IA: Storm Angels (Previously Angels Profundum) (WIP)

[Gearcrow]

EDITS AND UPDATES: So I realized something about my chapter after posting this here and asking for name suggestions, and that is that I had presented the theme incorrectly. Especially at fault was the name (Angels Profundum) and the Chapter Symbol (Very Cthulhu-ish). It made my chapter seem much more "undead pirate" than I wanted. I initially wanted this chapter to be more "Royal Navy of the 1800's". So with that in mind I have made appropriate alterations. I know a lot of you guys were cheering for Angels Abyssal, but with the theme correction I decided to go with Storm Angels instead. It gets rid of the faux latin, and feels much more to the point. Anyway, here are updates, and a crap ton of more content. Also changed the name of my Battle Barge. Darn you Mortarion! This will all still need to be expanded on or edited, but please comment away. Suggestions and criticism is definitely welcome.

THE STORM ANGELS

CHAPTER NAME: .............. THE STORM ANGELS

FOUNDING: .................. ULTIMA FOUNDING

CHAPTER MASTER: ............ HARIEL

CHAPTER WORLD: ............. KARAPASIA

FLAGSHIP: .................. THE WHISPER

FORTRESS MONASTERY: ........ THE HALLS OF DROWNING

MAIN COLOURS: .............. TEAL BLUE, WHITE, AND GOLD

GENE-SEED: ................. LION EL'JOHNSON

PROGENITOR: ................ DARK ANGELS

KNOWN DESCENDANTS: ......... NONE

BATTLE CRY: ................ WEATHER THE STORM (ALWAYS SPOKEN OR WHISPERED), WE ARE THE SONG OF THE SEA! (SHOUTED BY A CHAPLAIN) AND THE SONG IS DEATH! (CHANTED IN RESPONSE)

"Let the ocean fill your veins with salt. Let death be your song; violent, sudden, and without mercy, but see now, when the ocean does not rage it is still and calm. Never forget this Sayid. The sea is our mother, and if you listen to her whispers she will teach you much." - Then Captain Hariel addressing Sergeant Hamadaar Sayid on the shores of Karapasia

ORIGIN

I

n the earliest years of the Ultima Founding at the very onset of the Indomitus Crusade the Storm Angels were founded to guard against daemonic incursions at the very western tip of the Cicatrix Maledictum. With the bulk of the Indomitus Crusade focused eastward towards the core of the Cicatrix Maledictum, Ultramar, and the Imperium Nihilus beyond, the Capital World of Segmentum Pacificus, Hydraphur, was left with no real reinforcements to speak of. To support the Segmentum Fortress and to prevent the rapidly growing losses of the Imperial Navy in the region the Storm Angels were gifted the oceanic feudal-world Karapasia, located to the galactic southwest of Hydraphur.

Created using the gene seed of the Dark Angels the Storm Angels were secretly drawn from aspirants born on Caliban by Belisarius Cawl, engineered and trained on Mars, and placed in stasis for thousands of years. When Roboute Guilliman returned to the galaxy to wage his great crusade these new Primaris Space Marines were released from stasis and formed into new Chapters that would spearhead the fight against chaos and drive back the enemies of man. Because of the secretive and reclusive nature of their gene-seed Cawl and Guilliman saw fit to assign The Storm Angels a more remote and stationary duty, rather than to place them at the front of the Crusade. The Storm Angels took to this assignment with great vigor and resolve, duty-bound to support Hydraphur and their local sector, and to stand as a bulwark against the horrors let loose on the galaxy by the warp.

In the years following their founding the Storm Angels met with relative success in stabilizing their home sector, although not without great cost to their numbers. Having weathered wave after wave of daemonic incursions and several smaller Ork invasions from the southwest the Chapter was left at only a fraction of their original strength. Although some reinforcements were provided to the Chapter through seconded battle brothers from the Unnumbered Sons, they also began to recruit heavily from their homeworld of Karapasia. Many of the original Storm Angels had felt an affinity with their adopted home, the Chapter leadership included, and had adopted much of its culture. Seeing strength and value in the hardy seafaring peoples of Karapasia Chapter Master Hariel had declared that trials would be held regularly for the local populace. These trials would be similar in nature to the ones practiced on Caliban thousands of years earlier by the Dark Angels themselves. The Storm Angels would eventually return to full strength, with nearly sixty percent of it's members in the last years of the Indomitus Crusade having been drawn from the population of Karapasia.

