Index Traitoris Bound Intent - LASC2021

[Trokair]

Article sufficiently finished for submission to LASC 2021. Will try to work some more on it in the future to further improve it.

 

 

Index Traitoris Bound Intent

 

Overview

A Heretic Astartes in service to the Bound Intent

 

The warband known in recent centuries as the Bound Intent have operated in parts of Segmentum Tempestus and Pacificus since the dark days of the Legion wars. While the size, fleet and name have changed over the millennia it is at its core the same uneasy alliance between Darius, a Praevian Magister formerly of the Thousand Son Legion, and the Heretek Magos Artaxerxes.

 

While its own goals, aside from pure survival are unknown they often act as mercenaries for any who can pay their price. The Bound Intent does not linger longer than is necessary in any one system or subsector. While it no doubt has one or more bases of operation from which it can range out and retreat to these have never been found or confirmed as such.

 

Despite its age the warband resembles recent renegades more than it does forces fallen to chaos long ago. This is in part because the warband leadership, while using chaos derived knowledge and tools when needed, does not see the chaos as anything other then the daemons and devils it is, and will regularly purge its ranks of any who have gotten to fanatical to any one god, or even to all collectively. They acknowledge that in its way they are tainted by chaos, but they have fought the corruption every step of the way over the long centuries. If one must partake in poison then sip it with regret and not gorge on it with zeal.

 

 

Heraldry

 

Following the initial betrayal Darius reverted to the heraldry of the Legion prior to the flesh change and the finding of their primarch. This however did not last long as in the dark days of the Horus Heresy the old heraldry made just as much a target as the new.  Discarding traditional heraldry the warband started to use a combination of Mechancium symbols and arcane runes as their identifiers, but this to faded over the centuries as the culture within the fleet and warband diverged further from their origin.

 

Starting around M37 the heraldry and icons of the Homunculus and Golem started to be adopted by other parts of the warband and fleet and after several centuries it might as well be the official heraldry of the Bound Intent.

The Wrong Cargo

The origins of the use of the hardwood as part of the armour comes from the captured of a  large stock pile of a particular hardwood, along with living specimens and seeds on a raid in late M38 of a Rogue Trader vessel that was believed to carry a supply of Adamantium.

 

While the captured vessel was a price in and of itself the lack of the anticipated treasure was a deep disappointment to Artaxerxes and Darius. However not being in a position to let any resource just go to waste both started to use the hardwood for the housing and cover components of prototypes machines to protect the delicate interior of the various psy-crystal and cogitator parts.

 

For unknown reasons those prototypes, always fared minutely better than those without, irrespective of the experiment or trial at hand, even when the sporting and cover material would have no bearing. Even in battlefield tests prototypes with some of the wood within its makeup did better than reason would dictate. Upon becoming aware of this the two spent considerable time investigating the phenomenon but could find no real or unreal cause.

 

Only wood taken from that original supply had this affect, and it is all but spent. Efforts were made to cultivate more, but regardless of the method no subsequent harvest had the same properties. However by this point the believe had settled into the cultural milieu of the Warband and fleet, and the practice of imitating or applying thin layers of wood or pseudo-wood continues in the hope that its luck would confer to the wearer.

 

Derived from the aforesaid Golem and Homunculus armour, the heraldry or icon, with its countless variations, is in essence a stylized helmet or head with glowing eyes and symbolic chains indicating the psy-crystal pound mind within.

 

Another distinguishing feature of Warband forces is the use of hardwood or pseudo-wooden armour plates. This custom started in the believe that the wood is lucky and those adorning their armour will benefit from this luck. In practice it is only a thin layer, more akin to a lacquer covering than actual armour that is carefully molded and fitted onto the conventional armour plates, whether on personal armour, battle automatons, tanks or daemon engines.  In terms of protection the hardwood plate offer a minimal amount, akin to flack armour of similar thickness, but the custom once established continues and there is a dedicated group within the warband that specializes in growing, tending and processing the hardwood for use by the rest of the warband.

 

History

 

The alliance that is the heart of the Bound Intent was formed out of pure necessity for survival in the opening clarion call of Horuss betrayal. What started out of desperation and was fuelled by obsession has survived the ages because of the slimmest of chances, Darius and Artaxerxes are blood-kin. Whilst unknown to them when they first met, since they became aware of this kinship, and verified by genetic sorcery, this bond as always prevailed even during the years when everything else had soured between them. 
 
Darius is the older by a few years, no more than a decade or two at the furthest strand of possibility. Whether they are cousins, or uncle and nephew or marginal more distant they were never able to clarify. Even with long memories details fade with time, and records already nebulous and confused by the Unification wars where further scattered, lost or destroy during the siege of Terra, and even if any scraped remain neither could return to the planet of their birth to search for it.
  
