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Im working on some much-needed background for my traitor guard army and can't come up with any ideas as to why they would renounce their faith in the Emperor.
Any ideas?

1 : stranded on a planet, abandoned at the end of a failed war.

2 : left behind in the warp aboard a transport presumed lost, and go all space crazy.

3 : high command of the Regiment(s) staging a coup and removing their commissars and other overseers, then taking possession of the forces, due to some form of disillusionment or chaos corruption.

4 : Used as a distraction/ suicide force, and the commanders say hell no, and do the coup thing.

5 : Infiltrated by Agents of Chaos, or a gene stealer cult, could have happened when regiments were folded together due to casualties.

6 : Disillusioned with the Imperial line, and just straight up mutinied, could have been a massive ground swell from the rankers, or top down.

However you want it to happen its cool, its your army after all.

Daemonettes with that sweet sweet warp dust...

Maybe the Ecclesiarchy officials leading a Crusade were corrupt and somehow gave the regiment the impression that it's not uncommon? The priests are there to spur the men on with fiery speeches and keep them motivated through belief. Imagine the effect on the troops if the priest who just did the sermon forgot to turn off the sound system afterwards and everyone could hear the Ecclesiarchy officials laugh about how stupid these new lambs to the slaughter are.

Felt discretion is the better part of valour and offed their commissar perhaps, I guess there's loads of possible reasons, same for renegade marines.

Or, the reason outlined with the renegade Guard in DoW2 - find yourself out in some remote, far-flung system with all these weapons, tanks and whatnot and decide you could do worse than rule the local population and live the sweet life.

It is not uncommon for many worlds in the Imperium to have almost no communication with the rest of humanity. Some are distant, some unimportant, some simply forgotten. Many people on such worlds are practically unaware of who the Emperor is, save some old god from ancient myth that is still the figurehead of a seemingly outdated state religion. It's not uncommon for a world or local cluster of worlds like that to feel no real adherence or obligation toward the Imperium, or even declare to their independence.

All you need to add to that is a convincing demagogue, really. And if he's got a little subtle assistance from certain warp entities pretending to be something they are not, well... there we are.

 dementedwombat wrote:
Daemonettes with that sweet sweet warp dust...

Giggity!

In the Bastion series an Imperial Major rises to become a Chaos lord because his unit spent to much time in Chaos controlled territory. I can't imagine that no Imperial regiment hasn't heard rumors about the 1st war of Armageddon, I bet a lot turn for fear that they'd be considered tainted after battling the forces of Chaos.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Daemonettes with that sweet sweet warp dust...

Thats also a plus

Heresy grows from idleness.

The real reason most armies would go AWOL or rogue is because they're underpaid. It isn't a charity.

Really, if they're offered more than they already have, and they have a decent chance of succeeding, why not?