Vox Stellarum: The Unification Wars

[Ryltar Thamior]

We're back to doing some Unification bits and pieces ... will prod Umbral to post some of his fine 1st Legion. But the setting's developed slightly -and is now looking at Unification of the Sol System. 

Which means ... Void Pirates.

Now, i'm still building things and working out stuff in my head to inform that (Umbral is, per usual, miles ahead on his front); but because it might be of general interest ... here's a few notes on the concept of void piracy in the Sol System circa M.30 that I jotted down:

--

"something I've been thinking about viz. the piracy concept in Unification era Sol System ... is like, i'm not sure if "the logistics" is the right word, but the general details of it. 
 

Like, what could be being shipped around the place to actually board and reave upon in the first place ; what's worth taking - other than crew and vessels as war-spoils. 
 

Various resources are an obvious one. Asteroid mining might produce valuable (and useful) metals; and I suppose there's also shipments of finished goods from various astro-forges or whatever [which would also include weapons and munitions]. 
 

Fuel would also be quite logical. As would, for those that require it, the 'human components' to make various things work -whether those be something kinda like tech-priests or something like quasi-navigators, or not-quite-astropaths etc. It might even be a thing to take on another ship and fight to overwhelm it (or intimidate it into surrender) before giving the armsmen a choice to defect en-masse to your own crew, thereby bolstering your own numbers. 
 

Foodstuffs, oxygen, and water would be possible I suppose - although I imagine that onboard recycling appliances would also be a thing for various stations and installations and ships out there.
 

Narcotics, rare technarcana, and illicit/high-value items as well - although other than the former i'm not sure how regular shipments might be to be able to plan raids around.  Although some sites in the Sol system would probably be known ship graveyards or other places for good salvage and so you might have waiting-in-ambush pirates at the other end who aren't bothered doing the 'hard work' of prospecting but want their spoils anyway. 

There may *even* be .. buried treasure, of a sort. 
 

Slaves and servitors could make sense - one thing that's not really that easy to come by out in space is, after all, people; and people 'upgraded' or 'sidegraded' into servitors, cogitators, and other semi-robotic roles require additional investment so may be tempting to just steal. 

All of this obv informs a fair bit about the what and how and other considerations for solar pirate forces.
 

I suppose there's also the potential for raiding and even invading stations and other settlements ; which may include pirate enclaves and 'free ports' as well as the holdings of other powers active in the Sol System at that time. And, for that matter, somewhat benighted groups that are like the Caribbean or South/Central American 'Natives' that turn up in the old stories - at least in terms of their narrative role in the exercise ; perhaps trading, perhaps sacrificing. 
 

Holdings might also be held by not only pirate groups or small-scale local stellar powers, but act in alliance with rather more significant entities - either overtly under treaty, or semi-under-the-table but perhaps known about more broadly. Some of th ships going to and fro in the void may be ferrying cargo for those larger powers ; others may be privateers employed by said larger powers against them. 
 

There could be an active diplomatic/spec ops Unity effort to cultivate relationships with 'useful' crews and ships, direct them against other forces out there so as to weaken them in anticipation of the coming campaign. Perhaps these might be 'disposable assets' - perhaps they'll be kept along for future operations and the Crusade."

[Ryltar Thamior]

 

Finally had some time to do something with the Tortuga truescale Mk.II that came in awhile back

[Zebulon]

Nice. Good to see you posting here again!

 

Presumably for boarding actions we might expect some form of breaching-shield goodness?

 

I also hope there might be some consideration of why the piracy is occurring - is it as simple as y’arr, booty m’lads - presumably not. What has driven these desperadoes to piracy? Do they wish to give the Imperium a bloody nose, are they criminal gangs, do they style themselves legitimate business folk, etc? Are they seeking to right a wrong, wrong a right, how do they see themselves? Were they driven to raid through injustice or are they symbols of injustice? Are they carving out a place in legend for themselves or are they simply trying to survive long enough to spit in the face of an uncaring universe? All that good stuff, bring it on!

[Ryltar Thamior]

Nice. Good to see you posting here again!

 

Presumably for boarding actions we might expect some form of breaching-shield goodness?

