After the Emperor of Mankind united the warring factions of Terra under 1 banner, he set his sights on the stars to unite them completely. To this end, he created 20 Legions of post-human, genetically enhanced super soldiers known as the "Space Marines". These Legions varied in size, strength, tactics and doctrines, but all united under the common goal of bringing Humanity to the top of the food chain in the universe, to take their rightful place as the rulers of the galaxy, to route out the Aliens, the Mutants and the Heretics and put them in their rightful place.
"Do not feel pity for them. It is no-one's fault that Humanity was born superior. Fate handed us this role and we cannot rest until they learn to play their part."
- Emperor Of Mankind.
Summary:
This is a Casual-Advanced RP where you are given control of a Primarch of the Imperium of Man and get to choose how their story unfolds. I will, every so often, the tables will be flipped and random events will break out. Random invasions of your conquered planets, Characters of your Legion getting in contact with the Dark Gods, Alien Religions permiating the ranks, stuff like that.
Remember, the Cult of the Immortal God-Emperor isn't a thing yet. Your Legion aren't pious zealots unless you make them into them.
Rules: *You came here expecting to be GM'd by a Madman, but instead your GM is a GOD!!!!* I am the be-all, end-all of arguments here. If i say "Quit that shit" then i expect that shit to be quitted. *Be Courteous* This is a RP for everyone involved, if i feel that someone is griefing too much, or causing others to not feel comfortable, there will be disciplinery action taken *18+* Always one that comes up. If you have the feeling that what you are posting isn't for wholesome christian websites like this, then put it in a hider labelled 18+. So, yes, if you want gory slaughter, or hard-core nudity and in-depth descriptions of the horizontal monster-mash, then feel free to, but at least warn us with that hider. *Posting Expectations* This is going to try to be as laidback as possible, as such, i expect people to make an IC post at least once every 3 weeks, if you let us know over PM or just posting in the OOC, then that should be ok. If you are having trouble coming up with a post, then do feel free to spitball idea's either in the OOC, Discord or by PMing me. *Female Space Marines* I personally have no problem with them. If you wish to use them, feel free to, but do please note that Female Space Marines will look and sound very much like Male Space Marines, with most of their feminine features being visible only on their face. Remember, they are getting a massive dose of super-steroids and the cloned organs of a male god. Under the helmet, they are going to look and act very much the same as their male counterparts. *Be Polite, Be Efficient, Have A Plan To Kill Everyone You Meet* Professionals have standards.
Appearance: Valus has been entombed inside his armor which is a drastically modified suit of Terminator armor with many weapons and servo arms attached to it. The armor is unadorned and largely unpainted except for the legion sigils and the legion colors painted onto the pauldrons. Before he entombed himself into his armor he was much like the other Primarchs, giants among men and carrying a charisma of command. Valus was no exception being about the same height of his brothers but noticeably more broad and muscled. What is more notable is the many cybernetic cables and wires tracing under his flesh, While he is certainly more human than the Techpriests most still believe that he is a leader specific for the Mechanicus though there is very little friendship between the Primarch and the Techpriests of Mars.
Psyker Status: Iota- His powers are small but highly focused, his power revolves entirely around technology granting him deep and intrinsic understanding of almost any technology he obtains. However his power has limits, some ancient Dark Age of Technology relics are beyond his understanding and certain xenos artifacts resist his perception.
Ideology:Valus is a dutiful soldier, crushing the enemies of the Imperium but he has always been resentful of his Father's decree halting his research into Automated combat machines. While he has not exactly stopped his research he has been put in his place by the Emperor and acts as the proper soldier. His goals are not even known to himself really, he is just going through the motions of the great crusade wating for something to change or waiting for some purpose to arise.
Wargear: Invincitus Terminator armor: The Invincitus armor is a suit of armor forged by Valus himself integrating dark age of technology relics into the armor to make it nearly unstoppable as the armor has an Ion force shield like that of the Knight titans. Even before the armor plating gets struck he can shrug off apocalyptic firepower.
Iron-Hail: Customized twinlinked Heavy Bolter used as a gauntlet mounted weapon more than able to shred infantry and light vehicles in moments.
Hell-Hammer: The hell hammer is a modified heavy plasma cannon fueled by the relics in the Invincitus. The cannon is mounted on his shoulder as a devastating mortar he can fire into the distance to blast holes in the enemies formations. However it can also be shifted to fire forwards and is more than capable of tearing through a super-heavy tank in mere shot or two.
The Claw of Valus: the Claw is more or less a dreadnought fist attached to his arm with all the force it can generate, cushing heavy infantry in its grasp or smashing a tank into the ground.
Life and Times:Valus fell to the world of Hellheim, a desolate and blasted world torn by civil war between mighty Forge complexes run by a Mechanicus remnant and towering hive cities. Valus was taken in by the Mechanicus and taught Enginseeing becoming, his understanding grew more quickly than any other pupil of the Mechanicus had ever seen but Valus was not drawn to the religious nature of the tech-priests. He began asking questions bout machine intelligence and trying to understand things that the Tech-priests knew was forbidden. The resistance shown to Valus made his learning more difficult but not impossible it took many years extracting tidbits of knowledge near what he was really searching for to glean the answers he wanted. He was still a child to the tech-priests however and was not allowed to do more than carry oil, ask questions and learn the rites of the machine god.
