Void Eagle vessel. Instead of increasing the fleets of the Void Eagles, the Fourth fleet received a large induction of dreadnoughts. When asked about the catastrophe, Calius answered that it was a necessary sacrifice for progress.

The Forges of Vernes would not survive the Insurrection. Located far closer to the galactic core than Coabana, the Forges of Vernes would be cut off from the Imperium by the rise of the Stormlord's false empire. Although under siege, the technocracy represented a powerful threat with its own technological defenses augmented by a defense fleet composed of Void Eagles. For a time, the Stormlord was content to blockade the Forges of Vernes and focus on higher priorities elsewhere. While the Void Eagle warships would launch raids against the nearby Traitor forces, they were little more than an irritant. The situation changed at the height of the Blood Crusade. In a move of supreme hypocrisy, the Cognis Heretcia declared the Forges of Vernes guilty of heretek against the Mechanicum and to be purged. The Dark Mechanicum forces launched an all-out invasion with contingents of Harbingers, Eagle Warriors, and Steel Legionaries as support. The bitter campaign lasted a month as the Loyalist defenses were slowly overwhelmed through attrition. In a final act of defiance, the Tech-Lords destroyed their own work rather than allow it to fall into the Cognis' hands. After the Scouring, the Fourth Great Fleet would declare the world to be a mortuary world, in a rare act of sentiment, to honour the Forges of Vernes final sacrifice.

[How does that look Skal?]

Edited May 19, 2017 by simison

[simison]

Alright, three days until the new month. Let the votes start coming in. 

 

So far, we have two votes for the Grave Stalkers and no one else.

[simison]

Last day to vote.

[MikhalLeNoir]

Stalkers!!!

[simison]

It is unanimous. June will be the month of graves and stalkers.

[simison]

So, Grifft, what kind of contribution would you like from me?

[Grifftofer]

So, Grifft, what kind of contribution would you like from me?

Honestly I have no idea :S To be fair there is so little fluff outside of the essentials that you can almost do what you want. I'm good with answering questions about the Legion, but not so much with spontaneous ideas.

 

I guess the Legion could do with some more named members though. So maybe create a Grave Stalker character?

 

I refer you to this by Sigismund, for inspiration :)

 

Icons of Terror

 

The Grave Stalkers were masters of pyschological warfare. While their aura was undeniably the largest factor in their effectiveness, each of the legion's ten Companies adopted it's own customs and visual aides to their aura over the course of the Great Crusade, some more brutal others more subtle. However, due to the isolationist nature of the Grave Stalkers and the terror they inspired in normal humans these remained largely unknown until noticed in pict feeds and by the Grave Stalkers enemies during the Insurrection.

 

Grave Stalkers 1^st Company.

The Shrouded, the Wraiths

 

Due to the schism with Mars, the XV^th never received suits of Tactical Dreadnought Armour in any meaningful numbers. As such, their First company, like the rest of the legion, continued to wear battered suits of Mk.II well into the late years Great Crusade. However, for the Grave Stalkers elite in the First Company, the Tech-Priests incorporated a system they called the Shroud, the technology of which was closely guarded by the XV^th and the Tech-Priests, any hope of discovering its secrets perishing with Lasaris in the Scouring. It is not even known what the Shroud precisely does. Some think it's a short distance teleporter, others a form of camo cloaking built into the armour. However, the effect is known all too well, for the First were rarely seen during the Insurrection before it was too late and they were upon their foes, taking life after life with their power scythes, symbols of death suited to such ruthless warriors.

 

Grave Stalkers 2^nd Company.

The Skull Masked

 

As the Ninth would contain most of the Grave Stalkers' assault marines, so too would the Second be composed almost entirely of Terran astartes. As such, it maintained the old XV^th legion custom of going into battle bare headed, their faces tattooed to resemble skulls and raw muscle, their eyes pits of blackness that swallowed all light that entered them and gave back nothing but fear and despair. It was to take full advantage of this appearance that the Second fought helmless.

 

Grave Stalkers 3^rd Company.

