Jornath: The Eyes of Oil

He ran, Helica and Thumas just ahead of him, as the staccato bursts of a hundred guns turned the air about his company into a humming chorus of supersonic metal slugs. Ducking as a sinister hiss tore the air just below his right ear, he stumbled in his stride, looking down to right his footing and double-check that his webbing still remained free of any bullet holes.  He glanced back towards Helica and Thumas, just climbing over the first scrap metal barricades at the top of the defilade, Thumas using the las-shot corpse of a freshly slain greenskin as leverage to vault atop the obstacle, Helica climbing over a pile of tires and haphazardly piled wooden slats.  In the distance, the looming silhouette of the immobilized Ork Superheavy Landfortress sat, like some sort of great reptilian beast from prehistory forged of bolted sheet metal and roughshod mechanisms of pig iron.

He vaulted over the tires, following after Helica's route, the idea of touching one of the beasts sickened him greatly. As he overcame the barricade he lost his footing on the far side, tripping and rolling into a trench behind the defilade, he struggled to right himself in the dust, choking on hungry mouthfuls of dirt clogged air as he fought to regain control of himself and continue the charge.  As he clambered to his feet he saw Thumas torn in two by fat orkish slugger fire, and collapse back into the trench trailed by an arc of bright crimson.

The halves of Thumas's body were quickly followed by the form of Helica, diving back into the trench before turning and pouring out a torrent of lasgun fire. She turned to him, wild-eyed with terror and adrenaline in equal measure. She shouted "ORKS!" though the words were entirely drowned out by the sounds of battle around them.  But the warning was no use, the alien monsters were already on them, a half dozen brutish greenskinned savages, armed with an assortment of cleavers and pistols. Helica's skull was split open like a ripe fruit by the butchering cleaver of the first Ork into the trench,  he brought his lasgun up, emptying the clip into the killers bellowing face. The rifle vibrated in his hand until it clicked empty and he dropped the gun, there was no time to reload, he looking down and pulled his combat knife, looking back up just in time to see the flash of an orkish pistol moments before the stubby round smashed directly into his....


Bisckell Eckrad opened his augmetic eye with a whirring click, and let out a pent up breath. He continued to look up at the massive painting of the Orkish warrior, done in the late Baroque stylings of Thyssian Caltomore, with its overly dramatic lighting and its emphasis on the beasts piercing red eyes, done to draw attention to the feral soullessness of one of mankind's oldest and most barbaric of enemies. His sensibilities as an officer told him that it was well executed, and a particularly good rendition with all the phlegm and drama any wealthy patron of the arts might look for in such a piece. But the old soldier in him shuddered inwardly and wished to light the priceless work aflame.

He was awakened from his introspection by the sharp tapping of boots against the lacquered oak of the Command Leviathans floor, turning he saw a middle-aged man with the pale complexion indicative of someone who spent much of their time aboard a starship, he was dressed in the starchy pressed uniform of General Mutenfur's Tactica Staff.

"Admiring the piece?" Began the man in an arched slightly amused voice, raising one black eyebrow slightly in a mirror to a faint smirk crawling up one of his angular cheeks.

"Oh. Yes, quite a stirring thing." Eckrad replied, not quite as confidently as he would have liked.

"Yes" the man crooned, coming to a halt and arching his head up at the Orks piercing gaze.
 "The Lord General had it commissioned after Vilhoffen. The A. G. took a bit of a pounding but the lads pulled through just like always." With that statement, the smirk and its attendant eyebrow dropped., though the man maintained an air of self-assured arrogance.

"Indeed. The Greenskin is a particular menace, difficult to root out wherever they are found" Eckrad replied, finally finding his stride again.

"Oh yes. You Jornathii had a bit of a scrap with the greenies from what I remember?" the man said, still staring up at the painting. That sent an instinctual twinge of irritation through Eckrad, he would hardly classify a system-wide multi-generation conflict involving dozens of Astartes Chapters and Knight households as a "little scrap" but still, he was here to make a good impression and diplomacy was paramount in these instances.

" Yes a bit of one." He replied, hiding his annoyance behind a broad smile.

" I thought that was the case. Either, or, let's say we cut to the quick, shall we. I am Brigadier Iwa Fariq, a member of General Mutenfur's personal staff. The General is ready to discuss your unit's deployments with you." The man brought his gaze back down from the painting and back to Eckard, the eyebrow and smirk returning along with it.

"Very Good, I am ready to attend him directly," Eckrad replied, maintaining his smile all the while.

"Right this way," Fariq said, turning back the way he had entered and begun clicking off across the lacquered floor again,  before stopping after a moment and turning back to face Eckrad, all smirks and raised eyebrows forgotten.

"By the By, let me be the first of the Senior Command Staff to welcome you and your troopers to Devos IV, Regent General" he said, in an altogether more sincere tone, and began walking towards the exit.  Eckrad took one more look at the painting, with its burning red eyes, the echos of a planet's worth of fallen heroes swimming in his mind. And turned to follow Fariq from the chamber.

Thanks for reading!  This post was a part of an ongoing narrative campaign, in the "living setting" of Jornath. For more information about Jornath as a setting, including units, missions, and posts from other Jornath bloggers be sure to click on the Jornath [40k] tab at the top of this page for an up to date list of all posts.

-Your Favorite Madman-

Jornath: The New Model Cohort

Art from Art of Morkarr

An Excerpt from Ichan Rechenbacher's "Treatises and Meditations of Post-War Martial Formations on Jornath"

Chapter 4 - The Campaign on Devos IV

When we look to understand the formation of the first formally founded expeditionary Regiments after the conclusion of the first Jornathii Ork War, it is important to understand the restructuring which occurred in Jornath's indigenous military units during the mid-war period. Of course, as explained previously, Pre and Early War Jornathii society relied on a byzantine system of private, commercial and state-funded militias to comprise its Planetary Defense Forces. This puzzle of different units was a carryover from the earliest days of Jornath's liberation in the Great Crusade and was closely tied into its hereditary political system. While the "Cohort System" as it was called, provided a versatile toolkit of various military specializations on a unit by unit basis. It made large scale operations difficult to orchestrate, as each Cohort could vary wildly in its equipment, practices, and command structures, leading to disastrous campaigns such as Operation Remits Maw. When Astra Militarum Officers and Astartes Commanders arrived to stabilize the situation, clerical errors within the Sub-Sectors Tactica Outline of Jornath's Strengths created additional confusion and led to strategic blunders that took several years to recover from.  

