[OOC] The Grim Crusade [Warhammer 30,000 RP]

[BCTheEntity]

The Warp is a strange place. Such concepts as "space-time" often don't apply within the Empyrean as they do in realspace, and it is frequently the case that ships will exit the Warp in a location far-removed from their intended destination, or sooner or later than intended, or occasionally before they even left. Such chaos is rarely helpful to anyone, especially given the horrors that lurk within; yet sometimes, its flukes and whims can lead to galaxy-altering events.

Imagine, if you will, a tiny fragment of a once-great being, as great and powerful as any Chaos God, and perhaps even moreso. This fragment is but a shadow of a splinter of its former self, tossed through the currents of the Warp without end, and wracked with as much pain as any of its fellows, and divided from its brothers in a way that ensures it barely knows what it can remember. It is, in a word, driftwood.

This splinter is the spark of change. In its tossing and turning, it finds itself in the presence of something immense, a mass of souls steadily fusing together, into something immense enough to alter the very fate of the Milky Way. The splinter has come across its past self, thrown back to before it was even born. Even in its state, it realises the implications of such an event. It realises how influential it could be, even at the risk of altering history itself.

It throws itself into the forming soul of souls. It becomes a part of the New Man, severing its connection with its prior owner. Though its direct effect on his psyche will be minimal, it finds itself in a position to twist his biology to more suitable ends, and in doing so, to perhaps change the events of its original self's doom before they have a chance to come to fruition.

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"Alone, a Legionary is a formidable foe as far beyond a man as the wolf is beyond the sheep. Together, bound by ties of unshakeable loyalty, a Legion is a force that can extinguish the stars and shake the very heavens."
-Attributed to [DATA NOT FOUND]

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Introduction

It is the dawn of the 31st Millennium. The Grim Crusade is in full swing, and vast swathes of the galaxy have fallen under the control of the relatively fresh Imperium of Man, led by the Emperor of Mankind to bring the Imperial Truth to all and sundry. The Imperium is a society that denies all forms of religion or deity, and has been engineered to be massively xenophobic by its very leader. For him, nothing less than the absolute dominion of humanity over all else is acceptable.

To achieve this goal, the Emperor has used his knowledge of genetics and their modification to craft various superhuman soldiers over time - the legendary Thunder Warriors, the Legio Custodes, and most recently, the Legiones Astartes, the twenty Legions of Space Marines. These were intended to be led by sons and daughters of the Emperor known as Primarchs, beings hand-crafted on a genetic level to spearhead the forces of the Imperium, and so to ensure absolute conquest over the Milky Way. Alas, the forces of Chaos could not abide this, and so scattered the Primarchs across the galaxy, to be rediscovered in the course of the Grim Crusade over several centuries.

This is where you, the players, come in. Inspired by Bright_Ops' game The Grand Crusade, you will be playing as one of these twenty Primarchs, once scattered, since brought under the wing of the Emperor. How these Primarchs and their Legions are moulded is entirely up to you; to quote the original game:

What methods, tactics, philosophy or weapons you choose to employ during your mission to bring planets under the control and protection of the Emperor is your decision and will influence how your legion interacts with the rest.

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Rules

-Forum rules apply, obviously. Most pressingly out of these, if I've decided on something happening a certain way, then my decision is final unless I'm given good reason to change my mind.

-Do not godmod. That is to say, don't control other player's characters for them without their permission. If you want to make a combined post between two or more players, or have decided between yourselves to allow a certain interaction to occur in a certain way, that's perfectly fine, but don't do stuff to other people's characters without their say-so.

-I'm not too concerned about activity levels, so don't feel overly pressured to post as often as possible. However, I do expect you to at least be present; ideally, at least one IC post per week would be appreciated, or an OOC post if making an IC post doesn't happen for some reason. Please tell me if you're outright not going to be able to post for a certain amount of time, and keep in mind that if you're completely inactive for more than two weeks without any warning, then I will reserve the right to hand control of the Legion over to a new player if they ask for it, given that I can't simply kill them off so readily.

-This is an Advanced roleplay. Please write to the appropriate level of quality - two or three significant paragraphs per post with good SPAG (Spelling, Punctuation, And Grammar) should be fine as a minimum, but try to come up with more if you can.

