The Guardians of the Panopticon chapter

[nusphigor]

"As much as we protect the Panopticon in our world of Hyaedia, the Guides defend the deeds of our predecessors and the history of our glorious chapter as per the dictates of the Tome of Khantias. But they are not alone in their duty, for the teachings of our chapter are as part of us as our very flesh and blood. So all of us must share our knowledge as much as we can.
Our brotherhood was created on the eve of the 35th milleninum as an effort to preserve the ancient tomes that reside in our home planet of Hyaedia and its surrounding system. Ours is a lineage of noble deeds, for we are heirs of the blood of Guilliman and duty bound by him to seek the knowledge of old for the benefit of mankind.

But our way is not the hoarding of memories to store in a forgotten vault, or to recollect the words of ancient eras to meddle on their secrets for personal benefit.

Our way is that of the scholar, of the professor, of the protector. To teach our brothers, to guide our sisters, to be an icon of radiance for our peers and to be the shield of the weak when the enemies of illumination come with envy in their eyes to try to rob humanity of their grand heritage!

 

We have followed this path of glory and humbleness for many millennia and our reward for it is to stare at the grandose Merope, the capital of our world, and see the beauty it has become! To walk among its people and see that ideas and reason hang in the air, to hear the citizens in the middle of their studies and see their faces of joy and happiness in the knowledge that we have brought peace and prosperity to the sacred bastion of the Panopticon in the name of humanity and the Emperor's ideals of truth and learning!

 

Remember this very well, novitiates!
 

Keep these words in your heart and mind for they will help you in the struggles of our sworn duty. They are the very same words of the Tome of Khantias as dictated by our glorious primarch!"

 

-- Grandmaester Gaius on the 23rd Quotation to the Novitiatii in the halls of the Macaenon

 

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Hello all and welcome to the Guardians of the Panopticon thread.

 

Here i will showcase my advances on my homebrew chapter as well as random fluff that i create from time to time.

As maybe you have already read this chapter was created in order to protect the world of Hyaedia, it's ancient Panopticon and its tomes of wisdom, among them the Tome of Khantias.

I wanted to create this chapter as a force of warrior-scholars that seek the betterment of mankind through reason and the sharing of knowledge, something like the philosophers of ancient greece but mixed with the various qualities that the lineages of Guilliman share as per various comments some of you guys made when i was asking about them.

 

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Chapter Structure

 

Curiously i made the chapter non-codex in the way that it doesn't have any tactical squads, assault squads or those kind of divisions. Instead of that I created a division very similar to that of the Black Templars but based on the amount of knowledge and deeds related to protection that the chapter's members have done.

 

The Novitiatii:

They are the new recruits of the chapter, very much like the scouts. They are trained in the various ways to protect the "Brothers and Sisters" (Mankind) as well as they are trained in ways to learn and how to think with reason and logic. Pretty much what one learns when studying philosophy but with 140% more guns and aggression.

 

The Inductii:

When a Brother-Novitiatii learns how to think and how to defend mankind properly (as per the dictates of the codex astartes) they "graduate" to the rank of Inductii. A Brother-Inductii is one that knows how to serve humanity, how to defend its realm and one that now is learning how to teach humanity about how to grow and become what the Emperor wanted. A Brother-Inductii is a teacher to lesser men, an astartes on the road to become a true beacon of hope, guidance and protection for its peers.

 

The Aprentices:
The first thing the Astartes learns when he finally understands how to teach humanity is that he is but a drop of water in a lake. The Brother-Inductii learns that only deeds and humbleness are the better ways to better mankind. This knowledge is earned only by time and tenacity, so when the time is right he enters into the rank of the Aprentices, by all means the rank of the veterans of the chapter.

 

The Paths of Illumination

In all of its life as an Astartes, an individual of the chapter may pursuit many kinds of knowledge called Paths. Each Path finally ends in one of 5 ways, as follows:

 

The Guardians of Souls:

This is the path of the keeper of its brothers and sisters, the path of he who fortifies the soul and heart of humanity by predicating the old scriptures of Imperial Reason and Logic. It has many similarities with the Chapelains of other chapters but without the religiousness of them. Just pure clarity and logic to teach humankind how to steel themselves from the enemies that attack mining the moral and ethics of the Imperium.

 

The Guides of the Mind:

This is the path of those who have been touched by the warp and have met the many denizens of unreality. The path of Whispers and Shadows, as many whithin the chapter call it, is dedicated to protect mankind from the daemons of the warp as well as those who let themselves be possessed by its many lies. In other chapters these would be called Librarians, except that the Guardians of the Panopticon distrust of the many lures of the warp and its energies.

