Wednesday, December 19, 2012

If Literature were Chapters

Warhammer & Warhammer 40k are rife with puns, homages, and word play. There are plenty of overt references to literature in the universe, such as the Primarch of the Night Lords, Konrad Curze, (which refers to Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness) and Inquisitor Karamazov (Dostoyevsky's the Brother's Karamazov). Another subtler one is the invocation of the Flesh Tearer's Chapter: "For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my battle-brother eternal."  Which is a slightly tweaked line from Shakespeare's Henry V.  

With such a huge field of source material to pull from I thought I'd try my hand at creating a few. Mind you, I haven't necessarily read these, or agree with them (see Atlas Shrugged), but when has being ill-informed ever stopped me?

There's just so much source material for this I might have to do another literature chapters group, but for this post I'm going with some bad-boy Chapters. Now with Chaos! 


White Boars:
Literature reference: Major, the pig from George Orwell's "Animal Farm"
Colors: White with Pink trim
Concept: Once an upstanding chapter, the army was thrown into discord by the passing of their Chapter Master. An unworthy heir, Captain Napoleon took command, and over the course many years, his subtle tyranny led his battle brothers into the embrace of Slaanesh.

Atlas Marines:
Literature: Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged"
Colors: Gold with Red & Black accents
Concept: Originally sent to guard against Ork incursion in the galactic north, these marines have all but pulled away from the auspices of the Imperium. Chapter Master Rearden Steele felt the bureaucratic nonsense of the Imperium limited their operations, and now pursue their duty while the missives from Terra go unanswered.   

Oracles of Wrath:
Literature: Alexandre Dumas' "Count of Monte Cristo"
Colors: Dark blue & Copper
Concept: Once allies of the Bel-Shammon Craftworld, their second company was betrayed during a desperate fight against the Dark Eldar. The Oracles of Wrath have since taken it upon themselves to destroy the Bel-Shammon, and have extended their rage to all Eldar, using the prescient abilities of their Chief Librarian Dantes to suss out locations of Eldar activity.

Bargainers:
Literature:  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's "Faust"
Colors: Blue & White
Concept: Created to combat the influence of Khorne cults around the Eye of Terror. They turned to the master of hidden knowledge, Tzeentch, for the power to find and destroy all the followers of Khorne. It is notable however, that for every demolished cult of the blood god, Tzeentch followers seems to take it's place.

Prometheans:
Literature: Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein"
Colors: Purple with White lightning
Concept: Created during the 13th founding, for an unknown purpose, little is known about this chapter.  They are rarely seen, but they appear to have a particular distaste for the Adeptus Mechanicus, and are known for raids against outposts tasked with creation, testing, and development of gene-seeds. They are almost never seen without their armor, but those who have speak of horrifying visages of skin that appears to be wrought of many bodies.

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