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Made in us
Fresh-Faced New User




Custom Chapter Lore Brainstorm

So I am pretty new to 40K but I still decided that this was a good idea for some reason. I just wanted some help constructing lore for my custom chapter, the Laughing Dogs. These guys are mostly meant to be silly, fun chapter, a group of guys who suck so hard that they circle right back around to being effective.

The background I have on these guys is that they are descendants of the Space Wolves, but contain a mishmash of almost all the other chapters. Why? Because the Laughing Dogs chapter is where the marines that are just not right go. The chapter is basically constructed entirely of the men that are seen as not up to snuff for their respective chapters.

The Laughing Dogs are basically the trash heap of the loyal Astartes.

Most would think that this group of idiots and rejects wouldn't be very useful, and for the most part they are right! But on occasion, the chapter can pull off extreme, almost miraculous, feats of bravery, cunning and luck.

Luck is actually a defining characteristic of the Laughing Dogs. It is by luck that their old armor still works as well as it does, it is by luck that they always seem to shoot at just the right angle to fatally injure that xeno, and it's by luck that the higher ups haven't seen fit to desolve the chapter completely... yet... I think I would like to see the chapter unknowingly being influenced by some sort of chaos god of luck and chance.

The main chapter members that I play with are:
Brutus Mazias: A Sargent who came from the Angels Numinus. He is an amazing soldier on the battle field, and may have not only stayed in the Angels Numinus but have increased in rank if not for his intense guilt over taking life. He doesn't see battle as a glorious thing but a horror. He is often found weeping bitterly after a battle is done.

Cias, Reid, Ilur: Three brothers, two twins and a younger brother, who have a strange defect where instead of being able to stay awake for days they are lethargic and spend about 3/4s of the day asleep when not effected by battle hormones (probobly genetic resistance to the mods that an average space marine undergoes). They, like Brutus, are quite talented warriors but due to their 'special' qualities were thrown out of their chapter.

I am still trying to come up with more characters for them, I'm thinking about having a horn-dog, a coward, a foul mouthed mute and an intulectual geek. I'd love for you guys to help me build these guys! Feel free to give con/crit or give ideas!
   
Made in gb
Sneaky Striking Scorpion






Do these guys have to be in specific squads or are they all Tacticals? I'd like to help make one and their background for funz.

There's no turning back... Triumph or oblivion. 
   
Made in us
Confessor Of Sins




WA, USA

That really isn't how Astartes work, unfortunately, and there are a number of critical lore-breaks. Now bear in mind I am meaning this to be constructive, but I will be dropping down some truths, so just be ready for that.

First of all, there are no known successor chapters to the Space Wolves. The only one that has ever happened was the Wolf Brothers chapter, and things did not go well for them. Details are a bit sparse, but one telling quote is

"The Wolf Brothers, located far from Fenris, fell quickly into the state of beasts, manifesting in large numbers of Wulfen and other, more terrible, abominations within their ranks. So it would be with any attempt to splice new sets of gene-seed from the genetic legacy of Leman Russ. Shortly after their creation the Chapter was disbanded by the Ordo Astartes, its stores of gene-seed destroyed and its surviving battle-brothers given the choice between a death in glorious battle or a shameful execution."

After that, the Space Wolves never made another successor. And that has been the state of things more or less. I would drop the idea of them being Space Wolf successors because it really wouldn't fit well. It puts your chapter in a Mary Sue light because they are somehow immune to this problem.

Second major issue is that there really aren't Space Marine "rejects". The process of selection and recruitment means that anyone who makes it is already massively trained and indoctrinated to follow a Chapter's beliefs and structure pretty strictly. Those who fail to make it end up as lobotomized Servitors, chapter servants or dead. There's no case of a borderline Marine, if that makes any sense. Plus the process does quite a number on flushing out personality. It isn't 100%, but you're going to have a much more narrow band of personality. A good example is how the characters from Dawn of War 2 interact, they are all Space Marines and are all pretty different from each other, but none are really stepping out wide.

That said, I think your idea of a mishmash of other chapters could work if you take it one step away from being a Chapter of its own, and instead make it a Deathwatch team. The Deathwatch is a collection of multiple Space Marines from various chapters, brought together by the Inquisition (Ordo Xenos specifically) to hunt and deal with alien threats. Moreso than normal Marines, that is. The Marines still maintain the heraldry of their home Chapter, but use black armor to unite them when they are all under the Deathwatch. I would consider looking into that instead of trying to make a new chapter. The big issue is the "from multiple Chapters" part, as the Deathwatch is going to be where you can get that.

Lastly, I'm very confused about the tone of your army. Right now, it is all over the place from really tone-breaking "they suck so much they are effective" goofiness that really doesn't fit to "he weeps bitterly after every battle" melodrama. I'd take some time to really focus on what you want this story to be and focus on that. If you try to get everything, the end result is usually a mess. Hope this helps.

 Ouze wrote:

Afterward, Curran killed a guy in the parking lot with a trident.
 
   
 
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