HOMEWORLD

The Storm Angels' homeworld is an oceanic feudal-world located to the galactic southwest of Hydraphur in the Segmentum Pacificus. Prior to the arrival of the Storm Angels the planet was relatively peaceful with several great naval powers having established their dominance. While not at full war these naval powers would push and test each other employing massive pre-industrial fleets. These fleets also served to combat the leviathans that dwell in Karapasia's oceans, and to protect the coastal areas from these same creatures. Because the Administratum and Echlesiarchy of Hydraphur have relatively little power in the sector following the Plague of Unbelief in the 36th Millennium the inhabitants of the world only had very little interaction with the Imperium at large, mostly consisting of a payment of manpower to the Planetary Governor (a middle ranking officer of the Imperial Navy Fleet in the Segmentum). With the arrival of the Storm Angels Chapter Master Hariel became the new Planetary Governor. While the Storm Angels do not really interact or interfere much with the local populace of Karapasia their presence is still felt across the planet. Members of the planetary populace, ranging from the greatest Fleet Admirals to the poorest fishermen, frequently make pilgrimages to the Halls of Drowning, the Storm Angels' Fortress Monastery, to pay tribute and honour the Emperor's mighty Angels. Once a year the Storm Angels send out a Press-Gang to test and collect potential aspirants from the populace. This is considered a great honour, and many young men on Karapasia join ship crews to prove themselves on the seas in hope of attracting the attention of a Press-Gang.

FORTRESS MONASTERY

The Halls of Drowning serve as the Fortress Monastery of the Storm Angels. It is carved into a massive monolithic limestone promontory on a peninsula located in the northern hemisphere of Karapasia. The promontory is filled with carved out tunnels that reach thousands of feet above sea level as well as far into the ocean's depths. Although the Storm Angels are relatively young, and newcomers to the galaxy, they have frequently campaigned and worked together with their fellow Dark Angels descendants the Guardians of the Covenant. This camaraderie has instilled in the Storm Angels a thirst and appreciation for academia and knowledge which has manifested itself in the form of great libraries and learning halls built into the Halls of Drowning. These academies are an extension of the Storm Angels' Librarium and are situated far above sea level near the top of the Halls of Drowning to prevent water damage and corrosion to the sensitive instruments and documents located within. The Halls of Drowning also host vast caverns that serve as docks and open directly into the ocean. When not campaigning off-world many of the Chapter's battle-brothers will engage in training out on the high sea, fighting leviathans or braving the great planetary storms to harden themselves. These docks also serve as planetary launching pads for transportation to and from the Storm Angels' fleet in orbit.

BATTLE FLEET

The centerpiece of the Storm Angels' space fleet is the battle barge The Whisper, gifted to the Chapter by Belisarius Cawl at their founding. However, despite the nautical culture and history of the Chapter, and likely because of their relative youth, their fleet is very small, consisting of only one Battle Barge (The Whisper), two Strike Cruisers (Song of the Sea, and The Cerulean), two Hunter Destroyers (The Anchor, and The Fog of War), and controversially one Nova Frigate (The Screaming Wake) which was found by the Storm Angels floating at the edge of the Cicatrix Maledictum, retrofitted, and put into service despite some resistance from local Imperial Navy Command. The Storm Angels also maintain several Overlords for planetary operations and deployment. Of special note is that The Whisper and The Song of the Sea are outfitted primarily with Ceastus Assault Rams instead of Drop Pods (likely due to the Storm Angels penchant and preference for void combat and boarding actions). Also of interest is that despite being a successor to the Dark Angels the Storm Angels do not have access to Nephilim Jet Fighters, relying instead on Stormhawk Interceptors and three airwing detachments of Xiphon Interceptors, having pilots who initially trained in Interceptors during the aftermath of the Heresy and having been provided the crafts by Cawl at their inception.

CHARACTERISTICS

The Storm Angels are a secular Chapter, being adherents to the pre-heresy Imperial Truth, and do not worship the Emperor as a God. Similarly they do not recognize the divinity of Chaos, seeing Chaos instead as sentient warp phenomena, yet no less heretical in their threat to humanity. Despite this they are a very ritualistic Chapter, and their reliance on ritual is often mistaken for superstition by outside observers. Salt and water are of particular importance in Chapter rituals and imagery. Perhaps somewhat uniquely amongst Space Marine Chapters the Storm Angels value silence, a calm demeanor, and tranquility above all else. They often look to the oceans of Karapasia as an example, believing that rage should only be manifested in sudden violent episodes in battle and when prosecuting the enemies of the Emperor, and that when not so engaged the potential for violence should be tempered under a still and calm surface.

