Iron Gauntlet 2024: The Obsidian Angels

[twopounder]

I, twopounder, of the Obsidian Angels take up your Challenges. I vow, before my brothers and sisters of the B&C to complete Challenge The First and submit it to the Liber before the deadline. I vow to support my fellow challengers to the best of my ability. May the Emperor curse me if I fail.

 

 

Chapter Names: Order of Obsidian, Obsidian Angels

Home world: Serran

Founding: NA/Unofficial

Legion: Dark Angels

Colors: Obsidian, Gold, Granite

 

From the Ashes

After the destruction of their home world Caliban, the surviving marines of the first legion had multiple catastrophes to handle. Their planet and recruiting world was gone, their gene-father was missing, half their number were traitor, dead or missing and the flames of heresy still consumed the galaxy. While commanders were preparing the remains of the legion to secrecy about the events of Caliban and summoning resources to fight in The Scourging, a small few chapter masters and the forge lords gathered to discuss a matter of secrecy equal to Luther's betrayal.

 

When the Dark Angels first departed Terra to pave the way for the Emperor's Great Crusade, they were secreted weapons forbidden to the rest of humanity. So dangerous were these devices that none of the Emperor's sons were ever trusted to know of their existence. This arsenal increased yet further when Jonson took command of the legion and their vaults stretched across the galaxy. The gravity of the censure from possessing these weapons would be severe and the consequences of the weapons being turned upon loyal forces, dire. While plans were being made to track down the traitors of the legion, Chapter Master Callan Gehl met with Forge Masters Lukha Verenz and Therrus Fell about this concern. This would come to be known as the Tripacta Sovereignty Council and set into place the framework for the future of collaboration between the First Legion and what would become its successor chapters.

 

Though the Codex Astartes had not yet been declared by Guilliman, nine-hundred and fifty seven warriors with knowledge of the Dark Angel's forbidden weapons were assembled into a self-sufficient force tasked with three protocols to adhere for chapter operations:

 

1) Retrieve all weapons and wargear owned, branded or claimed by the First Legion prior to the betrayal at Caliban.

2) Destroy any incriminating evidence that cannot be secured

3) Pursue anyone that possesses this forbidden technology

 

 

The legion officially declared this chapter XVII, The Order of Obsidian and provided them with most of the forbidden technology that remained in the Tower of Angels. There was concern already of an investigation into the debris field of Caliban, and the Dark Angels were not willing to risk additional incrimination for their artefacts. Master Ortoro Sebastian was promoted to the rank of Grand Master and commissioned as the first to lead the chapter into its crusade for the lost relics.

 

While the bulk of the legion prepared for the long war against the forces of the dead warmaster, the Order of Obsidian departed in a separate fleet to their first target. Aside from caches known to the legion masters, several additional sites listed in Jonson's personal logs. The planet Serran was visited by Jonson and was noted to have a technology vault suitable to sustain a significant force.

Discovery of Serran

Three months after their departure from Caliban the Order of Obsidian made orbit above Serran. Its surface was hidden by thick amber clouds and it had two moons in opposing orbits. Hails to the surface went unanswered, but scans detected a high output energy source on the surface. The marines landed an expeditionary force, keeping reserves ready in expectation of an ambush.

 

However, what they discovered instead was a facility from the dark age of technology. Thousands upon thousands of stasis chambers lined the well fortified interior. Whatever treasures or horrors the stasis chambers held were long gone, but the facility itself was operational. The cogitators were arcane and would not easily yield answers.

 

After some deliberation, Ortoro decided to make Serran their base of operations and tasked the forge masters with setting up listening posts on the moons and to expand the facility to quarter the legion and support its operations. This would eventually come to be known as the Obsidian Enclave and was reinforced during the millennia the followed the Horus Heresy.

 

The Order of the Obsidian set to its duties in tracking down and recovering the legion's lost artefacts. Though many caches had been plundered or destroyed, some were yet forgotten. Those local inhabitants that had robbed the vaults in the chaos of the heresy were hunted down and mercilessly executed. That which was safe was transitioned to the Dark Angels chapter and anything too esoteric was locked within the stasis vaults.

