THE LIBER CLUSTER II

[Ace Debonair]

Too bad; it would be cool to get involved. If it comes back up...

 

Ask and ye shall receive!

...Eventually.  

 

Sorry 'bout that, brothers.

Life got real hectic for a few months there.

 

I've come to the conclusion that for all my fancy plans and little theoretical campaigns, I've managed to get us more or less nowhere.

Obviously, this won't do, so I'm hereby scrapping the mini campaigns.

 

 

My next step will be figuring out what else to do instead.

 

I've half a mind to just tell everyone to write the stories they'd like to see, and then see what happens to the Cluster - but I think we'd need to work out some kind of community "aye or nay" policy as to whether or not any particular story gets the go-ahead.

 

 

...Actually, is anyone still here? It's sure been quiet here these last few months...

[Beren]

With strange aeons even death may die.

 

Still here, waiting in the webway and the dark void between worlds.

[WG101]

I'm here, kinda was waiting for the second round of mini campaigns to end

[Kelborn]

Still here, as well. :)

[Machine God]

I'm still lurking about.

 

Writer's block hit me and Real Life.

 

I'm happy for another Primaris Chapter as there is certainly room for more contributor's.

 

Lets get this train a rolling again!

[Dizzyeye01]

I'm still somewhat around. Like others, I've been hit with writers block and college has been throwing a lot of hurdles along the way.

 

In terms of how to move forward, perhaps instead of being stuck in the mini campaigns would be to establish a rough timeline from beginning to end and then once that is done people can start writing pieces for stories that could be included using pre-existing chapters/ forces already established in the Cluster. I feel like in our previous attempts a lot of people burned out because of the limited choices in what chapters people wanted to use and so forth. Instead we could give general events like say increase numbers of psykers across the sector and people can write how a certain chapter or force responded to it.

 

To give a good example, the timelines in the Codexs have a rough timeline of major events across the 40k timeline that act as a skeleton for us to put flesh on at our own pace. Hopefully that makes some sense.

[Teetengee]

This is the main reason I still check the forum these days, since I'm not doing much else in the hobby.

[Ace Debonair]

Ah, so there's still a good few of us about! Excellent!

 

A Timeline of events sounds like a pretty good idea, although I'm wary of the fact the calendar is screwy as heck in 40k - there's literally fights in-universe over what year people think it is, if I remember rightly. 

Some kind of "this is the calendar according to the Saneslau Mechanicus / Cluster Ecclesiarchy / Cluster Administratum " disclaimer or something similar would cover that quite nicely though.

 

But that would give some scope for events of all scales and styles to pop up, and give everyone a chance to explore the bits they're most interested in.

 

So, how should we go about this?

 

I was thinking we go with the approach of having one "official" timeline post, and then just have everyone's suggestions added to it, (pending approval of other Liberites, of course, just to make sure none of us go too far with our crazy ideas)

 

Then anyone who wants to fill out one event or another could have more or less free reign to do so - although ideally I'd want a team of at least two Liberites per event, just to keep the community-teamwork flavour intact.

[Dizzyeye01]

The calendar idea sounds good to me. One question I do have is what will happen with the first two campaigns that have already been sorta established? Are they just gonna be tied up in a nice bow or left unanswered for people to work on if they want?

[Brother-Sergeant Valorum]

I'm here too! Excited to be a part of this, and if possible, to throw another Primaris Chapter into the mix.

[Nomus Sardauk]

 

I come back to you now, returned from the darkness of timelines both strange and terrifying.

[Ace Debonair]

The calendar idea sounds good to me. One question I do have is what will happen with the first two campaigns that have already been sorta established? Are they just gonna be tied up in a nice bow or left unanswered for people to work on if they want?

 

Those little Campaigns are going to be left for anyone to work on if they want to.

If nobody else does, I *might* have a go at them myself. Eventually. 

 

 

I'm here too! Excited to be a part of this, and if possible, to throw another Primaris Chapter into the mix.

 

Welcome to the Cluster!

We've got plenty of room for Primaris Chapters, so feel free to come up with one if you like!

 

 

I come back to you now, returned from the darkness of timelines both strange and terrifying.

...You know, the biggest issue with people changing their names while I'm gone is that when I come back I have to look at the clues and work out who everyone used to be.

 

With that said - I won't lie to you brother - when I first saw your post I was like "What do you mean 'returned'? Wait, who is this?"

 

But; ramblings of an old fool aside; welcome back to the Cluster.

