Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I'm goign to start working on the fluff for my space marine army a bit here Here's what I have so far.

(no dates set yet, welcoming advice to that effect)

Noteworthy People:

Captain Allistair Summers. (Black Reach Captain model)
Captain of the Paladins. Initiator of the Paladin Revolution. Carries Lightning claw and Hellfire class Boltgun. Excellent leader and speaker. 145 years old and veteran of multiple Tyranid and Ork battles.

Lieutenant Evan Falcron. (Shrike Model)
Captain Summers' right hand man. Leader of Gamma Squad (Assault marines). A master of stealth and surprise attack. Very vocal in his disapproval of the Inquisition.

Forgemaster Jarvis "Tech" Krieghammer (Master of the Forge model)
Master of the Paladins' Armory and Forge. Rumored to have an almost entirely cyborg body. Always accompanied by his Servitors named Wrench, Hammer, Drill, and Driver. Despite his role as a Techmarine and Master of the forge, he is a very friendly and kind man (Relatively speaking of course). Is currently working with Navigator Vengefist to create a Warp-stealth field for the Paladins' Strike Cruiser.

Paladin-Sergeant Jim "Redneck" Engvall (Sergeant Chronus model (my conversion of at least))
Tank commander of the Predator "furyborne". Avid hater of tyranids. Speaks with the peculiar accent of the southern continent of Arkadia. Often thought to be overzealous or even reckless in his tactics. apparantly luckyer than a horseshoe laden pile fo rabbit's feet. Once jumped overboard from his tank to enguage a Tyranid Warrior in hand-to hand, successfully wounding it and leaving it open to a point-blank shot from the Furyborne's sponson Lascannon. Favourite quote: "Dang Varmints!"

Chapter History

The Fall From Grace:

The Paladins are a chapter raised from a planet near the Tau empire called Arkadia. It had always been considered a very Liberal world, but the inquisition often "overlooked" it's heresy in light of it's fantastic military service. The Paladins chapter boasted some of the best tank crews in the whole of the imperium. They were once called to answer upon the threat of Chaos on a nearby world. All but the 3rd company responded to the threat, leaving Captain Summers and his men to defend Arkadia in the event of a suprise attack. The purging was a success and the chapter returned home. The fleet arrived nearly 3 years late, however, and with nought but a single strike cruiser housing the 1st company. Among those on the cruiser were Captain Summers' Brother, and countless of his closest friends. The cruiser contacted Arkadian Command, informing of the harsh battle the fleet found against demons in the warp, the single ship escaping at the grim expense of the rest of the fleet. As the cruiser made for Arkadia a small fleet of Inquisition ships dropped out fo warp nearby, and proceeded to blast the last remaning Paladin cruiser to atoms. Captain Summers, now in charge of Arkadia in it's entirely wasted no time asking the Inquisition for their reasons. he ordered an all-out attack on the Inquisition fleet. The battle was hard fought, but somehow the Paladins managed to defeat the inquisition force and capture their flagship, a strike cruiser. But the damage was done. Less than a single company of the Paladins remained. On that day those remaining Arkadians and paladins swore not never forget the crimes committed to their sons and fathers by the inquisition. To do so was heresy, but their anger was infinite. Never again would the Paladins let the corruption of the inquisition end the lives of the true defenders of humanity.

The New First:

After losing their 1st company to the inquisition, The paladins had almost no veterans, let alone any terminator units. A few years after the tragedy, A strange warp signature was detected on the outskirts of the Arkadia system. The repaired and rearmed Paladin strike cruiser, "Rememberant Steed", moved out to investigate. It turned out to be a near-unrecognisable Battle Barge, appearing to date from as far back as the Horus Heresy. The Steed came under attack instantly, with Terminators teleported aboard, and smaller boarding craft carrying space marines. The battle was very short, the attackers surprising the Paladins by surrendering when it became clear that they were no match for the guardians of Arkadia. The ship turned out to be populated by the descendants of it's original crew around the time of the Horus Heresy. The ship was on it's way to terra to help defend it from the Traitor legions when it got stuck between the immaterium and normal space. time passed more slowly there, but even 10,000 years translated to almost 2,000. In that time the people on the ship were forced to renounce the ways of the imperium, constantly having to find ways to survive in the strange purgatory they were trapped in. They found a way to integrate the Gene Seed into their gene pool, and as a result everyone had most, if not all of the Space Marine implants naturally. When they finally escaped (at the cost of many lives), they ended up near Arkadia, and assumed that the Paladin ship was a traitor ship. Upon learning of the Paladin's vow to stamp out the corruption of the Inquisition these refugees, calling themselves "The Sons of Steel" pledged themselves to the Paladin's cause. After some training, those few among the sons able to use Terminator Armour were given Honourary Paladin status. Thus, the Sons of Steel effectively became the Paladin's First Company.