Darius, Praevian Magister
 
Darius was recruited and imitated into the Thousand Sons Legion as part of the original thousand that swore their oath in front of the Emperor himself. From there he performed well and consistently first as a Tactical Marine, and later as a Sergeant in the nascent Legion during the early days of the Great Crusade. When fellow Legionnaires begun to manifested the gift of the psyker and fundamentally changed the nature of the legion with these newfound skills and tools Darius remained what he was, reliable but unremarkable.  While he did eventually develop psychic abilities it was but minor and unsuited for battle, barley enough to mark him out from the unfortunate ungifted Legionnaire.
 
This proved a boon in disguise, for when the flesh change came and twisted flesh and mind of all to many of the Legion, it passed over Darius at first, only becoming evident in what was thought to be the final days of the Fifteenths. Like many he entered stasis and was one of the Dreamless Brotherhood in an attempt to stave off the flesh change. Unlike those countless that used stasis as a last resort, or even entered it unwillingly at the hands of their comrades, Darius survived, perhaps because he chose caution, or cowardness as some saw it, and entered stasis at the first suspicion that the flesh change had reached him.     
 
In the wake of the Legions rebirth at the hand of their newfound father Magnus the Red, and the reorganization he instituted Darius found himself in command of a demi-company sized force of mostly populated by fresh recruits by dint of his long experience. This command however would not last, as the years went by the psychic focus of the Thousand Sons played increasing importance in its command structure.
 
In such an environment, when your own lower ranks had more potential  and power his position was deemed unsuitable. It did not help that Darius had trouble integrating with the new Prosperine culture that he now found himself. Whether it was an attempt to find a suitable role for a Legionnaire, or as recognition of his long service, or just to not be seen as demoting a capable commander in all aspects but psychic power was never clear to Darious, but he was promoted to the rank of Praevian and given charge of a squad of Castallax Battle-Automata.
 
To his surprise Darius took well to the mechanical host, having an innate grasp of the automatons. He led them efficiently in battle, outperforming similar units and even some of his fellow Psyker Legionnaire units. In retrospect it became apparent that part of Darius psychic gift was this way with machines, whether battle-automata or others.
 
Following the liberation of the Forgeworld  Zhao-Arkhad, and in particular the experiments and creation of the Eminarii forge-fane, Darius was selected amongst the group that worked most closely with the Eminarii adepts to understand and develop their psy-influence automatons. It was thus that the Achea variants where developed, field tested and eventually adopted into the legion as the next generation of battle automata. It was during these years that Darius truly excelled, growing into his powers and with it the respect of his peers.
 
Artaxerxes, Magos

 

Conscripted in the continual drain of man power that was the early years of the Great Crusade Artaxerxes was first stationed in the lunar dockyards as a maintenance and construction worker  before being posted as part of the repair crew for a newly commissioned Dominator Class Cruiser. With the treaty of Mars still recent, and in a bid to integrate the Terran and Martian groups the ships crew was mixed. Within a decade and a half Artaxerxes had earned a reputation as an excellent work caught the eye of one of the junior Magi and he was accepted as an adept into the Mechanicum.

 

While he faced opposition for Martian Mechnacium adherents because of his Terran origins Artaxerxes nevertheless attained the rank of senior Magos aboard an Oberon Class Battleship by what proved to be the veining years of the Great Crusade.

 

Having served in several expeditionary fleets Artaxerxes had travelled far and wide and served alongside both the fabled Legion Astartes and the grand Imperial Army. During these years he seldom returned to Sol, let alone Terra and slowly came to see live amongst the stars as his true home.   

 

Following a series engagement with Eldar Raiders the expedition fleet that Artaxerxes was with was in need of extensive repairs and put in at the Bandar Siraf IV Orbital dock and constructions facility. It was here that Artaxerxes learned not just the running and maintenance of starships, but how they were built. It was never prove to be anybodys fault in particular but the repair efforts of the fleet suffered numerous delays and crawled to a halt entire at times. While the imperial commanders grew frustrated with the lengthy delays, and the troops grew restless, Artaxerxes and his junior Magi and adepts formed a strong and fast relationship with the stations Martian and Jovian ship building contingent.

 
The Alliance of Outcasts

Ambitions Cost

While initially the Artaxerxes and Darius had neither the intention or interest in following chaos, the necessity of survival during the Legionnaire War meant that not only did they have to use the enemies weapons but accept the Faustian Bargin so as to survive.  Lessons  learned in the early years have stayed with them and severed as a stark warning to not put once faith in the denizen of the warp.

 

One such instance was the initial experimentation with Daemon Engines technology. Having acquired some lore and tools from a captured Traitor force Darius and Artaxerxes begun experimenting with the binding of daemons to be the animated driving force for machines of sufficient complexity. While hugely successful in adding martial strength the unreliability of the possessing daemons in the long term was proving to be a problem.