As Valus turned 12 and the Tech-priests could no longer give any real barrier to him, because he knew the rites better than most of his teachers. He attained the full rights of an Enginseer along with several machinery implants to assist him in his duties. This was mostly so he could converse in binary and give him a pair of servo-arms to assist him in his work. Along with his rank however was a laboratory where Valus could conduct his research however he wished so long as he did not delve into the forbidden arts of artificial intelligence or any other Heretek exploration. Valus always skirted the edge of the law gleaning understanding from related but not directly forbidden practices. This changed however after a particularly devastating attack from a nearby hive city crippling many manufactorums in the forge revealing a hidden vault deep within the heart of the forge. Valus climbing down searching for wounded and tech he could sabotage from his rival enginseers found an ancient and broken machine having been slain and locked away for many thousands of years.
The thing he found was a Man of Iron, it was destroyed but it was entombed here very carefully as if every scrap, wire, and rivet was accounted for. Valus took the dead thing and every one of its pieces back to his lab and hid it away. When the forge was working at acceptable efficiency again Valus returned to his studies and to the shattered Man of Iron machine. He quickly understood many parts of it, such as how the joints and skeleton worked or the alloys in the armor plating. However its mind was a mystery to him, He spent months toiling away trying to understand how the thing could think and act. When he found the pieces of machinery that must have been its mind. The technology resisted his best efforts to understand how it worked but it did give him hints. Once he believed there was little he could further learn from the dead machine he decided he had to build his own. Still in secret he built a robot with some level of intelligence of its own, it wasn't even as intelligent as servitor only able to follow a few very simple commands such as move forward and pick up an object. Valus did refine the process until the machines, still only following simple commands could carry them out without direct inputs of individual steps in sequence.
With his machines reasonably capable Valus launched a Coup on the forge complex using his machines and a few Enginseers that he had recruited in his time. The forge's servitors and Skitarii where vastly more capable and deadly than the machines Valus made, but he could make them infinitely. Thousands marched from his personal manufactorum at a time taking attritional warfare to its logical conclusion as Valus could make the machines faster than the Skitarii could kill them. Once the Magnos fell and the Forge was under Valus he repurposed every Manufactorum complex into making his simple machines. In mere days hundreds of thousands of them stalked around the forge complex as Valus and his Hereteks refined the machines further, giving them weapons better than simple servo arms to crush and tear. Even a simple Las-gun and blade made each machine a terrible foe when they came in their millions. He launched an all out war on every Hive and Forge around the one he had taken. The losses among his robots was... irrelevant, each could be dragged back to the forge and melted down into ingots ready for the factory lines making thousands of the machines a day. The Hives nor the Forges could stand in his way, Even great Titan god machines could not halt the advance of Valus' machines. They would slaughter the Skitarii protecting the titans and climb into the machine itself killing the crew and shattering components until the Titan fell silent. Valus stayed in his Forge trying to perfect his machines as they did not really think for themselves merely reacted very cleverly to a wide array of inputs but they could easily be out smarted.
Before Valus could find the answers in his quest The Great Crusade fell upon Helheim. The Emperor fearing he had found an enclave of the Men of Iron launched an immediate invasion with Space Marine Legions and Custodes to halt the Men of Iron before they could spread across the galaxy once again. The losses were considerable, Even among the Legions and Custodes. The Emperor knew swiftly that they were not in fact Men of Iron merely an imitation but it still was not a good omen. The Emperor leading Space Marine Legions descended on the Forge where Valus toiled. Valus however did not even know of the invasion as his armies had been dealing with advancing and replenishing losses on thier own for the past year. As the Emperor shattered his way through uncountable hordes of robots he despaired, part of him knew that one of his sons was behind this and he was so close to bringing about another wave of the deadly machines. Even as the Emperor strode into the workshop Valus had been using he wept, dreading that he may have to truly destroy one of his sons and snuff him from the annals of history. Valus was getting so close to actually understanding the broken relic he had found, he was sure and his work so utterly engrossed him that he did not even notice the Emperor walk into the room.
The Man of Iron twitched, Valus smiled to himself, "Yes, that's it! nearly there my friend.." he said before the Emperor sighed looking at is own Son twisted by the Mechanicus implants and so obsessed with something forbidden and dangerous as the Men of Iron. The Emperor inhaled to speak when there was a spark and another twitch from the machine laying on the table followed by a deep static roar of binary from the thing. "No!" shouted the Emperor realizing the dreaded machine had awakened. The Emperor tore it to pieces with his psychic might and ordered the Astartes around him to vaporize what remained, they followed his orders shooting every bold and wire with plasma so there was no trace save for acrid smoke of ozone and molten metal. Only then, as the machine had been torn asunder did Valus realize anyone was in the room with him. He launched himself at the Emperor in a fit of rage, grabbing and tearing with his multiple servo arms and his swinging with his enhanced strength. "YOU DESTROYED IT! MY WORK!" shouted Valus blind with fury, the Emperor dodged and parried Valus easily until the Primarch could be subdued by the Astartes that would become his own legion. "My son, what you created was one of the greatest scourge this galaxy has ever known. Come we must talk"
Other: Anything that doesn't fit into a specific section, but bare's talking about.