-One character per player. You're playing as a superhuman with command over thousands, or even tens of thousands, of somewhat less superhuman superhumans; one character should be more than enough.

-@agentmanatee is currently the co-GM for this game; unless I actually contradict something he says, his word has as much authority as mine. If anybody else would like to apply as a Co-GM, please say so, and I'll talk to you about it.

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Character Sheets

You will need to write up sheets for both your Primarch and the Legion they lead. When writing these up, please PM them to me and my co-GMs for approval first, then post them in the Characters tab once I have approved them. The general suggestion here is to be creative: by all means, feel free to use canon's Primarchs and Legions as inspiration for your own, but don't copy them wholesale just because you can't think of anything else. There should be significant differences between your Primarch and the canon Primarchs you use as inspiration, if any. To wit, the order in which character sheets are accepted will be the default order in which the Primarchs were discovered, unless the player specifically requests otherwise.

Primarch Sheet

Name: Your Primarch's name.

Gender: Male or female. This will also reflect the gender of your Legion, as discussed below.

Homeworld: The planet your Primarch was sent to via the Warp. Include its name, the biome or biomes present on it (particularly where the Primarch landed and/or was raised), the degree of hostility the world exhibits, and the sort of challenges the average inhabitant might have to face on the planet. There's a whole galaxy's worth of worlds out there.

Appearance: What your Primarch looks like, both with and without their power armour. This can be described in text, or displayed in an image if you can actually find one that's appropriate for the purpose. Keep in mind that this will, for the most part, be reflected in your Legion. Also note that most Space Marines are a good eight feet or so in height, with a very large amount of muscle mass relative to a normal human, and Primarchs are without fail taller still; the consensus seems to be that their average height is eleven feet or so, so bear that in mind.

Personality: Your Primarch's character traits, their positives and negatives, their highs and lows, where they excel and what their flaws are. Remember: the Primarchs are human, and yet far beyond human, capable of far more intensity than any mere mortal in all of their emotions. In other words, they're almost literally larger than life, and should be portrayed as such.

Skills: Does your Primarch possess any particular skills or abilities beyond what is normal for a superhuman warrior of their caliber? Do they excel in a particular field of war, such as sniping or melee combat? Are there any mutations they possess that grant them particular traits, such as enhanced senses even compared to their brethren (though try not to go too overboard with these if possible, for obvious reasons)? Perhaps they're even a psyker, or a blank (please include your Primarch's Assignment level in this section, regardless of psychic potential or lack thereof). There are plenty of options available here.

Biography: The story of your Primarch's life, both before and after being picked up by the Emperor and his Grim Crusade. What did they do with themselves whilst on their home planet? When did they get picked up by the Crusade? What battles have they lead since then?

The Meeting: I'll be taking a page from Jbcool's book here, and copying what he has players do to join An Unholy Mass: for this section, you must RP out how your Primarch met up with the Emperor, and the events surrounding that. Ideally, at least two or three paragraphs should be written on this front, as this will help me gauge how good you are as an RPer, and will help me decide whether or not to accept you as a player. Do not write the RP from the Emperor's perspective at any point. That is to say, don't go over the Emperor's thought processes during the Meeting - you're not going to be RPing as him, and trial and error has shown that for the most part, players are unlikely to get his character right.

Legion Sheet

Legion Name: The Legion's name. This can be its original name as described by the Emperor, or a name given to it by its Primarch after their recovery by the Imperium.

Legion Number: The Legion's number, in Roman numerals up to twenty (I, II, III, IV, and so on up to XX). Obviously, only one Legion per number, on a first come first served basis.

Legion Strength: How many members the Legion possesses. This can be anywhere from "merely" several thousand Astartes, to substantially greater than one hundred thousand units, and will determine the overall strength of the Legion in terms of sheer brute force, though how skilled its members are are is another matter entirely.