 

Seeking to improve upon the demon engine technology the studies went deeper, and thus ambition grew in some of the lesser Magi under Artaxerxes. Fully embracing the dark powers they went further with demonic possession and when they felt secure attempted a coup. Their efforts however proved fruitless as the bound daemons slip their leash and rampaged indiscriminately instead of going after their assigned targets. The resulting chaos, while devastating to the warband, taking several decades to fully recover, proved sufficient for Darius Artaxerxes to purge the fanatics and traitors within their ranks.

 

While Daemon engines have their use in warfare, and is still used by the Bound intent at times. It had provided useful concepts and ideas, as well as practical tools, but as a avenue of research and technology it is dead-end.

 

Darius was part of one of several small contingents field testing the new Castellax-Achea battle-automata variants that the Legion had developed when the news of the Council of Nikaea and its devastating Edict reached Darius and his comrades in the field. Having received no news or orders from Magus or Prospero, most likely due to their distance and isolation from their fellow Thousand Sons, Darius, as most senior of the Legionnaires in this particular expedition fleet, ordered that the Edict should be followed, even if it made their entire point of being their pointless.

 

They went into the next few engagements as just Legionnaires, in support of the greater imperial battle plan. However frustration both within their own ranks at the restriction, and increasing hostility and distrust from other imperial elements, a relation that had already been strained before was close to breaking down entirely.

 

As the contingent had no ship of their own to call upon Darius petitioned the overall Expedition command for a ship or transport back to a staging post along the supply line so that they could journey to rejoin their legion. Seeing it as an excellent opportunity to get the Thousand Sons out of their way, and settle some of the unrest amongst their own forces they acquiesced. However the only ship they claimed they could spare was a small Escort Class, and an older slower one at that. On top of this the navigator to hand was relatively young and inexperienced.

 

To add injury to insult, while heading back along the supply line of compliant worlds, the ship had to divert into unknown space to avoid a sudden instability in the warp. The transition was rough and badly, but not critically damaged the ship. Stranded between star systems and having to wait out the time until the wrap calmed enough to try a resumption of their journey there was little choice but to wait out the months.

 

Even when they were able to resume their journey they had been scattered further than anticipated, and it was only by luck that they stumbled upon the imperial staging system Bandar Siraf IV and its orbital docks and shipyards. Putting in for repairs things looked on the up, but the docks where already overwhelmed by the repair work on another expedition fleet and hosting a second recently arrived fleet.

 

Then disaster struck, the news of Horuss betrayal at Istvaan III reached Bandar Siraf IV, and in addition to the shock of the news itself, within hours system command planet side declared for Horus, as did the recently arrived fleet. Caught between them in the dockyards, with ships in various states of work, the much delayed expedition force and Imperial Loyalists where in disarray. 

 

However the forces loyal to Horus overestimated their ability to capture the dockyards with only minor damage as had been their intent. While the loyalist Imperial Army was disorganized, Artaxerxes and his underlings acted quickly to seize control of the orbital dockyards from the Martian Mechanicum elements that had declared for Horus. Despite the bonds of cooperation that had formed during the long months of repairs, Artaxerxes stayed true to Terra, and turned the docks internal defenses, that had been in the progress of opening up on loyalist on the traitors instead. In addition with internal communication in Loyalists hand the docks where efficiently cleared by coordinated counter attacks.

 

With the battle for the dock done the Horusian adherence knew that capturing it was out of the question, so now switch over to just trying to annihilate the Loyalist in system.   While the loyalist fleet was still in dock, and unable to manure effectively they should have not been an issue for the Traitors, but to their surprise a higher proponent of the Loayalists guns could be brought to bear.

 

With the docks impossible to hold the Loyalists, coordinated by Artaxerxes and with Darius and his handful of Legionnaires as the spear tip went for one last gamble to survive. The Escort Darius had arrived on was not part of either fleet, and consequently its identity markers where therefore not immediately flagged as enemy on the Traitor tactical stations. This and the general confusion allowed Thousand Sons, combined with the best Loyalist fighters they could gather to launch a surprise boarding assault on the Traitor flagship.  

 

Given the dire situation Darius took the drastic action and broke the Nikaea Edict, not only did access to their psychic powers enhance their already considerable combat ability, they could also unleash the psy-crystal Battle-Automatons they had been field testing to devastating effect. The Traitors capital ships internal defenders were swept aside and the bridge and engine fell almost simultaneously. From there the Traitor fleet was broke and scattered.

 

In less than twelve hours since the arrival of the news of Horuss bid for power one fleet was broken, another not far behind, the orbital dock and construction shattered and the planet, while still held by Traitors effectively neutralized by key orbital strikes.   

 

In the aftermath Darius and Artaxerxes and their respective followers become close, as without either they all would have died. This relationship was further cemented into the uneasy but lasting bond that endures to this day when several weeks later, as repairs where frantically underway to put enough of a fleet together to aid other loyalist in these desperate times, when superior Loyalist forces arrived in system, and Recognizing Thousand Sons Heraldry opened fire without explanation.  

