Fleshing out new Traitor warband

[PipX]

With the new starter set and the new Chaos codex/models coming out, I am getting back into 40K after a long, long hiatus. I am currently working on preliminary ideas for a mixed traitor warband. I embrace the theme of corrupted elements for Chaos, so I plan on having a lot of different elements that will hopefully be tied in together through conversions and a paint scheme.

 

The paint scheme for my main group will be this:

 

http://i49.tinypic.com/343j245.jpg

 

A lot of details like mutations, glowy stuff, etc will be in a bright shade of green. The purple is going to be much darker than that, and the turquoise should roughly be the same. For renegades I will be painting them more motley, with the purple being a unifying color. The other half will be a scuffed up chapter specific color, so some may have ultramarine blue, salamander green, etc on the other side. The renegade squads will be mixed so may have elements of 3-4 chapters in a single squad.

 

Some things I have yet to decide on are where the main group comes from, and their overall ideology. I will have lots of gribbly stuff on the "true" chaos marines, with some hints of mutation on the renegades. I'm not a huge fan of Khorne type stuff so I need to find a way to shoehorn those in if needed, but a lot of elements from the other three gods will be included. A decent amount of daemon engines as well, with less of an emphasis on regular SM vehicles.

 

I do want to have them to have a tie to a Chaos Legion, but not sure which. The main two I can see relatively easy ties to would be Word Bearers or Emperor's Children. Emperor's Children would most likely be the easiest, explaining them away as striving for corruption of others into the fold. Once I get in my DV set later this week I will probably start on a test CSM, corrupted Dark Angel successor, and a cultist to see if the scheme works when painted.

 

Any thoughts on directing the fluff would be appreciated.

[Aqui]

I think that perhaps your War band could be made up of dissidents of various Chapters who were either exiled, or simply left to pursue a life unfettered by devotion to the Emperor. If I recall, there is a War band like that already in GW fluff, but I forget the name of it. As to how they banded together, perhaps they were drawn to a battlefield where the Word Bearers or Emperor's Children were present and decided that their best chance was to be amongst those who felt the same as they did and formed a War band. The Word Bearers or Emperors Children might have seen the potential in them or saw them simply as cannon fodder. The War band itself decided to take on a colour scheme that allowed them to both declare their true allegiance (the Purple part), but taunted the Imperium (their original colours).

 

In any case, I'll be looking with interest with what you decide :yes:

[Vesper]

Amazing scheme.

You could also ally your warband with TS. Blue and purple with a lot of mutations, feels pretty Tzeentchy to me !

[PipX]

So I think I will probably do some brainstorming tomorrow after class since I will have about 3 hours to kill. But here is some initial ideas:

 

Loyalist Origins:

 

-Originally a 6/7th founding chapter (Placing them somewhere between M32 and M34)

-Named Idolaters (Very surprised that this is not an "official" name, nor have I found anyone having chosen them when doing searches)

-Dorn geneseed, unlisted direct parent chapter.

-Rabid Ecclesiarchy allies, strong ties to early Inquisitorial Ordos (Either Malleus or Hereticus, not sure which but only one at the end)

-Slight divergence in that they view some Brothers view Librarians as Avatars of the Emperor, some traditional Chaplain duties are usurped.

-Planet based (Not sure exactly where.) Heavy involvement in planetary governance.

 

Not sure what the original color will be, definitely will have a purple element.

 

Possible corruption: (Warning, long, rough framework inbound)

 

-Crusade force led by the Chapter Master is deployed against forces around the Maelstrom. (Elements of the 1st, 4th, 8th, 9th, and 10th companies, as well as heavy Librarius presence, minimal Chaplain involvement as most are left behind as regents for the home worlds populace)

-Engage with elements of Word Bearers on Shrine World.

-Seeking to gain power, several captains and acolytes betray their Apostle and lead to him being captured and fettered by the Idolaters, who decide that they will deliver him to the Ministorum/Inquisition, while the elements of the Librarius/Chaplains interrogate him in transit.)