 

I also hope there might be some consideration of why the piracy is occurring - is it as simple as y’arr, booty m’lads - presumably not. What has driven these desperadoes to piracy? Do they wish to give the Imperium a bloody nose, are they criminal gangs, do they style themselves legitimate business folk, etc? Are they seeking to right a wrong, wrong a right, how do they see themselves? Were they driven to raid through injustice or are they symbols of injustice? Are they carving out a place in legend for themselves or are they simply trying to survive long enough to spit in the face of an uncaring universe? All that good stuff, bring it on!

 

Yeah, it's one of those areas wherein there's a regrettable tendency to just ... have pirates as a generic adversary with no characterization. 

 

I started out with the notes I posted above, because I figured that that would provide at least *some* sense of structure and .. well, "realism" isn't the right word [because space piracy is not very realistic even by the standards of 40k - raiding settlements and worlds, *yes*, interdicting shipping with an intent to relieve it of its cargo ... less viable, for a few reasons].

 

However, you are correct that there's still quite some glaring gaps in terms of the worldbuilding.

 

The Sol System in the closing centuries of M30 (but prior to full Unification - indeed not long after the Unification of Terra's been semi-completed) is quite a dark and twisting place. We have accounts in the FW Black Books etc. about various groups of pirates and slavers , including Xenos or seemingly otherwise inhuman forces at work. Various of these have been there out in the Asteroid Belt, or preying upon the settlements of particular moons and planets or planetoids running right out into the Kuiper Belt (and even presumably the Oort Cloud), ever since human civilization collapsed .. in fact, ever since *well before* then, but having remained out there post-Fall for various reasons, and just embracing a lifestyle of raiding and predatory depredation for by this point millennia.

 

There'd definitely be some defectors from void-local regimes like the Saturnyne Ordo - because those countries would be, I suppose, the major powers out that far from Earth. Along with the Mechanicum, to a certain extent (they'd have been sending out Explorator Fleets through these regions of Solar space perhaps, and certainly would be taking delivery of materials mined or salvaged from other celestial bodies in the orbit of Sol, as aforementioned above). 

 

But in the main - it's possibly a little too early for people to be rising up against the Imperium as an actual thing, simply because the Imperium barely even exists yet. There *might* be some dim awareness that Earth's finally unified and so the slave-pickings of ravagers a few zones over are now drying up and they're actively being hunted by the new power that's rising in toward the Sun ... but I'd suspect that thte further out you get from the Earth and maybe Mars' orbit, the less seriously these sorts of things would be taken ... up until yes, yes the Raptor Imperialis *does* wind up turning its gaze and its talon to your door as it expands inexorably outward and starts commandeering ships, pressed into service to either stamp out or co-opt various previously independent (or, at least, independent-minded) factions. 

 

Some groupings, of course, are going to be found to be Chaos tainted in some sense - and there's a rather chilling bit detailing iirc a VIIth Legion force running into just such a group of pirates around either Uranus or Neptune (I forget which) ... and they can look forward only to extermination. 

 

Yet others - well, ok, sure they've been leading an outlaw kind of lifestyle and in a latter age would be summarily shot on sight. But it's also simply all they've ever known, and the natural order of things in the absence of any actual strong government for the entire sphere. That's changing, as we know from our out-of-universe perspective; yet in the manner of Viking raiders against more southerly climes a thousand years and more ago, it's not that they're some dyed-in-the-wool heathens with an inveterate grudge against civilization or 'Christendom' (well, Imperium) [even though, both then and in the far future, some almost certainly *are*]. It's just ... business for a lot of them, and various ostensibly "pirate" captains in the eyes of their victims, are just semi-regular merchants as viewed by others they have dealings with, and neither label is entirely inaccurate. 

 

There will, of course, be fiefdoms where personal freedom, or at least, the freedom for some powerful figures is held to be a good in and of itself, and which may find themselves riven by internal conflict when the vexed question of what to do when the Unity comes a-knocking is voiced: whether it's better to concede *some* sovereignty in order to become partner/client states of the larger collective ... maybe switch/stick to piracy against particular 'approved targets' as teh result - or whether it's better to try ignore the encroaching expansion of the Eagle, or even actively fight off this Terran upstart 'Groundling' would-be hegemonic imperative, perhaps even raining fire all the way back to Old Earth in a bid to show the Terrans Who's Boss. 