Knights of Iron
Legion Number: V Legion Strength: 150,000 Homeworld: Helheim was a Hive world on the verge of being a Forge world, all that stopped the transition was the dark age of technology and a long civil war between the hive cities and their factories against the Forges run by the Forgemasters of Helheim. It is a desolate and scarred place were very little of the natural world has survived thousands of years of warfare and whole sale strip mining. Mile after mile of the planet has been turned into a toxic wasteland filled with slag heaps and foul industrial runoff, What is not wasteland is a scarred no-mans land between the hives and Forges pockmarked with shell craters and ancient ruins of long dead Titan god machines. Favoured Legion Tactics: General overview of how the Legion does battle. Try to have at least a paragraph. Legion Leadership: Of course, the Primarch is at the top, but what specialist leadership positions are there? E.G. The Thousand Sons have the different Cults such as the Corvidae and Pyrae. Just a quick view on how the Legion's leadership is organized. Notable Legion Members: A few colourful characters that belong to the Legion. Inspirations: Every Legion is based off of SOMETHING from history or popular media. Such as the Ultramarines based on the Romans, the Space Wolves on the Vikings and the Thousand Sons and Necrons currently waging that court battle to see who gets the "Space Egyptian" moniker. Assigned Armies: During the Great Crusade, Legions rarely travelled by themselves. They would create armies from those worlds that they conquered to use as shocktroopers or line-holders. Feel free to go nuts with this. Other: Anything i have forgotten.
Appearance: By far the largest of his brothers in both height and bulk, Brontide carries with him an undeniable aura of primal physical might. The already gigantic proportions of a Primarch swollen to near obscene limits. Unlike most of his siblings, there is little handsomeness to be found in his features with even the most forgiving of standards, with heavy, deep-seated features, beady malevolently glowing eyes, and teeth fractured and cracked a little too much for their own good before getting replaced. Brontide's skin is abnormally thick, likened to the hides of great beasts than anything that should be found on a man, and his skin seemingly fluctuates between leathery tan and burnt husk in pigment. Surprisingly enough, not a single scar mars his flesh... potentially for the worst.
Brontide prefers humble garbs, wearing little more than scaled-up Imperial Army fatigues if anything at all.
Psyker Status: N/A, However Brontide has inherited the Emperors Perpetual nature.
Life and Times: If there ever was a more miserable green speck in the galaxy, it'd have to fight Ghurk tooth and nail to claim the title. A massive world with high gravity, the whole of the planet seemed to be just one continuous swampy jungle, with spores heavy in the air and deadly fauna lying in wait behind every corner.
Ideology: Brontide lives for the fight, every fiber of his being bent towards it's execution. He has no great ambitions beyond his next scrap and spends his time in between either training for the Next one or palling around with his favored sons. Quite unlike the green-skinned brutes, Brontide holds no malice towards the smaller humans and in fact, has lept between the Small Ones and weapons fire on uncountable occasions, becoming a folk legend to the people of Ghurk before their liberation by the Imperium.
Wargear: Old Bastard - The signature weapon of a foreign Ork Warboss who fell from the stars, Old Bastard was ripped from his warm, broken hands when Brontide savaged it to death. Ever since that fateful day the weapon has stayed by his side, it's crude adamantine head cleaving through uncountable Greenskins and would require a space marine to wield it two-handed just to keep from falling off balance. Since Brontide's ascension as Primarch of the Hammers of Dawn, a power field generator has been installed to further increase it's effectiveness in battle while maintaining it's crude but durable design.
Brontide's Retort - Representing the Primarch's pragmatic views and dry sense of humor, this oversized, twin-linked Storm Bolter shot's roar with much greater intensity than even a Heavy Bolter. The return fire of this gun has been the Harald of many a courageous charge and its explosive cadence has been the last thing a Xenos tide ever heard hundreds of times over.
Crude Panoply - Uninterested in quiet dignity and taken by his own eccentric aesthetics, Brontide has "fixed" his great artificer armor with spikes, trophies, and skulls, giving the massive set of power armor a greater dreadful presence on top of being worthy of the greatest terminator armors in terms of protection.
Other: Anything that doesn't fit into a specific section, but bare's talking about.
Hammers of Dawn
Legion Number: 4
Legion Strength: 60,000 Marines
Homeworld: Ghurk, a miserable planet too Green for it's own good and seemingly the galactic disposal bin for warp damned wreckage.
Favoured Legion Tactics: Urban Combat, CQC, and Siegebreaking.
Legion Leadership: Of course, the Primarch is at the top, but what specialist leadership positions are there? E.G. The Thousand Sons have the different Cults such as the Corvidae and Pyrae. Just a quick view on how the Legion's leadership is organized.
Notable Legion Members: A few colourful characters that belong to the Legion.
Inspirations: What If Orks Were Good Guys, Street Gangs, the Landsknecht, Feudal Viking Chivalry.
Assigned Armies: During the Great Crusade, Legions rarely travelled by themselves. They would create armies from those worlds that they conquered to use as shocktroopers or line-holders. Feel free to go nuts with this.
Total WIP. I honestly have no idea if I've got the time for this, but I'm a total 40k geek and this looked like too cool of a writing opportunity to pass up. Heck, if nothing else, I'll donate them as an NPC legion to flesh things out.
EDIT: Slowly starting to get there. Now to just fill in all the holes.
Atherel Voidgift
Appearance: Small by Primarch standards, Atherel appears positively waifish when compared to his larger siblings. Barely a head taller than the Astartes he commands, Atherel has a lithe and willowy figure due to growing up in an environment that didn't always have gravity. Still, by mortal standards, Atherel is a towering and elegant individual, as sleek as he is powerful.
