Working on an original Successor Chapter

[FallenSon42715]

So, i'm working on a successor chapter color scheme, one which is going to be featured in both an online Tabletop game and a set of tie-in Deathwatch and Wrath and Glory games. Here's the information on it and, to a lesser extent, the other chapters that are going to be playing a role in the crusade:

 

Warcry: (Currently Undecided)
Founding: [Redacted]
Successors of: Blood Angels
Successor Chapters: Unknown
Number: Unknown
Primarch: Sanguinius
Chapter Master: (Still in the works)
Homeworld: Fleet Based
Fortress-Monastery: (Battle Barge)
Allegiance: Imperium of Man
Colours: (Working on Color Scheme)

 

Created during a Classified Founding, the Chapter was formed sometime during the M33 to deal with Renegade Chapters. Thanks to a habit of seizing ships from non-Chaos Corrupted Renegade Chapters, the fleet has grown huge for their age.

 

Basic Campaign Idea:

(Deathwatch Era): A fleet-based Successor Chapter known for purging Renegade chapters, and seizing non-corrupted ships for their fleet, from a classified Founding, settling into a new assignment alongside of other fleet based chapters chosen to interdict a Warp Storm known to house CSMs and Cultists.

 

(Wrath & Glory Era): (Tier 1/Prologue Arc, 999.M41): Aspirants are finishing their training and preparations for final implantation when (Arc Ender) the Chapter gets called to Baal to aide in defending it, bringing everyone, including Aspirants, to join the fight. (Tiers 2-4): After getting reinforced and their losses reinforced with Primaris, they return to the remains of the sector due to belief in the possibility of a third passageway through the Great Rift.

Edited May 2, 2023 by FallenSon42715
Added Campaign info and removed info as I retool

[Gamiel]

 

  

6 hours ago, FallenSon42715 said:

the (Damned, or the Untrusted, still deciding) Founding, was started due to the manipulations of Goge VanDyre during his rise to power as the Head of the Administratum, intending them to be his fist, but was not completed until after his death thanks to the actions and sabotages of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

If I may, do "False Founding" sound better if you want it to be a small one by Goge Vandire instead of a classic big one.

 

6 hours ago, FallenSon42715 said:

one of twenty Fleet Based Chapters created for a reason lost to time, and sent to (Campaign setting region) to interdict a massive warp storm known as the Eye of VanDyre and protect the surrounding sectors.

You should have the names for all chapters ready and a one-three sentence description of all of them for the players to know if they want to since I guess the Blood Oath repeatingly interact with the other nineteen throughout their history and possibly the RP:s have done so personally. Even if I would not be surprised that one or five of those twenty have not been seen for ages or don't work with the others, or just is at the other side of the storm compared to the Blood Oath.

 

If you don't have ideas for the other nineteen already do I suggest taking a look at the below thread for ideas, I have posted some chapter concepts that you can use as they are, or use as inspiration for names or culture.

 

6 hours ago, FallenSon42715 said:

Colours: (Working on Color Scheme)

There are some colour scheme suggestions also in the thread I linked to above. Also, it's easy to go red with BA successors (just look at GW’s) but there is nothing that says that there need to be any red on them at all just because they are of BA gene-line (even if I guess you will go with something red in their symbol since their name is Blood Oath). Just as we have many of Um and IF successors without blue respectively yellow on their armour.

 

Any thouhgt about how they show heraldry? The BA-system, DA-system, UM-system, WS-system, something inspiered by the SW's system, something unique, or something that combine parts from different systems?

 

 

 

Have you thought about how they do their recruitment and from where? Any internal nomenclature that stands out? What their naming culture? How long ago did they find out about their gene-origin? 

 

Beside names and titles is it often the small things that gives a chapter culture, like what kind of decorations (if any) do they use, how do they show honours, how do they look under their helmet (e.g. eye of Ra eyeshadow and braided long hair and beard; no hair at all and warpainted; very scared faces but well-maintained hair in ringlets; etc). 

 

If part of the game is set around the Eye of VanDyre they should have some knowledge about some of the worlds that they are near. Or at least you should have names and a short (one-three sentence) presentation of the worlds they will be near ready if the players ask about them. Maybe also allied worlds where they get their equipment from and/or go to get their ships repaired.

Edited May 1, 2023 by Gamiel

[FallenSon42715]

On the worlds, i'm far from ready for that. First I develop the overall storyline and factions, then I develop the worlds to fit my story/sectors to fit my story.