 

What we *can* probably say is that prior to the Imperium's dawning really opening up the space-lanes for stable interstellar (or *intra*stellar) commerce , and even the (re-)building up of domestic industries to actually *require* off-world resource flows to be much more of a thing than they were during Old Night ... 

 

... it's probably a *severely* inhospitable environment out there, even more so than what we're familiar with from later source material. Hence, various local 'ecosystems' of trade and mutual dependency between semi-closely clustered 'points of light' ... and barbarian warlords (or civilized, urbane not-quite-parasite-officers) who view it as easier and/or more honourable to levy the semi-illusory "surplus" generated in the exchange of these to lay fit for their own survival. So instead of cleaning out oxygen scrubbers *themselves* or farming damp algae for fetid nutrition, they simply take the functioning and fully-grown produce from others who *do*. 

 

Maybe some of the nicer ones actually take the 'honourable' thing seriously and act to protect their fiefdoms from *other* pirate raiders - either because it's *their patch* to be 'farming' and nobody else would be tolerated stealing from what's alraedy a pretty narrow-margined larder ; or because there is genuinely some almost Mafia-esque pseud-feudal thing going on. Or even, some ancient defence pacts sworn manycenturies ago yet still dimlly recollected to this day.

 

Anyway, good question - it's def prompted some thought. 

[Doghouse]

Very nice as usual, looking forward to seeing what you do with the Tortuga guys.

[Ryltar Thamior]

 

small progress with the Mk.II truescales

[Ryltar Thamior]

Made a start on truescale Mk.III 
 

These are from the 'definitely not de-chaosified plague marines' bodies Tortuga did, with the addition of an Iron Hands Mk.III upgrade helm because it felt right.
 

Will probably be going toward our Unification of Sol effort - technically a bit early for Mk.III to be showing up, but hey ... prototypes are a thing. 
 

Undecided on Legion yet. 

[Ryltar Thamior]

Because my hobby efforts never feel 'complete' without ... significant bleed-through/cross-over from my professional area of expertise [that is to say, comparative Indo-European mythology, with a particular emphasis upon Hindu theology] ... 

After some thinking upon it, i worked out how to do it for this (sub-)setting:
 

There's a myth prominent in later Hinduism (although with deeply Vedic roots) of Shiva as Tripurantaka - 'the Destroyer [Antaka] of the Three [Tri] Forts [Pur - like in 'Singapore', can also mean 'City']'. 
 

Basically, there's three fortifications in space which are protected by an otherwise impenetrable shield which, due to its generation by all three means that you can't destroy them one at a time they have to all be obliterated simultaneously. [something rendered even further difficult because all three forts were in motion, and would only be aligned for a few moments every .. expansive period of time] 

They're also rather mobile, and this leads to demons utilizing them as staging posts for raiding activities throughout the worlds, causing rather a lot of trouble. 

This leads to The Gods petitioning Lord Shiva [ishvara - The God-Emperor] to do something about this. 

In the Puranic rendition, the Gods come together and form an apparatus of war - including the components of the arrow which is to be utilized to destroy these forts [this is also in the Vedic version]. 

But what actually happens is, before the arrow can be released [some versions have it as the assembled Gods already 'taking credit' for the destruction which had not yet ensued], Lord Shiva ... smiles. And the forts all begin to burn. 

However, an intercession from one of  the Gods begs Lord Shiva to fire the Arrow anyway - as while He has humbled The Gods through demonstrating that They are not really that necessary to this enactment's successful fruition ... it might do significant reputational harm to Them if it gets out just how ... not-powerful for these circumstances They had been. 

There is also a rather intriguing additional element that I should chase up about a virtuous soul [amidst the demons, even] that was on-board one of these and got out before it was destroyed ... 

Anyway ...

I think it's reasonably apparent how this would work for what we have in mind.

Forts [or, perhaps, mobile star-bases] in space with mutually reinforcing shielding making it impracticable to destroy one rathr than all three effectively simultaneously.

The God-Emperor / Unity government petitioned to *do something* about this by various eminent personalities of the relevant portion of the Sol system; and therefore assembling a combined force to launch just such a campaign ... 

... as a propaganda thing for a show of force *but also* show of unity and how things are 'better together'. 