Psyker Status: N/A
Life and Times: While the other Primarchs found themselves on various planets, Atherel's pod found itself in the Scepteri System. Decimated eons ago during the war in heaven, all that remained of the system was an aging red giant star, multiple asteroid belts and most notably, an ancient derelict xenos star fortress of colossal proportions. More importantly, burried within the star fortress was a malfunctioning warp beacon. (akin to the Astronomican or Pharos device) While the beacon's signal was overpowering within the system itself, (preventing Navigators from seeing out of the system) the nature of it's malfunction caused the beacon's signal to rapidly decay over longer distances.
With the passing decades, ships would occasionally be drawn into the system, only to be trapped by the by the malfunctioning warp beacon. And so, the Scepteri System became the prison of it's unsuspecting visitors. The trapped survivors came from all walks of life and races; Rogue Traders, Ork warbands, Aeldari Corsairs, to name but a few. Over time ramshackle space stations were built out of the trapped starships, most often in close proximity to the star fortress as it was the best source of new supplies.
This was the "world" that Atherel found himself in.
Atherel's pod was discovered by a mining and salvage crew. Comprised mostly of Humans and Abhumans, there were also a few Aeldari and a smattering of the less disagreeable space-faring races. Like his fellow Primarchs, Atherel grew up quickly, outpacing his teachers on anything he was taught in a matter of years. As such, Atherel quickly became a master pilot, void combatant and explorer, to name just some of his talents.
By the age of 10, he was the new unofficial captain of the crew, though he would frequently leave Michael Calix, his adoptive father figure and the former captain, in charge while he would venture out on solo expeditions into the star fortress for new supplies. By 15, Atherel had gathered multiple crews to his name, making him one of the most powerful and well known individuals in the system.
A few years later an Ork WAAAGH found itself pulled into the Scepteri System. Relatively small by WAAAGH! standards, it was still large enough to pose a significant threat to the systems other inhabitants; especially once the WAAAGH! had absorbed all of the various small Ork warbands wandering about the system. Atherel immediately understood the threat they represented and quickly rallied the system's disparate factions under one banner in the name of survival. Even so, the WAAAGH! still outnumbered the united survivors 2 to 1.
The next several weeks would prove to be a grueling hell as Atherel prosecuted a a hit and run war against the Ork WAAAGH. Where Atherel led, the alliance would win, outmaneuvering, isolating and eliminating the Orks one piece at a time. But the Primarch couldn't be everywhere at once, and so slowly but surely the alliance began to lose a war of attrition. In an act of desperation, Atherel baited the Ork Warboss into chasing him into the star fortress, a hostile environment that he knew well from years of exploring.
Unbeknownst to the Primarch and his crew as they fought the Ork Warboss and his bodyguard within the otherworldly environment of the star fortress, a new arrival had joined the space battle outside. The Emperor had arrived at the head of the Great Crusade. Trapped between two fleets and now massively outnumbered, the Ork WAAAGH! was annihilated in short order. Knowing that only a Primarch could have the charisma to unite so a disparate group, the Emperor sought out the leader of the alliance. By the time he and his Custodes made it into the star fortress, the battle inside was already over. There, the Emperor found the Warboss & his boys slain and Atherel grieving over the his dying adoptive father.
On an instinctive level, Atherel immediately knew who the towering golden figure that stood before him was, but lacked the knowledge to put that feeling into words; as such "Who are you?" were the first words the Seventh Primarch spoke to the Emperor of Mankind. As the conversation began, Atherel took no initial interest in superfluous speech. Upon establishing who the Emperor was, Atherel first saw to the immediate needs of his crew, then the status of the forces he had mustered before letting the conversation flow naturally.
Ideology: Atherel is a bizarre mix of ruthlessly cold-blooded pragmatism and an almost naive sense of optimism & curiosity. Growing up in borderline derelict space stations frequently required making harsh decisions that required sacrificing the few for the many. This is something that Atherel hated. So when the Emperor spoke of his grand plan of a united Imperium of Man, Atherel was immediately on board. In regards to Xenos & Psykers, Atherel approaches both with his signature pragmatism; Employ those who are willing to serve and eliminate those who prove to be a threat.
A hyper intellectual, Atherel understands that he and his fellow Primarchs were created as a tools to serve humanity, but also knows that at their core, despite their superiority, they are still very human. Atherel accepts that he exists to serve as a grand cog in the machine, but takes pride in the importance of his role. He refers to the Emperor as "Father", though this is as an honorific out of respect to his creator rather than a traditional child-parent relationship.
Wargear: Atherel has a sleek suit of masterfully wrought artificer armor equipped with a multitude of micro-thrusters for maneuvering in 0-gee and enhancing his movement in gravity. He wears a trimmed-down jump pack free of any superfluous ornamentation. The device in question also bears two other unique systems.
First, buried next to the jump packs reactor is a truly ancient archeo-tech anti-grav device that can render Atherel and his equipment nearly weightless inside normal gravity. Second is a turreted, short-barreled, gatling-lasgun. In addition to scything down light infantry, this weapon is purpose built for anti-missile point defense thanks to it's unique machine spirit which bears an advanced target acquisition system.