Lords of Bones, Sons of Dread

 

Like all sons of Kabyieb, the Grave Stalkers third company were brutal executioners of the Stormlord's will and alongside the rest of their legion they would spend the early years of the Insurrection terrorizing the galactic core. It was during these years that, from a combination of experience and analysis of pict feeds, Imperial forces began to recognize patterns in the manners in which the companies of Grave Stalkers distinguished themselves from their brethren. In the case of the Third company, they had one main distinguishing feature: their helms. Rather than leave them plain and unadorned, most of the Third company wore the upper jaw bone, cheek and nasal bones of an Ogryn Carnifectas, a cannibalistic strain of Ogryn they had encountered on the fourth moon of Streytha, who had developed mouths filled with viciously sharp fangs rather than normal human teeth.

 

Grave Stalkers 4^th Company.

Hand Hunters, Blood Waders

 

During the fighting the galactic core, Imperial forces began to observe that there were many among the XV^th in bloody trophy taking to further enhace their already terrifying nature and appearance. However, few companies took this as far as the Fourth for whom it was not only common custom but an initiation rite. However, rather than the skull hunting more common among the rest of the legion, the legionaries of the Fourth also took their enemies hands as trophies. Indeed, a legionary could only truly call himself a member of the Fourth after he had hung his first pair of hands from his armour and for many of the Fourth, it was a point of pride to replace these hands with fresh ones as soon as they started to rot. This brutal practice was spectacularly showcased during the fall of Hive Arkadd, when the Fourth cut the right hand off of every human they killed and threw them into great piles that reached the height of hive spires.

 

Grave Stalkers 5^th Company.

The tanner's boys, the Flayers

 

Even among the XV^th, the Fifth company were often held to be dangerously insane. While all Grave Stalkers indulged in flaying, few took the same sick pleasure in it as the Fifth who did not only flay their enemies but also took their skin and tanned it into human leather. This they then stretched over pieces of their armour, inked with text that has never been deciphered(written as it was in the script of the Aljaxi, a xenos race wiped out by the Grave Stalkers in the 186^th year of the Great Crusade). A particularly horrifying custom of the Fifth was to stretch the tanned flayed face of a victim over their helm's faceplate in a mockery of life, many faces with tears of blood still congealing upon their cheeks.

 

Grave Stalkers 6^th Company.

The Scythians

 

Where the Fifth took their enemies' skin, the Sixth took their scalps. These they would then sew together into sickening cloaks which they draped about their shoulders, the message of each being simple: the longer the cloak the more experienced the legionary wearing it.

 

Grave Stalkers 7th Company.

The Heart Takers, the Red Armed

 

Like the Fourth, it was from their initiation rite that the Seventh took their name and trademark icon, an arm painted red up to the elbow. Where the Fourth were initiated once they had taken a hand from the enemy, the Seventh's initiation rite was far bloodier and more brutal. In order to be initiated, a legionary of the Seventh needed to reach down a man's throat and rip out his still living heart, the legionary's gauntlet and lower arm covered in blood. In memory of this, many of the Seventh painted their arm's red and most preserved the heart that they had torn out, keeping it in a pouch around their waist.

 

Grave Stalkers 8th Company.

The Flayed Men, the screaming

 

The Eighth company bore two trade marks. The first and most obvious was the habit of many legionaries of the Eight to paint parts of their armour to resemble flayed muscle. However, the second was not a visual trademark but instead an audible one. As the Eighth advanced, the legionaries maintained strict vox silence. However, over their helm's vox amplifiers, they would blare out a recording of human's they had flayed screaming, screaming in agony, screaming in pain and screaming in rage. It was a rare enemy who could withstand these horrifying shrieks for long before breaking.

 

Grave Stalkers 9th Company.

The Eagles, The bloody birds

 

Unusually, the Ninth company was almost  completely composed of assault squads,  with K'awil seeming to have chosen to group the majority of his most hotheaded sons into a single company. After this, the Ninth soon became known for their furious night time assaults but these tales soon took a darker edge when others heard of the Ninth's customs. Many legionaries of the Ninth had sick mockeries of wings jutting out either side of their jump packs, constructs of adamantium and skin that sang in the winds as the Ninth leapt into an assault.

 

Grave Stalkers 10^th Company.

The burning men, the charred

 

It is often said there is nothing the Grave Stalkere were unable to turn into a weapon of terror and this is as true for fire as anything else. However, the Tenth took this to an extreme. Rather than simply relying upon the horror of burning their enemies alive, the Tenth were known to paint over their own armour with pitch or promethium and set it alight before they attacked. The result is that when they advanced, it was as a burning horde that put the chill of a pariah's presence into their enemy's hearts, causing most enemy forces to rout rather tha

n face the enemy who was seemingly unharmed by the fire that he was covered in.

