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Frostbite Falls

My new DIY Space Marine Chapter. They inherited the color scheme and Primarch of the Iron Dragons, but that's it.


ORIGIN:
Spoiler:
Once upon a time, there was a planet called Aztlán. It had steaming jungles, scorching deserts, and large, shallow seas. The wildlife was pretty evenly split between things that could kill you, and things that couldn't. The human settlers, having long since forgotten all that their ancestors knew, lived in primitive feudal states that spent their time warring with each other in order to gather the human sacrifices demanded by their four gods: Feathered Serpent, Obsidian Jaguar, Prince Flower, and The Flayed King. (Guess who?)

Then, one day, the Crimson Fists Space Marine Chapter landed on the planet and told them to cut that gak out. They bombed the temples, slaughtered the priests, and brought the remaining people into the Emperor's Light, etc.

A few millennia later, and Aztlán is now a bustling Hive World. The same kind of Hive World as Armageddon, meaning there's still plenty of ground not paved over and covered with pollution-spewing factory-cities. The planet was a major exporter of pharmaceuticals, narcotics, alcohols, vehicles, weapons, and manpower. Unfortunately, there were enough temple ruins hidden in the jungle to make Chaos Uprisings a reoccurring problem, and the Imperium of Man didn't have quite as strong a grasp on the sector as it would have liked. Thus, Imperial Guard Regiments had to be deployed to the planet with annoying regularity.

Eventually, Segmentum Command got fed up with having to revisit Aztlán every few decades, and decided that a new Space Marine Chapter would keep things quiet there, or at least quieter.


ORGANIZATION:
Spoiler:
The Chapter's Fortress-Monastery is located on Aztlán's moon. As it is also the headquarters for the system's PDF and SDF, the whole thing is basically one big fortress. The Planetary Governor, ostensibly an Imperial Noble, is in fact a high-ranking Chapter Serf who reports directly to the Chapter Masters. Likewise, the PDF and SDF are branches of the Chapter as well.

The Chapter follows standard progression; Scout to Devastator to Assault to Tactical. However, those who show tremendous aptitude for a certain role often revert to it after completing their time as a Tactical Marine. Thus Scout, Devastator and Assault Squads are often lead by a Sergeant who, in other Chapters, would still be in a Tactical Squad, and there are special 'advanced' version of Devastator, Assault, and Scout Squads entirely comprised of these 'full' Marines.

What suits of Terminator Armor the Chapter possesses are generally saved for Space Hulks and boarding actions, with the majority of Veterans serving in either Sternguard or Vanguard Squads. Due to the fact that the Chapter recruits exclusively from Underhive gangs, it has inadvertently developed several practices similar to those of the Salamanders. The maintenance and repair of weapons and armor is done by the Marines themselves, and the operators of the Chapter's Vehicles are not members of the Machine Cult. Despite this, the Chapter is completely lacking in Plasma Weaponry of any sort.

There are no static Companies. Instead, each Captain gathers the Marines best suited for the job that are available. Below the Captains but above the Sergeants are the Force Commanders. Essentially 'Sub-Captains', Force Commanders lead multiple squads in independent actions outside of the Company Captain's direct control. While the vast majority are 'Captains-in-Training', some are those who have been tried and found ill-suited to larger commands.


STRATEGY:
Spoiler:
The Chapter's preferred method of fighting is to cripple the enemy and make it incapable of defending itself from the killing blow. To this end, highly-mobile Squads will perform hit-and-run raids on positions vital to the enemy, such as destroying fuel reserves or preventing long-range communications. When this leaves enemy deployments isolated and bereft of materiel, Assault Squads move in to kill everyone present.

This does not mean that the Chapter isn't capable of more protracted engagements, however. The Chapter's motor pool contains sufficient levels of Heavy Ordinance, and both Urban and Close-Quarters Combat are the Marines' specialty.


CHAPTER CULT:
Spoiler:
I haven't got a lot for this yet. At least one of their rituals involves eating cactus and tripping out on it, and the Chaplains are more Death-oriented then usual, but besides that I got nothing.


CHAPTER COLORS:
   
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I would be curious who trained them? What other marines trained them? Did the Crimson Fists come back to train them? Doubtful as they are Codex adherent? Also i would imagine they have a strained relationship with the Mechanicum if they wont allow them in, whats this create? A lack of plasma weapons? Is that why they lack them?

Just questions to help flesh out the rest.
   
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Frostbite Falls

Righteousrob wrote:
I would be curious who trained them? What other marines trained them? Did the Crimson Fists come back to train them? Doubtful as they are Codex adherent? Also i would imagine they have a strained relationship with the Mechanicum if they wont allow them in, whats this create? A lack of plasma weapons? Is that why they lack them?