When the Emerald Scream event took place, it set a short timeline for the emergency restructuring of Jornath's planetary defense forces. With the alien's astropathic message drawing Xenos reinforcements from the Skinner Worlds into the system, drastic actions needed to be taken. To buy time for this restructuring and to deny the aliens' an uncontested base in system multiple Astartes chapters, knight households, and Guard Regiments formed Battlegroup Ankou. The Struggle for Jornath's Moon has become Legendary in the Sector and is the subject of no shortage of academic analysis.  

While the Angels of Death carved their glory in the stars, the Imperial Guard and the Skitarii Maniples of the Adeptus Mechanicus were finally surrounding and destroying the largest Ork units on Jornath's surface. In the heartland of Kula Province and in those regions unblighted by the alien's presence, a mass conscription effort began, spearheaded by the Mordian Iron Guard. 

The Kula Conservator Cohort, being a watchword for Jornathii Military excellence by this point in the War was used as the model for the restructuring of Jornath’s planetary defense forces. In broad terms, the basic outline of roughly 200,000 men, split across 11 Regiments with an attached force of armor was used to stitch together a myriad of different guildmusters, huscarls and cohorts of various origins and unite their oftentimes contradictory ethics and command structures with a single overarching leadership cadre. This was broadly very appealing as it allowed for local cohorts to retain many of their traditions at a regimental level, while still acting harmoniously with other dissimilar units in service to the Imperium. 

In later years, after the Conclusion of the First Jornathii Ork War, units from the world would be highly sought after by Astra Militarum commanders the length of the Sector and on rare occasions beyond. A Jornathii Expeditionary Regiment represents an army group’s strength of light infantry with associated armor and transportation, able to reliably source its weapons and equipment, due to the political ties of Cohort and Guildmuster Leaders with Jornath’s vast network of merchant houses and hereditary wealth. It was no surprise then that when vicious fighting broke out on Devos IV, that the most illustrious of Jornath’s forces was sent to aid in the fighting. 

The most notable changes to the Kula Conservator Cohort’s structure during the New Model Cohort Reformation, was to separate the administrative duties of the first, second and third regimental commanders, and place them into the hands of a Cohort Command Staff headed by the newly founded position of Regent General, which holds a significant amount of political and martial power, not only on Jornath but in many of the elite circles of the Vahland Sectors nobility. The first Regent General, Calces Brost was killed only three months after inheriting the position during the Ork Reinforcement Fleets’ landings in the Wriit Expanse. He was succeeded by Sarah Moliquare, whose shrewd tactical capabilities and penchant for ruthlessness both on the battlefield and in the ballrooms of Kula Hive. When Moliquare retired to the private sector after the conclusion of the 1st Jornathii Ork War, Bisckell Eckrad ascended to the rank, and was the first to lead the KCC in off world operations. First in a formal blooding against a minor Seccessionist Uprising on Tankore, and then to the War for Devos IV.  

Scholars will note in the official campaign reports filed by the 3422AG, and the Office of the Deputy Plenipotentary for War that the Kula Conservator Cohort’s constituent regiments have added honorifics referencing many actions from aforementioned 1st Ork War for those unfamiliar I will detail them shortly below.

1st Suetonious Regt: The 1st Regiment spent much of the early portion of the war as a dedicated garrison for Kula Hive when the outcome of many of the early campaigns was still in question. After Operation Gray Jewel, and ground operations on Jornath itself were firmly in hand, the 1st took part in the final destruction of the Ork scrap cities in the Kulan Swampland alongside the Sons of Medusa. When the Ork reinforcement fleets made landfall on Jornath following the Defense of Ankou, the 1st fought in the prolonged halting actions to stopper the massed alien armor formations coming from the Writt Expanse. While they took significant losses, they were in the end successful, and so adopted the name of Jornath’s doomed Orbital Defense Platform, whose bitter defiance prevented the initial Ork invasion from becoming a catastrophic disaster. 

2nd Usamiljen Regt: The 2nd spent a great deal of the war in the North, fighting alongside the Usamiljen Fusiliers and the Guffmans Platz Cohorts during the Liberation of Usamilplatz, Remits Maw, and the Late War Campaigns to bring the alien’s last remaining mountain strongholds to heel. Prior to the Ork War, Kulan high society looked at the northern provinces as backward or at the very least beneath the more cultured mores of society life and the Cohorts, which had been tied into the hereditary political system from centuries reflected this also, leading to a great deal of mistrust, failure to cooperate and occasional inter-unit feuding during the Early War Period, particularly as Supreme Armsmaster Vasinus began his initial campaigns. When the 2nd adopted this honorific, it marked a notable turning point in domestic Jornathii politics, the high esteem and influence that the Kula Cohort commanded, helped to alleviate some of this ill will and internal bias, which would inevitably lead to greater integration of Usamiljen born nobility into leadership roles within the planetary government.

3rd Berhas Regt: The 3rd earned their name in the gruesome Siege of Fort Berhas, during which dozens of battered PDF formations, withdrew to a mountain stronghold following the disaster of Operation Remits Maw. When the Orks launched their Summer Offensive, the Fortress became a defensive loadstone, and was surrounded by massive numbers of greenskins, looking to loot the holdout for its stores of ammunition, vehicles, and atomics. Had it not been for the sacrifices made by the 3KCC and units like them, the War for Jornath may well have taken an altogether more devastating turn for the planet. 