 

Brotherhood of the Wraiths

K'awil Pakal was found late in the Great Crusade. Because of this, the Grave Stalkers continued to draw upon recruits from Terra long after many other legions had ceased doing so. Even after they discovered Kabyieb, recruits continued to be sent from Terra in an attempt to build up the XV^th's numbers, an attempt abanoned when its futility became clear. However, this long time recruiting from Terra had effects as even as late as the Day of Revelation, 37.83% of the legion, 3,783 legionaries, was Terran born rather than Kabyieban. Because of this, Kabyieban culture never took root as firmly in the Grave Stalkers as the culture of their primarch's homeworld did in many other legions. Instead, the Grave Stalkers remained bonded by their grim, brooding brand of brotherhood and their shared purpose as the servants of the grim reaper incarnate: K'awil Pakal. It is likely this brotherhood that kept the Grave Stalkers a united fighting force for so long after K'awil was crippled.

[Sigismund229]

Some other ideas I had:

 

The Iron Reapers

 

Daer'dd had, alongside Niklaas and Yucahu, been one of the great advocates of Tactical Dreadnought Armour and while it had been the Void Eagles who had tested the armour in war, once these prototype suits had been tested and entered into mass production, the Iron Bears had been among the first legions to receive them in significant numbers. This held true with every new pattern of Tactical Dreadnought Armour introduced into service. As a result by the end of the Great Crusade the legions who could rival the VI^th's stockpile of the armour for not only could they field entire companies of Terminators even aside from their primarch's favoured units, use of Terminator armour had even begun to be a not uncommon sight among ordinary squad sergeants of the Iron Bears.

 

By contrast, hardly any suits of terminator armour had ever been given to the Grave Stalkers as a result of their ongoing feud with the Adeptus Mechanicum. Even after they swore allegiance to the Stormlord, the Mechanicum was unwilling to give them any more than a token offering. However, upon the Day of Revelation, the Grave Stalkers were sent against the Iron Bears and while many thousands of suits of VI^th legion terminator armour were destroyed in the fighting or lost to the void, the Grave Stalkers managed to loot several hundred complete suits from the bodies of dead Iron Bears.

 

The result was the Iron Reapers.Wearing these worn and battered suits of looted armour, which they bedecked with trophies of the Day of Revelation, they became the XV^th legion's anti-legion specialists and later those who survived the Suzerainty ambush that killed their primarch would become Malal's favoured champions and those to whom his deamons melded their souls.

 

Axayacatl-Warlike. A dreadnought pariah. However, being inside a dreadnought has gradually driven him insane.

 

Acamapichtli-Fanatically faithful in K'awil. Opened the way for the Chaos gods into the Grave Stalkers. Member of the 4th Company.

 

Cuauhtemoc-Descending Eagle. 9th Company Sergeant.

 

(?)-Sergeant in the 8th Company. Noise marin.

Edited June 6, 2017 by Sigismund229

[bluntblade]

Mind if I claim banners for Xtaabay and Ajaway, if they're available? I suggest people also add "specimen Legionaries" and characters who can play a role in the DoR.

[Sigismund229]

Idea: The Silent Choir. I'll expand further on this tomorrow when I've done my French exam. Don't let me forget.

[simison]

Will do, Grifft. One last question before I get started, the naming convention is Pacific Islander for Grave Stalkers?

[Sigismund229]

Will do, Grifft. One last question before I get started, the naming convention is Pacific Islander for Grave Stalkers?

It is?

[Nomus Sardauk]

 

Will do, Grifft. One last question before I get started, the naming convention is Pacific Islander for Grave Stalkers?

It is?

I thought the Void Eagles were the Pacific Islanders themed guys, the Grave Stalkers are Aztec or Mayan aren't they?

[bluntblade]

Aye, Grave Stalkers are Mexican/Aztec

[Grifftofer]

Will do, Grifft. One last question before I get started, the naming convention is Pacific Islander for Grave Stalkers?

Mayan/Aztec is what I've used as inspiration for the primary characters, but if the names feel like a good fit I'm willing to let other character names be drawn from other cultures.

[bluntblade]

Anything you'd especially like done, Griff?