Just questions to help flesh out the rest.


The current working canon is that the Garrison Moon had started out as an Outpost for the Crimson Fist Companies operating in the area, but when the order was given to Found a new Chapter, they didn't put up too much of a fight because Aztlán was a good distance from their usual stomping grounds.

The connection to the Crimson Fists is due to the Real Life history I've based the Chapter on. Essentially, the Crimson Fists are Spaniards, and the Tarantulas are Mexicans.

Space Marine Chapters are expected to operate independently of the other branches of the Imperium, so by and large they make their own equipment and ammunition. Whether or not the Chapter ever had the capability to build Plasma weapons is academic; they don't have the technology now, and they aren't good enough friends with anyone in the Mechanicum who's powerful enough to just give them such rare and valuable archaeotech. For their part, the Tarantulas aren't terribly upset about the situation, what with Plasma weapony's tendency to explode in your hands, and they see Melta weapons as a perfectly fine substitute.
   
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Frostbite Falls

So the Tarantulas are from the 14th Founding, and their current Chapter Master is named Xalvador Barboza.
   
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Australia

Unless I'm misinterpreting what you've written for their origin, this is how it is:

They made a new Space Marine Chapter so that the Imperial Guard didn't have to regularly deal with one rebellious world (not a system, just one world) prone to Chaos uprisings. And they're a successor Chapter to the Crimson Fists because they bombed the hell out of the planet on one occasion once upon a time.

Did I get that right?

Because that sounds a bit suss to me. If it was regular invasions (as opposed to the population getting corrupted and uprising), and it was a whole system of dozens of worlds, it would make more sense. If it was a whole system suffering at the hands of persistent Chaos invasions, that would be a more sound logical basis to create an entire Space Marine Chapter, because I feel that a Space Marine Chapter is not something you create for the sake of an extreme case of civil unrest on one lonely-as world.


 Lord-Captain Cepinari wrote:
...the Imperium of Man didn't have quite as strong a grasp on the sector as it would have liked


I honestly don't think that would have stopped them from dealing with this one planet. Plus you could say that about every sector of space and yet if it's not a War World or something like that, then the Imperium would have more than enough capacity to deal with it. Also, given the implied number of times that these uprisings have happened, surely they would have found the source by now.... surely! The Imperium can't have been so stupid as to think that there was no source to this, because it's happened so many times over thousands of years. The Imperium would have dealt with it centuries, if not, millennia ago.


 Lord-Captain Cepinari wrote:
At least one of their rituals involves eating cactus and tripping out on it.


That just sounds like something the PDF soldiers would do on a desert planet when they got bored, though I'm not gonna lie: I'd be very interested to see how you put that into a ritual.


My last comment: I love the colour scheme! Looks bloody awesome!
   
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Frostbite Falls

Æons ago, the civilian leaders of the planet Aztlán fell to the corruption of Chaos and succeeded in dragging their world from the Emperor's Light. As this world was an important source of weapons and manpower for the Imperium, it's loss precipitated a crisis that robbed the Imperium of control over much of the Sub-Sector. Thus, it's retaking was a top priority for Segmentum Command.
After 50 years of constant bloodshed, Aztlán was returned to Imperial control. The question, now, was what to do with it's people.

It was known to many members of the Holy Inquisition that in the millennia before their discovery by the Crimson Fists, the people of Aztlán had engaged in planet-wide worship of the Ruinous Powers, and most believed that this recent betrayal was proof that this world and it's inhabitants were inherently corrupt, that all born here were born with their souls already stained. Even though many had resisted the call to heresy and had fought against those who had ruled them, it was decided that the planet's native population was to be purged, so that there would never be a second Aztlánian Rebellion.

But then, something unexpected happened.

Word had come from the High Lords of Terra. The Emperor had decreed that there was to be a new Founding, and that Aztlán was to be the home world of one of these new Chapters.

And so there was no Purge. The people of Aztlán were spared, and their civilian government was replaced with a military junta led by a Governor-General, who rules the planet with an iron-clad fist in the name of the Emperor.

Secretly, however, the Governor-General is merely the highest-ranking Chapter Serf of the Tarantulas, who watch over Aztlán from their hidden-in-plain-sight moon fortress.
   
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Frostbite Falls

I've found another canonical reference to the Tarantulas Chapter:

http://m.imgur.com/a/Yodoe

Looks like they're not going to be working with the Eldar anytime soon.
   
 
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