4th Nizajain Regt: The 4th, are named in honor of the final battle of the campaign that saw the Cohort’s 6th Regiment slain to a man. The 4th was positioned along the cordon line of the South Eastern portion of the Ork Exclusion Zone during the beginning of the Ork’s Summer Offensive. When it became clear of the gravity of the situation, the 4th attempted to effect a breakthrough to Bolasku and the 6th through the Salt Marshes along the coast, but took thousands of losses under Ork guns in the attempt and were forced to withdraw. When the time came to Liberate Bolasku years later, the 4th were the first Regiment to enter the city. During the Liberation, they retrieved the 2nd Company Standard of the 6th Regiment, tearing it down from where it hung as spoil from the wall of Smashmek Gragga Snazzrivet’s command center along the Bolasku docks. The banner travels with the 4th still, and is a prized relic of the entire cohort. It flew proudly both on the Cohorts review upon arrival at Devos IV and in the 4th’s first engagement against heretic forces outside Xyphonica. 

5th Oakenzid Regt: The 5th, are named after Oakenzid Hive, which played a major role during the Mid to Late War period of the War for Jornath. When the Ork Reinforcement fleets made their landings in the Writt Expanse, the Hive provided a base for units participating in the massive set piece engagements in the arid south. As casualties began to mount in this theatre, the KCC dropped its Kula only recruiting restrictions, and many of the new Oakenzid born recruits found themselves placed into the 5KCC

7th Bolasku (the 906ers) Regt: The 7th are a prolific Regiment, participating in many of the greatest battles of the War for Jornath, they fought alongside the then 10th (now 11th) under Supreme Armsmaster Vazinas’ in the earliest campaigns to crush the orks in the North, playing a key role in the Sundering of Galjasim which saw the western spur of the super bridge connecting the Mechanicus Forge City/State of Prima Jama with the roadways latticing the Usamiljen Mountains totally destroyed in a calculated feint which would go on to allow the Mechanicus’ forces to play a vital part in the war. They participated in Operation Remits Maw, and consequently found themselves within Fortress Behras after only barely escaping the mountains with the Regiment intact. In honor of their impressive roll of honor, the 7th have 2 honorifics,  the first and the one most commonly associated in official Munitorum and Astra Militarum record is “Bolasku” after the site of the 6th Regiments Last Stand, the second which is spoken more informally by the common soldiery is the “906ers” which refers to the Regiments defense of Fortress Behras, also known by its identifier code H-906.

8th Grehazin Regt: The 8th is named for the Pillars of Grehazin, a rocky string of islets near to Nizajain Isle and another one of the major battle sites in the campaign that saw the 6th destroyed. Elements of the 8th KCC did participate in the fighting at the Straits, alongside Naval Armsmen and Astartes from the Mortifactors and White Scars Chapters. While much of the Regiment was deployed near to Guffmans Platz at the time of the Orks breakout attempt on the coast, the 5th, 6th and 8th Companies were on recruiting and rest duties within Kula Hive itself, and given the experience of the KCC in shipborne small unit actions during peacetime, they were sent into the fray as a favorable option to styme the aliens. 

9th Remits Maw Regt: The 9th are named for the disastrous Operation Remits Maw, an early blunder by Northern Cohort Commanders which saw many of the gains made by Supreme Armsmaster Vazinas after the first Ork landings, lost to poor planning and even worse logistics. The 9th have the particularly dubious honor of being amongst the few Regiments to fight their way north to Prima Jama rather than withdrawing south to the PDF’s rally point of Fortress Behras. Forsaking much of the Cohorts SOP, the 9th acted as light infantry, and fractured on a platoon level to slowly inch their way until they reached the Southern lines of the Krater Cohort and the Skitarii of Prima Jama, preserving much of their number in the process. The 9th is also the Regiment from which the Cohorts Regent General on Devos IV Bisckell Eckrad rose from, and it is no doubt that the pragmatism displayed by the Regiment during this action rubbed off on RgtGen. Eckrad, for it was the belief of many within the command structure of Devos IV’s loyalist forces at the time and the conclusion of academics studying the war years afterward, that these formative engagements under the 9ths notoriously laissez faire commander Major Kenlo “Crash” Ean may well have shaped the KCC’s eventual commander into the capable strategic thinker that he would eventually become. 

10th Guffmans Platz Regt: The 10th are named for the major transit hub of Guffmans-Platz, a town known across Jornath for its thriving bohemian culture. During the war Guffmans Platz found itself as the staging point for many operations into the Usamiljen Mountains from the South, as Imperial forces attempted to crush the Orks between Mechanicus troops in the North and their own lines. Over nearly a decade of vicious fighting, many within the 10th found an appreciation for the Northerners they fought alongside in these campaigns, and when word came that the Cohort would leave Jornath as an expeditionary force, it was a unanimous decision to name the Regiment in honor of their Northern comrades.

11th Vazinas Honourias (The Old Guard) Regt: The 11th, formerly the designation of the Cohorts Armored contingent, was formed of veteran companies from many different Regiments that were refounded over the course of the War for Jornath, the 11th also includes experienced armored units, making the force composition very similar to a Cadian style Shock Troop Regiment. It is an honor for a trooper, squad or vehicle crew to be inducted into the 11th, it acts as a reward for meritorious service in the Cohort to get your “Double Ones”, and the 11th, which is significantly smaller in number than many of the other Regiments is used most often as a de facto Special Forces Group for the Cohort. They are named for Supreme Armsmaster Vazinas, Jornath’s overall commander of Planetary Defense Forces. 