 

Here is the retooled information so far:

 

The Reviled Founding:
+Instigator: Goge Vandire

 

+History: The Reviled founding was created as a part of the Machinations of Goge Vandire. Becoming a leader of note within the Administratum, he saw his career plateauing as the Ecclesiarchy took power from the Administratum, he leveraged his position to work his way into the ear of the Master of the Administratum. Once there, he used the upturn of violence and the Adeptus Ministorum's power grabs to convince the Master to raise a Space Marine Founding. During this period, he wormed his way into the Master's Ear and convinced the Master to line him up as a replacement upon his retirement. At first, the founding was going as planned. Then, as Goge became the new Master of the Administratum,problems started to pop up. Seeing him as a threat, members of the Adeptus Mechanicus started to subtly sabotage the founding, fearing that he had dark designs. This was verified by Vandire, and the Sabotage became worse. Confirmed Gene Seeds were swapped out with ones of unknown origin, and a chapter's seed was even poisoned. This chapter, the 9th and final one to undergo gene seed refinement, was one being created from the Gene Seed of the Space Wolves. Though Heretical, this was done because the Biologis Magi discovered Goge's plan to eliminate the First Founding Loyalist Chapters and replace them with ones that would be loyal solely to him.

 

Thanks to these setbacks, and the discovery of the Daughters of the Emperor, Goge Vandire put the founding on the Back Burner as he weaved the Daughters of th Emperor into his plans, and the Mechanicus started working to turn them into a weapon against Goge, though he would be killed by his own bodyguards before they could kill him. This included extra hypno-indoctrination to cause the Chapters to slay any High Lord that tried to supplant the Emperor of Mankind/Omnissiah. Discovering this, the High Lordsthey were presented to would have gotten the Chapters declared Traitors and arranged for their Exterminatus if not for the start of the Plague of Disbelief. Needing every Astartes possible, the High Lords sent them out to die, even cutting them off from as much aide as they could. This caused the Chapters to have to find ways to supply themselves with more than just enough promethium and ammunition to die gloriously in the name of the Emperor. While some, like the Knights of the Lion's Sepulchur and the Silver Hussars, were able to get their parent chapter and fellow successor chapters, or cut deals with Adeptus Mechanicus, like the Order of Steel, most were left on their own.

 

This caused the Knights of Guilliman, Knights of the Blood Oath, and the Ebon Smiths to band together to form the Triumvirate with permission from the Inquisition. Banding together with, but not joining, the Holy Ordos, they have spent the centuries raiding and purging Chapters that went Renegade and used the Holy Ordos to distribute the uncorrupted wargear to the other chapters of their founding. And it was this tie, and this job, that lead the Holy Ordos to recruit the chapters to guard a warp storm that swallowed up a sector in the Segmentum Ultima with promises to get them proper recruiting worlds and hive/shrine worlds dedicated to developing new gear, vehicles, and even homeworlds for them. So now, in 815.M38, the fleets prepare for what they hope will be the dawn of a new age for the Reviled Founding.

 

+Chapters:
-Knights of the Blood Oath (Loyalist): Successor of Blood Angels; PC Chapterformed the Triumvirate with the Knights of the Blood Oath and the Knights of Guilliman. They are a group of three chapters that cut deals with the Inquisition to keep any, and all, non-corrupted equipment from Renegade Astartes. They specialize in siezing and repairing enemy ships, but get some help from the rest of the Sanguinary Brotherhood.

 

-Ebon Smiths (Loyalist): Successor of Salamanders; A chapter friendly to the Blood Oath, formed the Triumvirate with the Knights of the Blood Oath and the Knights of Guilliman. They are a group of three chapters that cut deals with the Inquisition to keep any, and all, non-corrupted equipment from Renegade Astartes. They specialize in taking and fixing enemy armors and weapons.

 

-Knights of the Lion's Sepulchur (Loyalist): Successor of Dark Angels; A chapter distrusted by not only the rest of the founding, but the entirety of Imperium. They are barely tolerated by the rest of the founding, and only have friendly relations with the other chapters of the Unforgiven.

 

-Silver Hussars (Loyalist): Successors of the White Scars; A chapter with a friendly rivalry with the Knights of the Blood Oath, the Silver Hussars struggle to maintain their friendly relations with the White Scars and their fellow successor chapters to continue to be supplied.

 

-Order of Steel (Sons of Shadows) (Renegade): Successor of Iron Hands (Actually Alpha Legion); One of the chapters reliant on the Triumvirate, the Order of Steel is upset that they are are not able to form better relations with the Mechanicus and gain their patronage for weapons, armor, and vehicles and supplies. This causes them to be the first to fall to Chaos, and for them to lure the other three Traitor Successors to fall to Chaos.

