The Liber Unity Project

[Commissar Molotov]

The Liber Unity Project

 

With the Bolter and Chainsword diversifying to include the many armies and fans of the 40k universe, we have an opportunity to explore grand ideas. 

 

Many of you will have seen the fourth Collaborative Chapter Creation Project, which is currently underway in the Liber Astartes sub-forum and which is exploring bringing an official (but unloved) GW Chapter to life. 

 

My plan is this - we take that concept and expand it further. 

 

I will be creating threads in each of the sub-forums for us to create a DIY Chaos Warband, a DIY Xenos Race, a DIY Sisters Order and a DIY Imperial Guard recruiting world. Between now and December, we will create these forces, before detailing a campaign in which these forces feature. Rather than a situation where we have multiple DIY Chapters in one place, we will instead show the breadth of the Liber, and how all parts of the 40k universe can be explored and detailed. 

 

This first post will serve as an opportunity to collate our progress and (in the latter stages of the project) to coordinate our progress as we detail the campaign. 

 

 

• Collaborative Chapter Creation Project IV
• Collaborative Astra Militarum Creation Project
• Collaborative Adepta Sororitas Creation Project
• Collaborative Xenos Creation Project
• Collaborative Warband Creation Project

 

In the short term, if you are reading this and want to participate - then by all means, get involved! Spread the word and help showcase the best of the Liber's creative spirit! 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 15, 2017 by Commissar Molotov

[Commissar Molotov]

[Placeholder]

[Brother Lunkhead]

Excellent idea 

 

This is a perfect jumping in point for lurkers like myself to start contributing more.

[Dosjetka]

Fine idea. I'll see what I can contribute to these.

[Olis]

Excellent initiative, Commissar. I look forward to what these projects can give us. :tu:

[Schlitzaf]

Interested

[Commissar Molotov]

Thank you for the positive reception, and the discussion that has begun to stir in the various collaborative threads! 

 

My initial, vague concept is this: 

 

[sPACE MARINE CHAPTER] attacks [ALIEN RACE] in a xenocidal purge, but does not wipe them out. (Perhaps they believe that they have done so.) 

 

At some later stage, [ALIEN RACE] attacks an Imperial shrine-world. The shrine-world is garrisoned by [sISTERS ORDER], who valiantly and heroically stay the tide and protect the fleeing pilgrims, providing enough time for the Imperial war machine to move into full swing and for [iMPERIAL GUARD REGIMENTS] to be sent to grind the [ALIEN RACE] into a standstill. 

 

[sPACE MARINE CHAPTER] returns to atone for its folly in thinking the [ALIEN RACE] wiped out. 

 

During the chaos (pun unintended) on the shrineworld, [CHAOS WARBAND] strikes, attempting to raid the shrines for an artefact that perhaps, once, could have proven Saint Basillus was wrong to have exiled them to the Abyssal Crusade. Of course, the [CHAOS WARBAND] are far beyond that now. Perhaps they're taking it almost out of spite. A symbol that the Imperium/Ecclesiarchy is wrong. [sISTERS ORDER] stands in their way.

 

(I'm unclear in my concept as to whether the [CHAOS WARBAND] manipulated the [ALIEN RACE], or are simply taking advantage of the confusion.) 

 

War is now joined. We can hash out the details and how the campaign ends - but that's my basic concept. Feedback is more than welcomed! 

Edited October 21, 2017 by Commissar Molotov

[Doctor Perils]

I like the general idea though having marines and sisters and guardsmen fighting around a single relic seems a bit much - I'd emphasise how the shrine isn't the alien's goal, in some way, distracting the sisters and guardsmen from the shrine, giving chaos an opening to steal into the fortress-reliquary. Perhaps the marines only arrive after the chaos attack has begun, and they are forced to defend the shrine rather then redeem their honour in the blood of aliens as they had intended ?

 

I'd probably even make this a system-wide xenos attack originally, to show the sheer scale of the threat, explaining why astra militarum and Astartes are sent as reinforcements

Edited October 22, 2017 by Lord Thørn

[Commissar Molotov]

Thanks for the response!

