IA: Prædicators

[Minigiant]

It is safe to say you have done an awesome job on these. Thank you so much

[Minigiant]

Today is a good day! I showed my IA to someone and I got my first "fan theory", that the dreams they are having are that of Tzeentch's, and as Tzeentch is aware of all mortals dreams they are stuck in an endless paradox. It is fun.

Let's be honest Primaris cause a lot of problems with older chapters. I am still not happy with this bit.

Would the marines have a distrust for the reinforcements knowing they have yet to succumb to madness?
Would the Firstborn be eager to cross the Rubicon so that they may move on from their torment and suffering?

 

 

 

Primaris Marines

 

Nearly every Space Marine created since the First Founding possesses nineteen specialised organs derived from their Chapter’s unique gene-seed. The Primaris Marines, however – originally engineered by the Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl on the orders of Roboute Guilliman – are implanted with a further three. It was the Sangprimus Portum, a device containing potent genetic material harvested from the Primarchs, that allowed for this breakthrough. Entrusted to Cawl by Guilliman shortly after the Second Founding, this device resulted in a new breed of Adeptus Astartes that were deployed en masse in the Ultima Founding. Due to Cawl’s interpretation of his orders and the millennia-spanning labour of his task – during which Guilliman was injured and suspended in stasis – the secrets of these new Primaris organs were not released until late in the 41st Millennium. Despite being ostracized and cast out as pariahs, ultimately, as with most Chapters, the Prædicators received envoys of the Primarch.

 

Initially the Primaris were universally met with mistrust, although in each case the reasons were different. The first wave brought mistrust and suspicion down upon themselves, with their oft-repeated claims that the Praedicator’s own Primarch Roboute Guilliman had returned, an event that seemingly was not envisaged by the Chapter’s Prognosticators. The second wave was shunned because of the Chapter Cult itself – could these fresh symbols of resurgent hope ever truly understand that the ending is nigh? With time, those Primaris who have experienced the same nightmares in their sleep-addled brains as any Firstborn battle-brother have grown to be accepted and even well-received, though lingering doubts remain as to whether any of them could fall into madness - and what does it say of them that they cannot fully embrace what it is to know of the Void?

 

At present, the Chapter’s Cult has been reluctant to fully embrace the Primaris as equals. The Chaplains, Prognosticators and Apothecaries of the Primaris are if anything made even less welcome than their ordinary brothers, as they are seen as lacking the ability to empathise with the Firstborn when it comes to the mental torture they risk with every sleep cycle. Time will tell as to whether the Primaris become full and true Denizens of the Deep, or whether they will be left to quietly wither away and be forgotten. That said, there are those that fear the Primaris for another reason entirely; namely, that they represent the fulfilment of a long-held belief that the End of Days is nigh. Certainly, enough has happened to make some within the Chapter believe the end is coming far sooner than they had previously gleamed, and with Primarichs returning and Custodes abroad once more, perhaps in time the Primaris will be seen not as unwelcome outsiders, but the fulfilment of a prophecy scryed ten millennia ago?

 

 

 

[TechCaptain]

Very nice on getting your first fan theory. Haven't read through everything yet, but I do have a question how do you imagine the area of influence they control or heavily involve themselves in?

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Would the Firstborn be eager to cross the Rubicon so that they may move on from their torment and suffering?

As Primaris Marines are an improvement upon regular Marines, I think crossing the Rubicon should be seen as taking up a new weapon- maybe a cursed weapon, like a Skitarii Vanguard's radium carbine, accepting the fact their own weapons are slowly killing them, so they may quickly kill their enemies. Say those who cross the Rubicon, simply see the process as replacing one kind of torment and suffering, with another kind- instead of facing the galaxy's innumerable nameless terrors, they face the singular terror of the Emperor's scrutiny and His Immortal Majesty's judgement.

That said, there are those that fear the Primaris for another reason entirely; namely, that they represent the fulfilment of a long-held belief that the End of Days is nigh. Certainly, enough has happened to make some within the Chapter believe the end is coming far sooner than they had previously gleamed, and with Primarichs returning and Custodes abroad once more, perhaps in time the Primaris will be seen not as unwelcome outsiders, but the fulfilment of a prophecy scryed ten millennia ago?

