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Night Watch Background

2K views 17 replies 7 participants last post by  Wrath of Khaine 
#1 · (Edited)
Night Wardens Background

I know I've kinda been posting a lot in this forum recently but I've been trying to come up with a back story for my DH's and a valid reason for painting them in Black.

I was browsing on Wikipedia and I read a mention within the Grey Knights entry that said that there were two conflicting accounts of what the color scheme is for the Grey Knights. One of them is the one we all know and the other is described as being black with silver gauntlets. I then had a idea - lets suppose that the ‘Grey’ Knights were the Puritan Inquisitors private Space Marine chapter/strike force thingy, whats stopping the Radicals from having one as well - now before you shout me down as crazy, stupid etc just remember the Exorcist Chapter.

For those of you who don’t here is the relevant information (taken from the Armaggeddon 3 website before it was removed :()

Honoured Lord, it is with great pleasure I contact you to inform you of the success of our project. Minor setbacks aside, I can report that the first two companies of the Chapter created in this thirteenth founding are responding well to the daemonic possession therapy. Under controlled hexagramic conditions, the subjects were exposed to possession by minor creatures from the daemonic pantheon under the watchful eye of Ordo Malleus daemon hunters protected by sigils and wards of great power. Incense inimical to the summoned creatures was burned while chants of binding were continually intoned from the ++Liber Expurgatorius. Inquisition Clearance Insufficient ++.

Once the subject was exposed to the essence of the daemon, the creature was allowed to remain in the host body for twelve hours before being cast out by a daemon hunter. In some cases the resultant physical and psychological damage to the Space Marines was irreparable and we were forced to terminate, but the majority of the subjects survived the procedure and required only minor reconstructive surgery and corrective psychotherapy.

After a period of recuperation, the subjects were instructed in the methods of combating the daemonic, trained in the use of the 666 verses of the Book of Exorcisms and equipped with the weapons of an Exorcist. The two companies were then put into action on a daemon infested world on the northern fringes of the Eye of Terror. With a squad of the Grey Knights held in reserve, the Exorcist Space Marines achieved a kill ratio of 97:1. Impressive under normal circumstances, but against the daemonic, I'm sure you'll agree that these figures clearly indicate that the procedure is both safe and effective.

The test subjects adrenal production more than tripled and levels of the neurotransmitter Serotonin dropped drastically, resulting in heightened states of aggression and combat effectiveness. Only 1% of the Space Marine subjects re-succumbed to daemonic influence on the planet and I believe that, subject to careful monitoring, this Chapter might eventually be granted a base and limited autonomy within a reasonable time frame.

With this success behind us, I believe the time is right to begin the creation of a full Chapter of Exorcists. The technology is in place and the need for such troops has never been greater. The two test companies can be integrated into normal Chapter organisation with the minimum of fuss and the resulting Chapter of Exorcists could be operational within less than fifty years. By then, the minor side effects that have manifested in a number of test subjects should hopefully be eliminated.

I remain your humble servant
Lauram Clelland
Genetor-Major, Xenobiologis



So we know the Ordo Malleus (or at least the Radicals within it) don’t mind doing a little dabbling in nasty daemon-body transfer (and that they can do it and get away with it) and that sort of thing. If they are willing to do that whats stopping them from creating a Grey Knights sort of chapter for the Radicals that IS willing to work with Deamonhosts etc (Not that you would really want to with the current miniatures/rules but anyway)

OK so bearing what I just said in mind here is what I have come up with:

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In late 829. M41 Senior Ordo Malleus Inquisitor Icarus Var arrived on the planet of Linest 7 on the trail of the Excet Paradox. The Paradox while also being a way of tracking the Demon Prince Shkweoaq'er, contained what was rumored to be a way of firing up latent physic talent within up to 90% of the human genetic code.

On the planet Var encountered the Ice Talons Space Marine Chapter - and it turned out that the Ice Talons were also on the hunt for the Paradox.

The Ice Talons are rumored to have been created out of the gene seed of the Fire Talons/Relictors and the 13th Black Crusade had hit the Chapter hard with the losses sustained coming close to the 65% mark. The Ice Talons had always been a small chapter never numbering more than 5 companies and this latest campaign forced the powers within the Chapter to reform the chapter into a single small combat company. In marked contrast to the Crimson Fist Chapter the Ice Talons Liberians and Apothecaries became desperate to find a way to speed up the rebuilding process. They knew that they couldn’t speed up the actual training of new recruits without compromising the quality of the chapter so they decided to attempt to turn a large proportion of them into Liberians increasing the chapters fighting ability in that way.

