Re: [Epic] Space Marine Chapters
Excerpts from Epic: 6-May-97 Re: [Epic] Space Marine Cha.. by Elias
Tiliakos_at_...
> All this talk about ancient history (at least 40K wise) is great.
> I love the atmosphere that it produces for the games. I was
> wondering what books available are best for background "fluff".
<grin> The two best for info on the Imperium and Chaos are the two
Realms of Chaos hardcovers, _Slaves to Darkness_ and _The Lost and the
Damned_. Each covers two chaos powers, though I'm not sure which, and
they both have fantasy battle sections and 40K sections. (Kinda like
what GW is proposing to do with the Squats, a dual-release codex. :P )
Those are two *very* interesting books, and also quite disturbing in
some sections; some of the "fluff" stories *really* disturb me,
especially in the first volume (StD).
For the Orks, there are three books, though I think the first (Waagh!
the Orks) has the most general background. IIRC, the others
(Freebooterz & ???) have army lists for 40K, mostly. I've only got one
of these books, and it's at home with the RoC books, so I can't check on
it at the moment.
The original Rogue Trader softcover is also quite good for background,
as well as for a look at GW back when they encouraged you to use other
people's minis.
> I know what happened to some of the Primarchs (mostly the ones
> that turned to Chaos and Sanguinius), but not a whole lot about
> the rest. Can anybody fill me in or recommend some good reading?
See above, though I think what's happened to the Primarchs has mostly
been in White Dwarf issues. From what I remember, Guilliman (sp?
Ultramarines Primarch) is in statis on Macarage, homeworld of the
Ultramarines, after suffering a fatal wound. There are those among the
thousands of pilgrims that travel there every year who *swear* they see
that wound closing....
The Dark Angels Primarch, IIRC, is buried somewhere in the Rock. I
don't have much info on this; check the Dark/Blood Angels WH40K codex.
Leman Russ was killed somewhere, I'm not sure what happened to the body.
...And that's all the Primarchs I can account for off the top of my
head, barring the ones that turned to Chaos. (And not repeating my
previous info on Rogal Dorn, whom I'm also not sure what happened to in
the end....)
> Also, has anyone thought about expanding upon the history that
> already exists, maybe make a campaign based around the "newly
> created" history?
Eh... GW seems to be doing that, with the stuff on Abbadon and whatnot
in 40K. <shrug> I haven't really kept up with the history, I just like
the older stuff really.... ^_^
>Something I was intrigued with was the mention
> of the marines' previous "gigantic" stature.
I'm thinking that might be more in reference to the size of the
chapters, or the power of an individual chapter; Marines have always
taken recruits from regular human stock, so I don't think they'd get
that much larger than normal humans.
>Another point that
> caught my attention was the fact that at the moment, the Imperium
> seems to be in a "holding pattern" of sorts, just trying to stay
> in existence, not really expanding as the Imperium of tem millenia
> gone.
The primary reason for this is that navigation is *very* difficult
outside the range of the Astronomicron, which is centered on Earth at
the Forbidden Fortress, which even Inquisitors and Judges must ask
permission to visit. The Fortress is built in a sheltered craig near
the tip of a vast mountain range in a land once known as Nepal, and it
burns out ~100 psykers every day to keep the Astronomicron going, a
beacon in the wilderness of Warp Space.... (See White Dwarf issues
#139-141) The Astronomicron has a radius of ~50000 light years, which
means it covers *most* of the galaxy, but misses some of the Eastern
Fringe... from where the Tyranid Menace is currently approaching.
>The space marines have been reduced to protecting what worlds
> already exist, and thoughts of conquest seem to have been driven
> from the minds of those in command. The techpriests on Mars
> are restricted to "old" technology; have research efforts been
> completely abandonded?
Not completely, as the Mentor Legion shows, but most research seems to
be working on incremental improvements to existing devices. The
reliance on the STC system really put a kink in originality.
And I wouldn't say conquest has been completely driven from people's
minds, they just don't do a whole lot outside the range of the
Astronomicron. That's actually what the Rogue Traders were for, y'know,
and was the basis for a pseudo-RPG... anyway, humanity is mostly on a
holding action right now, as it tries to assimilate all the changes that
have been forced upon it, most notably the appearance of psykers.
>It seems like the Imperium should have
> been able to recover its former strength. Ten thousand years
> is quite a long time, no?
Eh. We're talking about *tremendous* interstellar distances here, and
the FTL travel isn't always that reliable... not to mention, Navigators
don't grow on trees. Plus, given what has already been encountered,
expansion might not be the best plan... scouting yes, but the big push
of the Great Crusade was more a unification of pre-existing human
societies rather than the long, slow colonization effect from before.
Plus, it had a very heroic figure at its head, who is not somewhat...
out of sorts?
> Maybe it is time for a new messiah, as the Emperor was in his
> more mortal days. I can just hear the tramp of millions of
> booted (and power armored, though significantly fewer :) ) feet
> headed off to conquest now.
Heh. That's a bit of a debate right there, y'know, whether the
Illuminati are correct or... misguided. We'll probably never know,
really, since one way would spell the doom of humanity while the other
would push humanity well over the other powers & races. Tied in with
that question is the Sensei, and the Star Child, and whether the old
shamans were right... very old stuff, that.
^_^
Aaron Teske
Mithramuse+_at_...
Received on Wed May 07 1997 - 04:59:33 UTC
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