 

With no position to fight pack, and little will as they were supposedly also loyalist to the Emperor the combined forces of Artaxerxes and Darius and other Loyalist allies fled. It was during the regard actions that partial information retrieval was achieved and reveled to Darius the events pertaining to the fall of Prospero, and to Artaxerxes that his former Magos had sided with Kelbor-Hal.

 

Now outcasts caught between two sides of a civil war, one side the enemy to their ideals, the other never preparing to accept that they were not traitors the alliance fought only for survival. In the decades that followed, in the increasingly deadly milieu of the Horus Hersey and the Scouring thereafter meant that bit by bit, by necessity and fall and rise of fortune the two had to use the knowledge, tools and resources of the enemy and thus falling unwillingly to Chaos, restating every step of the way short.  

 

Armed Forces and Operations

 

The Homunculus and Golem Projects

With his history with battle automaton and the development of the psy-variant patterns Darius was keen to develop the technology further, promising as it did better, hardier and more reliable fighting units. Mind imprinted into psy responsive crystals allowed greater tactical flexibility in the units while retaining their innate resilience.

 

Battle-Automata and similar Mechanicum machines, the after effects on the less psychic able of the Thousand Sons following Ahriman Rubric and early experimentation with daemon engines showed that the flesh was not necessary for such fighting units. However each had their deficiencies, whether mechanical limitation or the detachment from reality of soul bound constructs or the madness and unreliability of daemons.

 

Seeking to combine the best of all of these without the drawbacks the two embarked on the joint project that became the Golem and Homunculus lines. While the former was at its core just the advancement on the battle automata concept the later was an effort to create a Marine equivalent.

 

The result of both project was successful enough for the two resulting forces to form the elite of the warbands fighting force, and further refinement is only adding those this. By mid to late M36 Homunculus constructs of the series 4 and 5 and Homunculus derived tech modified Astartes formed the bulk of the warbands dedicated fighting force and where essentially interchangeable.

While Darius and Artaxerxes hold absolute power within the warband by the very nature of a fleet based semi-nomadic warband they need a reliable and efficient command structure under them. These are filled by a combination of lesser Magi and Astartes that have sworn loyalty to the warband, often paired so that they have to work together as joined command of a ship and its force.

 

Fleet
 

The composition of the Warband fleet has varied over the millennia, form might battle fleet able to sweep all opposition aside, for a while, or just a few ships lurking on the edge of space. At the heart of the fleet is always Sirsir, a heavily modified Oberon Class Battleship that serves as both flagship and heart of the entire warband. In recent centuries the fleet is small but fast and deadly, outmaneuvering and fighting multiple Imperial Navy patrol fleets.

 

The fleet has a high number of escort level ships, often modified not just for speed but also stealth, able to insert troop for small scale operations. While the warband has limited construction abilities of small ships it does not have the means to build capital ships and has to capture them.  Furthermore Artaxerxes has been developing a specialized boarding assault ship, with the engines and speed of an escort, but much more compact and maneuverable. While these ship may be little more than very much upscale boarding ships or torpedoes, the fact that they are independently wrap capable, and their primary armaments are not guns but Astartes and Psy-automaton shock troops, has resulted in a unique thread and raiding potential for the imperial Navy and sectors within the Bound Intents hunting grounds.

 

Ground Troops
 

Preferring to pick their engagements and relying primarily on boarding action of exposed or single vessels the primary armed forces of the bound intent are units composed of Astartes, Psy-cogitator automaton with heavy cybernetic shock troops to supplement the numbers. With the development of the Homunculus and Golem units the composition of these forces draw mostly from there.

 

If required to engage in large scale battle, such on planetary surface, the Warband will deploy cybernetic troops, ranging from human base line or Skitarii equivalent up heavy cybernetic shock troops. These cohorts would come from the ranks of the fleets armsmen, but if large scale or surface engagements are expected additional troops can be raised, trained and augmented in preparation. These forces are supported by variety of assorted Battle-Automata, both traditional and psy-cogitator, daemon engines and traditional armour.

Edited March 28, 2021 by Trokair

[Zebulon]

Hmmm... there’s more than a veneer of quality here! :D

 

Apologies. I will try to give fuller comments when I am not so tired.

[Brother Lunkhead]

You're off to a solid start with this The history and structure look interesting. I'm a little unclear from the introductory paragraph, is your warband wholly derived from the Thousand Sons?

 

The homunculus and golem ideas look very intriguing and I'm keen to see more on these. The lucky wood that your marines decorate their armor with could use more background information. Right now it just doesn't look practical for the kinds of extreme environments Space Marines fight in. I'm somewhat familiar with exotic woods, so there is some precedence even in the real world for surprisingly dense wood structures with stone like qualities, but what you describe will need more than that. Otherwise, the Bound Intent are going to be replacing it after almost every engagement. Perhaps, it has some sort of psychic properties or even regenerative properties.

