Index Astartes - Space Owls(Downloads)

[MECHFACE]

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.php?app=downloads&module=display&section=screenshot&id=684

 

File Name: Index Astartes - Space Owls

File Submitter: MECHFACE

File Submitted: 23 Aug 2021

File Category: Background (Lore)

 

 

The Space Owls Chapter, or the

[MECHFACE]

INDEX
ASTARTES

SPACE OWLS

'SOVA NOCTIS'

DOWNLOAD LINK

The Space Owls Chapter, or the ‘Sova Noctis’ as the warriors of the chapter often refer to themselves, are a non-codex compliant chapter of space marines. Inheriting the Gene-Seed of the Raven Guard’s Primarch, Corvus Corax, the Space Owls are supernaturally stealthy warriors who excel in stalking their prey, then unleashing sudden ambushes and devastating close quarter assaults.

The Space Owls Chapter was created by the excellent creator of Grimdorables who first came up with the idea and look of the chapter. His excellent idea and artwork inspired me to ask about expanding this Chapter into a small Index Astartes article and here it is. I highly recommend going to his Instagram and Patreon to support him if you can.

"<HOO HOO>"

"Did anyone else hear that s…”

- Last words of Chaos Lord Vargral Zynax of the Black Legion,

before decapitation during the War for Uradax Prime.

INDEX ASTARTES PROFILE

SPACE OWLS: BACKGROUND AND FOUNDING

The Space Owls Chapter, or the ‘Sova Noctis’ as the warriors of that chapter often refer to themselves, are a non-codex compliant Chapter of space marines. Inheriting the Gene-Seed of the Raven Guard’s Primarch, Corvus Corax, the Space Owls are naturally stealthy warriors who excel in stalking their prey and unleashing sudden ambushes and devastating close quarter assaults. Formed in the wake of the ruinous events of the Reign of Blood and Age of Apostasy, they are suspected to be one of the few shadowed Astartes Foundings of this Era, utilizing founding members from the Raptors Veteran Company to raise the new Space Owls Chapter.

Like many Chapters formed in this period, the Space Owls diverge from the structured tenets of the Codex Astartes, relying upon the older ‘Axioms’ of the Raven Guards Primarch, and the pragmatic insurgency learned by their Raptors progenitors. Coordinating the Semi-independent Battle Companies or ‘Flights’ of the Sova Noctis is a council called the ‘Conventa’ of the company Captains and Specialists across the chapter’s Chaplains, Techmarines, Librarians and Apothecaries. Each ‘Flight’ contains its own independent Commander and Veteran Cadres, Battle-line Squads, and Recon Forces but must petition the Conventa for the services of the centralized Reclusium, Forge, Librarius, and Apothecaria to support their continued operations. At times when the Chapter must act as a singular force, the Conventa elects a singular Space Owls hero to lead them as their ‘War Leader’, their equivalent of a Chapter Master.

The chapter maintains an ancient Dark Age orbital space facility above the Feral World of Umbra Minor, dubbed the ‘Hollow’, as its Fortress Monastery and base of operations. Originally created as a Prison-Mining Colony by a pre-Strife Era Human Demi-Empire, who built and used that facility's prison-labour force to extract Umbra Minor’s mineral resources. However, after the cataclysmic events of the Age of Strife the facility and its inmates were isolated as that Human Society, and so many other such empires, collapsed into anarchy. Rediscovered many centuries later during the Great Crusade, it would be the Raven Guard Legion under the command of Corvus Corax who would learn of the fate of those trapped in the Stolas System. Upon breaking the outer containment seals of the Orbital Station, the sons of Corax discovered a nightmare charnel house inhabited by the degenerate cannibalistic descendants of the facility’s original inmates and overseers, who had failed to escape to Umbra’s surface before the automated emergency lock-down measures initiated. Faced with this scene of horror Corax was greatly tormented, as this situation ever became a dark mirror to his own prison-upbringing upon Deliverance. Initial thoughts and strategies to rehabilitate or cure the deranged peoples of the Orbital Station are dashed by the hyper-violent bestial insanity and increasingly obvious mutation spread throughout their population. Faced with this impossible dilemma, Corax decides that it is necessary to end these people’s nightmare and grant them the mercy of death or reform as servitors to continue to serve the Emperor and the Great Crusade.