For weapons, Atherel has the following: - First Light: A trimmed down and souped-up lascannon that has been repurposed as an anti-material rifle. - Hullbreaker: A hand-and-a-half power axe with a variable bore plasma gun running down the handle. - Bulwark: A massive tower shield purpose built for boarding actions. Has mag-locks along the edges so it can be emplaced as semi-mobile cover. Also features an array of retractable micro-flamers for crowd control and hallway clearing. - Silence: A scimitar-esque exotic Aeldari power weapon that is little more than a long knife in Atherel's hands. He has had this since before his recovery by the Great Crusade, though whether it was a gift from a fellow survivor or a trophy from a fallen foe, the Primarch has yet to say.
Other:Between the education he received from Farseer Eldrion and his firsthand experience fighting cultists twisted by the energies leaking from the malfunctioning warp beacon; Atherel has as solid of an understanding of the Warp as one can without an active connection to it. As well as its uses and a healthy respect for the dangers it holds.
Astral Hawks
Legion Number: VII
Legion Strength: 48,750* (This is the official max strength of all 15 of the Astral Hawks fleets, though due to the attrition of war and meticulous recruitment, the actual number of effectives is somewhere around 36,550 or 3/4ers strength.)
Homeworld: None. The Astral Hawks are a fleet based Legion.
Favoured Legion Tactics: The Astral Hawks are masters of void and aerial combat. As such they specialize in lighting assaults and mobile, fluid & highly reactive battle lines. To support this, they rely on Despoiler & Breacher squads for their assaults & boarding actions. For their mobile gun lines, the Astral Hawks deploy their unique Ranger squads; astartes armed with boltguns and equipped with jump packs. In contrast, Devastator and Tactical squads are almost only ever employed to counter enemy boarding actions or to support the legion's auxiliaries in defense of static locations.
Their vehicle armory follows a similar pattern. While their tank complement is significantly under strength by most legion's standards, the Astral Hawks make up for it with a massive number of drop-pods, boarding & strike craft, bombers, gunships and interceptors.
Legion Leadership/Organization: The Astral Hawks differ strongly from their fellow Legions as they are fleet based. Broken up by fleet instead of chapter, each Fleet is led by an Admiral. Each fleet is divided into 3 wings; Command, Support and Vanguard. While each Wing is led by a Wing Commander, the different wings very somewhat in composition. Within each wing are 3 companies each led by a Company Commander. Each company is comprised of multiple platoons or lances each led by a Lieutenant or Lance Captain respectively. In turn, the platoons are made up of several squads or squadrons with a Sergeant in charge of each.
. The Command Wing is embarked entirely in the Fleet's Battle Barge and is comprised of the Assault, Outrider and Sternguard Companies. The fleet's Admiral, command staff and escort are also embarked. (979 effectives including command structure) - The Assault Company has 5 assault platoons, all of which contain two 10-man Breacher Squads, two 10-man Despoiler Squads and a 10-man Terminator Squad. (290 effectives including command structure) - The Outrider Company contains 3 ranger platoons, 2 grav lances and 2 aerial lances. The ranger platoons contain two 10-man Ranger Squads, two 10-man Ranger Support Squads and a 10-man Vanguard Veteran Squad. The grav lances contain three 10-man Sky Hunter Jetbike Squadrons, two 3-strong Landspeeder Squadrons and three Javelin Attack Speeders. The aerial lances contain three 9-strong Xiphon Interceptor Squadrons and three Fire Raptor Gunships. (344 effectives including command structure) - The Sternguard Company contains 5 sternguard platoons, all of which contain two 10 man Tactical Squads, two 10-man Devastator Squads and a 10-man Sternguard Veteran Squad. (290 effectives including command structure)
The Support Wing employs 3 Auxiliary Companies, each of which are embarked on their own Strike Cruiser. Auxiliary Companies are comprised of 1 grav lance, 2 ranger platoons, 2 assault platoons, 1 sternguard platoon and 1 aerial lance. (see previous for details) (381 effectives per Company, 1158 total, including command structure)
The Vanguard Wing employs 3 Strike Companies, each of which are embarked on their own Vanguard Class Light Cruiser. Strike Companies are comprised of 2 assault platoons, 2 ranger platoons and 3 aerial lances. (see previous for details) (312 effectives per Company, 947 total, including command structure)
Each Officer of the rank Lieutenant or higher has a command staff featuring a Librarian, Chaplain, Apothecary and Vox Master. Company Commanders, Wing Commanders, and Admirals also have their own personal bodyguard complement.
All told, once you factor in the additional Astartes in auxiliary support roles (techmarine pilots, ship-board section sub-commaders, etc.) Each fleet has around 3250 Astartes each. Also, each Wing of an Astral Hawks fleet is supported by an escort of 9 frigates of various classes; a total of 27 per fleet.
Notable Legion Members & Elements: - The Void Guard: Atherel's personal bodyguard. Equipped with artificer armor, jump packs and storm shields. For weapons, they typically carry power weapons and volkite calivers or plasma guns.
- The Second Wing: An informal/unofficial group that forms Atherel's personal inner circle. Mostly consists of the surviving members of his "family" that he grew up with, though there are some new members from the Terra-born and crusade-recruited Astartes.
- Michael Calix, first Archangel: An older man, Michael took it upon himself to serve as a father figure to Atherel when the Primarch was discovered as a baby. It was Michael who taught Atherel the basics of flying and instilled the Primarch with his sense of curiosity and love of space. In the final battle against the Ork WAAAGH!, Michael was fatally injured and interred into a Dreadnought sarcophagus. Unwilling to see his adopted father never be able to fly again, Atherel had his Techmarines integrate his cybernetic coffin into a modified Xiphon Interceptor. Since then Micheal has served as the Primarch's Wingman and trusted confidant.