 

Good start, and I'm looking forward to seeing more details

[Trokair]

No worries Zebulon, all in good time, and that gives me time to work on this some more first.

 

Brother Lunkhead, good question, and no the warband is not wholly derived from the Thousand Sons, Darius is, as are a few of the senior Marine members, but as these are Thousand Sons that were not on Prospero when things went south (or should that be north?) their numbers are limited. I envision most of the Marines in this warband to be later additions, either renegades or Legionnaires who did not fit in with their parent legions post heresy/scouring. The warband is based far from the Eye, and has never really been there.

 

The majority of the fighting force would be normal soldiers from the fleet or Dark Mechanicum derived. Marines of any flavor are very much the minority here. Hence why the Humonculus project is trying to create pseudo mechanical Rubric Marines to supplement the Marine portion of the Warband and give them a larger contingence of marine equivalents shook troops. If I ever get round to building my boxes of Thousand Sons and build them as this rather then more traditional Thousand Sons then only characters and maybe some sergeants would be actual marines wile all the Rubrics would be all Homunculi.

 

The warband does have some Rubrics, as my understanding is that Ahriman’s spell affected all Thousnad Sons regardless of distance or proximity to the Eye. However I would imagine that some of these would certainly have become subjects of Darius and Artaxerxes experiments in trying to understand what the spell did and how it could be replicated and applied to Demon Engines and psy-cogitaotr technology.

 

 

The wood thing is me desperately trying to justify the idea for a colour scheme I came up with. I had many many test schemes on the painter and though of further ones, but none of them spoke to me, either being too close to schemes I had done for other armies I own, or to the look of other armies (I had an idea for a dark blue/dark red scheme to pay homage to both pre and post  Thousand Sons colours, but when I stepped back it looked to Crimson fists).

 

At some point in all this I stumbled on the idea of painting the armor panels in a wood style effect, and with all the trim on chaos marines I felt it could actually look ok (compared to say loyalist marines where I think it would look wired), with the trim essential holding the wooden panels in place, or some such. However wood, even hard woods would make poor marine armour, so I figured it would have to be purely decorative. By having it as decorative armour I can also use it on cultists/Tzzangor armour and on Demon Engines panels. And if we ever get a Dark Mech army from GW that can be allied I could then use wood effect there to tie the two armies together visually. Also having it start with the Homunculus and Golem projects gives them a bit more of a prototype/steam punk vibe.

 

While the first batch of wood clearly had some warp taint or other thing going on, to justified the believe it is lucky and inspire the use. I did not want the wood to be a McGuffin that bestowed specialness (outside of the initial batch to start/justify the custom). This would also give me the potential, if I develop this further, to mark out important characters by giving them bits from the initial supply (miraculously unscathed and what not) compared to the grunts who have just normal wood as part of their decorations.

 

I am about to use/develop a Homunculus derived character in/for a Black Crusade play by post RPG over in the RPG section here. Having his psy-crystal/cogitator hybrid housed in some of the special wood (inside the helmet/armour of course) would be a way to mark out why this one is so independent/special for what is essentially a Rubric Marine.

[Zebulon]

BL, from my reading the wood does not intrinsically confer added protection but instead there is a totemic belief system in its powers which has led to its adoption as an article of faith. It is almost like a placebo, or the way that men fight harder if they truly believe in their cause - it’s that sort of thing, am I right Trokair?

 

The description of Darius is interesting - so he was something of an outcast and an unremarkable marine within the Thousand Sons, because his talents did not chime entirely with their ways, but actually his tech-savant abilities led him in another direction? Would it be right to cast him as a techmarine? Or something like a Warsmith?

 

I also look forward to seeing some information on the relation of this warband to the Chaos gods. Who do they worship and/or who favours them? What do they believe in, other than survival? What is their purpose or plot, or are they simple mercenaries fighting for the spoils of war?

[Trokair]

BL, from my reading the wood does not intrinsically confer added protection but instead there is a totemic belief system in its powers which has led to its adoption as an article of faith. It is almost like a placebo, or the way that men fight harder if they truly believe in their cause - it’s that sort of thing, am I right Trokair?

This very much so, thank you for articulating what I was struggling with.

 

While Pravian (Forgeworld link),(wiki link) are not Techmarines per say, they do deal with the Legions Battle-Automaton. So from there I imagine he would have been a natural choice to be a part of the team that developed the unique Thousand Sons Battle-Automaton alongside actual Techmarines, Armourers, artificers and so on. He is defiantly essentially a warsmith/hellwright of some description by M32 and has only gone from there, and as a Thousand Son who was not Rubricfied also a Psyker of some power (even if it was slight compared to others in the Legion during the earlier years).

 

Edit: Messed around with the Painter some more, and using the Paint Colour Hexadecimal Codes Guide I just discovered here on the B&C, used the codes for actual GW paints to closer match what I think it would look like rather than me guessing at the colours. Now that said it does not take into account highlighting and other such things. At least the wood tone is now closer to the effect of Dryad/Sylvaneth Bark. Ideally I would want to use Wildwood contrast as the starting point, but I can’t find a hex code for it that I can use in the painter.

