Hello Members of the Conclave,
Today I bring forth a character archtype that is sometimes loathed by the commumity - The Space Marine.
My aim with this character was to create a persona that could be used as a game to game leader of a warband.
Here I go:
Brother Aeris Annullos - Formerly of the Astral Claws Chapter
Aeris Annullos was inducted into the ranks of the Astral Claws aged eleven, in M41.726. He barely scraped through the rigorous indoctrination process required by Adeptus Astartes Chapters, however, his faith in the emperor guided him through the trials.
When inducted into the scout company aged 19, Annullos was shown to have a talent in recon missions, and this was very much noticed by his superiors. Annullos was also one of the purest of heart within the chapters ranks, having been brought up by strictly religious parents and it was this quirk that was brought to the fore on in the opening stages of the Badab War.
Now a sergeant in command of the Nova Class Frigate Endless Voyage, Annullos saw Huron's secessionist ways as heresy. He knew that he could not his views to anyone's attention lest he be executed.
Seeing the approaching Imperial Fleet on a scouting mission, Annullos took the opportunity to surrender himself and his crew to the Imperials, doing what he believed was right. Unfortunately for Annullos he came into the custody of a Monodominant Inquisitor by the name of Nethix.
Nethix, viewing Annullos as a heretic on two counts (his Chapter declared Excommunicate Traitoris, and himself fleeing from duty), tortured the Marine with extreme prejudice on his cruiser, removing several of his organs, and psychically tearing him apart. Only Annullos' extreme mental discipline keeping him from total insanity, and even then, he was being worn thin.
This torture lasted from the start of the Badab War until 66 years later, leaving Annullos physically and mentally drained, a shadow of a Space Marine. In M41.967, Xanthite Inquisitor Koth declared Nethix a heretic for calling Exterminatus on a world he had been seeking to strengthen. Koth boarded Nethix's cruiser in a fit of rage and slew the Monodominant in a single combat. Claiming the cruiser as his own, Koth cleansed the ship of any remaining henchmen and stumbled across the shattered Annullos in one of the ship's torture chambers.
Koth saw a great opportunity, by using the Space Marine he could strengthen innumerable worlds. Koth bargained with the warrior, proposing that if Annullos would do his bidding, he would grant him the Emperor's forgiveness at the turn of the millennium.
Annullos now fights under the command of Inquisitor Koth, instigating strife and hardship through the galaxy in what he calls "a mission from god himself". Despite being significantly weaker than a normal warrior of the Adeptus Astartes, Annullos is still a formidable presence when called upon, whether to "strengthen" a world, or eliminate a rival Inquisitor in the battle for the Emperor's soul.
Age: 273
WS BS S T I Wp Sg Nv Ld
71 79 76 73 81 83 62 102 81
Speed: 4
Hand: Ambidextrous
BIV: 7
SSV: 22
Consciousness: 55
Death: 110
Equipment: "Vengeance" (2 Reloads, Vendetta Shot, 1 Round), Chainsword, 2 Frag Grenades, 1 Krak Grenade.
Armour: Mk8-7 Power Armour (See Special Rules)(All locations), Mk8-7 Helmet, Backpack (DM2)
Special Abilities: Leader, Ambidextrous, Spit Acid, Nerves of Steel, Hurl Opponent, Shoulder Charge, Shield, Covering Fire (For the Last Four, see Using Space Marines), Self Mortification, Weak Points (For the Last Two, see DM2) .
Remaining Organs (DM2): Haemastamen, Omophagea, Occulobe, Sus-an Membrane (May not voluntarily activate.), Melanochromic Organ, Neuroglottis, Betcher's Gland, Progenoids, Black Carapace.
Special Rules
Mk8-7 Helmet. The enhanced senses which a Space Marine possesses, coupled with the advanced systems which are built into the Mk8-7 Helm, mean that a Annullos doubles his Initiative value when attempting to detect enemies and for resolving other awareness tests he has to make. Additionally, the Helm also features an inbuilt Auspex, a Re-breather, a Comm-link, a De-tox Injector (5 Doses), Advanced Auto-senses (see Bionic Senses) and a Range Finder. The Helm has an armour of 6.
Mk8-7 Power Armour. This suit of Power Armour is one of a kind specially designed by Koth's artificers for Annullos' use, it's machine spirit being very calm in its operation. As a result, the Mk8-7 Armour lacks the protection of normal Mk8 Power Armour, but emits less sound than it's cousins. Mk8-7 Armour is Armour 8. As with normal Space Marine Power Armour, it carries 3 points of Ablative Armour over the normal armour. Mk87 Armour, like other Space Marine Power Armour, is very restrictive, and so Annullos may not go prone voluntarily. If he goes prone through other means (grenade, explosions, etc., it takes him 2 Actions to stand up again.)
