46 replies to this topic

[bluntblade]

Sons of Solstice one to follow later today:

 

The Voidmaster’s Eye

  While hardly one of the most ostentatious decorations in the Legiones Astartes - an ellipse of clear glass, ringed with metal - the Voidmaster’s Eye is prized among the Lightning Bearers. As its name would suggest, it commemorates feats of exceptional prowess in fleet engagements. The II^nd Legion made a point of bestowing it upon allies who they deemed worth, not just among their cousins but also mortal officers. Within their own ranks, the Voidmaster’s Eye was in some ways an informal prerequisite to commanding one of the Legion’s great warships. Riko Odyza, for example, earned his shortly before taking command of the Serpent Blade.

[Beren]

The Irontide regiments
It is uncertain whether or not Galmoret was a heavily industrialised world at the beginning of the Age of Strife, or whether this arose out of the necessities of that age. Today Galmoret is littered with scores of abandoned manufactories once dedicated to various products that were discarded during the years of survival and which only today are being restored.

 

The one type of manufactory which were never abandoned to any degree were those responsible for the creation of tanks, which soon became the defining feature of Galmoret Warfare. In the years when various power factions vied for control of the planet, those who would eventually rise to prominence became known as ‘The Irontide’. In part this was because their enemies would come under attack by a veritable sea of armoured chassis, but this was also due to the Galmoret strategy of rapid assaults that always ceded ground where necessary to gain it elsewhere. Thus their front lines were always in flux, receding one day and advancing the next, always seizing the moment to press forwards. Several xenos raiding attempts, and indeed the first attempt at Imperial compliance, were overwhelmed by the sheer rapidity of the mass-armoured assaults before a foothold could properly be established.

 

Once the Irontide Regiments were inducted into the Imperial Army, they were often partnered with the XI, who also held a propensity for fast moving warfare. Not only would the Irontide regiments be better able to maintain pace with the Wardens’ attacks better than many, their armoured cohorts would lend valuable heavy support often not supplied by rapid response forces.

 

In practice, such assignments were often an irritant to the Irontide. The Wardens frequently outpaced even them, leaving Irontide commanders hungry for glory to perform what were essentially mopping up actions. On the occasions where they were required to cover an extended flank or to assist against a foe that had managed to bog the Wardens down, casualties tended to be severe.

 

Rules: Primus/Secundus, Industrial World, Warrior Elite+Hazardous Environment Specialists, Armoured Regimental Doctrine

 

 

 

Agharan Regiments
During the Age of Strife, Aghara was at the center of a small stellar empire with sufficient technology for warp travel, but with what was essentially a blood cult at the center of its society. In their desire to please the fell things they worshipped, or believed they worshiped, they made war upon neighbouring worlds to obtain resources and sacrifice. The vast majority of the Agharan civilisation would be purged for both their beliefs and their fanatical resistance upon the arrival of the Imperium. Upon Aghara itself however, numerous hilltribes were discovered that had been only loosely associated with their masters. Keeping themselves to inhospitable locations that were unsuitable building grounds for the Agharan cities, these formed a culture that was both shared a common heritage and was distinct from the Agharan cultists. The Agharan’s had been content to leave these exiles be, as long as proper tribute was paid. These hilltribes were deemed recoverable by Imperial Assayors. Though the Agharan cities would be repopulated with more reliable colonists, the local tribes were often used as labour, and sometimes Imperial Army rasinings. There are rumours of late, that not all of the old beliefs are as dead as were first assumed.

 

Rules: Secundus/Tertius, Death World, Cult Horde+Guerrilla Fighters (include rogue psykers, low tech weapons and ogryns).

 

 

 

Annamian Holdfasts
Annamain was the last holdout of what had once been the Neldorean polity, a relatively civilised cluster of worlds that had fallen prey to the Agharans. Though their capital, and fortress world, had fallen, it was only in the proto-hives of Annamian that the remaining Neldoreans had been able to stall the Agharan advance. There they made the enemy pay in blood for every step they took, using the tangled city ruins to outmaneuver and ambush the enemy. It was a bloody war, and one that might still have ended in their defeat had the Imperium not arrived when they did. When the Agharan’s refused compliance and their armies were destroyed, the last Neldorean’s welcomed the Imperium as saviors. Now man resources have been poured into Ananamian to rebuild it, but the Neldorean’s have not forgotten their hard learned weapons of warfare. This is something that the Imperium very much counts upon.

 

Rules: Primus, Fortress World/Hive World/War World, Guerrilla Fighters+Warrior Elite

 

 

 

Brenden Levies
Brenden is a world recently colonised within the same sub-sector as Aghara and Annamian, founded at the Imperium’s behest in order to provide a stable food supply to the surrounding worlds, many of which are still recovering from centuries of war. Most of these colonists re from worlds that have been Imperial holdings for at least a generation, and share little of the sector wide population’s experience of strife. They are first and foremost farmers, only pressed into military ranks in times of great emergency, deal with petty raiders or simply to buy time for better troops to arrive.

Rules: Tertius, Agri-World, Combat Engineers

 

[bluntblade]

The Yephrusk Adamants

  To most observers, the Yephrusk Adamants were an unlikely ally for the Predators. Originally raised to serve the Trilkem Federation, they represented the kind of heavily augmented and armed faced which the Space Marines were designed to confront and destroy. However, when the Imperium first encountered the Federation they found it under attack by the hideous xenos named the Vesprid. Faced with a gradual doom as the Vesprid tore across their territory, the Trilkem were abruptly relieved by the XII^th and XIX^th Legions and subsequently swore allegiance.

 

  The Adamants’ cybernetic enhancements earned them considerable favour in setpiece and particularly siege operations. This saw them selected by Andezo Sambedi himself to support the Predators’ offensive into the Quelame Shoals, their particular capabilities serving to make good the XX^th Legion’s relative shortfall in this mode of combat. When the Predators besieged the Stygian Arcologies, the Adamants were with them through every step of the escalade. Subsequently the Regiment would be attached to the Stormspear Tribe on an indefinite basis.