 

This is a part where I am not sure how I want to go about, I figure to allow there to be a slow gradual corruption, the Apostle will be interrogated for a long period while the crusade goes on, and either the Apostle will gradually corrupt the Librarians or the Chaplains. If I go with the Librarians I figure I can have them set up the Chaplains to be purged, and for them to co opt the office itself, and have that be the chink in the faith for the chapter. Or, it could be the Chaplains who get the upper hand, seeing a way to regain stature over the Librarians. The Chapter Master will either be sidelined or head of the interrogation. If sidelined either Head Librarian/Reclusiarch will become head of chapter in all but name.

 

Either which way over time one of the groups will slowly introduce the regular brothers into the worship of Chaos, all directed by the Apostle behind the scenes. At the conclusion of the crusade, when the chapter returns to their homeworld to deliver the Apostle to representatives of the Ministorum/Inquisition on their home world, the Chaplains who were left behind see very divergent beliefs. A war breaks out, with some elements of the marines stationed on the home world defecting over as they see the brothers led by the Chapter Master and the Librarius/Crusade Chaplains as inviolate. Around this point the Apostle is pretty much freed and is now leading squads into battle.

 

At the end ~400 marines will be left, with around a company of loyalists making their way off world to search for other brothers of the chapter before the corrupted ones do. Heavy damage to the world with Ecclesiarch and Inquisition bases destroyed, a few radical Inquisitors (Istvaanists/Xanthians) have thrown in their lot, will need to also find logical reasons for some corrupted Ecclesiarchy and Adeptus Mechanicus.

 

With the remnants of the chapter firmly under the thumb of the Apostle, massive amounts of the populace are enslaved and the chapter departs the world in its fleet, destroys their world with cyclonic torpedoes.

 

Further corruption:

-Apostle guided chapter goes to regain vengeance on the captains who betrayed him.

-After destroying the elements of his Host that betrayed him, a core of Word Bearers are absorbed that become a ruling class over the Idolaters.

-Cue a few thousand years of war where the Idolaters are treated as lesser forces, are exposed to elements of the Emperor's Children and Thousand Sons (Or Slaanesh and Tzeentch dedicated forces)

-The Idolaters, led by the Librarius/internal Chaplains over time begin to stop Khorne worship, leading to further strife with the Word Bearers.

-The Idolaters, now as fully corrupt as any Legionnaire, betrays the Word Bearers to representatives of the Forge of Souls in order to gain independence and daemon engines.

 

-The Idolaters mission now is to corrupt loyalist marines as they were corrupted by the Word Bearers, while also avoiding reprisals from the same.

 

This is a very rough framework with some obvious gaps (To me at least.) But if anyone has thoughts, by all means chime in.

[PipX]

Test model for this group:

 

http://i48.tinypic.com/ic8ohy.jpg

 

http://i48.tinypic.com/7260w8.jpg

 

I need to see if I can mix up a big batch of that green for the tubes and mutant flesh, mix of elf flesh, scorpion green, and a dab of the last generation blue and green inks.

 

Bases are going to be made by hollowing them out, gluing plasticard to the bottom, painting the inside a purple to red blend with demon growths sculpted rising up out of the space. That stuff will be hit with a gloss+ glitter mix of a purple and red/black mix, then all the empty space filled in with scenic water. On top of everything will be ranger distressed crackle paint which creates cracked ice effect on top of everything, with everything being transparent.

[minigun762]

This is a part where I am not sure how I want to go about, I figure to allow there to be a slow gradual corruption, the Apostle will be interrogated for a long period while the crusade goes on, and either the Apostle will gradually corrupt the Librarians or the Chaplains. If I go with the Librarians I figure I can have them set up the Chaplains to be purged, and for them to co opt the office itself, and have that be the chink in the faith for the chapter. Or, it could be the Chaplains who get the upper hand, seeing a way to regain stature over the Librarians. The Chapter Master will either be sidelined or head of the interrogation. If sidelined either Head Librarian/Reclusiarch will become head of chapter in all but name.

There is already a split in most chapters between the librarians and chaplains, so widening an existing rift is a reasonable ploy for the basis of a chapter civil war. You could go either way with who gets corrupted, but my preference would be librarians (possibly manipulated by Tzeentch) who lead the chapter to Chaos. My reasoning is 1) if the librarians are already seen as embodiments of the Emperor, it gives them additional clout within the chapter and 2) explain that the reason the chapter was able to win against the Word Bearers was due to the direct actions of their librarians. Take a step further by directing any potential blame at the battle brothers who were lost at the chaplains (maybe due to an ill-advised last stand?).