- Ishta Bechareth and Fanai Eldrion: A former Craftworld Aeldari Ranger and Farseer respectively who were trapped in the Scepteri System. Both were members of Michael's crew when the Primarch was found. When Atherel was recovered by the Great Crusade, they chose to remain in the Primarch's service. Their wargear is an eclectic mix of what wraithbone they've been able to maintain and bit and pieces of Imperium technology to fill in the gaps.
- Rafael Acastian, High Admiral of the Astral Hawks: Formerly the Legion Master before the Primarchs arrival, Rafael now serves as Atherel's right hand and immediate second in command. When one directly takes to the field, the other will remain back in a command support role. Rafael's wargear includes a suit of artificer armor, jump pack, volkite caliver and a vaunted relic blade from the golden age of mankind.
- Marcus Castivar, Commander of the Void Guard: A child of the Scepteri System, Marcus grew up in Micheal's and later Atherel's crew. Once the Primarch was reunited with his legion, Marcus was the first non-terran born initiate of the Astral Hawks. Working as hard as he could, Marcus rose through the ranks before eventually earning the honor of leading the Void Guard. Marcus' wargear includes a suit of artificer armor, jump pack, storm shield and a powerfist with an integrated dual plasma pistol on the back.
- Starfury: a Gloriana Class Battleship and Atherel's personal flagship.
- Void Falcon: A highly modified Stormbird that serves as both Atherel's personal transport/gunship and a test bed for experimental systems. About 20% of the ships original transportation capacity has been sacrificed for additional support systems.
- Archangels: After the successful integration of Michael's sarcophagus into a Xiphon Interceptor, the practice quickly spread to the rest of the legion. Dubbed archangels, more than half of the legion's entombed veterans now pilot Archangels rather than Dreadnoughts.
Inspirations: What if the Elysian Drop Troops were Astartes, and what if their Primarch grew up in space? Alternatively, what if the Belters from The Expanse were used as Astartes recruits?
Assigned Armies: - The 1st-135th regiments of the Falconaire Auxilia: The dedicated auxiliary support forces of the Astral Hawks. Each regiment includes both naval & ground forces. Each fleet of the Astral Hawks is accompanied by 9 regiments and is further broken down with 3 regiments to each Wing.
Appearance: Valus has been entombed inside his armor which is a drastically modified suit of Terminator armor with many weapons and servo arms attached to it. The armor is unadorned and largely unpainted except for the legion sigils and the legion colors painted onto the pauldrons. Before he entombed himself into his armor he was much like the other Primarchs, giants among men and carrying a charisma of command. Valus was no exception being about the same height of his brothers but noticeably more broad and muscled. What is more notable is the many cybernetic cables and wires tracing under his flesh, While he is certainly more human than the Techpriests most still believe that he is a leader specific for the Mechanicus though there is very little friendship between the Primarch and the Techpriests of Mars.
Psyker Status: Iota- His powers are small but highly focused, his power revolves entirely around technology granting him deep and intrinsic understanding of almost any technology he obtains. However his power has limits, some ancient Dark Age of Technology relics are beyond his understanding and certain xenos artifacts resist his perception.
Ideology:Valus is a dutiful soldier, crushing the enemies of the Imperium but he has always been resentful of his Father's decree halting his research into Automated combat machines. While he has not exactly stopped his research he has been put in his place by the Emperor and acts as the proper soldier. His goals are not even known to himself really, he is just going through the motions of the great crusade waiting for something to change or waiting for some purpose to arise.
Wargear: Invincitus Terminator armor: The Invincitus armor is a suit of armor forged by Valus himself integrating dark age of technology relics into the armor to make it nearly unstoppable as the armor has an Ion force shield like that of the Knight titans. Even before the armor plating gets struck he can shrug off apocalyptic firepower.
Iron-Hail: Customized twinlinked Heavy Bolter used as a gauntlet mounted weapon more than able to shred infantry and light vehicles in moments.
Hell-Hammer: The hell hammer is a modified heavy plasma cannon fueled by the relics in the Invincitus. The cannon is mounted on his shoulder as a devastating mortar he can fire into the distance to blast holes in the enemies formations. However it can also be shifted to fire forwards and is more than capable of tearing through a super-heavy tank in mere shot or two.
The Claw of Valus: the Claw is more or less a dreadnought fist attached to his arm with all the force it can generate, crushing heavy infantry in its grasp or smashing a tank into the ground.
Life and Times:Valus fell to the world of Hellheim, a desolate and blasted world torn by civil war between mighty Forge complexes run by a Mechanicus remnant and towering hive cities. Valus was taken in by the Mechanicus and taught Enginseeing becoming, his understanding grew more quickly than any other pupil of the Mechanicus had ever seen but Valus was not drawn to the religious nature of the tech-priests. He began asking questions bout machine intelligence and trying to understand things that the Tech-priests knew was forbidden. The resistance shown to Valus made his learning more difficult but not impossible it took many years extracting tidbits of knowledge near what he was really searching for to glean the answers he wanted. He was still a child to the tech-priests however and was not allowed to do more than carry oil, ask questions and learn the rites of the machine god.