 

To be clear, I didn't say "a single relic."  The intention is that the shrineworld is a giant cardinal world, a cathedral-planet under the control of the Ecclesiarchy. A central and important world within the sector, in the vein of any of these planets. A planet to which billions of pilgrim faithful travel to pay their respects to the Ecclesiarchy. My thoughts were that this "relic" that the chaos warband are after (and it could be something as small and insignificant as a single print-out of paper showing that Saint Basillus could be wrong) is hidden in some obscure library and the Ecclesiarchal defenders do not even realise at first (or at all) that it is the objective of the Chaos Marines. It's entirely possible that after capturing the relic, the Chaos warband ceremoniously destroys it to show the life they have left behind. To me, it's very grimdark that untold suffering and death could have been caused for something so small and insignificant - and so futile. 

 

My intention was that the aliens are not attacking for this relic - rather they are attacking against Humanity itself. It may have wider symbolism to the Imperium, but I don't see the aliens as being bothered about the items that humans mistakenly grant signifiance. I agree that it would have to be a massive and overwhelming assault - that's something that we need to show. 

 

I can't agree with your point that the Imperial response is "too much" - especially on the Bolter and Chainsword. (Instead, I think we are talking from a similar perspective at cross purposes.) We are talking about an entire planet being swarmed by an angry and aggressive alien race. We're talking about a sacred cathedral-world being desecrated in a facist theocracy like the Imperium. The Sisters are the standing defenders of the Shrineworld, and will do a valiant job of defending the planet. One of my main aims is to ensure that the Sisters aren't portrayed as second-fiddle to other Imperial institutions. As such, it's possible they will carry out miraculous deeds as they defend the Ecclesiarchy and the faithful. But it is portrayed in 40k literature that the Imperial response is to call in forces from a wider and wider area until the threat is dealt with. As a result, we have Imperial Guardsmen arriving. But also, if this world is an important symbolic one, it's another reason to ensure it doesn't fall.

 

The Space Marines? Well, the Astartes do what they want. They are beholden to no-one. But I did like the idea that they have to atone for a mistake that had greater consequences than they could have initially realised. It helps us deflate the image of the Astartes as unstoppable. From the Astartes perspective, I am thinking of a quote from Macbeth (III, ii): "We have scorched the snake, not killed it."

Edited October 22, 2017 by Commissar Molotov

[Dizzyeye01]

I like the general idea though having marines and sisters and guardsmen fighting around a single relic seems a bit much - I'd emphasise how the shrine isn't the alien's goal, in some way, distracting the sisters and guardsmen from the shrine, giving chaos an opening to steal into the fortress-reliquary. Perhaps the marines only arrive after the chaos attack has begun, and they are forced to defend the shrine rather then redeem their honour in the blood of aliens as they had intended ?

I'd probably even make this a system-wide xenos attack originally, to show the sheer scale of the threat, explaining why astra militarum and Astartes are sent as reinforcements

In all fairness, we see a similar situation like this appear in Shoud of Night where Sisters of Battle, Imperial Guard and Space marines are forced to defend a world together to protect one object of high importance so having them fight in one world isn't overkill to me. If anything, we could connect the chapter to the Sisters of battle force and come in due to Alliances made from previous fights they've fought together in.

 

I do agree though that it should be a system wide attack by the aliens and then the warband in question uses this to get to this shrineworld. Also, it could be that said aliens ran into the warband in question after running from the chapter and being corrupted by chaos to make them extra dangerous for their return; sort of like the saying "what doesn't kill me, makes me stronger."

[Doctor Perils]

Ah, I hadn't understood that it you were thinking of a shrine world on that scale, but it makes sense - indeed, having so many people pulled in for this would be fine in this case.

 

Wrt to the "too much" line, aye, we've seen worlds were the imperium lumps immense heaps of manpower to defend their lands, but we also see other worlds that have to more or less fend for themselves - however, in the case of an important shrine world, then the point is moot.

 

Wrt the space marine retaliation, is the idea that the whole chapter would take part or "just" a company or two? - in any case, I also like the idea of the chapter's past mistakes coming back to haunt them. Further, them not being able to actually redeem their mistake adds a measure of grimdark imo.

For the adepta sororitas, have you got any ideas of how to show they aren't playing second fiddle? I agree that it's very important, but if the guard and Astartes are called in we run the risk of not doing them justice.

