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Post by Doug on Feb 7, 2007 20:43:33 GMT
Well, it struck me earlier today that while we have a timeline, we have nothing on the planet's history (which, along with the environment on the planet itself, is probably one of the most important influences on the modern society on the planet) and that we perhaps ought to flesh out what concepts we have there a little, before we began anything major....I know we'll probably have a couple of people developing them in depth, but we still need some more detail even at this stage...
I thought it might be a good idea to start working on the Imperial history first, as tha's what's going to directly affect the present situation...and the earliest part of that is St. Martius and Crusade X...
So, who was he, why was he there and how did he become a Saint? We know so far he was a Lord General in a Crusade against enemy X, who did something important enough to get granted the world and a sainthood....
Thoughts?
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Post by thenephew on Feb 7, 2007 22:53:00 GMT
I'm not so hot on my Imperial rank systems, but I'd like to try and veto any 'rose from dirt to lead a sector to victory against warlike xenos neighbours' stories from the start. He was the third son of a powerful noble family, who exterminated a (in pre-crusade times) minorly irritating alien race in a neighbouring sector, but won several worlds of massixe mineral wealth in the process. This wouldn't get him sainthood though, not by any stretch. Maybe during the course of the crusade a small tyranid splinter hive fleet came crashing through the system, which Martius wiped out while being greatly outnumbered, but never outgunned. The projected course of the hive fleet would engulf several important factory and hive worlds a few systems on, if Martius had not managed to comprehensively stomp them into spacedust.
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Post by inquisitorarantel on Feb 8, 2007 21:31:02 GMT
How about this as an argument for Sainthood...
He and his armies nobly sacrificed themselves to destroy Gribbly Alien Fleet Y, which was en route to obliterate a major Ecclesiarchy world...
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Post by Doug on Feb 8, 2007 21:39:59 GMT
Doesn't work if he's to go on to colonise the world...
And I agree with the Child Killer on the rose from dirt thing....as far as I can tell, the vast majority of the high command level Imperial officers are from the nobility, in one way or another...
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Post by necris on Feb 9, 2007 1:05:59 GMT
Ok St. Martius
St. Martius or as he was known before his sainthood Martius Belasksun (name is progress) was a noble born and breed a true blood blue of the Highest of Imperial Families, his millitary carrer empowered by his father ensured that he rose through the ranks despite several failings as a millitary commander, it was during this rapid accent through the ranks that he came to depend upon his lesser officers, and his NCO's for command, while this went majoritily unnoticed by Higher Command his regiment and then later battalion went on from strength to strength, acheiving victory through the masterful commandry of his officers in the wake of his lack of experiance.
When the ** Crusade (have we named it yet?) against the Dark Eldar (who doesn't like the dark Eldar, a fine enemy indeed) came about Martius, using his familes weath was able to purchace into Crusade Command, with the Rank of Lord General, given lordship of the Second Front Martius made numerous sepctacular promotions of his orginal Battalions officers, placing them beyond their dept in crusade command.
With the whole Second Front lacking any true experiance they floundered against the enemy's superior speed and raiding tactics, with battles being drawn out on dozens of worlds for most of the Crusade, supply lanes cut off and the moral almost shattred, Martius' personal battle ship came across a small Dark Eldar fleet that for some unknonw reason had lost its shadow field generators, Capitalising on this turn of fortune the fleets engages and Imperial won the day, forcing the ship to crash land on a oceanaic world.
Eager to end the Dark Eldar Martius ordered the ground forces deployed to hunt down the enemy and bitter skirmish war fare broke out across the coast of the singular landmass of the world. During this conflict, a tech prist by the name of Blah Blah discovered the interesting nature of the "water" of the world, and after a short expertiment was able to formulate a basic fuel source. With this basic fuel source Martius was able to refuel his armoured divisions that had until then been almost useless in the skirmish, with the advantage of armoured support the victory was quick to follow.
From there Blah Blah was able to refine the process make the fuel purer and of much better and more stable quality, which allowed Martius to free up his none exisitant supply lines, leading to the victory on several worlds.
During the later years of the Crusade with a new War Master in place, who used vastly different tactics than his predessor Martius followed in his foot steps fearful he may be replaced by a more able man, He started taking to the fields of battle leading from the front as the War Master was famous for, It was during one battle that Martius and his senior staff grossly underestimeted the enemy forces, forced back to a ruined chaple and on the brink of destruction Martius took himself away from his fellow officer to pray to the Emperor in the remains of the altar.
When he returned he was a changed man, zeal had come to him, anger and fury, he gathered the remains of the mens shattered moral and remoulded it with only a few words that have made commissars jealious ever since, he strode out to face the enemy, pacing into the fray all his enemies fire power seeming to inexplicably miss him.