As Valus turned 12 and the Tech-priests could no longer give any real barrier to him, because he knew the rites better than most of his teachers. He attained the full rights of an Enginseer along with several machinery implants to assist him in his duties. This was mostly so he could converse in binary and give him a pair of servo-arms to assist him in his work. Along with his rank however was a laboratory where Valus could conduct his research however he wished so long as he did not delve into the forbidden arts of artificial intelligence or any other Heretek exploration. Valus always skirted the edge of the law gleaning understanding from related but not directly forbidden practices. This changed however after a particularly devastating attack from a nearby hive city crippling many manufactorums in the forge revealing a hidden vault deep within the heart of the forge. Valus climbing down searching for wounded and tech he could sabotage from his rival enginseers found an ancient and broken machine having been slain and locked away for many thousands of years.
The thing he found was a Man of Iron, it was destroyed but it was entombed here very carefully as if every scrap, wire, and rivet was accounted for. Valus took the dead thing and every one of its pieces back to his lab and hid it away. When the forge was working at acceptable efficiency again Valus returned to his studies and to the shattered Man of Iron machine. He quickly understood many parts of it, such as how the joints and skeleton worked or the alloys in the armor plating. However its mind was a mystery to him, He spent months toiling away trying to understand how the thing could think and act. When he found the pieces of machinery that must have been its mind. The technology resisted his best efforts to understand how it worked but it did give him hints. Once he believed there was little he could further learn from the dead machine he decided he had to build his own. Still in secret he built a robot with some level of intelligence of its own, it wasn't even as intelligent as servitor only able to follow a few very simple commands such as move forward and pick up an object. Valus did refine the process until the machines, still only following simple commands could carry them out without direct inputs of individual steps in sequence.
With his machines reasonably capable Valus launched a Coup on the forge complex using his machines and a few Enginseers that he had recruited in his time. The forge's servitors and Skitarii where vastly more capable and deadly than the machines Valus made, but he could make them infinitely. Thousands marched from his personal manufactorum at a time taking attritional warfare to its logical conclusion as Valus could make the machines faster than the Skitarii could kill them. Once the Magnos fell and the Forge was under Valus he repurposed every Manufactorum complex into making his simple machines. In mere days hundreds of thousands of them stalked around the forge complex as Valus and his Hereteks refined the machines further, giving them weapons better than simple servo arms to crush and tear. Even a simple Las-gun and blade made each machine a terrible foe when they came in their millions. He launched an all out war on every Hive and Forge around the one he had taken. The losses among his robots was... irrelevant, each could be dragged back to the forge and melted down into ingots ready for the factory lines making thousands of the machines a day. The Hives nor the Forges could stand in his way, Even great Titan god machines could not halt the advance of Valus' machines. They would slaughter the Skitarii protecting the titans and climb into the machine itself killing the crew and shattering components until the Titan fell silent. Valus stayed in his Forge trying to perfect his machines as they did not really think for themselves merely reacted very cleverly to a wide array of inputs but they could easily be out smarted.
Before Valus could find the answers in his quest The Great Crusade fell upon Helheim. The Emperor fearing he had found an enclave of the Men of Iron launched an immediate invasion with Space Marine Legions and Custodes to halt the Men of Iron before they could spread across the galaxy once again. The losses were considerable, Even among the Legions and Custodes. The Emperor knew swiftly that they were not in fact Men of Iron merely an imitation but it still was not a good omen. The Emperor leading Space Marine Legions descended on the Forge where Valus toiled. Valus however did not even know of the invasion as his armies had been dealing with advancing and replenishing losses on thier own for the past year. As the Emperor shattered his way through uncountable hordes of robots he despaired, part of him knew that one of his sons was behind this and he was so close to bringing about another wave of the deadly machines. Even as the Emperor strode into the workshop Valus had been using he wept, dreading that he may have to truly destroy one of his sons and snuff him from the annals of history. Valus was getting so close to actually understanding the broken relic he had found, he was sure and his work so utterly engrossed him that he did not even notice the Emperor walk into the room.
The Man of Iron twitched, Valus smiled to himself, "Yes, that's it! nearly there my friend.." he said before the Emperor sighed looking at is own Son twisted by the Mechanicus implants and so obsessed with something forbidden and dangerous as the Men of Iron. The Emperor inhaled to speak when there was a spark and another twitch from the machine laying on the table followed by a deep static roar of binary from the thing. "No!" shouted the Emperor realizing the dreaded machine had awakened. The Emperor tore it to pieces with his psychic might and ordered the Astartes around him to vaporize what remained, they followed his orders shooting every bolt and wire with plasma so there was no trace save for acrid smoke of ozone and molten metal. Only then, as the machine had been torn asunder did Valus realize anyone was in the room with him. He launched himself at the Emperor in a fit of rage, grabbing and tearing with his multiple servo arms and his swinging with his enhanced strength. "YOU DESTROYED IT! MY WORK!" shouted Valus blind with fury, the Emperor dodged and parried Valus easily until the Primarch could be subdued by the Astartes that would become his own legion. "My son, what you created was one of the greatest scourge this galaxy has ever known. Come we must talk"
Other: Anything that doesn't fit into a specific section, but bare's talking about.
Knights of Iron
Legion Number: V Legion Strength: 150,000 Homeworld: Helheim was a Hive world on the verge of being a Forge world, all that stopped the transition was the dark age of technology and a long civil war between the hive cities and their factories against the Forges run by the Forgemasters of Helheim. It is a desolate and scarred place were very little of the natural world has survived thousands of years of warfare and whole sale strip mining. Mile after mile of the planet has been turned into a toxic wasteland filled with slag heaps and foul industrial runoff, What is not wasteland is a scarred no-mans land between the hives and Forges pockmarked with shell craters and ancient ruins of long dead Titan god machines.
