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Inspirational Friday 02/03/2012


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Regarding the Legions.

 

Cranking the grimdark factor up a little, what if the hate the "Loyalists" felt towards these Horus Heresy "traitors" was so strong that it blinded them, prevented them from seeing reason.

What if the traitor legions had simply accepted exile, and had merely settled in the Eye (or similar haven) without having embraced Chaos?

 

Forever reviled and hated because they chose to believe, too strongly, in a demigod, a false idol (Horus), only to find he had been seduced by Chaos and then to be attacked by their erstwhile brethren for being viewed as tainted/corrupt in spirit and mind?

 

Imagine being a Legionnaire then,

Built to conquer, conditioned for war, yet having no purpose anymore, other than survival (a war in itself under these terms).

Constantly having to raid a society you once belonged to, having to hide & battle hostile warp predators and their followers.

Trying to live out of time and space, until the end.

 

And what if the new renegade marines were the Chaos Marines as we know them today?

Hate-fuelled, Chaos God-supported killing machines with a very narrow emotional range (crush, kill, destroy in the name of the Dark Gods).

 

How do you think your legion would handle this - What if?

 

 

"We were the rider and we were the hearse

 

We were the salvation and we were the curse"

 

We were the shadows - hidding from the breaking day

 

And we were the flames - that once burned entire worlds away

 

Upon our broken dreams we lay our heads

 

And fall into a slumber deep, with dreams as hard as lead

 

Tired of the tyrants, drained of tears to weep

 

We hope the Sun will never wake us

 

As mankind slowly falls asleep" - K.Leikola.

 

 

Have a nice weekend.

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Very interesting idea. As I see it from the Loyalist side, its entirely plausible. Hate blinds. Absolute hate blinds absolutely. It is said that the first casualty of any war is Truth. It really isn't a stretch for me to see how the Loyalists could just not see beyond the perceived betrayal. (The Imperium isn't known for its vast supply of broad-minded thinkers :verymad: )

 

That said, I would see Chaos more like this:

 

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

 

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

 

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

 

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll.

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

-William Ernest Henley
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So it's "Pre Heresy Style Legions vs. Youngblood Chaos Space Marine Renegades" for control of the Eye of Terror?

 

I think it depends on how successfully the Legions kept themselves together that would determine if they could repulse invaders of any kind, particularly ones that are in league with Chaos in a chaos-saturated realm.

 

I think that eventually, even inevitably, if you live in the Eye of Terror (I suppose we need a good definition of "or other safe haven") you will become tainted by Chaos. To put it differently, if you are a knight, branded as a traitor, and you hide form your former kingdom in the dragon's lair, you will eventually get eaten, or serve the dragon.

 

Therefore, I think any Legion trapped in this situation long enough will either be destroyed or corrupted. In the case of the Death Guard, I think they would find the planet with the most hostile environment that they could still fortify, build some fortress-monastaries, and resolutely wait for time to end. However, before that happened, I think they would slowly slip under the influence of Chaos. Of course, it would be a very different story than the Death Guard being marooned in the warp and attracting the attention of Nurgle. In fact, it might not even be Nurgle that finally wears down their resolve in this scenario.

 

Imagine a Death Guard that has been slowly and subtly tempted by Slaanesh to not just test themselves by drinking poisons, but to branch out into the wider world of chemistry...

 

Or a Death Guard that whose day-to-day existence is so given over to fighting the horrors that stalk wherever they settle that the only measure of worth is the daily kill-tally, and stoic nobility gives way to an animalistic hunger for slaughter and ever more slaughter...

 

And a kalidescope of other ways for contempt for the weakness of others to be twisted into something that serves Chaos.

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The Night Lords would likely be the heroes of this universe; extremely dark and embittered heroes, but everything they claimed about their so called loyalist kin would be vindicated: they would effectively stand as the untainted lords of their kind; harbingers of a new age of "pure justice," brought about via the fear of the retribution they would bring. I see them as being the most active "traitor" marines in the scenario you describe; questing out from the Eye of Terror to bring the Haunter's justice to those worlds that have fallen into ruin and chaos. Through ritualised cults of terror and brutalisation, they would purge human populations of even the hint of chaos worship, establishing their own small but growing empire to stand against that of the Imperium, which is fast devolving into utter, ungovernable chaos.
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Oh crap, does this mean there would be Word Bearer contingents building Churches dedicated to the God-Emperor inside the Eye of Terror?!? That...would be... *Head Explosion*
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Oh crap, does this mean there would be Word Bearer contingents building Churches dedicated to the God-Emperor inside the Eye of Terror?!? That...would be... *Head Explosion*

