The Imperium of Man, the edifice of the immortal God-Emperor, was and continues very much to be a labyrinthine construct of rings within rings within rings...
With the tearing apart of the galaxy this has just made it that much harder to keep track of things, the Ministorum and Adeptus Terra try their best to make it clear under the gaze of the Lord Commander - that thrice blessed Primarch of the Ultramarines - but he cannot be everywhere at once and fighting all the wars on all the fronts, this task he must leave to the billions and billions of men and women of the so-called Astra Militarum, the Imperial Guard.
As with every other branch of Imperial authority, the Guard has secrets of its own that are the purview of the most trusted few - even the High Lords knowing little about the innermost units fighting their wars across the galaxy; all know of the valiant Stormtroopers, those elites of the Militarum Tempestus, but even those agents of the Ordo Tempestus are spread thin in the current storm of the 42nd Millennium.
This is where 'normal' men and women, though extraordinary individuals step up to the firing line, warriors of the Emperor and soldiers of the Ordo Nominis Umbra - literally 'Shadow Order' - a branch of Guard special forces made up not of orphaned and indoctrinated nobles, but of the flesh-and-blood of the Guard. Selected from front-line regiments, proven combat soldiers, they serve and fight wherever and whenever they are needed! Some fight for lofty ideals, some for the Emperor and his construct, but most fight for the soldier next to them.
You have been selected to undergo insertion into this Ordo, sworn to secrecy and under instructions to follow any order given, will you accept?
Righto, so, the forces of the Ordo Nominis Umbra is essentially like our own real world spec-ops in the 40k universe; they're all front-line soldiers, though not necessarily veterans, chosen for particular skills (heavy weapons operation, vox and machine operators, mechanics etc), without being so high up that they're Stormtroopers or so low that they're your average soldier.
They can be of any gender, come from any regiment, and generally be of variable ages but all will have fought before - perhaps not many battles or campaigns, but they're not complete greenhorns.
I say this in almost every Guard RP I run, and I've run a few, but I would like this to be gritty and well written! Due to this I intend to make it a small group recruited from canon Guard formations - more than anything I want this to feel like an experience, every post thought out and checked before posting, every action that can do to have a reaction (ripples on a pond and all that), to feel more 'alive' than RPs generally do.
I'm looking for level-head writers who can fundamentally use their own initiative when it comes to writing, who can 'get inside' a character (sounds a bit pedantic, I know, but it won't be), and have a good grasp of written English; I'm not looking for authors or novelists, my own writing lacks quite a bit itself, but I am looking for those who show their interest, show up when the OOC thread goes up, gets their CS approved and can stay the course until they want their characters killed off or tell me they've had enough.
If you've read this far then I'll assume you're still interested, and hats off to you!
Please make yourself known in the thread, if that is the case, and as always if you have any questions then please do ask them - it saves everyone a lot of hassle.