 

-Knights of Guilliman (Knights of Horus) (Renegade): Successor of Ultramarines (Actually Black Legion); Before their fall, the Knights of Guilliman, Knights of the Blood Oath, and the Ebon Smiths formed the Triumvirate, a group of three chapters that cut deals with the Inquisition to keep any, and all, non-corrupted equipment from Renegade Astartes. They specialize in siezing and repairing tanks and aircraft. The Knights of Guilliman are the last to fall, lured away with promises of being able to force the Imperium to start supplying the chapters of their founding.

 

-Blue Templars (Tower Smashers) (Renegade): Successor of Imperial Fists (Actually Iron Warriors); Builders and Siege Masters, the Blue Templars are one of the most powerful and well equipped chapters not within the Trumvirate. This is due to their building Chapter Keeps for recruitment and training for the other chapters. They hate their fellow Imperial Fist Successor Chapters for having their backs turned on them, especially the Black Templars. This made the transition to Chaos easy when they discover they are actually Iron Warriors.

 

-Knights of Teuton (Lords of Terror) (Renegade): Successor of Raven Guard (Actually Night Haunters); Ruthless and cunning to a fault, the Knights of Teuton, named for thefirst world they raided for recruits, despise the Triumvirate for being denied an opportunity to join, and especially hate the Knights of the Blood Oath, who they believe took the spot that should have gone, by right, to them. They are lured into damnation with the opportunity to get revenge.

Edited May 2, 2023 by FallenSon42715
Added spacing

[FallenSon42715]

Update:

1. Name changed to Knights of the Sanguine Oath

2. Got a first draft of color schemes here: https://imgur.com/a/3p2Tf2k

[Helias_Tancred]

That scheme is a good one ... nice colors and unique.

 

 

[Gamiel]

Nice names for the chapters.

 

If I was a gamer at your table I would like to know their colours (you don't need to go beyond just saying that they are two different colours, or one colour with details in another colour), their symbols (I can give suggestions if you want to), and a short presentation of their characters.

 

Regarding the last point do I suggest using Robin D. Laws method of three (I think he called it something else but I don’t remember what) that is that you count up three things about what you are describing, and that the third thing is often something a bit different from the other two. There is also the classic bit where you combine two different things, like “warrior-scholar”, that gives character and would only count as one thing using Laws’ method, or used as the thing before counting up the three things. E.g. "Warrior-skalds, known for their celebrant songs, and tactical knowledge”, or “superstitious and suspicious, possibly hailing from their recruitment from voidborn, but also know for their willingness to sacrifice themselves to protect the innocent”,

 

Also, I personally like when a chapter is notably different from their 1th Founding primogenitor chapter, in at least some ways, and suggest that you make the other Shapter’s in the Founding at least in some way different from their “dad”. Maybe have that Knights of the Lion's Sepulchur are mostly death cult-ish (since Sepulchur is part of their name) than any of the classic DA points – a bit similar to how the Mortifactors are compared to the Um (even if the Knights likely lack the undercurrents of barbarism that the Mortifactors have).

 

 

Some questions/comments:

15 hours ago, FallenSon42715 said:

Banding together with, but not joining, the Holy Ordos, they have spent the centuries raiding and purging Chapters that went Renegade and used the Holy Ordos to distribute the uncorrupted wargear to the other chapters of their founding.

Feel like many of their tech-marines chould be trainded techsorcists, or maybe they have/had techsorcists trained tech-priests on their ships.

 

15 hours ago, FallenSon42715 said:

hive/shrine worlds dedicated to developing new gear, vehicles, and even homeworlds for them

To my understanding are Forge and factory worlds more common regardin the creation of SM supplys than Shrine worlds. But I could be wrong.

 

15 hours ago, FallenSon42715 said:

So now, in 815.M38, the fleets prepare for what they hope will be the dawn of a new age for the Reviled Founding.

So, do I understand it right that the first part of the adventuer will take place as they are newly arrived to the boarder? And they have not really established themself in what will be their space?

 

 

 

If I may suggest some changes:

15 hours ago, FallenSon42715 said:

-Knights of the Lion's Sepulchur (Loyalist): Successor of Dark Angels; A chapter distrusted by not only the rest of the founding, but the entirety of Imperium. They are barely tolerated by the rest of the founding, and only have friendly relations with the other chapters of the Unforgiven.