Armour Appearance: What the rank and file of the Legion wear as their armour. This website may help you form an image of your Legion (to acquire an image from the site, open the completed suit in a new tab, save that image to your computer, then upload it to a hosting site like Imgur, open the result in a new tab, and use the URL from that page as your image), and you may also want to find an appropriate symbol to represent them, but written descriptions are also acceptable. Just keep in mind that this game is based in a time period just before canon's Horus Heresy, and thus only power armour up to Mark IV, Maximus Pattern, is currently in circulation as of the game's beginning; it is likely that your Legion will possess a combination of Mark II Crusade and Mark IV Maximus suits, plus a certain number of Mark III Iron suits for specialised operations, with the renowned Mark I Thunder armour being a rather rare sight for many reasons.

Warcry: What members of the Legion yell when going into battle, e.g. "Courage And Honour!", "Repent! For tomorrow you die!". A Legion may possess more than one warcry.

Dramatis Personae: A list of important figures and groups in the Legion's ranks other than the Primarch, Space Marine or otherwise. Maybe they're high-ranking officers in the Legion, maybe they're close friends the Primarch made before the Emperor rediscovered them, or maybe they're faithful soldiers of the Primarch who continue to serve him graciously.

Favored Tactics/Battlefield Role: The favoured tactics, strategies, and position of the Legion - how they prefer to engage their foes, essentially. Does your Legion charge head-on into the fray? Does it hang back and lure opponents toward their positions? Do its members prefer to sneak round an enemies flanks to crush them in a pincer motion? Similarly, are they most comfortable in melee, close range, or long range? Do they utilise vehicles or orbital bombardment heavily?

Legion Characteristics/Ideology: The manner in which the Legion acts outside of battle, as imposed upon them by the Imperium itself, the geneseed of their Primarch, and their Primarch's direct actions and directives. Maybe they're a highly progressive group, or maybe they're extremely traditional. Do they take any cues or inspiration from animals, or from real-world civilisations such as the Romans or Vikings? Do they act like the angels they're often mistaken for, or are they of a more devilish attitude?

Hated Enemy (optional): Is there a particular group that the Legion simply despises utterly? It could be one of the many xeno races in the galaxy, or perhaps an arm of the Imperium, or maybe even another Astartes Legion (though I'd recommend talking about this with another player before going through with it). Note that none of the forces of Chaos can be listed as a hated enemy without very good justification for it, since the official position of the Imperium is that the Gods of Chaos, or indeed any deities period, do not exist, or at the very least are not actually gods at all. A similar rule applies to the Necrons, who are still asleep as of the 31st Millennium; the Tyranids have yet to reach the Milky Way period, and the Tau have yet to evolve to anything resembling their 40K state, and so both of these are completely invalid as enemies.

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Additional Information

Most of the setting of this game is based on the state of affairs in the universe of Warhammer 40000 as of roughly the beginning of the 31st Millennium, or M31. For the purposes of this game, most of the information you will need is available on the Warhammer 40000 wiki and the Lexicanum encyclopedia. To a lesser extent, 1d4chan also fulfils this role, but be aware that the website is not necessarily safe for work, nor is the information available necessarily unbiased, and that it contains a plethora of information about subjects totally unrelated to Warhammer 40000 to boot.

That being said, there are a few concepts in The Grim Crusade that differ rather substantially from what is accepted as part of 40K canon beyond the obvious "twenty new Primarchs" concept, primarily due to the Emperor's vastly-altered biology. These are described as follows:

Female Space Marines

In canon, Space Marines can only be male for various reasons, with the Primarchs themselves following this trend. In this game, however, you can choose between male and female for your Primarch's physical gender, with the rest of their Legion following suit. The nature of this decision, of course, will be such that men cannot be inducted into a female Legion, nor can women be inducted into a male Legion, since the geneseed involved will reject those of the opposite gender to their intended recipients, killing the victim and wasting precious resources. That said, whilst gender has a bit more of an effect for the Primarchs themselves, female Space Marines will likely be very similar to their male counterparts. To quote 1d4chan on the matter:

...[female Space Marines] would probably have very few notable female features left following surgery and genetic fuckery; they'd have very similar musculature to males, most likely would lack breasts (due to both the removal of sex hormones and the trimming of any "fat" that would make armor uncomfortable), their body shape would only differ very slightly to a male's because of their enhanced skeletal structure (though they would have wider hips, as women's pelvis' are wider than men's), and all of this would be compounded by the fact that Space Marines are renowned for wearing fuckhuge suits of armour that obscure most of their physical features anyway. A female Space Marine with her helmet on would look like a regular [male] Space Marine.

