Homebrew - The Ghosts of Oblivion

[Mastercrafty]

Hey guys, working on a homebrew chapter to make a mkiv, pre heresy schemed army in 40k. Looking at a chapter that hints they may be the 2nd 'Forgotten' legion.

 

What do you think:

 

The Ghosts of Oblivion are a mysterious chapter. The first record of their existence was around M36. The origin of their geneseed is either not known to the chapter themselves or is a closely guarded secret.

 

A number of differences stand them apart from other chapters in the 40th millenium. They are entirely equipped with pre-heresy armour and weapons, even commonly fielding rare pattern tanks and transport that other chapters would consider sacred relics.

 

Brothers from the Ghosts of Oblivion go to great lengths to personalise their armour with personal heraldry that does not follow Codex guidelines. Their armour is adorned with personal heraldry from many sources. Some will mark their army with kill counts and tribal markings, others will wear skin & scales from mighty slain beasts. Their trophy taking habits have attracted raised eyebrows from other chapters and the inquisition, but stops short of being chaotic or heretical. They carry themselves as hunters and put great value in honour duels as rites of passage, standing and promotion within the chapter.

 

They are rarely seen with purity seals, but often have imperial script on their armour, always in high gothic. Those that have engaged with them say they speak exclusively in high gothic and appear to be disdainful of levity and the common tongue, maintaining a stoic outlook and never lowering their guard. They take brotherhood with other Astartes very seriously and mourn the loss of their battle brothers as they would their own.

 

They harbour a fierce hatred for all chaos corrupted brethren, and seem to be on their own crusade to purge them. They have arrived without warning to aid their imperial brothers, mainly where large chaos incursions are underway. Their way of war is vast and varied, but they seem to be very adept at destroying traitor war bands, in keeping with their long, self imposed crusade against corrupted Astartes.

 

Their homeworld is a barren rock in the Isstvan system. Isstvan IV sits between Isstvan III and Isstan V, the two sites of Horus’ betrayal that triggered the heresy. It is said they chose this homeworld as a reminder of mankind’s biggest treachery that fuels their hatred for traitor Astartes. With a large underground fortress monestary, the biggest defence that Isstvan IV has is it’s featureless barren surface. It is believed that much off the planetoid has been hollowed to house the chapter's extensive fortress monestary. While their true numbers are not known, it is estimated that at least half of their number, by rotation, are fleet based.

 

The mysteries surrounding the chapter, have given rise to superstitious claims that they ‘haunt’ the Isstvan system and their numbers are vast due to the spirits of betrayed and fallen brothers at Isstvan.

 

Another legacy of Isstvan is rumoured to be that they never use drop pods. They often arrive in irresistable force by Storm Eagle and Thunderhawk and take to the battlefield in Deimos pattern transports, taking the battlefield as the legions did before Horus’ betrayal.

 

As their markings are not codex compliant, their chapter organisation is unclear. Only their second company has ever been reported, but in numbers much greater than a 100 brother company. This and the other details above have led many to believe they are in fact the lost 2nd legion…. Returned from oblivion, still burning with the emperors’s fury to persecute his foes and purge the traitors and the legacy of Horus.

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

This may be better served in the Liber Astartes, brother (just send a mod a PM and they can probably move it right quick), but you have an interesting idea here with the Isstvan base thing, so I look forward to seeing where you go with this.

 

A point of debate, here, though...any codex chapter would take one look at them and go 'what the heck? Why aren't they at least somewhat codex compliant?' And call the local inquisitor. Chapters like the SW and BT are able to get away with it (I think, I am by no means an expert on either) because they are either essentially a legion or a chapter that was a second founding chapter. How have they avoided codex-police for several millennia?

 

I also have a little bit of trouble believing that the Isstvan system wasn't utterly destroyed in the Horus Heresy/the aftermath, but if Isstvan 4 survived, where do they recruit?

 

I hope these help you build your chapter/legion fluff. Best of luck!

[Mastercrafty]

Thanks for your thoughts. Many chapters aren't codex compliant in terms of Markings. Salamanders make ornate armour and personal heraldry and wear drake skin. It is meant to suggest they still have legion markings as the second legion. But not properly marked as second company etc.

 

Isstvan wasn't destroyed. Isstvan 3 was viral bombed so 12b civilians died, but it didn't destroy the planet. It is just uninhabbitable. Prob ok 10k years later for Astartes though... Isstvan 3 was the place that drop site massacre happened, place of betrayal, i think the planet was pretty much unpopulated anyway.. isstvan 4 is between them... no battles held there.

 

You make a good point re recruitment. Even if a fraction of the legion survived, there may be 2,000 - 3,000 battle brothers in existance so many more than a normal chapter, recruitment less of a problem. Pick up recruits like a fleet based chapter perhaps?

 

There are plenty of chapters with unconfirmed origins, probably just a fluff tool used by GW, but i'm happy to use it for muy own ends :)

 

M

[Dredmour]

While I enjoy the "Ghosts of Isstvan" idea, I think there may be a few parts you might wish to refine.

Firstly being, which are they? Are they the lost 2nd legion, or the ghosts of the Isstvan system? Its okay to leave things to mystery in homebrew fluff, but if you leave everything to be up for debate you then have to ask yourself what exactly IS your chapter? What left can you really say is unique or different about your chapter, or what can you say at all? If it fits your context, which in this case it seems to then its fine but it can easily become a writers crutch to omit rather than flesh out.