Their Mission Expands

Though the order was initially created for the recovery of artefacts belonging to the First Legion, many searches ended in forgotten battlefields or desolate cruiser hulls of other legions. Once again, there was debate about what to do with these items. Many wanted to leave the battlefields as untouched as possible as a type of mausoleum. Others felt that it may be too dangerous to disturb old battlefields that could be mined or worse. However, it was chaplain Tyrius of the fourth company that suggested returning the relics and bodies of fallen warriors to their chapters. Though time, nature and the elements had savaged both machine and remains, there was usually enough left to determine the progenitor.

 

It was then decided that an honor guard would be formed of the first company that would reunite the lost astartes and their possessions to the loyalist chapters they belonged and destroy the last of the traitors. Within a few hundred years, The Order of Obsidian had returned hundreds of chapter relics and thousands of astartes to their rightful legion home worlds. This ceremony became so frequent that the honor guard was rotated through the veterans of the first five companies to make certain that no marine would be without combat for too long. Each marine assigned to this duty had a shoulder pad cased in bronze.

 

 

Mysterious Founding

Because the Order of Obsidian was not a true founding authorized by the high lords of terra, they continued operating as pre-heresy Dark Angels chapter, retaining the original colors and chapter regalia. As the millennia passed, they decided to adopt another moniker to mask their true origin. The Obsidian Angels were borne with black armor, light gold trim and granite bolters. Its unknown exactly when the name and colors were changed, but by the 41st millenium, no knowledge or banners of the Order of Obsidian remained outside the reclusium of the first company. There, the original founding orders of the Tripacta Sovereignty Council is still emblazoned on the wall. They have no official chapter marking, but retain the ancient Dark Angel devices from ancient Caliban, along with robes of all the Unforgiven.

 

Current Operations

Cooperation between the Obsidian Angels and Dark Angels never ceased, though the discovery of ancient relics is extremely rare. The experience and tactics refined over a millennia of recovery operations has made them experts of extraction and esoteric technology. Though they are grim and taciturn as other chapters of the Unforgiven, their willingness to return treasured wargear to other chapters has provided them with diplomatic options that would be otherwise unavailable. Many of these relics have been recovered at a great cost to the Obsidian Angels and their names are inscribed into the granite containers hand cut for them. So great has their knowledge of pre-heresy equipment that much of the weapons and armor can be restored to at least partial functionality.

 

Primaris exist in their ranks, but it is unknown how they received the gene technology and training to produce them. It may have been the Dark Angels that transmitted this information to them, but none outside the two chapters could know.

 

Due to the need for extensive technical knowledge and constant maintenance, there are a large number of tech marines within the ranks of the Obsidian Angels and they retain a rank within their inner circle for Masters of the Forge.

 

 

Serran

The planet of Serran was highly developed during the Dark Age of Technology, though most of it now lies in ruins. What happened to the population is unknown to the Obsidian Angels, even after millenia of research. It is clear that they had knowledge that rivaled the very apex of human achievement. Many believe that they were victims of the Long Night, perhaps destroying themselves or falling victim to an alien attack. Whatever the cause, the planet is now heavily militarized and has only enough population to support an entrenched planetary defense force and their astartes governors. Recruiting is done at several nearby death worlds.

 

However, the truth of Serran's demise is dark and foreboding. Deep within the rocks, below the depth that scanners and mining dredges can reach, lies a dormant Necron Tomb. Its technology stolen through a once-open channel during the Dark Age of Technology and used to create the energy plant and stasis chambers in what would become the Obsidian Enclave. Whether these xenos awoke and took revenge on the population is cloaked in thousands of years of erosion.

 

Edited April 4 by twopounder

[Rusted Boltgun]

I really like the battle plate colours and the idea of the 'relic hunting' nature of the chapter. 

Will you be expanding the lore to include more or your named characters?

Your art (AI generated?) has highly decorated armour - will this be shown on your minis or stripped back to black / granite armour with gold trim? Either way, I think it will look very striking.