By which I mean, saboteurs and Astartes actually does the 'heavy lifting' to disable the shield-generators etc. and some of the more horrific fighting / against horrific foes with the chaos-taint and what not ... so as to enable the coalition of forces that have been brought together from all of these not- / not-quite incorporated territories to win a propaganda victory which *looks/feels to them* like it's the real thing, and cements their alliance further, drawing them into Unity.

[Ryltar Thamior]

 

VIIIth in Mk.II - because what's going to be a useful capacity to deploy when attempting to break up a pirate coalition who rule through fear? 

Fear Itself.

I'd been looking to make use of the fine vambraced Mk.X assault intercessor arms with the truescale Mk.II - the sizes and proportions worked out rather well, and it's a suitably different style from the much more overtly 'sci fi' arms in the more regular Mk.X range. 

The knife held ready required something suitably posed for a right arm to go with - White Scars upgrades with the partially flayed trophy skulls fit the bill, both in terms of posture and aesthetic (for what's held, anyway - the actual arm itself is a little too futuristic for Mk.II, but oh well). 

I hadn't decided on doing an VIIIth legionnaire  when I started this, but between the heads and the blade it just seemed ... right. Fortunately, I still had a Night Lords shoulderpad about. I'm choosing to presume that the Crimson Sons livery depicted in the relevant FW Black Book which incorporates the design suggests that this means it was in-use prior to the Crusade. 

Contemplated a few options for helm, including the White Scars Mk.IIs that I'm quite a fan of, or even the Raven Guard primaris upgrade bare head - but reasoned that this World Eater upgrade helm would be a bit better for the vibe, even if I don't try and do the 'crimson tears' style thing seen on the aforementioned Crimson Sons FW plate. 

I'm getting the sense that this might wind up being a multi-legion , even 'deathwatch style' deployment of individual Astartes from individual Legions, or intermixed small detachments thereof. 

[Ryltar Thamior]

Think I might call these Yamadutas 



One of those occasions wherein the base miniature came together reasonably - Tortuga Mk.II plus a FW White Scars upgrade helm (because I'm a big fan of that pseudo-bronze age barbarian aesthetic); Mk.III plastics for the backpack, arms, phobos bolter and pauldrons ... but for detailing, instead of the chainsword the other bolter astartes I've done so far has wound up with, a combat knife [from the assault intercessor kit]; specialist ammunition [sternguard veterans] , a sidearm that's rather unexpected for a Marine, likewise - not a boltpistol but some form of outmoded (although still clearly large and probably powerful) weapon, perhaps something semi-like those Soviet era cosmonaut handcanons [holstered pistol from the Enforcer kit] ... and then, finally, primaris raven guard feathery bitz - they just seemed to 'fit' in the right spaces that were still bare and could use a bit of bulking out for visual balance [i.e. the front-left thigh area and back left posterior], and also helped to inform a 'characterization' for the miniature which might go with the other additions. Not (necessarily) XIXth, mind - but we'll see what happens. 

 

[Zebulon]

*searches*

 

Ah, the voice of Death! Or perhaps more properly, Death’s Escort?

 

Those WS helms are pretty awesome. What is their similarity to Bronze Age helms? Or should I say, in which culture?

[Ryltar Thamior]

*searches*

 

Ah, the voice of Death! Or perhaps more properly, Death’s Escort?

 

Those WS helms are pretty awesome. What is their similarity to Bronze Age helms? Or should I say, in which culture?

Interesting question as applies the latter - I must confess I was simply going for 'feel' of a bit of a pulp variety , and how I felt it came across in-use on some of my Adamanticores and one of the truescale loyalist Night Lords I did awhile back. This is one of the *rare* occasions wherein I may have put less thought and historical accuracy into something than presumed :P 

 

As applies the former .. yeah, not unreasonable translations, although "Emissary of Yama" would be closer to the mark for the actual concept - दूत [Duta] meaning, effectively, that. [interestingly, it's from a PIE term which means "long [distance]" / "to go forward/out" - you can see how that fits with an emissary, somebody who is sent forth to represent their lord]

 

Now, Yamadutas for us [i.e. Hindus], they are, of course emissaries of *the* Yama - and interestingly, they can take the forms of Corvids [unsurprising given the customary associations of Crows and Ravens with death - although there's more going on there, as I went to town on here ... including rather pointedly the 'Thunder' resonant etymology for 'Crow' and such, and points around how the oft-misunderstood Corvidae shows up in Indo-European mythology - I *think* I might have put in a *brief* point on the Wusun .. the Descendants of the Raven living in Central Asia ~2k years ago that appear to have been Alan Bligh's inspiration for the Xeric Dustbowl Tribes that inform the actual XIXth's initial recruitment source ... but more upon that some other time]. 