This is well-written, and a good way for the Prædicators to transform a symbol of hope into one of despair.

[TechCaptain]

I like the fact that the Primaris are not super accepted personally. 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Thought I should detail how a Prædicators Primaris Marine feels (paraphrased from Jonathan Edwards' 1741 sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"):

"The Emperor that holds us over the depths of the Warp, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors us, and is dreadfully provoked. His wrath towards us burns like fire; He looks upon us as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire. He is of purer eyes than to bear us in His sight; we are ten thousand times as abominable in His eyes as the most hateful, venomous serpent is in ours.

 

"We have offended Him infinitely more than even the Archtraitor Horus did, and yet it is nothing but the Emperor's hand that holds us from falling into the fire every moment. It is to be ascribed to nothing else that we did not go to the Warp the last night; that we were suffered to awake again in this world, after we closed our eyes to sleep. And there is no other reason to be given why we were not flung into the Warp since we arose in the morning, but that the Emperor's hand has held us back. There is no other reason to be given why we have not gone to the Warp since you have sat here in the house of the Emperor provoking His pure eye by our sinful, wicked manner of attending His solemn worship. Yes, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why we do not this very moment fly into the Warp.

 

Oh, sinners, consider the fearful danger we are in! It is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath that we are held over in the hand of the Emperor, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against us as against many of the damned in the Warp. We hang by a slender thread, with the flames of the Emperor's wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it and burn it asunder...

 

It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty Emperor one moment; but we must suffer it to all eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite, horrible misery. When we look forward, we shall see along forever a boundless duration before us, which will swallow up our thoughts, and amaze our souls. And we will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all. We will know certainly that we must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages in wrestling with this Almighty, merciless vengeance. And then when we have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by us in this manner, we will know that all is but a point to what remains. So that our punishment will indeed be infinite.

 

Oh, who can express what the state of a soul in such circumstances is? All that we can possibly say about it gives but a very feeble, faint representation of it. It is inexpressible and inconceivable, for who knows the power of the Emperor's anger?

 

How dreadful is the state of those that are daily and hourly in danger of this great wrath and infinite misery? But this is the dismal case of every soul in this congregation that has not been born again, however moral and strict, sober and religious, they may otherwise be. Oh, that we would consider it, whether we be young or old!

Edited September 6, 2021 by Bjorn Firewalker

[Minigiant]

Very nice on getting your first fan theory. Haven't read through everything yet, but I do have a question how do you imagine the area of influence they control or heavily involve themselves in?

Empty. The Vacuum of nothingness, leaving the Praedicators alone with their thoughts and fears.

 

The imperial vessels that they do come across are backwater but a lot of it is covered in the recruitment section and the more recent House Vibro Navigator section

[Gamiel]

Some comments, have not read what others have written so I may be saying something alread said.

 

 first to the Adeptus Mechanicus and their Genator-Magos, Abdul Hazred

Is there a reason for why the Genator-Magos needs to be named becouse rigth now it only feels like you just want to namedrop "Abdul Hazred" since he don't seems to ad anything to the story.

 

 

 Recruitment is slow and arduous, with no centralised pool of potential candidates to draw from and no way of knowing when the next suitable aspirant will be found within the innumerable shoals of voidfaring vessels. Chaplains must work within the labyrinthine political webs woven amongst the thousands of ships’ crew, often becoming embroiled in complex networks of feuds, alliances, and unpleasant little wars - all while taking care not to disrupt the carefully balanced system. Removing the wrong crewmember as a potential aspirant can potentially hamper the Void Born population's ability to maintain itself and properly crew a ship, depriving the Chapter of a valuable source of future recruits.

I can see them taking in the children of the pirates they take out.

 

Also, I think that in running text is "void born" written with non-capitalised letters.

 

 a perceptible yet undefinable something that makes even the bravest of the warriors from other Astartes Chapters uneasy around them.