 

 

Edit: another important question to sort out is over how long would this siege last? This might help explain when different forces arrive to fight

Edited October 22, 2017 by Lord Thørn

[Commissar Molotov]

Progress in our collaborative Astartes project continues apace, with the contender narrowed down to one of just four options. The Celebrants and the Brotherhood of a Thousand have had strong showings so far, but the Tauran Chapter have made a resurgence and appear to be full of promise! 

 

The other threads have been a little slower, and I am updating them today in an attempt to stir conversation. As previously discussed - if you're interested, then by all means please check the threads out and make your mark! 

[Servant of Dante]

I’m willing to help with Sisters as much as needed, though I had missed this important information on the overall narrative until now. Dimmamar (the birthplace of Sebasitian Thor (or Ecclesiarch Thor I if you prefer)) has been suggested as our shrine world, which should be workable, but I would be very leery of writing a story that leaves major marks on a planet that already caries such weight in the canon.

 

That being said, Dimmamar fits pretty dang well as the homeworld for the Order concept I had, and there haven’t been any other suggestions as of yet.

Edited October 29, 2017 by Servant of Dante

[Servant of Dante]

Molotov said he want to Sisters to play a major role in this campaign rather than just being a footnote, and that’s exciting and great, and I’m looking forward to helping with the actual campaign, but the issue of numbers comes up, at least to me. How much of our Marine chapter will be present? How many guardsmen? How big are our Xenos and chaos friends’ groups? I view the Orders Militant as rather limited in number, based on the numbers in the 2E codex, and I’d be loathe to go against my headcanon for an Order I’m so excited to write about.

 

I say headcanon because the codicies only give numbers for the Orders Majoris, and vague ones at that. There might be numbers in like FFG publications or newer GW stuff that I’ve not read, but regardless I use the 2E codex numbers, which to my knowledge the later codicies never went back on. Each of the 6 major Orders is said to average 3-4 thousand Sisters, with numbers at peak points climbing as high as 7 thousand. In my view, it would not make sense for there to be more Sisters in Minor Orders than Major Orders. It’s not like they recruit independently, there is one block of new Sisters at a time which are then assigned to the various Orders (that bit of fluff does come from a kinda esoteric source, call me a hypocrite if you want :P ) so the Orders numbers can be easily balanced against eachother. Assuming the Major Orders are averaging the high end of the average range and that half of Sisters Militant are in Minor Orders gives us 24,000 Sisters Militant between every Minor Order in the galaxy. Personally I hold that this number is much too high, it would make more sense to me if we said about 1/3 of Sisters are in Minor Orders and used the middle of the average range as the mean number of Sisters in Major Orders, which would give us 10,500 Sisters in Minor Orders across the galaxy. This also assumes the Sisters aren’t super under normal numbers due to how crazy the galaxy has gotten recently :P

 

Add to this that the idea I have for this Minor Order is a rather extreme ideology, which is what has me excited, and it doesn’t make sense for them to be exceptionally large. The vast majority of new Sisters would simply not fit in the order (I’ve got some thoughts on what exactly that means too :D ).

 

So, to get to the point (sorry), in my mind we’re not talking about thousands of Sisters to throw at the invaders, more on the order (no pun intended) of a few hundred, tops. Keep in mind that since we were planning on using a Shrine World it would like be considered relatively secure. The Sisters may well have Missions all over doing the Emperor’s work. There is space in this fluff for our order being home bodies a bit more than normal perhaps.

 

I think what would be most fluffy for Sisters is not fighting as a stand alone force but acting as the backbone of the local PDF. As this is a shrine world, they’ve certainly got that Ecclesiarchal ca$h to work with, so they can have real armour and functioning lasguns, even if they’ve never used them outside a shooting range before. I would be worried about impinging on the Regiment’s flavor space here so probably best to keep them more or less faceless if we use them right?

 

The other thing is, again, since it’s a shrine world you’ll have lots of the Frateris Clergy around and rousing the rabble into the Frateris Minitia :P What better to keep their morale up than fighting alongside a few squads of Sisters :D

 

Oh, and it occurs to me the planet would likely have a Schola Progenium (Molotov mentioned something about a Cardinal world too, though diosece are rather small since the Thorian Refirmation, a Cardinal is still a Cardinal, and he might even have a crusader house on planet, or at least a unit of Crimson Guard (crusaders acting as dedicated bodyguards to a Cardinal, it’s one of those little violations of the Decree Passive the Ordo Hereticus generally let’s slide) handy) replete with grizzled Drill Abbots, budding future commissars, Sisters, Scions, maybe even someone bound for an Assassinorum temple if we’re lucky, and probably a looooot if scribes in training :P

 

Anyway, what does everyone think?

