An Fhuil Dhragain (The Dragons Blood)

[Driseamail]

The Dragons Blood chapter of Space Marine is located deep within the Ultima Segmentum.

They reside in the 'Mil Espaine' system, on a pair of twin planets, Eriu and Prydein. The 'Mil Espaine' system is situated roughly halfway between Baal and the Ghost stars.

(I've used this map to illustrate the placement, the twin planets are highlighted.)

 

Of the two planets, the Chapters main residence is Eriu, with 5 of the Chapters 6 companys being based there, and the 6th based on the larger planet, Prydein.

 

The individual companies recruit independantly of the others, except for the High Company, which draws its marines from the ranks fo the other five companies.

 

This unusual recruitment practice, coupled with the individual companies tendency to jockey for position has led to the companies referring to themselves in terms of their geographical location, for example, the Northern Company have their main headquarters on, and recruit from, the northern most contininet which exists almost entirely within the artic circle to the north of the planet.

 

The two exceptions to this are the High Company, and the Meoir Company. The Meoir draw their recruits from the larger of the two planets, Prydein, which is an agro world. The warriors of the Meoir rarely go into battle with their chapter brothers and indeed, are largely responsible for the domestic defenses of the 'Mil Espaine' system.

 

The High Company are ostensibly based at Tara, the main Headquarters of the Chapter, located on an island just off the north-west coast of the large eastern continent on Eriu, although they tend to spend most of their time based on board the Chapter fleet. Unlike the other companies, the High Company does not recruit from any specific location, but takes in only the best from the other five companies.

 

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The Dragons Blood chapter is fairly insular, and in many regards resemble the Space Wolves, not least in their love of drinking and feasting. However they do not appreciate the comparison being made to their faces, as the origin of their chapter is considered a sore point as all information on the origin of ther chapter, beyond that it originates from the around the time of the fifth founding or earlier, has been lost from the Imperial archives on Terra.

 

They will work grudgingly with other Imperial forces, but they prefer to work alone. The six individual companies of the chapter vary in this regard, with the Meoir, Northern and Eastern companies being the most Imperial friendly, followed by the Southern company, and finally the least friendly and most insular company, the Western company, the Warriors of Connaught.

 

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The warriors of the Meoir are led by Lord Argyle, a seasoned veteran who has only recently taken the position of Lord of the Meoir after the assencion of the former Commander, Gwalchmai Du'bara to the post of High Lord of the Chapter 25 years previous.

 

The company have a knack for interstellar warfare, manning as they do, most of the systems defensive systems. They also have a higher recruitment rate than the other chapters, as every 100 years, they choose one tenth of their number to partake in a crusade, the details of which are known only to the head of the Chapter, the High Druid and his retinue and the Lord of the Meoir. The warriors themselves are only informed of the details after having been chosen and dispatched to their destination. None ever return.

 

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Conchobar MacNessa is the Lord of the Northern (Uladh) Company and is one of the oldest marines in the Chapter, and is still slightly bitter that it was the younger Gwalchmai Du'bara who was elevated to the Position of Chapter master and not himself. For all that, he is a committed and powerful warrior, dedicated to the Imperium and to the eradication of all that taints it.

 

His company, residing on the most mineral rich continent are also the richest, their warriors clad in the latest armour and have many more vehicles than the other chapters. They have also traditionally enjoyed a position of power within the chapter as nearly half of all chapter masters have been drawn from their ranks.

 

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The Eastern (Laighn) Company is led by Conaire Mor. He has led the Eastern Company for over 5 decades now. For all that he has a particularly brusque personality, and has no great personal liking for the political machinations within his own chapter and indeed, the imperium in general, he is well aware of the importance of playing the game so to speak, and as such maintains a strong relationship with both the Adeptus Mechanicus on Mars and the Southern and Meoir Companys within the chapter.

 

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The Southern Company is led by Cu Roi MacDairi, a quiet marine, who is perhaps one of the most respected men in the chapter. A former Assualt marine who has risen through the ranks of the company for nearly 400 years, he has used his position of authority to mold the Southern company into a specialised fast attack company, utilising not just landspeeders and bikes, but also several innovations unique to the Dragons Blood chapter such as Attack Chariots and his own personal transport a -+(sorry, keeping that one under wraps for now, still havent finished drawing up the plans for it, let alone built it)+-.

 

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The commander of the West Company, Balor Fir'Bolge, is a ruthless tactician who has little regard for those not under his direct command. He tends to be suspicious of others, often believing that his company are under utilised and under appreciated. He also resents the amount of authority that the Druids of the chapter wield, believing that they should know their place as nothing more than weapons to be wielded by the Chapter.