The Followers of the Hand:

This is the path of those that have met with the creations that humanity can make, and it is followed by those who devote themselves to the wonders of machines and engineering. They are the ones that have learnt how to teach to the machines how to work in many different ways and as such they are the ones that protect the many secrets these cold objects have. They are at odds with many in the Mechanicum for the same philosophy of the chapter aplies to them: Knowledge is meant to be shared in order to better mankind, not to be hoarded and stored in a dark cell.

 

The Rod of Caduceus:
This is the path of those who protect the bodies of their brethren. Of those who have learnt how to heal and keep others in good shape. Of those who strive against mutation in order to keep humanity and the chapter pure. Those that walk this path are akin to those in the apothecarions of other chapters.
 

The Bearers of the Torch:

This is the path of the Laurels and the Crown of thorns, of the Fire and the Vulture. This is the path of Leadership within the Chapter. There are only 7 Bearers of the Torch (Captains) within the Guardians of the Panopticon, and they form a council that supports the title of Grand Maester (The Chapter Master). Many of the aspirants to this path soon learn that true leadership comes from serving others, and so they strive to see for humanity and guide them as beacons in the night.

 

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This is what i have written so far. I have made some heraldry for each of the different ranks and paths but i will upload them as soon as i can.

I hope you guys like it and accompany me in the developement of this chapter.

If you have any questions or suggestions please don't hesitate to write them.

 

Thank you for reading

[DogWelder]

I really like it. Especially the part about technology and the Mechanicus since thats my stance on them as well.

 

This Chapter closely resembles the White Consuls imo. Though they seem more concerned with the spiritual fortitude and moral of the citizens beneath them than building up/governing the planets under their protection.

[Ishagu]

Any Chapter with an ideology that resembles or mirrors the Imperial Truth gets thumbs up from me.

 

It's what Guilliman and the Emperor intend :-)

[DogWelder]

Any Chapter with an ideology that resembles or mirrors the Imperial Truth gets thumbs up from me.

 

It's what Guilliman and the Emperor intend :-)

 

I think what's cool about Guilliman/the Ultramarines is that they're not loyal to the Emperor or the Imperium itself but rather the ideals that both those entities are supposed to represent. Progress, Education/Enlightenment the forward march of civilization, human dominance across the galaxy etc.

 

It makes you think though. What would happen if they thought they no longer needed the Emperor or the Imperium to carry out their philosophy?

[Frater Cornelius]

I don't think anything will happen, because it already happened. Twice. When contact with Terra was lost, Guilliman did his whole Imperium Secundus schtick because he realized the ideals were more important than the man behind it. After his return in 40k he is not on good terms with the Emperor and also having expressed a deathwish, but carries on for mankind. Naturally, his Chapter follows.

 

Besides, who cares about a rotting corpse on a chair. Look at Ultramar, one of the best, if not the best places to live. What part did the Emperor play in it other than pretending to be important? All of this is due to men and women serving each other, whether they are Marine or common.

Edited September 2, 2017 by Frater Cornelius

[nusphigor]

i was about to say something similar XD

but still, the imperium secundus was too short to really see what would have happened (besides it was done with the help of other 2 primarchs and their legions).

i guess it could be something to explore in a novel but, how to write it?

[nusphigor]

Update on the chapter.

 

I drew this heraldry for the chapter and the different ranks but if you guys have any suggestion to improve them please post it!

 

I hope you guys understand my 5-year old kid handwriting

 

 

 

 

Thank you for watching

[Frater Cornelius]

Dayum. I like it ;)

[nusphigor]

Dayum. I like it

 thank you frater

 

update on the chapter.

Between yesterday and today i managed to finish Librarian Draco for the challenge and i used the oportunity to test the chapter's colour scheme and Path symbols. I quite like it but what do you guys think?

 

here are some pics of Mr Draco

 

I still have to think of a base colour scheme but i can't think of anything :/

 

thank you for reading this

[Frater Cornelius]

Illuminati confirmed then? Also, beware that you do not make it look like a DA successor. Chapter like Guardian of the Covenant are real big on scriptures and reading. Killing stuff is more of a side activity over there. The reason I mention it is that the robes are DA robe colour and the black is pre-Heresy DA colour, which some also use post-Heresy, like the aforementioned Guardians of the Covenant, which are big one red, black and silver.

