Deadass

TITH I've finally reached the finishing straight for this monstrosity: Enter Captain Marnius Veslo! A mate of mine commissioned me to convert a bespoke Terminator Cap based on pre-existing artwork, and now the hard work is done. Gonna try on some alternative pauldrons later, add some minor shine and then send him on his merry way.

Really, really nice. I like what you're going for with the Prædicators - nice name, by the way. Much snappier than Denizens of the Deep! You mentioned that you wanna reformat this into something more IA-like - I wonder if you'd consider trimming some of the fat? You regurgitate a lot of the basics regarding power armor, Techmarines and so on - stuff that the average reader will probably be aware of. It means they have to chew through a lot of mundane info to get to what makes the Chapter different from everybody else, i. e. the parts they're really here for. That may turn 'em off continuing on. Condensing or scrapping these introductions to different topics will result in less 'downtime' (something I struggle with as well sometimes, but that's neither here nor there). Next, a number of smaller points: I find it difficult to reconcile the beginning of the 'Battlefield Doctrine'-Section with the rest of it - at first, you say that Space Marines form lethal strike teams (which is supported by the lore) but then you go on to call them a 'predominantly defensive force'. I think it's mostly down to those three words, though, since what you're describing sounds more like ambush tactics and shock and awe (to me, anyway). Mentioning the Phalanx and the Abyss-Class vessels makes me a bit wary, personally - those are two of the most powerful (classes of) vessels the galaxy's ever seen, and comparing your Cetus to both of 'em causes questions like "why haven't we seen it before?" and "why wasn't it mentioned in this book, where the narrator lists the Imperium's greatest ships?". Why not make it a Star Fort or a relic construct comparable to one? While still immensely powerful (as proven by the Raptorus Rex hauling a goddamn stellar core fragment), they are comparatively more common than what you're currently describing. You mention that the Prognosticators execute some of the Chaplains' tasks as well, namely looking after the mental well-being of their brethren. As do the Apothecaries. And the Chaplains, I presume, which partially makes them redundant. One easy solution would be to officially merge the roles of Prognosticator and Chaplain, or Apothecary and Chaplain. Or both! The Emperor's Spears do something similar with their Druids, so there's a precedent for it. With all the doom and gloom concerning a nameless, shapeless terror from the void, one has to wonder what sort of reaction the Prædicators showed when the Tyranids entered the galaxy. Did they feel vindicated? Maybe they directed their attention towards combating them? Maybe the tidings for battles involving them are especially bad? I think you could do a lot with this! Lastly, there's a myriad of grammatical mistakes and odd turns of phrase in the article, but I assume those will gradually get ironed out as you work on the next draft(s). Again, I like the vibe of this Chapter. Keen to see more of 'em!

<Swordhand Beta> The Devastator gave their somber find a final glance before turning heel to follow the squad to the transport, covering the rear. The way back began as uneventful as their journey to the airlock, punctuated merely by the dull clang of magnetic bootsoles upon the metal floor. Still, Boros found his blood pumping ever faster at the Hammerhand’s words. ++The auspex reports a warp signature entering the vicinity++, he had said. No one knew of their assignment, and unless Captain Diocles had decided to look over their shoulders personally, logic allowed for one explanation only. Hellfire, he thought, a look of evil glee spreading across his war-worn features. I may yet have my pound of flesh...

Glad to hear things are returning to some kind of normal, Mol! I had no idea Mazer left the forum in its entirety - hope the guy's alright.

<Swordhand Beta> Boros had said precious little as they ventured deep into the Riches Untold. While Swordhand was navigating the endless corridors, prying open bulkheads and searching for remains of the crew, his discontent had been simmering away unnoticed. Now, at last, they had found what they were looking for - and he was still doubtful of their mission’s worthiness. ++Lo, see here the fruit of our efforts: a dead man aboard a dead ship. How enlightening++, he muttered, lowering his weapon. Being honest, the Revenant was unsure about what upset him so. Was it truly the current lack of action? Or did Yeng’s erratic means of navigation play a part? Maybe he was just angry at nearly having shot a corpse. The sight at hand blew these thoughts aside. Instinct made Boros want to inspect the body more closely first, and he told his squadmates as much. ++Would anyone hazard a guess as to what sent this one to the Emperor?++ Using his armour’s auto-senses, Boros began a cursory examination of the head wound. ++Bolters would not have left us with much of a skull to look at, I reckon. Shotgun shells, perhaps?++ OOC: To try and discern what killed the voidsman, I'd like to have Boros make a Scrutiny Test: P 40 = Rolled a 40 (I see we're cutting it close again...) - Success, 0 DoS.