In combat he could not be bested his power sword, mark of his station, gift from the previous war master, made short work of any Eldar that stood before him, he and his men carved out the heart of the enemy's force, though many of them died the Imperial Banner never fell as it drew closer to the Dark Eldar Archon, not even his Incubi could slow Martius as he cut through them to engage the archon himself, despite the wounds he'd received during this heroic charge and despite the eldars grace and speed, Martius bested him, claiming the vile Xenos' head.
Seeing their master cut down his head held aloft the Eldar took flight and scattered, Martius was heralded as a living saint by his men, and led them to many more victories, eventually becoming War Master himself, though to be fair an true when Martius took the mantle the crusade was over, there only remained small pcokets of Dark Eldar forces, but he diligently hunted them down and wiped them out.
Upon completion of the crusade Martius was awarded a world which he could claim as his own, he chose the world that had started his carrer to path to greatness, that oceanic world with its singular landmass.
It was only after his death many years later that Martius was offical recognised as a Saint by the church of the emperor, due in part to his heroic deeds and confirmed by the nature of his death, when he passed away the world was shrouded in darkness for a full month as if the world was morning his passing, and a golden aquillia appeared upon his chest, the only source of light during that long month.
rough I know but hows that for a start?
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vendile
Enginseer
The doodler
Posts: 234
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Post by vendile on Feb 9, 2007 1:51:59 GMT
How Lord General Martius became a Saint:
After the origional crusade in the sector against a major chaos/alien incursion, he was granted the world.
Suddenly, thirty years later, the origional agressors of the sector strike back and capture the sectors captial - also home to the sectors Ecclesiarchy leaders and largest Grand Cathedral. (and thus its largest Imperial Guard posting and the centre of its communication network etc are put out of action).
On hearing the terrible news, the retired Lord General Martius (now Planetary Governor) immediatly scrounges as many ex-guardsmen and PDF as he can from his planet, inspiring them into taking action with noble words and religious fury at the defiling of the Grand Cathedral, before setting off to save the sector from the returned threat.
He meets up with and takes command of several confused guard regiments he comes across as he system-hops - also gathering a small fleet as he goes.
Eventually he confronts the enemy, still holed up on the systems captial, with his ad-hoc mix of Guard, Arbites, PDF, religiously-driven recruits and retired veterans. As well as a fleet consiting of more armed frieghters than actual navy vessels.
They make a daring strike at the planet, successfully landing two thirds of their force in the Ecclesiarchy Grand Cathedrals grounds.
Meanwhile the fleet, despite a vailent effort and many noble self-sacrifices, is destroyed in combat. Though they did succeed in inflicting some major hurt, with several mortally wounded frieghters resorting to ramming their enemies in a last ditch attempt to cause hurt before their warpdrives were imploded.
Below the the desperatly fighting fleet, in the capital city, Martius used his tactical brilliance to quickly set-up a strong defensive position within the Cathedral, the inspired ad-hoc force fiercely defending the sacred ground from every attack launched against them.
Shortly after their arrival a number of priests, guardsmen and civilians who had been hiding out in the Cathedrals catacombs made themselves known to Martius and immediately grabbed weapons to join in the defence.
Their stand lasted three days, then during one of the biggest assaults on the cathedral yet, several transmissions broke through the atmosphere and were picked up by one of the remaining vox units. The transmissions were the ship-to-ship reports of a large Imperial Navy force engauging with the enemy - they had been sent with several regiments of Imperial Guard to recapture the planet from the enemy.
Those still defending the cathedral were overjoyed by the news and fought even more ferociously because of it, knowing that it would not be long before the enemies taint was removed from the planet permanently.
It was during this time that Governor Martius, leading from the defences, was surrounded when those who had been defending the barricades either side of his position were both overrun almost simulatainiously.
The fighting was desperate, many of the men Martuis now considered friends being killed around him as they tried to fight out of their position back to friendly guns. The counter-attack team that Martius had always ensured was positined so that it could help defend any enemy brake-throughs, rushed in to rescue their leader at this point.
They cleared the section of barricades, pushing their hated enemy back and taking up the positions of those that had fallen at the defences.
Governor Martius suffered several serious wounds during the brake-through. He held on long enough to be propped up and supported by a Captain Robart Darstes of the [insert ours planets name] PDF. Before he passed away in the tearful mans arms, he managed to speak his last words,
"I die knowing this most holy ground will continue to be defended to the last by these righteous servants of the Emperor."
Imperial reports state that guard units came across 87 survivors of the defence of the Grand Cathedral. They are also reported as having been shouting "For the Emperor! For Martius!" as a battlecry whilst the last of the enemy within the cathedral were cut down by the combined efforts of the newly arrived guardsmen and the fury-filled defenders.
Lord General Yunron, who had known Martius as a Lord General before his retirement after the previous campaign and was in command of the taskforce organised to retake the planet is recorded as having said, "The bugger was bound to die in a heroic last stand like this, stealing all the glory." on hearing of the manner of the Governors death.
