Over the years,
GW has produced much in the way of fluff, short story texts, and interesting articles. However, much of it has faded into complete obscurity, and is no longer accessible to the causal, or newish gamer. Once every week or so, I intend to pull up a few interesting pieces from my vast collection of old rulebooks and White Dwarfs, and place them in this thread, for the reading enjoyment of you Dakkaites. (If you can guess where I got the name from, kudos to you
)
To start off with, I'm going to give you some Culexus Assassin fluff and history, as it recently arose in the Background thread...
Culexus Assassin
'The Culexus temple is in all likelihood the most sinister of all the Assassin Temples. Even amongst the upper echelons of the Officio Assassinorum this temple is always viewed with extreme caution. The reason for this is not because of the way that Culexus Assassins operate, or even any particular hideous or nasty methods of killing their targets. It is because of the Culexus Assassins themselves....
The Assassins that form the Culexus temple are not chosen because of their savagery, cunning, or combat skills, althought these are most definitely required qualities. First and foremost, a potential Culexus Assassin is chosen because he possesses a rare gentic defect, creating something that is totally unique, yet utterly abhorrent to the Imperium.
Every living being has some sort of presence in the Warp, where the soul bursts through from the real universe. For non-psykers, this will usually be little more than a minute spark. For psykers however, their soul blazes, a shining beacon that can be seen by other psykers and creatures that live within the Warp. The Culexus Assassin is special because they have, or appear to have, no presence in the warp, there is just a void. They are, to all intents and purposes, soulless.
This extremely rare genetic defect occurs for no known reason in less than one in a billion individuals, and most find them utterly horrifying. Those who have this defect are known by the name of Pariah, or untouchable, and meeting one is something no normal human being can ever forget. Their cold calculating stare draws your attention to their eyes, pools of blackness that seem to suck you into a void of nothingness. It is hardly surprising that Pariahs are treated like outcasts or lepers, rejected by their parents and banished from settlements. Local superstitions warn about touching them, saying that to do so would bring bad luck. Many Pariahs are resigned to their fate, and lead simple lives as loners, leaving heavily populated areas. The Inquisition often finds Pariahs that have become hermits, or have been reduced to squalor and are trying to scrape a living in the depths of a Hive City.
For a short period of time, Pariahs were transported back to Terra aboard the Black Ships with other untamed Psykers. Once on Earth, they would be handed over for experimentation by the Biologis Departmentorium of the Adeptus Mechanicus. It wasn't long before a large number of Pariahs were languishing in the cells at the experimental laboratoriums.
Such a large number of Pariahs began to cast a shadow in the warp, blocking out the Astronomican, the vital beacon used to guide spacehsipsto far reaches of the Imperium. This was the first disturbing revelation of their potency.
Other branches of the Administratum, especially those that relied upon psykers, were horrified. Soon, several of the High Lords of Terra were making moves towards having Pariahs outlawed, and the Inquisition was given the task of ruthlessly exterminating any more that were found. A number of the High Lords, including the Paternal Envoy of the Navigators, the Master of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, and the Master of the Astronomican were pushing for the Master of the Administratum to make this an official decree so that they could rid the Imperium of these freaks that threatened their establishments.
This was most unfortunate for the Officio Assassinorum, who had secretly been working closely with the Magos Biologis and Genetors of the Adeptus Mechnaicus to see if it was possible to use the Pariahs to kill psykers. Their work was almost complete, and many years had been spent developing specialist wargear and training techniques. All of this was about to be ruined by a religous witch hunt....
The decree from the Master of the Administratum never came, it didn't need to. The Adeptus Mechnaicus announced that it was ending the Pariah project, and made a great of closing down the laboratoriums, and executing many of the lab specimens. Satisfied no further action was needed, the High lords returned their attention to other matters.
However, closer study of the records would reveal that the number of executions did not match the number of Pariahs contained within the labs at the time. With the help of the Officio Assasinorum, the Adeptus Mechanicus moved a few of the most promising Pariahs to a secretly constructed fortress on the edge of the galaxy, beyond the reach of the Astronomican and the more zealous branches of the Adeptus Terra. It was here the Culexus temple was created.
My second piece is on a famous Warhammer Dogs of War regiment known as Braganza's Besiegers...
Braganza's Besiegers
The famous regiment of Besiegers was originally employed by the ingenious Borgio 'The Besieger', Prince of Miragliano, as a special siege unit of crossbowmen. Borgio wanted marksmen who could pick off defenders on the walls at close range in the hail of enemy missiles, hold ramparts against assault, proide missile support for sappers and miners, man siege towers, and, if need be, stand their ground against enemy units sallying out of besieged foretresses. Borgio's troops soon proved their worth in Borgio's many sieges and turned out to be equally good as a rearguard in open battle.
Having stormed, starved out, or received the surrender of pretty well ever city and fortress that he ever besieged, Borgio was well pleased with Braganza's Besiegers, and offered to find them work in return for a cut of the profits. Braganza accepted Borgio's kind offer at once, knowing full well that to refuse Borgio's kindness was not only impolite, but also a terminal course of action.
Soon the Besiegers took ship for Tobaro where they took part in the siege of the pirate stronghold on the island of Cera-Scuro. Then they were hired by the Dwarfs to help recapture a very strong Dwarf Oupost in the Badlands which had been captured by Orcs. Braganza was paid handsomely with a massive chest of jewels and the regiment began thge long trek back to Miragliano through hostile territory to deliver Borgio's agreed share of the loot(no-one ever double-crossed Borgio and lived!). They battled their way across the Apuccinis in winter, and fought off Dwarf Bandits, Orcs, Beastmen, Empire robber Knights, a Tilean outlaw band, renegade Bretonnian commoners who had treacherously slain their lord, starving and extremely desperate Halflings, even more hungry and desperate Ogres, the notorious Red Company of Remas (whose captain had a vendetta against Braganza), and various others-winning by forming a hollow square, and shooting them all down as they came.
On entering Tilea, they heard news that Borgio had been treacherously assassinated and his mighty Dogs of War had either disbanded, or split into factions fighting in the streets of Miragliano. Braganza decided to do the obvious thing and share out the jewels, and continue his career as one
fo the best emrcenary regiments to come out of Tilea. The Besiegers were soon hired by the Prince of Luccini and sent to Sartosa where the Prince where the Prince was waging war against one or other of the many pirate chiefs on the island. Since then, the Besiegers have fought for many masters in many sieges and open battle, always standing like a wall of steel and adding to their legendary reputation.
Next up is a Dark Angels character time seems to have forgotten...
Veteran Sergeant Naaman
'Naaman was instrumental in our great victory druing the Piscina campaign. When you initial attempts to reconnitre the Ork forces were thrust back by the weight of the Ork Advance, Naaman alonemanaged to evade their onslaught, and return to our positions on Koth Ridge. It was Naaman with his excellent knowledge of the surrounding terrain, that enabled a second scouting force to penetrate the Ork defences and learn the true manner in which they were sending reinforcement to Piscina IV. Naaman transmitted vital details to our Techmarines about the teleportation device used by the Orks, and then called in the forces of the Deathwing to attack the tellyporta ground base. Naaman himself fought valiantly against persistent Ork attacks to ensure the safe removal of an energy relay by the Deathwing before he was finally seen engulfed in the fireball of an exploding Ork dreadnought.......'
~Extracvt from Liturgis Honorum of the Dark Angels Chapter~
That's three extracts to get this thing started off. Hope you enjoyed them!