(Constructive criticism welcomed. If I'm wrong about how something works (warp travel for instance) please truy to set me straight while maintaining the spirit of what i'm trying to portray. basically, renegade marines who have it in for the inquisition with a heresy-era equipped 1st company)

Here's the new versionn of the Paladins fluff:

The Paladins were a proud and successful chapter of space marines. Their biggest pride was that they considered themselves a just and fair force. They were based on a planet called Arkadia, just to the Galactic north of the Tau empire. While they punished heresy with the same vigor as any Ultramarines successor chapter, but in many cases they would elect a more surgical method of purging the evil. as of M42, they had only ever declared exterminatus once.

Obviously such leniancy drew the unhappy attention of the Inquisition. Many times an inquisitor arrived on Arkadia, searching for some evidence of corruption, each time to no avail. Eventually the vast majority of the chapter was called to a planet to deal with a sizeable necron infestation. All but the 7th company, under command of Captain Allistair Summer. Like their ultramarine predecessors, they found themselves drawn into a de facto alliance with a cadre of Tau. Unlike the Ultramarines, they fought alongside the Tau on thaat planet, successfully destroying the necron infestation. (or at least all of it they could find). The Paladins and that Tau cadre, calling themselves the Pythons parted on relatively friendly terms. This was all the inquisition needed to declare the Paladins, and by extention Arkadia, heretics. The Paladin strike force was ambushed on their way back to Arkadia by the Inquisition. A single, relatively small ship made it out of the ambush and made it back to Arkadia. Somehow the inquisition missed that ship, and it made it back to Arkadia. Aboard it was the last remnants of the Paladins 1st company; a combat squad of assault terminators. They managed to warn the Planetary defenses just in time to successfully destroy the inevitable inquisition assault.

With the majority of the Paladins Chapter killed or missing, Captain Summer was faced with a difficult choice. Branded Heretics by the inquisition, and with the blood of a sizeable inquisition force on their hands, it was clear the Imperium diddn't want them. Instead captain Summer declared himself the new Chapter Master of the Paladins, and cast aside the doctrines of the imperium. He declared Arkadia a sovereign world, free of the imperium's oppression, and dispatched a diplomatic party to the planet the Pythons were encountered on. However, without a forge world the Paladins were very limited in resources. The people or Arkadia gave their skills and labour to the Paladins, constructing a small fleet of warships. None of them large, but all of them viable. A few short years after the construction of the first warship, the Rememberant Steed, a large ship was detected on the outskirts of the system. Fearing a second Inquisition attack, Arkadia's defenses were brought up to full alert. It soon became clear that the ship was not of the Inquisition, but rather a Space marine Strike Cruiser. The ship's captain wasted no time declaring Arkadia property of the Redeemers, and that the Imperium held dominion over the world no longer. The next few minutes were extremely tense as Master Summer negotiated a cease fire. The leaders on the Strike Cruiser teleported onto the Steed where Master Summer and his envoy were shocked to discover grotesque, deformed men in corrupted Terminator Armour. While these "space marines" appeared physically corrupted by the warp, they soon proved that their mnd and souls remained relateively unscathed. It turned out their cruiser had been trapped in the warp for 10 generations. the immaterium altered their genetic code irreversively, essentially turning them into daemons. After days of diplomatic relations, the two factions formed an alliance.