 

His company is also the least 'imperial' of the companies in the chapter. None of the marines in his company have eagles on their chestplates, rather bare metal chest plates, often with lightly engraved celtic knots and sworls.

 

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The marines of the High Company are the best of the best, bravest, strongest and the smartest of the other five chapters are handpicked and sequestered to Tara and join the ranks of chapter legend.

 

Gwalchmai Du'bara, the High Lord of the Dragons Blood chapter is the youngest Chapter Master in the known history of the chapter. At a mere 130 years of age he had already led the Meoir Company into successful countless engagements and has spent the last 25 years doing the same with the chapter as a whole. His worth was recognised by the previous Chapter Master, who personally appointed him to the Position of Lord of the Meoir and awarded him the title of 'excubitor', the highest award that can be given in the chapter, although the reason behind it are lost to all but those in the inner circle of command and those to whom it is awarded, though they are sworn to secrecy. Currently there are less than 30 marines bearing the title within the chapter.

 

As High Lord of the Chapter, Du'bara also bears the title of High Lord of the Eriu and the Steward of Prydein, as it is part of the chapters legend that they may claim ownership of Eriu, but it's twin planet is held in their care, to be watched over its former lord, believed by many to be an allussion to the Emperor, returns to claim it.

 

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The organisation of companies with Dragons Blood is distinctly non-codex, with six battle companies of roughly 200 men, as opposed to the usual 10 x 100.

The companies, and their equivalent are as follows;

- High Company (1st Company)

- North Company (2nd Company)

- West Company (3rd Company)

- East Company (4th Company)

- South Company (5th Company)

- Meoir Company (6th Company)

 

Each company in the Dragons Blood bears the chapter heraldry, a coiled, red Dragon on a Golden disc upon it's left shoulder, and the companies own heraldry on their right shoulder.

The company heraldry is as follows:

 

High company: The warriors of the High Company bear no heraldry on their right shoulder, instead they bear a plain golden pad, to represent the unity of the High company, whose warriors are drawn from all five companies.

North Company: The North companys shoulder pad is a red cross laid on top of a golden background. In front of that sits a silver shield, with a red hand.

West Company: The West company is represented with a split white/black pad, with a black wing sprouting on the white side, and a white arm holding a chainsword on the black side.

East Company: The shoulder pad of the East company is green like the rest of the armour, with a golden dragon rearing its head.

South Company: The Southern company is represented by three golden (crowns/explosions) on a deep blue background.

Meoir Company: The Meoir companys heraldry is a red lion rampant on a gold shoulder pad.

 

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Druids wield a lot of authority within the Dragons Blood chapter. The Druids are a seperate caste of marines, consisting of three distinct types of marines, chaplains, librarians and apothecaries. They will tend to work closely together, although there has been known to be some jockeying for position amongst them.

 

All three castes wear white armour, with robes and armour detailing highlighting the differences. For example, the Chaplains wear Black robes and have a black right shoulder pad, whereas the Apothecaries wear Red robes and have red armour detailing.

 

At present the Chief druid is a Chaplain, Arawn Annw, and thus chaplains have the most power among the druids, which is a shift from the days of Arawn Annw's predecessor as Chief Druid, an Apothecary known as Crearwy, who is also the most recent marine fortunate enough to have been chosen to continue the fight inside the armoured shell of a revered Dreadnought.

 

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The colour scheme of the chapter is shown below, using the Eastern company as an example...

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g60/Driseamail/40k/DB_scheme_East.jpg

 

The individual companies shoulderpads are also shown below...

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g60/Driseamail/40k/Company_Heraldry.gif

 

At present I don't have a drawing of the Meoir shoulderpad, as I'm still refining that design.

 

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Also, just to explain the odd markings on the example shoulder pad, since this army is largely based on Irish celtic mythology, with a dash of welsh and arthurian myth for flavour, I've decided to use ancient irish Ogham scrip to delineate squad numbers, so for example, the example pictured, with two diagonal lines cutting through the vertical line denotes that the marine is from squad 7.

 

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So, in Summary...

 

Chapter Name: Dragons Blood

Founding Legion: ++unknown++

Chapter Founders: Bela Augustus

Current Commander: Gwalchmai Du'bara

Chapter Colors: Catachan Green, Bleached Bone, Gold

Chapter Insignia: A coiled red dragon

Battle Cry: ++undetermined++

Homeworld(s): The twin worlds of Eriu and Prydein

Chapter HQ: Tara

Chapter Strength: Roughly 1200+

 

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Any feedback would be appreciated. I'm still pretty new to this, so I'm sure theres plenty I've missed, but I am trying to get as complete a picture of the army as I can given that I'm still learning the rules and haven't even had a single game yet. :blush:

[Driseamail]

Balor Fir'Bolge of the West company?