"The taint of Sorcery is in the Air!"Annullos, after sixty-six years spent in an interrogation chamber, was subject to many kinds of torture, the most scarring of which was psychic. As a result of Annullos' weakened mind, he is more susceptible than others to psychic attack. All psychic powers directed at Annullos receive a +15% bonus to cast. Naturally, Annullos hates all Psykers (and sorcerers), and his player should make an attempt to have him slay his hated foe.
Vengeance. Vengeance is a Bolt Pistol that carries a -10 to hit modifier due to wear and tear acquired in the field.
Vendetta Round. Annullos carries with him one round to be used at the end of each mission. Once he has reached his target, he loads the Vendetta round and fires it at the target. The round is designed to make a messy example of his foe, and causes excruciating pain before death.
The Vendetta round is fired from Vengeance (above) but inflicts 4D10 Damage instead of 2D10.
The Player should make sure that he doesn't waste the shot by using it on an undeserving enemy (i.e. a Hive Ganger). He should probably even have to designate which character he will use it on before the game.
SO what do the members of the Conclave think? Is he too weak? Perhaps he is way overpowered still?
I look forward to you feedback.
Scott.
You say Koth is a Xanthite, but did you mean Istvaanian? His actions make him seem like he's the latter?
To be honest I'm not keen on this idea of downgrading the stats of some archetypes so they're not 'over-powered'. I've seen too many people create orks that are weakened somehow and end up not being orky, or eldar that are slower then they should be, or marines that are suffering some past injury. If you want to play an ork or marine then they're going to be 'over-powered', but that's as they should be. Better IMHO to accept that and look at making him interesting rather than look for ways to weaken him. Gav's Ultramarine is a good example.
I do like the concept you've come up with though. As this guy is from a traitor chapter, why not have him put his armour aside in shame and have him in simple robes instead? He's still be an impressive figure - a son of the Emperor come to lead the people, but your opponents would at least have a chance of hurting him.
Do you have plans for the rest of his warband?
Let's see more background - the training, his home planet, the things which made him what he is today...
BTW, if you look into the history of Badab then you'll find that originally the Chapter was called the Tiger Claws, the name change to the Astral Claws happened quite a while ago but long after the initial histories of The Badab War were published, as a sergeant I might make reference to the name change just for nostalgia's sake.
(I haven't yet read IA9 yet so my information comes from significantly older fluff so if the following doesn't make sense then...)
The biggest questions which occur to me are these:
Why did he feel that Lugft's decision was heretic and why didn't he address that concern to his superior? No evidence has ever been brought to light to suggest outside influences on the Tyrant's decision and therefore one can assume that it was made based on the available information and with a strategic eye on the defence of Humanity.
He will probably have known that others would see his decision as treason and will probably have discussed such things with his officers prior to finalising it... which would suggest that all of them recognised the same situation as he did and were willing to sacrifice their honour to the cause...
If (as I mentioned above) the fluff around Badab has changed to suggest an outside influence (and the mention of Lugft's lightning claw in the Forgeworld stuff has me worried in that regard) then I'm dissappointed, Badab was one of the few conflicts where two loyalist forces can be pitched against each other, both believing they're in the right, without having to frig around with their fluff.
More importantly however, how did this one sergeant escape whatever outside influence they may have written in?
As a final point, I'm not keen on the Nova - I would suggest that an Astartes Sergeant is too valuable for such a deployment, especially as he's likely to be with his squad... Ten Marines on one frigate, it doesn't take many frigates before you have a very sizable portion of the Chapter's strength tied up doing something which could be left entirely to the Chapter's Retainers.
hmm...well i dont like his background...seems a bit young to be inducted....and to be in the scouts at 19 is a tad extreme but hey ho each to his own....erm im pretty sure Huron would have killed him had he voiced his opinion to him....i think youd be better off doin as Kaled says and putting him in simple robes....this makes him an interesting character...allows you to play with a little bit of stealth...and also makes for an awesome mini
kerby
Eleven is exactly normal, according to GW - prepuberty, to maximise effectiveness of the implants. Yes, that means Space Marines are child soldiers. Shrug. 8 years to become a Scout seems about right for me.
@Kaled
You always make very valid points.
I did mean Istvaanian, I always seem to get my radical Inquisitors messed around a bit...
Good Point, I admit that I have been looking for ways to weaken him. I think maybe the armour can be brought back up to 10, but otherwise I think that I'll leave him as is... because I quite like the idea that this marine has been brought from super human warrior to being an enslaved servant, and he might not have the power to change that situation. Could you point me in Gav's Ultramarines direction?