Edited March 24, 2021 by Trokair

[Brother Lunkhead]

 

Brother Lunkhead, good question, and no the warband is not wholly derived from the Thousand Sons, Darius is, as are a few of the senior Marine members, but as these are Thousand Sons that were not on Prospero when things went south (or should that be north?) their numbers are limited. I envision most of the Marines in this warband to be later additions, either renegades or Legionnaires who did not fit in with their parent legions post heresy/scouring. The warband is based far from the Eye, and has never really been there.

Thanks for the clarification on that. I like this approach. It gives your warband a nice complexity and depth, and makes for a lot of room for development independent of the Thousand Sons.

 

 

The wood thing.....

 

While the first batch of wood clearly had some warp taint or other thing going on, to justified the believe it is lucky and inspire the use. I did not want the wood to be a McGuffin that bestowed specialness (outside of the initial batch to start/justify the custom). This would also give me the potential, if I develop this further, to mark out important characters by giving them bits from the initial supply (miraculously unscathed and what not) compared to the grunts who have just normal wood as part of their decorations....

I like the idea of the wood paint scheme and I understand the  idea of totemic qualities and avoiding mystical properties, but unless the wood decoration is only for ceremonial use I don't think you can avoid giving it some sort of special quality or having it treated in some way to protect it or alter it's molecular qualities. Even as a decorative piece wood requires a fairly specific humidity and temperature level to maintain it's structure. Too wet, it bloats, deforms and cracks, too hot and dry, it desiccates and deforms and cracks, too cold and dry, the same, etc. I argue these same points concerning other totems you see on other Space Marines and even xenoes (Raven Guard, Space Wolves, White Scars, World Eaters, Orks....). I always imagine most of these guys putting these prized possessions in their foot lockers before going into battle. That's not very practical with your marines. The wood needs some quality that is plausible in this setting that allows it to survive the rigors of combat. I don't think that is avoidable, and I don't think it has to be a ridiculous some sort of MacGuffin either.

 

If your initial supply of wood had some warp qualities, perhaps it should be limited to that supply and no more, making it that much more precious and sought after. A lot can be done with that idea. Perhaps the wood comes from trees tainted by warp energies emanating from an entombed daemon or relic on a planet that the Bound Intent use as a recruitment world. There are any of a number of explanations that make the use of the wood plausible and it's backstory interesting in this setting.  So, why am I giving so much attention to this detail? Sometimes it's small details that can make a Space Marine look cool or look silly. Wood armor is pretty eye catching. I'd like for someone who sees your Marines, look at the story behind the armor and come back and say, "That's cool"

Edited March 24, 2021 by Brother Lunkhead

[Trokair]

Well the initial supply was captured from a Rogue Trader that was expected to have Adamantium stores, not wood. So I vaguely just had the though in the back of my mind that something happened during the journey, or the world it came from. I did briefly consider just having the wood be psy active/psy shapeable (i.e. an organic wraithbone equivalent). But that felt like cheating and taking uniquely elder just because.

 

There is also the unresolved issue of how a fleet focused warband with no proper long term planet base is growing this wood (ornamentally or otherwise). Current work in progress concept are giant soil filled chambers aboard the ships, with Dark Mechanicum disciples tending to the trees and so on.

 

Would it feel better if the wood, instead of being the other layer, was one layer or so down and a clear hardend cover forms the outer layer of the armour?

 

Will think on this further.

[Zebulon]

Edit: Messed around with the Painter some more, and using the Paint Colour Hexadecimal Codes Guide I just discovered here on the B&C, used the codes for actual GW paints to closer match what I think it would look like rather than me guessing at the colours. Now that said it does not take into account highlighting and other such things. At least the wood tone is now closer to the effect of Dryad/Sylvaneth Bark. Ideally I would want to use Wildwood contrast as the starting point, but I can’t find a hex code for it that I can use in the painter.

I like the update to the colourscheme. I think if I was trying to paint it, I would do similar to my Sylvaneth and basecoat with Dryad Bark before drybrushing a light coat of Baneblade brown over the top... but maybe then adding some Agrax shading as the Baneblade brown is probably a bit too light in colour?

 

Having said that I am a fairly awful painter so I wouldn't pay too much heed to my musings on that front...!

[Trokair]

Ok, have added several updates over the last few days, now just want to flesh out the forces section a bit, and a bit on believes and such and then it should be acceptable for the end of Phase 1.

 

Still got the wood issue to resolve, but I think I should spend some time reading through some of my fellow participants articles as well and offer some feedback where I can (and not just skim one or two).