Conversion of Human Adults into Space Marines

Along similar lines to female Space Marines not existing in canon, viable candidates for Astartes conversion in canon must be around ten to fourteen years old, as the implants and hypno-therapy required will not properly integrate into their bodies and/or function correctly if they are too old. In this setting, the vast changes to the Emperor's biology from canon has changed this state of affairs, vastly expanding the pool of potential Marine candidates to include adult humans by allowing the necessary implants to integrate properly even into theoretically fully-grown men and women, as well as having the implantation of the Catalepsean Node and other brain-integrated organs slightly alter their thought processes to be more malleable to subsequent conditioning toward the ultimate mindset of any given Legion. This has the advantage of allowing human soldiers with many years of experience to be forwarded to a Legion's ranks, often with a somewhat lower chance of death compared to a child due to the hardier overall constitution that adults possess, but comes with the corresponding disadvantage of substantially slower transition from mortal to Marine, since the rapid-onset growth period that is puberty cannot be exploited to speed the conversion process along in an adult.

Psykers and Sorcery

Officially, the position of the Emperor and the Imperium on psychic powers is the same as in canon, i.e. "the human form is absolutely perfect, so no psykers allowed", other than the need for Navigators to ferry ships through the Warp, as well as a certain number of Astropaths specifically gathered for extreme long-distance communication. Unofficially, thanks to a certain amount of internal persuasion, the Emperor is actually a touch more lenient on this topic than in canon, such that whilst the common rabble will still be culled for being a psyker in any form, the higher-ups in the Imperium's ranks such as the Primarchs and their Legions are allowed their psychic quirks under supervision, under the "justification" that having more or less psychic power than average isn't technically an alteration of the human form. Thus, your characters will not be censured unnecessarily for utilising their psychic powers in agreed-upon "safe" manners or being psychic nulls, unless doing so actually screws everything up on a notable scale (see: Magnus the Red). However, consorting with the denizens of the Warp is still absolutely forbidden, for obvious reasons, as is sorcery for purposes beyond those deemed acceptable by the Imperium and, ultimately, the Emperor himself.

The Ronin, and the Zodiac Guard

In canon, there are the Sensei - children of the Emperor, typically placed under the Illuminati's protection, with the ultimate goal of merging with the Emperor himself. In The Grim Crusade, the vastly-altered genome of the Emperor has led to a quite different result of intercourse with human women, men and women referred to as the Ronin. They are similar to the Sensei, being mortal yet unaging, but they differ substantially in two ways: first, every single Ronin without exception has been born a Pariah, a blank with no psychic presence whatsoever save a paper-thin shell of something resembling a soul, though this seems to be enough to provide them the emotions that most blanks lack outright; and second, they incorporate traits of the canonical abhumans known as the Afriel Strain, being the most unlucky bastards in the entire galaxy. It is as if the Warp itself is lashing out at them for being the children of an entity it can't hope to touch, paradoxical a concept as that is: most Ronin die as infants or even in utero, and most of the remainder die at some point before adulthood. To live beyond twenty or so as a Ronin is indicative of exceptional, even supernatural perception and self-preservation instincts, and even those are rarely enough to preserve the bearer beyond a normal human lifespan, even given their incredible physical power by that time.

It is fortunate, then, that by the age of twenty, most Ronin begin to feel a siren call of sorts, pulling them toward something or someone. Their target is the Emperor himself, the genetic and spiritual link they share enough for the child to instinctively seek out the father. Throughout his immense lifespan, the Emperor has been discovered by many of his children (though they are few compared to how many are initially born), and he has embraced most of them as his sons and daughters, save for the most twisted and monstrous of these. Yet even his unfathomable psychic power is not enough to perfectly shield his progeny from their own doom, and nearly as many Ronin have died under his wing as approached him in the first place.