SPACE OWLS: RECRUITMENT AND TRAINING

When the warriors of the ‘Sova Noctis’ were established during the aftermath of the Reign of Blood, their initial founders sought out that same ancient now vacant Prison-Facility in a little remembered part of the galaxy on the edge of the troubled Imperium. Recalling the Axioms of their Gene-Sire, and his upbringing amongst the indentured prison-labour force of Deliverance before their liberation from their enslavers, they would take a tithe of prospective recruits from across the Imperium’s jails, prisons and penal colonies to undergo the Astartes Trails and become the first true marines of the Space Owls. Transported to the newly re-named ‘Hollow’ Orbital Fortress Monastery of the Chapter, these young criminals included thieves, robbers, and murderers whose experiences numbered the use of subterfuge, misdirection, and stealth in their crimes. These attributes would be tested to the extreme in the often-unwilling recruits, from enforced incarceration with limited resources locked within the facility with other desperate inmates, as well as extended periods of survival on the surface of the dark world Umbra and its hazardous fauna and feral tribesmen. Only after showing the recruitment masters of the Space Owls that they possessed all the necessary skills and innate abilities that the ‘Sova Noctis’ utilise in the service of the emperor could they be remade in the form of his transhuman space marines.

Below the ‘Hollow’ Orbital Fortress Monastery turns the shadowed moon of Umbra Minor, a feral desolate place scarred by a long history of abuse by Humanity’s actions. Due to the unique orbitally locked position of the moon and its distance from the parent gas giant of Umbra Major, the surface of Umbra Minor experiences a constant solar eclipse, never feeling the full warming light of Stolas. Due to this celestial oddity when Umbra Minor undergoes its daytime rotation it experiences a divided day of a gloomy twilight of the morning and evenings penumbra, with an extended regular mid-day eclipse as Umbra Major fully obscures the system's star. As expected, the early terraformed life on Umbra Minor, done using the mysterious marvels from Humanity’s technological Dark Age, adapted to these extremes in remarkable ways. Of the flora introduced to the world, the highlands and upland plains were colonized by vast swathes of dark brown silicone-ladened brush, bracken and ferns, whilst the colder poles saw the expansive growth of deep diamond-hard pine forests. Of the fauna introduced, a variety of verminous species such as super-sized pale-termites, herbivorous herds of rodents and rat-like predators. At the apex of the system were giant species of predatory owl-like avians, including cooperative hunting flocks of Stryx-Raptors and flightless hulking Megastryx-Bears.

The early pre-Strife Age humans who came to Umbra Minor were the prison-laborers from the orbiting prison-colony of what would later be renamed the ‘Hollow’ by the warriors of the Space Owls Chapter. Generations of mining would scar the dark moon’s surface with deep valleys, mega-gorges, and titanic boreholes deep into the interior of the newly terraformed world. When the cataclysm of Old Night came to the Stolas system, and the breakdown of its governing system, supply, and technologies, those human lucky enough to escape being trapped upon the ‘Hollow’ would devolve into warring tribes of feral peoples. Infesting the relative safety of the tight shadowed canyons and subterranean mine works, the wonders of past sciences were lost to but a few of the deep-dwelling techno-barbarian tribes, the majoring surviving in wandering caravans of hunter-gatherers with their ‘rodent’ cattle-beasts of burden. These tribes would survive by virtue of their ability to move silently and quietly through the world’s dark places, or else be hunted by Umbra Minor’s now dominant and monstrous Stryx predators, as well as other violent tribes and deep-dwelling blind techno-barbarians.

