Bitter Glory: Tales of the Crusader Host

[StoneSentinels]

This plog will chronicle my attempts to build, paint and fluff out the tales of those few legionaries left behind to record the glories and the deaths of the Great Crusade, The Crusader Host.

 

"Those that remain, that record and that do not fight as their brothers fight, and die out in the galaxy."

Remembrancer Bista Batnis

50 years before the Istvaan Tragedy

 

It must have been a hard thing, to not rant and rave, to simply wait for the next update from the roving fleets and expeditions. For the news that they had been recalled to their brothers and could pass on the burden.

I imagine these poor warriors to have been bored, perhaps proud and most definitely bitter. Some were outcasts, some were heroes and some simply were. Often older Terran Veterans with sharp memories of conquering regions they now paraded through. I like to think that Macaldor would have understood this and perhaps put them to work, ferreting out small security issues, setting challenges not unlike those of the Cutodes and even perhaps the odd minor insurrection put down amongst the warring nobles.

That is what I intend to explore here. I will not be able to update often, nor will it be of the quality of the regulars here but perhaps it will amuse, or even stir a little curiosity.

 

"Some came in their legion's best plate, resplendent in records of glory, carrying trophies of deeds done and enemies slain, others were there as punishment, others where abandoned because they didn't fit. In my explorations of their deeds on and around Terra I recovered no small amount of evidence pointing towards their being a number amongst them akin the Silent Sisterhood, similar in gene code and even mildly repellent to those who carried the power of witchery. But then some legions also sent their witches, outcast in their eyes. So perhaps in my elderly years I have simply found that you can often acquire evidence where ever you look."

Remembrancer Bista Batnis

Sometime during the Scouring

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2017/1/17/851065_sm-Galaxy%20map.jpg

 

In order to tie all these models together I intend to use this as my base, and place models near their legions world if possible. WIPs to come...

 

 

 

[bluntblade]

So Zephon will be in there. Are there others in the fluff, or are you gonna be dreaming up your own?

[StoneSentinels]

Was thinking of dreaming up my own, simply because I enjoyed but didn't want to pinned down by ​The Outcast Dead.

[bluntblade]

I figured that'd mean you filling the gaps that remain for the Loyalist Legions

[StoneSentinels]

Right, well that went really well. Don't tear muscles team, they take ages to repair. 
​Anyhooo, Back to modelling, well 8th Ed huh?! Cool stuff, Primaris look V Pwwetty. Maybe for anther thread and another place. 


​So Pics to follow. This concept now has a mostly modelled force of MKIII Legionaries with various covnversions, bitz, and otherwise bobs. I hope to paint them at some stage once I am reunited with my hobby desk. In the mean time I think I will leave with a quote...

Back to back they fought side by side,

​Brothers in all but blood,

Bonded by all that came,

​Sundered by all that pain.
                                                                                                                                                                                  Remembrancer Bista Batnis

                                                                                                                                                                                        A Eulogy to the Lost

[StoneSentinels]

Forum images! ahhhh I finally seem to have got this stuff working. Anyways see above for my face about 20 mins ago. 

 

​They called him boring, unambitious and ​grey. Not exactly in keeping with the usual IIIrd legion arrogance. However they sent him to distant and grey Terra, "Go and live amongst the scribes" " Go and record our glories" they said. So he did. He did all that and more. He explored the ancient ruins, he learnt the languages, he even spent a year studying with the Custodes. If that wasn't ambitious he didn't know what would please his brothers. He was doubtful that anything would. He was worried about them, out there in the Galaxy, trying so hard to better themselves that they might change themselves irrevocably.

 

He had noticed an increasing number of the names he carved onto the Wall of Honour were Terran. Maybe it was because they were older, slowing down perhaps, or even just coming to the end of their patience with war, with the endless pursuit of betterment. 
K

The personal Chronicles of Kiron, Terran. Battle Captain of the IIIrd Legion. 