It has only been with the perfection of the process used to create the Legio Custodes that a way to avert this fate has been found: for reasons that most can only guess at, performing the operations to transform a man into a Custodian upon a Ronin has little physical improvement, but usually seems to serve as a way of "turning on" their soul, effectively filling in the shell of their spiritual being (occasionally to the point of transforming them into a psyker outright), and in doing so nullifying the bad luck they otherwise experience. This, in turn, allows them to put the skills they honed to evade death daily into use for the purposes of combat, and there are precious few in existence who can match a converted Ronin in single combat. Indeed, the reason the Primarchs were created at all is because so few Ronin find their Emperor, to the point that even at the beginnings of the 31st Millennium, only twelve Ronin have survived to be converted in this way.

These twelve have been equipped with some of the best armour and weaponry the Imperium can field short of the Emperor's personal equipment, equivalent and in some cases superior to the gear wielded by the Primarchs, and implemented as the Emperor's very shield, the last line of defense when even the Legio Custodes fails. This group is called the Imperio Armatus; however, they are typically referred to by the simpler title of "The Zodiac Guard", though the Emperor alone knows what a Zodiac is. Though they are officially an entirely separate organisation from the Legio Custodes, it is not uncommon to see a force of Custodes being led on the battlefield by a member of the Zodiac Guard, when the Emperor himself is not leading them, and whilst it is heavily discouraged for many reasons, certain small groups within the Custodes find themselves showing more and more affinity to certain members of the Armatus. For reasons of precaution, these groups have been tracked as they form in case they require extermination, and it has been found that not twelve, but thirteen such groups have formed, the last with no obvious affinity, leading some in the know to believe that another Ronin is already destined to find their way to the Emperor and become the thirteenth member of the Imperatio Armatus.

With all that said, I intend to play the Imperio Armatus as NPCs - they will have their own characterisation, but in terms of what they do, they'll be essentially plot devices to advance the story as and when it's needed, since the Emperor of Man can't be everywhere at once, and for the purposes of the story probably won't be moving round very much as it is. If absolutely necessary, and on the off-chance that game rules or the tone of the setting needs to be enforced in a more permanent fashion, they will also act as a convenient method of character removal: the intended power balance between the Primarchs and the Zodiac Guard is an even match when all members are facing off against one another, i.e. 20 Primarchs against 12 Zodiac Guards, such that in a fair one-on-one fight, only an exceptionally skilled Primarch could beat a member of the Armatus. However, in the interests of fairness, I will allow people to request a part in the game as a member of the Zodiac Guard, and if they can prove that they'll play such a character to the specifications required, and show that they can be trusted to not mess around with them, I may allow it. The one character rule will still apply, on the off-chance that this does happen, so you can't play as a Primarch at the same time.

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The Astartes Legions

I - The Bloody Host, led by the first Primarch Mon-Kal, the Thorn King @agentmanatee
II -
III -
IV - The Desert Sons, led by the third Primarch Sevrah, the Horned Snake @Roosan
V - The Blazing Sisters, led by the second Primarch Farah Cusatis, Shield of the Imperium @Yennefer
VI -
VII -
VIII -
IX - The Iron Templars, led by the fourth Primarch Ser Berenger the Giant @Lord Coake
X - The Wild Blades, led by the fifth Primarch Erron Khaal, the Great Chief @Savage
XI -
XII -
XIII - The Kindly Ones, led by the sixth Primarch Lydia Magaera, Lady of Victory @Culluket
XIV -
XV - Sons of the Storm, led by the seventh Primarch Fū Xiá, the Tamer of Storms @Jbcool
XVI -
XVII - Paladins Eternal, led by the eighth Primarch Maximus "Caesar" Aurelius @Sophrus
XVIII -
XIX - The Wardens Aegis, led by the ninth Primarch Talvyrn Gallogoth, the High Lord and PriMech @ClocktowerEchos
XX - The Void Stalkers, led by the last Primarch Gorseval the Dark Star @Hank

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Chronicles of the Grim Crusade

Sometimes, information just won't fit into this game's purview. To that end, I have created another thread for players to post about, amongst other things, events starring their Legions in both the present and past of the Grim Crusade. If you have something you'd like to post about which doesn't directly concern your Primarchs, or which involves them but occurred before the starting point of this game, or both, then the Chronicles thread is the place to go. Also included here is a timeline of all events in the Grim Crusade, as a shorthand for reading through the posts in the thread (which, naturally, can sometimes get very long indeed), ranging from the Grim Crusade's beginning in 798.M30 to the main game's most current events.