 

Yama, etymologically, is "Death", yeah, although is better perhaps understood as "Image" [which it is cognate with] - and, for that matter, the situation of Remus [iemus] of Romulus & Remus fame [again, cognate - both linguistically and mythically] ... Remus, as you probably know, presiding over the Remuria / Lemuria whence Lemurs as ghosts of ancestors turning up and such. Funnily enough, there's some suggestion of ... I'll have to check if it's corvids utilized in Remus' divination with Romulus in some forms of that myth, but .. anyway, I'm rather off-track here. [various points on Romulus & Remus - including the fact that Remus *killed Himself* rather than the 'civil war' narrative popular in later Rome. Parts One, Two, and Three] 

 

Yama is also DharmaRaja - that is to say, that 'Stern Judge' sort of figure, but also 'Righteous Ruler / Ruler of Righteousness' , a rather supreme moral arbiter from the perspective of the souls brought before Him, insofar as His purview is entered into. And, of course, (almost) inescapable - except through the intervention of other more powerful figures, such as Ishvara [i not-that-figuratively translate this as "God-Emperor", as I think i may have mentioned before] . [There's actually a surprisingly prevalent Indo-European mytholinguistic resonancy between terms for 'Law, Rulership' and for "Darkness' - which may likewise be salient] [also of note is that in IE comparanda, Yama isn't Hades - rather, Hades, as a Sky Father expression, would be the Father of Yama ... and akin to Varuna being found *also* in YamaLoka in Vedic terms, but again I digress - point is The Emperor as a Father for said lord would therefore be mythically resonant]

 

Anyway, where I'm going with all of this is that in terms of the outlaw pirates of Sol that these Astartes are being dispatched to handle - it is not hard to see how Emissary of Order / 'Emissary of Law's Factotum' / 'Emissary of Death' is a rather relevant construction. Either the target groupings in question straighten up [there's ... an array of Indo-Iranic but also PIE mytholinguistics I'm referencing here viz. underlying etymology for the terms for Order, Lawfulness, Propriety I'm thinking of] ... or the uh ... Other Thing becomes more immediately relevant. 

 

Either in the sense of people being dragged back to face the Emperor-appointed Lord of these Astartes charged with enforcing His Order through the Void , in the manner that certain tyrants of Old Earth were brought back to the Khangba Marwu ... or they wind up with a judgement in death - and death coming to meet them at swift pace. There may be an Appointment on Samarqand to be referenced here, now that I think upon it ... Steppe city that it was, after all .. [interestingly, I've plausibly reconstructed the Sek Amrak mentioned in the IVth Legion's Black Book writeup to there but ... again, I digress] although this itme in that kind of steppe known as space. 

 

 

Anyway, I suppose that's me making up for the lack of having thought through / properly researched/investegated the helmet resonancy. :P 

 

Plus also thinking out loud for further characterization that shall inform the next few ... 

 

[i'd previously been thinking of something based around Revanta and the Guhyakas ; and had additionally had a Sarama thought in mind, as well] 

 

[Ryltar Thamior]

Made a start on some Privateers 











 

[Zebulon]

I have probably said it before, but the Orlock gangers make such a great base for all sorts of conversion projects, don’t they? :tu:

 

Where is that head for the flamer Privateer from? And for the second, is that a marriage of a Space Wolf and a scout?

[Ryltar Thamior]

Cadian HQ, and yeah, Space Wolf Scout head from the space wolves pack box.

They are indeed quite a legit basis for conversions, the Orlock range. Not quite how I'd have done space pirates were I working from the ground up (sudden decompression would demand rather better void gear - although I found the Van Saars not *quite* right for the aesthetic, and tey don't have fully enclosed helms), but they *can* do suitably rough and ready looking sorts, and that's a great start.