 

  The extensive augmentations which defined the Adamants gave them an outsized stature, rendering them unable to operate vehicles without difficulty and necessitating a large support corps. Their armoured corps were similarly extensive, including one of the largest concentrations of Land Raiders in the Excertus Imperialis. These were put to use in the gruelling escalades to which the regiment was often assigned.

Edited by bluntblade, 30 May 2020 - 04:39 PM.

[Nomus Sardauk]

Submission for the 4th Weekly Writing Challenge- Notable Legion Warships:

Smite of Aeolus
Thunder Talons Legion
Ironclad-class Battle Barge

One of the oldest Capital vessels assigned to the XIVth, the Smite was one of several such ancient ships recovered by the nascent Imperium during the early years of the Great Crusade. Archaic even by the standards of pre-Unification Terra, the derelict ship lacked even basic Void Shields and was ponderous in the extreme due to the weight of the thick armour plating it required as a result. Nevertheless, the growing Explorator Fleets were always in need of more ships and outdated though she was the Smite was extensively overhauled & retrofitted with updated tech in the shipyards of Mars. Though she still lagged behind in speed and her Voids were lacking for a ship of her size, her firepower was considerable, having been refitted for the role of planetary assault with prow torpedos, lances, bombardment cannons and a powerful, spinal-mounted railgun of ancient provenance capable of demolishing defence orbitals with ease.

Assigned to the XIVth Legion, the Smite would form the spearhead of countless planetary assaults over the course of her career, her guns reaping a fearsome tally of kills against dozens of Xeno races and deviant human powers. During the Extermination of the Yaffreln Belters she would be responsible for shattering no less than three of the Belters' great asteroid-dreadnoughts with punishing volleys from her railgun, breaking their morale and any hope of resistance utterly. In the Siege of Wellasn the Smite would assist in slaying one of the Vrelmalkyr God-beasts, her bombardment cannons raining shell after titanic shell from orbit upon the gargantuan monstrosity to prevent it from breaking through the defenders' flanks on the surface. And finally, at the Fall of Waaaaagh! Shelltoof, the Smite would meet her end performing a daring dive through the atmosphere of Savarn Primus. Severely damaged from the conflict in orbit and streaking like a furious comet through the war-torn skies, the venerable ship, ablaze from stem to stern, would evacuate it's entire remaining legionary and mortal crew contingents onto the battlefield below save for a handful of volunteers. These noble few martyrs would steer the dying Battle Barge as best they could into the heart of the Ork lines as they pushed her already-strained plasma reactors to their limits. For a long moment, a second Sun was born on Savarn Primus' surface, a raging sphere of all-consuming fire and radiation several miles wide that tore the heart from Shelltoof's hordes and left nothing but jagged glass and scorched rock in its wake.
For her sacrifice, the Smite and the names of her martyred crew were posthumously awarded the Star of Terra by recommendation of the Primarch August Veramn himself, additionally they would be added to the Thunder Talons Legion's rolls of honour and a new Warspite-class Battle Barge earmarked for the Legion would be named in her honour, that the Smite of Aeolus' legacy of honour, daring and sacrifice might continue.

Edited by Nomus Sardauk, 03 June 2020 - 02:50 AM.

[Nomus Sardauk]

Submission for the 5th Weekly Writing Challenge- Unique Legion Honours

Manum Inconspicuam
XVIIIth Legiones Astartes "Steel Legion"

While mighty warriors comparable to any of their sister Legions, the Steel Legion of Saepio differ in that they curiously place considerable value and emphasis on knowing when and when not to fight, displaying a patience and willingness to negotiate with recalcitrant human empires where others would simply commit to a violent and bloody war of compliance. However, this apparent leniency does not mean the Legion is unwilling to fight, and even as Imperial diplomats begin negotiations the ever-pragmatic XVIIIth will have already put in place contingencies to ensure that even if negotiations sour, the following compliance will be as swift and bloodless as possible.

This is the primary charge of the Legion's Krypteia Reconnaissance Squads, Advance Scouts, Infiltrators and Saboteurs par excellence, the Krypteia infiltrate a system long before first contact is officially made, taking the lay of the land, identifying targets of interest and analysing a civilisation's likelihood of accepting integration with the Imperium. If integration is not guaranteed, the Krypteia will infiltrate key facilities and systems, planting remote-activated bombs and cogitator viruses, ready to be activated at a moment's notice should negotiation fail and war be declared. Their vital infrastructure crippled and their leaders assassinated, the resistant empire is swiftly overwhelmed by the Legion's onslaught, allowing more lives to be spared and the Iterators to begin their work of correcting the natives' isolationist thinking.

For members of the Krypteia Cadres, the Manum Inconspicuam (Unseen Hand) is the highest honour that can be bestowed upon them. Awarded only at the Primarch's approval, this simple emblem of an open hand gradually fading in colour toward the base of the palm, indicates the bearer as a master of his craft, having successfully infiltrated and brought to a bloodless compliance no less than twenty human worlds. As such, those squads that achieve such lofty feats are revered amongst their brothers, held up as exemplars of everything a Steel Legionnaire should strive to be.

Edited by Nomus Sardauk, 03 June 2020 - 04:15 PM.

[Beren]

Sicaran Omega “Old Fury”

 

 

“Why is it painted red?”

 

“Alright, they’re tailing one of our Outrider squads. We can get a clear shot at them as they come over the ridge, but only if we make it to the bottom of the ravine in time. Fifty metres… thirty metres… ten. Got them!”