 

 

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

 

Question for everyone then, since the Timeline idea seems to have sparked some interest:

 

What year and/or events should we start our timeline with?

[Dizzyeye01]

Personally, I feel like if we go with roughly a hundred years then it would allow for some Primaris chapters to settle in properly in the Cluster and allow them some room for development. It also lines up with the current lore so there is less confusion in my opinion.

[Brother-Sergeant Valorum]

 

I'm here too! Excited to be a part of this, and if possible, to throw another Primaris Chapter into the mix.

 

Welcome to the Cluster!

We've got plenty of room for Primaris Chapters, so feel free to come up with one if you like!

Thanks man! Good to be here. Quick question before I get stuck in: I recently developed a Chapter with the intent of using them in the Cluster, but since it didn't seem active, I wrote an IA of them in the Liber. Is it appropriate to use them here too? Also, they were once a "standard" Chapter, but have undergone Primaris enhancement. Do they still count as a Primaris Chapter?

[Brother-Sergeant Valorum]

Well, I'll post. If I need to take it down, I will, but I thought I'd get something on the table. With that in mind, here are the Adjudicators:

 

GENE-SEED (PREDECESSOR) – Angels of Absolution (Dark Angels)
FOUNDING - Fourteenth
CHAPTER MASTER – Grand Master Akraziel
HOME WORLD/BASE OF OPERATIONS – Judgement’s Shadow (Chapter Barque)
OBSERVED STRATEGIC TENDENCIES – precision raids, surgical strikes, combined arms, ruthless pragmatism, combating other Astartes
BATTLE CRY - “Repent! His Justice is Come!”
CURRENT STRENGTH – 1,000
KNOWN DESCENDANTS - None

 

 

 

          A Fourteenth Founding Successor of the Angels of Absolution, the Adjudicators are a Chapter back from the brink. The opening of the Cicatrix Maledictum caught them in the midst of a grueling campaign against the Orks of Warlord Gitgutta. The appearance of the unnumbered hordes of Chaos caught both factions by surprise, but the Adjudicators, withtheir characteristic grim determination, saw the war against the Orks through to a successful conclusion before retreating into orbit and subjecting the world below to Exterminatus.

         The campaign took a heavy toll on the Chapter. They had lost their Grand Master, Kriav, and were reduced to a mere 250 Marines. Into the void of leadership stepped Third Master Akraziel, a veteran of the Deathwatch who had orchestrated the ultimate victory against Gitgutta. Akraziel knew that, with his Chapter so terribly weakened, they would be unable to confront the armies of the Great Enemy directly. Instead, he leveraged the still-significant power of the Chapter fleet to harass enemy supply lines and way stations. This continued for a decade, with the Grand Master winning a number of decisive naval battles against the forces of Chaos, before the Adjudicators happened upon forces of the Indomitus Crusade. With so few of the original Astartes left, Akraziel gladly accepted the Primaris Marine reinforcements. Indeed, once the Primaris Marines had proven their viability over the course of the following decades, he ordered those few remaining standard Astartes to undergo conversion to Primaris status. He himself was the first to make the transition, but the rest of his brothers soon followed, making the Adjudicators an unofficial “Primaris” Chapter.

         With their numbers restored and their Chapter stabilized, the Adjudicators set about restoring their old traditions. Custom holds that, upon the election of a new Grand Master, an Executioner’s Crusade is declared against a specific target which had eluded the Emperor’s Justice in the past. But Akraziel’s tenure had been marked up to this point by the rebuilding of the Adjudicators’ fighting strength; his Executioner’s Crusade had been postponed. Now, however, with the Chapter back at full strength, the time was right for the Adjudicators to return to their roots. Grand Master Akraziel and the Chapter Council, after careful consultation, decided that the Nineteenth Executioner’s Crusade would be launched against the Red Offering in the Liber Cluster. Following years of preparation, the entire Chapter fleet of the Adjudicators has arrived at long last in Cluster and is making its way towards the Gyrron System to cut out the heart of l’Offrande Rouge.

 

Chapter Beliefs:

         The Adjudicators recruit from a number of feudal, feral and hive worlds, focusing their efforts on criminals or organizations operating outside of Imperial law. Aspirants taken from these groups are heavily indoctrinated, educated in law, justice and repentance, and subjected to two particular trials unique to the Adjudicators: the Purgation and the Blooding. Though the details of these rituals are known to few outside the Chapter, the Purgation is known to be a confrontation with one’s inner guilt and daemons, and the Blooding, the slaughter of an aspirant’s former partners in crime. As successors of the Angels of Absolution, the Adjudicators are also unusual among the Unforgiven for their belief that the Emperor has already granted them his forgiveness for the sins of the Fallen. To the Adjudicators, however, this forgiveness imparts upon them the sacred duty to take others to task for their own treacheries and violations of the Emperor’s law. The Chapter sees itself as the instrument of the Emperor’s Justice; though the xenos is a hated foe who must be purged, and the daemon, an existential threat, the traitor is a personal enemy of the Emperor himself, and must therefore be brought to task for his many crimes before anything else.