I suggest changing that into something like "undefinable something that makes even many Astartes from other Chapters uneasy around them" since stating that "even the bravest of the warriors from other Astartes Chapters" feel a bit much and would possibly make it impossible for them to have normal people around them if they had such an powerful aura of wrongness.

 

 No ordinary Prædicator will be remembered, for all legacies will be burned, but the stars will live on. To recount tales of mankind’s history and achievements only delays the inevitable entropic devouring of every shred of memory, every artifact, and every settled world. Given that, the most solemn of causes is that of the Apothecarion; for their paradoxical role is to prepare for a future that does not appear to exist. The millennia of screeching divinations and torturous dreams have left the Prædicators with only a cold senseless taste of hopelessness. Their actions cannot be compared to the fate that awaits us all; it will all be dust. Humanity’s time has come, no longer belonging in the only place they have ever known.

Do they keep no recordings? You seems to suggest that here, and that would be a bad idea since then they could not keep knowledge about enemies or worlds outside of living memory.

 

 Upon a Prognosticator’s armour, pendants, and badges of office can be found Chthonic marks and runes engraved into the surface. These are not purely decorative, as they serve to channel and concentrate the Prognosticator’s psychic powers.

Do you know what "chthonic" means? I don't think it fits with how you have presented the chapter as being of the void, or having a lightly aquatic theme. Also I think it's not usually capitalised.

 

exacerbates the distinguishing features of the typical Void Born recruit: drawn features, pallid skin, and a characteristically haughty air.

Based on that pic of a helmetless Prædicator do tehy also seems to have the dark eyes of many voidborn.

 

he must be clad in the distinctive sea green armour. The enclosing suits worn by all Space Marines are made from thick ceramite plates that would be cumbersome but for electrically motivated fibre bundles that replicate the movements of the wearer and supplement his strength. The last gene-seed organ to be implanted in a Space Marine – the black carapace – rests beneath the skin, itself fitted with neural sensors and transfusion ports. These plug-in points mesh with Space Marine armour, linking the wearer’s nervous system to his suit’s mind-impulse controls and turning the suit into a second skin that moves with all the speed and precision of the battle-brother’s own body. Without the carapace, Space Marine armour is almost impossible to use, and it is therefore the most distinctive feature of a battle-brother and the true mark of the Adeptus Astartes. 

This is just standard information regarding SM and don't really ad anything, suggest cutting it.

 

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Since their symbol is a octopus (a kraken?) what about they hunt void krakens, both as a way to make the space rutts safer and as a kind of symbolic gesture, with many of them having kraken fang daggers.

 

Maybe ad some exemplary battles or events that show of how the Prædicators act/fight, worlds they have protected and enemies they have fougth*. The Tome Keepers ED article hade a good timeline ting that showed how they thought and how things were developing around them. 

* here you can cast in things like: the mi-go and their fungai-gholams, the xeno-tained Tcho-Tcho abhumans; migrating Dimensional Shamblers; world eating Dholes; Yaddithian wizards; and other lovecraftian public domain monsters

Edited September 9, 2021 by Gamiel

[Minigiant]

 

Some comments, have not read what others have written so I may be saying something alread said.

 

 first to the Adeptus Mechanicus and their Genator-Magos, Abdul Hazred

Is there a reason for why the Genator-Magos needs to be named becouse rigth now it only feels like you wnat to namedrop "Abdul Hazred" since he don't seems to ad nything to the story.

 

Yes there was/is, I was working on some fan fiction about Abdul.

 

 

 Recruitment is slow and arduous, with no centralised pool of potential candidates to draw from and no way of knowing when the next suitable aspirant will be found within the innumerable shoals of voidfaring vessels. Chaplains must work within the labyrinthine political webs woven amongst the thousands of ships’ crew, often becoming embroiled in complex networks of feuds, alliances, and unpleasant little wars - all while taking care not to disrupt the carefully balanced system. Removing the wrong crewmember as a potential aspirant can potentially hamper the Void Born population's ability to maintain itself and properly crew a ship, depriving the Chapter of a valuable source of future recruits.

I can see them taking in the children of the pirates they take out.

 

Also, I think that in running text is "void born" written with non-capitalised letters.