​Recorded by Remembrancer Bista Batnis

 

[Supe robot gangster #1]

That helmet goes pretty well with Mk III! Also can never go wrong with a glaive encarmine on a member of the 3rd! Looking good!

[StoneSentinels]

As always, its been a while...

 

Prepare for a whopper of an update or two over the next month... you could even say during the dread...ful month of October...

[StoneSentinels]

[StoneSentinels]

Brothers in arms beyond death, Dercius and Leviathan Madilun. This pair are seen here battling back to back, mortally wounded and damaged.

[Kizzdougs]

Nice Emperor's Child! Looking forward to seeing him painted up :)

[StoneSentinels]

 

"A brother lost in battle, not destined to be left in peace but dragged back to the living to fight again." I always liked that concept he mused. Until it actually happened to me. Now I burn, my bones scream and my nerves roar. Blood, or what counts for it in my ruined shell of a corpse drips from my eye sockets and I can feel my claws twitching in psychosomatic sympathy. (Now Venerable) Brother Jorge

 

"I thrum, I whirr and I creak. I mean I always used to do that too. But now I am called to watch and thrum as my little brothers scrawl our dead upon the walls and yet I am content. I prefer the four thump beat of my hearts to the four drum beat of The Cannons. Does that make me broken? Does that make me less than the Legionary I was? I know I am physically less and yet greater, so much greater. I crush and blast and track and down those who would wish my little bothers harm and yet I do not enjoy it like I used to. Not like when I was a man, or was I a monster? I forget." ​Transcribed from fragments of"Whispers of Victory" the lost (or destroyed) memoirs of Venerable Brother Huteen

[StoneSentinels]

I don't want this to die. It may evolve. It may be something different to what it was when it began. But it's alive. Under the creaking weight of real life, it has faltered. But it lives on in my mind and on my desk. And it will live on here too. One day,

Maybe even soon.

 

"It was dark that night. The night the Vth roared though. They bounced and whooped and zipped on by. Too quick to stop. Too quick to see their plate was changed...blackened and charred and scared and patterned. Evil patterns, dark and harsh on the eyes."

 

Memoir of Capt Husbt of the 476th Imperial Army Regiment, "The Greys"

[Brother Lunkhead]

I hope your post does not die... it is a worthy project..... I'll keep the lantern lit in the watch tower and keep an eye out for you 

[Pearson73]

The battle damage on the MKIII marine accompanying the Leviathan is brutal, looks just right.

[Luna707]

Man I love the wounded Astartes and Leviathan 

[StoneSentinels]

 

 

The Bitter Xth. Some whisper the Brittle Xth recently. However they are named, they were always focused on rebuilding themselves, improving themselves. 

 

Pictured above is Raam Kolbos, weilding a heavy bolter and wearing MKIII plate with a heavily customised chest and helmet. One assumes that he is as heavily customised within his plate. 

 

Raam Kolbos' Honour role is partially shrouded in mystery. He had fought for decades in the armies of the Gorgon before being sent to Terra. No one really understand whether it was a punishment or not. He is stoic in his duties. and rarely seen exploring the Palace however  he has been seen in the Gardens. One wonders if the bountiful green is enough to cheer his darkened humours.

 

[StoneSentinels]

 

Breacher Captain Amidiel of the 1st Legion. (rumoured to be of the Dreadwing)

Depicted here in MKIII plate with a custom breacher Shield and, controverisally, a Terran style powersword. He is also equiped with a Mastercrafted bolt pistol holstered at his waist. 

Amidiel was a proud and valued memeber of the 1st legion. He is a Terran and was hugely honoured to move back to his home planet to represent the 1st before the Emperor and the High Lords. He speaks to the Sigilite regularly and seems to know more than he lets on. Amidiel was a Breacher by preference, there wasn't a ship or wall he couldn't drive his way inside. between the 1sts esoteric equipment and large numbers he gained a reputation for burning manpower and the enemy in equal measure. 

 

 

While the 1st legion are conquering and building and everything else they do in secret, Captain Amidiel strives to collect news of their comings and goings from across Terra.