Shuffling the Emperors Tarot: An Alternate Primarch fic.

[Bolt451]

So you want to hear a story eh? Well pass me the bottle of sacra and sit down

 

But stop me if this sounds familiar

 

Long ago, before the flag of unity flew over even Mother Terra. The Emperor, blessed be his name, forged 20 beings, titans of flesh and blood, superhuman beyond even the Space Marine Legions as they are beyond you or I, the Primarchs. Each Primarch was shaped with a purpose as clear as a mountain spring and a destiny as heavy as a smith’s anvil. Even as the Emperor set about his great plan, of which the Primarchs were but a single, if crucial part, the dark gods of Chaos, jealous and spiteful created a wicked tempest that tore through the Emperor’s citadel itself, snatching the infant Primarchs and hurling them like wayward embers across the scattered worlds of the galaxy, leaving the Emperor to forge his children's genetic gifts into twenty legions made in their primarchs image and head to the stars seeking unification and reunion.

 

And on one of twenty different worlds, simple folk whose names have been lost to history saw a shooting star fall to earth and set off to investigate it. They found it wasn’t a meteor but a metal pod and inside it, a baby. One such world was Rhocancria, and the baby would become known to the enemies of mankind as Morrigan,

 

Not quite what you were expecting eh?

 

-

 

So this is another fanon Heresy?

 

Pretty much. I’ve just been discharged from hospital with a diganosis of a condition called Functional Neuropathy Disorder and I don’t know when I’ll be well enough to go back to work. On top of this some of the meds I’m on leave me a bit spun out so I’m not quite feeling up to committing to any new projects and in hospital I listened to a lot of videos on Horus Heresy lore ( I play 40k and Kill Team, I cant afford to play Heresy too) and came up with this

 

The idea is I roll 2 20 sided dice, one selects the primarch and one selects the legion from the canon lists. I use this prompt (i.e. What if Mortarion commanded the Blood Angels) as a jumping off point to create new primarchs and legions. I reroll any numbers already rolled and ignore 2 and 11 (for now). This is just a jumping off point though, I didn't want to be limited to the actual canon legions and primarchs.

 

Don’t take this too seriously. Ive stuck closer to some prompts than others. This is just me having a bit of fun while I wait for my health to get better. Once I’ve designed the legions, we’ll see where we go from there.

At time of writing, it is the great Crusade, and all the Primarchs have been found.

[Bolt451]

I: The Iron Angels

Prompt: What if Perturabo led the Dark Angels 

 

Earth Origins:
As the first legion, the Iron Angels were regarded as the testbed for what the legiones Astartes could be. The first to tread on the battlefields of Earth, heralding the end of the Thunder Warriors. They were granted weaponry later deemed unsuitable or inappropriate for other legions. They were the Emperors will made manifest, his dreams for Mankind made flesh and steel. Some even say their name the Iron Angels comes from the name given space marines by some of the people's of Earth. For some tome this was the name given to all space marines and this legion were simple the First Sons, others called them the Brotherhood of Steel.

The Primarch: Brokkr
Nicknames: The Forgemaster, The Iron Giant, The Keeper of Keys
Homeworld: Myrkheim

The First Legion Brokkr was the one of the first Primarchs to be reunited with his legion. This is because the world the infant Brokkr came to rest upon was within what would become the Segmentum Solar, at the core of what had been human held space for tens of thousands of years. While not as ancient as Terra the world that would become known as Myrkheim had seen human empires, federations and other polities rise and deep in the countless layers of its cities was the remains of a sublight colony ship which had first landed on the planet in late M3.

Myrkheim was a world, once cut off from the other realms of humanity by the Age of Strife, that wasn’t unlike Mankind before the Emperor. Barbaric tribes fought over scraps of ancient technology in the ruins of a vast planet spanning city. Even during the day the world was in a twilight like darkness, Myrkheims star long since dimmed by some great weapon in the Dark Age of Technology that came close to snuffing it out.