The Astartes of the Space Owls Chapter use this feral hard world as their training ground, putting into practice the innate abilities and lessons of their Raven Guard and Raptors forebears, testing their abilities of stealth and subterfuge against Umbra Minor’s keenly adapted dangerous predators and hostile tribal peoples. In particular, the early recruits and founding members of the ‘Sova Noctis’ would take the emblem of the owl as their Chapter insignia, in honour of the moon's intelligent and completely silent Stryx-Raptors. To the feral tribes of Umbra Minor the warriors of the Space Owls are feared and venerated by them as they do for the other silent avian predators of their worlds gloomy waterfall filled valleys, canyons, and impenetrably dark caverns. They refer to the Astartes as the ‘Krsnik’, those even greater hunters of the many Stryx predators, appearing as both men and monsters in equal measure, whether they are the more detectable human-faced neophyte recruits undergoing their survival training or the rarely seen beaked iron-giants of the Chapters truly post-human warriors.

SPACE OWLS: APPEARANCE AND WAR DOCTRINE

As the Space Owls are a successor chapter of the Raven Guard they naturally specialize in silent and stealthy covert operations against enemy forces, including reconnaissance sabotage, and assassination missions of that force’s commanding hierarchy of enemy generals. Though they are adept in all of the tactics employed by the Emperor of Mankind’s Angels of Death, they excel in precisely timed surprise close quarters assaults, often swooping down with jump packs and modified grav-chutes from the shadows and darkest recesses of the night. Many an unsuspecting enemy has become prey to the covert warriors of the ‘Sova Noctis’, as their heads are silently crushed or severed by the custom made Stryx-Talons attached to the feet of the Space Owls elite veterans, appearing to many as unsettlingly reminiscent to those employed by the traitorous astartes assault specialists known as ‘Chaos Raptors’ and ‘Warp Talons’ – though these should not be confused with the noble loyalist Raptors Chapter from whom the Space Owls Gene-Seed is suspected to be created from.

Originally the founding members of the Space Owls Chapter were supplied with older forms of power armour and wargear, due to the widespread lack of supplies of newer Mark VIII patterned armour, caused by the anarchy and strife rampant throughout the Age of Apostasy. More recently the chapter has favoured the use of newly patterned Phobos armour, along with camo cloaks and special ‘Nocti’ patterned jump packs. These feature two baffled exhaust ports on each jump jet, which muffles the sound of the jump packs thrusters. In addition, their combat blades and chainswords are smaller in size due to the similar sound cancelling exhausts inserted into them but also for maximum efficiency for use in densely confined urban, boreal and subterranean environments. However, though newer armour patterns are made available to the Space Owls, they show preference to the ‘Corvus’ pattern helmets of Mark VI plate, going as far as to modify newer helmet patterns with additional ‘blunted’ beaks containing an array of highly sensitive and numerous auxiliary auto-senses and ‘prey-sight’ optical filters.

In a similar manner to the camouflaged colours of the Raptors Chapter, who favoured this use over the midnight black of their Raven Guard parent Legion, the Space Owls equally use the earthy browns, greys, whites, and burnt oranges of their dark homeworld as their heraldic chapter colour. These colours are often favoured by the many owl-like avian predators of Umbra Minor, and equally work well in other such gloomy twilight surrounds of other wild and boreal planets. In particular the varieties of burnt oranges used by the chapter are representative of the many species of ferns and mosses which line the interiors of Umbra Minor’s canyons and valleys, as well as the sacred colours used by its feral tribes, in a likely unconscious race-memory of the orange prison fatigues worn by their ancient prison-labouring ancestors.

Battle-line brothers will usually wear the earthy brown for their armour and helmet, with a muted white shoulder guard sporting grey trim and accents, the chapter icon of the ‘Sova Noctis’ owl is shown in black on the left shoulder guard. Usually the face of the marine, that part below the burnt orange eye-lenses, which features the characteristic Corvus ‘beak’ is coloured the same muted white as the shoulder guard. Unlike their Raven Guard forebears, the Space Owls do not display their company colours on their shoulder guard trims, stead choosing small pictographic emblems to display each of the nine semi-independent Chapter ‘Flight’ Companies. These emblems are usually displayed on the left knee-guard plate. Veteran Squad members of the Space Owls will usually render their whole helmet muted white or grey, and also render the right knee-guard in this colour when displaying any earned campaign badges or other honour markings. In addition, such veterans will also equip themselves with numerous cloaks, shrouds and mantles made from micro-weave camouflage-fibres or the feathered or furred pelts of many ‘trophy’ hunts as honorifics, alongside the present Oath Papers. Chapter Commanders will often accent further areas and markings in burnt orange, such as the orange head stripes and other secretive ‘Stryx’ scratch-marks.