Being sons of the Lion they have a dour and melancholy nature, and are secretive and distrustful of strangers. Having much closer ties to the Guardians of the Covenant however than their parent Chapter they are more concerned with protecting civilians than is necessarily considered normal for the Unforgiven. Additionally having not been part of the 1st Legion at the time of Luther's betrayal the Storm Angels' concern for hunting the Fallen, while prominent, is not a dominating characteristic of the Chapter's identity.

There is particular enmity between the forces of Slaanesh and the Storm Angels. The decadent and corrupt nobility of Hydraphur became a very tempting target for the Lord of Excess and was made much more accessible to the forces of Chaos following the fracturing of the Galaxy by the Cicatrix Maledictum. Because of this the vast majority of daemonic incursions in the sector were Slaaneshi in nature. Unbeknownst to the Storm Angels, their monastic and dour nature make them somewhat antithetical to Slaanesh. The Keeper of Secrets who is spearheading the incursions into the sector is particularly interested in the challenge of corrupting members of the Storm Angels.

Edited June 15, 2017 by Gearcrow

[Kelborn]

CTHULHU MARINES! *ahem* sorry

 

To answer your questions:

 

Cawl took neophytes from across the Loyalists homeworlds, as far as I know. We got a Fenrisian Primaris and (think it was said that) Kalael was born on Caliban. That's what we know thus far.

 

If he took recruits from other worlds is not known. Most likely if he wants to experiment with traitor and lost legion geneseed but that's my suggestion.

 

Name suggestions:

 

Chosen Angels

Tempest Sons

Sea Lions

Void Lions

Angels of the Void

 

Something like that?

[Olis]

After name suggestions, eh?

 

Here's a group of names derived from  the word 'Challenger' or 'Challenge', as aided by the various translators online. I figured that, if you're initially calling your marine "Angels of the Deep" I'd invoke that early idea by using words that might be related. Of course, a healthy dose of dog-Latin is usually needed to make it more in-universe.

 

Aemulators/Aemulators Astra/Marines Aemulatus (This word 'Aemulator', when translated to English in Google translate, comes out as 'jealous' so maybe there's an idea for their disposition for you.)

Praetors of Lacessere/Lacesian Brotherhood 

Provocators

 

Maybe there's something that can be done with 'Mariana' but I'm currently stumped. I'm not keen on using that one anyway. Now then, if this all doesn't help, then maybe we need to explore other avenues, such as pretty much anything Lovercraftian, maybe something revolving around the Greyjoys in GoT, or Davy Jones (as seen in Pirates of the Caribbean).

[Welcheren]

Angels Navarch?

 

Or simply the Navarchs? It has a nice Latin ring.

 

Kellborn's Sea Lions would be a very clever play on their gene heritage and naval culture.

 

You can also play with Scylla and Charybdis.

 

 

 

The colour scheme works well with a naval theme. Curious where all this will go.

 

Great chapter symbol and nice quote from Hariel.

Edited June 14, 2017 by Welcheren

[Bjorn Firewalker]

"Angels of Autumn" (with the double-meaning "Angels of the Fall"). "Harvesters" or "Angels of the Harvest" (with the same double-meaning, as crops are harvested during fall). The names will give you an excuse to include scythes in your armory, for the "harvest." Edited June 14, 2017 by Bjorn Firewalker

[Gearcrow]

The Sea Lions is a great idea, but I think maybe doesn't quite fit thematically with the Chapter, at least for me, as I keep thinking of cute seals at sea world XD.

 

Looking at your guys suggestions I've come up with a few ideas, some better than others I'll admit. Here's a list of them, plus the ones you guys suggested that I liked (or modified).

Storm Angels

Brine Angels

Bleak Angels

Drowned Angels

Abyssal Angels

Angels Abyssal

Angels Tempestus

Angels Maritime

Angels of Haar

Winter Kings

Kings of Haar

Kings of Salt

Sons of the Salt

Sons of the Deep

The Drowned

The Navarchs

The Navigator Kings

 

And of course still Angels Profundum or the Angels of the Deep if I decide I don't like any of those others. Urgh, now I need to finish up the first part of my summary so I can get this posted and also try to get some sleep. Please let me know your opinions on these. 

[Kelborn]

There's already a Legion called the Drowned in the BotL project, which also has a maritime, Cthulhu & Game of Thrones theme.

 

Maybe they can inspire you. :)

Edited June 14, 2017 by Kelborn

[Olis]

Imo, the Abyssal Angels seem like the strongest contender. But that's just me.