... very short lived, by my estimate. If the Chaos worshipping parts of the Word Bearers didn't crush them completely I'm pretty sure someone else would :confused:

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Oh crap, does this mean there would be Word Bearer contingents building Churches dedicated to the God-Emperor inside the Eye of Terror?!? That...would be... *Head Explosion*

... very short lived, by my estimate. If the Chaos worshipping parts of the Word Bearers didn't crush them completely I'm pretty sure someone else would :teehee:

 

Maybe. We are talking about one of the largest Legions in existance (even split in two), still united by their re-formed faith in the God-Emperor after the "Nihmian" Heresy (Heh heh). Anyone who wanted to dig them out would be in for one hell of a fight.

 

Ahhh...visions of grey and red Word Bearers waging a holy war against each other in Hell...beautiful, beautiful...

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Oh crap, does this mean there would be Word Bearer contingents building Churches dedicated to the God-Emperor inside the Eye of Terror?!? That...would be... *Head Explosion*

... very short lived, by my estimate. If the Chaos worshipping parts of the Word Bearers didn't crush them completely I'm pretty sure someone else would :yes:

 

Maybe. We are talking about one of the largest Legions in existance (even split in two), still united by their re-formed faith in the God-Emperor after the "Nihmian" Heresy (Heh heh). Anyone who wanted to dig them out would be in for one hell of a fight.

 

Ahhh...visions of grey and red Word Bearers waging a holy war against each other in Hell...beautiful, beautiful...

Very :teehee:

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Oh, a cool thought...Who would lead the 'Exiles'? (I'm assuming the HH went on as normal until Horus's Death, when the exiles had an epiphany, so those who died during the Heresy are out. I'm also assuming the Primarchs are all dead, or in hiding, or full on traitors now)

My votes (some based on rational thought, others on 'cool' factor.

 

Exiles-

Luna Wolves: Little Horus. After all, after they reattached his face, all he really looked like was a badass :cuss

 

World Eaters: Zhufor. Hell, why not? He seems pretty rational for a World Eater, and I think Khârn would never turn back from the abyss.

 

Thousand Sons: Ahriman, hands down. The guy is already an exile, and I could easily imagine him severing himself from the greater Legion to seek it's redemption.

 

Death Guard: Ooh, tough one. I'd say Tementer, mainly cuz I think Garro is too far entrenched making the =I=, and I can't think of any other candidates.

 

Emperor's Children: Ancient Rylanor. Sheer cool-factor 'hells yes' here...

 

Word Bearers: Argel Tal. I imagine he'd have a 'Khârn' moment here, his body taken from Terra, and miraculously revived by his renewed faith in the God-Emperor. The 'Last Angel' becomes the first, the new spiritual leader of the re-reborn Word Bearers. There's a beautiful symmetry there, and it would take proof that the Emperor still loved them for the Exiles to return to the Grey.

 

Iron Warriors: Forrix. Maybe he'd has a 'Dantioch' moment, and remembers what it truly is to have 'Iron Within, Iron Without'. He's also an absolute badass. Only Forrix would look at a freakin' Titan, and say "I'm gonna gut you like a hog with my bare friggin' hands." And then actually do it.

 

Alpha Legion: Omegon. This is the only exception to the 'no primarch' rule I made for myself, just because it's a cool idea that the twins would wage a black ops war on each other for eternity.

 

Night Lords: None. I just can't see anyone truly re-uniting the Night Lords, exile or otherwise. If I had to pick someone, it'd be Sevetar, if only a quirk of fate spared his life. Only the First Captain could retain a sembalence of control over this merry band of psychopaths.

 

 

That was kinda fun! We should do this again sometime, Nihm... :cuss

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Night Lords: None. I just can't see anyone truly re-uniting the Night Lords, exile or otherwise. If I had to pick someone, it'd be Sevetar, if only a quirk of fate spared his life. Only the First Captain could retain a sembalence of control over this merry band of psychopaths.

That would just be completely awesome. Although I guess it would wind up being Zso Sahaal since he's still in the "Batman Mode" that the Legion was in when Curze first came to the Legion.

 

Unless the Night Haunter took control and they still became the merry band of psychopaths that we all know and love with Sevatar the Bloody-Handed leading the charge with his chain-spear! Ave Dominus Nox!