Apologies for my lack of updates, I came down with a pretty nasty ear infection a while ago. I'm better now, though, and so I'd like to present my build for Brother Lunkhead's Liberation Knights: I don't know whether I'll make it in time as I need to order a few missing colors, so I'll probably be taking the badge of redemption home again! Still, I hope this little dude captures the spirit of the Chapter properly.

An online dice roller isn't needed, no.

Ahh, I know this one! That makes the Chapter Champion the Hulk (the name being a World War Hulk reference) while the other guy's named after Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, who created Cap's character and look respectively. I'll be sure to keep the naming convention in mind for my mini!

Ah, the Liberation Knights. Glad to see I got these guys, I don't paint enough blue! I'll see about building a mini for 'em next week.

I've got no update for the article ready, but the artwork I commissioned made it here the other day. I made a high-res scan and did a bit of editing in Photoshop, figured I'd put the results here: Hidden Content I'm really happy with the job Polina did on the Strigoi. The plan is to commission a few more artists for an eventual pdf that'll go even more in-depth on the Chapter, tackling their heraldry and maybe even some bespoke character rules. Really excited to start working on that once the article is complete. Happy Easter Weekend, everyone!

Apologies if someone posted this elsewhere already, but a fan animation of Graham McNeill's short story The Last Church was released a few hours ago. Link to Youtube Say what you want about the story itself, but it's a decent watch if you've got some time to kill.

Oh hello. I've stumbled over your closed WIP thread a bunch of times while trawling through the Castigators topic, but I could never find the Chapter those assault marines belong to. I'm quite excited to see where this goes! Your keynotes are looking good so far. Just add a color scheme and you're set for the LASC! I'd agree that the homeworld section needs a bit of work, but you mention that it needs a rewrite, so I won't linger on it too much longer. I do wanna mention that I feel like removing the Moros' description would be beneficial, though - keeping them an unknown quantity is much more intimidating! The bullet points for your Organisation section all look very reasonable. I think you can probably go without the bit about the reserve companies - a Space Marine Strike Force is typically constructed around a battle company augmented by units from the reserve and supplemented with Scout- and Veteran elements. Regarding the Lions' culture - just how shamanistic are they? The whole shebang? Bone casting, entrail reading, stuff like that? Are there any superstitions resulting from adopting the Ursikean set of beliefs? How has that affected their relations with other Imperial organisations? Defining the downsides of their chapter cult will give them a lot of depth. On the flip side, keep in mind that you don't have to write a cultural clash between the firstborn and the primaris. It's entirely possible that the Lions never received any reinforcements to begin with, merely being presented with the tech to make their own. Hope that helps!