The Ice Talons soon began to put all their resources into finding the Paradox despite knowing that to be found out would invite horrendous consequences. It is not known how they found out about the Paradox, although the possibility of Var planting the information within the Chapter to engineer the situation to his own ends is not entirely impossible. Another theory is that the Relictors (before their Excommunication) pointed them in the direction of the artifact to either; take the Inquisitions eye of them for a while or to show another example of Chaos being used for the good of the Imperium.

Inquisitor Var managed to secure the Paradox first in a Imperial Temple. The Ice Talons Librarians then appeared on the scene and threatened the Ordo Malleus Inquisitor not knowing who exactly he was. Blows were nearly struck until Var unveiled his true identity and pointed out to them that they were outnumbered and out gunned by his bodyguards who had filled the upper galleries of the temple. The Ice Talons knew at that point that they were in serious strife. Not only were they pursuing a demonic item with the intent to use it rather than destroy it (not to mention contaminating their genetic code), they had also threatened to assault a member of the Ordo Malleus.

Var offered them a choice, he would allow them to use the Paradox and not report them for their crimes if they became his personal strike force or he would destroy them where they stood. Faced with the choice of destruction or service in shadows they knew that they had no option but to take up Var’s offer.

The Ice Talons returned to their battle barge with Var and his forces where the Paradox was unleashed in the main chapel upon the remains of the chapter and then disappeared. The Paradox did indeed awaken the Physic Potential within the majority of the Ice Talons however a side effect was found in later testing. The Apothecaries found that the new Geneseed of the Chapter was nearly impossible to transfer into a new Recruit with only one in every 100,000 not succumbing to vast, uncontrollable and unstable genetic mutation. This was compared to the usual one in every 1,000 success rate of pre-exposure to the Paradox. A conclusion was reached that the only way to recreate the effect of the artifact was to find it again, however like most items of Demonic nature once used or banished it would not reappear in the Material Universe for 1000 years and a day.

It was at this point that Inquisitor Var then reminded them of the deal that they had made. Knowing that without the aid of him, or others like him, they would be declared Heretics the eighty remaining Marines pledged their allegiance to the services of the Icarus Var and the Ordo Malleus. Hence forth they would not be known as the Ice Talons but as something different. Instead of operating according to the ideals of Robarte Gulliman. They would watch the creatures of the Night and hold them in check, however they too were also tainted by the Darkness and would share its taint forever. Thus the Night Watch were born, watching the Night but also being unbreakably linked with it. Armed with equipment not entirely different from the Grey Knights the Night Watch began their work as a strike force for the Radicals.

Imperial Records state that during the closing stages of the 13th Black Crusade the Ice Talons Space Marine Chapter was destroyed on the Planet of Halite. In a unrelated incident a force of Grey Knights, was suddenly wiped out while investigating a site on the world of Rocas Six on the other side of the Cadian Gate - their bodies were never recovered. The Inquisitor which the Grey Knights had been seconded was renowned Puritan Inquisitor Bartholomew Speare. He is reported as having sworn a oath to track down the culprits and personally behead them.

10 years after the incident on Rocas Six reports of Marines that appeared to be Grey Knights in black armour began to filter back to the Ordo Malleus. The Inquisitor tasked to investigate the sightings was a Senior Member of the Organization, a man by the name of Icarus Var…

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So half an hour later what do you think? Would you mind playing the Black Knights? Or would you demand I got my 10 badly undercoated Grey Knights and Dread off the table. It is still technically a Puritan Army as long as you don’t have Daemonhosts in it.

Please tell me your thoughts on it

Cheers and sorry for the very long post
 
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#3 ·
get them on the table. although their story needs a little cleaning up its a good idea. but after being even slightly tainted by the darkness they would be considered heretics or daemons in this case and would be disapproved of, and therefore exterminated. maybe change the story a little and make them the remnants/escapees of an exodus of their home planet which has been tainted by the paradox and therefore must be exterminated. they escape and run into a sympathetic inquisitor or something. just a suggestion, work and expand on it until its too your liking.
 
#16 ·
even slightly tainted by the darkness they would be considered heretics or daemons in this case and would be disapproved of, and therefore exterminated.
Well, I would say that there are many factions the Imperium knows nothing about. Like the Legion of the Damned. Just the fact that Dan hasn't strangled me because I can plunk 30 Kytharin on the table next to my Marines says it all. The Imperium is simply to vast for them to explore every facet of life in it. Also, since the Inquisition is so secretive, I would imagine that the Radicals could keep such a small force concealed.