12th Rothresh Mechanised Regt: The 12th are the Cohorts Armored Forces, representing its wealth of Chimera APC’s, Leman Russ’, and other associated mechanized assets. The 12th are named for the Rothresh Industrial House, a major fabrication guild on Jornath based near to Oakenzid Hive, after the Ork reinforcement fleets landed in the Writt Expanse, armored forces became a major factor in holding off the tide of greenskin light vehicles pouring out of the desert. As the weeks crawled painfully by and losses began to mount, the Rothresh foundries, whose chief output traditionally had been agricultural machinery and sea going vessels destined for Oakenzid’s port, shifted their production to the Crocatta armored vehicle, an extreme local modification of the Chimera chassis. Doing this with limited Mechanicus advisory support, and with the fabrication complex itself threatened by Ork Dreadnought formations, this influx of armored pieces is credited with tipping the fighting in the Mid War against the aliens. Thusly the 12th honor this success by carrying forth the name of the guild into the wider Imperium. 

Jornath Location Profile: The Moon of Ankou [pt1]

Ankou is one of several planetary bodies within the solar system of the Imperial world of Jornath. While considered by Imperial auguries to be a moon of the system’s capital its distance from the coreworld, would truly classify the stellar body as its own settled dwarf planet. The planets role in the social and political organizations of the Jornathii culture is curiously part guardian and part enslaved penal world.

Ankou was founded early in the systems settlement in the dawny days of human expansion to these regions significantly before the onset of Long Night, though the original intentions of the planet in these early days have long since been forgotten. During the period of the Unification Wars on Terra, several centuries before the great crusade would bring the light of the Emperor to Jornath, several histories suggest that Ankou enjoyed a status as its own free state within the system, engaging in trade and at times conflict with other colonial holdings and the crownworld of Jornath itself. However, by the time that Jornath and its satellites bent the knee to the Throne of Old Earth, Ankou had been thoroughly brought under the administrative control of Jornath. Like all places, Ankou enjoyed a great deal of lively development with its reconnection with wider humanity, and its immense bounty of mineral wealth which had already started to be exploited was broken open by the immense capabilities of the Mechanicum

The vast majority of this mineral bounty was in the form of Gypsum, indeed Mechanicum Surveyors calculated that the composition of the moon may be as much as 45% made of the mineral. Tantalized by the numerous practical industrial applications of gypsum, the Adeptus of the Imperium began establishing hundreds of servitor controlled harvesting installations across the surface of the moon, each linking to one of three hub cities with an interlacing web of terrestrial roadways, promethium pipes, and kilometers of cabling.

In these early days, before the heresy, the Imperial Truth still reigned as the predominant ideological current of humanity. On Ankou though, this truth was being manipulated by the early vestiges of groups which would become the Cult Imperialis, these groups viewed the Emperor of Mankind and his sons as divine and held the early colonial ruins under the surface of Ankou as holy places. The Mechanicum overseers of the mining efforts were only too happy to corroborate and promote this view, as the number of converts willing to accept the suite of invasive bionics to survive unaided on Ankous airless surface increased significantly as these groups grew in popularity. It was decided by the Ankouvian High Civitian and the Mechanicus Magos that these groups should be given a formal voice in the administration of the moon if only to better control the masses. Thus the Moulding Gate of Gouibon was founded, the Moulders established chirurgical centers around each of the cities of Ankou, these places were known as Gatehouses, and within aspirants would worship the Emperor and the Omnissiah, progressing through the ranks of the order, by doing good works within the wider community or by fundraising for ventures into the subterranean ruins. As an aspirant progressed, they would surrender more and more of their body and organs over to mechanical augmentation until they could survive without aid on the surface. These followers would be known as the Gouibon Susareian (the name for the Men of Iron in Jornathii Low Gothic, and the term for explorer) and it is these souls who would go forth into the darkened depths of the world in search of divine answers and archaeotech.

When the Horus Heresy erupted in the Imperium, and loyalties on planets across its breadth were tested, Ankou found itself in a particularly favorable situation. On Jornath small skirmishes broke out between families and guilds loyal to the warmaster and those who still held the emperor as master, but on Ankou the spread of the Moulding Gate and the singular control of only one group of the Mechanicum ensured that only limited rioting and a rather pathetic miners uprising in the warmasters name occurred.

In the wake of the Heresy, Ankou was lauded for its loyalty. It was given the task of re-educating those that stood against the Imperium in the Civil War. A task which the already zealously enthusiastic men and women of the moulding gate and the vengeful scions of the now mechanicus took too with particular vigor. The punishment of the families sent to Ankou in disgrace for their transgression of betrayal would be 100 generations of servitude in the Emperor’s name. None of these generations could enter their deeds in the noble enscroll of the families of Jornath, though they would still retain their noble titles and wealth. All were permitted to bring their associated retainers, huscarls, cohorts, and servants to the surface Ankou. It was seen as completely un thinkable to kill the traitors, they were after all, still nobility. So it was that the Equites Redempto, was created on Ankou. These Penal colonists would comprise a huge amount of the workforce, the noblemen acting as the defacto overseers who were, in turn, ruled over by the true Imperial administration of the High Civitan of Ankou and those Ankouvians not beholden to the penal sentence of the Equites Redempto.

For thousands of years, Ankou continued to grow in scope, its cities growing into hives, and its mines running ever deeper into the flesh of the planet. By this point the Ecclesiarchy had taken firm control over the doctrine of the Moulding Gate, seeing its beneficial nature to the function of the planet, they contributed their own assets to the furthering of the Gate’s goals, all while making enormous sums of money from the sale of augmentations. To expand this enterprise the leaders of the Moulders, reached out to the chartist captains in the region who ferried pilgrims around the sector to its various cardinal worlds. They signed an under the table agreement called Concordant 92d, with a chartist line heading through the neighboring Bantin system en route to Casa Urients seaborne cathedrals. The Concordant meant that every tenth vessel would deliver its cargo to the surface of Ankou instead, a journey which took a quarter of the time, and the Moulder’s were willing to pay the same amount as the Cardinals of Casa Urient.  It was not hard to convince the captains that this venture was worthwhile. The pilgrims on board these vessels, were of course less enthusiastic about this prospect, though many have little money left to them to get off-world, leaving the mines and the Moulding Gate as the only real alternatives left to them.

