BotL - Monthly fluff challenge

[simison]

With 2 votes, Blackshields are in the lead.

[bluntblade]

The Bloodstone Dragons

  The Bloodstone Dragons were a collection of Brigades which, prior to the Insurrection, had languished in relative obscurity. They were fierce and capable warriors, but proud and aloof even among their kindred. For this reason, the Jade General had been accustomed to keep them apart as the core of the 3922^nd Expeditionary Fleet, led by Lord Commander Yu Sima. Sima took full advantage of this isolation, cultivating an army defined by bitter pride and bloody violence.

 

  Finally, the Insurrection gave the Bloodstone Dragons the opportunity to prove their worth, hunting down Loyalist fleets and breaking several strongholds in the path of the Insurrectionist advance. In these battles they attained a bloody renown for their skill and aggression, becoming ever more prideful and notably belligerent. In a portent of what was to come, they earned significantly more favour from the Harbingers and Eagle Warriors they fought beside than from their own brothers. Despite the likely misgivings of his Primarch, Sima’s fleet was reinforced with weaponry and new recruits, substantially increasing its power and substantiating its master’s claim to the title of Bloodstone General.

 

  It is likely that these gifts came largely at Icarion’s behest rather than that of the Jade General, after Sima razed the XIX^th Legion outpost at Siruca. This victory brought him into the favour of Marshal Hizade Matusaga, and in time the notice of Susanoo Empyon. Thereafter the Bloodstone Dragons fought at the Harbingers’ side, and their allegiance belonged to the Stormlord.

 

  When the Suzerain Declaration was made, Sima scorned it and declared that his warriors would have no part of what he deemed a vain folly on the part of his Primarch. His sword, and the swords of his warriors, belonged to Icarion. It is also likely that the corruption spread by the Eagle Warriors had already begun to work upon them, for when the Insurrectionists began to give themselves over to Chaos, the Bloodstone Dragons were among the first to show its loathsome effects.

[simison]

Blackshields for this month.

 

Line of judges - 

• Blunt
• Sim
• Beren
• Gendo
• Thorn

Blunt, are you able to serve?

[bluntblade]

Yep

[simison]

Excellent, if you could finish judging today, that would be swell. We have three entries, all for the Forgeworld category: Trajan's, yours, and mine.

[bluntblade]

Oh right, I thought you meant next month. I'll just get my judging glasses

[bluntblade]

The Splintered and Black

  There exist several authoritative works already on the patchwork history of the Blackshield phenomenon, and indeed even the fragmentary knowledge we possess is far too sprawling to reasonably encompass in this account. Some warbands clawed their way to the heart of pivotal events in the Insurrection, while others sought out isolated fiefs to claim for their own; some may endure to this day beyond the Imperium’s sight. From the earliest days of the Insurrection, there were those who found themselves bereft of command and, in some cases, broken in mind and spirit by the treachery committed against them. 

 

  While some of these splintered forces would return swiftly to service, engage in a campaign of savage reprisals or simply vanish, others would take a darker and bloodier path. Despite the official denials, it seems now that in every Loyalist Legion there were factions - sometimes entire companies or even larger bodies - which turned traitor. The reasons for such acts, posited and confirmed, are many. In some cases it seems that a corrupted warrior lodge was at the root, or Insurrectionist voices found the ear of a command cadre. Sometimes they found grievances to play on, but the troubling possibility exists that some believed Icarion had the greater claim on their fealty, in a dark reflection of those sons of traitor Primarchs who cleaved to the Throne.

 

  This, then, may provide the truth behind tales of ships in the livery of the Scions Hospitalier with the four-pointed star upon their flanks, preying on Loyalist ships in the Ralethir Abyss. Similar rumours surface a few years later with the Battle of Arl'yeth, where Astartes in the long-defunct panoply of the Steel Guard were also recorded, and the evidence was similarly suppressed. Still more troubling, and more fiercely disputed, are the images retrieved from the ruins of Syedel, which appear to show a Great Company of the Iron Bears laying waste the planet’s cities and massacring its people, apparently in support of an Eagle Warriors force. A handful of instances are known of hybridised forces, including a company amongst the Great Slaughter at Beta Garmon in the merged colours of the Void Eagles and Berserkers of Uran. 

 

  These notorious cases serve to illustrate the murk and complexity of allegiances during the Insurrection, being merely the best-documented instances with many more known only through conjecture and the most fragmentary sources. As for the “true” Blackshields, those who obliterated their old colours and fought under entirely new banners, few can speak with any certainty of their allegiances. 

 

I want to put this one in either Expansion or Subjugation, more likely the latter.

Edited October 2, 2019 by bluntblade

[simison]

Sent in a PM.

 

Blunt: "OK, my vote goes to Sim's piece."

 

"Proper Relationship between General and Emperor" wins September. 

 

Now, onto the Blackshields.

[TheBlindPrimarch]

First Submission:

 

The Shining Companions

 

“As I walked towards the landing pad my eyes were drawn upwards from the data-slate in my hands, the visitor’s request momentarily forgotten as I stared in disbelief at the two rows of shining angels of death standing at attention at the base of the lander’s rear ramp. There were twenty of them, wearing vastly differing marks of legion armor, but they were uniform in the brilliantly polished mithril silver of their unpainted armor, chased in gold, and the white of the tabards that each of them wore. As awe inspiring as they were, my gaze was torn from them in an instant, as the most unassumingly beautiful woman made her way down the ramp. The look of quiet serenity on her face will forever be etched into my memories.”