Good idea, very good one. In certain missions (where stealth is required) I'll definitely try this. As I plan to do 54mm and Inq28 with my gaming group, what do you think might be a good base to work on for a model like that on both scales? What I'm planning to do for the armoured version (using atermis for the base) is have his armour completely black, showing that he has no alleigance, and this'll make for a rather nice look I would think, with glowing green eyes being the only colour on him.
@InquisitorHeidfeld.
IIRC in the new fluff they have a descendant called the Tiger Claws... but I may either be imagining this or being wrong. I have only barely looked over the new fluff.
Very good point, I believe that the new fluff also states that Huron's decision to go renegade was a "spit the dummy" reaction to not being given resources to continue his crusade into the Maelstrom. Basically he then set up a blockade around his system and fired upon any Imperial Vessel that came close, depriving the Imperium of mineral resources that were mined in the Badab sector. I would think, Annullos, who is mentioned as being a largely spiritual person, would see firing upon vessels doing the Emperor's work as heresy.
As with the second part of your paragraph... you've caught me out with something critical that I have left out. This leaves me with several ways to explain it:
- A: His squad and officers agreed with him, either through loyalty, fear, or their own beliefs.
- B: They didn't agree, and Annullo's executed them or their was a mutiny, in which Annullos killed his squads and officer... meaning he wouldn't be able to keep the ship operational.
- C: AI could have it retconned that Annullos was further promoted to Admiral (not uncommon in a crisis such as Badab) and pulled rank on his officers.
I prefer A the most, and C second. Mainly because A gives the story a bit more feel, as all his officers and brothers would be tortured and executed by Nethix.
I don't believe their was any outside influence as such (no chaos to my knowledge), but it was Huron's own selfishness and arrogance that led to the conflict. Annullos saw firing upon his majesty's vessels as heresy and deserted on a recon mission, the Astral Claws believing he was killed in action by the fleet that arrived in the next few hours/days.
Point taken, personally, as I said above, I'm toying with the idea that he was further promoted from sergeant to lead a squadron (on his own). Alternatively, he could have been leading a Retaliator Boarding party stationed on the Endless Voyage, making the deployment of 10 marines their a bit more believable.
When you think that the Astral Claws were divided into three for the conflict:
- Tyrants Legion (~200 Marines, Reserves and Scouts)*
- Main Chapter Forces (~500 Marines)*
- Fleet Command and Boarding Parties (~300, ic. First Co.)*
As well as support from:
- The Lamenters (~1000 Marines, deployed presumably 500/500 in Fleet and Ground operations)
- The Mantis Warriors (or was it someone else?)(~1000 Marines ")
*These are of course, my own estimates, but bear with me.
I think that it may be possible that Lugft deployed an entire squad in this way, particularly on an "ill disciplined" (or still loyal) ship.
Thanks for all the feedback, looking forward to more.
Scott.
Ninja'd - Thanks for the reply Kerby.
About the fluff... I had expected some to say that... but hey, some will not like it some will. Everyone's entitled to an opinion.
Not being a marine fan, I'm not 100% sure on the average ages for induction and so on. I had assumed that the average age for induction into the 10th co was at the time when they finished indoctrination, which, according to lexicanum is around 19.
Yes, my thoughts too.
Annullos: "Hey Lugft, I'm kinda uncomftorble about this whole war on the Imperium thing, maybe I can just, not fight with you and we can still be friends?
Lugft: *slash*
Like I've said above, I will be doing a model of him in robes as well... that will offer some interesting scenarios... Have you got any ideas for a base Inq28 and 54mm wise?
Scott.
Aargh, Ninja'd again.... - That's what I thought. Thanks for the confirmation Dapper.
Scott.
At 28mm id use either Harker (the IG catachan mini) with GS robes....and for 54mm i might use either Sgt Stone (but hes still tooooooo small) with modified Ork arms (for the muscle) but youd have to shave down artemis head...its the right size for a SM but still too big for an unarmoured one...
As for the age thing if Lexicanum says then it gotta be true ;-)
But i personally dont like it....
kerby
Quote from: psycho on January 17, 2011, 09:12:44 PMAs for the age thing if Lexicanum says then it gotta be true. But i personally dont like it...
Like it or not, it's the official background. It's been that way since
time immemorial before I got into the hobby.
Space Marine organs have to be implanted into prepubescent males, those who are still growing, otherwise the organs can't reshape their bodies (and grow themselves).
I don't see what's all that wrong with the idea. 19 year old soldiers are possible today, so it's not that ridiculous for the youngest of a Space Marine chapter to start from that age.