 

Yeah, he's one of my favourites. I've a lot of fluff planned out for that company, such as the story of why about 60/70% of their manpower are scouts, and how he lost his left eye in battle. Hoping to get involved in a group campaign like Captain_Shrikes 'astartes of farthing wood' where I can expand on it a bit better.

 

Glad you liked it. Any bits you weren't too fond of? Anything you think I should elaborate on further, or make clearer?

[ryan_smith]

Pretty cool. I can tell that you put a lot of work into this and I can understand how hard it can.

 

ps I haven't played either :wub:

[Zhivago]

Just coincidence that coat of arms of south company matches to coat of arms of sweden ? :)

[Driseamail]

Actually, yes.

 

 

Heh. All of the heraldry are basiclaly lightly doctored versions of the flags of the old Irish kingdoms of Ulster, Leinster, Connaught and in the case of South company, the kingdom and province of Munster.

http://img.search.com/d/d5/300px-Real_Munster_Flag.gif

 

I just repositioned the crowns so that it'd be easier to fit them on a shoulder pad.

 

Though now you mention it, I may toy with adding some swedish influence into the South company, sit might help differentiate the difference between companies.

 

Cheers. :D

[o'rieley]

I like the idea, and you have put alot of work,

my chapter also has a celtic kinda heratige and also dragons.

 

however, one thing id like to say is that the average marine lives to 400, when he makes a mistake and dies in battle, your chapter master/High Lord, (also what i called mine), seems a bit young at 115, with Commander Dante of the Blood Angles being over 1100, and Commissar Yarrick, not even a space marine at about 150 - 200 during the third armagedeon war.

 

im not saying dont have a young chapter master, but i think anything less than 250ish would be too young.

 

and i like how your not having standard company size either,

 

what are your traits and etc?

[Driseamail]

Cheers.

 

I know what you mean about the Chapter master being perhaps too young, 115 might be a bit of a stretch, the thing is though that I want him to be outrageously young. I want it to be a sticking point between him and the Lords of the other companies, that they feel insulted that they were passed over, and that this whelp, who had only led his company for 25 years, and was barely old enough to do that!

 

I think I will change the age though, but not mauch, I'm going to edit it that he was 115 when he took command of the Meoir company, and thus was 140 when he took command of the Chapter as a whole.

 

As for traits, I'm not sure yet, as I've mentioned elsewhere, I'm pretty new to the hobby and have not had a proper game yet, only a few of the practice things from the Battle of MaCragge boxed set... ;)

 

I figure I should get a few games under my belt before I decide that, since I think most of them would work within the limits of the fluff.

[Driseamail]

I've been working on the fluff for the army for a while now, and I'm curious to see how people would feel if each of the Companies operated using different trait systems, in order to further highlight their individual differencs.

 

In my head, the companies operate almost like seperate chapters. There are ancient rivalries and honor debts between various companies and heroes, and I wondered if this would be an appropriate way to illustrate this in the rules?

[Ethereal Sword]

Chapter= Sword Falcons

Founded= unknown

Gene seed= Dark angels

History= http://bolterandchainsword.com/index.php?showtopic=99264

Chapter Master=Chapter Master Kraven

Master of Sanctity= Chaplain Rockwell

Chief Libraian= Epistolary Octavus

Battle cry= Ceas and Repent

[Balroth]

I very much like the idea of an Irish themed Chapter, but I want to know more. Why are the Companies so insular? Why are there only six Companies? Why is there so much infighting? Why would a Dark Angels successor deviate so far from their brother Chapter?

 

With the Space Wolves, we can just accept that 'they were always like that', since they were one of the original Legions, but with the Dragon's Bane, I think a fuller explanation would be good.

 

Also the name: Is Dragons singular or plural (Dragon's or Dragons'). And who is the Dragon (or who are the Dragons)? In fact, it may be better not to specify this, but I think you could mention it in such a way as to convey an aura of mystery.

 

You've given us some interesting info on 'what the Chapter is like', but I'd like to see more info on 'why the Chapter is like that'.

 

Good work though, and I especially like the references to the geography and political tendencies of Ireland (clearly in your case, the Imperium is comparable to mainland Britain).

 

Nice work so far.

 

-B

[Driseamail]

I've been away for a while, moving countries and such has taken me from the hobby for a bit, but I'm starting to get back into it now and I'm currently revising my fluff to make it a bit more workable. Should have a reworking of the Chapter organisation up in the next few days.

 

What this post is about though, is getting feedback on an idea relating to the background of this Chapter. The secret behind them so to speak.