 

I've written an IA on these guys that's much more fleshed out, but I wanted to stay within 700 words. The link is in my sig.

Edited April 17, 2019 by Brother-Sergeant Valorum

[Ace Debonair]

Sorry for the late reply, brothers.
I've been on the night shifts the last few days and haven't been anything like capable of rational thought for the last little while. (Just like normal, then )

Brother-Sergeant Valorum, as much as I like the Adjudicators, I'm going to have to refer to one of Conn's original rules for the Liber Cluster:
 

• Only new material can be introduced to the Liber Cluster. No volunteering old work, even if you modified it.

They've already got an IA and are fully fleshed out, whereas the idea for Liber Cluster Chapters is that they're developed bit by bit, by all of us.

That said:

What about a successor Chapter for the Adjudicators, assigned to the Liber Cluster?

 

They can be looking for the Red Offering on the quiet, (as Dark Angels are inclined to do ) and it saves you having most of your Chapter killed and randomly reassigned to the Cluster.

[Brother-Sergeant Valorum]

Sorry for the late reply, brothers.

I've been on the night shifts the last few days and haven't been anything like capable of rational thought for the last little while. (Just like normal, then )

 

Brother-Sergeant Valorum, as much as I like the Adjudicators, I'm going to have to refer to one of Conn's original rules for the Liber Cluster:

 

• Only new material can be introduced to the Liber Cluster. No volunteering old work, even if you modified it.

They've already got an IA and are fully fleshed out, whereas the idea for Liber Cluster Chapters is that they're developed bit by bit, by all of us.

 

That said:

 

What about a successor Chapter for the Adjudicators, assigned to the Liber Cluster?

 

They can be looking for the Red Offering on the quiet, (as Dark Angels are inclined to do ) and it saves you having most of your Chapter killed and randomly reassigned to the Cluster.

That's a really great idea, and one I hadn't even considered! I dig it. I'll get on that ASAP. Any ideas for a name? I'm thinking something like "the Headsmen" or "the Knights Executioner" but I'm open to any suggestions!

[Ace Debonair]

That's a really great idea, and one I hadn't even considered! I dig it. I'll get on that ASAP. Any ideas for a name? I'm thinking something like "the Headsmen" or "the Knights Executioner" but I'm open to any suggestions!

 

I'd say it depends what role and personality you want the successor to have.

 

One idea I did have circling my brain today was to maybe have things so your new successor is convinced their parent Chapter hasn't told them everything about the Red Offering and/or the Fallen.

 

Dark Angels do like to keep secrets after all, so it could be fun to have a successor that suspects they've never quite been told the entire truth...

[Teetengee]

What if some corruption in gene seed made it nearly impossible for them to believe that they've got all the information, even when they do. A form of paranoia like that might be interesting, since it wouldn't necessarily cause the same turtling behavior and would open them up to Tzeentch!

[Brother-Sergeant Valorum]

Ok, round two. I here present: the Headsmen.

 

GENE-SEED (PREDECESSOR) – Adjudicators (Dark Angels)
FOUNDING - Ultima
CHAPTER MASTER – Grand Master Remiel
HOME WORLD/BASE OF OPERATIONS – Blade of the Favored Son, battle-barge
OBSERVED STRATEGIC TENDENCIES – spearhead assaults, drop pod insertion, dismantling enemy command structures
BATTLE CRY - “Let the stroke fall!”
CURRENT STRENGTH – 1,000
KNOWN DESCENDANTS - None

 

 

         

          When the Ultima Founding was decreed, a great many Chapters composed entirely of the new Primaris Marines were established. The Headsmen, whose geneseed was drawn from the storied Adjudicators of the line of the First Legion, were one such. The battle-brothers of this genetic line were initially scattered among the Unnumbered Sons of the resurrected Primarch and his Indomitus Crusade, but when the crusading forces made contact with the badly-mauled Adjudicators a decade after the beginning of the Crusade, many of them were incorporated into their parent Chapter to replace its losses. Those who were not continued to fight alongside their brothers for some time after, learning much of their progenitor's methods in the process. By the Crusade's end, these battle-brothers had adopted many of the strategic and cultural tendencies of the Adjudicators. Nevertheless, they were not Adjudicators, and upon the Crusade's end Grand Master Akraziel requested that the Headsmen embark on a crusade to the far side of the galaxy to bring justice to a particularly evasive group of Traitors known as "the Red Offering."