 

 

At the end ~400 marines will be left, with around a company of loyalists making their way off world to search for other brothers of the chapter before the corrupted ones do. Heavy damage to the world with Ecclesiarch and Inquisition bases destroyed, a few radical Inquisitors (Istvaanists/Xanthians) have thrown in their lot, will need to also find logical reasons for some corrupted Ecclesiarchy and Adeptus Mechanicus.

Oaths to the chapter will go a long way to justifying why a particular faction follows them into heresy (unknown to them of course).

 

 

 

 

Further corruption:

-Apostle guided chapter goes to regain vengeance on the captains who betrayed him.

-After destroying the elements of his Host that betrayed him, a core of Word Bearers are absorbed that become a ruling class over the Idolaters.

-Cue a few thousand years of war where the Idolaters are treated as lesser forces, are exposed to elements of the Emperor's Children and Thousand Sons (Or Slaanesh and Tzeentch dedicated forces)

-The Idolaters, led by the Librarius/internal Chaplains over time begin to stop Khorne worship, leading to further strife with the Word Bearers.

-The Idolaters, now as fully corrupt as any Legionnaire, betrays the Word Bearers to representatives of the Forge of Souls in order to gain independence and daemon engines.

 

-The Idolaters mission now is to corrupt loyalist marines as they were corrupted by the Word Bearers, while also avoiding reprisals from the same.

 

This is a very rough framework with some obvious gaps (To me at least.) But if anyone has thoughts, by all means chime in.

Going back to the fate of the captured apostle. I'd rather see him killed off and the leader of the new warband being one of the members of the chapter. Maybe he's killed by the loyalist chaplains who see (too late) how he is affecting their brothers or maybe he is killed during a psychic interrogation from the Librarians who delve too deep and learn first hand about the primordial truth of Chaos.

[PipX]

There is already a split in most chapters between the librarians and chaplains, so widening an existing rift is a reasonable ploy for the basis of a chapter civil war. You could go either way with who gets corrupted, but my preference would be librarians (possibly manipulated by Tzeentch) who lead the chapter to Chaos. My reasoning is 1) if the librarians are already seen as embodiments of the Emperor, it gives them additional clout within the chapter and 2) explain that the reason the chapter was able to win against the Word Bearers was due to the direct actions of their librarians. Take a step further by directing any potential blame at the battle brothers who were lost at the chaplains (maybe due to an ill-advised last stand?).

 

Yea, maybe a new way to go with the librarians being venerated as living icons, but are pretty much controlled by the chaplains behind the scenes. The chaplains would have a vested interest that the "glory boys" don't do anything that would interfere with the chapter cult.

 

I think the librarians killing the apostle during an interrogation and getting a mind full of Chaos is a great idea. I think Slaanesh will be their primary patron, maybe subtly influencing their pride causing them to go overboard with psychic power to obliterate the Apostle's defenses and thus being corrupted in turn. Will need to decide if the chaplains would start losing influence prior to that or after that.

 

I think that for leadership I would change it to the chapter master as a puppet, with a conclave of remaining psykers at that point calling the shots.

 

It looks like I need to start looking at an IA template and start writing around that. Thanks for the ideas minigun!

[minigun762]

Slaanesh would work too. Maybe feed on elements of jealousy between chaplains and librarians.

Puppet leader would be a nice touch, as long as it's a chapter member.

[Kol Saresk]

Hmm, if the Librarians are the ones being venerated, it would make sense if the Chaplains lose influence after the Librarians kill one of them as the Chapter could interpret it as the Librarians are right and the Chaplains are wrong.

[minigun762]

I had a random thought last night. Based on the color scheme and the relationship between the librarian and chaplains, what about having slaanesh and tzeentch fighting over this chapter. Both offering favor in hope of obtaining a powerful new set of followers.

[KBA]

I had a random thought last night. Based on the color scheme and the relationship between the librarian and chaplains, what about having slaanesh and tzeentch fighting over this chapter. Both offering favor in hope of obtaining a powerful new set of followers.