 

 

Yeah they might occasionally recruit from pirates. It isn't outright said but their whole recruiting pool is a murky grey area

 

 

 

 a perceptible yet undefinable something that makes even the bravest of the warriors from other Astartes Chapters uneasy around them.

I suggest changing that into something like "undefinable something that makes even many Astartes from other Chapters uneasy around them" since stating that "even the bravest of the warriors from other Astartes Chapters" feel a bit much and would possibly make it impossible for them to have normal people around them if they had such an powerful aura of wrongness

 

 

 

 

 

 

 No ordinary Prædicator will be remembered, for all legacies will be burned, but the stars will live on. To recount tales of mankind’s history and achievements only delays the inevitable entropic devouring of every shred of memory, every artifact, and every settled world. Given that, the most solemn of causes is that of the Apothecarion; for their paradoxical role is to prepare for a future that does not appear to exist. The millennia of screeching divinations and torturous dreams have left the Prædicators with only a cold senseless taste of hopelessness. Their actions cannot be compared to the fate that awaits us all; it will all be dust. Humanity’s time has come, no longer belonging in the only place they have ever known.

Do they keep no recordings? You seems to suggest that here, and that would be a bad idea since then they could not keep knowledge about enemies or worlds outside of living memory.

They would, but they do not recount it. Things are recorded only for reference to things that will come

 

 

 Upon a Prognosticator’s armour, pendants, and badges of office can be found Chthonic marks and runes engraved into the surface. These are not purely decorative, as they serve to channel and concentrate the Prognosticator’s psychic powers.

Do you know what "chthonic" means? I don't think it fits with how you have presented the chapter as being of the void, or having a lightly aquatic theme. Also I think it's not usually capitalised.

 

Yeah chthonic is the best alternative I could come up with instead of Elder Marks which is a little to on the nose for this chapter

 

 

 

 

 

 

exacerbates the distinguishing features of the typical Void Born recruit: drawn features, pallid skin, and a characteristically haughty air.

Based on that pic of a helmetless Prædicator do tehy also seems to have the dark eyes of many voidborn.

 

 

I have "finding an alternative to haughty air" on my notes. I do not now why I didn't think of this. Yes they would have the darker eyes.

 

 

 

 

Since their symbol is a octopus (a kraken?) what about they hunt void krakens, both as a way to make the space rutts safer and as a kind of symbolic gesture, with many of them having kraken fang daggers.

 

Maybe ad some exemplary battles or events that show of how the Prædicators act/fight, worlds they have protected and enemies they have fougth*. The Tome Keepers ED article hade a good timeline ting that showed how they thought and how things were developing around them. 

* here you can cast in things like: the mi-go and their fungai-gholams, the xeno-tained Tcho-Tcho abhumans; migrating Dimensional Shamblers; world eating Dholes; Yaddithian wizards; and other lovecraftian public domain monsters

 

I have thought long and hard about doing something like this and have switched back and forth multiple times. The problem I have is they wouldn't care about their accomplishments, so publishing them is not something they would do. Writing it could only work if it was 3rd party like the Dreadnought tale but no one would be around long enough to document an accomplished history. Haven't found a "hack" for that yet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gripschi]

Hmh and what is if the Kraken Hunt is something new they had to engage in. The Great Rift schocked the Materium badly, possible the Krakens got awakend due this?

 

Just my 2 cents.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

I can see them taking in the children of the pirates they take out.

Excellent point. As pirates will likely see their own children as "dead weight" aboard a pirate vessel- which must be light and fast to run down merchant vessels and then run away from Imperial Navy ships- these children will more likely be left at either star ports, or at the pirates' hidden bases. (Children found aboard pirate vessels, will likely be those the pirates intend to sell into slavery.) Have the Prædicators adopt the idea a child inherits a parent's sins, for which the child must make penance if the parent is no longer alive to do so, to justify taking the pirates' children.

Since their symbol is a octopus (a kraken?) what about they hunt void krakens, both as a way to make the space rutts safer and as a kind of symbolic gesture, with many of them having kraken fang daggers.