Welcome Back, Doctor! No worries - I'm happy to receive any feedback, belated or not. 1. - Glad you enjoy the formatting so much! I'm always worried the sheer volume of text is gonna turn people off reading it, so hearing that you found the article pleasant to look at is a huge relief. 2. - Battles would definitely be useful, yeah. The article contained two up until when I last updated it, which is when I removed them because they weren't up to my personal standard anymore. New ones will be coming, though; that's a promise. 3. - Honestly? Nothing worth mentioning. Maragrad, primary recruiting fief and nominal homeworld of the Strigoi, forges aspirants ideally suited to the exacting standards of a Space Marine Chapter. They have more sources for recruits, of course. Of the two briefly mentioned in the 'Organisation'-section, Vilis is a hive world permeated by dangerous radiation while I imagine Daumathar to be a lot like Bodt. The Chapter knows that survival on these planets matches any test they could throw at these youths, "only" testing them for purity of mind and genetic compatibility. The Strigoi need to be pragmatic like that - the Curse coupled with their high activity means that their ranks erode at a worrisome pace. I think this pragmatism would also show itself in how they train their neophytes as well, seeing how the Strigoi would be hard-pressed to advance them to servie alongside their line brethren. What would be the quickest way achieve that for this particular Chapter? Easy - even MORE cannibalism! Using the Omophagea to impart the wisdom of former battle brothers onto new ones seems like a given. Another possibility would be additional psychological conditioning, similar to what the Minotaurs make use of. Perhaps it's even some unsavoury combination of the two? I think that's something the narrator is gonna ponder on once I rewrite 'Hierarchy of the Host'. Thanks for this question. Gives me lots to think about! 4. - As touched upon in the introduction, the Strigoi are on bad terms with most, if not all of the Chapters of the Blood/ Sanguinary Brotherhood. I'd imagine that those Chapters more inclined to brutality have less of a problem with them, but claiming that the Emperor Himself willed them to be ravenous berserkers is sure to upset even some of them. The material on the Horus Heresy showed us in no unclear terms that He had a far less noble side, but most Space Marines would decry a statement like that as utter blasphemy. Still if something horrible were to happen, like, say, Tyranids attacking their Primarch's birthworld, I'm sure even the Strigoi would lend a hand. As for the other part of your question: Perhaps they do know, perhaps they don't. With all the bad blood between them (pun not intended, I swear!), it's certainly nothing they like to talk about. Being a huge proponent of the notion that 40k needs some mystery as part of its allure, I wanted to refrain from spelling out the past of a Chapter so obviously inspired by the lore of the Revenant Legion. I think there's enough information in the article to allow various possibilities without any one seeming more likely than another. I have my own ideas on just where the Strigoi originated from, but I don't feel the need to write it out in full - anything I present the reader with would be more boring than the theories they come up with themselves. 5. - The article mentions that the Chapter maintains a cordial relationship with the forge world Medea Prime (which may get renamed in the future, we'll see) and has occasionally been called upon by the throneworld to eradicate enemies from within the Imperium - stuff like Chaos- or Genestealer Cults, renegade Militarum regiments and maybe even Space Marines. I'd imagine they are considered a valued asset, if not exactly a favoured one. I'll figure out whether I can emphasise this a little bit more in the future. Relations with other Chapters would likely depend on the Chapter in question - I'd imagine the Strigoi would get along fairly well with the Executioners while the White Consuls would shun their company, if possible. Apart from their blood brothers, there's noone worth noting. 6. - I believe 'Strigoi' is their name in high gothic (or a variation thereof). The introduction briefly mentions their "fabeled namesake", referring to the mythological creature and chosen for its restless nature. I figured if descriptions of manticores, gryphons, minotaurs and whatnot managed to survive into the 41st millennium, why not them as well? The way I understand it, names like 'Vlka Fenryka' and 'Carcharodons Astra' fell out of favor with the common folk because of their length and roots in languages not spoken by most Imperials. 'Strigoi' is fairly short and easy to remember, and so they get away with it. I'm not planning to expand on the origin of their name in the article, but given valid arguments, I'm open to being persuaded otherwise! 7. - I don't think there was any one historic event that made them reorganise to have eight battle companies, more that it was a natural progression for them as they saw their numbers dwindle due to the Thirst and attrition. The Codex Astartes is still at the heart of the Chapter's war philosophy, and it dictates that the battle company forms the heart of a Chapter Strike Force. The way I see it, the Strigoi believe that they can match the effectiveness of other, bigger Chapters by having more battle companies roam the galaxy. I'm glad you asked this - this helped me start organising my thoughts on the matter, but I'll try to be clearer in the revamped 'Organisation'-section. Nitpicks or not, these were great food for thought. I'll make some notes and be sure to take all of this into consideration!

A promise is a promise! It's been great to properly revisit the Hounds after so long. I'll stick with the reply format you used on my IA, I think that works quite well for such a long article. It'd be best if you mention the Exilis being a Sub-Sector right here at the Start, just to prevent any confusion. There's a minor slip-up with the comma here. I really like this. Even with stuff like the Black Rage and the Wulfen Curse going strong, the Primaris Marines' appearance in the setting was a bit too perfect. This short bit implies that there are some kinks that slipped Cawl's notice - something that, imo, fits perfectly into the lore. Another line I dig is the Quote for the 'Beliefs'-Section. I wonder how the Hounds are perceived by characters versed in Imperial history when they draw parallels between Horus and Guilliman? Maybe that's worth exploring in a piece of micro-fiction? If the Chapter were to fight as one, who would be in charge? I know the Hounds don't have a Chapter Master, but even the Iron Hands elect a War-Leader in times of great need. That might be worth addressing. An easy fix would be having the High Chaplain take a similar position - you have that sick new miniature of him, after all. I believe Bjorn had a point when he suggested a new title for the hybrid Captain-Chaplains - it does sound kinda clunky. Last year, you said you make use of the title 'Hell Hound', but I can't find it anywhere in the article. Did you scrap that idea? My own suggestion would be either 'Deacon', the officers being chaplains of a not entirely spiritual bent or 'Cerberan' in case you wanna keep with the old theme. All of these are more minor niggles rather than full-blown criticism, but then again, you've been working on these lads for almost four years - it shows. The reformatted 'History'-section is a good touch and I'm excited to see what you've planned for the armoury. Hope this is of some help!