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Ok, here's the deal.
I'm in the process of writing fluff for my BA armoured company.
Back during the first founding of the blood angels, the humans of Baal who weren't mutants or cannibals were tribes of nomads tho roved the radioactive wastes in scavenged vehicles. These transports were their homes, even Sanguinius lived in a vehicle before the Emperor came. And when the Emperor came, he elevated as many People of the Pure Blood (Sanguinius' tribe, also known as "The Blood") to marinehood as he could, and unites them with thelarger body of cloned marines he amde from sanguinius' geneseed. But the converts were still people who grew up as motorized nomads, so it makes sense that back then the Blood Angels would have had a large armoured company, and that it would have been manned largely by converts who are used to driving in hazardous environments.
Now, the Emperor takes the newly forged Blood Angels with him on his crusade to unite humanity. The Crusade is going well, but some of the People of the Pure Blood are probably not looking forward to the idea of returning to the radioactive hell that is their homeworld once the crusades are over.
Here's where I step in.
Towards the end of the crusades, but before the Heresy, a detachment of converts breaks off (with permission) to search for a new homeworld. They take with them a significant amount of transports and vehicles (perhaps even a Fellblade or two) since the nomads would have been a large part of the BA armoured core. Since their misison is to colonize, they also take a fair amount of civilians, these people have families, after all. Even if they've already outlived their human wives and children, they're still used to the idea of family.
They are in the middle of colonizing their (currently unnamed) new homeworld when Horus makes his move. By the time they're able to secure their civilians and moilize their heavy armor it's already too late. En route to terra they feel the psychic scream of their primarch and are wracked with guilt and shame for not being there with him.
Disgraced, they turn their ships and and return to their colony, a self-imposed exile for what they believe to be the unforgivable sin of wanting to find a home instead of fighting alongside their brothers. For thousands of years they lived in exile, roaming the surface of their homeworld in their transports. Their battle barge long since grounded and converted into the only permanent structure on the planet. They were too ashamed to build the beautiful cities they had imagined when they started this quest.
Instead they continue to live as they once did, never setting down roots, dooming themselves to wander and eek out a living against the monsters and beasts that inhabit this world. Because of the unexpectedly harsh nature of their new home (imagine a deathworld, but of steppes and plains and savanahs rather than jungles. Herds of vicious herbivores being hunted by horrifying alien predators, etc), they still maintain their marine traditions, but rather than taking aspirants from the best and the brightest, instead every male of the clan is taken to the grounded barge when they come of age and implanted with the progenoid organs by the contingent of sanguinary priests and chaplains that man the converted monastery. Marinehood has become an accepted rite of passage amongst the clan...just as the almost unavoidable dissent into grief-driven madness has become an accepted fact of life.
With the exception of the chaplains and priests (and a few librarians) every male member of the clan eventually succumbs to the Black Rage, it's seen as a part of growing old. The grief and guilt the clan feels for not being there makes the grip of the black rage somethign that they cannot avoid without absolutely devoting themselves to the priesthood, and even then it;s not unknown for their most ancient priests and chaplains to eventually fall into madness and join their charges in one of the tribe's huge black land raiders, rolling prison-shrines where their flalen elders are tended to by chaplains and sent out on great hunts to kill the mightiest beasts, their madness serving a useful purpose in feeding and protecting the rest of the clan.
Eventually they were rediscovered by the Blood Angels and offered the chance for redemption. Furnished with new equipment and repairs to their battle barge, the clan's monastery barge now lifts off periodically, to carry the bravest of their warriors (along with most of their mad elders) into battle for the glory of the emperor and the children of Baal. It is their hoipe that eventually they;ll be taken back into the fold and become part of the main chapter once more. But uintil they they operate largely on their own, going whrere is needed, but always returning home when their mission is done. They have families, after all, and the barge needs to be there to induct the next generation into their chapter.
That's kind of the rough sketch. Basically the clan lives inside their transports. Every family has a rhino, which usually keeps them off the battlefield. Instead they rely on razorbacks most of the time for their battle transport. Even then, when in the field, the squads (usually closely related to one another) live out of their razorback. It;s their home away from home. The land raiders of the chapter are dedicated to their large death compaies, each one designed as much to keep them inside as it is to keep enemies from getting in. Inside they're like chapels, and the vehicle's crew is made up of aspiring chaplains and priests, with the tank commander usually being the chief acolyte to the battle company's commanding chaplain.
Young initiates usually serve as crew for the tanks (with the commanders being vetetrans), before being moved into the 5 man razorback teams, and eventually into the honour guard or veteran assault units and then, inevitably to the hulking black land raiders
Most of the sanguinary priests, techmarines and tech adepts live on the barge, maintaining the cult of iron and the cult of the blood. Occasionally they send members of their order into battle, but mostly they are led by chaplains. The priests and techs are just needed more on the barge than the battlefield.
Chaplains live on the barge as well, but they are trained for leadership and for battle, they are assigned to the battle companies and given 'the iron wings' one of the chapoter's increasingly rare and ancient jump packs. In battle, they fly over the black raiders, watching over their charges as sanguinius would have watched over his children while the acolyte crew calm their passenger-charges with prayer and psalms until it;s time to deploy.
Librarians are rare but possess the strength of will to stave off the black rage for longer than others. Eventually they fall too, becoming something similar to mephistion before eventually falling totally under the rage and becoming just another member of the DC.
That;s the rough background, it'll be put into story form as soon as I can come up with a name for the chapter and for their planet.