-Dirge
 
#4 ·
Yea I had that very same thought when I came up with the idea for them but then I came across the Exorcists chapter. They are far more corrupt the my guys and Puritans were in on it.

But I can definatly see where you are coming from I'm still trying to decide. There is the perogative within GW fluff for it to work as is but it just isn't widely known about. And if an't well known then I might as well change it. You know what I mean? But I think I will re write it tommorrow you have given me some good ideas and then you can tell me which one you think is best.

Oh yea and I think I'm renaming them the Nyx Watch. There is already a chapter called the Night Watch and Black Knights is a bit of a cop out name.
 
#6 ·
I like it for the most part, eighty marines isn't a lot for a strike force, even if they are Grey Knight level.

However, considering everything it works well and makes sense. I was hoping for a bit of a darker edge to them (more like the Exorcists who I have taken a liking to) but this darker Grey Knight works well.

So do you see thema s being a sort of darker sub-faction of the Grey Knights, or a sort of Grey Knight-like chapter of Space Marines?
 
#7 ·
Yea - The reason I decided that the level be 80 was that (like normal Grey Knights) they are only deployed in the direst of curcumstances and are tasked to destory a single target. The majority of the time the Radicals use IG to do their dirty work.

I see them as being a Grey Knight like Space Marine chapter. They use GK equipment, have the same abilities etc but they arn't from GK stock. There is no precedent for a GK to start to dabble in the Warp so I can't use them. They are basically to the Radicals what the GK's are to the Puritans.

I'm going to go through and do a bit of an edit, make them darker and shore up some weaknesses in the reasoning. Plus make the story a bit more corrupt. Thanks for having a read though.
 
#8 · (Edited)
Oh its no trouble at all, I like reading well-thought fluff and helping people however I can.

EDIT: Oh yeah, forgot that Inquisitors had their own Storm Troopers and could pretty much tell the IG to do whatever they wanted. This makes a lot more sense in that light, I guess it would greatly if the radicals were trying to control something lioke a Bloodthirster and it got out of hand, call in the Night Watch (Nyx Watch.)

Just on a sidenote, I'd advise you keep the "Night" element in your refreshing.

On the Imperial side "Night" usually means dealing with darkness and it sort of hints at the slightly chaotic connection, but Nyx is related to night, so I guess that works too.
 
#9 ·
Yea i mean the main problem with Night wtach is that there is already a chapter called that. That was the reason I brought Nyx into the equation. Ideally I'd want to substitute Watch for something as well - to remove the link between the Deathwatch - but so far I've had no luck.
 
#10 ·
Guard is pretty suitable, Nyx Guard sounds okay.

you could try for something like "Talons of Nyx" as chapters don't have to be two words...

Maybe "Wards" or "Wardens?" I mean despite the "dark" aspect they are still supposed to be some of the good guys...well...as good as the Imperium is.

How about "Daggers of Nyx" or "Nyx Razors" to convey their stealthy, behind-closed-doors nature and lethality?

I'm just throwing ideas out there!
 
#15 ·
I think I'm going to go with the "Night Wardens" - just a nice image I have in my mind for some reason. Latern images seem to be filling my head at the moment which I may use on Grandmaster. Anyway heres the revised verion of the story, I've just strenghted up some of the reasoning in it and changed some names. Depeniding on the response I'll do up a less Radical *cough* boring *cough* version of it:

"In late 829. M41 Senior Ordo Malleus Inquisitor Icarus Var arrived on the planet of Linest 7 on the trail of the Excet Paradox. The Paradox while also being a way of tracking the Demon Prince Shkweoaq'er, contained what was rumoured to be a way of firing up latent physic talent within up to 90% of the human genetic code.

On the planet Var encountered the Ice Talons Space Marine Chapter - and it turned out that the Ice Talons were also on the hunt for the Paradox.

The 13th Black Crusade had hit the Ice Talons Chapter hard with the losses sustained coming close to the 65% mark. The Ice Talons had always been a small chapter never numbering more than 5 companies and this latest campaign forced the powers within the Chapter to reform the chapter into a single small combat company numbering about 80 Marines. The Ice Talons had always been a secretive chapter and didn’t want higher (civilian) authorities to dictate how it was to run the rebuilding process. At the same time they were on the hunt of a force of Night Lords who had contributed the most to the losses and were desperate to catch up with them and exact revenge for their fallen brethren.

