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Garon Nebula Crusade: A Black Templars Blog


Noctus Cornix

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People of the Imperium. By Decree of Lord Marshal Gwynn, the Hell Stars of the Garon Nebula and all its inhabitants have been deemed unclean and unfit to bath in the light of Holy Terra. May the Emperor have Mercy on your souls, for we shall not.




It's that time again, boys and girls. Time for another one of Noctus' ridiculous modeling blogs chopped full of conversions, fluff, and laziness. This time, we're going back to my roots. I may have started 40k as a Chaos player but during that time, I was simply too young to fully grasp everything about the game. It was only when Black Templars came out that I fully dedicated myself to trying to get this game down and as such, Black Templars were my first real army. Not only that but I was someone who grew up around traditional Catholicism, seen many old and beautiful churches, and delved into Crusade history like it was candy. That being said, These boys have always had a very special place in my heart.
 
At first when it was announced that Black Templars would be rolled into the Space Marine codex, I was fairly disheartened and was actually tempted to just sell my Templar army. But I took some time, did some thinking and in my little moment of evaluation, I somehow emerged more eager to make my Templars than ever before. Call it spite if you will, but I refuse to give up on my Crusaders simply because we don't have our own codex. We still have our fluff. We still have our pride. And I will make everyone remember what a real Templar is.
 
So with that in mind, I had to come up with a Crusade, something that would represent everything that is a Black Templar. Vast, unrelenting, merciless, and utterly brutal. I know that many of my fellow Templar players prefer to focus on our knightly aspects, as though Templars are some Crusaders for humanity. But honestly, while I respect their opinion, that's never been the same for me. The Templars care nothing for humanity. They will slaughter anyone and anything that stands in their path to cleanse the galaxy. They are Crusaders, that eternal march onwards to purge the with, the xenos, and the abomination. Which brings me to what is perhaps my favorite quote in the Black Templars Codex, found on page 24.
 

:
"I saw the scene of a massacre, where the dead lay on the ground in numbers like fallen leaves in a forest. The settlers had not died as soldiers die in the heat of battle, fired with ardor and courage, with weapons in their hands and exchanging blow for blow. They had died as the helpless must, with their hearts filled with horror worse than death itself."
               -Excerpt from Inquisitor Barzano's investigation into the Garon Nebula Crusade

 
And then it hit me, why not make the Garon Nebula Crusade? There's little info on it save for that one excerpt and apparently some small short story in a White Dwarf issue but the White Dwarf states that they fought against some sort of Crystalline xenos, which makes no connection for the quote in the codex. With that said, the fluff is mine to toy with as I wish so I will simply ignore it. Continuing on my research into the Garon Nebula codex, the only other resource about them was on the astral chart in the back of the codex.
 
http://i915.photobucket.com/albums/ac352/Noctus-Cornix/CrusadeChart_zpsd4f2e476.png
 
And, as you can see, this only states that the Garon Crusade only had a little over a Company worth of marines, which is something that doesn't sit well with me because I wanted something vast and fluff scale to represent the immense size of the Chapter. Once more, I thought about it a great deal, trying to examine ways in which to have the Crusade in far larger numbers than the Inquisitorial report suggests. And then I remembered, back when the Templar codex was first released, a minor special mission on the Games Workshop website detailing an Inquisitor sticking his nose in Templars business, thus leading to a special Mission rule-set of Templars vs. Witch Hunters. Once again, this concept of Templars killing anyone who tries to hold them back is ruthlessly annihilated is something that really sings to me. So, with this in mind, I have decided to take the liberty in saying that the number is a falsified record laid into the database after messages were destroyed or intercepted and changed while Inquisitors and their agents were executed for their Heresy of interfering with the Eternal Crusade.
 
Inspired by Heathen's chart posted on his Iron Warrior's blog, here is a slightly more accurate representation of what the Crusade has in numbers. Do keep Note that this is mostly a Fluff-based chart. I have absolutely no intention of creating 1,000 or so Black Templars and several dozen vehicles. Good God that would be an ordeal. (and turn my wallet into a perpetual void.
 
http://i915.photobucket.com/albums/ac352/Noctus-Cornix/Chartcopy_zpse0a09d5c.png
 
 
Unfortunately, that's all for now. Models will be posted soon but not quite yet.
 