When the War for Jornath broke out, Ankou’s roll in the systems defense would be early warning and limited defensive outpost for the systems monitor fleet.  The moon is in a far orbit from the planet, placing it closer to the systems cardinal mandeville points, and this makes it perfect to act as a staging place for defense forces. When the initial Ork invasion force arrived, Ankou was on the opposite side of its orbit from the fleets approach, meaning that Jornath’s orbital platforms and a limited number of its monitoring ships were available to counter the Ork’s arrival. For the first several years Ankou continued in its mandated roll guarding the systems perimeter, and harvesting material for export, awaiting the potential call to send aid to its liege world.

In the early months of the War’s third year, a massive burst of psychic and digital energies slammed into the moon from the heart of the combat zones on Jornaths surface. This event was called the Emerald Scream by Imperial authorities and would send the entire battlespace into chaos. The long range vox and astropathic choirs were scrambled or killed, leaving communication with the moon during this period totally severed. On Ankou this immense burst of energy would have much more extreme effects, each of the Hives on the moon began transmitting repeating psychic and electromagnetic signals into the void on repeat. Every device capable of sending the transmission into space was bent to that task. For many within the society of Ankou, the signals brought madness. Converts into the Moulding Gate, were affected severely their minds wired into the planets digital network were affected by a form of orkoid psychic scrapcode. The Equites Redempto were similarly affected, the inhibitor circuits, implanted in their brains from birth as insurance of loyalty acted as conduits for the screams corrupting influence. Ankou turned into a bloodbath, in later years it would be called the Ankouvian Civil War, though this name implies that uncorrupted forces on the planet were able to mount any sort of significant resistance to the Berzerker’s tearing the moon apart. What resistance was available came from the High Civitan Sabrina Tursur, and roughly ten thousand miners, and novitiate converts into the Moulders, who were spread across each of the three hives. Their resistance to the corrupting influence of the Emerald Scream, was also the thing that trapped them inside the hives, unable to survive for any length of time outside the protective bio-domes, the loyal Ankouvians that remained attempted to fight their way into the Hive Spires using mining equipment, and cheap autoguns. They suffered incredible casualties in the attempt, and by the time that Battlegroup Ankou arrived to the planet, to reinforce it against the encroaching alien reinforcement fleet, and to shut down the screaming void signals. Only about 2500 loyalist Ankouvians remained alive, held in the High Civitans palace at the pinnacle of Linces Hive. These loyalists would be reinforced by the Imperial Dragoons of Task Force Gideon, and would be removed to the Battlegroups flagship for through investigation by the Ordos of the Inquisition, who were hoping to glean some useful morsel of information about the mysterious and catastrophic situation which had unfolded here.

Thanks for reading!  This post was a part of an ongoing narrative campaign, in the "living setting" of Jornath. For more information about Jornath as a setting, including units, missions, and posts from other Jornath bloggers be sure to click on the Jornath [40k] tab at the top of this page for an up to date list of all posts.

-Your Favorite Madman-

Jornath: The Sect Recidivia

Pontry Contras, scrabbled through the dust-choked valley of bookcases and data terminals, the soft hum of his flock of servo-skulls the only sound disturbing the crypt-like silence of the Librarum Est Tricondriari.  He arrived at his objective in short order, picking up with his work, where had left off only a few hours before. A hand of pistons and iron gripped yet another book of deeds and actions of the noble families of the Jornathii, and deftly begins to turn page after page, Contras' cognito-enhancements absorbing and categorizing the information on each page in a heartbeat, while a lexigraphic node scribbled away on an auto-quill implanted on his back, recording the necessary alterations the adept superior felt needed to be implemented.

"Thrice benighted planetaries..." Contras breathed annoyed to himself

"What even is a..."Jurl"... that will have to go." he continued stumbling over the unfamiliar titles.

With a harsh metallic screech, a data log popped up from the mechanisms on his back, the lexigrapher having finished its work.  With the tone, one of the servo skulls descended and picked up the log, before floating off to add it to the ever-growing mountain of such logs filling the chambers of the Sect Recidivia's chamber house here in Kula Hive. 

Barely paying the skull any mind, Contras placed the book back upon the shelf and moved to the next, and the activity of exasperation and annoyed scribbling would play out once more. 

The Sect Recidivia

The Sect would find its origins upon the Sector Capital of Casa Urient, that shrine worlds various factions of the Administratum constantly battling with one another and the Ecclessiarchy about what version of history should be preserved and which should be placed upon the crematoria pyres. The Sect, believes in homogeny above all else, attempting to get as many worlds as close as possible to mirroring the titles and systems of the Adeptus Terra as it can, which means in many cases the destruction of local held titles and systems of government, which they typically view as unnecessary fat on the body of government. 

While they have been met with limited success on Casa Urient, the Sect has tried to preempt its rivals within the neighboring systems, setting forth thousands of adepts to hundreds of worlds within the Urient Sector.  On Jornath, the Sect Recidivia has been viewed with at best suspicion and disgust, and at worst with outright hostility. It is no secret that the Jornathi are not fond of off-worlders and are very proud of their traditions and culture.  Though, the Sect Adepts come from the capital and carry the licenses of authority from that governmental position, and so must be tolerated.  

For nearly five centuries, several hundred members of the Sect have combed the major libraries and studied Jornaths system of administration and each year have compiled an exhaustive list of changes and alterations, that should be imposed upon the planet.  Not least amongst these changes was the total abolition of the Roll of Honored Families, the cornerstone of the Feudal system on the planet, and the forfeiture of all private property over to larger state-run blocs controlled by the Administratum. Each of these proposals has "tragically" been lost or mired in beauracracy as to have been effectively stopped indefinitely,  though the Sect seems not to notice the outward hostility, nor the seemingly pointless nature of their exercise on the world. 

With the outbreak of the Ork Invasion and the struggle for the Jornaths survival spurring on sweeping changes to the military organization of the planets defense forces to be more effectively coordinated in mutual defense rather than in opposition to rival lords and guilds. The Sect Recidivia pushed their agenda of homogenous governance ever harder, even petitioning high ranking off-world members of the Astra Militarum for audiences to back their proposed changes to the government of the world. While none of the Imperial commanders even bothered to entertain the notion, many members of the Jornathii Noble families and of the Honored Guild Houses saw this as a blatant attempt at a coup by the Sect.

