Big Woop

The imperium isn't excactly humane, so if the chapter is, wouldn't it make sense if they're at least somewhat anti-authoritarian? The reasoning might be:"If the authorities don't lift a finger to help these people, then we'll have to do it ourselves". Neither hungarian nor lithuanian is slavic of course, but perhaps the words "apskritis" and "megye" are slavic in origin?

"with armored walls and guns all over the place." I think this is a great idea, a planet that is obsessed with weapons and soldiery to the point when it dominates the cities aestethically. Of course that doesn't have to mean that the planet itself experiences war on its own soil often, it might just be engraved into their culture. Extreme living conditions is not absolutely necessary to make an interesting homeworld. A fortress world could do without a heavy industry, they might get their equipment from nearby worlds. As I'm not a big fan of extreme living conditions, I'd rather make the planet less polluted, but that's just me.

This is way off topic, but polish cavalry charging german tanks is nothing but a myth :P. Cavalry served as mobile infantry. Of course there were sporadic cavalry charges in WWII, but only a blind man would charge a tank. What if the noble houses on the planet have managed to manouevre themselves so that they partly control the local guard regiments? This could be an alternative to the rival kingdoms approach, the government being centralized(wouldn't that be required for a strategically important planet?) but since it's a garrison world, the guard regiments forms a state within the state.

One thing that would be interesting would be placing a slavic culture in a tropical climate. Just a thought.

If the peasants managed to survive, then the environment should have been quite hostile and difficult to move in, such as tall mountains and deep forests, which would be suitable for training. If the threat to the peasants was such that they had to choose between death or resistance, then it would simply have been self preservation instead of heroism.

At first glance the war bearers certainly don't seem humane, compared to the castellans. Perhaps their pilosophy is to carry the burden of war for the people, that they devote themselves to make the people's burden less heavy to bear. i.e they carry the burden of war so that the people won't have to. (though that may seem naive in the setting). As for their motivation, maybe they're simply more aware of the plight of the common man in the empire? Just being pragmatic is not really enough. Human suffering is something the emperor wanted to lessen right? It's just the circumstances that made the empire descend into consant warfare (correct me if i'm wrong). They might view themselves as more pure in their beliefs than other chapters, more true to the original purpose of the crusade?(or what they see as the original purpose from their point of view)

It feels like the chapter is difficult to define, but maybe that's not a bad thing? Making a chapter that is somewhere in the middle is kind of challenging. How about this: they find satisfaction only in knowing their mission is completed, they don't find any satisfaction in brutality. How about they move from war zone to war zone, not bothering to root out the enemy completely, just trying to achieve a certain military objective (for example they might cripple an army of rebels, then they would leave and let the local imperial guard and the inquisition take care of the rest). To them the job was not left unfinished, as they had won a decisive military victory.

Indeed focusing on a particular slavic culture would be best, if so then I would suggest polish names.

Their commander has a choice, and his actions are less predictable than for example Marines Malevolent. Even if the commander orders the chapter to slaughter civilians via a orbital bombardment they have to obey, so they must be able to trust his judgement. I realize it may sound a little vague though.

The two crossed axes makes me think of two warriors fighting together, symbolizing brotherhood and so on. Maybe all brothers would pe part of a two man team, always fighting alongside each other. Just a random idea that popped into my head :blush: . I like the idea of them being somewhere in the middle when it comes to morals, but they should still be able to take a stance and stand for their actions with fanatic devotion. The commander and his judgement would be very important, after all its not the individual marine who decides wether to destroy a city. What I mean is if they have at least some moral standards, that could mean their commanders play a more vital role to them than to other more ruthless chapters.

Why not make them strictly utilitarian and professional, a little like spartans? It can be inerpreted by outsiders as depressive, but it's more like the esprit de corps of modern proffesional armies. Other chapters might criticize them for their lack of heraldry and chivalric traditions. Using slavic names sounds good. But one shouldn't overdo it, IMO a name in this setting should mostly stick within the western european/anglo-saxon sphere. If all the marines had names like Vyatcheslav Kozlov you would have to spend alot of time explaining why, the same if they were called Gianluigi Modigliani.

The first thing that comes into my mind when I look at the colour scheme is the world wars: the ends justify the means, total warfare and so on, no illusions of chivalry just destruction. Even though the armour is camo green I think the intention behind it should not be camouflage, that just seems contradictory to the idea of space marines somehow.

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