The Specialist Chambers of the Space Owls, its Chaplains, Apothecaries, Techmarines and Librarians, will always be designated in the respective black, white, red, and blue colour patterns, though these are often more muted and lower contrast versions of those colours sported by other Astartes Chapters. Finally, when the ‘Conventa’ council meets to elect a War Leader for when many ‘Flight’ Companies are deployed into a singular action, they will ritually recolour that champions armour to a completely muted white and grey heraldry, symbolizing the recognized strength, cunning and skill of the elected War Leader – comparing their abilities to those of the similarly coloured Stryx-Raptor flock-alpha.

CODEX ASTARTES SUPPLEMENTUM: SPACE OWLS CHAPTER

This section presents the rules for fielding an army formed from the SPACE OWLS chapter, a Raven Guard successor chapter. If your army is battle-forged and includes any Space Owls units, the rules in this section can be used in addition to those presented in Codex: Space Marines and Codex Supplement: Raven Guard.

SPACE OWLS: CHAPTER TACTIC

The Chapter Tactic (see Codex: Space Marines) gained by SPACE OWLS units is Silent Hunters Tactic.

SILENT HUNTERS

The space marines of the ‘Sova Noctis’ or Space Owls Chapter excel in the silent stalking of their targets across a range of climates and terrain. When ready to make the kill, they spring upon their enemies with precisely aimed close quarters assaults. Such hunting strikes have caught out many an unwary enemy of the Imperium, sealing their ill-fated demise at the silent talons of the Space Owls.

- Each time a ranged attack is made against a unit with this tactic, if the attacker is more than 18" away, the unit with this tactic is treated as having the benefits of light cover against that attack.

- Each time a model with this tactic makes a melee attack, and that model's unit made a successful Charge move or Heroic Intervention this turn, add +1 to that models attack's hit roll.

SPACE OWLS: DETATCHMENT RULES

Detachments that only include SPACE OWLS units gain the following rules and abilities.

ABILITIES

If your army is Battle-forged, then in addition to the detachment abilities gained from Codex: Space Marines, units in your army with the Combat Doctrines ability gain the Raven Guard Successors ‘Surgical Strikes’ ability so long as, with the exception of unaligned units, every unit from your army is a SPACE OWLS unit (i.e., from the same Raven Guard successor chapter).

‘SURGICAL STRIKES’

The warriors of the Raven Guard and their Successors spring their ambushes with perfect timing and coordination to eliminate the enemy’s command structure. Whilst the Tactical Doctrine is active, when resolving an attack made by a model with this ability against a CHARACTER unit, you can add +1 to any hit rolls and wound rolls.

WARLORD TRAITS

If your Warlord is a SPACE OWLS CHARACTER model you can use the Raven Guard Successor Warlord Trait table to determine what Warlord Trait they have. Replace the RAVEN GUARD keyword in all instances in that Warlord Trait (if any) with the SPACE OWLS keyword. In addition, any SPACE OWLS CHARACTER model may also choose the below ‘Peerless Stalker’ Warlord Trait instead of those in the Codex: Space Marines Warlord Trait Table or those in the Raven Guard Successor Warlord Trait table.

WARLORD TRAIT: PEERLESS STALKER

This hero of the Space Owls Chapter has undertaken countless execution missions to sever the heads of enemy command structures. Mastering the art of surprise ambush using the battlefields terrain to their absolute advantage, this warrior Astartes can lay low the mightiest foes with perfectly timed killing blows after silently stalking their prey.