[twopounder]

3 hours ago, Rusted Boltgun said:

I really like the battle plate colours and the idea of the 'relic hunting' nature of the chapter. 

Will you be expanding the lore to include more or your named characters?

Your art (AI generated?) has highly decorated armour - will this be shown on your minis or stripped back to black / granite armour with gold trim? Either way, I think it will look very striking.

 

Yeah, that's the color scheme I'm working on. I have a couple ideas for paints to use. I'll be adding named characters as well, when I get to that part of the challenge. That's all AI artr

[Raziel-TX]

Digging the fluff. Can’t wait to see some minis!

[twopounder]

On 3/23/2024 at 10:13 PM, Raziel-TX said:

Digging the fluff. Can’t wait to see some minis!

 

Beginning the second challenge now! Azrael is recovering from crossing the Rubicon (he had his little marines shot off with a laser) and its given me time to do some modelling while he rests with me.

 

 

I did get one sergeant pretty well assembled, with other close behind. This shows the details I'm using.

 

 

Edited March 30 by twopounder

[twopounder]

Here is the squad in its full glory

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[sitnam]

Love the ideas here. Normally I’d shy away with making DIY that have close relations with major factions, but it kind of fits with the Dark Angels and the pseudo-legion structure they have secretly been operating with. Love to see a techmarine of the chapter!

[twopounder]

11 hours ago, sitnam said:

Love the ideas here. Normally I’d shy away with making DIY that have close relations with major factions, but it kind of fits with the Dark Angels and the pseudo-legion structure they have secretly been operating with. Love to see a techmarine of the chapter!

 

Thanks. Getting pretty close on the building part, though I'm out of pill bottles so I'll probably paint the first batch here soon.

 

 

 

 

[twopounder]

I was working on some initial painting and had a happy accident. The first model I painted was strong tone instead of dark tone (grabbed the wrong bottle). I kind of like the strong tone and bolter color, but I realized I messed up and switched before it was dry. Now I'm wondering if I should go back and do a strong tone wash over the others and use that one instead? I still like the ash color of the dark tone wash though. Quite the pickle.

 

 

[NovemberIX]

It's hard to find anything to critique, the idea and lore of the chapter are fully formed, the images are striking, and the models look to be amazing. One idea regarding the Strong Vs Dark tone on the bolters, why not vary it by squad? A little variation to show that their weapons are collected over time and in various states of repair.

 

The only question in my head is what sort of weapons could be forbidden? It seems biological, radiological, and even chemical weapons were fine, nothing to say of the deflagration effects of volkite weapons or Disintegration weapons. Best I can figure is some sort of warp based weapon maybe?

[twopounder]

14 hours ago, NovemberIX said:

It's hard to find anything to critique, the idea and lore of the chapter are fully formed, the images are striking, and the models look to be amazing. One idea regarding the Strong Vs Dark tone on the bolters, why not vary it by squad? A little variation to show that their weapons are collected over time and in various states of repair.

 

The only question in my head is what sort of weapons could be forbidden? It seems biological, radiological, and even chemical weapons were fine, nothing to say of the deflagration effects of volkite weapons or Disintegration weapons. Best I can figure is some sort of warp based weapon maybe?

 

The first legion was given significant weapons from Old Night and Vaults of Mars in secret. This includes Excindio Automata (Men of Iron, full on AI), rad wave weapons, stasis and micro-vortex weapons.

Here is a quote 

Quote

 Alone among the Legiones Astartes, they would make common use of the forbidden weaponry of Old Night, of gene-phage and rad wave, employed to wipe clean the nests of those enemies deemed too terrible to be faced in open battle. The 1st Legion were the fulcrum of the Emperor's wrath, the agency of His hate, for they brought not simple destruction but the all-encompassing oblivion of utter annihilation.

 

You can find excerpts here and there in the HH material, but stuff they had was questionable when legions were in the middle of the crusade. In 40k, where astartes are already mistrusted by the inquisition, the possession of weapons like AI and gene-phages capable of wiping out entire planets without inquisitorial consent would certainly be a no-no. 

 

For the different squads, would make sense for older marks, but would be weird for mark x and bolt rifles. I have tons of unbuilt firstborn that I can kit bash though.