For now, enjoy.
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Only you can make good guys bad Noctus, looking forward to it with great relish.

 

Ahah, to be fair, they were never good guys in the first place. I just have no denial in this truth. It's an army of genocidal psychopaths with a view of purity that would make even the most radical Nazi or Jihadist turn pale.

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Only you can make good guys bad Noctus, looking forward to it with great relish.

 

Ahah, to be fair, they were never good guys in the first place. I just have no denial in this truth. It's an army of genocidal psychopaths with a view of purity that would make even the most radical Nazi or Jihadist turn pale.

 

Yes. Embrace Dorn's Darkness brother. We are forever trapped in the rage and hatred that consumed him when the Emperor died. No mercy. No compromise. Judge Dredd mixed with Rorscach and a little bit of Sith. 

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"We succeed from a Legion of failures and suicidal husks who have lost all honor and pride. They are walking dead who bear the gleaming yellow of the proud defenders who stood their ground at the walls of Terra and held off the forces of the Arch Traitor with their last breath. Those who bear it now are liars who do insult to that lineage. Yet now you continue to do insult to those who gave their lives, mounting defeat and failure upon a name that once struck fear in the hearts of all traitors. And now look at you, ragged dogs... Why do I despise you yet still hold the name of Dorn in reverence. Make no mistake, 'Imperial Fist', our Gene-Father was no better than you... But atleast he had the sense to end his miserable existence rather than continue this pathetic shame as you do."

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I love this!  I had a little thought when I was reading the excerpt on the Garon Nebula crusade, and that was that the "ill fated" crusade was meant to mirror the massacres that happened during the crusades.  It's a very dark thing to imitate, but there is something very human and powerful about that type of 'righteous' bloodletting.

 

The events it might have been imitating was either the Massacre at Jerusalem in 1099, where so many were killed it is said that the men "waded in blood up to their ankles", or Count Emicho's crusade in 1096 where a huge band of crusaders went around killing huge amounts of jews.  All horrifying events, and I'm sure there are several other horrible massacres that might have inspired the Garon Nebula crusade.  It's no wonder that GW steered the story towards fighting xenos.

 

An interesting siege was the Siege of Montsegur in 1243, in which the castle was sieged because it was a safe haven for Cathars and home to Cathar Perfecti.  The perfecti were a class of monks given the name 'perfect' because they were considered the perfect heretic.  They lived a chaste, pacifist life of rejecting physical pleasures, and thus were viewed as trans-material angels by their followers.  Once the castle was captured, a few of it's defenders even joined their ranks knowing they would die.  When the castle surrendered, a truce was called, huge pyre was built by the crusaders and the perfecti came out and threw themselves in the fire.  Only a few perfecti survived by leaving through a hidden passage to go recover some cathar treasure and holy relics that were buried in a nearby forest.

 

My thought was that maybe the killing of the hive populations and the crusade against the crystalline xenos were linked?  Like, perhaps the people had a working relationship with the xenos and tried to deny it, or the governor had a deal with them and thus all were slaughtered with extreme prejuduce regardless of whether they were harboring or dealing with xenos.  This would also explain why there are discrepancies in information; an ordo xenos inquisitor would be quick to get the Templars back in this matter even against other inquisitors if it meant dealing with the xenos threat.

 

Just thinking out loud and sharing some research!

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I love this!  I had a little thought when I was reading the excerpt on the Garon Nebula crusade, and that was that the "ill fated" crusade was meant to mirror the massacres that happened during the crusades.  It's a very dark thing to imitate, but there is something very human and powerful about that type of 'righteous' bloodletting.

 

 

Yes, I think what attracts me the most to the Black Templars is because in truth it is a recognition of that very really and very ugly part of fanaticism. Whether it be an ideal, a religion, a goal, or something so simple as a favorite sports team, human beings will become fiercely loyal to something they cherish (to varying degrees of course) This loyalty is often seen as something beautiful. Brotherhood. Frienship. Unity. But we must also remember that this same beauty can become something very cruel once an opposing side presents itself. Its not that human beings are inherently evil, but we are prone to our emotions and those that we cherish incite the most potent of our passions, for better or worse.