Each time the model is within 3” of any battlefield terrain feature or cover it cannot be targeted by any Ranged attacks originating from enemy units more than 12” away. In addition, each time this model makes a melee attack against any enemy units whilst both they and the enemy unit are within 3” of any battlefield terrain feature or cover, any unmodified wound rolls of 6 inflicts one Mortal Wound on that target unit in addition to any attacks made by the model.

CHAPTER RELICS

Raven guard successor chapters have access to the Raven Guard Special-Issue Wargear Relics list. However, Relics of the Ravenspire cannot be given to a Character model from a successor chapter unless you use the Token of Brotherhood stratagem. In addition, any SPACE OWLS CHARACTER model may also choose the below ‘Umbral Wings’ Chapter Relic instead of those in the Codex: Space Marines or Raven Guard Chapter Relics or Special-Issue Wargear lists.

CHAPTER RELIC: UMBRAL WINGS

The Space Owls Chapter is rumoured to modify their wargear in order to reduce excess noise and light outputs to further enhance their innate stealth abilities. This master-crafted jump pack, wrought by the skilled Techmarines of the Chapter’s ‘Silent-Forge’ onboard the ‘Hollow’ orbital monastery, uses arcane sciences that increase the efficiency of the Jump Packs output yet still reduces all noise output completely.

Model equipped with JUMP PACK only. A model from your army with this Relic can be chosen to Charge with even if they Advanced or Fell Back this turn. In addition, enemy units may no longer fire any Overwatch against this model.

PSYCHIC POWERS

LIBRARIAN models from the SPACE OWLS Chapter can know psychic powers from the Librarius or Umbramancy discipline in the same manner as LIBRARIAN models in Raven Guard or Raven Guard Successor Detachments, as well as the Obfuscation discipline for any SPACE OWLS model with the PHOBOS LIBRARIAN keyword. When such a model uses one of these psychic powers, replace the <CHAPTER> or RAVEN GUARD keyword in all instances on that power (if any) with the model’s SPACE OWLS keyword.

STRATAGEMS

Units from the SPACE OWLS Chapter are considered to have the RAVEN GUARD keyword for the purposes of using Raven Guard stratagems. Each time a SPACE OWLS unit uses one of the Stratagems from Codex: Space Marines or one of the Raven Guard Stratagems, replace the <CHAPTER> or RAVEN GUARD keyword in all instances in that Stratagem (if any) with the units SPACE OWLS keyword. In addition, any SPACE OWLS units may also choose to use one of the following SPACE OWLS Stratagems including ‘Stryxis-Talons’, ‘Silent Flight’, and the ‘Hunters Sights’ Stratagems instead of those listed in the Codex: Space Marines or Raven Guard Chapter list of Stratagems.

STRATAGEM: STRYXIS-TALONS #2 CP

Known as ‘Stryx-Talons’ after the razor-sharp talons of Umbra Minor’s predatory and highly intelligent Stryx-Raptors, these modified power claws are attached to the armoured boots of jump pack equipped assault infantry of the Space Owls. Slicing downward when these space marine assault specialists make contact with their intended prey, they can quickly rend open armour plate or sever enemy heads from torsos when propelled by the force their jump pack thrusters.

Space Owls Chapter – Strategic Ploy Stratagem

Use this Stratagem in your Charge phase, when a SPACE OWLS CHARACTER, VANGUARD VETERAN SQUAD, or ASSAULT SQUAD with the JUMP PACK keyword from your army finishes a charge move. Select one enemy unit within Engagement Range of that JUMP PACK unit and roll one D6 for each model in that JUMP PACK unit that is within Engagement Range of that enemy unit. For each dice result of a 2-5 that enemy unit suffers 1 Mortal Wound, whilst and unmodified roll of 6 that enemy unit suffers D3 Mortal Wounds.