[Trokair]

Ok I think this is as much as I can get done before the LASC 2021 deadline. Looking back I realize that I probably spent too much time on the history section (and too much time procrastinating by researching all the history, I have read the black book sections on Thousand Sons/ Zhao-Arkhad multiple times, looked at current and older codex’s (including digging out my 3^rd edition codex) and wikis and so on, was fun though).

 

I have slightly changed the wood thing, but as a justification for using wood effect on actual models it is still not what I would want it to be.

[Doctor Perils]

I very much like the idea of wood-clad chaos marines, it sounds like a very unique colour scheme. However, I'd recommend only making (random) sections in wood: in practice, painting so much wood grain, on models as intricate as rubricae and the like, would be hell I think, and may look a bit weird overall. While mixing wood and azure or wood and crimson may also look a bit weird, have you considered the cream and orange scheme of the terrain thousand sons?

The idea of lucky wood could also be tied into the expression "knock on wood", where marines knock armour sections at the beginning of a battle?

I would give the psy-wood a special name, if only to reduce repetition of the word "hardwood" in the text box

 

On the other hand, the heraldry section should be moved till after the history section. In fact, the history section should really focus on the warband itself, and not just its two main characters: their personal histories should be instead placed in a "notable Bound Intent" or "Dramatis Personae" section. Have the history section start straight at Alliance of Outcasts, the previous stuff doesn't really inform the character of the whole warband - I'd also heartily recommend pushing the history to later than the Horus Heresy, you have two events taking place after M32, what's happening in the intervening years?. I do like the inclusion of an overview or introduction, it's great for the reader arriving for the first time.

 

To be honest, I'm not sure if the kinship of Darius and Artaxerxes adds much to the story? After all, their alliance is formed from a mutual respect formed in battle, not from their blood. Worse, this shoehorns in a terran background for Artaxerxes, which doesn't play well with becoming a Magos - am I missing something?

 

On the Golem and Homunculus project front, this is a good idea, but the two names makes it a bit confusing (and a bit of a mouthful). In addition, making any (successful) improvements on Rubricae detracts from their tragic nature. I'd recommend simply merging the ideas into a single Golem project, with Golem automata and no mention of the Homunculus. If you still want to make semi-mechanical Rubricae (the mental picture is certainly awesome), perhaps simply make it to do with enabling Darius's control over them, since he has such a unique power set.

 

On the whole, a striking and very unique warband. While the ordering of ideas could do with some work, the overall presentation is well done, thanks to headers, text boxes and a good colour scheme picture - I look forward to reading more :Tu:

[Trokair]

Thank you for your time and food for thoughts.

 

I did consider using a colour scheme more reminiscent of the pre Magnus Thousand Sons, but I felt it was too similar to one of my other armies.  Also, while wood effect would be time consuiming to paint the traditional way, the experience I have had with the contrast wood colour suggest that it should be fairly simple. I envisage something along the line of wraithbone undercoat, thin layer of contrast (a second layer in some areas to darken it) drybruch/stile one or two lighter browns for the wood grain effect and then do the normal time consuming chaos trim. If I ever come to actualize this army I’ll see and can always change things up then if the scheme does not work out.

 

The wood does need a special name, just no idea what yet.

 

The reason why the heraldry section is near the beginning as I wanted it near the sample colour scheme picture, in part to explain the wood idea as it does not translate will in the paint in my opinion.

 

As for the history section, I know it needs attention and is overly full, I just see the two as being so integral that I needed to explore their origin, especially Darius. There is a big time gap from the Heresey to the ‘modern’ form of the warband that needs sorting, but as Darius is specifically Thousand Sons he needs to have his origin in the Hersey at the latest.  

 

As for the blood kinship, I see it as the one tie that keeps the two working together even when the relationship is strained at time. So while the initial alliance was formed for surviavle based on respect and son on it endured because of this bond. Blood is thinker than water and all that. Some of the in-between time will probably see at least one time frame when the warband nearly fell apart. Also considering that both feel betrayed by Horus and his allies and by the imperium as well this kinship is the last remnant of social stability for each of them that is outside of the fear/might/power/leadership and similar aspects that would normally apply. Their relationship and the fate of the warband, is strained at times, so maybe I need to make that clearer.

 

Another benefit, from my point of view, of Artaxerxes being Terran is that he is not on the best terms with the Mechanicum in general, having always been the outsider, it helps push him towards Darius, and also helps push him towards Chaos if his mentor was an ally of Kelbor-Hal (after he gets over the shock of betrayal, but I nthe long term it gives him more reasons to side work along Dark Mehcanicum.

 

I see the golem and homunculi as being convergent ideas/tech that comes from separate but related approaches. The golems are more akin to and a development on from the (psy) battle-automatons while the homunculi is an attempt to replicate Rubrics from a tech side they won’t be better than rubrics (just different), but they may be just be an ok substitute that can be produced in greater number.  Other chaos fractions can recruit new followers, but replacing destroyed Rubrics always seemed like a problem, so this is one way to try and circumvent that.