[Barrett]

Whelp. I'll begin working on my Tzeentchian Sorcerer Primarch now.

[agentmanatee]

I will pm you my sheety today! Also? Really like the Zodiac guard idea, don't intend to play one but its a cool concept.

ALSO, I imagine as the legions spread out Zodiac guard will accompany the primarchs where the emperor cannot into battle? Just asking

[BCTheEntity]

@agentmanatee Something like that, yes. Just remember that the game won't all be fighting. A sizable portion will, of course, but there'll be more social aspects as well.

[agentmanatee]

@BCTheEntity Of course of course, I understand that, it was not uncommon for the Primarchs to just strategize from above the planet like, you know, real generals. I was just curious is all

[BCTheEntity]

@agentmanatee Alright, cool, just checking.

[Barrett]

So for anyone looking out for what roles have already been done (not that we can't double up), my Primarch has shifted during creation from a sorcerer to a desert based sneaky bastard.

[agentmanatee]

@RoosanSo not a psyker anymore?

[Barrett]

@agentmanatee
Nope, going for a more snake themed primarch. Deception, ambushing and trickery.

[BCTheEntity]

@Roosan Sounds interesting. I look forward to seeing what the final product is.

[Barrett]

@BCTheEntity
Thanks, I'll hopefully have it done by this time tomorrow. I've gotten a little bit stuck over how to articulate what he looks like but it'll come.

[BCTheEntity]

@Roosan Excellent. Actually, if he's a desert-based sneaky bastard, might I suggest you take a quick glance at the Raptors chapter? They apparently do sneaking and/or other such pragmatics very well.

[Yennefer]

I'm in. I'm gonna start on a CS immediately. : 3

[Jb]

@BCTheEntity Uno question, por favor!

If a member of the Zodiac Guard is more-or-less more than a match for a Primarch, if say...I dunno...a Primarch was to initiate some sort of...let us say...civil war, for whatever reason or motivation, then couldn't the Emperor just send an Armatus to rip them apart in what would seem to be a pretty simple way? Therefore sort of nullifying any moitivation one might have to intiate said war?

[agentmanatee]

@Jbcool I think he would still have to get past the ENTIRE LEGION...

Also, mister 'I'm gonna be horus' remember he was bloated with super chaos powers so... yea...

[BCTheEntity]

@Jbcool I get what you're saying, but that wouldn't necessarily work for a couple of reasons. First of all, with the Primarch knowing that their civil war will see opposition in the form of stronger entities than themself, they'd ideally have the presence of mind to do what they could to make sure it remains under wraps for as long as possible, until it's effectively too late to stop it by just slaying the leader (and to wit, the most likely cause of such a civil war would make them not care so much about being threatened by the Zodiac Guard). Secondly, there's the slight problem that Space Marines are, as a rule, absolutely loyal to their Primarchs. Killing somebody slightly less superhuman than yourself is one thing; getting past ten thousand or so of his bodyguards to reach him is quite another. And yes, regarding @agentmanatee's point: if the instigator has been Chaos-corrupted, there's a good chance he's ended up with absurd amounts of Undivided blessings, enough to easily take out an Armatus.

Incidentally, it may be the case that the Bolter and Chainsword website for generating Astartes armour may not be outputting images correctly. If anybody can provide a more functional option, that'd be excellent; otherwise, I may need everybody to describe their Legion's armour in text rather than images.

[Barrett]

I'm almost done with my sheet and chapter images but I'm going to call it a night for now.
But do these look okay? I did the first one with the Bolter and Chainsword thing and then Photoshop and the other all in PS.
I was trying for a muddy, sandy tone for both the banner and the armour, not sure if it came out right.

[Yennefer]

@Roosan our colors schemes are slightly similar, but not too much so.

[Barrett]

@Yennefer
Ah, I wondered whether this might happen, it was another reason to post it as soon as possible.

[Yennefer]

@Roosan