 

The Black Templars are that fanaticism, that growing spite and rage born from bittersweet victory and ultimate failure. The need for when all you hold dear, all you strove to create, to protect, is shattering before your very eyes. Those you looked up to, those you saw as brothers, leaders, and father are now slowly devolving into madness born from shame. And its so easy.... So easy to tilt over the edge and plunge into that despair.  But that loyalty, that devotion keeps you holding on. Its all you have left. Its all you can cling to. Your loyalty to a broken and dying belief, when all your brothers and comrades have fallen from the ideals you all shared until only you remain. You will become angry. You will feel the spite in your veins. You will feel yourself growing bitter and apart from your brothers. You will only have that dream, that one single hope, that oath. And so it becomes your everything, until nothing else matters, and all else that threatens your one remaining ideal must be broken, beaten, utterly crushed and hurdled into the Abyss so your only way of life can continue to exist.

 

That is what it means to be a Black Templar to me.

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This actually brings me to an idea that I plan to put into motion, once I have ultimately decided how to do it. The Templars are unrelenting and completely merciless in their bloodshed. They have a code of honor and ethics (such as offering personal combat to those they deem as worthy foes) but such ethics applies to very few outside themselves. Humans are beneath their ethics and virtually all but the most powerful xenos and heretics are deemed worthy of such an honor. As such, they have no qualms with orbital bombardments, virus bombs, unrelenting artillery shelling until the enemy is ground to dust and pulp beneath them. There is no need to act with 'honor' when there are so few worthy of it.

 

As such, something that was introduced in the Horus Heresy books was forbidden technology, Destroy squads using rad weapons and Phosphex, which is one of the most disturbing and sickening things in the galaxy. And I thought to myself. If the option was presented to them, would Templars use these weapons? I'm sure most of my brothers would disagree with me, but I say yes. What better way to purge the enemy but with the most powerful, devastating, and painful tools in the Imperium's arsenal? And so I am slowly devising a piece of fluff I call the Keepers of Antioch. An ode to the Holy Orbs of Antioch (the ridiculous grenades that could kill terminators no problem and in a piece of that destroyed an entire planet by throwing one into a volcano) the way its coming along is that this Master Artificer Antioch unearthed in an ancient reclaimed Forge World lost and forbidden technology. Taking it for his own, he has slowly integrated this technology into tools of warfare for the Chapter. While the Chapter has acknowledged some of his more mild tools, such as the Holy Orbs, some amongst the Chapter have shunned it, their false sense of honor keeping them from using what is necessary. But for those who see what must be done to purge the Galaxy, an order of initiates has been formed, calling themselves the Keepers of Antioch. They are those who take it upon themselves to wield these devastating and monstrous weapons onto the battlefield, setting the air itself ablaze and burning thousands alive in the crawling death of the Phosphex grenades and flamers. 

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Putting the black into the Black Templars. This should be interesting.

 

(Historically, knights were complete scumbags that were little better than the brigands they decried, I'm curious to see who will pipe up about chivalry and honor.)

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Putting the black into the Black Templars. This should be interesting.

 

(Historically, knights were complete scumbags that were little better than the brigands they decried, I'm curious to see who will pipe up about chivalry and honor.)

 

Precisely. Honor and Respect is given to those who are deserving and, in the eyes of a Black Templar, this goes to very very few outside their own ranks.

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This sounds absolutely brutal, Nocus! The "Keepers of Antioch" sounds like an interesting bit of fluff, but if and when you use them, what would you count the phosphex grenades and rad launchers as in the greater scheme of things?

 

I can't wait to hear more of this project, Nocus!

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This sounds absolutely brutal, Nocus! The "Keepers of Antioch" sounds like an interesting bit of fluff, but if and when you use them, what would you count the phosphex grenades and rad launchers as in the greater scheme of things?

 

I'll be perfectly honest man, I'm not quite sure. Maybe I'll just reserve them for Apoc battles or something.

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