 

 

The Sicaran Battle Tank ‘Imminent Glory’ was among the forces of an Astral Griffons Voyageur force dispatched in response to reports of Ork raiding in the Malevik Reaches, a sparsely populated region of space that had been inducted into the Imperium almost as an afterthought. Initially the Astral Griffons found much evidence of the Orkoid’s attacks, but nothing of the raiders themselves. The task force began to spread out on a sweep through the worlds of the region, only for the Orks to launch a sudden pre-emptive strike once the Space Marine contingents had spread out. The ‘Imminent Glory’ was part of one of the groups cut off and destroyed during this initial phase in the fighting, the damaged chassis itself being looted by the Orks and modified to their own designs. This deplorable state of affairs would not last long before it was recognised and recaptured in a counter-strike.

 

The damage caused by the Orkish alterations was significant enough that the vehicle could almost be said to have been rebuilt from the ground up by Astral Griffons Techmarines, who took the opportunity to reconfigure it to a Sicaran Omega Strike Tank in the process, renaming it the “Old Fury”. In engagements after this process it was noted the the vehicles embittered machine spirit showed increased responsiveness when in battle against the xenos that had enslaved it. In addition to increased aggression, the tank also appears to have a higher acceleration than would be expected. Arguments about whether or not this is technically possible between the ‘Old Fury’s crew and those of other vehicles is frequent, while the Mechanicum Adepts simply ascribe this to the Omnissiah’s mysteries and the Machine Spirit’s own wrath.

[bluntblade]

XII^th Legion Sicaran Omega Tank Destroyer

Velteius

  Named for an early tank commander of the Fifth Chapter, the Veltius formed the core of their primary armoured echelon. Its speed and offensive power exemplified the Astral Griffon’s methods of war and tallied one of the highest engine-kill counts in the Legion. By the end of the Great Crusade, the tank was serving its second master, Captain Corellan Mendolias, who commanded his company to great feats from his steed during the Listok Compliance. As well as Legion and Chapter livery, Velteius' hull displays a number of icons of the Ryzan Mechanicum, testifying to its origins on that world. The magi of Ryza had a key role in perfecting the plasma weaponry that the Omega pattern mounted and continued to produce it in large numbers throughout the Anarchy.

 

II^nd Legion Sicaran Advancer Armoured Transport (an Iron Hands Fanatic design)

Grey Thunder

  The Lightning Bearers were among the few Legions to make extensive use of the Advancer for their command echelons, its high mobility meshing well with their tactical methodology. Grey Thunder was regularly deployed as the command vehicle of Marshal Daivyn, most notably on Tyenema against Waaagh! Geargrinda.

Edited by bluntblade, 06 June 2020 - 09:54 AM.

[bluntblade]

XIV^th Legion Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer

Revengeance

 

  This tank was one of many reborn from another vehicle destroyed in the Siege of Wellesn and salvaged in the aftermath of the xenos Vremalkyr's assault. Legion archives attest that when the tech-priests of Richal began their work, the Spartan Fortitude was among the wrecks whose machine spirit, the priests claimed, demanded a new and more destructive form. Thus Fortitude was reconfigured to the Cerberus pattern and renamed, and earned a place of honour in the Legion’s super-heavy echelons.

 

XVI^th Legion Stormlord Super-Heavy Tank

Akh-Neshka

 

  This Stormlord was one of three deployed as part of Ur-Suresh’s command force, the Primarch recognising the devastating effect of its Vulcan Mega-Bolter on any formations and morale. Typically deployed in the vanguard, these were credited with obliterating enemy resistance on many occasions. Outside the Legion, Akh-Neshka was often regarded balefully; more than one regiment of primitive origins conceived a superstitious fear of it after prolonged campaigning with the Tyrant’s Fists.

Edited by bluntblade, 07 June 2020 - 08:55 AM.

[Nomus Sardauk]

Submission for the 6th Weekly Writing Challenge- Notable Solar Auxilia Cohorts/Imperial Army Regiments

11th Muzen "Death Stingers" Airborne Regiment
71st Expeditionary Fleet
Segmentum Atlanticus

Raised from the Tropical Death World of Muzen in Segmentum Ultima, the "Death Stingers" are renowned for their skill in the fields of aerial assault, decapitation attacks and strike-and-fade operations. Clad in their distinctive black and gold uniforms and lightweight carapace armour, the Death Stingers model themselves and their tactics after the creatures of the same name. Native to Muzen and the dominant predators of the steaming jungles that cover 67% of the planet's landmass, the Death Stinger is a carnivorous flying insect that size of a Grox, armed with a great barbed blade-like stinger at the end of their thorax and capable of firing chitinous darts coated in a potent neurotoxin. Deceptively intelligent and capable of working in groups, swarms of Death Stingers can overwhelm and slaughter human settlements without adequate defences in minutes, carrying off the dead and dying back to their hives to be devoured.

In battle, the drop-Troopers of the Death Stingers emulate the namesakes by striking hard and fast, using the speed and firepower afforded to them by their gunships to overwhelm a foe and inflict maximum damage as they struggle to organise any resistance. Vulture gunships form the tip of the spear, using their heavy armament and extreme manoeuvrability to swiftly eliminate large or hard targets that could stall the attack's momentum as Vendettas provided additional fire support where needed and Valkyries fast-deploy Squads of Troopers via drop cables or grav-chutes. Any notable point of resistance is immediately hammered with heavy weapons fire from above before being aggressively mopped up by squads of Death Stingers, who favour the compact and robust Vespa-pattern Lascarbine, as well as Grenade Launchers and Flamers, the better to keep their reeling enemy off-balance and panicking.

As a regiment, the Death Stingers are renowned as restless, enthusiastic soldiers who live for the thrill of flight and the exhilaration of raining death from the skies upon the enemy, scattering the foe before them like leaves on the wind. Death Stingers tend to look down upon Imperial Troopers from more conventional, ground-bound regiments, considering their footslogging existence to be dull and pitiful compared to the high-speed modus operandi of the Death Stingers.