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Night Lords: None. I just can't see anyone truly re-uniting the Night Lords, exile or otherwise. If I had to pick someone, it'd be Sevetar, if only a quirk of fate spared his life. Only the First Captain could retain a sembalence of control over this merry band of psychopaths.

That would just be completely awesome. Although I guess it would wind up being Zso Sahaal since he's still in the "Batman Mode" that the Legion was in when Curze first came to the Legion.

 

Unless the Night Haunter took control and they still became the merry band of psychopaths that we all know and love with Sevatar the Bloody-Handed leading the charge with his chain-spear! Ave Dominus Nox!

 

I played around with the idea of Sahaal taking over, but dismissed the thought. Few NL's would respect him any longer for his percieved abandonment of the 1st company, whether he had the Corona Nox or not. On top of that, the Night Lords are in complete anarchy structure-wise as is in the 'standard' universe; it would be far worse for them in the Nihmian Heresy. The Nihmian NL's would be roaming bands of nutjobs still, there would just be even more infighting, in my opinion.

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QUOTE

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

 

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

 

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

 

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll.

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

 

This is one of my favourite pieces of writing. It's so empowering and I find it fits 40k like a glove. I actually have I am the 'I am the master of my fate I am the captain of my soul tattooed on me.

 

Anyway back to topic. I don't believe that spending time within the eye would lead you to worship the ruinous powers just look at the space wolves 13th company. It would lead to widespread mutation no doubt and inevitably there would be cases of chaos worship but I wouldn't say it was set on stone that they would turn.

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My World Eaters are Warriors-they delight in the thought of glorious death in battle. Being surrounded on all sides by enemies is a good way to die.

 

My Nightblades' very creation are based (now) off of events taking place during the Horus Heresy...namely the Epilogue of Deliverence Lost, and the AL's propensity of replacing/indoctrinating Loyalist chapters, namely the Loyalists the Death Shadows being infiltrated and then replaced by an Alpha Legion cell, whereby they ramp up Astartes Production, to the point they were having difficulty equipping the astartes with Power armor and weapons, and so developed certain rites of passage for Initiate Teams where they had to best fully armed and armored enemy Astartes in combat to claim their gear for themselves.

 

They had around 6,000 Astartes, and in planning to capitalize on the Tyrannid invasion to further destabilize the Ultramar sector when a Tendril of Hivefleet Behemoth destroyed Sybari, taking much of the Astartes, now calling themselves the Nightblades, with them and leading to less than 800 surviving.

 

In the game I use 5 man Scout Squads to represent the initiate Teams only the combat knife and light refractive armor, they count as Daemons. And the end of Deliverence Lost explains why the Alpha Legion has been proclaimed dead several times before...only to rise up again, stronger than before.

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World Eaters: Zhufor. Hell, why not? He seems pretty rational for a World Eater, and I think Khârn would never turn back from the abyss.

 

Zhufor ain't a world eater. He was a loyalist marine forcibly converted to the blood god. He would be one of those new blood chaos chaps

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But Zhufor did wear World Eater colors and even still has them on his model from Forgeworld since the Skulltakers are supposed to a branch off of the World Eaters! At least that's what the Lexicanum said about him...
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Now that I think about it, I feel that the World Eaters would probably split between those who had the agression implants, and those who didn't. The Exiles would probably end up being like the 'Dornian Heresy' World Eaters, their violence tight and controlled, while the implanted would probably follow their Primarch into utter damnation.

 

In other words, I have no friggin' clue now who would lead the Exiled World Eaters. Probably an unknown.

 

EDIT: Ah ha, I got it. Found laying alongside Loken on Istvaan III, his face torn off, is a barely breathing Captain Ehrlen of the loyal World Eaters. At the end of the heresy, Ehrlen accepts exile, swearing to redeem his fellow exiled World Eaters somehow.

 

Hell, it'd be cool, at least. :)

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EDIT: Ah ha, I got it. Found laying alongside Loken on Istvaan III, his face torn off, is a barely breathing Captain Ehrlen of the loyal World Eaters. At the end of the heresy, Ehrlen accepts exile, swearing to redeem his fellow exiled World Eaters somehow.

 

Hell, it'd be cool, at least. :)

So basicly another Ancient Rylanor? Fitting, considering how much Slaanesh and Khorne love [/sarcasm] each other, that their enemies/turncoats/whatevers are lead by very similar leaders

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