-Governor of Leadraxius Prime, Lord Jadimarc Lormik

 

 The Shining Companions, originally known simply as the Companions before their fateful meeting with the First Imperial Saint, Saint Selene, were a small band of Legionaries hailing from six different legions, including three legions that had sided with the Traitor Icarion, that had chosen desertion rather than fighting a war that they viewed as being simply...wrong.

 

 Numbering only twenty Legionaries, the Shining Companions busied themselves rendering aid to civilian populations ravaged by the fighting, and protecting convoys moving through embattled zones with their singular strike cruiser, the Mercy. They would resupply from appreciative settlements when needed, and would scavenge the supplies of legion raiders that had attacked them, but generally avoided conducting raids against the convoys of either side in observance of their self ascribed neutrality. 

 

 It wouldn’t be until a chance meeting with the young Saint Selene, and her ragtag force of devout followers on the planet of Breletania, that the Shining Companions truly discovered their purpose. For it was here, shortly after having escorted a convoy of refugees from another nearby settlement, that the Shining Companions would find themselves fighting a raiding force of Eagle Warriors alongside Saint Selene’s forces, granting them a front-line view of the miracles the First Imperial Saint was capable of. Afterwards, having confronted the young girl, and judging her words and deeds for themselves, the Shining Companions unanimously agreed to don her iconography and colors, and serve as protectors of not only her person, but of her followers as well. While it is unknown exactly what transpired during their private audience, it is said that each of the Legionaries was granted a vision from the Emperor himself, proving Saint Selene’s claims. Regardless of the truth of such things, The Shining Companions would fight at her side throughout the Insurrection, and would stand beside her in the hellish battlescape of the Imperial Palace during the second Siege of Terra, earning themselves not only glory, but an honoured place of respect among the heroes of the Ecclesiarchy of latter years.

Edited October 2, 2019 by TheBlindPrimarch

[simison]

The Age of Blackshields

 

Although the galaxy witnessed many events affecting the Legiones Astartes, from wholesale allegiance to Legionaries denouncing their Primarch, never before had any witnessed the coming of the Blackshields. Rejecting all allegiances but their own, it would be several years beyond the Day of Revelation before Imperial and Madrigalan scribes became aware of their existence. This was not due to the existence of Blackshields, but a misunderstanding of their nature. From the third month of the Insurrection, reports filtered to respective commands of unindentified legionaries launching ambushes and raids to secure material and supply. The true reason for delay was the various strategists and commanders of the two empires had trouble believing any space marine would choose to side with neither Terra or Madrigal. Also hampering understanding was how rare the Blackshields were in the first year of the Insurrection. 

 

In time, that would change, though not quickly. The initial years of the Insurrection would prove to be a false start to the Blackshields. Several warbands would come into creation, only to meet annihilation or subjugation as Madrigal rapidly expanded its borders and the Warmaster launched pacification campaigns to re-establish Imperial law and order in Segmentums Obscurus, Tempestous, Pacificus, and Solar. 

[bluntblade]

Perhaps both a false start and false end? The Wars of Expansion will also mean broken and scattered Legionaries, not least Vyrn's lot.

[simison]

I was going to explain that the Blackshields would hit an all-time high during the last years of the Insurrection and the first few years of the Scouring.

[bluntblade]

I suspected as much, which is partly why "false start" felt off to me. It's a small start, but nothing's small about it.

 

It's going to be an interesting difference with our timeline, in that there's more time for Blackshields to be integrated into the line of battle on either side or carve out their own domains.

[simison]

It was, however, not an ending. The first surge of Blackshields would come in the Far East in Segmentum Atlanticus. With the crippling of Imperial control by the Primarch Darzalas and the shattering of the Dune Serpents, this segmentum bore the dubious honor of seeing the first true rise of the Blackshields. With central hierarchies decidely lacking, the Blackshields prospered as they struck against Traitor, Loyalist, and anyone else in their dizzilying variety of motivations. Likewise, a similar growth of Blackshields afflicted the Galactic Northwest where the Primarch Daer'dd met his fate. 

[Beren]

Placeholder Edited January 16, 2020 by Beren

[simison]

November voting is now open. It'll be a Legion month:

 

I - Harbingers
III - Crimson Lions
IV - Void Eagles
V - Halcyon Wardens

VI - Iron Bears
VII - Berserkers of Uran
VIII - Godslayers
IX - Warbringers
X - Fire Keepers
XII - Wardens of Light
XIII - Eagle Warriors
XIV - Dune Serpents
XV - Grave Stalkers
XVI - The Drowned
XVII - Warriors of Peace
XVIII - Steel Legion
XIX - Scions Hospitalier
XX - Predators

[bluntblade]

Eagle Warriors, while we're fired up to do it.

[Kelborn]

Void Eagles

[MikhalLeNoir]

Sun-Eaters!!! Aka Eagle Warriors for real

[Beren]

Void Eagles.

[TheBlindPrimarch]

Berserkers

[simison]

With Rak's vote, Void Eagles for November.

 

List of judges:

1. Kel
2. Blunt
3. Nom
4. Sim
5. Beren
6. Blind
7. Row
8. Thorn

 

Kel, are you able to serve?

[TheBlindPrimarch]

Wait, who won last month?

[simison]

Kel is judging.

[Kelborn]

Judging will occur in 3rd of November. :)