Throughout the course of their service the Death Stingers have been instrumental in multiple campaigns and operations, as well as earning several honours from Imperial Command. Against the Speedfreaks of Waaaaagh! Breknekk, the Death Stingers proved one of the only Imperial forces capable of keeping pace with the nomadic hordes of Greenskins, harassing the Orkz with painful hit-and-fade attacks until the infuriated Warboss chased the Stingers' Gunships right into a vast valley the Imperials had planted demo charges at both the entrance and exit of, trapping much of the Waaaaagh! including Breknekk himself, in a giant kill box as Imperial forces sprang from hiding atop the cliffs above to rain death upon the immobilised Orkz. On Opprano III, the Death Stingers used decoy offensives by other Imperial forces to launch a decapitation strike from low orbit against the Oppranians' fortified capital hive, covertly delivering a tactical fusion bomb into the lower reaches of the Hive amidst the fighting. Their objective achieved, the Death Stingers withdrew in good order, allowing the Oppranians to believe they'd forced the Imperials into retreat before the several megaton detonation that followed utterly annihilated the Hive and shattered the populace's will to resist compliance. As of the Emperor's Disappearance, the 11th Death Stingers are assigned to Segmentum Atlantica and the 71st Expeditionary Fleet, currently embroiled in an ongoing conflict with the vile Xenos Culurran Lash-Lords.

[FunkyMonkey]

Warpath - Achilles-Alpha Pattern Land Raider, Legion VI Iron Bears

 

Even in the motorpools of the Iron Bears Grand Wartribes, the Achilles-Alpha pattern Land Raiders were exceedingly rare.  One of these venerable vehicles would demonstrate the pattern’s unfathomable durability and devastating firepower, gaining particular renown in the Parrhen Compliance.

 

When it came to taking the fortress worlds of the Parrhen system, the Sixth Legion encountered some of the most tenacious enemies it would ever face in the Great Crusade.  Well-versed in the science of defensive warfare, the humans of the Parrhen system built hundreds of kilometers of trenches and earthwork fortifications, challenging the sons of Daer’dd to remove them from their positions.  Lighter Astartes vehicles stood no chance in withstanding the firepower levied against them as they attempted to cross no-man’s land, while behemoth Mastodons and Fellblades struggled to navigate past the quagmires and trenches.  

 

So it fell to the Land Raiders to deliver the Iron Bears Astartes past the Parrhen defenses.  Part of a vast muster of Land Raiders of every pattern, a recently delivered Achilles-Alpha pattern Land Raider, simply designated LR-AA 026, was placed in the spearhead.  Of the vehicles that participated in the charge, it is said that nearly six in ten land raiders were incapacitated or destroyed, but not the Achilles-Alpha.  With plating blessed by enhanced ferromantic rites to weather even the most powerful of anti-armor weaponry, LR-AA 026 blasted its way across no-man’s land.  Its volkite culverins eviscerated all who stood in its path, while the explosive shells of its quad launchers tore through the Parrhens taking shelter in their trenches.  At the sight of the land raider making a mockery of even their greatest defenses, many more simply broke ranks and fled.

LR-AA 026, now named the Warpath, would go on to fight in some of the fiercest armored engagements of the Great Crusade, epitomizing the unstoppable might of the Sixth Legion and the Iron Tide.

[Nomus Sardauk]

Submission for the 7th Weekly Writing Challenge- Notable Legion Tanks:

"Skira's Oath"
Vth Legiones Astartes "Anvil Bearers"
Mastodon Super-Heavy Transport

A grizzled old veteran of the Crusade, Skira's Oath was originally a gift from the Primarch Daerr'd Niimkiikaa to his brother Skira, alongside several other Super-Heavy Vehicles of varying design. These dozen war machines would become known amongst the Vth Legion in their native tongue as the "Ta'ram Mad'ere Gil", or "Twelve Mighty Gifts" in Gothic. Skira's Oath itself would take it's name for the Oath the Primarch of the Vth swore to keep his people safe after the tragic destruction of their homeworld immediately prior to their reunification with the Imperium, and like it's Primarch the Oath has kept it's charges safe through countless battles against too numerous foes to count.

Assigned to the 1st Karalan, Skira's Oath would find itself thrown into the fiercest battlefields as part of Anvil Bearers spearheads, safely ferrying the Lifesworn and other Veteran squads into the heart of the enemy. On the sulphurous wastes of Glavra Secundus, amid the noxious fumes and buffeting acid rains Skira's Oath would lead an armoured column down into the hollows of the ghoulish cavern-cities of the degenerate Xenos Ek'krol, her hull inviolate against the foul corrosive weaponry of the alien scum. On the airless moon of Wehten, in the murderous azure light of a pulsar she and her fellow Super-Heavies would bring death to the crystalline U'laa species, melting their translucent bodies with her Magna-Melta and shattering their lumbering forms into glittering shards with her armoured prow. Finally, at the Breaking of Zylus Prime, the Oath would carry the Primarch himself and his Life-Guards through endless artillery fire and miles of muddy, blood-soaked quagmire to deliver the Primarch's wrath upon the Zylusian rulers hiding in their fortress, the shell-dented Mastodon's Magna Melta roaring as it breached the main gate at full tilt, plowing through the weaken defences in a shower of molten rubble and broken bodies.

Throughout her long years of service the Oath would develop a certain character to her, her Machine Spirit reportedly bearing a strange, primal fondness for her Astartes cargo, being noticeably protective of them, like an mother animal guarding it's young. Furthermore, it's devotion to ensuring their safety would see her Machine Spirit defy the odds and continue to operate regardless of even crippling damage, forcing itself onwards with all the bull-headed stubbornness of it's masters. Indeed, despite having been wrecked no less than six times, recovery and construction has always seen the Oath's Machine Spirit re-awaken like a bear fresh from hibernation, hungry for battle and eager to serve once more.

Edited by Nomus Sardauk, 13 June 2020 - 02:39 AM.

[Beren]

Vetil-4 Theta

 

The Crimson Shades are among the smaller Chapters of the Monarchs of Denaus, less focused upon the invigorating of the common populace and more upon secretive and precise military actions done for their benefit but without their knowledge and often without their consent. Their various bases are reflective of this, being located in out of the way systems where the Crimson Shades can quietly train and resupply without disturbance, intervening where and when the deem fit.