Favoured Legion Tactics: Unceasing siege tactics, the Knights have the numbers and material support to crush any fortress or defensive line. Their tactics are brutally simple and very much like that of the Imperial Army of trench warfare and artillery bombardment. The Knights never actually being the equal of other Astartes their tactics are more simple but no less brutal in their efficacy. Though worlds conquered by the knights are often left in ruin.
Legion Leadership: The legion is actually quite fractious, few of the knights hold deep loyalty to the legion and are more tightly bound to their company or world of origin. A dozen clans exist in the Legion each bound together for different reasons.
Sons of steel: Forge masters, the only clan truly loyal to the Primarch and legion. Every one of them are Tech marines with extensive augments such as servo arms and mechanical organs, and the only clan who can communicate in binary. The Sons of Steel are those who run the Forges on the legion Battle Barge and Forge ships Knights Vagabond: The largest clan comprised of several companies who's worlds were taken by the knights. They are more or less the Infantry of the legion. Their loyalty is to each other and not the legion nor Primarch, but their training and loyalty to the Imperium allows them to endure their service to the legion Vassals of Valus: A small clan who came from feudal worlds and feel loyalty to the Primarch by right of conquest and do not hate him for his success on the battlefield. The clan contains most of the Armored units and command the majority of tanks and artillery in the legion. Iron Claws: Taken from savage worlds, these warriors are scouts and infiltrator specialists. While the clan respects the primarch for his strength and power their loyalty shifts to whichever clan pleases them at the time. Blood Wolves: Another clan of Savages who only fight with the legion for the opportunity for bloodshed and to raze glorious fortresses with their might. The Serpentis: The Serpentis clan are not of a singular type of world but a collection of individuals of the Medicae and Apothecarium. Their loyalty is to the legion soldiers and keeping the warriors alive but are displeased with the Primarch for his wasteful tactics getting many Knights of Iron killed. The Crow: This clan are a tiny clan but with great power, each are psykers and fulfill the role of Libraium. They are loyal to the Primarch and Legion due to the extensive training and indoctrination they receive for being psykers. Warlords of Cathos This clan comes from the Empire of Cathos that was subjugated by the Knights fairly early in the Crusade and had taken so many from this empire that they have become their own clan, They are widely dispersed among the legion but many of the clan are in leadership roles as they are one of the older clans, however the highest ranks are reserved for the Sons of Steel in most cases. The Unbowed: The clan is the only clan that is openly resentful of their place in the legion, thus they are never more than standard line infantry and only fight for the legion due to their duty to the imperium rather than ties to the legion. They believe their world of Garum never surrendered to Valus and they should not be a part of his legion. This is not strictly true however, the world tried to surrender multiple times but Valus ignored the plea and continued his war well past the point of victory into cruelty and barbarism. The Emperor himself rebuked Valus for his action on the world. The Lost Clan The Lost clan is one Rumored to have existed some time before, Some believe it used to be the Terran Astartes the comprised the legion before Valus was found but the clan has been destroyed. Rumors state that either the clan was destroyed from within in a brief and quiet civil war but others think the former Terran Astartes were sent into the most dangerous and suicidal missions until there were none left.
Notable Legion Members: Faris Cain Captain of the 1st company, Leader of the Sons of Steel, and right hand of Valus. Faris is one of the few who are deeply loyal to the Primarch and fight for his glory. However he is privy and supportive of the dark secrets Valus works towards in creating great and powerful machines with intelligence.
Athros Kall Captain of the 3rd company, Leader of the Knights Vagabond. Athros is one of the few Knights Vagabond who has climbed the ranks of the Legion through utter perfection in duty and ability. Athros is one of the only non-Sons of Steel who is directly respected by Valus and his input is heeded if infrequently. As the leader of the largest clan he commands great respect through out the legion.
Ulor Dawn Captain of the 8th company, Warlord of Cathos. Ulor is one of the oldest Knight of Iron in the legion aside from those recruited before his empire fell, he has clawed his way up the ranks and uses his position to influence the Primarch to help protect his clan.
Vorac Jor Lord of the Apothecarium and master of the Serpentis, Vorac is often the one raising complaints at the Legion's tactics as wasteful brawls and grueling siege trying desperately to protect the legion from the uncaring Primarch.
Wulric Kvoz Captain and Forge Master of the Legion Forge Ship 'World Eater' and Son of Steel. Wulric is the Astartes who runs the immense forges on the ship that supply the legion with the bullets and armor for their bloody crusade, and every captian knows it, Wulric commands nearly as much power and respect as the Primarch himself. Inspirations:
Assigned Armies: 1st - 15th Regiment of Rust 85th Terran Imperial Army Legio Victorum (Titan Legion of Hellheim) Legio Apocalypse (Titan Legion of Hellheim)
Other: The Legion's vast numbers are due to the cruelty of their recruitment. While there are many Astartes taken from their home world the majority of the Knights are not, most are boys taken from conquered worlds. After successful conquest every boy of the proper age are taken by the Knights of Iron and tested, those who fail either become Legion serfs or shunted to the Imperial army as Regiments of Rust who follow the Legion and fight as conscripts to be thrown into battle with little regard.
Just to let people know, this Rp isn't dead. There was a minor stall as some Character sheets were finalized, but it's still going and we're still looking for more people.