Moving on, if they are not remotely codex adherent and adorn themselves all entirely differently (The current description kind of sounds like they can't make up their mind as to what their theme is. While this is okay to an extent, something like a legion would typically have a lot more structure or coherence than this) then how does anyone know that it was the 2nd company that has been seen? 

As far as the inquisition and such, making use of personal heraldry and other forms of adornment are not fairly uncommon. This is certainly not activity that in most cases will attract attention. Space marines of any chapter are known to collect skulls, cannibalize, etc. etc. as is their physiology and traditions. This all dates back to the great crusade as well. Its not necessarily that the chapter adorns themselves with flesh that makes the Inquisition turn a head, so much as it is where that flesh came from. An Ork pelt? Understandable. A tau skull? Commonplace. Ritualistically ripping the flesh from the imperial citizens of the worlds they occupy and rattling off enchantments in a foreign tongue as they bleed to death? Now thats where the eyebrows get raised. Again with the omission, if it stops short of being heretical how do we know where that line is? What will and won't this chapter/legion do that assures the Imperium they are not a threat? Just remember in writing its not the why its the how.

As far as leading a personal crusade and such this is very typical of most chapters. Not to be too rough, but this is kind of the point of the Space Marines in general. What do they do or seek that makes them special? Maybe they are the 2nd legion on a quest for their Primarch who went missing? Maybe they have a very distinct culture that follows an interesting code of conduct? Its all up to you, but you need to convey this. Its not too much of an issue seeing as this is undoubtably just a draft, but these are some important things to think about.

If this Legion was missing, where did they go? Why did they leave? How did the Imperium forget them? How did they know of the Horus Heresy/were they involved? 

As for their wargear it is not terribly uncommon for these older patterns to still be in circulation amongst first and even second founding chapters, but yes this chapter would seem oddly equipped next to a chapter of say the 19th founding.

With that said, I'm not opposed to the idea, I actually really enjoy it, its just that there are some things that need to be set in stone to allow the reader to walk away with something. There needs to be some kind of impression that makes your rendition of this lost Legion different from someone else's. Whats their color scheme? If they are a chapter this different and oddly structured, what does tie them together? If there isn't an idea tying them together then the idea loses integrity. A force like the deathwatch works because they explain why all of these different types of warriors are working together and what unifies them/structures them. 

These are just a few things I think you should consider moving forward, but I think the idea has potential if you can find a good color scheme to tie them together, and some kind of idea to link this force together. As of right now the "Ghostly" idea is interesting and might be something you want to consider when making their color scheme/badge.

Kind regards,

Dredmour



 

[Mastercrafty]

Thanks for your comments, my idea is that they are the remnants of the second legion but they cannot just come out and admit that - so they are a bit sketchy and standoffish when the topic of their origins come up... They are not compliant to codex markings for Guilliman - because they have legion markings as opposed to codex markings - which seems odd - when they cannot come out as being the lost legion. 

 

I wanted to leave the Primarch story alone as many people will object to that more than the existence of a 'legion' that is great in number and still fights like a legion - they just don't talk about their Primarch or origin... I see them as being 'lost or forgotten' before the Heresy, but still loyal to the emperor and HATE the betrayal of Horus and the black legion / other traitors that still exist. Their crusade is against traitor legions, so where as others have a history with Greenskins or Tyranids - these guys are still pissed about the heresy and looking to bring traitors to justice. 

 

I didn't want to use the 'Lost in a Warpstorm' excuse, but I imagine they dissappeared in M30 and came back in M36. Maybe their primarch was killed by Russ and they were banished/lost somehow. I imagine that the Heresy is much fresher to them and not such a distant memory... Maybe their own primarch turned to chaos before Horus and was put down - causing a rift in the chapter. The loyalist factions won but they still carry the shame of their fallen Primarch (and therefore are not pissed at Russ for killing him). This woudl re-enforce their hatred of fallen primarchs and their legions.

 

I may ditch some of the personal heraldry stuff and make them more 'legion compliant' which seems odd in 40k and is not 'codex compliant'... I am interested in any ideas of where they may have been for 6000-7000 thousand years apart from 'lost in the warp'. Maybe on a distant planet fighting a bloody civil way (kind of a 'heresy lite') and rebuilt their forces to take the fight off world.

 

They have renamed themselves as the ghosts of oblivion to hide the fact they are the lost legion and see themselves as forgotten about and ghosts of their former glory as a legion maybe? 

 

Their connection with Isstvan is the centre of the betrayal and the place it all went bad for mankind - a reminder. I did start with 'Ghosts of Isstvan' as a chapter idea but then it wold have to be a legion that was at Isstvan so ruled out the lost legions. My ideas was the remaining loyalist death guard (As Garro went and got all Grey Knighty) - but that idea had more issues for the fluff police ....

 

As a background I am not sure if I should share all of their secrets, as the reader isn't sure what some of their secrets are (like what happened to their primarch) as upon encountering them the first time that would not be apparent. I am kind of writing it as someone meeting the chapter and the rumours/theories that surround them....

 

I'd welcome input as I refine the story. Cheers

 

M