Loyal Emperors Children

[Brother Captain Adeon]

Hi guys, after taking a long break from 40K I decided to get back into the game. I decided to play again as Space Marines, and after reading through some of my older White Dwarfs I thought it would be interesting to use a force of the Emperors Children who stayed loyal to the Imperium. I mentoned this to a friend and he thought it was a good idea so I wrote up a history for them.

 

Any improvements are gratefully accepted

 

(Note: This was done before the Horus Heresy books, I only just recieved them today and wrote this all up a week or so ago)

 

 

 

Index Astartes: Emperors Children

 

 

Following the Horus Heresy it was widely believed that the whole Emperors Children Legion had turned to Chaos. However recently during battles for the Cadian Gate many Imperial Personnel saw Space Marines that appeared to be fighting in the colours of the original Emperors Children Legion. The Inquisition have now after 10,000 years released information on the Emperors Children, revealing that not all turned to Horus

[Big Woop]

Nice job, but there's one thing that puzzles me somewhat. How come the imperium has gone to such lengths in keeping them in the imperium? The grey knights must deem them to be very important if they place some of their own people with them(Can the grey knights really afford that I wonder). I mean, if they don't really trust them wouldn't it be easier to get rid of them?

 

Perhaps they would have held them under guard in the beginning to let them prove themselves, and then leave them alone?

 

Anyway, it's a very good read.(I haven't read the horus heresy books either so Im no expert on this)

[Ferrata]

No offence, but I'm never a big fan of "We are traitors who didn't turn" chapters, I just don't understand the reasoning behind them. Why can't you just make a normal chapter, created in the 3rd Founding if you really want them to be old, and make them very similiar to the Legion you want to recreate? Leaving that aside...

 

I'm pretty sure the Imperial Fists and Ultramarines where not at Istvaan, so why would they be the first forces your EC see?

 

I can't see any of the Primarch's forgiving those whose brothers had turned against them, not even Guilliman.

 

The GK can't afford to have 10 Detachments away from business.

[Brother Captain Adeon]

I had the Grey Knights there as if the Emperors Children did rebel then Grey Knights would be more able to fight them than Storm Troopers, but yeah I'll probably change that bit, maybe just have one or two Inquisitors within the Chapter to monitor them

[StratoKhan]

However recently during battles for the Cadian Gate many Imperial Personnel saw Space Marines that appeared to be fighting in the colours of the original Emperors Children Legion.

 

You mean the Hawk Lords?

 

Seriously though, the background verges on implausible.

 

Fulgrim, as all Primarchs did, benefitted from the utmost loyalty of his legion. His captains would have been his best officers, a close knit cadre of veterans hand picked by him to lead his forces. The bonds and loyalty involved must have been enormous, and the respect they had towards him must have verged on worship. If Fulgrim fell, then so did his Legion. All of it. To command the Luna Wolves/Sons Of Horus, arguably the Imperium's finest fighting force, to account for their actions, would have required the Legion's full manpower. For two reasons. Firstly, intimidation factor, and secondly, such a potential adversary could only be matched by a full Space Marine Legion. Logic dictates that all divisions of The Emperor's Children would have been present, and thus, the corruption would have spread to all the Legion.

 

I personally think that using the Loyalist Traitors gambit is taking the easy way out of the challenge of writing interesting background.

 

Such tolerance and understanding seems at odds with the intolerant, narrow minded nature of the Imperium.

[Aurelius Rex]

It is no secret that I am not a fan of the whole 'loyalist traitors' idea... While there were undoubtedly marines that didn't turn to chaos with their legions (Eisenstein incident, Garro, Saul Tarvitz) the paranoid, fanatical nature of the Imperial top-brass makes it difficult to swallow that they would allow a chapter to exist that overtly bore traitor heritage... any such things would have to be suspected at most (Ref: Sons of Antaeus). :cry:

 

There was a thread from someone who had just read Horus Rising and wanted a loyalist Luna Wolf army. Many of the same arguments will doubtless be played out here too, so this link might be handy...

 

Here was my view... it seems to fit for the EC loyalist traitors too. :)

 

Your initial post said that there were certain themes of the 'loyalist traitors' army idea that you wanted to avoid as you wanted something original:

 

i, like so many others, read Horus Rising by Dan Abnett and was inspired to create a Luna Wolves force, but seeing the fluff that some pre-heresy players write about their armies i wanted to do something different. too many times have i read about how "this company was lost to the warp for XX years" or how "this part of the legion refused to convert to chaos" so i came up sith something as far as i know is original. Yes the Luna Wolves turned to chaos and later became the Black Legion, but what if an uncorrupted Luna Wolves gene seed was found?