 

Vetil-4 Theta is an example of such a base, being located on the semi-volcanic planetoid of Vetil-4 in the otherwise abandoned Vetil system, on the edge of the Y’rimm reaches. In addition to the planet’s waypoint offering a rendezvous location for Crimson Shade ships to assemble, and the fortified vaults in the Kysik Crags numerous supplies with which to arm themselves as well as a stalwart defence, the volcano-crystalline wastes are used as a hostile environment training grounds for batches of neophytes. Neophytes, and in some cases even veteran kill teams, conduct combat exercises in terrain that is barely survivable for weeks or months on end. The purpose of this is to ensure that the Crimson Shades are trained to fight under the harshest circumstances possible with no support, and such exercises will typically culminate in the infiltration and sabotage of an automated and highly fortified facility. Such targets litter the wastes in various states of repair, and a derelict one may provide either shelter to the resourceful or a trap to the unwary. There is no set way to accomplish one’s objective, other than the fact that force of arms alone is rarely sufficient. Innovative tactics will be rewarded should they prove fruitful. If they don’t the trainees will be reminded that they often only get only one shot at accomplishing their goals.

[bluntblade]

Better late than never:

 

Agnoa

  Located in Segmentum Lamia, Agnoa was claimed by the Lightning Bearers in 897. M30 to be their forward base. Uninhabited at the time, its settlement was devised by Icarion Anasem and August Veramn with several purposes in mind. From the beginning, Agnoa was conceived as a fortress world, densely populated and heavily guarded.

 

  The primary cities were constructed around industry, training facilities and cavernous silos carved out of the world’s crust. These played host to war machines and ordnance of all kinds and sizes, creating a vast armoury reserve for the Legion’s eastward-ranging fleets. In the form of the Tempest Fastness, the Legion gained a Fortress-Monastery which rivalled the Stormspire on Madrigal. This frequently served as the point from which the Lightning Bearers plotted their campaigns.

 

  The majority of the colonists hailed from the Madrigal Sphere, though the sons and daughters of many other worlds would also be enticed to Agnoa by the promise of a new life serving the II^nd Legion. Among various roles on the planet, they would form militia regiments and cohorts of Rakurai to guard Agnoa. To their children the opportunity would also be given to serve in the Expeditionary Fleets which accompanied the Lightning Bearers into the stars, and even in a few cases to join the Legion itself.

 

  The Aspirants and soldiers were also joined in the planet’s garrisons by war maniples of the Legio Telesto and Akiran taghma, which were primarily based in a handful of Mechanicum forge-fanes on the planet. These gave the planet a modest but useful manufacturing base, as well as ensuring that almost any kind of repairs to the Legion’s fleet, weapons and armour echelons could be carried out here.

Edited by bluntblade, 15 June 2020 - 07:04 PM.

[bluntblade]

Baradhain 

  Baradhain exemplified one aspect of the binary approach the Crimson Lions took to expanding their realm. This was one of several planets designated as a recruitment world for the Legion and its auxiliaries in the wake of the Bonebreak War. This conflict had been fought against the vicious Ork tribe known as the Marrodrinkurs, which had spilled into the Chalcea Subsector from which the III^rd Legion had recruited extensively for decades.

 

  The Crimson Lions destroyed the leviathan and its inhabitants in three weeks of savage fighting, but took severe casualties along with several devastated worlds. In the wake of the campaign, Bellucadrix ordered several more worlds be settled to make good the losses. A number of systems would also be fortified against potential xenos incursions, but Baradhain was not to be one of these.

 

  Given the armies it was to feed with manpower, Baradhain would be colonised but not only as a form of feudal world. Large numbers of people of suitable stock - some from Tudannan but many others from further afield - were brought to Baradhain and set loose to live and war as they would. The societies which developed were, by the Lions’ design, notably warlike, mirroring in large part the culture which had raised Bellucadrix.

 

  As with each of these worlds, the Lions put a more technologically advanced population in place to oversee the governance of the world and its tithes as well as installing orbital defences. Facilities also grew up for training and gene-seed implantation, ultimately growing into a minor Fortress-Monastery under the aegis of Clan Daran. According to Legion custom, a single Clan administered each recruitment world, the better to function independently.

 

  But these complexes were placed only upon the smallest continent, far beyond the reach or knowledge of their neighbours. What the varied clans and tribes did know was that beyond the bounds of the sea there lived the “star-striders”, who from time to time walked among them and sought new blood to serve the Great Lion and the Emperor in their wars among the stars. This necessitated a certain amount of cultural weaning for those “natives” brought to the city and trained to serve as soldiers there.

 

  While true religion rightly did not exist among any of the Dominion’s cultures, a certain amount of superstition remained and it was through this prism that the inhabitants of Baradhain regarded the kill-satellites, defence platforms and starships which they glimpsed in the skies. To serve the Crimson Lions or even join them was considered the greatest aspiration for a young warrior, and to this end men and women alike were trained to fight in battle. 

[Beren]

The Oureoan Lunar Fortress

 

Once Oureos’ moon harbored its worst foes, the fell xenos that gradually sought to corrupt and enslave its peoples to ensue their dominion to them. Though they could not have originated from such a place, no indications of the empire they once held have been found anywhere but the homeworld of the Dreamwalkers. It was from the planet’s moon that the beasts dispatched their vessels to the surface, bearing messengers of seemingly benign countenance but malevolent intent. Once Kuranos purged city after city upon the surface of their influence, the moon would be their last remaining stronghold in the system, and as far is known the galaxy at large. The coming of the Imperium would finally see the creatures burnt out of their fortifications even here, and forevermore the banner of the Dreamwalkers would fly over this place.

