Typically I'm an IG player but I have a large collection of bits from Orks and SM as well. I've been out of the hobby for a while but starting to get back in. I decided I was going to build a new IG army and started collecting bits. When it came time to start building, I just sort of changed directions and started building some of the SM vehicles I had in my collection. That sparked the desire to start building up some SM but I wanted to do my own chapter. After a couple of weeks, this is the back story I have for them. Looking for critique and advice on the back story, on the chapter, on building and paint/color schemes. I'm currently planning a good sized forgeworld order to get some additional bits. Mostly Mk III armor to spread into the army as some of their venerated sets of armour that are gifted to Marines that distinguish themselves in battle.
As M35 dawned on the Imperium the golden age that had lasted for several millennia came to an swift end. The Nova Terra Interregnum split the Imperium in two for nearly 900 years. Although the Imperium came out intact, it was a costly affair, in an effort to rebuild and strengthen, the 21st Founding occurred. The Cursed Founding as it is now known in the chronicles, where the gene-seeds were manipulated with. The Age of Apostasy followed closely on the heals of the Cursed Founding, driving the Imperium into another brutal civil war. In 010.M37 the third star of the Maxil Beta System exploded, throwing Warpflame across hundreds of worlds. As the Warpflame spread, it mutated the inhabitants of every world it touched. The High Lords of Terra ordered every Imperial Force available to put down the poor souls that were corrupted. The High Lords of Terra saw this as a sign, that the Imperium needed to be cleansed. So began the Great Cull that would last for the next half millennium. What is most important for this chronicle is that no less then 30 Space Marine Chapters were found wanting in their faith to the Emperor. Along with the loses sustained over the past two millennium and the losses from combating the Warpflame rattled worlds, the Imperium found itself stretched thin. It was during this millennium that the 23rd Founding would happen. Unlike traditional Foundings, this one would last for hundreds of years, with Chapters founded as needed to try and replace the many loses the Imperium has suffered.
One of the Chapters that would be founded during this time was a direct successor to the Imperial Fists, the first from the Chapter for over a millennia. To act as a founding base, the Imperial Fists gave 40 of their brothers to start the new chapter. As the new Chapter was in it's beginning stages the Ork Warmaster Grund led a force of over 5000 boys to attack the planet of Bellirus IX. Bellirus IX is a civilized world that was home to the Order of the Dying Heart of the Orders Militant. While the sisters were a formidable fighting force, the Orks were more then a match for the Sisters and the worlds PDF. They called for any and all aid that could be offered, a call that fell on deaf ears within the Imperium. With forces thin, Bellirus IX was not important enough to commit forces to. Viggo Collund, the first Chapter Master, heard the Sisters call and took the 104 combat ready Marines and 350 Neophytes he rushed to Bellirus IX picking up any forces he could en route. Under manned, with limited weaponry and with many of the Neophytes in simple carapace armor entered into battle with the Orks. The siege on Bellirus IX was broken after only three weeks of fighting, the Ork Warmaster Grund being slain by Collund's hand. The remaining Orks fled the planet, leaving nearly 3000 corpses behind. Of the 454 Marines and Neophytes, only 16 had been killed in battle.
As the fighting ended, the young chapter was on the verge of disaster. They defied the orders of the High Lords of Terra by going to Bellirus IX and risking lose of the Chapter before it could begin. It was the intervention of the Order of the Dying Heart and the Chapter Master of the Imperial Fists that saved them from the wraith of the High Lords. In a way, the Chapter that went to the aid of Bellirus IX was lost but a new one was born from battle. Their own before Bellirus has been lost of the ages, from the fallout of Battle was born the Ghal Maraz, the Emperor's Hammer.
They adopted Bellirus IX as their homeworld which they share jointly with the Sisters of the Dying Heart. To honor their bravery, their brothers in the Imperial Fist helped design and build their Fortress Monastery on the second moon of Bellirus IX. As a token to the fighting prowess, the Imperial Fists gifted their successor with 300 ornate and venerated sets armour from their vaults.
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Thanks for reading everyone!
Kyle