The void kraken hunt is a good idea, but I'm unsure about the "kraken fang daggers," as real-world squids and octopuses have beaks, not teeth. If Minigiant doesn't specifically describe the void kraken as having toothy jaws- admittedly possible, as any creature capable of surviving in vacuum, and growing large enough to threaten starships, will only have a superficial similarity to those of our world- then a "kraken beak cutlass" is more likely.

Maybe ad some exemplary battles or events that show of how the Prædicators act/fight, worlds they have protected and enemies they have fougth*. The Tome Keepers ED article hade a good timeline ting that showed how they thought and how things were developing around them.

* here you can cast in things like: the mi-go and their fungai-gholams, the xeno-tained Tcho-Tcho abhumans; migrating Dimensional Shamblers; world eating Dholes; Yaddithian wizards; and other lovecraftian public domain monsters

Excellent ideas.

Hmh and what is if the Kraken Hunt is something new they had to engage in. The Great Rift schocked the Materium badly, possible the Krakens got awakend due this?

 

Good idea. Hunt down the Great Cthulhu- a creature of the Warp that, while sharing many traits with Daemons, is as distinct from them as the Enslavers are? Edited September 10, 2021 by Bjorn Firewalker

[Gamiel]

 

Since their symbol is a octopus (a kraken?) what about they hunt void krakens, both as a way to make the space rutts safer and as a kind of symbolic gesture, with many of them having kraken fang daggers.

The void kraken hunt is a good idea, but I'm unsure about the "kraken fang daggers," as real-world squids and octopuses have beaks, not teeth. If Minigiant doesn't specifically describe the void kraken as having toothy jaws- admittedly possible, as any creature capable of surviving in vacuum, and growing large enough to threaten starships, will only have a superficial similarity to those of our world- then a "kraken beak cutlass" is more likely. 

Void krakens have fangs (or at least things the voidsmen call fangs) and making weapon out of them is canon (actually belive it was cutlesses, not daggers now when I think about it)

[Minigiant]

 

Since their symbol is a octopus (a kraken?) what about they hunt void krakens, both as a way to make the space rutts safer and as a kind of symbolic gesture, with many of them having kraken fang daggers.

It is an interesting idea, and I haven't entirely dismissed it (Clearly because I have come back to it since the suggestion) but there is no hang up, how does that/how can it tie into their endless echoing loneliness/despair?

[Minigiant]

Thought I should detail how a Prædicators Primaris Marine feels (paraphrased from Jonathan Edwards' 1741 sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"):

"The Emperor that holds us over the depths of the Warp, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors us, and is dreadfully provoked. His wrath towards us burns like fire; He looks upon us as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire. He is of purer eyes than to bear us in His sight; we are ten thousand times as abominable in His eyes as the most hateful, venomous serpent is in ours.

 

"We have offended Him infinitely more than even the Archtraitor Horus did, and yet it is nothing but the Emperor's hand that holds us from falling into the fire every moment. It is to be ascribed to nothing else that we did not go to the Warp the last night; that we were suffered to awake again in this world, after we closed our eyes to sleep. And there is no other reason to be given why we were not flung into the Warp since we arose in the morning, but that the Emperor's hand has held us back. There is no other reason to be given why we have not gone to the Warp since you have sat here in the house of the Emperor provoking His pure eye by our sinful, wicked manner of attending His solemn worship. Yes, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why we do not this very moment fly into the Warp.

 

Oh, sinners, consider the fearful danger we are in! It is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath that we are held over in the hand of the Emperor, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against us as against many of the damned in the Warp. We hang by a slender thread, with the flames of the Emperor's wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it and burn it asunder...

 

It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty Emperor one moment; but we must suffer it to all eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite, horrible misery. When we look forward, we shall see along forever a boundless duration before us, which will swallow up our thoughts, and amaze our souls. And we will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all. We will know certainly that we must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages in wrestling with this Almighty, merciless vengeance. And then when we have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by us in this manner, we will know that all is but a point to what remains. So that our punishment will indeed be infinite.

 

Oh, who can express what the state of a soul in such circumstances is? All that we can possibly say about it gives but a very feeble, faint representation of it. It is inexpressible and inconceivable, for who knows the power of the Emperor's anger?