I think it would be more interesting if the other way around, that they friendly with the others of the Founding but are kept at a distance by the rest of the Unforgiven (even if given support for survival and if their Inner Circle is whipped out are veterans from other Unforgiven sent out to help the new leadership understand their role).

 

15 hours ago, FallenSon42715 said:

Knights of Guilliman (Knights of Horus) (Renegade): Successor of Ultramarines (Actually Black Legion);

I would like to suggest a different name for them after they have gone traitor since they don't know they are of SoH-gene-seed. And even if they did do it feel a bit strange that they call themself "Knights of Horus" when they have no cultural or philosophical relationship to Horus. Maybe they should keep their old name if they think they are in the right, or maybe if they have a "you call me renegade then a renegade I will be" movement and changed their name to something like "Renegades of Gulliman", "Bastards of Gulliman", "Bastard-knights of Vandire", or similar.

 

 

Also, suggest that the whole Founding, or at least the ones in the Triumvirate, use the same heraldic system. As a way to show that they are close with each other and don't often work with others.

Edited May 2, 2023 by Gamiel

[FallenSon42715]

Wow, didn't realize I made that mistake. At the time of writing, I was trying to think of the best world type for the chapter to recruit from. Yeah, that was suppose to read Forge Worlds.

 

Edit 1, now that i'm off work:

Yes, this is going to be set as the fleets are arriving in the sector. Using the Deathwatch setting, the first adventure's literally going to be starting with the equivalent of being fresh out of the Jericho-Maw Warp Gate.

 

On the Techsorcists, no. That's going to be left up to the Holy Ordos (Part of a separate side game). The Reviled Founding is not going to be trusted to enough of a level for the Inquisition to even let them try.

 

On the Knights of the Lion's Sepulcher: Remember, I said friendly relations... even given some help/support... not trusted. No. The Reviled Founding will never be trusted. At best, the support and seeming friendly relations is to watch for Fallen infiltration. At worse, it's so they can watch for the chapter TO fall so they can pounce before the chapter can add to their disgrace.

 

As for the Knights of Guilliman/Horus: These are all placeholder names save for the Knights of the Sanguine Oath. I'm still working on the Sanguine Oath and it's culture.

Edited May 3, 2023 by FallenSon42715

[Gamiel]

 

What did you plan to have the player do at the M38 part of the campaign? Will they be officers making decisions over what the chapter (or their company) will do? Will they be something midlevel sent out on diplomatic missions to the other chapters/planets in their area/navy forces/similar to create/build on existing alliances (which should involve helping out fighting against threats, they are Astartes after all)? Will they be more low level in the hierarchy of things, just sent out to conflict zones to fight, or as scouts in areas deemed unknown and dangerous? Or something else? Can see them being given a small ship (you said they had a big fleet) and an area to make their own decisions in while the chapter, and the rest of the Founding, at large try to find their bearing in their new role.

 

On 5/3/2023 at 5:46 AM, FallenSon42715 said:

As for the Knights of Guilliman/Horus: These are all placeholder names save for the Knights of the Sanguine Oath. I'm still working on the Sanguine Oath and it's culture.

Something I just thought about, if the Damned Founding chapters didn't know their lineage original (which they didn't, or have I missunderstood?) would then not any name that implies their lineage, like Knights of Guilliman, be something thay took after finding it out? Or is was the name given to/taken by them as more of a “spiritual” thing originally, they be given Gulliman as part of their name as something more like a “patron saint” than as an indication of their gene-line. With the coincidence that he was also their official gene-father (unofficially we know it’s not true).

 

Did I understand it right that the Founding was created to replace the 1th Founding chapters (somehow, Vandire was mad after all and the plan did not need to be possible) but that plan was stopped before any real work could be done to them to make them loyal to Vandire. And that they originally, when finally created and "let lose" did not know their gene-origin but some of them did find out a bit later?  Because if that’s right do I guess that their chapter names was something they were originally given by the project overseers (like the Black Dragons and Flame Falcons), or they themselves picked a bit into their history (like the Tome Keepers). This can mean that their names, colours, and/or culture don’t hint to their gene-origins, if you want to. Personally I would keep the chapters of your founding whose gene-origin is unknown not obvious in their linage regarding at least name and colours. But if you want to hint to their gene-origin do that, this is your project after all.

 

If you want inspiration for the other chapters culture do I suggest taking a look at other IP:s with different fractions with notable personality – like World of Darkness' werewolf tribes and vampire clans, or Legend of 5 Rings' clans – and use that as inspiration.