The tranquil star system named after the famed saint Lazarus started seeing increased activity of the brutish space ork raiders scouting planetary defences and falling upon the pilgrimage crafts of the faithful. The governing cardinal Thietmarus LXXII requested from Ultima segmentum command at Kar Duniash to send reinforcement to his world to protect the 17 billion loyal souls. The response came in the form of an astra militarum battlegroup 3 million strong compromised of the Dniepr armoured guard’s experts in mechanised warfare.
The small forces of Orks that had made planefall was quickly dealt with in the deserts outside of the gleaming white hive cities and the men and women of Dniepr was hailed as heroes. Then for reasons unknown to the citizens, relic keepers, priests, deacons and even the cardinal himself disaster struck, as the Cicatrix Maledictum spread across the galaxy and a wall of darkness fell between the Cardinal hive world of Lazarus prime and the divine light of the Astronomicon. In the coming year fear and panic gave way for terror as long range scans of the star systems edges showed an org fleet approaching, not mere raiders willing to settle for loot and plunder. This time it was full blown Waaagh. The small system defence fleet made a brave last stand in high orbit trying to protect the worlds space station. As the people of the world turned their eyes to the night sky they could watch as the explosion of the Deodate class space station turning the night for a short moment into brightest day. As darkness retuned the fiery streaks of the space Ork landing crafts descended thru the atmosphere.
The armies of Dniepr was still planetside and the Cardinal had reinforced the veterans with millions of conscripts. Barley trained but driven by an unshakable faith in the god emperor of making blessed be him on holy Terra. The white towers of the hives were reduced to rubble and the dust of the desert settle in the ruins. After 3 years of fighting a gridlock had been reached, the Orks had taken a defensive posture as their slaves scourge the ruins for material to build bigger war machines, the astra militarum units spent after horrible fighting limited itself to brief combat patrols to seek out survivors and find holes in the ork defences to be exploited when opportunity present itself.
The Human spirit was still intact. As the nights feel mass was still held in the crushed cathedrals, defiled Basilicas and broken mausoleums. The hymns of the faithful could be heard in the cities crossing the no man’s land giving hope to the slaves captured by the Orks uniting the people of the shattered world as a prayer for deliverance.
I am the light, the light in void; who looks to me will never be lost.
I am the light, the light of heaven; who pray to me will never die.
And as you pray, remember me, my body broken on the throne: my life was given to set you free, and I'm alive for evermore.
- Ego sum lux; hymn CDLXXXII the book hope saint Cecilia the blind
Captain-General Sergeius of the Dniepr armoured guards didn’t expect deliverance when the vox servitor announced that a messaged had been received from a unidentified ship at the edge of the system. When the voice honed from wars on a hundred different worlds came thru the vox link Sergeius felled to his knees and thanked the god emperor.
Lazarus command, This is castellan Tancrède of the Black Templars we are the knights of Dorn, the vanguard of the Lazarus crusade! We will cleanse the invaders of this world with our righteous wrath and restore these holy places. Imperator in fidem est aeternum!
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This thread marks my return to 40k, I left around the end of 4th edition due to disappointment in the rule system. After that I have played a whole bunch of other games including games set in the 40k universe as I have always loved the setting itself. What pulled me in to begin with was the fantastic 3rd ed start box front cover featuring the black Templars, the flames of my interest were fanned with the war for Armageddon and codex City Fight all the way back in 2001.
What I have seen so far 8th editions have the makings of something great so I have set three goals to archive for this project to fulfil what I wanted as a boy but didn’t have the skills or means to archive:
1: Make a Black Templar crusade that invokes John Blanche black Templars.
2: Make a supporting Imperial guard army in the vein of Armageddon steel legion.
3: Create a ruined gothic city to fight the enemies of mankind in.
My plan is begin with a mainly infantry force featuring the new primaris marines backed up with dreadnoughts, and scouts to fufill the roels of Neophytes. I look forward to sharing this journey with you all and hope you will enjoy it.
My armor is comtempt, my faith is zeal, I'm a weapon fated to fight forever in the eternal crusade.
- Brother Georgius
The idea is to keep the colour scheme limited to mostly black and white with gold as the main accessory colour. I will have a theme of holy relics going thru the entire army where the dreadnoughts themselves are walking reliquaries. The green Maltese cross is the crusade badge for the Lazarus crusade and will be included on all models in the army, here it’s free-handed but I will replace it with a transfer decal at a later stage. Later during the coming week I will try to post another dreadnought and some Neophytes, after the release of 8th edition I will focus on converting the characters and get some test marines done.
Edited by ST.Lazarus, 03 November 2020 - 02:53 PM.