Tensions would continue to rise, until the autumn of the War for Jornath's third year, when a high ranking member of the Sect Recidivia on Jornath, a man named Jakub Gendricoll was found dead in his private apartments in the Deadalus Spire of Oakenzid Hive. The enforcers who investigated the man's demise blamed heart failure, though the Sect's own investigations quickly blamed the multiple gunshot wounds as the cause of death.  The Sect Recidivia accused the Guilder Houses of Oakenzid Hives as having conspired to kill an agent of the Golden Throne, a bold accusation which would on many worlds have caused a series of Arbites raids and the deployment of a PDF regiment to maintain order during the investigation. Jornath though was embroiled in the middle of a system-wide battle against Orks, and the Sect was despised as political dissidents by the systems government.  With its hand forced the director of the Sect on the planet requisitioned the aid of a Rogue Trader named Isandore Mandic, hiring his Voidsmen to act as a personal security detail and "enforcement body" for the vital work of the Sect on the planet.

There are some that worry Sect aligned Voidsmen might soon come to blows with Guild Mustermen in the terraces of the Deadalus Spire, though even if fighting should break out among the two factions it will likely be eclipsed by the greater conflict, becoming just another footnote in the War for Jornath.

Thanks for reading!  This post was a part of an ongoing narrative campaign, in the "living setting" of Jornath. For more information about Jornath as a setting, including units, missions, and posts from other Jornath bloggers be sure to click on the Jornath [40k] tab at the top of this page for an up to date list of all posts.

-Your Favorite Madman-

Hobby: Knights of Decay Test Mini

Quite a long time ago now I started this blog to act as the record for my Chaos armies, namely my Secessionist themed Imperial Guard Army the Pilgrims of Rust, and the Nurgle-Khrone Chaos Space Marine warbands of the Knights of Decay. For years these respective forces fought across the battlefields of the 41st Millenium, killing and dying across a breadth of worlds and against every type of foe that one might think to imagine. Life moved on, and interest in the Grim Darkness wained, those veterans amongst us will remember (and current Games Workshop will admit) this period when the hobby or rather the company which purveyed these addictive plastic miniatures seemed to be at odds with its own fanbase. For myself, and a lot of others locally, we moved to greener pastures, for me it was 15mm Sci-Fi, which allowed a degree of versatility and creativity that I felt I had been having difficulty attaining in Warhammer 40,000.  

With the launch of 8th Edition, and the immense renaissance of enthusiasm in the Games Workshop brand of the hobby. I, with a lot of others, have found myself leading armies once more across shattered cathedrals and across trench scarred battlescapes. The Jornath narrative campaign and a host of new models, seen in recent months across these hallowed "pages" might attest to that revival. With the lovely new Death Guard Easy-Builds, available I thought I would use this new found energy to remake the armies which gave this Blog its name.

On this test miniature, I thought to follow the traditional Death Guard Legionary color scheme. and use a mixture of pallid flesh tones and yellowish shading to add visual interest.

I think the scheme may need to go up a few shades whiter and then be hit with the rust streaks and yellow shade to more successfully separate the dark green edging from the rest of the armor, making the whole thing stand out more on the tabletop. 

Thanks for Reading

-Your Favorite Madman-

Jornath Personalities: Captain Emith Vorodivo

Captain Vorodivo is the archetypal representation of his chapter, a dour and melancholic man, whose raw strength and capability for leadership simmer just below the surface of a sepulchral facade. For 300 years he has been in service to the Emperor as a part of the Mortifactors Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes. Born on the chapter homeworld of Posul, he climbed his way to glory amongst the tribes of that feral frost world,  upon consuming the heart of the chieftain of the Ion Dreggers Clan, and offering up his body to the sacrificial pyre to the emperor he was elevated by the Astartes to the rank of an initiate.

During his time with the scout company, the young Vorodivo saw action across the breadth of the Imperium, honing his skills with long-range weaponry and stealth tactics. It was a formative time for him, as it is for all space marine initiates, it was during this period that he attained a special hatred for the Xenos of the galaxy. While the heretic was an affront in a totality, in spirit, and in body, the alien was a simpler threat, something that he came to particularly appreciate on account of his feral world upbringing. It was a simple and physical affront to mankind, one that could be rectified by a bolt round or the skilled swing of a blade. By the time he was elevated to the rank of a full battle brother, after 30 years of service in the 10th company, he had already decided to some day earn service into the Deathwatch. He would eventually succeed in his goal, during the Shackle Storm Interregnum, Vorodivo who was then amongst the ranks of the assault squads, descended to the deck of a Drukhari Archaon’s Ravager and, fighting his way past the Mandrakes guarding the Aeldari slaver lord, hurled a melta charge at the Archaon, igniting the Void grenades kept by the xenos. Sending a cascading whirlwind of flame and gore whipping into a coruscating void where the Archaon once stood. Vorodivo barely survived, his jump pack gave out upon his attempt to flee the wound in real space, He was recovered by his battle brothers, missing his right leg with large segments of his armor ripped away. Were it not for the excellence of the Astartes apothecary, he may well have died. Fortunately for the Imperium, Vorodivo did not succumb and was immediately elevated to the Tactical Squads for his actions. As a member of the 7th company, he undertook garrison and reconstruction duties with the rest of his squad, much to his chagrin. The Reserve company was rarely called to join in the larger actions of the chapter, and while this chaffed Vorodivo, who longed to earn glory in the great deeds of the chapter. It was a formative time, during his decades of service in the 7th under the mentorship of Sergeant Lyrtes, Vorodivo learned the minutiae of combat leadership, counter-piracy, guerilla and anti-insurgent combat doctrines, honing the young warriors hot-bloodedness into an expert military mind.