The two priests to have survived the ordial in the cathedral, one from the Cathedral and one from [insert ours planets name], became instrumental in pressing for Martius' sainthood.
Three years after the event the Ecclesiarchy formally announced that Martius was to be known as Saint Martius. Though long beofre this time he was already being parised as such on all the planets he had recruited this ad-hoc force from, as well as many others besides.
EDIT: damn it necris, beat me to the big post, guess that what i get for taking two hours and not concentrating on getting the post done.
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Post by Doug on Feb 9, 2007 9:53:44 GMT
Hmmmm....they're both quite good....personally, while I think Necris' life of Martius is generally good (though I'm not sure about a crusade against the DE - are there really enough of them in one place at any one time to justify a full Imperial Crusade?), I do prefer Vendile's explanation of his becoming a Saint, I think
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Post by necris on Feb 9, 2007 9:58:31 GMT
maybe a combination of the two, mine up to the point of his death, Vendile's death leading to his final recognition of saint hood.
I thought DE cause they don't feature much, and they have ways of boosting their ranks, indoctrinated slaves forced to fight as apposed to suffering a much worse situation, warp beasts, all sorts of nasty monsters and experiments, I'd say that the number of DE themselves would be quite small but their actual armies in a pitched campaign like this could be quite vast, a masses array of their slave/monsters to charge into the enemy while they themselves sit at the back and perform raiding and flanking attacks.
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Post by Doug on Feb 9, 2007 10:05:59 GMT
Oh fair enough....that would work then, yes...
As for the combination of the two ideas, that's basically what I'd thought might be the best thing to do, I agree
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Post by inquisitorarantel on Feb 9, 2007 10:50:57 GMT
I definitely think it's a good idea to have him made a Saint for defending a major Ecclesiarchy Cathedral or something like that...
Of course, every Saint needs Relics- as a bit of random speculation, how about having the Sword of Saint Martius always hanging over the head of the chairperson (or whatever it was) of the Senate, and perhaps a few miracles along the lines of "New chairman-type person sits down, the sword breaks loose of its fastenings and impales him, and he is later discovered to have been a secret Daemon-worshipper..."
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Post by necris on Feb 9, 2007 11:56:30 GMT
That seems sorted then,
was an incompitent commander, led a poorly experiance front on a crusade against the Dark Eldar, at the eve of defeat and things worse than death, whilst in private pray for his soul he was visited upon by the spirit of the Emepror and had a complete turn around in millitary capability and ability.
Was awarded his world in thanks of his great work, despite his heroic and obviously saintly beingl the Ecclesiarchy were unconvinced of his sainthood, forced to retire from the millitary due to age and the fact he had risen to the position of Governor,
Years later when the sector capital fall to mankinds enimes, produces an irregular force of PDF veterans and Ex servicemen and leads then a historic defence of the Imperial Cathedral against superior numbers, during heroic battle Martius displays yet more feats of Sainthood, offering those around him protection from warp magics being reported to have had a strange golden glow about him as if protected by some unknown shield.
during this battle Martius is mortally wounded at his moment of death it is reported this his worlds star was eclipsed and remained so for several days until his body was returned to its surface,
Three years later after compiling all the facts Martius is declared St Martius by the church.
Short rehashed version I'll work on a new version during the weekend
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Post by Doug on Feb 9, 2007 12:19:29 GMT
Hmm....I'd extend the time it took for the church to declare him a saint to something significantly longer than three years....three decades, at the least....the Ecclesiarchy isn't generally known for its speed in these things....though that's nothing to stop the common people worshipping him as a saint before then...
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Post by inquisitorarantel on Feb 9, 2007 13:35:58 GMT
Well, the Roman Catholic Church would usually take over a decade to declare a canonisation, wouldn't it? In that case, just multiply the length by 10 to get the Imperial Ecclesiarchy length- with time dilation, politicking, some of the major peoiple dying of old age during the procedure, and the general Imperial inefficiency (they'd probably have to send the proposal through about 100 diffrent scribes...) it could easily take a century- 30 years would be quick!
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vendile
Enginseer
The doodler
Posts: 234
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Post by vendile on Feb 9, 2007 14:53:17 GMT
personally i don't like the origional crusade being against Dark Eldar - they don't do pitched battles. They do lightning raids then disappear and strike somewhere completly different the next time.
Orks and Nids are kinda out of the question as well, what with hive fleets being rather massive and the rapid ork reproduction methods.
perhaps create a new alien race? or just leave it as chaos, afterall, what better reason is there for defending a cathedral than against chaos defiling the place?
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Post by inquisitorarantel on Feb 9, 2007 15:43:08 GMT
Chaos are way overused in this kind of thing...
Necrons would be interesting, but unlikely; and now we've run out of enemies to have!
Chaos would work, but that's the problem- they work really well for this kind of thing, so everyone uses them. Some kind of new Xenos beastie that got wiped out by the Crusade may be best...
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