         The new Chapter would not be going alone, however. For reasons of his own, Akraziel attached a five-man squad of veteran Adjudicators--newly converted to Primaris status--to the Headsmen's fleet, ostensibly to guide their Successor Chapter to Red Offering's base of operations. Many within the new Chapter have looked askance at this, however. They had, after all, acquitted themselves nobly alongside their progenitors. This move by Akraziel has led some of the Headsmen to believe that, perhaps, the Lord of the Adjudicators had not told them all they needed to know about the Red Offering. Perhaps there was more at stake than simply traitors to be punished. Whatever the case, Grand Master Remiel has accepted these new advisors courteously, but cautiously. He and his inner circle of high-ranking officers have agreed to keep a close eye on their guests to ensure that, whatever their purpose, it does not go undiscovered. 

 

Battle Doctrine:

 

         Like the Adjudicators, the Headsmen excel at high-risk assaults against an enemy's command structure, cutting the head off the snake in one fell swoop. Keenly aware of their lack of numbers in comparison to many of their foes, the Headsmen take great pains to ensure that they go to war on their own terms as much as possible. They make excellent use of reconnaissance and Imperial intelligence to pick the time and place of battle, and they always seek to minimize their own casualties while maximizing the damage inflicted on the foe. On the rare occasion that they are brought to battle against their will, however, they never fail to remind enemy and ally alike of the folly of facing His Angels of Death in open combat. The Headsmen can be as immovable in defense as any Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes, as deadly at range as they are in melee combat. While they prefer to fight in their own way, they are masters of all the arts of battle, and the greatest of their warriors are marked by the silvered skulls of potent foes slain in single combat with which they adorn their armor and banners as trophies of war.

 

[Ace Debonair]

Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to this - my time off is a bit more intermittent than I'm used to.

 

I was under the impression that Classic Space Marines couldn't be upgraded to Primaris marines - not sure if I'm wrong or just haven't had all the facts, though.

Even if they can't be upgraded, though, I'd have no problem with the Headsmen having a few old veterans along for 'strategic guidance'.

 

That'll do for a submission, in any event.

On that note, welcome to the Liber Cluster!

 

 

 

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

 

So, then. The Timeline.

 

I'm not sure exactly what year to start from (or finish at, which might be the more important date).

 

But I'm thinking it should be the timeline according to the Calendar kept in the Liber Conclave, which is trying to measure time in Terran years, but lacks a truly reliable and accurate way to do so, meaning there might be some inaccuracies in case we need to go back and change things later when compared with a Standard Imperial Timeline, should such a thing ever be established.

 

 

As for Big Events to happen within the timeline... well, I've got one.

One that Conn left with me, as a matter of fact.

 

Let me just work on putting it all into proper order, and then it'll be time to drop the bombshell that I promised for after the now-defunct mini-campaigns.

[Machine God]

Would this timeline event be who is behind the Renegades?

[Beren]

Regarding upgrading a classic Astartes to Primaris, the recent Rubicon Primaris fluff makes this possible but prototypal and so far only Marnelius Calgar has been succesfully subjected to it as of the present timeline.

 

So it depends how close to the events on Vigilus our timeline is.

Edited April 25, 2019 by Beren

[Ace Debonair]

Would this timeline event be who is behind the Renegades?

 

The answer to that is somewhere between both yes and no.

How's that for a cryptic response?

 

 

Regarding upgrading a classic Astartes to Primaris, the recent Rubicon Primaris fluff makes this possible but prototypal and so far only Marnelius Calgar has been succesfully subjected to it as of the present timeline.

 

So it depends how close to the events on Vigilus our timeline is.

Then I'll leave it up to Brother-Sergeant Valorum.

I suppose these marines could be a test group for another method of Primaris upgrading, if we need justification.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

 

So I'm wondering - should this brief timeline we're working on be the final hundred years of M41 (According to the Liber Conclave's calendar)?

Or should it be later than that?

 

Once I've figured out a start (or end) date, I'll post the Big Event and we can start throwing other ideas around.

[Teetengee]

Test group implies high failure rate, which sounds like an interesting element to me.