Edited April 2 by twopounder

[NovemberIX]

I really need to catch up on my DA heresy era knowledge, thank you for the edification! I completely hadn't even considered AI, which honestly could be a story hook all it's own.

[twopounder]

14 hours ago, NovemberIX said:

I really need to catch up on my DA heresy era knowledge, thank you for the edification! I completely hadn't even considered AI, which honestly could be a story hook all it's own.

There are a lot of them, and they generally don't agree with the older codices. It can get a bit overwhelming.

 

Here are some examples of the obsidian armor color. I think I'm happy with it. 

 

 

 

 

[twopounder]

Progress! This group has the base, weapon and wash complete. Still need to complete holsters, shade and add trim.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 5 by twopounder

[Raziel-TX]

Dude, you’re a machine. Haha

[Interrogator Stobz]

They're gonna look awesome once you getting all that neat chaos level trim done... can't wait to see your work.

[Wormwoods]

Alarming to do weapons before armour, but I admire your gumption. Looking great so far, looking forward to seeing them all come together!

[twopounder]

On 4/5/2024 at 7:13 PM, Raziel-TX said:

Dude, you’re a machine. Haha

Just trying to wrap it up to move on to the next project :)

 

On 4/5/2024 at 8:11 PM, Wormwoods said:

Alarming to do weapons before armour, but I admire your gumption. Looking great so far, looking forward to seeing them all come together!

First time doing primaris, so I wasn't sure the best way to do sub assemblies. Can be a pain, but the gold is more annoying.

 

On 4/5/2024 at 8:02 PM, Interrogator Stobz said:

They're gonna look awesome once you getting all that neat chaos level trim done... can't wait to see your work.

 Got a bit of a preview below :)

 

Alrighty, this is more of a prototype than totally finished. I might do stronger gold and then wash over it. I wanted to avoid washing and use a more muted gold for just highlights, but I'm too old to make nice straight lines. Or paint in side them. Also ,the lighter gold keeps it from looking like chaos.

 

 

 

 

Not sure what keeps happening to the links. Re-posted the images.

Edited April 15 by twopounder

[Interrogator Stobz]

The muted gold is the business, hit it with Sepia wash for the win!

[Trokair]

While relic hunting is these guys primary mission I really liked the returning the fallen (pun not intended) to their respective people. I think that is something they should still do, with a dedicated ship with a hold of stasis chambers in which to store recovered  marines of any chapter they might come across. Kept in stasis coffins until they encounter living parts of the relevant chapter or have time to travel to said home worlds.

 

From there you could have some fluff about how some remains have been onboard for thousands of years because they can’t track down the relevant chapter.

[twopounder]

On 4/13/2024 at 8:23 AM, Trokair said:

While relic hunting is these guys primary mission I really liked the returning the fallen (pun not intended) to their respective people. I think that is something they should still do, with a dedicated ship with a hold of stasis chambers in which to store recovered  marines of any chapter they might come across. Kept in stasis coffins until they encounter living parts of the relevant chapter or have time to travel to said home worlds.

 

From there you could have some fluff about how some remains have been onboard for thousands of years because they can’t track down the relevant chapter.

 

Thanks for the feedback. The stasis chambers are on the planet, not a ship. The recovered loyalists would generally be just skeletons in armor, except where they come across a more recent battle. No doubt fallen would be conveyed to The Rock, but its not the primary object of the Obsidian Angels.

[Trokair]

I get that the stasis chambers  are on the planet. I just thought, given the return the dead to their kin aspect that the chapter had for a bit, if you wanted to lean into that more, it would be a cool idea to have a funeral/mausoleum ship or so that has lots of space to hold dead marines or other heroes of the Imperium.  

[Galron]

Digging the fluff. Those images are cool. The last of the AI images is excellent as it actually shows a properly proportioned marine in armor, something you rarely ever see. Funny that it takes AI to pull it off. 

 

As to your paint scheme may I suggest trying Liberator Gold with a wash of nuln oil and possibly a very very light silver highlight over the highest of points on that.