 

The article is written in a M39/M40 kind of timeframe (in part to be an opposition to my fleet based Marine chapter), by the present M41/M42 and Primaris time I do expect the two strands of technology to be basically one, scaled up or down as needed.

 

The focus on homunculi is also in part as I am using the idea to develop and play a Black Crusade RPG character for a play by post game over in the RPG section that is due to start soon.  

 

I will work on this more, so thank you for your thoughts, you raised some good points, but it might not be for a little while. For one iwill have a better sense of the warband once I played a member for a couple of months in the RPG game.

[Zebulon]

...well, it looks like I have landed this warband for Phase 2! :o

 

I wish myself luck. Do you have any further WIP of this homunculus/golem badge? I was thinking something that almost looks like naive/outsider art.

 

Perhaps a slightly more menacing version of this head:

 

 

???

Edited April 2, 2021 by Zebulon

[Trokair]

Good luck, am interested to see what you do. What base model do you think you have to work with?

 

As for symbol/icon, not really, as I am terrible at freehand painting, or even drawing sketching.

 

I do envision that the actual helmet for different production runs/experiment of Homunculi would differ depending on what is available at a time. And as the logo is inspired by this it be variable, so pick any vaguely space marine helmet, or even things like Skitarrii helmet or real world stuff like classical Greek or middle ages, or whatever you think you can do/want to do as the starting point/inspiration.

 

I would also be perfectly happy if there is no icon/symbol on the actual homunculus marine or maybe just some gear or runes or stuff or nothing.

[Zebulon]

Thanks; I have a box of the non-monopose CSM which I was keeping for just this purpose so will have a think on how best to use that.

 

I was thinking a sort of bug-eyed robot golem face which *looks* like it was roughly hand-painted by a marine; doing a form of helm based on standard armour marks works too though. I might do some concepts and then discuss them with you before putting the chosen variant on a model.

 

Anyway, look forward to playing with these concepts :tu:

[Zebulon]

Well, I have a name for my forthcoming Bound Intent CSM:

 

 

B)

[Zebulon]

Some WIP for Aspiring Champion Vidarna:

 

 

I am much happier with his right greave than his left; needs more contrast between the browns. Either way, producing an effect more like wood grain instead of tiger stripes is a bit beyond my skill level.

 

 

What do you think, Trokair?

[Zebulon]

More progress! All done really bar the icon/symbol...

 

 

 

 

 

Feedback welcome as always. It’s the only way I’ll learn... ;)

[Trokair]

Sorry, I have been away.

 

Vidarna is looking good. The blue as a spot colour on the cloth, eyes and blade is nice. Also great head choice, I really like that helmet.

 

Re the tiger stripes, from a distance I don’t think they will stand out as much. Wood effect is not easy, so kudos for trying.

[Zebulon]

Sorry, I have been away.

 

Vidarna is looking good. The blue as a spot colour on the cloth, eyes and blade is nice. Also great head choice, I really like that helmet.

 

Re the tiger stripes, from a distance I don’t think they will stand out as much. Wood effect is not easy, so kudos for trying.

Cheers for your reply :)

 

Thanks, yeah I felt that helm was appropriate to the origins of the Warband (or Darius anyway). I figured that some of the more senior figures in the warband would also be former Thousand Sons.

 

I appreciate that; I did try to add the grain with a sewing needle but in practice it’s hard to do really thin lines at this scale. I am sure there are some painters who could really do justice to your idea though, which is a cool one.

 

Somewhere on here a Frater did an awesome AdMech project with grained wood effects and brass, they made an Onager Dunecrawler look like a Rococo Side Table! :D

[Trokair]

 

Somewhere on here a Frater did an awesome AdMech project with grained wood effects and brass, they made an Onager Dunecrawler look like a Rococo Side Table!

 

That sounds awesome, will have to see if I can find it.

[Zebulon]

 

 

Somewhere on here a Frater did an awesome AdMech project with grained wood effects and brass, they made an Onager Dunecrawler look like a Rococo Side Table!

That sounds awesome, will have to see if I can find it.

After a good couple of hours searching, I found it! The dude is called Helterskelter; here’s a finished pic from Imgur:

 

 

And, here’s the place in his WIP thread where he shows it first, plus subsequent posts of people asking him for painting tips!!

 

http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/zz184/Lamenterkyle/Mobile%20Uploads/2016-09-08%2016.18.42_zpsncuxpahe.jpg

 

Triple post because three is the magic number :p

Can’t believe the post was 5 years ago! Or that I remembered it. To be fair, I just remember being so impressed by it...

[Trokair]

Jaw drop, that is Awesome!!!  

 

Very much what I had in mind but so so much better. Time to read that thread and see what other goodies lurk therein.  

 

Thank you for showing me this. 

 

Edit: I just found the armiger!!!!  

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/283982-hs-wip-blog-deathshroud/?p=5059882

Edited April 26, 2021 by Trokair