 

Unfortunately this seems to be exactly the approach that you have gone for in the later post. :)

 

Now there seems to be a general issue with the use of 'loyalist traitors', and with the popularity of Horus Rising I expect to see a large number of them appear in the next few months. One of the main points of contention is the resistance to the idea of a loyalist chapter overtly created from traitor geneseed, especially given the intense paranoia the Imperial machine has about the traitor legions, especially as geneseed is viewed as a concrete link between marines and their (corrupted) primarchs.

 

When GW has come close to using traitor geneseed in chapters they have had the very good sense to restrict it to vague hints at their lineage, such as the Cursed Founding Sons of Antaeus or the ambiguity surrounding the Blood Ravens. Even Loyalist Deathguard Captain Garro was cloaked in mystery, with stories of his fate varying from life enprisonment, his eventual, unavoidable fall to Nurgle, or working in secret to battle chaos... GW rightly avoided giving him an overt chapter of loyal deathguard geneseed marines.

 

I would similarly suggest that if you do go for the loyalist traitor route that you offer them the similar level of vagueness about their origins, and certainly not make them openly of the Horus Geneseed, although this will be tricky given your intended current origin story. A rash of previous traitor loyalist DIY chapter ideas had the Deus Ex Machina of an Inquisitor appearing and with a godlike pronouncement saying they were pure and loyal, before disappearing from the story once more. The use of an Inquisitor as an over-easy rationale for any big holes or inconsistencies in the story is definitely something I would avoid. The use of Guilliman and the Ultramarines is a spin on this, but for me still would not excuse chapters with openly traitor legion origins. :)

 

Finally, your original post discussed your desire to create something original - something that I would hope everyone creating a DIY chapter strives for - but after Horus Rising / False Gods the next few months will bring a whole avalanche of DIY chapter ideas of traitor legionnaires that never went traitor, so if you want originality, or even not to have your chapter lost in a faceless mass of similar DIY chapters on the board then this might not be the idea to put your creative energies into. :)

 

However, if you want to go with this idea then it is of course your models and chapter, and it is completely up to you. :)

 

Of course, if you really want to play loyalist Emperor's Children then you could always play them as Pre-Heresy, which avoids the fluff suspention of disbelief conflicts and stops them being just another 'Flavour Of The Week' fad. :) Pre-heresy also offers a huge number of fluff, originality and gameplay options. B)

[Brother Captain Adeon]

Thankfully I havent made this army yet, I was only fleshing out a background for them.

 

Ok, so what do you guys think I should do with all this? Change it to someone else, or just start all over again with another chapter (existing or invented)?

[Ferrata]

Answer this question, what did you want loyal Emperor's Children? This generally breaks down into two parts ->

 

Why the Emperor's Children?

Why not Chaos?

 

Once you have answered these question, you can use them to make a DIY Chapter that is similar to the Emperor's Children, but is your own and fits in with current fluff.

[Brother Captain Adeon]

Well, really I wanted to use them becuase I liked their colour scheme, and I was thinking about using a Codex chapter that wasnt Ultramarines or Imperial Fists.

 

Since I havent painted any models yet I will most likely change them to one of the other chapters in the Codex

[Ferrata]

Hawk Lords - Purple instead of Pink.

 

If it was only the scheme you like, you can copy the scheme and do anything you want with the chapter. There are more than just the Black Templars who dress all in black with White Trims.

[st.germaine]

Welcome to the fold, brother. I've been playing Loyalist Emperors Children for several years now and learned a long time ago that this is a particular topic that doesn't go over well here. The appeal for me was not just the noble color scheme but their purity and absolute loyalty to their leaders all the way up to the Emperor. The lower ranks rebelled because Fulgrim was turned and the taint spread down from the top out of loyalty to those above. The 7th Legion was out of contact due to warp storms and never got the word to turn coat and the rest is history (my history ^_^ ).

 

A number of the senior members here whose opinions on other matters I've come to respect greatly really don't cotton to this idea and it doesn't matter how well thought out or flimsy your fluff is - you aren't going to sell them on this idea. My suggestion is to discuss it with the group you play with. If they don't have a problem, run with it. My group is primarily grey-tooths with a smattering of twenty-somethings that fortunately thought this idea was amazingly fresh when I started and has been well received by every member and new member since. In recent months there have been more frequent postings of the idea of loyalist traitors on a number of the forums that I frequent and the idea seems to getting more popular. My suggestion is to remind you that it's your army and if you are comfortable with the idea, use it. For the record they look great on the table and

 

WE WILL REDEEM OUR HONOR!

[Brother Captain Adeon]

After much thought I've decided to abandon this (for now) and do an army of Crimson Fists. I want to have this done in time for Medusa V and I think that the CF colour scheme will be much quicker and easier for me to paint in time.

 

I may consider going back to these for a Pre-Heresy army, but not right now...