Any suggestions?
I'm in the process of writing fluff for my BA armoured company.
Back during the first founding of the blood angels, the humans of Baal who weren't mutants or cannibals were tribes of nomads tho roved the radioactive wastes in scavenged vehicles. These transports were their homes, even Sanguinius lived in a vehicle before the Emperor came. And when the Emperor came, he elevated as many People of the Pure Blood (Sanguinius' tribe, also known as "The Blood") to marinehood as he could, and unites them with thelarger body of cloned marines he amde from sanguinius' geneseed. But the converts were still people who grew up as motorized nomads, so it makes sense that back then the Blood Angels would have had a large armoured company, and that it would have been manned largely by converts who are used to driving in hazardous environments.
Now, the Emperor takes the newly forged Blood Angels with him on his crusade to unite humanity. The Crusade is going well, but some of the People of the Pure Blood are probably not looking forward to the idea of returning to the radioactive hell that is their homeworld once the crusades are over.
Here's where I step in.
Towards the end of the crusades, but before the Heresy, a detachment of converts breaks off (with permission) to search for a new homeworld. They take with them a significant amount of transports and vehicles (perhaps even a Fellblade or two) since the nomads would have been a large part of the BA armoured core. Since their misison is to colonize, they also take a fair amount of civilians, these people have families, after all. Even if they've already outlived their human wives and children, they're still used to the idea of family.
They are in the middle of colonizing their (currently unnamed) new homeworld when Horus makes his move. By the time they're able to secure their civilians and moilize their heavy armor it's already too late. En route to terra they feel the psychic scream of their primarch and are wracked with guilt and shame for not being there with him.
Disgraced, they turn their ships and and return to their colony, a self-imposed exile for what they believe to be the unforgivable sin of wanting to find a home instead of fighting alongside their brothers. For thousands of years they lived in exile, roaming the surface of their homeworld in their transports. Their battle barge long since grounded and converted into the only permanent structure on the planet. They were too ashamed to build the beautiful cities they had imagined when they started this quest.
Instead they continue to live as they once did, never setting down roots, dooming themselves to wander and eek out a living against the monsters and beasts that inhabit this world. Because of the unexpectedly harsh nature of their new home (imagine a deathworld, but of steppes and plains and savanahs rather than jungles. Herds of vicious herbivores being hunted by horrifying alien predators, etc), they still maintain their marine traditions, but rather than taking aspirants from the best and the brightest, instead every male of the clan is taken to the grounded barge when they come of age and implanted with the progenoid organs by the contingent of sanguinary priests and chaplains that man the converted monastery. Marinehood has become an accepted rite of passage amongst the clan...just as the almost unavoidable dissent into grief-driven madness has become an accepted fact of life.
With the exception of the chaplains and priests (and a few librarians) every male member of the clan eventually succumbs to the Black Rage, it's seen as a part of growing old. The grief and guilt the clan feels for not being there makes the grip of the black rage somethign that they cannot avoid without absolutely devoting themselves to the priesthood, and even then it;s not unknown for their most ancient priests and chaplains to eventually fall into madness and join their charges in one of the tribe's huge black land raiders, rolling prison-shrines where their flalen elders are tended to by chaplains and sent out on great hunts to kill the mightiest beasts, their madness serving a useful purpose in feeding and protecting the rest of the clan.
Eventually they were rediscovered by the Blood Angels and offered the chance for redemption. Furnished with new equipment and repairs to their battle barge, the clan's monastery barge now lifts off periodically, to carry the bravest of their warriors (along with most of their mad elders) into battle for the glory of the emperor and the children of Baal. It is their hoipe that eventually they;ll be taken back into the fold and become part of the main chapter once more. But uintil they they operate largely on their own, going whrere is needed, but always returning home when their mission is done. They have families, after all, and the barge needs to be there to induct the next generation into their chapter.
That's kind of the rough sketch. Basically the clan lives inside their transports. Every family has a rhino, which usually keeps them off the battlefield. Instead they rely on razorbacks most of the time for their battle transport. Even then, when in the field, the squads (usually closely related to one another) live out of their razorback. It;s their home away from home. The land raiders of the chapter are dedicated to their large death compaies, each one designed as much to keep them inside as it is to keep enemies from getting in. Inside they're like chapels, and the vehicle's crew is made up of aspiring chaplains and priests, with the tank commander usually being the chief acolyte to the battle company's commanding chaplain.
Young initiates usually serve as crew for the tanks (with the commanders being vetetrans), before being moved into the 5 man razorback teams, and eventually into the honour guard or veteran assault units and then, inevitably to the hulking black land raiders
Most of the sanguinary priests, techmarines and tech adepts live on the barge, maintaining the cult of iron and the cult of the blood. Occasionally they send members of their order into battle, but mostly they are led by chaplains. The priests and techs are just needed more on the barge than the battlefield.
Chaplains live on the barge as well, but they are trained for leadership and for battle, they are assigned to the battle companies and given 'the iron wings' one of the chapoter's increasingly rare and ancient jump packs. In battle, they fly over the black raiders, watching over their charges as sanguinius would have watched over his children while the acolyte crew calm their passenger-charges with prayer and psalms until it;s time to deploy.
Librarians are rare but possess the strength of will to stave off the black rage for longer than others. Eventually they fall too, becoming something similar to mephistion before eventually falling totally under the rage and becoming just another member of the DC.
That;s the rough background, it'll be put into story form as soon as I can come up with a name for the chapter and for their planet.
Any suggestions?