 

The Lunar Fortress is not the Dreamwalkers' principal holding, many more fortresses, armouries and recruitment facilities are maintained within the city-enclaves below, but it is the first founding place and still hosts the primary facilities of the Hypsoian Order, that instrument that the Lord of Ochre deems vital to maintaining both the wellbeing of his Legion and further solidifying their understanding of the universal principles. It is also the first place the Primarch and those of his gene-line first fought together. Records confirm that the Lodges of the Fraught Wastes, the Empty Stars and the Hollow World were amongst those present for this battle, as were many of Kuranos’ most trusted elements of the Oureoan armies hastily outfitted and trained for hostile environment warfare. There also redacte records indicating the presence of at least one void-combat adapted Auxilia Regiment and possibly Mechanicum clades also involved in the siege. Given the concealed records, it is uncertain whether these were destroyed in the battle or else permanently requisitioned at the Primarch’s request.

Hasthtir’s immediate actions following the conclusion of his long fought campaign to rid his homeworld of the xenos influence was to immediately order the site further fortified to guard the left over secrets and technology still harboured by the satellite. Before his departure for further training at Sol, he would also emplace a cadre of rationalist scientists as well as a handful of specially selected psykers, apothecaries and techmarines from the present Lodges to oversee guardianship, defense and research at the site. As Kuranos later became more familiar with the unique challenges his Legion faced, these would become the basis of the Hypsoian Order, and the moon their fortress.

 

From a distance, the moon looks almost like a piece of bruised flesh, being mostly black rocky plans and crags dotted with stretches of palitanate and royal blue. It’s plains are still scarred with the craters of the thermonuclear bombardments the Oureoans attempted to attack it with before the Imperium gave them the orbital transport capability to launch an assault proper. Though the initial fortifications were built around and into the original xenos constructs, these have now been all but buried underneath the Imperial artifice which spiders itself across the lunar surface. The prior structures still exist, and frequently form the most secure locations, but are often classified to the point that it is difficult to even determine their true location.

 

Tertiary facilities are typically those mainly manned by non-Legion personnel, including the orbital ship docks and defensive satellites, as well as service defensive batteries, mortal garrisons and logistical transfer facilities. These are spread out across the surface area, aimed at maintaining a wide coverage. Though frequently deemed the least fortified regions, there are a handful rumoured to date back to the moon’s initial conquest serving as traditional garrisons or research post for the descendents of non-Legion auxiliary forces who survived the battle, lending credence to certain theories about the fates of the redacted forces. Secondary facilities are those given over to the Legion proper, including armouries, staging points and the like. Out of the three categories, these occupy the least volumetric space. Primary facilities are those that are the direct domain of the Hypsoian Order, and likely include the remnants of original xenos structures. In addition to the quarters, meeting halls and messes for the members of the order there are functionalities aimed at fulfilling every need of the Order. Vast databanks store every piece of knowledge and superstition, cross checked and often disproven with a large amount of virtual space given over to psychological analysis. Vaults hold various relics collected from a number of worlds for study and containment, including those of the ‘demons of the outer spheres’ who once called the moon their home. Geneseed stores are held for monitoring, analysis and implantation. Perhaps most importantly are the stasis vaults for the select number of the Dreamwalkers whose delirium has overcome them near entirely, as wheel as the controlled environs where they are studied and if possible coaxed to recovery.

 

Initially, in the wake of the disasters that befell the Legion and the Imperium, the moon was presumed to have shared the same fate as its parents planet. It is only now, with several millennium of records that we can collate ‘sightings’ of Oureous and can confirm, as much as reality can be applied to such visitations, that there are almost no references to any body resembling a moon. The only exception of this are the proscribed writings of a Lenatorus, lone survivor of the ‘neverdawn’ of Antuscha. From these passages I have, at great difficulty, obtained permission to reproduce the following quote: “It seemed that no matter which way I turned, my eye would be drawn to that point in the sky. Where everywhere else countless impossibilities dawned enticing me forwards, there was a blank space. Not like a canvass, ready to be blessed with the artist’s vision, but as if the very portion of a painting that ought to be its focus was missing. Sometimes it felt like a hole gnawing in my head, sometimes like a great eye looking down upon me. I could have travelled any direction, even those quite frankly impossible upon our plane of existence. A million cities, each offering a different extreme to experience. A thousand seas, each with their own depths to plump and resplendent shores to observe. Mountains to be clambered, crevasses to descend into. None of it was truly as I say, but this is perhaps the best approximation I can achieve. Instead, I walked towards that point in the sky. I cannot tell you long I walked for, nor how many lands I passed through. I never stopped, nor can I recall any natural thirst, hunger or movement of the bowels. All I know is that I kept following it, then from one infinity to a single moment I was returned.”

 

Furthermore, the records drawn from Mechanicum null-ships that braved the anomaly persisting in Oueous’ former location occasionally reported an odd signature in the warp, with a warp shadow roughly approximating to match that of the moon. No attempt to gain any further readings or approach this anomaly seemed successful. Despite the extreme tenuousness of these reports, it appears that more than one ‘treasure-hunter’ had doven into the warp storm to attempt to uncover the ancient treasures rumoured to exist on the moon.

 

Needless to say, such idiotic fools are lost to us forever.

Edited by Beren, 26 June 2020 - 10:01 AM.

[bluntblade]

*Dreanwalkers' principal holding

[Beren]

Corrected.

[Nomus Sardauk]

Submission for the 8th Weekly Writing Challenge- Notable Legion Domains:

Ephran Quintus
XVIIIth Legiones Astartes "Steel Legion"
Legion Muster World/Recruitment Fief
Segmentum Lamia

Discovered by advance elements of the 212th Expeditionary Fleet under Praetor Arnza Vaynos of the XVIIIth Legion, Ephran Quintus was the fifth body out of seven orbiting the Yellow Star Phiran, and the only habitable world in the system. Two-thirds of the habitable surface of the planet was covered in the decaying ruins of an ancient alien megapolis, leaving little open land available for agriculture and thus making it a poor choice for colonisation. Furthermore, the only sizeable water sources are the poles, which were amazingly still tapped by still-functional aqueduct systems, and the various craters-turned-lakes that dot the cityscape. The cities themselves were carbon-dated by Mechanicum Adepts as older than Humanity itself, and therefore of dubious stability despite their impressive condition, meanwhile the street level was buried beneath dozens of metres of rubble and the air foul with dust.

