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Hi Dakka!

I've got a vague grasp of 40k fluff based on reading/skimming most of the codex intros, browsing novels and talking with other gamers. Maybe you can help me get a bit more detail in there!

I play guard but I started shaving all the Imperial insignia off my models (except the skulls of course!). I guess I'm what you'd call renegade guard, definitely not traitor guard (that's chaos right?). The founders of my... House? just couldn't stomach bowing down to a 'god' - any god - so they left. Many of my first 40k battles were against Chaos (not as much anymore), so I always imagine it was possibly some Cadian commanders who went through the Eye of Terror (i use cadians on the table). I battle all different armies, but power armour, orks, dark eldar and tyranids are the most common. I figure my boys operate out of a wealthy but hard to reach system (called Mur, so I think of them as House valMur) on the periphery of imperial power, variously battling, helping, negotiating, bribing, and paying tribute to the imperial units sent to quash my independence. They have an agreement with a small kabal of dark eldar (i have a small force of them): criminals of serious crimes go to them in return for help in battle. They also have an unspoken agreement with a nearby outpost of the Tau empire (another small force of mine), which can barely hang on to what it controls let alone increase the scope of the Greater Good.

As for my army, I roll with platoons loaded with heavy weapons, backed up by tanks, artillery, chimeras, sents and hellhounds. Basically they've conceded the air in a strategic sense, preferring to drag the enemy down into ground combat where their local knowledge and preperations maximize the chances that their heavy weapons and armour can destroy them.

That's about it, thanks in advance for any replies!

Sounds pretty good.
The Dark Eldar thing sounds pretty typical of Dark Eldar.
Are the Tau on an in-system planet or are they out of the system?
Also if this planet is wealthy the Imperium will really try to reclaim it so there must be a fair amount of SDF, to fight off an invasion force.
Are they a part of the Imperium at all or do they pay tribute to the Imperium and simply do what they like? Because, the second option is perfectly viable and would explain the lack of Imperial response to this wealthy planet seceding from the Imperium.

Yes, despite what imperial propoganda would like you to believe, there are plenty of human worlds out there that are not part of the imperium. When the heresy happened, a big chunk of imperial worlds seceded, and joined the forces of the heresy, but an even bigger chunk just broke from the imperial yoke and just went off and did their own thing.

After the heresy, they had to do what amounted to a second great crusade in order to get all the planets back in order. While this was easier, now that the imperium knew where most people were, it was also much harder, what with the space marines greatly diminished in force size, and a never-ending battle against chaos (much less everyone else).

As such, you could easily have a planet that at some point broke from the Imperium, and was never re-absorbed. With countless millions of worlds, one or two even fiercely loyal planets are likely to slip through the cracks, especially when there's something else going on (like a black crusade on the other side of the galaxy, for example). Alternately, you could REALLY go out there and say that your planet was never conquered in the great crusade in the first place, and has ALWAYS been outside of the imperium. Perhaps some rouge rouge trader dropped down, civilized the planet, and then decided to rule it as his private fief millenia ago.

Or somewhere in between. My guardsmen's planet of Folera, for example, has a tenuous relationship with the Imperium. On the one hand, they pay their tithes, on the other, the planet is ruled by an indigenous monarch, rather than an imperial governor.

While the Imperium would ideally like full control of the planet, so long as Folera is still providing regiment after regiment of guardsmen...

Ailaros is right here...
As long as the planet provides guardsmen it is left alone...

purplefood wrote:Ailaros is right here...
As long as the planet provides guardsmen it is left alone...

In addition to its other tithes. Mining and Agri-worlds don't raise too terribly many regiments, instead paying their tithe in materials produced on planet. I'm given to understand that many planets (fortress worlds notwithstanding) typically tithe Guard regiments to round out the payment.

The background for your army makes perfect sense, murdog. They don't even have to be from Cadia, per se. Cadian-pattern flak armor is one of the most common used throughout the galaxy. Like the folks above said, there are probably hundreds, if not thousands of pocket empires spread throughout the galaxy, many of them are very likely human. The galaxy is a very, very large place indeed, so just about anything goes in the 40k universe. Given their proximity to the Tau Empire, Mur would be in the South-East of the Ultima Segmentum. There's a warp anomaly right near there, according to some of the galaxy maps called the "Heart of Darkness," maybe you can find a way to work that into the background of your army or the surrounding conflicts in which they find themselves.

Even breaking away from the Imperium is an almost laughably common occurrence. They mentioned it a couple of times in the Commissar Cain novels and once in the opening of Fifteen Hours. Even a couple chapters of Adeptus Astartes tried to break away from the Imperium during the Badab Uprising because they felt their autonomy and position of respect as Astartes was being compromised by the Adeptus Terra (among other reasons, Chaos trickery amongst them).

One of the things you may want to work out (if you care to) is how they acquire Navigators and Astropaths. The Navis Nobilite and Adeptus Astra Telipathica are pretty heavily regulated and tend not to make deals with just anyone, especially with the Inquisition breathing down their necks practically begging for an excuse to kick down their door.

at least the astronomicon is a beacon that anyone can view, not just loyalists. If they had some sort of home-grown way of handling the psykers that invariably pop up on their homeworld, they could navigate outside of imperial consent.

Also keep in mind that (NOTE!!!! this info is being brought to the table using knowledge I gained from pouring through the RPG 40k universe which is sanctioned by GW but from Fantasy Flight) sometimes warp storms blow entire sectors off the grid of imperial space and sometimes are forced to fend for themselves (most likely ending up turning to chaos or being swept up by the greater good). You could easily say that their warpspace was coming under investigation and as the black ships were on their way to bring the holy wrath of the emperor to your little planet, a warp storm opened up cutting off your sector of space entirely. You could even put a time frame on it, such as during the first war for Armaggedon or insert famous battle here.

(In the settings the RP books provide the warp storm happened as Horus turned on the imperium and now after all this time they opened up again. Then after the warpstorm subsided a crusade was declared to bring these worlds back into the hands of the imperium. Although each of the three sectors used in the RP are linked via a warpgate that links worlds on opposite ends of the galaxy in a moment with one jump through the gate.)

Warp Storms tend to be a crude but effective narrative device.
I have used one in my own DIY chapter only because it was in the chapter that i drew inspiration from.
It is useful to add somekind of underlying invasion or peril to them.

Wow, thanks for all the help guys. I'll have to absorb this for a bit, then I'll come back with some revised fluff or questions or both. Don't have time atm, but I'll be back...

Thanks again!

Jordan wrote:The background for your army makes perfect sense, murdog. They don't even have to be from Cadia, per se. Cadian-pattern flak armor is one of the most common used throughout the galaxy. Like the folks above said, there are probably hundreds, if not thousands of pocket empires spread throughout the galaxy, many of them are very likely human. The galaxy is a very, very large place indeed, so just about anything goes in the 40k universe. Given their proximity to the Tau Empire, Mur would be in the South-East of the Ultima Segmentum. There's a warp anomaly right near there, according to some of the galaxy maps called the "Heart of Darkness," maybe you can find a way to work that into the background of your army or the surrounding conflicts in which they find themselves.

There is also the fact that (and alot of people forget this) the IoM is like a fishing net, it covers a vast amount of space, but it is full of holes. There can be a loyalist collection of systems just a stones throw from a completely unexplored region of space full of habitated planets due to the fickle nature of warp travel.

Consorting with Xenos?!!!
Not paying your Tithes?!!!
Be prepared for a visit from the Inquisition very soon!

Good call on going for a borderline rebellious IG. Allows good scope for all sorts of sordid encounters and allies.