 

That's a fantastic idea. Having the color scheme reflect the conflict of the gods and the split worship is awesome. Paint some units more slaanesh and others more tzeentch to represent marks/icons.

[PipX]

I had a random thought last night. Based on the color scheme and the relationship between the librarian and chaplains, what about having slaanesh and tzeentch fighting over this chapter. Both offering favor in hope of obtaining a powerful new set of followers.

 

That is a terrific idea, and one I fully intend to use. I'm thinking that the Librarians will be the adherents of Slaanesh, and the Chaplains will become more like daemonlogists and shamans. One side harnesses the might of Chaos through pure psychic power and faith, the other through faith and daemonic lore, and both sides struggle to prove their power over the other to gain total control over the warband.

 

One thing I was also thinking of doing, for variety, was using conversions from DV and other normal SM models to represent marines they have corrupted to serve the warband. I'm currently trying to find someone to trade my DV DA's to but if I don't find anyone, what I plan on doing is filing off all markings on the purple side, and try my hand at red corsairish markings in bright green and blue. The left side remains in their normal chapter color, but heavily damaged and roughed up. They would have the chapter symbol on that side of whatever first founding chapter they are founded from, to show the bloodline they have betrayed. The damaged chapter colored side would be kind of a test of faith for them, as they can't be fully initiated as a brother into the warband until that side is pretty much devoid of anything that can be construed as showing their former allegiance.

[minigun762]

I love it. Be careful or ADB might steal it for his next novel. ;)

[Kristoff]

I had a random thought last night. Based on the color scheme and the relationship between the librarian and chaplains, what about having slaanesh and tzeentch fighting over this chapter. Both offering favor in hope of obtaining a powerful new set of followers.

 

That is a terrific idea, and one I fully intend to use. I'm thinking that the Librarians will be the adherents of Slaanesh, and the Chaplains will become more like daemonlogists and shamans. One side harnesses the might of Chaos through pure psychic power and faith, the other through faith and daemonic lore, and both sides struggle to prove their power over the other to gain total control over the warband.

:) I love it. The story could go that the Librarians kept getting power through their worship of Slaanesh, and the Chaplains turned to Tzeentch to "fight them on their own turf."

 

One thing I was also thinking of doing, for variety, was using conversions from DV and other normal SM models to represent marines they have corrupted to serve the warband. I'm currently trying to find someone to trade my DV DA's to but if I don't find anyone, what I plan on doing is filing off all markings on the purple side, and try my hand at red corsairish markings in bright green and blue. The left side remains in their normal chapter color, but heavily damaged and roughed up. They would have the chapter symbol on that side of whatever first founding chapter they are founded from, to show the bloodline they have betrayed. The damaged chapter colored side would be kind of a test of faith for them, as they can't be fully initiated as a brother into the warband until that side is pretty much devoid of anything that can be construed as showing their former allegiance.

Also an excellent idea. I had a similar idea for my warband. They have a squad of Rubric Marines. Those Rubrics weren't Thousand Sons, though, but marines from their chapter that fought against the Fall, Marines who were changed while critically injured instead of just offed, or those Marines they later captured and refused to turn from the Emperor. While the regular armor would keep the unit's colors, the shoulder badges would be from units I Swept in games later on.

[PipX]

So I've not been able to paint as much as I'd liked this month, having to do back to back recertification exams for my IT certs, plus college. I've been working on a chapter symbol for my guys though, and I definitely seem to be leaning towards more Slaanesh as the dominant faction for my army.

 

As a very terrible mockup, here is what I am thinking the symbol for my warband will be:

 

http://i46.tinypic.com/mvrqz6.jpg

 

Where it says "happy triangle bits here" are going to be 7 arrows for a chaos star. Currently shopping around for help making the vector image from two images I have for the warband symbol. The idea is the Slaanesh symbol is a scepter being held in the fist, showing their former origins as an IF successor and their new beliefs.

 

I think I am going to be swapping out the Word Bearers DA for a Slaanesh one in my origin, with the Chaplains turning to forbidden lore in their archives to stem the Chaos worship without being overt to court excommuniation before the full fall of the Chapter. Figure they will turn into a raven cult which will be a Tzeentch instead of the Emperor swap (Thanks Ben Counter!)