Of Ephran's native species, almost nothing is known, although it appears their demise came at the end of a sustained orbital bombardment by unidentied aggressors, the fallout of which likely killed off whoever survived the bombs. Much to the Fleet's disappointment, investigation would reveal little of worth remained, with whatever advanced technology that might've survived stolen by looters over the course of the long millennia. That changed however when routine scans of the megapolis revealed human lifesigns, scattered in small enclaves and settlements hidden amidst the decrepit megastructures, often running along the ancient aqueducts or in proximity to the great lakes formed from bombardment craters.

Contact was quickly made, and the Imperial expedition were shocked to find a hardened culture of tribal scavengers who, through the interpretation of their various origin myths, revealed their ancestors were pre-Age of Strife colonists that had come across Ephran during their exodus. Ambushed by Xenos scavengers who'd been busying looting the planet themselves, the colonists had been forced to abandon ship to survive. Landing on Ephran and forming new communities as best they could, the survivors would over time regress into brutal but ingenious techno-barbarians, they maintained ancient rooftop hydroponics gardens to grow crops, used makeshift glinders, dirigibles and harpoon guns to hunt the various avian beasts that nested among the derelict skyscrapers to feed themselves. They also turned them on rival settlements, harpoons flawlessly changing from reeling in prey animals to launching grappling hooks and zip lines so as to invade a neighbouring tower or hostile airship as gliders and ramshackle aircraft dropped primitive bombs or duelled with slug throwers between the ancient spires. Meanwhile, in the tunnels below warriors would clash in chaotic and bloody Zone Mortalis battles, with death likely to come from almost angle at any second, whether by a hostile's blade or a cleverly-concealed booby trap.

Impressed by the Ephranians' cunning, strength and ingenuity to survive such a harsh environment, as well as their selfless loyalty to their people, Praetor Vaynos would be moved to send a missive to his Primarch. In it he petitioned that Ephran Quintus be claimed by the Steel Legion as a Recruitment World, that they might add the Ephranians' unique strengths to the Collective, as well as any technology uncovered later. Additionally, he argued that as the Crusade progressed further into the far Eastern fridges of the Galaxy supplies lines would be stretched to their limit and that new Muster Worlds would be needed both to properly reinforce, resupply and organise future Expeditions into the recently-ratified Segmentums Lamia and Atlanticus, a purpose for which Ephran Quintus' lone Moon of Treylin would prove ideal. Trusting in his Praetor's judgement, Nomus approved, and before long Mechanicum construction vessels descended en mass upon Treylin, reforging the formerly insignificant satellite into a strategically important fortress and naval hub for the mighty fleets of the Crusade. All the while, down on Quintus sacred pacts were formed between the Legion, who had claimed and transformed the greatest spire in the megapolis into their new Garrison Keep, and the Ephranian enclaves, ensuring a steady new stream of exceptional Legionnaires into the Emperor's armies.

Edited by Nomus Sardauk, 21 June 2020 - 11:39 PM.

[FunkyMonkey]

Praxes

Legion Muster World, Logistics World

Legio Astartes XVI - Tyrant’s Fists

Segmentum Ultima

 

Located in the Ultimata Segmentum towards the galactic core, Praxes was in close proximity to a number of Mechanicus worlds.  In ages past long before the Imperium, the planet had once been a major mining colony supplying nearby forge worlds.  However, as the mineral wealth of Praxes became exhausted, the planet fell into obscurity until it was almost completely forgotten in the chaos of the Age of Strife.  By the time Praxes was rediscovered, Imperial explorators found a barren, arid world with a formerly civilized human population reduced to warring techno-barbarian gun-tribes that fought over what scraps remained of their once-prosperous society.  Yet even rediscovery did not change the planet’s fortunes, for once Martian tech priests and Administratum bureaucrats had inspected the planet and stripped it of any salvageable pieces of technology, Praxes remained unclaimed, its apparent lack of value foreclosing any serious attempt at recolonization.  It was this abandoned planet that the Sixteenth Legion chose to remake into the first and greatest of its mustering worlds.  

 

As the Great Crusade progressed, the Sixteenth Legion was constantly redeployed from crusade front to crusade front across the galaxy.   Rarely lingering in any particular region long enough to avail itself of the logistics supply lines that usually followed in the wake of the great expeditionary fleets, the legion soon found itself stretched thin and depleted.  A logistics world was needed for the legion, and Praxes suited that need well.  The planet’s central location near the galactic core eased the strain of cross-galaxy redeployments, and its proximity to a number of Mechanicus worlds in the core region expedited requisition and resupply efforts.  Though the planet was undeveloped, the lack of competing claims for it made Praxes an ideal independent Astartes world.

 

Under the control of the Sixteenth Legion, Praxes once again became an important world.  Interstellar shipments brought vast quantities of munitions, war machines, and supplies to be stockpiled in legion armory vaults.  Meanwhile, legion warships returning from active warzones ferried countless enslaved prisoners - adolescent orphaned survivors of the legion’s brutal campaigns - to Praxes for processing, indoctrination, and forced conscription into new generations of legion initiates.  Imperial and Mechanicus emissaries frequented the halls of the legion fortress, coordinating with Astartes officers on the needs of the legion and on matters of the Great Crusade at large.  In a few short years, Praxes transformed into the ideal Astartes world, becoming a sort of foster homeworld for the legion.  Still, the world would offer the Sixteenth Legion yet one more boon.