[Brother Lunkhead]

I agree with Brother Servant on his idea of force deployment of SoB SoB forces will probably almost never (not never just almost) deploy to a war zone as a stand-alone force. So I see the deployment of a small force of Sisters to support a larger conventional force as a likely scenario. Not only will they act as a force multiplier being an elite force, but they will act as moral support for the larger conventional force (which is a force multiplier as well).

[Servant of Dante]

I think I may have kinda forgot to make a point: I’m worried that the low numbers of Sisters will mean they’re overshadowed with a company of marines plus a full IG regiment. It may be a challenge to have them play a role in the overall story besides “and in this big pitched battle there were some Sisters aiding the other non-astartes defenders.

 

It may be that much of their involvement beyond this is political, which is fun but will take some effort.

Edited November 29, 2017 by Servant of Dante

[Brother Lunkhead]

Everyone gets overshadowed when Space Marines are present  SoB's ( I always get a little uncomfortable using that acronym... It's probably just me) will always play an important role in any story or battle simply by virtue of who they are. As I said in my last post, they are a force multiplier. The trick is to use that force multiplier wisely and not squander it. 

 

Too often in 40k literature you see these forces ( be they SM's or SoB's or whatever) intermixed with IG forces to bolster moral or shore up defenses. This sort of  really bunches my panties. This may make for some spiffy character interaction, but it is a total waste of your elites. They make a difference by performing missions that conventional forces cannot, not by being used as reinforcements.

[Servant of Dante]

I think the IG will actually function most efficiently as a stand alone force, since they are professional military. They don’t need anyone (besides the friendly local commissar) praise their chain of command messing with them on the battlefield. What would be more interesting to me is seeing the Sisters interact with the PDF and other Ministorum elements on the planet. Space marines are of course a shock force. The Sisters do tend to fill a similar role, but frankly one on one a Marine is more mobile and durable and can operate for longer times at a stretch than a baseline human.

 

I think the main advantage the Sister will have is in defending the planet’s urban areas since they are already familiar with them, as well as interacting with the Frateris Clergy and PDF. They are likely to be receptive to Ministorum personal such as the Sisters if we do infact set the campaign on a Shrine World (the population of such planets tends to be devout).

 

Hopefully the combination of working with the locals and conducting pinpoint operations where Space Marines can’t or won’t go (or might need a map) will be enough to keep things interesting. There is going to be some amount of Sisters acting as force multipliers since they aren’t as mobile as marines in pods/stormravens, and there are not so many of them. Additionally, the Order will be leaving Sisters to defend the planet’s key religious sites (that’s going to spread them thin on a shrine world now that I think about it :D )

Edited November 30, 2017 by Servant of Dante

[Commissar Molotov]

Hi all, 

 

Happy new year! I've been rather busy with work and this has taken me away from the forum somewhat more than I would've liked. 

 

A little bit of space, however, has given me a chance to think about the project. I really do believe it is an opportunity to showcase the best of the board, and to show the Liber as an inclusive and supportive part of the board. With that said, I think it's important to give the process a little more structure. 

 

As such: 

 

Firstly, it's important to complete the Tauran Chapter as part of our DIY Chapter. This is perhaps the most 'standalone' section, and allows us to detail the history of the Chapter and their way of waging war. Until the Tauran Chapter is completed, the rest of the project will be on hold. 

 

Once the Taurans are completed, we will work on the Xenos race - the most diametrically opposed to the Adeptus Astartes. We will then be able to detail the battle in which the Tauran Chapter thought they had eradicated this alien race. 

 

After that, we will detail the Sisters of Battle, along with the shrine world which the aliens invade. 

 

Fourthly, the Imperial Guard reinforcements that defended the shrine world; 

 

And lastly, the Chaos Warband taking advantage of the war to satisfy their own nefarious schemes. 

 

This, I hope, will provide the project with a bit of structure. 

 

Thank you all for your support in sustaining this and showing the best that the Liber can be - I look forward to pushing this forward to completion!