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 getting ideas together for my new Word Bearers, and it's striking me that one of the main advantages CSM have to leverage against all the fancy toys Loyalists get is the ability to take Marks.

Now, I'm not going to put them on my pious Pantheists. We're not going to play favourites like them heathen Emperor's Children or minging Death Guard. (Though we may occasionally hire Fabius Bile to help us clone up some reinforcements with a certain edge distinct from that of the Long War Veterans.)

But that said, once we've sown the seeds of heresy, we don't have full ideological control over the Cults we found. So it seems that if I'm aiming for having five Cultist mobs, it's a fair stretch that these auxiliaries might include one each of the four Marks, having mistakenly taken a Monolatric or Henotheist interest in a particular God that the Dark Apostles have no time to correct.

Also, whilst we might distribute our worship in a strictly egalitarian fashion, it can't be helped if a certain God (or servants of a God) takes a particular interest in those Brothers making the ultimate dedication and inviting Possession upon themselves. So it seems fair that CSM units with the Daemon rule, converted and painted in a fashion that makes it clear that whilst the husk may be of a Pantheist, the possession is very clearly by a Slaaneshi, Khornate, Nurglitch or Tzeentchian daemon, won't be crossing a fluff line when they take a Mark.

It seems this approach to the Legion retains the theological purity of those who've committed to Pantheism (and still have a mind of their own to remember that they've done so), whilst enabling some characterful conversions, visual variety, and effective units.

Yes, it is possable for cults started by the Word Bearers to become devoted to a particular god.

They may even deliberatly start a specific cult for one reason or another. Like say a Slannesh cult because its more subversive on a planet's culture and nobility.

Or you can always use the power of 'counts as'.

For example a particularly bloodthristy and brutal squad which specializes in close combat can count as a khorne bezerker squad or squad with mark of khorne.

One squad may take the time to scavenge extra armour and hence count as being plague marines or with the mark of nurgle.

Noo, I'm steering clear of that approach this time. A Mark will be a Mark.

Does the fluff in the new codex state that Word Bearers are unmarked? If not I think you can safely disregard the old fluff. It's pretty obvious the designers expect you to mix and match.

Just finished the word bearers BL trilogy.

They clearly have dedicated parts of their host. At least one of the closest lieutenant of the dark apostle is clearly dedicated to Khorne.

I don't see why specific part of the bearers should not be dedicated to a specific god.

While Word Bearers worship the pantheon of chaos, I don't think it'd be a stretch to say the some might favor (or gain the favor of) one god over another.

I don't see why the same couldn't hold true for the masses that flock to their call. Maybe some like blood alittle too much, maybe some have a fascination with magic. With how many humans the WB have, there's really no way that they could moniter them all.

In my Word Bearers army, I run Khorne and Tzeentch marks. Between fanatical bloodlust and the partnership of Lorgar and Magnus, I think they work well. Not really going to bring Nurgle in if I can help it. Slaanesh is to be avoided, Lorgar and the rest believe them to be too decadent to partner with Word Bearers.

As I read once on here, the Word Bearers would make the Taliban look like pacifist atheists...

To be fair the Word Bearer's are just as hypocritical as most real world fanatics, ignoring bits of belief when it becomes convenient. The Dark Apostle series is a good example, as Seb pointed out. Apostle Marduk even notes that he should reprimand Khalaxis and his squad for worshipping Khorne but they are just too damn effective in combat and it would be risky to lose his loyalty. It's like Bin Laden promoting suicide bombings despite Islam being very much anti suicide. Principles don't win wars.

Hmm, reading through my Codex it seems that there's indeed nothing in there explicitly ruling out dedication. I must have picked that 'strict pantheism' lark up from wikis; I've not read the novels.

I'll stick with this purism theme for now, though. I'm rustling up some Nurgle Daemon-possessed Mutilators for starters; I think I'll be able to get enough powerful stuff from the Daemonic units and keep everything nice and cheap.

36pt Tzeentch Warp Talons dying just as fast to most small arms get lost, though!