 

How dreadful is the state of those that are daily and hourly in danger of this great wrath and infinite misery? But this is the dismal case of every soul in this congregation that has not been born again, however moral and strict, sober and religious, they may otherwise be. Oh, that we would consider it, whether we be young or old!

 

Finally had time to read this properly, it is cool, thanks

[Algrim Whitefang]

Here's a few more additional vehicles:

[Gamiel]

How did the Prædicators react to the Cicatrix Maledictum? Are they in Imperium Nihilus or Imperium Sanctus? 

 

 

Maybe not fitting with what you are doing right now, but I suggest that battle-brothers write poetry  as a way of dealing with what they have seen and their dreams. This as a nod to HPL who was a poet, that poets were among the ones affected with strange dreams in Call of Cthulhu, that poetry is one of the ways some people with PTSD deal with it in RL, and that (I think) at least one of his work have had the narrator proclaiming that you had to be a madman or a poet to describe what he was seeing. You could have that all the paper/data-files/such is cleaned out and reused ones a marine is killed or similar.

 

 

Since their symbol is a octopus (a kraken?) what about they hunt void krakens, both as a way to make the space rutts safer and as a kind of symbolic gesture, with many of them having kraken fang daggers.

It is an interesting idea, and I haven't entirely dismissed it (Clearly because I have come back to it since the suggestion) but there is no hang up, how does that/how can it tie into their endless echoing loneliness/despair?

Well, not all they do needs to be tied into their loneliness/despair concept.

 

 

 

Yeah chthonic is the best alternative I could come up with instead of Elder Marks which is a little to on the nose for this chapter

But since chthonic means (more or less) "from within earth or the underground", is it not really fitting with their deep void and cephalopod theme. Maybe 'elderish' instead? Or just call it 'void marks'?

 

 

 I have thought long and hard about doing something like this and have switched back and forth multiple times. The problem I have is they wouldn't care about their accomplishments, so publishing them is not something they would do. Writing it could only work if it was 3rd party like the Dreadnought tale but no one would be around long enough to document an accomplished history. Haven't found a "hack" for that yet

Most of your text is not written by a Prædicators marine, and most Index Astartes articles are written by somebody that gose in and out of being an third person omniscient narrator and a in-'verse narrator, so you don't need to have it as an in-'verse text. Also, the Tome Keepers timeline mention things that the Chapter, or anybody else really, know about but are things that happen in their area. 

Edited September 11, 2021 by Gamiel

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Instead of avoiding the use of "Elder" due to its similarity to "Eldar", how about using the similarity to increase the mystery? The Eldar/Aeldari were the Old Ones' servants, and fought for their masters in the War in Heaven, against the Necrons. Say the "Elder signs" were runes the Old Ones intended to give the Aeldari, but for some reason, the Aeldari were unable to use these signs, e.g., the signs affect the Aeldari as strongly as they did enemies the signs were meant to be used against? That the Prædicators found Old Ones artifacts with the Elder signs inscribed upon them, and began using these signs against the Imperium's enemies, ignorant of the cost imposed upon the Marines for using these signs, i.e., the nightmares they suffer are a direct consequence of using Elder signs?

[Algrim Whitefang]

Here's another update for you all:

Brother Keghi, Chapter Ancient

[Minigiant]

Maybe not fitting with what you are doing right now, but I suggest that battle-brothers write poetry  as a way of dealing with what they have seen and their dreams. This as a nod to HPL who was a poet, that poets were among the ones affected with strange dreams in Call of Cthulhu, that poetry is one of the ways some people with PTSD deal with it in RL, and that (I think) at least one of his work have had the narrator proclaiming that you had to be a madman or a poet to describe what he was seeing. You could have that all the paper/data-files/such is cleaned out and reused ones a marine is killed or similar.

 

You are right showing some sort of way of how the brothers cope is important. I actually tried to already do that by hinting at it here:

 

 

The great chambers and vaults are often decorated with tapestries depicting the terrifying nightmares they are to expect but most numerous of all are the seemingly endless barren halls

 

 

Since their symbol is a octopus (a kraken?) what about they hunt void krakens, both as a way to make the space rutts safer and as a kind of symbolic gesture, with many of them having kraken fang daggers.

