The Stormborne Knights

[Perth]

Index Astartes

The Stormborne Knights Space Marines Chapter

Origins

The Stormborne Knights was one of many Chapters created during the 23rd founding, hailing from the gene-seed of the Ultramarines chapter. Although it is rumored that due to the huge demand for geneseed during the 23rd founding, the chapter was instead sired from a mix of multiple Ultramarine successors

Homeworld

The Stormborne Knights watch over the Paragus system from their base of operations, a heavy orbital defense station known as the Bastion.

The Paragus system is very rich in minerals, and mining is the driving force of the system's economy, although due to the mostly inhospitable nature of the system's planets, it is relatively lightly populated. Out of the system's twelve planets, ten are deemed uninhabitable. With the exception of the two habitable planets, Iremia and Eirini, the system's population is contained on hundreds of mining stations positioned around the other planets or asteroid belts. Of these planets, the Chapter reaps the majority of its recruits from the death world of Typhon, nestled within one of the central asteroid belts.

Typhon is a volatile planet comprised of over 90% water and plagued by near constant hurricanes. What little light that penetrates the dense asteroid field and reaches the planet is often blocked from the surface by thick storm clouds, with lightning flashes providing the most constant source of illumination. While it is believed these storms are the cause of magnetic interplay between the planet and it's surrounding mineral rich asteroids, little research has been done to confirm this, as the Stormborne heavily restrict access to their precious recruitment world. Human life is only supported on the planet's largest land mass, the slightly calmer central region of this area is the focus of most of the warfare between the planet's tribes, as it provides the most steady food source. A small Stormborne Knight outpost is maintained on an island far offshore to monitor the natives and collect any promising recruits.

Combat Doctrine

Due to the Stormborne being based in a mineral rich system, their armories tend to be slightly larger than those of other Chapters. This is a double edged sword however, as the harsh enviroment of the Paragus system, Typhon especially, results in a very small pool of possible recruits with limited opportunities to replace fallen battle brothers. Due to this, the Chapter's combat doctrine to focus on speed and mobility, striving to never over-commit and take unnecessary loses and waste the Emperor's gift of life. Tactics such as ambush attacks at night and assassination of enemy leaders are also often employed to tip the odds in the Brotherhood's favor.

On the battlefield mechanized Tactical and Devastator squads are closely supported by fast elements such as jump pack equipped Assault squads, land speeders, medium tanks and gunships. Drop Pods are rarely used due to the risks involved with the exception of Dreadnoughts, whose mentally unstable nature sees them deployed often in a suicide role as one last act for the Chapter. Terminator armored Veterans may be called upon to aid their brothers, deploying in via Land Raider or teleporting directly onto the field of battle. Such action is not undertaken lightly however, as loses of Terminator armor cannot be replaced by the Bastion and the Brotherhood is often overlooked for resupply of the precious suits in favor of other, more well known Chapters.

The Stormborne utilize nearly all of the vehicles typical of a Chapter of Space Marines, although with a clear preference to the faster vehicles such as Land Speeders and gunships of all kinds. Stormborne Techmarines have even produced several sanctioned modifications of the Valkyrie class gunship for rapid transport and support. These new gunships are void capable and have proven to preform adequately enough to see service across all companies of the Chapter.

Organization

The Stormborne Knights are organized into five Companies of two hundred Marines. Exactly why such a decision was made is unknown, although it is theorized that the reasoning was to reduce the need for outside support and to better match the capacity of a Battle Barge. Each is a self contained unit, containing its own veterans, recruits and armory. Each Company is headed by a Captain, and a Lieutenant, who serves as the Captain's direct subordinate.

Training of recruits differs slightly from the methods prescribed by the Codex Astartes, as rather than have a young Marine serve as a Devastator, Assault, and Tactical Marine in the course of his final stretch of training, each the skills of each graduating Scout Marine are analyzed and then that Marine is permanently assigned as a Tactical, Assault, or Devastator marine.

If a Marine is to be promoted to Veteran status, he earns the right to paint his helmet with a special pigment, mixed with the crushed bones of the Veteran's preferred enemy. Veterans and other distinguished Marines are given the honor of a suit of Mark IV armor, which the ancient forges within the Bastion can still produce, if only in small amounts.

As an example, at full strength the 3rd Company of Stormborne Knight Space Marines consists of:

Infantry:

100 Tactical Marines

30 Assault Marines

30 Devastator Marines

10 Terminator Veterans

30 Scout Marines

Armory:

10 Land Speeders

10 Rhino Transports

5 Razorback Transports

2 Dreadnoughts

5 Predator Tanks

5 Whirlwind Tanks (including anti-air variants)

3 Vindicator Tanks

1 Sicaran Battle Tank

1 Land Raider

4 Thunderhawk Gunships

6 Thunderhawk Transporters

5 Valkyrie Gunships (modified)

3 Stormraven Gunships

6 Stormtalon Gunships

Support Staff:

Captain Morvund Garand

Lieutenant Saul Perth

Champion Stelio Kontos

1 Chaplain

5 Librarians

5 Apothicaries

10 Tech-Marines

Numberless Servitors and Chapter Serfs

Fleet elements:

1 Battle Barge

2 Gladius Class Frigates

Numerous Void Defense Craft

Beliefs
The Stormborne Knights hold the view that unnecessary casualties are the most dishonorable of all, as they waste the gift of creation bestowed upon them by the Emperor. As such, the Brotherhood frequently engages in tactics such as assassination, concealment, ambush, secrecy, sabotage and perhaps most "dishonorable" of all, tactical retreat to tip the odds in their favor. In contrast to this, allied Imperial Forces have noted the Stormeborne Knights fighting furiously to recover the bodies of their dead, even going as far as air or artillery strikes to annihilate the body of a fallen marine as opposed to allowing it to be recovered by the enemy.

Gene-seed

Due to their rather stable geneseed of the Ultramarines, all of the organs and abilities granted by the induction process. It has been noted on occasion that the marines of the Stormborne Knights appear to be slightly taller than average, and also act independently more often than typical of the Ultramarines and their iron bonds of loyalty.

Chapter Motto
“The storms of Typhon do not yield.”

Notable Battles

The Hydra Rebuked: After suffering extremely heavy losses fending off an Ork Waaagh that had wandered into the Paragus system, the Stormborne Knights pulled back all of their forces to the Bastion to begin an extensive period of regrowth and repair. It was then that an unknown splinter of the traitor Alpha Legion took this chance to attempt to seize the system. The Heresy era flagship of the renegades jammed all communication from the Bastion to outside aid, the Stormborne were on their own.

Despite only numbering about 150, the Stormborne held fast as the guns of the Alpha Legion fleet and the Bastion exchanged volleys. The defenders cut down wave after wave of traitorous guardsmen, only to be met soon after with the real challenge in the form of Veteran Alpha Legion kill teams stalking the halls of the Bastion.

As the last of the Chapter prepared for their final stand, it was only by the grace of the Emperor that the shields of the traitor flagship had been breached. As their only means of escape took salvo after salvo, the Alpha Legion kill teams were teleported back on to the ship, which in turn retreated into the warp. Although the price was high, reinforcements eventually arrived to find that the Stormborn Chapter still lived on, bruised and bloody, but ready to rebuild.

Creator's Notes

Any comments or constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.

Edited July 1, 2017 by Perth

[Sete]

Second founding? Some peeps wont be happy...

[Banelord]

Second founding? Some peeps wont be happy...

The Ultramarines claimed to founded 23 chapters, during the 2^nd founding, but did not list them all. So it’s reasonable that these “could” be one of them.

 

Being an Ultramarines successor chapter it could be interesting to explain why they have diverged from the codex so much. It was written by their Primarch after all, it seems strange for them to ignore it without a good reason. Maybe it was due to lack of numbers, due to the great battle of Paragus, made them change out of necessity? Or just the nature of the theses battles made them concentrate their armour more?

[Perth]

 

Second founding? Some peeps wont be happy...

The Ultramarines claimed to founded 23 chapters, during the 2^nd founding, but did not list them all. So it’s reasonable that these “could” be one of them.

 

Being an Ultramarines successor chapter it could be interesting to explain why they have diverged from the codex so much. It was written by their Primarch after all, it seems strange for them to ignore it without a good reason. Maybe it was due to lack of numbers, due to the great battle of Paragus, made them change out of necessity? Or just the nature of the theses battles made them concentrate their armour more?

 

 

According to the Lexicanum, there are 15 named 2nd founding Chapters descended from the Ultramarines, leaving 8 open spots. Still, I'll change the founding to a later date to free up those spots as now that I examine it, my Chapter doesn't really benefit from being that old. 

 

 

 

As for breaking from the standard organization, that's really a personal choice I made based on the aesthetics of a Company. I just like the idea of having permanently attached veterans and scouts and if you try to squeeze that in to 100 Marines it starts to get pretty restrictive. Also given the stated capacity of a Battle Barge (up to three Companies), it seems to fair pretty well that one of my larger companies would fit quite nicely, with a little extra room to bring along a few extra tanks or other nifty toys. 

 

Transferring that into fluff is a different story altogether though. As I mentioned in the description, more troops under one unified command allows for a little bit easier coordination when preforming maneuvers on a large scale, especially without having to rely on help from outside the chapter. But that is kind of a weak reason on it's own, so I believe what I'll do is when I'm writing the piece about Garrand, I'll address that the main reason that he was able to gain a foothold within the hive was through the incompetence of Guardsmen or PDF forces, probably through some mind controlling/fogging spell shenanigans. Then having those same Guardsmen/PDF forces hinder the Chapter again in actually reaching Garrand. End result: The Stormborn weren't quick enough, Garrand rolls three natural 20s on his Mind Nuke with a little help from Tzeench, Company is wiped out, Chapter places a lot of distrust on humans who could have potentially been exposed to psyker non-sense, and thus adjust their doctrine to require as little outside aide as possible. 