 

The scavenging gun-tribes, descendants of the original mining colonists of millenia past, did not take to the sudden invasion of their planet kindly.  With the newly-built Imperial fortifications encroaching onto the scavenging grounds won by the blood of their ancestors, the gun-tribes launched raids on Imperial facilities.  The Astartes of the Sixteenth Legion responded with their characteristic thoroughness and mercilessness, razing tribal camps and scattering survivors.  The techno-barbarians, though hardened by a semi-nomadic lifestyle fraught with constant peril and endemic warfare, ultimately proved unable to resist the might of the Emperor’s transhuman warriors and were subjugated.  Yet even in the midst of the pacification campaign, the officers of the Sixteenth Legion saw use for Praxes’s gun-tribes.  Rather than be hunted down, the adolescent survivors were captured for conscription while those too old to undergo the uplifting process were allowed to flee into the inhospital wildernesses of Praxes and nurse their wounds - and their hatred for the Imperium.  

 

For generations to come, new Astartes initiates would be baptized by fire as they were sent to clash with the Praxes tribesman, routinely culling the techno-barbarians for suitable future initiates.  In little more than a decade, Praxes would become an appreciable source of manpower for the Sixteenth Legion, with a sizable minority of all legion initiates coming from the Praxes gun-tribes, greatly supplementing the number taken following the Sixteenth’s other campaigns.  To many outside observers, the cruelty of sending newly uplifted initiates, especially those from Praxes, to wage war on the gun-tribes, bordered on inhumanity.  But to the officers of the Sixteenth Legion, the cycle of violence and hatred was a necessary cruelty that hardened the hearts of legion initiates; the Great Crusade required remorseless killers.  After all, they reasoned, had the Emperor not professed the same when he took their families from them on Terra and remade them into his angels of death those many decades ago?

 

[bluntblade]

The Stormspire

  The Lightning Bearers’ fortress-monastery, was a vast voidbound structure, designed by Icarion and the Emperor together to stand sentinel over the world of Madrigal. To all intents and purposes it was a new city built in orbit, housing hundreds of thousands of people to serve the Legion. Of course, this was in addition to its role as fortress, recruitment centre and armoury.

 

  Icarion’s painstaking attention to detail even dictated the speed at which the Stormspire was set to orbit Madrigal, matching the rate at which Akira circled the planet and providing defensive cover where the Forge Moon could not. While the II^nd Legion set watchstations and fortresses throughout the system, including on the outer worlds, this was their mightiest bastion. Besides the thousands of Aspirants who inhabited it, a garrison of Rakurai was also maintained to guard the structure.

 

  During the Great Crusade, command of the Stormspire was entrusted at first to some of Icarion’s oldest lieutenants; men who were too old even to serve in command of mortal troops, but whose administrative acumen matched their military ability. After the last of that cadre ended his tenure, the role was handed over to a retiring Rakurai commander, and this precedent would last for the rest of the Crusade. Nonetheless, the Lightning Bearers also placed a Marshal on the station on a rotating basis, there to hold authority over the Astartes and Aspirants.

[Beren]

Forge Master Aethelstan

 

Though every Techmarine within the Legiones Astartes possesses the generalised knowledge to perform the vast majority of technical dasks to a competent degree, it is not unknown for some to have specific specialties at which they excel. Such was the case with Aethelstan, a Forge Master of the Devourers. Aethalstan’s particular curiosity lay in the maintenance and more particularly the enhancement of the various marks of Power Armour. He is in fact known to have written a treatise circulated between certain Legions of the different applications, inherent flaws and some of the simpler modifications that could be made to enhance them. Within the Tenth itself Aethelstan produced numerous handcrafted suits of Artificer Armour given as gifts to various officers, as well as upon occasion seeking out artificers among non-compliant human civilisations to harvest their knowledge in the Legion’s traditional manner.

 

It was not infrequently that Aethelstan’s company were recognised by both the wide variation and high quality of Power Armour they bore, as he had taken to modifying and enhancing the armour of those in proximity to him when he had the spare time. He even drew close a number of Techmarines to whom he sought to pass down some of his skill to.

 

This would later prove to be an error when, at the turning point of the first Inter-Astartes war, Aethelstan was slain during a skirmish. The attached warband, which like the rest of the Legion had been suffering the strain of their Primarch’s absence, swiftly fell into infighting as various members attempted to claim the Forge Master’s brain for consumption so that they might inherit his knowledge. In the resulting chaos, and that of further raids by hostile forces, Aethelstan’s corpse would be for a time lost. Later it would become the subject of several rivalries as various Devourer task forces undertook attempts to retrieve it, and later to hunt down and consume those who had grasped his secrets first.

[Beren]

Drest Cynwrg

 

Drest Cynwrg was a Moritat of the IIIrd Legion, and was amongst those assigned under the command of Vericos Silver-Tongue, Equerry to the Primarch Bellucadrix, when he was ordered by his sire to remain on Terra and monitor the situation there even as the lord of the Lions left for his own kingdom.

 

From the start this task force frequently found its members barred from secure areas, access to information cut off by indirect edicts of both the Sigillite and the newly appointed Regent of Terra. Quartered on the further outskirts of the palace (following a set of terse negotiations in which Vericos refused several locations offered by the Sigillite) this group frequently made demands or levelled accusations at their hosts. Though both were on the surface the epitome of politeness when responding to Silver-Tongue’s requests directly, the mutual suspicion was far more apparent in the Crimson Lions. Cynwrg in particular was frequently found in areas close to where he was forbidden to go, always with a cutting remark about the Regency on his lips. Though the Custodes that often intercepted him were indifferent to such comments, Kozja’s sons were not always so forgiving and Cynwrg is recorded as having won at least five honour duels resulting from such incidents.

 

Once open war became unavoidable, Kozja ordered his forces to surround the Lion’s garrison area to demand their surrender and if necessary cull the errant Astartes. It was only thanks to the sacrifice of Drest and a dozen others that Vericos was able to break free, prompting a months-long hunt into the Terran hive-sprawls.