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And by now, I mean 2nd-5th Ed.

I was lucky enough to pick up a second hand copy of Rogue Trader from a charity shop last night and, flicking through it, I came to wonder about the strange death of the Rainbow Warriors. I was wondering, what kind of current fluff exists for them, if any? I can't remember seeing anything on them outside of Rogue Trader, but I'm not exactly a fluff encyclopaedia. Could anyone enlighten me on any fluff that exists for them anywhere in the long arc of 2nd-5th ed. fluff?

There's almost nothing official. The RT book has a picture of a Sororitas killing one and the accompanying article describes that they maintain the genetic purity of the Space Marines.

A clue as to their fate?

Quite possibly, yeah. But it seems odd, consider they were one of the first 10 named chapters, that they'd be offed in the first book. There's a strong tempation to ascribe them to one of the two missing legions, for me. Perhaps the cursed.

They were a joke chapter, and were never expanded because of that.

I'm not really asking why they were dropped, but I don't think they actually were a joke chapter. Looking through what's present in Rogue Trader, nothing about them suggests that they are meant to be sending anything up, especially due to the obvious nature of when they are sending something up. Planet Birmingham springs to mind.

htj wrote:, nothing about them suggests that they are meant to be sending anything up, especially due to the obvious nature of when they are sending something up. Planet Birmingham springs to mind.

.........................what?

What to what?

What do you think? What I quoted. I do not understand what you meant by 'nothing about them suggests that they are meant to be sending anything up, especially due to the obvious nature of when they are sending something up.'

Although I have no idea of the accuracy of this (being from a wiki and therefore prone to misinformation or outright lies) but I read it just the other day:

It should also be noted that in official Imperial records of Space Marine Chapter Homeworlds there is a map showing the locations of different Space Marine Chapters. There is one planet on this map where in the place of a Chapter name, it says "record deleted". By looking closely, it is clear that this deleted Chapter's badge is that of the Rainbow Warriors.

From http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Rainbow_Warriors

Well, the name 'Rainbow Warriors' is what you're going on, right? So we've got several possible sources for that: The Greenpeace ship that was sunk in 1985 (seems possibly), the Native American legends that the ship was named after (seems very possible to me, considering the nature of the people who designed the game), and a title occassionally used by gay pride movements (doubtful). Now, I'm not discounting any of these, but if they were a proper send up I think it would have been more obvious. Subtlety was not the word of the day in that book. The example of planet Birmingham, for example, and an enginseer named 'Scotti.' Contrasted to a chapter named after a ship that was sunk? Doesn't add up to me.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
@wib

That's accurate, it's in the 5th Ed. 'dex.

htj wrote:Automatically Appended Next Post:
@wib

That's accurate, it's in the 5th Ed. 'dex.

Ah, good, not a vanilla marine player so I couldn't check myself.

wib wrote:

htj wrote:Automatically Appended Next Post:
@wib

That's accurate, it's in the 5th Ed. 'dex.

Ah, good, not a vanilla marine player so I couldn't check myself.

It seems that's the only information beyond RT, too!

Are there any Rainbow Warrior players on Dakka? I've not been having much luck with searching.

Its far more likely a reference to the ship.

The sister has a fleur de lys, so could symbolize France, and she has Sister of Sin on her armour.

And it was written in the eighties right? around the same time as the ship got sunk?

Space wolves home world was called Lucan, just so they could call the chapter master Lord Lucan.

It wasn't written by geniuses, they stole ideas from everywhere.



More than likely got renamed to these - http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Death_Strike

Heh, I'm not arguing that they were geniuses and that they didn't steal stuff, that's for sure. It was indeed written around the same time, and you make a good point about the fleur de lys thing. Not sure what Sister of Sin has to do with anything, what am I missing?

But furthermore, if the Wolves were setting up a reference to Lucan, why weren't they dropped too? Merely having a reference in the name (Dark Angels, for example) shouldn't be enough to warrant a death sentence.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
RE: Death Strike

Ah, now, that is interesting. The re-appearance of the planet Prism in the 5th ed. 'dex, though, with records deleted over it... hmm. Could we assume that the Death Strike chapter is a successor perhaps? Or entirely what used to be the Rainbow Warriors.

Incidentally, 'Death Strike' is a terrible name for a chapter, IMHO. I actually prefer Rainbow Warriors!

Yeah wasn't sure on the sister of sin, but thought I should include it anyway, because it was the only text I could see.

Space Wolves = Cool Name
Dark Angels = Cool Name
Rainbow Warriors = Lame Name.

TBH the only reference to the Rainbow warriors I know of is that picture, and the colour of the armour.

Ninja'd:
Yeah Rainbow Warriors is a much better name



As a side note, at the bottom right corner of the map, is an artificial planet called Repentance, home to 'The Nameless' But I cant find any info on them at all.

The Nameless eh... that's kind of cool.

I guess I'm going to have to make up some fluff myself for them. I can't leave well enough alone. Maybe I'll add a successor chapter to my theoretical, one-day, crusade Marine army. Maybe throw in the Nameless too.

I don't know why they didn't just call them 'Spectrum' instead of 'Death Strike'

Chapter Designation Spectrum

Fondly known to the Imperium and their recruitment worlds as the Rainbow Warriors.

Fatality would of been a better name than death strike.

Captain Black always looked like he was on something.

I cannot see what is posted there due to being at work. Pity my poor work bound soul.

Fatality

This chapter known for using unconventional whip-like weapons allowing them to remove an enemies skeleton neatly from their flesh... somehow.

The Spectrum Chapter are currently hunting their elusive 2nd Company Commander, Capt. Black.

They feel his recent attacks against the imperium have been spurred on by a mysterious xenos race of unknown origin.

It writes itself...

Aaaaah. Of course.

I'm guessing that the Captain of the company that wears a deep red will have some rather special versions of the Eternal Warrior and Feel No Pain rules.

Medium of Death wrote:The Spectrum Chapter are currently hunting their elusive 2nd Company Commander, Capt. Black.

They feel his recent attacks against the imperium have been spurred on by a mysterious xenos race of unknown origin.

It writes itself...

htj wrote:Aaaaah. Of course.

I'm guessing that the Captain of the company that wears a deep red will have some rather special versions of the Eternal Warrior and Feel No Pain rules.

So much epic winning...
They're a fleet based chapter of course...

There really isn't much info about them; aside from the article in the RT book I only know this short mention in WD 292 where, in the design notes for the 3E WH Codex, Andy Hoare talked about how they chose to continue expanding the established background of the Sororitas rather than retconning anything:

"This gave us a basis for the character of the army - vengeful warrior-adepts tasked with enforcing the purity of other Imperial organisations. The Rogue Trader art even shows a Battle Sister exacting that vengeance upon a Space Marine, so this seemed particularly appropriate (in fact, the Space Marine is from the Rainbow Warriors Chapter, and as we haven't heard of them for some time I guess the Sisters' mission was successful.)"

I fear that's as official as it can get, given the absence of any 'hard' facts.

Well, I'm willing to take that as a canon answer for what happened to them. It certainly seems like the closest we're going to get... for now.