 

If you want to go down the UM scholar path, may I suggest something lighter? Are you familiar with MTG? There is a guild called Azorius. I would probably use their colour scheme for mine. My idea is not dissimilar to yours, although I primarily draw inspriation from biblical Centurions (hence my username :P). However, I enjoy the scholarly angle and have adopted it for my guys as well. Robes are a great idea for that, but if you look at buildings and clothes from that time, they are light coloured. This distiguishes it from the highly gothic and medieval style of the DA, where everything is significantly darker.

Edited September 4, 2017 by Frater Cornelius

[nusphigor]

Illuminati confirmed then? Also, beware that you do not make it look like a DA successor. Chapter like Guardian of the Covenant are real big on scriptures and reading. Killing stuff is more of a side activity over there. The reason I mention it is that the robes are DA robe colour and the black is pre-Heresy DA colour, which some also use post-Heresy, like the aforementioned Guardians of the Covenant, which are big one red, black and silver.

 

If you want to go down the UM scholar path, may I suggest something lighter? Are you familiar with MTG? There is a guild called Azorius. I would probably use their colour scheme for mine. My idea is not dissimilar to yours, although I primarily draw inspriation from biblical Centurions (hence my username ). However, I enjoy the scholarly angle and have adopted it for my guys as well. Robes are a great idea for that, but if you look at buildings and clothes from that time, they are light coloured. This distiguishes it from the highly gothic and medieval style of the DA, where everything is significantly darker.

 

mmm that is a good point right there. I dont really like white-blue to be honest :p when I used to play mtg i used all the other colours except white.

Whilst this is the only robed marine I have, it is a really good point that if i keep the dark gray-red colours my chapter would look really gothic (specially since im using pewter GK minis for the Aprentices, both in power armour and terminator armour) and that might be confusing having in mind I want this chapter to look really inspiring and honourable.

Yet there is also the thought that it could work as a symbol too, since not everything is as it seems, specially on the road to enlightment. Also that true enlightment might be surrounded or enclosed by shadows, which works nice having in mind the grim dark nature of the setting.

 

i will think about it this week when i am at work, thank you for pointing out frater cornelius. I really apreciate it. :)

[Frater Cornelius]

Haha, Blue White are the only colours I play Especially White

 

In terms of colour, try maybe red and sandy yellow with some splashes of silver, white or black?

Edited September 4, 2017 by Frater Cornelius

[nusphigor]

that is funny. I was here thinking that the red was the color that didn't worked and i was thinking of changing it for blue XD

 

but I like the idea of sandy yellow as in heraldry it signifies wisdom, generosity, glory, and constancy (or rather the gold, but then again metallics are the same thing on that)

[Frater Cornelius]

Both blue and red go well with sandy yellow. I think this is just a case for trying. I prefer blue myself. Red is a tad too aggressive for me.

[Captain Idaho]

Love this thread.

 

That blade paint job is great.

 

Keep it up, brother.

[DogWelder]

Slightly heretical assumption: These guys resemble the pre-heresy Word Bearers. Except they are devoted to Guilliman's teachings not Lorgar's. An interesting inversion. 

[nusphigor]

Love this thread.

 

That blade paint job is great.

 

Keep it up, brother.

 

thank you frater

 

Slightly heretical assumption: These guys resemble the pre-heresy Word Bearers. Except they are devoted to Guilliman's teachings not Lorgar's. An interesting inversion. 

 

So this is what has been in my head all this time and i haven't been able to find what was it!

they look a lot like pre heresy word bearers! the gray, the red, the arcane symbols, the whole santic parafernalia, the open book!

guys, i think i have made something extremely heretical without me knowing :/

 

all in all i still think that colour scheme looks killer XD

 

what else would you guys change?

 

I tried a test with the red and tan suggestion frater cornelius made but didn´t like it. too sandy (and one of the things i hate in life are deserts and hot climate)

any other suggestion?

[DogWelder]

 

Love this thread.

 

That blade paint job is great.

 

Keep it up, brother.

 

thank you frater

 

Slightly heretical assumption: These guys resemble the pre-heresy Word Bearers. Except they are devoted to Guilliman's teachings not Lorgar's. An interesting inversion. 

 

So this is what has been in my head all this time and i haven't been able to find what was it!

they look a lot like pre heresy word bearers! the gray, the red, the arcane symbols, the whole santic parafernalia, the open book!

guys, i think i have made something extremely heretical without me knowing :/

 

all in all i still think that colour scheme looks killer XD

 

what else would you guys change?