In marked contrast to the Crimson Fist Chapter the Ice Talons Liberians and Apothecaries became desperate to find a way to speed up the rebuilding process. They knew that they couldn’t speed up the actual training of new recruits without compromising the quality of the chapter so they decided to follow the lead set by the Blood Ravens Chapter. The Blood Ravens Chapter has within it’s ranks a higher number of Librarians than normal. This increased amount of Librarians means that the chapter fights a lot ‘smarter’ than other forces and can punch above their numerical weight even more than a standard chapter. In a effort to follow the Blood Ravens example the Ice Talons in desperation begun to attempt to turn a large proportion of the remaining marines into Liberians.

The Ice Talons soon began to put all their resources into finding the Paradox despite knowing that to be found out would invite horrendous consequences. It is not known how they found out about the Paradox, although the possibility of Var planting the information within the Chapter to engineer the situation to his own ends is not entirely impossible. Another theory is that the Relictors (before their Excommunication) pointed them in the direction of the artefact to either; take the Inquisitions eye of them for a while or to show another example of Chaos being used for the good of the Imperium. The Ice Talons were known to work with the Relictors on several occasions.

Inquisitor Var managed to secure the Paradox first in a Imperial Temple. The Ice Talons Librarians burst into the temple minutes later and threatened the Ordo Malleus Inquisitor not knowing who exactly he was. Blows were nearly struck until Var unveiled his true identity and pointed out to them that they were outnumbered and out gunned by his bodyguards who had filled the upper galleries of the temple. The Ice Talons knew at that point that they were in serious strife. Not only were they pursuing a demonic item with the intent to use rather than destroy (not to mention contaminating their genetic code), they had also threatened a member of the Ordo Malleus.

Var offered them a choice, he would allow them to use the Paradox and not report them for their crimes if they became his personal strike force or he would destroy them where they stood. Faced with the choice of destruction or service in shadows they knew that they had no option but to take up Var’s offer.

The Ice Talons returned to their single remaining battle barge with Var and his forces. The Paradox was unleashed in the main chapel upon the remains of the chapter and then disappeared. The results were both a success and a disaster. The Paradox did indeed awaken the Physic Potential within the majority of the Ice Talons, however a side effect was found in later testing. The Apothecaries found that the new Geneseed of the Chapter was nearly impossible to transfer into a new Recruit with only one in every 1,000 not succumbing to vast, uncontrollable and unstable genetic mutation. A conclusion by the Masters of the Chapter was reached that the only way to recreate the effect of the artefact was to find it again, and find away of removing the side effect while still keeping the intended effect. However like most items of Demonic nature once used or banished it would not reappear in the Material Universe for 1000 years and a day.

It was at this point that Inquisitor Var then reminded them of the deal that they had made. Knowing that without the aid of him, or others like him, they would be declared Heretics the eighty remaining Marines pledged their allegiance to the services of the Icarus Var and the Ordo Malleus. Hence forth they would not be known as the Ice Talons but as something different. Instead of operating according to the ideals of Robarte Gulliman. they would watch the creatures of the Night and hold them in check, however they too were also contaminated by the Darkness and would share its taint forever. Thus the Night Wardens were born, watching the Night and guarding the Imperium from it’s horror’s but also being unbreakably linked with it. Armed with equipment not entirely different from the Grey Knights the Night Wardens began their work as a strike force for the Radicals.

Imperial Records state that during the closing stages of the 13th Black Crusade the Ice Talons Space Marine Chapter was destroyed on the Planet of Halite. In a unrelated incident a force of Grey Knights, was suddenly wiped out while investigating a site on the world of Rocas Six on the other side of the Cadian Gate - their bodies were never recovered. The Inquisitor which the Grey Knights had been seconded was renowned Puritan Inquisitor Bartholomew Speare. He is reported as having sworn a oath to track down the culprits and personally behead them.

30 years after the incident on Rocas Six reports of Marines that appeared to be Grey Knights in black armour began to filter back to the Ordo Malleus. The Inquisitor tasked to investigate the sightings was a Senior Member of the Organization, a Inquisitor going by the codename: Daedalus… "

Cookie for anybody who gets the link inside the story. Thoughts?
 
#17 ·
Thats what I thought - its only 80 marines who are kept together at all times with only one Battle Barge. They have a powerful patron + corruption and string pulling within the Inquistion are going to severally hamper anybody who tries to track them down. And its a big galaxy.
 
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