 

Getting that story ironed out though is probably something that will have to wait until after finals. 

 

This has been great though, any other suggestions or comments about what I have so far, or the little outline about Garrand above?

 

Edit: Oh, and as for favoring the mechanized approach more, that's just an effect of being based in a mining system and having access to plenty of raw materials. I'll have to expand on that and note that it's balanced out by having less of a pool of humans to recruit from. 

Edited December 5, 2014 by Perth

[Sete]

I dont have anything against it its your chapter! But when its me doing a BT successor people go crazy ahahaha

Edited December 5, 2014 by Sete

[Perth]

Oh I didn't take any offense! 40k fluff is so confusing at times (at least to me), I'm not surprised that I miss implications here and there.

 

Also, changed the founding to the 22nd, and added in a list of what exactly a full strength company is composed of, from Scout Marine to Battle Barge. Those numbers are loosely based on what the Ultramarines are said to possess, which is listed on their Lexicanum page. 

Edited December 5, 2014 by Perth

[Nineswords]

I actually prefer 'Stormborn' to 'Stormborn Knights', there's a bit more gravitas to it.

[Sete]

I agree with only Stormborn aswell.

[Perth]

That does sound better, thanks! 

[Perth]

Made some spot edits and included a couple tabletop special rules. 

[Quozzo]

Dont folly the goodness with TT rules. They belong elsewhere, in the Homebrew rules section.

 

How does the chapter deal with space marines that might have latent psyker abilities? Do they kill them outright, send them on a penance crusade all by their lonesome, hand them over to the inquisition to try and score brownie points, or let them stay and tell them not to use their powers ala Nikea?

[Perth]

It's been a while since I came back to check this, guess I missed a post.

 

I think I agree about the rules, they'll be removed, breaks the flow.

 

As for what happens to discovered latent psykers, it depends. Low risk would likely see the Marine given a chance to go out swinging with a suicide mission, otherwise they'd be executed by an Apothecary when discovered. Their remains would be burned and gene-seed not recovered, as they're kinda paranoid about that.

Edited May 1, 2015 by Perth

[Castellan Snaeper]

If I'm not mistaken, I believe the Tau are unable to access the Warp, so your chapter couldn't seek that technology from them since it doesn't exist, if I'm understanding what you've written correctly. Getting their technology to travel around would make sense, but specifically stating they want their Warp technology is incorrect, since they can't access it, they don't register in the warp at all. 

 

Anyways, I like what you've done otherwise. You'll burn as a xenos-loving heretic, but I like it. 

[Conn Eremon]

If I recall correctly, the Tau don't register in the Warp as far as "souls" go, at least not enough to be all that interesting to the denizens of the Warp. However, their faster-than-light travel involves the Warp. Imagine skipping stones across a river, where each time the rock dips and bounces off the river it gets a speed boost, continuing on to the other side.

 

The rock is the Tau vessel, and the river is the Warp.

 

The most important question becomes, why does the Chapter stoop to xenos tech, and how do they get away with it?

[Leonaides]

You'll have the same problem every rabidly anti-psyker chapter has as well... you need them. Communications are psychic, travel is involves navigators, sanctioned/created by the emperor, other chapters use them, and without using your own, how could you meaningfully check your recruits to see if they are latent psykers. Especially if you're going to saddle your already busy apothecarion with testing all your chapter menials. One test a month? that could easily be 10-15000 tests just on the chapter fleet crews...

[Perth]

You'll have the same problem every rabidly anti-psyker chapter has as well... you need them. Communications are psychic, travel is involves navigators, sanctioned/created by the emperor, other chapters use them, and without using your own, how could you meaningfully check your recruits to see if they are latent psykers. Especially if you're going to saddle your already busy apothecarion with testing all your chapter menials. One test a month? that could easily be 10-15000 tests just on the chapter fleet crews...

 

They do use them, as little as possible, but they are used in order to function. They don't like it, but there isn't really a choice.

 

That's where the Tau come in. As I understand it, the fact that the Tau Empire preforms all of those functions without the aid of psykers would be common knowledge, at least to Space Marine chapters. If you're looking for a way to free humanity from dependence on psykers, the natural place to start would be the only race that has been shown to manage such feats in recent times. I also assume the Iron Men could do the above without psykers, although that's a much muddier slope.

 

 

And yes, the Apothecarion is most definitely busy, although I think a test per month would be a little extreme. I'd say it'd be likely to be one for every marine upon returning from deployment, while the rest of the human serfs are tested as seen fit. For instance, a serf on board a Battle Barge that sees plenty of Warp travel would be tested far more often than a serf that mans the Storm Forge or it's defenses.

 

 

The most important question becomes, why does the Chapter stoop to xenos tech, and how do they get away with it?

 

The why I've mentioned, they're looking for a way to not use psykers and Tau are the logical choice to seek out first. 

 

The how is trickier. While they haven't been outright caught, I have included a bit about the Inquisition suspecting alien tolerance and cooperation, although they don't have solid proof yet.

Edited June 8, 2015 by Perth