IA - Rusted Heart Chapter

[Brinnan]

So, while awaiting the release of 8th Edition, I was inspired to get into Space Marines again. Since I'm not the best writer, most of this will be pretty poorly laid out, and since I'm just finishing my A-Levels now, this won't be updated very regularly, but I thought I'd see where this takes me.

Overall Details

Chapter Name: The Rusted Hearts

Founding Era: M37

Founding Chapter: Iron Hands

Chapter Master: Run by an oligarchy of various important figures, including the leaders of each Company (or Clan, borrowing from the originating Chapter because it suited this more)

Homeworld: Proserpina-IV

Chapter Colours: Black and Silver

Specialty: Close Combat

Warcry: Nam Luce! ("For The [Day]Light!" in High Gothic, as opposed to the regional language most of their Chapter uses)

Overview

The Rusted Heart is a loyalist Space Marine Chapter originally created due to a theoretical threat that never officially materialized - and the Marines in question go to great lengths to keep it that way.

They extensively augment themselves with bionics, seeing flesh as an easy way to be exploited by corruption, for reasons whose validity is all too clear for them.

Homeworld

Proserpina-IV is unusual in that it is a Feral World with a decidedly urban, if medieval, terrain. A large portion of its surface is coated in abandoned, Gothic architecture - mostly in the form of various run-down castles and ruined temples.

Backstory

One of the original settlers of the planet was a devotee of the dark god Tzeentch, sent there for His amusement. You see, Fithral (who would later become known as the Undying, for various reasons) was made into a low-powered Daemon Prince, whose had two powers: the first being that when killed, he would take root within the heart of someone that was descended from him in some way, slowly changing them over the course of ten years until they simply became his reincarnation; and the second being the double-edged sword that only those of his bloodline could kill him. Of course, for a long time, he was relatively inactive - that is, until the majority of the planet was in some way related to him.

After this, in the late years of M37, he began his bid for dominance. Taking control of the entire ruling structure, to keep himself secret from the watchful Imperial eyes, he ordered himself the unofficial ruler of the planet, and used his authority to halt the Adepticus Mechanicus attempts to elevate the technological progress of the world. He also used his powers over Chaos to construct the first of many castles on the planet.

A few years later, a member of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica was granted a vision of what he thought to be the future of the world. Presenting his findings to several of his superiors, they lobbied for the formation of a Space Marine Chapter whose Marines acted with utmost lethality, to ensure that the event would never come to pass - a move which was approved a few decades later. Of course, it was unknown to him that this was already going on, but that is neither here nor there.

Shortly afterwards, what was to become the modern Rusted Hearts were formed on the planet. Knowing of how the monster in human guise would one day infiltrate even their ranks, they ordered a secret ritual on all new members of the group - as part of their induction, the heart would be removed, and replaced with a steel replica.

It was not long until the fledgeling Chapter decided to strike at the daemon ruler of their world. The majority of the weak Chapter was sent into the castle, but only one - the Chief Apothecary, Simon Belmont - made it out alive. The deed done, he showed the planetary rulers proof of his success, and became known as a hero forever after.

Organization

Clan Argent - Veterans, dedicated to hunting monsters around the galaxy. Usually called in in specific squads to handle situations where the rest of an army is fighting. Has silver pauldron trimmings.

Clan Belmont - Named after the hero that first managed to defeat the Daemon Prince. Created for the sole purpose of hunting and defeating Fithral the Undying, and the warriors within it are dedicated to that single goal. Has red pauldron trimmings.

Clan Colere - Known for their righteous fury in battle, the orange-rimmed warriors of the Wrathful Clan are almost entirely Assault Marines; which is rather unsurprising considering that this is clan that houses the non-Argent or Belmont close combat specialists.

Clan Pluie - Houses the majority of the Devastator and other heavy-weapon teams. It also contains most of the advanced vehicles, given to them due to their high affinity with the bizarre machines. Has blue-rimmed pauldrons.