It is an interesting idea, and I haven't entirely dismissed it (Clearly because I have come back to it since the suggestion) but there is no hang up, how does that/how can it tie into their endless echoing loneliness/despair?

Well, not all they do needs to be tied into their loneliness/despair concept.

 

 

This is where I do not agree. I have come to believe that the best IAs have a single overarching core facet to their existence, and everything that distinguishes them from other chapters stems from that. That is not to say that they do not have a fully rounded personality but the IA format is not best suited to explore that

 

 

 

 

Yeah chthonic is the best alternative I could come up with instead of Elder Marks which is a little to on the nose for this chapter

But since chthonic means (more or less) "from within earth or the underground", is it not really fitting with their deep void and cephalopod theme. Maybe 'elderish' instead? Or just call it 'void marks'?

 

Someone else said this but the word has such a deeper meaning than beneath the earth

 

"Chthonic literally means "subterranean", but the word in English describes deities or spirits of the underworld"

 

Edited September 12, 2021 by Minigiant

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Just had an idea for a Chapter-unique special unit: Silencers, Scouts (and later, Primaris Reivers) who receive cross-training from the Librarius or the Armory (Techmarines). Those with psychic powers, use Elder rune-inscribed arms and armor to induce terror, nausea, and erratic behavior in their targets; those whom the Techmarines train, receive mechadendrites, which they use in place of grapnel launchers, so they may wield offensive weapons in both hands. Both types have cameleoline-impregnated armor that reduces their visual and auspex profile to a fraction of their actual size, leading the Silencers to be nicknamed Slendermen". Edited September 16, 2021 by Bjorn Firewalker

[Minigiant]

Just had an idea for a Chapter-unique special unit: Silencers, Scouts (and later, Primaris Reivers) who receive cross-training from the Librarius or the Armory (Techmarines). Those with psychic powers, use Elder rune-inscribed arms and armor to induce terror, nausea, and erratic behavior in their targets; those whom the Techmarines train, receive mechadendrites, which they use in place of grapnel launchers, so they may wield offensive weapons in both hands. Both types have cameleoline-impregnated armor that reduces their visual and auspex profile to a fraction of their actual size, leading the Silencers to be nicknamed Slendermen".

It is interesting you mention Elder Marks. While I had not considered the idea of giving them to scouts I have notes for a short story about madness inducing Prognosticators.

 

Mechadendrites has caught my attention. I have a list of cool weapons that I would probably model onto the miniatures but have yet found a seamless well of integrating them into their lore. I have a pin in all of that though as I am still firmly focusing on updating the section on Primaris. Once that is done then the foundation of the Chapter is done, and short stories and other projects involving them can get going

[Minigiant]

I said I was concentrating on Primaris but unfortunately that means I am procrastinating too.

 

 

The Penitorium on cetus is where Praedicators guilty of any kind of transgression are held as a form of remedial and penitent punishment. It is said that their most cruel and severe punishment is to be incarcerated into a Sarcophagi and left with their own thoughts and dreams for all of eternity.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The Penitorium on cetus is where Praedicators guilty of any kind of transgression are held as a form of remedial and penitent punishment. It is said that their most cruel and severe punishment is to be incarcerated into a Sarcophagi and left with their own thoughts and dreams for all of eternity.

Interesting idea. Will the punished ones be conscious, but restrained? In induced dreams, like humans in the Matrix, forced to face their own lusts, fears, and other unwelcome ideas? Or in stasis, like Lemartes between missions?

[Gamiel]

"Chthonic literally means "subterranean", but the word in English describes deities or spirits of the underworld"

I think that's underworld as in underground, as in not really fitting with your deep void theme

[Minigiant]

 

 

"Chthonic literally means "subterranean", but the word in English describes deities or spirits of the underworld"

I think that's underworld as in underground, as in not really fitting with your deep void theme

Chthonic Gods are ones like Hades but as I said it is the best I could do, if there's a better word I am happy to entertain it.

Edited September 18, 2021 by Minigiant