 

I tried a test with the red and tan suggestion frater cornelius made but didn´t like it. too sandy (and one of the things i hate in life are deserts and hot climate)

any other suggestion?

 

 

It would be an amusing element of their lore. I imagine the other Ultramarine and Ultramarine successor's would tease them about the similarity. In the same way the Word Bearers tease some of their own strategic-minded warhosts for being similar to the Ultramarines.

 

I also assume they would fly into an extreme rage and attempt to violently dismember anyone who made such a comparison within earshot :P

 

As for the color-scheme I like it as well. Most Ultramarine successors are white/blue so its good to see some diversity in appearance. I would reccomend putting in some small hint that they are an Ultramarine successor on their armor if you'd like.

[nusphigor]

something like what?

maybe a small symbol on the knee or a shoulder pad?

 

I don't see them teasing them to be honest. ever tried to tease a soldier? I wouldn't reccomend it XD

[DogWelder]

something like what?

maybe a small symbol on the knee or a shoulder pad?

 

I don't see them teasing them to be honest. ever tried to tease a soldier? I wouldn't reccomend it XD

 

 

Something like this on their pauldron or kneepad?

Edited September 4, 2017 by DogWelder

[nusphigor]

 

something like what?

maybe a small symbol on the knee or a shoulder pad?

 

I don't see them teasing them to be honest. ever tried to tease a soldier? I wouldn't reccomend it XD

 

 

 

 

Something like this on their pauldron or kneepad?

 

i really like this idea, thank you.

I will try it next weekend and see how it goes, also i want to try the colours on a gk since i had to strip the paint from the librarian XD I tried covering the red with blue but didn´t like it at all. it does tie nicely with the librarius though, but it ruined the whole mini.

[DogWelder]

 

 

something like what?

maybe a small symbol on the knee or a shoulder pad?

 

I don't see them teasing them to be honest. ever tried to tease a soldier? I wouldn't reccomend it XD

 

 

 

 

Something like this on their pauldron or kneepad?

 

i really like this idea, thank you.

I will try it next weekend and see how it goes, also i want to try the colours on a gk since i had to strip the paint from the librarian XD I tried covering the red with blue but didn´t like it at all. it does tie nicely with the librarius though, but it ruined the whole mini.

 

 

Try those symbols in yellow on a black background. They'll fit much better imo

[nusphigor]

thank you lady dogwelder, I will keep that badge for my chapter :)
 

I have been thinking it throughly and I will deepen the mystery and the gothic themes of secrecy on the chapter's lore. It may not be nice for guilliman when he knows about it but the Tome of Khantias never said the primarch actually liked the chapter XD

 

Actually that might be the reason why they were created for sentry duty on that forgotten planet; so they could annoy others with their bookish secrecy and feel important by it

 

So, having that in mind it is easier to understand why they don't have lighter heraldry colours like most Ultras successor chapters (In fact, I will darken even more the colour scheme) and also why they don't follow the codex astartes in all of its tenets as they regard their Tome of Khantias as something as or more important than the other. Who knows, maybe that would be the very same cause of their damnation? (like a Dr. Faustus kind of thing maybe?)

 

what would you guys think?

[DogWelder]

thank you lady dogwelder, I will keep that badge for my chapter

 

I have been thinking it throughly and I will deepen the mystery and the gothic themes of secrecy on the chapter's lore. It may not be nice for guilliman when he knows about it but the Tome of Khantias never said the primarch actually liked the chapter XD

 

Actually that might be the reason why they were created for sentry duty on that forgotten planet; so they could annoy others with their bookish secrecy and feel important by it

 

So, having that in mind it is easier to understand why they don't have lighter heraldry colours like most Ultras successor chapters (In fact, I will darken even more the colour scheme) and also why they don't follow the codex astartes in all of its tenets as they regard their Tome of Khantias as something as or more important than the other. Who knows, maybe that would be the very same cause of their damnation? (like a Dr. Faustus kind of thing maybe?)

 

what would you guys think?

 

Sounds very interesting. It would also explain their absence from the major Ultramarine Campaigns since they would be more concerned with their secrecy above all.

 

Keep us updated if you can :)

[nusphigor]

update time!

 

i managed to do the basecoats and wash the silver, also i'm starting on the reds of these terminator and sternguard veteran.

but i still don't know which color to use on the decorations. Gold? or maybe white to give it a change?

What would you guys suggest?

 

 

thanks for reading