Clan Soldat - The most numerous clan, containing the bog-standard Tactical Marines. It forms the majority of a Rusted Heart offensive, with support of the other Clans. Has green-rimmed pauldrons.

Clan Epreuve - The Scout clan, in which the neophytes are trained. The few members of it that possess rimmed pauldrons have them gilded in copper.

Livelry

They wear black armour with a silver-coated left arm, reminiscent of their primogenitors. The design on the breastplate typically is done in brass, with the centre painted red, to display their affiliation - they keep their pauldrons clear of ornamentation to keep their members focused on training rather than repainting scratches.

Pictured here is a member of Clan Argent:

And with that, I am signing off for the night, because I spent far too long on this post! Any feedback would be appreciate so that I know what to flesh out more, I'll try and get round to it relatively close to when I hear about it.

[Brinnan]

And now would be when I finish reading the DIY guide, so I'll be updating this with the full sections every day or two. Please note that that still doesn't mean they're any good, and considering I tried to lay out the key ideas in the post above, any feedback to help prevent it being (for lack of a better term that is still politically correct) ridiculous, would be greatly appreciated.

[MysticTemplar]

Interesting.  Out of curiosity, is there anything particularly valuable about their homeworld, that the expense of creating a new Space Marine chapter made more sense than merely cleansing it in flame?

 

As well, Foundings are controlled by the High Lords of Terra - who was this Administratum official, that they had sufficient pull to get them to approve such an undertaking?

[Brinnan]

Question 2 is easier, so I'll answer that first - I messed up. The way that I created the 'early concept' for this was using the Chapter Generation tables, and my idea really came into place when I rolled some interesting things like the Urban Feral World, and CQC Iron Hands. The actual reason I was given for the creation of the Chapter was labelled 'Strategic Prognostication', which as I understand it, meant that someone had realised, either through the Emperor's Tarot or psychic means, that there would be a threat at some point in the future.

 

As for the not Exterminatus-ing everything, well, I mentioned in the backstory about the powers of the Daemon Prince that his descendants are somewhat of a two-edged sword. While he can use them to reincarnate, they are also literally the only thing capable of killing him - unless he dies within a foot of them, he will reform within minutes. Of course, that wasn't part of his original powers, but a Gift of Tzeentch for his, by then, several millennia of good service. As such, calling Exterminatus on the planet wouldn't really do anything except remove the colony on it.

On top of that, you have the issue of not knowing if anyone on it has ever gone off-world, and spread the bloodline to another planet. At least while the main planet is left, the chances of someone on it being possessed is astronomically higher than someone being possessed somewhere that you don't know of, where nobody who can defeat is sitting around.

 

As for strategic value of the planet, it definitely has some, but I'm going to put more detail on that when I fill in a section on it that is more than two lines long.

[Brinnan]

Ok, so, having had some time to actually think about how to make this a GOOD Chapter, I have decided that it requires large scale changes. As such, I have decided to make a different that isn't being carried solely by me thinking that they're a neat reference.

[Minigiant]

I think it is a cool idea, I did PM you.

 

What I like is that your recruits effectively come from a post apocalyptic world

[Brinnan]

I might continue this one, but there's been a few too many writer's blocks on getting... literally anything other than this down. I just hadn't fleshed out the core idea enough, beyond it being 'how can I make Simon Belmont a Space Marine?'

 

Which is why I made a better idea for one (in that, it isn't tied to one person and has a lot more of an open end for me to direct) that I'll be uploading soon called the Tempus Aemulatori, or Challengers of Time. I'll be actually uploading them once I figure out a colour scheme, because their Primogenitor is unknown. And while they definitely use Iron Hands chapter tactics, that isn't really because of bionics, so I don't want to say its them.

[Cryptix]

You know, you might want to add some contrasting colors to your scheme - too much black looks bland.

 

As for the whole heart thing, is this before or after augmentation? This is important, because humans tend to without hearts - meaning to join us to skirt with death, hoping they install the implant in time.