Vorodivo would eventually earn his place into the deathwatch in 388 M40, when the 7th was called to support the 3rd and 8th Companies and 6 other Space Marine Chapters in the containment of the Tyranid Splinter Fleet Umibozu, above the worlds of the Kisphaz System. The Kisphaz System fleet had been all but decimated, and 6 of the 13 worlds had already been annihilated by the aliens. Vorodivo and his battle brothers spent much of the year in the void, participating in a series of fleet actions to draw off portions of the hive fleet, to bleed it’s strength for the final killing blow. During the final incursion, huge sections of the tyranid biofleet were caught between two powerful battlelines of the Imperial Navy above the desert world of Markay III. As lance batteries and void torpedos ignited the fleshy organ ships, xenos spore pods fell to the surface in a desperate bid to continue the survival of the hive. It was to one of the Hive Tyrant bodyguards of the enormous Norn Queen, that Sergeant Lytes was to meet his end, and while the beast quickly met a painful end to the Sergeants plasma shot melting through its chest cavity, the foul constitution of the monster saw it given enough strength to drive a pair of bone swords through his torso. Not stopping the momentum of the squads charge, Vorodivo dropped his bolter, and recovered the relic weapons of his fallen mentor, using them to slay two more of the commander beasts, allowing Chapter Master Jaccat and his Ancients of the Solemn Blades Chapter to finally come to grips with the queen itself and end its synaptic hold over the dwindling remains of the fleet. Vorodivo was approached by Captain Auguri, commander of the Mortifactors 7th Company upon his return to the companies strike cruiser, the Captain had heard tell of Vorodivo’s mighty actions following the death of Lytes, and offered the honor of either Lytes’ command, or to represent his chapter in the ranks of the Deathwatch. Vorodivo would take the black the very next day, travelling to the nearest Watch-Fortress of Eocore. At Eocore, Vorodivo would learn the specialist tactics of the Deathwatch, sadly though his tenure with the venerated order would not be a lengthy one. Whilst aiding merchant vessels under duress by Rak’Gol raiders, Vorodivo and the other members of his kill team was ambushed by Aeldari Corsairs. While he was unaware at the moment, the mistress of their lithe-limbed attackers was, in fact, the daughter of the archaon Vorodivo had slain so many years before.  Artesha Sull, had brooded and plotted for her father's demise for centuries, as is the way of the Drukhari, but when she was outdone by Monkeigh brutes, all her hatred and outrage towards her abusive sire was poured into the fulfillment of a perverse alien honor debt, geared singularly towards the Mortifactors, and centuries later, towards Vorodivo himself.

The sudden arrival of the Corsairs caught the Kill Team flat-footed, shuriken and lances pierced from psychically concealed hides, adding to the havoc of the Astartes’ melee with the Rak’Gol’s Abominations. A quarter of the team was slain immediately in the Aeldari’s killzone, Korsae Charfang, rallied the survivors of the deathwatch near the docking umbilicals of the Rak’Gol’s assault ship. Opting to detonate the connecting walkways, to spare the humans on board the merchant vessel from the predations of the aliens. While this would strand the Kill Team aboard the xenos ship, it was not in the nature of the space marines to yield the victory to the enemy.  The Astartes fought their way to the vessels vital systems, slaughtering their way past Rak’Gol monsters and the occasional Aeldari ambush, as each system was laid low it was paid for in the life of another team member, until only Charfang, Vorodivo, and Kori Rycaspen remained, each heavily wounded. In a last-ditch attempt to take the aliens with them, the trio made way to the ships warp reactor. It was in the heart of this enginarium that Artesha Sull, revealed her purpose to Vorodivo, gloating over the corpse of Rycaspen, as both Vorodivo and Charfang laid bleeding on the ichor soaked decking. Had the Aeldari been less sadistic in her desire to boast over her quarry, the two astartes would likely have met their end in that horrid place. Fortunately, the arrival of more Rak’Gol crew members proved enough to distract the knife-eared corsair queen, allowing the two stricken astartes to drag themselves into the lower levels of the reactor, using the maintenance access ways the two survived in the recesses for days, allowing their superhuman physique to heal their wounds, biding their time as the Aeldari and Rak’Gol fought violent skirmishes, in an attempt to gain control of the vessel for their own ends. After a week had elapsed, the full might of the Eocore Watch Fortress descended upon the Rak’Gol ship, thanks to the actions of the kill team, the vessel found itself stuck; listing amongst the shipping lanes it had attempted to raid. Four kill teams and a strike force of the Militarum Tempestus made entry across the vessel via Thunderhawk and Boarding Torpedo, and cleared the entirety of the ship, thirty Aeldari Corsair’s bodies were recovered, three captured, of Artesha Sull and any others there were no sign. All sixteen hundred of the Rak’Gol aboard were purged, not one of the beasts even attempted to give up battle. Both Charfang and Vorodivo were recovered, along with 7 of the 10 bodies of the Kill Team, the other three were too badly disfigured to be moved without damaging their gene seed. The Rak’Gol hulk was declared Blackshields Razor, to commemorate the deaths of the astartes aboard it, it is still used as a merchants landmark to this day.  Following the internment of his battle-brothers in the Watch-Fortress’ crypts Vorodivo opted to end his watch, addled with guilt at the deaths of his brothers he returned to the Mortifactors, though many considered him a hero for his activities it did nothing to dissuade his own sense of self-doubt for what happened on the Blackshields Razor.