Brokkrs pod crashed into the inhospitable top most layer of the world city. How the infant not only survived but thrived is unknown Brokkr sees telling this story irrelevant. Tales began to be told however of a giant in armour forged from the toughest ancient metals defending the outermost towns of the world city from the mutated beasts and perhaps even rogue machines that prowled the tunnels of the city.

All is known is the young Brokkr, once fully grown came to command an army of warriors for whom he forged crude power armour. Soon he unified the various nations of the world city in fighting against the monsters that plagued its ruins. The people of Myrkheim had a long held societal fear of artificial intelligences from when the planet was a battlefield against the creations known as the men of Iron. Whether the monsters that Brokkr defeated were biological or some crude AI creatures is unknown.

As Brokkrs territory grew so did his technological knowledge. inventions long preserved but which were thought impossible to recreate were reforged by the Primarch. He had a preternatural gift with technology that allowed him to form the greatest army

But Brokkr didnt just rule through the promise of safety but the threat of punishment too. With artificial intelligence an abomination, the automata in his armies ran on a different source, his defeated foes. Its population dwindling or too mutated to be the quality of soldier he needed, Brokkr made great battle servitors of his defeated foes, something he would continue into his legion.
When the Emperors dropshops tore through the ancient and dying atmosphere of Myrkheim, the Forgemaster and ruler of the world city came to the surface to meet him, the only one powerful enough to survive on its upper most level, his soldiers and advisers wearing the same power armour he had forged them to survive.

When the Emperor presented Brokkr with the first legion to command he took it with little pause. He had unified Myrkheim and this was simply the next progression. Having been unified under Brokkr and reunited with mankind, Myrkheim’s world city began slowly returning to the hive world it had once been. Its forges and factories became crucial to the great crusade.

The Iron Angels’ place as the first legion, as the test bed of what it means to be an astartes was perfect for Brokkr. He was given far reaching freedom by his father to create new weapons, new formations. From huge formations of Battle servitors (some of which were rumoured to be defeated and lobotomised men of iron) to superheavy tanks, to variations on terminator armour and warsuits designed by the forgemaster himself.

Personality:
Cold almost to a fault. Brokkr is much more at home making and building than interacting with others, perhaps even his sons of the First Legion. To him, he was made for a purpose, and that is to wage war. His one interest beyond the next campaign is seeking our ancient technologies and perfecting them, to be better prepared for war. Known only to the Primarch himself though, he sees himself as above his siblings, his is the first legion, after all.

Appearance:
He carries himself with quite a reserved presence for such a huge being. He shaves his head and had little physical marks. In battle he wears the Aegis, a heavily customised and constantly changing suit of armour of his own devising. It bears volkite weaponry on each wrist and an independent weapons system on one shoulder capable of launching a range of warheads.

 

Doctrine and Combat Specialization: Mechanised warfare and exotic weaponry
With their role as the testbed of the Legiones Asteartes, the Iron Angels have generally speaking been better equipped than the other legions, capable of fielding greater formations of rare forms of armour, armoured vehicles and rare weaponry

After being reunited with their Primarch and with his mastery of technology this has only increased. The Angels have adopted their Primarch’s practice turning notable defeated foes into battle servitors. Also due to a strong level of respect between the Mechanicum and Brokkr they also field weaponry from the Tech Priests of Mars

Unique Units:
The Key Keepers: names of the “wardens” of the legions vast formations of Battle servitors and automata which range from humanoid forms to large armoured vehicles, a combination of battlefield technologist and prison warden, constantly on the lookout for any rebellion from their charges.

Ursos: a unique battlesuit designed by Brokkr, similar to dreadnoughts but piloted by a live unintegrated pilot. Often worn by the above Key Keepers

Appearance:
The Iron Angels fight in black armour with bronze trim and their symbol is a golden skull with silver angel wings behind it

Edited 2 hours ago by Bolt451