Sunday, July 16, 2017

Rulebook Redemption

            Just wanted to point a fun fact I noticed last night...
            Page 161 of the new rulebook still lists the Relictors as one of the final defenders of Cadia, there for Lord Castellant Ursarkar Creed's last stand.  Two of their companies stayed to the bitter end.
            Two things about this...
            One, this doesn’t quite line up with the history we know. We know they were there.  We know they were following their own agenda, as a whole chapter. And because of this—and some other Puritan nonsense—they were declared traitors and supposedly fled to the Eye of Terror.
            So if the whole chapter was always off somewhere else all together, and then fled en masse... how did two companies end up defending Cadia at the very end?
            Possible answer—they came back. Space Marines have entered the Eye before.  The Relictors may have been finishing up their own business and then returned to do their job.  This could all be the spin job of one small faction of the Inquisition.  Heck, possibly just one Inquisitor.
            (Looking at you, Cyarro—possible Alpha Legion agent)
            More to the point—point two, in fact—the rulebook itself lists them as a loyalist chapter. It hasn’t shunted them over to traitor legions or heretic forces. The Relictors are clearly listed as one of the Imperial forces defending Cadia.  Their contribution hasn’t been excised or removed or rewritten.
            Fight fire with fire.

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Primaris Relictors

            Oh, look. A new post.  It’s been a while.

            Three and a half years.

            I had all these great plans for this page.  Working through my different Relictors companies and models, explaining the how and why of them.  But then my career kinda took off (which ends up being oddly time-consuming) and...

            To be honest, I grew a bit frustrated with 40K.  And with Games Workshop in general.  But that’s a story I’ve told in a few other places.  The important thing is that Dark Imperium has really revived my interest in the game and the universe.

            When we last left the Relictors, they’d been all-but-destroyed.  Declared heretics by members of the Inquisition and more than half their number wiped out by the Grey Knights, the survivors had... well, vanished.  Nobody knows where to.  Possibly the Eye of Terror. Maybe still somewhere within the Imperium...

            Which brings me to the Primaris Space Marines.  At first I figured it’d be impossible to justify/rationalize adding Primaris to my army. Sure, Roboute Guilliman offered the next-generation Marines (and/or the tech to make them) to whatever Chapter could use them. Would that include a Chapter that had been named traitors, though?  A Chapter whose very location was unknown?

            So... bear with me.

            Gulliman definitely has a different view of the Imperium than anyone alive today.  He sees the overcomplicated, superstitious machine it’s become, as opposed to the thing of purity and strength it was supposed to be.  He’s also viewing it through the eyes of a primarch.  He’s legendary for seeing the big picture, playing the long game.  When he’s playing chess, he’s seeing fifteen moves ahead in the game he’s going to play against her once he’s done playing this game with you.

            With all that in mind... maybe he would send a squad or two of Primaris to join the Relictors.  Perhaps he doesn’t feel being censured by the Inquisition is the end-all, be-all that most “modern” people do.  Could be he sees something further down the road, an outcome no one else does, and the Relictors are part of it.  Heck, maybe he’d send them the better part of a whole company to help bolster their depleted ranks.

            But how would the Primaris themselves deal with this?  Would they be horrified to find out their new Chapter is using these cursed weapons of Chaos?  Would they return to Gulliman in horror?  Try to take down the Conclave from within?

            Maybe not.

            It’s been stated a few times now from GW that while they’re all modern beings, the Primaris have a very 31st Millennium mindset, much like Gulliman himself.  They don’t believe in a lot of the... well, mythology that’s sprung up around the Emperor. And around his enemies.  It’s likely that the idea of treating Chaos as a tool, an energy source—of fighting fire with fire—could appeal to an even slightly open-minded Primaris.

            Which is why the Primaris Marines in the Dark Imperium set have become the new Second Company of my Relictors.

            But I’ll get to that in a bit.

            Next time... a few quick conversions.