Upon returning from the Deathwatch, Vorodivo was moved into the tactical squads of the Mortifactors 3rd Battle Company as a demi-squad leader, it was in this position that he would spend a great deal of time, nearly a century battling across the breadth of the galaxy, against the Arch Enemy, Xenos, and occasionally acting in conjunction with members of the Inquisition or as a liaison with Astra Militarum Lord Commanders fighting against alien threats. During the Invasion of Ultramar, Vorodivo would earn his Terminator Honors. The 3rd Company was locked in melee with a Chaos Marine Warband led by the dread prince Galgathrax the Unwholesome, a wash of pox addled cultists swarmed across the companies battleline, pinning the various elements in place as Galgathrax’s personal guard waded into squad after squad, turning the noble armor of the Astartes into a oxidized metal coffin overflowing with thick white puss. Vorodivo, wrenched a Multi-Melta from its mounting on a shattered Imperial Guard emplacement, and charging forward he sent a searing blast of molten gas into the mighty daemon prince. While nowhere near enough to kill the monster, it did stagger him, allowing a volley of battle cannon rounds from the Vostroyan 423rd to find purchase on the princes’ bubbling oily flesh without being flung aside by Galgathrax’s magics. Cutting through a half dozen cultists, Vorodivo was met by Galgathrax’s personal bodyguard, ten mighty terminators, veteran warriors of 10,000 years of rebellion stood between the mortifactor and the arch-heretic, he had only moments before the monstrous warlord recovered from the wounds he had sustained. A flurry of bolt rounds tore into his body, detonating across his armor, sending his to his knees as his armor locked down under the onslaught. Desperately, he fired his multi-melta again, but the blast was intercepted by the body of one of the monsters terminators. His squad close behind him, rushed into battle with the traitors, taking advantage of the momentary gap in the bodyguards defense, caused by the melta blast, two battle-brothers Derafae and Eamilius riddled Galgathrax with a torrent of bolter shells, tearing the creatures arm from its body.  At last the Daemon Prince signalled his warband to withdraw from the field, the bodyguard scything down several of the Squad as they broke contact. Again the cultists returned, shielding their master from more harm. Vorodivo struggled back to his feet choking one such foolish mortal to death in rage at his quarries escape. Moving to the creatures severed arm, Vorodivo pried the sword from its atrophied hand and held it high above him, screaming hymnals of victory, it is said a gleaming beam of sunlight broke through the battle haze and illuminated the Sergeant in light, showing all assembled upon that field of the Emperor’s gaze apparent upon him. At this fearsome visage of Humanities fury, the sea of cultists broke as well, saving the 3rd Company and its supporting assets from defeat. The Blade, named Penitents Wish was a stolen relic of the Executioners Chapter, lost to the forces of Chaos since the time of Badab,it would become Vorodivo’s personal weapon, a testament to his heroism and long service in battle against the Imperiums many adversaries.

Following the completion of the Ultramar campaign, Vorodivo would join the 1st Company, after two hundred and fifty years of glories earned. For two decades he would act in support of the actions taken against the remaining forces of Chaos in Imperium Secundus. Eventually being called to support his brothers in the 3rd Company battling a strangely coordinated pirate ring just beyond the reaches of Ultramar, thanks to Vorodivos tutelage in counter piracy tactics under Sergeant Lyrtes and within the Deathwatch so many years before. It was upon discovering that the pirate fleet was being coordinated by a shadowy Aeldari Corsair flotilla referred to as Nezahs Courtesans, that Vorodivo would become truly invested. While it was incredibly unlikely that Artesha Sull was in any way responsible for this organization, he harboured a secret hope that he might drive Penitents Wish into the perfidious xenos heart, finally avenging his fallen deathwatch comrades, and erasing the stain on his honor. The human pirates were little challenge for the Astartes, many surrendered without any attempt at a battle. Better to work on a penal world than face certain death and excommunication for drawing a blade against the Angels of Death. It was when the fleet assets of Nezahs Courtesans were finally cornered in the asteroid fields of the Banfin system that the true conflict occurred. The void battle was brief but incredibly violent, a knife fight by naval standards, as the Aeldari attempted to break contact with the Imperial flotilla by speeding behind them and using the Imperials much slower turning speed to their advantage. In the minutes that the Aeldari Kingship sailed past the Mortifactor’s strike cruiser Acheron, the 3rd company launched an all-out boarding attempt, Vorodivo and his squad along with Captain Mediosk and his Honor Guard teleported to the Aeldari vessels bridge. A teleportarium flicker sent Vorodivo, with his terminators off course, placing them mid-ship, and leaving the Captain with his command squad unsupported amongst the enemy.  Racing to support its captain the 3rd company set upon the xenos with redoubled vigor. Tragically it was not enough, as Vorodivo’s squad made entry to the bridge he gazed upon a carnal house. Even while outnumbered, an Astartes company command squad was not an easy target to fell. Captain Mediosk had died well, his body was recovered atop a mound of Aeldari warriors known as Incubi, dread bodyguard to Drukhari Archaons, each was a master swordsman. As the 3rd Company began rallying towards the vessels bridge, Vorodivo more closely inspected the late captains body. His death wound had come from the front, scarred in a score of places from the Incubi’s power swords the captain's armor was shattered, but it was not these weapons which had ended his life. That, had come from a Deathwatch combat blade…

Assuming command of the 3rd, Vorodivo massacred the Aeldari and sundered their vessels, igniting the reactors of the ships. Every man, woman and child were slaughtered in his rage. Even the human pirates, who had surrendered earlier in the campaign were put to the sword. Bitterly the 3rd, now under Captain Vorodivo left the Banfin system towards Ultramar. It was in transit to Macragge for new orders and re-fitting that they received a distress call from the nearby Imperial world of Jornath, which had come under attack by Orks. Even while the 3rd mourned the loss of its captain, the company made ready for a lengthy ground war. Upon arrival the Mortifactors found the PDF woefully unprepared for the task to hand, having squandered troops on ill-prepared operations, Vorodivo opted to using his company for a primary support role, developing a command framework for the war, as well as formulating a long-term plan for planetary combat operations. Vorodivo and the 3rd Company would quickly become indispensable in Imperial operations during the War for Jornath.

Thanks for reading!  This post was a part of an ongoing narrative campaign, in the "living setting" of Jornath. For more information about Jornath as a setting, including units, missions, and posts from other Jornath bloggers be sure to click on the Jornath [40k] tab at the top of this page for an up to date list of all posts.

-Your Favorite Madman-