The Labyrinth - How would you?

[Minigiant]

I am enjoying these little 'How would you' questions, it is a rather refreshing brainstorming session

 

How would you incorporate the Greek Labyrinth into 40k?

 

 

Labyrinth was an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by the hero Theseus. Daedalus had so cunningly made the Labyrinth that he could barely escape it after he built it

 

 

My idea was to make it a Greek style Iron Hands successor home world where the fortress monastery is at the centre and potential recruits and dropped into the labyrinth and asked to find the centre.

 

[N1SB]

That's a really fun idea.  And thanks for keeping your own cards close to your vest, to allow us to play our hands.  I've very little to add, except for these 2 points:

 

• Even the Techmarines of the Chapter don't know all the details of their Labyrinth, as they invited a closely allied Forgeworld's Mechanicus to design and build it...then constantly renovate it, so it is completely impartial i.e. the Ironfather-equivalents of this Successor couldn't help even if they wanted to.  It is entirely up to the Aspirants to survive the gauntlet.  If anything, should an Aspirant make it out, the fully Initiated Marines would ask if a certain trap was still there from when they themselves completed the trial
• 1 of the threats in the Labyrinth would be failed Aspirants who still managed to survive, or some horribly mutated failed Primaris or something

 

Great job coming up with the idea, it's really neat.

[Kierdale]

If I remember correctly the original labyrinth image/design is basically a winding path, rather than an actual branching maze, yes?

I incorporated it where you might least expect to find it:

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Did the Marines themselves design and build the Labyrinth for that purpose, or something else, e.g., their Chapter planet was once a Necron tomb world, and the Labyrinth something they found there? Maybe the "Minotaur" will be a C'tan shard that will awaken to herald the arrival of a Necron fleet whose Overlord intends to capture it, forcing the Marines to temporarily ally with it, to defeat the approaching Necrons?

 

Alternatively, make the Labyrinth internal, i.e., a symbol or concept newly inducted Marines meditate on to reveal who is a potential psyker? Which the Chapter Librarians meditate on to increase their control over their powers, and the output of these powers? This can increase the number of Librarians the Chapter fields, to rival that of the Blood Ravens.

Edited October 20, 2021 by Bjorn Firewalker

[Doctor Perils]

In the Horus heresy there's a Labyrinth under the imperial palace protecting the labs where the primarchs were designed (Deliverance Lost) and one on the night lords' flagship to imprison Vulkan. I seem to remember some kind of spiritual labyrinth in the Dark Angels' early books but might be mixing up with something else

 

However, I do like your idea of a massive sprawling Labyrinth, with challenges to both skill at arms and logic and faith in the Chapter's tenets. I'd probably advise against theming the chapter around minotaurs and bulls as that may be too in-your-face unless handled carefully

[Gamiel]

I am enjoying these little 'How would you' questions, it is a rather refreshing brainstorming session

 

How would you incorporate the Greek Labyrinth into 40k?

 

 

Labyrinth was an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by the hero Theseus. Daedalus had so cunningly made the Labyrinth that he could barely escape it after he built it

 

 

Is any kind of labyrinth design acceptable or is it only something like the design above that is discussed?

[Xin Ceithan]

I opened the threat thinking we might be talking the Jim Henson / David Bowie..”Labyrinth”…

and being undecided if it was more Drukhari or more along the Tzeentch/ Slaanesh line. 

 

But your idea is quite neat also ;) 

The Scions of Knoxxos 

 

Iron Warriors work fine too ( a bit on the nose though with all the Olympian background ), but any heretic forge cult works fine.

 

Of course, you just can’t go wrong with usurping parts from toppled Imperial Fist bastions and shiny Templar plate - just don’t tell Mazer … ;p

 

 

They worship an aspect of Hashut and use the labyrinth / labyrinthine structure both in iconography and design as well as the “bull”.

 

Their ancient founder is a bullheaded Minotaur / centaur thing in a leviathan dread shell at center of the labyrinth.