[DaBoiKyknos]

I think "Angels Profundum" doesn´t need a change!

[Conn Eremon]

Im partial to the Angels Abyssal myself.

[Doctor Perils]

I also like angels abyssal. A strong colour scheme too :)

I believe "the silence" already has strong links to Mortarion (iirc correctly it is the name of his scythe)

However, what with the death guard having a relatively strong nautical theme in some sources, these could be a good enemy

[Gearcrow]

EDITS AND UPDATES! Please read and comment.

[Doctor Perils]

Storm Angels is also a strong name :tu: I'd make your chapter badge a little less complicated however, perhaps simply a winged anchor or a skull over the anchor. If you wish to keep the skull, add in another colour to the badge (perhaps that nice brass colour) so that both parts of the symbol stand out from one another.

 

The Whisper is also a strong name :) Going with a "napoleonic era royal navy" vibe is also fairly unique to my knowledge, so I approve whole-heartedly

[Gearcrow]

Lord Thorn, do you think if I separate the stock on the Anchor from the wings like this it solves the problem of the component parts standing out from each other? I'd really rather not recolour it or remove any components at this point. EDIT: Actually I really like this a lot more so I'm keeping it XD.

Edited June 15, 2017 by Gearcrow

[Doctor Perils]

I still think it's too complex: two items in the badge should be maximum imo - you have to think that you need to make it out on the battlefield.

Also, having two colours would help show that it is indeed a skull over the top of an anchor, rather then a skull shaped pendant that has a weird tongue XD

 

Still, that's only my opinion

[Gearcrow]

I think, at least on this point, we'll have to agree to disagree. I like this logo, and I still think it is very clear when shrunken down or from a distance. Adding colours would just make it feel cluttered, and I can't remove any components at this point without removing some character or flavor from the badge. I did try this design out, but it just feels like a modified version of the winged skull emblem on their chest. Great for general Imperial imagery, but flavorless as a Chapter Badge.

Plus I ended up really missing the anchor. Removing the skull makes it a little too clean and happy (40k is still supposed to be grim-dark after all) and removing the wings simply didn't look good, and I feel, distanced the logo a little too far from their Progenitors.

In the end I think it just comes down to different taste. Still, I really appreciate your input as it made me think long and hard about the Chapter Badge (and beings as fickle as I am I'll probably still experiment with a few other concepts XD).

[Conn Eremon]

For what it's worth, I like the winged skull & anchor. Might be difficult to paint, if you ever wind up doing so, but as far as Chapter emblems go it's a good one.

[Gearcrow]

Conn Eremon, thank you. I appreciate it. I wont actually be painting it though. I'm planning on making home-made transfers, or if I feel spendy, pay an online service to make some custom ones. Only problem with the latter is the wait time... but oh well. We'll see how it goes. 

[Welcheren]

I enjoyed this IA. It's cogently written and aligned with lore.

 

I would be curious to know more about exactly how your chapter entered the Unforgiven. But whether you explore or ignore that point is up to you. I have always found the GotC's unexplained respect for civilian life intriguing. Again, whether you explore that point is up to you.

 

 

In terms of Chapter Icon: it is a little complex, but I really like the anchor + skull + wings.

Edited June 16, 2017 by Welcheren

[Gearcrow]

Alright, I feel I need to apologize a little for not having updated this in a while. I'm gonna work on some of my fluff this upcoming week but I have been crazy busy these last couple of weeks reading the new Rule Book, the Dark Imperium Novel by Guy Haley (SO GOOD!!!), and painting models. With regards to the last I wanted to ask you guys for your opinions. Two things. First off all that tan up in my first post is supposed to be liberator gold, or a pale gold color. I've been leaning towards replacing that with Warplock Bronze, which, if you don't know, is a very dark bronze with slight hints of green (like dark oxidized green). I thought it might feel more nautical, and invoke a sense of wetness and dampness. What do you guys think, Liberator Gold, or Warplock Bronze? Secondly I wanted to paint my Gravis Captains cloak a Celestra Grey colour. Should I do the whole thing that colour? Or should I do grey on the outside and some other colour underneath? Or should I go with an entirely different colour scheme for the cloak? Please let me know your thoughts? 

 

I promise I'll do my best to flesh out my IA up top this week as well. Continued input and lore suggestions are always welcome.

[Doctor Perils]

I'd probably go with the "brass" colour for normal marines, and the gold for officers.

 

For the cape it's up to you, but I'd probably use a stronger contrasting colour like a deep burgundy red