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Allow me to solicit some opinions from people with more fluff knowledge than I. When I began my first army (CSM), a very close runner-up choice was the Blood Angels. One of my favorite Space Marine concepts, with cool background and great fluff. (But let's face it, it is just not Dante's day this edition)

I ended up starting a CSM army instead, and will be working in fluff and some visual hints that they were once Blood Angels. But I don't want to use the blind-rage Khorne version that I keep hearing when people talk about the BA falling to Chaos.

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD ANGEL!!

None of that.

The current concept I'm working on centers on Slaanesh instead. The Chaos Lord is being modeled on the Sanguinary Guard, and turned to the Dark Gods out of desperation to drown out the imminent visions of the Black Rage with all the sensory-overloading hallucinations that sacrifices can buy. The rest of the marines are traitors from the various BA foundings, as word spread of the Lord's success in keeping the Rage at bay.

Thoughts?

Carry on.

Personally? I don't like it. It sounds like something that could happen to *a* Marine Chapter, but this doesn't really seem like something the Blood Angels would go for. The Black Rage is avoided because the Marines don't want to turn into gibbering violent wrecks, and Noise Marines show us that Slaaneshi sensory overload will cause pretty much the same thing. It's not really a cure so much as an alternative madness.
I suppose a comparison would be like writing fluff for Eldar worshipping Tzeentch so that Slaanesh doesn't eat their souls. Tzeentch would still end up eating them...

HOWEVER - I like the thought and effort you've put behind coming up with the concept. It's your army and your models, and it's not like I'd have a tantrum and refuse to play against you or anything.

There may be an alternative - Blood Angels are known to appreciate beauty and art, something that Slaanesh can provide in spadefuls - just look at how the Emperor's Children got corrupted...

Point well-made.

But a Farseer who has the balls to think he could outwit Tzeentch over Slaanesh might still try if he had no other choice. Similarly, a Blood Angel who's witnessed hundreds of years of his brothers going mad might be willing to take a stab at an alternative if he thinks he can walk out the other side.

And BA in particular, IMO, have little shortage of personal confidence.

Again it isn't to my personal taste, the BA venerate their primarch and the emperor above all others Sanguinius is the epitome of noble sacrifice and martyrdom the BA seek to emulate this even if it means falling to the black rage. Marines in the grip of the black rage even believe they are sanguinius on the vengeful spirit. Plus Sanguinius was killed by Horus who was the Everchosen of 40k which gives BA a pretty strong loathing of chaos even over other space marines.

Personally I don't think that you can really go too wrong with fluff. What you said sounds like something that although wouldn't make a great book is something that if you told me you were doing in a store I wouldn't bat an eyelid to.

You could probably justify any chaos god corrupting them if you wanted, Slaanesh as you said, khorne as a lot of others seem to believe, for nurgle you could say the black death was created by him, a virus to lead them to damnation and tzeentch because the search for a cure may have got some librarians corrupted and they took the rest of the chapter with them (although the tzeentch one is admittedly quite weak)

I really like your idea TheEyeOfNight , but you should park this for a week or two, and read Blood Agnels Omnibuses. Part I and II. You won't be dissapointed.

If you didn't read them before of course.

Cheers.

Whats to stop the lord going down the Fabius route?
Trying to find a genetic cure for the black rage, he successfully manages it. He tries it on BA volunteers - it works for a while and then begins to corrupt the altered BA.
In the end, he takes his altered marines and leaves/excapes.

Red for the Red God!




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Check out the knights of blood - they're a renegade/chaos BA successor chapter. Although they're Khorne iirc.

PredaKhaine wrote:
Whats to stop the lord going down the Fabius route?
Trying to find a genetic cure for the black rage, he successfully manages it. He tries it on BA volunteers - it works for a while and then begins to corrupt the altered BA.
In the end, he takes his altered marines and leaves/excapes.

Red for the Red God!




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Check out the knights of blood - they're a renegade/chaos BA successor chapter. Although they're Khorne iirc.

Knights of Blood are renegade but not chaos.

Right fair enough - I've just found out there are more than one 'Knights of Blood'
http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Knights_of_Blood_(Warband)
http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Knights_of_Blood

Well, Khorne really is the most obvious candidate for patronship, although I would recommend going Fleshtearers rather than Blood Angels - that way, you could tap into that Chapter's existing history, from its aggravating geneseed flaw right to that fateful incident on Armageddon that would eventually see them excommunicated.

However, as has been said, it is your army, and if you really do want to stick to BA and Slaanesh, then that's that. As Super Ready mentioned, there is a bit of an issue with the sensory overload clashing with the Black Rage, however your initial concept already kind of deals with it by mentioning that the former would be used to cancel out the latter. What you could do is stress the point that this sensory overload would be a measure of control in that the Marines themselves can decide when and where to indulge in excess, possibly giving them a two-faced appearance with casual nobility in battle but depraved, blood-soaked orgies afterwards. There once was a White Dwarf short story about either Dante or Tycho leading a bunch of BA Assault Marines into a breach of an enemy fortress, closely followed by an Imperial Guard unit who then witnessed what the BA do with their enemies. It wasn't pretty and the Guard officer was mentioned to be suitably creeped out and almost shat his pants when the BA leader turned around to talk to him. This is obvious potential you could tap. Since the fall would have to happen fairly recently, the Marines would not have to turn into a crazed bunch of CSM fanatics right away, avoiding the "urge" to engage into blood orgies all the time whilst simultaneously allowing them to retain that false pretense of nobility they'd surely still care about.

Also, if you really do want to go down this path, insert liberal references to the various legends attributed to Prince Vlad and Countess Bathory.

 Lynata wrote:
There once was a White Dwarf short story about either Dante or Tycho leading a bunch of BA Assault Marines into a breach of an enemy fortress, closely followed by an Imperial Guard unit who then witnessed what the BA do with their enemies. It wasn't pretty and the Guard officer was mentioned to be suitably creeped out and almost shat his pants when the BA leader turned around to talk to him.

Oh, man, I wish I still had that. It may well have been in White Dwarf too, but if it's the one I'm thinking of, it was in a previous Codex (3rd I think) and the leader was a random made-up-for-the-short-story Sergeant.
Thinking about it, this kind of hidden carnage could well be what pushes Marines towards Slaanesh - at some important turning point, they are given a choice of returning to the Chapter who would deny them these pleasures, or join the Chaos God that would revel in their activities and reward them for it.

Great feedback all around, thanks guys.

boredbeard, I have not read the Blood Angels Omnibus, but I will put in on my to-read list.

Lynata, I like where your head's at, thanks for the input. I think that would be a good route to go, since it shouldn't be too much of a stretch for them, and helps to differentiate the legion.