 

The Sorcerers / Forge Tyrants build / expand the maze after studying the gyrii and sulcii of the brains taken from slain enemies…

 

 

( 

[Gamiel]

This was something I created for the Cawl's Folly- The Second Cursed Founding thread, thought it fit here (as long as we are talking Labyrinths in general):

Crimson Bulls

The Crimson Bulls are a Chapter of warrior-scholars, students not just of warfare and personal combat but of philosophy, mathematic and architecture. They have a focus on discipline, self-control, keeping calm and meditation. The interior of their fortress-monastery and ships are full with libraries, mediation chamber, sand mandala creation rooms, and geometric pattern that they use to centre themself, or just simple symbolism, which is sometime hidden - what many think of as simple decorations may in fact be an indication for the anointed that something hidden is behind it, as a battle-brother rises in rank he learns more and more about the real meaning of those symbols.

The labyrinth is a returning symbol for the Crimson Bulls and as a battle-brother joins a new company, or is given a rank of office he is let into a labyrinth that he has to traverse, one way or another. With each new labyrinth being harder to solve then the previous one. Many of the battle-brothers design labyrinths, or more practical buildings, in their free time (it's not unusually for a new brother to be given a dead brother's unfinished plans to work on) and some even begin to build them.

 

Their symbol is a crimson bull head on cream, and their armour is crimson and cream, often with bronze as spot colour. Horned helmets are common. [use Minoan, and Vedic period names]

 

The Crimson Bulls are a in most ways a Codex Chapter, even if they have an unusually large Librarium (larger than the Blood Ravens, themself known for their many Librarians, if reports are correct) and their Librarian are trained to ground themself, not unlike the Rune Priests and Stormseers of the Space Wolves and White Scars, even if the Bulls Librarians in most other ways are similar to the Codex standard. One of the other ways they are different are that it's not until the rank of Epistolary that the Librarian is expected to focus only on the Librarius discipline, and even as Epistolary, or even Chief Librarian, they are expected (and trained in) to only use the Fulmination discipline for wardings. They do this because they see the offensive use of psyker powers as something that a Librarian can easily lose himself into and draw to much of the Warp for his own good.

 

This caution has its reason in that when one of the Crimson Bulls' Librarians loses his control, even by a little, he uncontrollably mutates, this has also happened to battle-brothers with undiscovered psykick talent when they let their discipline slip (and therefor the Bulls regularly screen their members for any kind of growing talent so they can be taken to the Librarium for training). This is the Chapter's dark secret and something they have sullied their honour to protect. Thankfully the mutations more often than not are not so severe that they destroy the brother's armour, even if it often makes his body spasm around before stopping in a unnatural pose. But sometime the curse have led to the creation of what best can be described as a Chaos Spawn that survives the breaking of its former armour. It is also not unusual that as the change begin the Librarian loses control of his power and kill himself (and anybody near him) in a Warp explosion. This curse have also led the Bulls into highly investing in psy-focis and any kind of wardings they can get their hands on, be it esoteric markings on their armour or psy-dampening tech. All to often the Chapter find that they have more psykers than psy-tech, to help them control their powers, and at those times they have had to slay their own to prevent them from losing themselves to the Warp.

 

Maybe because of their curse, maybe because of their high amount of psykers, maybe something else, but many Chaos Sorcerers and daemons seems to find them naturally interesting and want to use them in rituals, for possession, or just eat them.

 

The Crimson Bulls are an attempt by Cawl to fix the gene-seed of the Thousand Sons so they don’t suffer from the flesh-change, he succeeded in a way but not fully. As for now he has secret agents among the Crimson Bulls that keep tabs on them and what they do, and have all their gene-seed tithe secretly shipped to him for further studies. He also tries to get his hands on fallen Bulls when he can and any brother that has fallen to the curse especially. All this is done for further studies so maybe the next version will be more successful.