How to make a DA successor follow the Codex properly?

[Dosjetka]

I'm spitballing some ideas for a Dark Angels successor Chapter. I used the various tables in the Deathwatch RPG Rites of Battle sourcebook to come up with the various basic Chapter characteristics and I rolled a DA successor Chapter founded in M.33 who is Codex-adherent and has a preference for siege warfare. This has led me to try and figure how a DA successor would abandon the Deathwing and Ravenwing to become a Codex Chapter (or not even have them at the start).

 

My current idea is that the DA gene-seed was used and the founding members were sourced from a DA successor (Angels of Vengeance) but they were instructed by the High Lords of Terra to strictly follow the Codex Astartes. The issue is, I don't know why the High Lords of Terra would do that. Any ideas? Or perhaps you have another plausible justification for this unusual trait?

[Grotsmasha]

It is established fluff (6E Codex iirc) that The High Lords do not trust the DA's "Legion building" and resistant to creating new DA Chapters (although this may less true in M33). Using that as a base, why not have the Training Cadre NOT of DA genestock, choose the Fists/Successor (for the Siege Warfare). You could even have the Chapter unaware of their genestock, make the DA aware of their linage though, maybe have the DA "stalk" the chapter, always showing up unexpectedly or some such.

 

Cheers,

Jono

[Bryan Blaire]

Sounds like they aren't a DA Successor Chapter in the same way that the Carmine Blades weren't a BA Successor Chapter upon creation - i.e. if they aren't created knowing they are, they won't think they are. About the only specific things that the DA gene-seed seems to really carry are a more stoic nature, dourness, and a tendency not to trust others/keep to themselves, all things that could crop in even an Ultramarines Successor.

 

Also, you have to look at what makes a Chapter a Successor Chapter: gene-seed is only one thing. But organization and the Chapter Cult is very important too, they are how a Chapter actually has an identity (the story of the Carmine Blades is a really good example of this, IMO).

 

The thing I see about the DA gene-line that aren't DA trained is that if they won't have the DA style organization, but more they won't have the DA "Chapter" Cult, meaning in the end, they aren't really a DA Successor anyway. If they are DA trained (and by that I'm including any "real" DA Successor), then they are going to have the DA organization and DA "Chapter" Cult.

 

I would examine the "why" of wanting to make this Successor. If it is just to have a Chapter that is secretly DA gene-line but doesn't know it, then you don't even need to put that in their write up, they are simply one of the many Chapters that have their records destroyed, they don't know who they are. If it is because they are actually trained and internally organized as DA but they forcibly show something different to the outside world, and they have people that are actually 1st Company and 2nd Company who operate as other, but still feed info to the Unforgiven, now you're talkin'. Maybe the are like the Star Phantoms, rumored to be DA gene-line, but are denied by the DA and aren't known to be brought to the Unforgiven table.

 

The idea that the Angels of Vengeance (being a 2nd Founding, and therefore original members of the Dark Angels Legion) wouldn't train a DA Successor as Unforgiven, or let them just stop being one doesn't sound right to me. Abandoning the Unforgiven doesn't seem like something a Chapter would do, and if they didn't, it doesn't seem like they'd be left to survive long.

 

Another thing to look at is what is really not Codex-adherent about the Dark Angels Chapter organization... there’s basically nothing in the structure, it’s more how things are used. The 2nd Company is all fast attack style vehicles, instead of the 7th? The 1st Company being all Terminators isn’t really that non-adherent.

[Ordo Machinum]

I had a similar idea once.

My approach to it was the Lords of Terra created a chapter from the DA gene stock, wanting to use the chapter as a way to watch closely how the DA trained one of their successors. The DA, of course, knew what the Terran Lords were up to and decided to train the chapter according to the codex - no deviation.

The new chapter was essentially the DA's way of saying, "See? Nothing to see here." 

Edited January 17, 2018 by Ὀσυμανδύας

[Brother Tyler]

I wouldn't take the random results of tables as fixed - you can always tweak them a bit.

"Codex-adherent" means a lot of things. More importantly, it doesn't (necessarily) mean that the Chapter can't be among the Unforgiven. Also, the Codex Astartes leaves a lot of room for flexibility, including variations on company/squad/rank markings (numerous "Codex Chapters" use alternate such markings) as well as differing interpretations of doctrine and organization (e.g., the Red Scorpions and the positions of authority in which their apothecaries are placed).

