IA: Brolaf Starfist's Great Company

[Conn Eremon]

Origins
"Whoa there, Torbjorn. You mean to tell me you've never heard of the old wolf Starfist? Not even once; a single tidbit? How long have you been a part of this Chapter?"

In the heady days of M34, there rose to prominence among the Space Wolves Chapter Brolaf Svensson. Following the death of his Wolf Lord, the eager Wolf Guard took over the mantle and blooded the Great Company to his command in a righteous war against the Dark Mechanicum. Having taken over a Forgeworld, the Dark Mechanicum began utilizing it for experimental work. A heresy to be expected of thrice-damned traitors. Their intent was create controlled, miniaturized explosions that would burst with nuclear fire. Their work was ultimately successful but their binaric victory songs were cut short by the arrival of Brolaf's Great Company. With howling laughter and laughing howls the Space Wolves stormed their foundry-fortress. Brolaf himself slew their leader, a hulking, despicable amalgamation of machine and flesh, by thrusting one of their freshly minted grenades into its outflow port. The resulting detonation obliterated the traitor from within and Brolaf lost an arm he didn't want back. Afterwards, the Forgeworld was demolished so that the heretical work could never be replicated. Many believe he was named 'Starfist' in honor of this deed, though Brolaf always insisted that he was named thus because of the powerfist on the other hand awarded to him by the great Navigator House Belisarius, which had set upon it in great sapphires the rays of a star. None can recall which event took place first and many mention the redundancy of having a powerfist on one hand and a bionic replacement on the other. He also claimed it was because of his choice of sigil, being the wolf's claw reaching up to grasp a shining star, but most believe he chose it just to make that claim.

Having sealed the loyalties of his warriors in granting them a heady victory, Wolf Lord Brolaf Starfist led his Great Company into the never-ending wars the Imperium endures. He became living legend and his legend kept growing. Upon the slopes of the wasteland world of Norther V, Brolaf fought against a Chaos Lord of the Black Legion. They fought with their fists, which struck with such force and speed as to imitate the sound of a firing heavy bolter. His command of his warriors was so absolute that, when his Rune Priest fell as his mind was being devoured by the psychic blow that was the Howling, it took but a backhanded blow to shake him of its effects. The myriad stories depicted of him, such as his encounter of the 13th Company and brief time fighting alongside Russ before the treacheries of the warp separated them or how he led the resistance of the fourth incursion of the Tau into Imperial space, have become legendary. Such was the fame and heroism of Brolaf Starfist that little else of the Space Wolves Chapter is known of those days. Even the identity of the Great Wolf was over shadowed by the boisterous Wolf Lord, unless the histories merely neglected to mention that he was the Great Wolf.

Homeworld
"What in the Allfather's name do you have to ask that question for? Fenris. Fenris! Remember the part where I said he was a Space Wolf?"

The soul of ice and fire of Fenris is the beating heart of Brolaf. He was an islander whelp when his fathers, his mother could never give him a straight answer, took him with them to raid the other island people. His prowess grabbed the attention of Wolf Priest Domhnall, who snatched him from the battlefield. The attacked tribe reveres that Wolf Priest still for saving them. Though Brolaf and his Great Company rarely got to see Fenris, they took with them the tectonic fury and the resilience of the world-sea.

Combat Doctrine
"They hit things. Hard. They were good at it. Hitting things. Hard. Quite skilled, actually."

Brolaf Starfist enjoyed the mayhem of close combat like any other Space Wolf. With his Great Company, within which a preference for powerfists had grown with their Wolf Lord's popularity, Brolaf would smash his way through any foe, upon any battlefield. Whether it was the bastions of the Iron Warriors, the stores of jewels in the center of the Eldar Craftworlds or the hordes of Orks many times their number, Brolaf smashed. When other Chapters would retreat, Brolaf would drag his Great Company even deeper. Though seeming to enter battle with wanton abandon, the strategies of Brolaf are works of genius and have been immortalized in the Codex Astartes.

Organisation
"Well. There was the Wolf Lord, I already mentioned him. Then there's the Wolf Guard, the Long Fangs, the Grey Hunters and the . . . Do I really need to go on?"

Brolaf's Great Company is organized little differently than other Great Companies. Brolaf often used Wolf Guard Helgva as a Battle Leader, in command of a contingent of the Great Company in light of its over-bloated size. Periodically, however, she would be stripped of command for being unfit. This rarely lasted however, until the next time arrived. Though Helgva may be seen as Brolaf's second-in-command, it was Wolf Guard Ranuldsson who was seen as his eventual heir and remained ever close to the Wolf Lord as his Champion. Brolaf would often listen to his Rune Priest Gandralfer Thread-cutter's prophecies before heading off into battle atop Shadowmane, an apex Fenrisian wolf, an established practice among the Space Wolves. His Iron Priest, Jorgmundr the Iron-Jawed, whose nickname became all the more appropriate when an Eldar Banshee tore his original jaw off, was quite adept at maintaining the Great Company's armour contingent despite the punishment they endured in the Wolf Lord's battles. He could often be seen accompanying the Great Company to battle from the cupola atop his modified Russblade.

Beliefs
"They believed in Russ and the Allfather. And hitting things hard. Usually for Russ and the Allfather."

Brolaf's guiding desires was that he would be immortalized in saga like those of their Primarch or other great heroes like Bjorn. As such, his hold over the Great Company was strict and often harsh, unwilling to let the failures of his warriors tarnish his legend. In spite of this, his warriors are granted great independence and freedom to pursue their own glories, for whatever they gain while in his service furthers his own. They are given free reign to fight as they wish, so long as they do not fail. It is perhaps this ingrained belief that has led this Great Company of the Space Wolves to be among the most effective forces of the galaxy. Brolaf simply would not accept failure.

Gene-seed
"Don't, don't even. The Fenris thing was bad enough, but this?"

The Space Wolves who fought under Brolaf Starfist were curiously devoid of the curse of the Wulfen, except for the times in which they weren't. When the Wulfen was in ascendancy, they were almost always removed from command, as evidenced by Helgva's sporadic command role. Though it is possible that they weren't and that there were merely no survivors to spread the tale.

Battle-cry
"Lukas! Stop filling the dull-witted pup's head with such nonsense. By Russ, what is wrong with you?"


Blame Ecritter!

[Malthe]

Brought a smile to my face :)

You might want to differenciate them a little from the rest of the Wolves if you plan to develop this.

[Aegnor]

:) love it. Given what I thought when I saw the thread title, so glad this was perhaps not entirely serious.

[Gripharius]

Well-written, and a fun read -- it really made me laugh because I kept reading his name as 'Starfish'

[Messor]

Outflow port, eh? Yeah, I wouldn't want that arm back, either. Fun read, nice job Cormac

[Conn Eremon]

To Malthe: It's a work in progress still. At the moment, Brolaf Starfist's Great Company is where I put all of my enjoyment for 40k's silliness, because the Space Wolves are just a perfect home for such. So far all I've got for them is a Fist of the North Star theme (I'm so hoping somebody got that heavy bolter bit). But, they don't have much else going for them. They're on my current to-do list, though, so I'll be trying to flesh them out more. They are at the core a joke DIY, though. I'm not going to be changing that.

 

To all: Thank God, people thought it was funny. I was pretty close to certain that I'd just walk into a wall of "You're dumb" responses. They're probably the silent majority!

[Watcher]

Bloody brilliant mate,outflow port,aye HULK SMASH.