STRATAGEM: SILENT FLIGHT #1 CP

The warriors of the ‘Sova Noctis’ train peerlessly in the use of jump packs and grav-chutes in the darkened gloom filled Canyons of Umbra Minor. In addition, to reduce the noise output of this wargear, they have modified these standard devices into ‘Nocti’ pattern jump packs with baffled exhaust ports on each end that muffles the sound of the pack’s thrusters. As such Space Owls Astartes equipped with such wargear can disappear quickly into the gloom or night to reappear where the prey least expects them.

Space Owls Chapter – Strategic Ploy Stratagem

Use this Stratagem in your Movement phase. Select one SPACE OWLS JUMP PACK unit from your army, or is equipped with Grave-Chutes, and remove it from the battlefield. In the Reinforcements step of your next Movement phase, set up that unit anywhere on the battlefield that is more than 9" away from any enemy models. If the battle ends and the unit has not yet returned to the battlefield, it is considered destroyed.

STRATAGEM: HUNTERS SIGHTS #2 CP

The specially modified helms of the Space Owls chapter, modelled on those of the original Mark VI ‘Corvus’ armour plate, contain a variety of modified sensory systems and augur relays. As such, when supplied with additional location data on a selected prey’s location by other stalking Space Owls, no enemy can seek shelter from the cold wroth of the ‘Sova Noctis’.

Space Owls Chapter – Battle Tactic Stratagem

Use this Stratagem in your Shooting phase before making any Ranged attacks. Nominate one enemy unit within line-of-sight of any SPACE OWLS INFANTRY unit. For the remainder of that Shooting Phase, any Ranged attacks made against that enemy unit by any SPACE OWLS units can ignore any or all Ballistic Skill modifiers that would usually affect their hit rolls, and they can ignore all effects from Obscuring Terrain and Cover. This Stratagem may only be used once per battle.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Space Owls Chapter was created by the excellent creator of Grimdorables who first came up with the idea and look of the chapter. His excellent idea and artwork inspired me to ask about expanding this Chapter into a small Index Astartes article and here it is. I highly recommend going to his Instagram and Patreon to support him if you can.

instagram.com/grimdorables/
patreon.com/grimdorables
Ko Fi: grimdorables

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The white Space Owls Chapter symbol is near-invisible against its light gray background. I advise darkening the background, the contrast making the owl easier to see.

The Space Owls Chapter was created by the excellent creator of Grimdorables who first came up with the idea and look of the chapter. His excellent idea and artwork inspired me to ask about expanding this Chapter into a small Index Astartes article and here it is. I highly recommend going to his Instagram and Patreon to support him if you can.

 

 

 

 

 

"<HOO HOO>"

 

"Did anyone else hear that s…”

 

 

 

- Last words of Chaos Lord Vargral Zynax of the Black Legion,

These light gray words are near-invisible against the white background that is this website's default display settings for smartphones and other mobile devices. If you wish to distinguish them from the rest of the text, may I suggest using italicized letters, or putting them in quote boxes

like so? It's a technique I use myself.

Edited August 24, 2021 by Bjorn Firewalker

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Overall, I appreciate the imagination you demonstrated when writing the IA, e.g., the history of the Hollow, the Assault Marines' use of talon-like foot-mounted power blades. It still needs some refinement; for one example, it's never a good idea to use white letters in an IA, as they're invisible against the white background that is this website's default display settings for smartphones.

[MECHFACE]

Many thanks! I have my phone set to dark mode all the time so I never knew this. Will make some changes. Is the pdf ok though? 

Overall, I appreciate the imagination you demonstrated when writing the IA, e.g., the history of the Hollow, the Assault Marines' use of talon-like foot-mounted power blades. It still needs some refinement; for one example, it's never a good idea to use white letters in an IA, as they're invisible against the white background that is this website's default display settings for smartphones.

[MECHFACE]

Does this look better now?

 

Overall, I appreciate the imagination you demonstrated when writing the IA, e.g., the history of the Hollow, the Assault Marines' use of talon-like foot-mounted power blades. It still needs some refinement; for one example, it's never a good idea to use white letters in an IA, as they're invisible against the white background that is this website's default display settings for smartphones.

[Minigiant]

 

Does this look better now?

Yes