The Deathwing is, after all, "just" the 1st (Veteran) company of the Dark Angels. The Ravenwing is a bit different, but might be nothing more than the combined 6th/7th companies.

I've created the Venerators/Venerators of Korumani/Angels of Veneration as an ostensibly "Codex Chapter" that was among the Unforgiven. Similarly, I created an interpretation of the Angels of Vigilance, a Chapter that is officially classified as a "Codex Chapter" though I've cast them as one of the Unforgiven (following the Third War for Armageddon lore for them). I'm pretty sure that some other similar "Codex" Unforgiven Chapters have been developed over the years, especially through the periodic Brotherhood of Angels challenges.

All that said, you could just take a cue from my Venerators of Korumani and say that the gene-seed of the Dark Angels Legion (you pick the predecessor) was used to create a Chapter in a later founding, but that Chapter wasn't brought into the fold of the Unforgiven for some reason. This Chapter might simply use Codex: Space Marines for its rules, including the Imperial Fists rules as the best representation of its doctrine.

[Octavulg]

If you mean "don't have companies that hunt the Fallen in the DA sense" that would be hard (relatively). 

 

If you mean "their Fallen-hunting formations aren't set up like those in other DA chapters" that's probably easy - a shortage of Terminator armour can explain a power-armoured First Company. As to the lack of a Ravenwing...it's not like hunting the Fallen across space requires bikes and speeders.  They just think the Codex is a little better suited to their situation than having the unique DA formations.  Perhaps the Fallen-knowing is more evenly distributed among the companies than is otherwise usual? 

[Lord_Caerolion]

I've always hated the idea that each Successor Chapter must be a carbon-copy of the original Founder. We know that a decent number of Chapters exist that are very different from their Founders, like the Mantis Warriors being descended from the White Scars, yet not having any Bike focus whatsoever, or the Silver Skulls being from the Ultramarines, or the bloodthirsty and savage Executioners coming from the Imperial Fists.

 

It could be the case that the Chapter was founded with Dark Angels geneseed, but the initial training contingent was drawn from the Ultramarines/Successors, due to the fears of the Dark Angels potential Legion-building, yet wanting to use the geneseed due to its purity compared to other strains, and as such they were insulated from the cult mentality of the other Unforgiven. It could be they do have an Inner Circle (which isn't inherently non-Codex), but their focus on siege warfare means that while the Deathwing can function mostly the same (allowing for stock of Terminator Armour), they might not put as much reliance on bikes/speeders, and so their Second Company functions the same as a Codex-compliant Chapter, with their equivalent of the Ravenwing instead being comprised of the Company Veterans, as a more logical induction point into the Inner Circle.

 

It all depends on whether you want them to be a more Codex-compliant Unforgiven Chapter, or to be Successors only in terms of geneseed, like the Star Phantoms or Relictors are rumoured to be. Also, lets not forget that 7000 years is a long time for changes to happen. You could even have that they were far more "standard" Successors at their initial Founding, but that over the millennia their gradual specialization into siege warfare has led to restructuring of the Companies, with the Ravenwing using their bikes/speeders less and less, until they're back to being a "normal" Battle Company.

[No Foes Remain]

Food for though Dos, with my Void Angels they will be a codex chapter with only the high ranks knowing about the Fallen with a unmarked 11th Company known as the Greywing with no colours or markings which forms their Fallen hunters, operating as scouts/hunters/trackers and as abductors.

[Dosjetka]

Thank you for all the feedback and ideas, folks. Much appreciated. :tu:

 

Brother Tyler: I realise that I don't need to stick 100% to result of the dice, but I felt this result was interesting and worth trying to figure out.

 

Bryan: Cheers for mentioning the Crimson Blades, I'll spend some time reading their fluff and seeing what I can use for my own Chapter. :)

 

Octavulg: It was definitely more meant as "they hunt the Fallen but without the usual formations". And you have provided me with some good ideas, so thank you for that. :tu:

[Grotsmasha]

Also, the Dark Angels ARE counted as a Codex-Compliant chapter. IIRC, it was 3rd (maybe fourth) Ed. SM Codex had Bike/Speeders as 6th Company, so the DA having a mounted company isn't what makes The Ravenwing special, it is their fluff purpose.

 

Cheers,

Jono