 

I feel like I should stress that this is not something that's going to be pushed as part of their mythos, more of a reasoning for certain of their actions and belief structures. It's also heavily dependant on my own interpretation of several sources

 

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So, when I first came up with the idea for the Dragons Blood chapter (The Dragons Bane originally) I was about 16 and just like everyone else, I wanted them to be one of the missing legions and still have their primarch. If I remember rightly, my original idea was that their fleet had chased the Chaos chapters right to the eye of Terror, but were over-zealous in their pursuit and became trapped in the Eye, fighting their way out 100 years later, only to find that 10,000 years had passed in the Imperium and that they had been stripped from the Imperial record books for their perceived desertion. Thankfully I got bored of 40K long before the unfeasability of that idea even dawned on me.

 

Then when I got back into 40k a few years ago, I was still very fond of the idea, but knew that it'd never fly. However, I was reading the HH art books, and I noticed the Emperor talking about the warpway entrance behind the Golden Throne, and his 'army in the warp' fighting to keep chaos out. Now, I am aware that the common consensus is that he was referring to the Sisters of Silence and the Custodians, but I decided to take the idea and try and connect it to my chapter, but to do it in such a way as to not blatantly say my chapter is the second legion.

 

The way I look at it, a loyalist army fighting chaos in the warp is likely to suffer high casualties, and since I've never heard much about Custodian recuiting to swell their ranks, nor have I ever heard much about the SoS (though thats more likely due to my lack of knowledge, pure and simple).

 

So I considered an argument put forward on the Black Library forum, that the Emperor was aware that Horus would betray him, and had actually found at least one of the missing two primarchs before him, and had him lead his legion into the Emperors warpway construct as his army in the warp.

 

-

 

I then thought, what if Guilleman had found out about this after the Emperors entombment, and realising that the war against chaos was likely to last for a long, long time, that he may have agreed with the missing primarch to take 1000 of his 2nd legion, and bring them out into the galaxy with a new name and new heraldry, proclaiming them as a 2nd founding Ultramarines chapter so no one would suspect their origin, and then shipping them to Prydein (the second Primarchs home planet) where they would keep a low profile and increase their numbers.

 

Basically a Space Marine Company whose sole purpose is to raise elite troops to be sent to Terra to bolster the war in the warp.

 

---

 

I'm well aware that it's an idea that will annoy a lot of people, but it appeals to me, so I think I'm probably going to run with it. In terms of fluff, it'll probably be similar to the Dark Angels general awareness of the Fallen, as a rule, the rank and file of the chapter will have no idea that there is anything more to their chapters history than meets the eyes, but upon inductment into the High Company, a little will be revealed. Upon inductment into the Veteran Squads (the top 20 marines in the company), they will be told of their true origins, and awarded the title of 'Excubitor' and a shoulder pad from the original Legion, bearing the title (I'm already claiming that my chapter is descended from one of the missing legions, so I feel like I might as well name it, 'Excubitor' is latin for 'watchmen', which seems apt enough to me if they are guarding the warpway from Chaos.)

 

As for the full story, that their Primarch still lives and their original Legions exists within the warp, defending Holy Terra, only the Chapter Master and the High Druids, along with their bodyguards and retinue are aware, the only exception being those chosen to make the journey to Terra to bolster their legions numbers, as they are informed of the honour being bestowed upon them whilst in transit. None ever return, and as far as their battle brothers in the Dragons Bane chapter are aware, they are chosen to embark on a crusade for the honour of their chapter.

 

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Well, that's the background to the chapter that I keep in the back of my mind when i'm writing all of this, though it's not something I'm likely to ever use other than as a basis for working out how they would react to certain situations. For example, the topic of religon is one that troubles me, in that I feel that they should abhor the worship of the Emperor as an ancient chapter, but that would mark them out as being targets for the Inquisition, so i was thinking of using the tri-worship aspect in that they publicly venerate Guilliman, the Emperor and the Omnissiah, but that they secretly dislike overly religious chapters and individuals, believing the Inquisition to be a blight on mankind and will, if they think it worthwhile, sabotage Inquisitorial investigations, leading to a deep animosity between the two organisations, as several Inquisitors who have been relayed to systems near the chapters territor have disappeared, as have several Inquisitors engaged in battles on the same side as the Chapter.

 

I've also been toying with trying to retain the 'mystery' element of their origin by having their genestock not match 100% with traditional ultramarine geneseed, who according to Imperial Records are their founding Legion (I haven't worked out any details, since I don't know much about Ultramarines genestock atm, but I'm thinking something along the lines of what if an Imp Fist successor had a working Belchers gland), and thus giving the Inquisition another reason not to trust them, perhaps leading to some run ins where Inquisitors involved in campaigns alongside the Chapter have disappeared or fallen victim to 'friendly fire'.