For an unarmoured marine you should look at 75mm models - they're a touch on the large side but close enough...
@Marco....yeah i know its official fluff....just dont agree....especially seeing as todays 19 year old soldiers dont manage to kill 6ft, heavily muscled, green aliens with nought but a combat blade....nor do they sneak off into the dark and anhilate tank columns....but anyways its fantasy lol
kerby
Quote from: psycho on January 17, 2011, 09:30:36 PM
.especially seeing as todays 19 year old soldiers dont manage to kill 6ft, heavily muscled, green aliens with nought but a combat blade...
They would if they had the training and implants of an Astartes. If you think Astartes are on a par with any other soldier their age then you really need to read more 40k background!
No ive been in the Hobby over a decade now so i know that the Astartes are obviously way better than current forces (who are i suppose on par with Guardsmen) but at 19 years old the scouts arent fully developed and thus arent exactly real Marines....so i guess if i compare them with todays Black Ops or such like then yeah iguess they would indeed be abel to accomplish said feats...
kerby
Quote from: psycho on January 17, 2011, 09:37:54 PM
but at 19 years old the scouts arent fully developed and thus arent exactly real Marines...
At 19 they'll have a full set of implants, the black carapace will have been maturing inside them for a couple of years and they may well have moved out of the 10th company and be serving in a Devastator Squad. At 19 a marine may not be as experienced as his battle brothers but he's definitely a 'real Marine'.
Quote from: psycho on January 17, 2011, 09:30:36 PMespecially seeing as todays 19 year old soldiers dont manage to kill 6ft, heavily muscled, green aliens with nought but a combat blade
Today's 19 year old soldiers aren't 7ft tall, they don't weigh 400 lbs (or more!), nor do they have two hearts and spit that can eat a hole in the side of an armoured personnel carrier.
By the time a Space Marine is 19, he has already received years of training - and they can train far longer and harder than any normal human!
I can see why they were brought down to WS & BS 3 in the most recent SM codex, but I'm not sure I agree. They're young, but their training is WAY past the average guardsman at that point, and a Guardsman doesn't have the eyesight or reaction times a Space Marine's organs give him.
Back On Topic I'm thinking Harker would be a nice base for the 28mm unarmoured marine.
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ADyso9fY-QI/S7MjhYnhu8I/AAAAAAAABbQ/KpOi56vyypY/s1600/prep1.jpg)
*Not my image.
I'm thinking a chainsword in his left, and a bolt pistol in his right, with the chainsword facing at a 10 degree angle at the left, and the pistol facing forward, so he looks like he's taking somebody out with a mid-riff slash.
As for a cloak, I'm thinking a sort of poncho, leaving his hands free for his weapons. I'm 50/50 on the idea of adding a hood, because my sculpting skills aren't very good.
What do you guys think?
Scott.
I'm just going to echo the sentiment that you should go with a marine who is out of his armor 100% of the time. It's almost never done and you have a perfectly acceptable reason why. I honestly like the idea (and think it's plausible) that he was tortured for almost 70 years and then "rebuilt" afterward. How much of his indoctrination would be left after that time period? It's a difficult question to answer.
You might want to toy with the idea of hurting his mobility without compromising other stats though (-1 to distances moved, maybe make actions requiring strength tests to be risky actions since his joints "aren't what they used to be"). I think there are TONS of colorful options for hobbling your marine, why dock their stats?
Also, plotwise it makes sense for him to not have armor. Would the Inquisitor who captured him really keep that armor around for the better part of a century? Barring use of that armor, does anyone outside of the Space Marine Chapters have to ability to actually produce Marine armor (not asking this rhetorically, honestly I'm not sure if the mechanicus does it, I thought the marines kept that stuff in-house)?
Anyway, I think a lack of armor makes him more unique but still incredibly deadly. I also like Harker for the body but are you planning on keeping the head? It just doesn't seem dignified for a sane Marine (though there's a good case to be made for his lack of sanity, he just might now be that useful to the Inquisitor in that case).
I'm thinking I'll go for that idea actually, surprisingly, despite thinking of characterful ways to hobble the marine, taking away his armour never occured to me.
I'll be thinking of ways to limit him, in fact, one of his special rules might just be - "They just ain't what they used to be."
I think the Mechanicus actually produce the armour and ship it out to the chapters... but I don't think that they would be too happy about shipping out a single suit of armour... even if an Inquisitor was behind it.
I'll keep the head... the way that it is attached to the body makes it look extremely diificult to replace. I'll shave the mohawk flat for the bald marine look, and add a few service studs to change the facial profile so he won't be Harker with a cloak and chainsword.
Scott.