Simon Berman is the co-host of Galaxy in Flames and a professional tabletop games writer whose published work includes Dune: Adventures in the Imperium, WARMACHINE, The Iron Kingdoms Full Metal Fantasy Roleplaying Game, Unhallowed Metropolis, and more.
My favorite part of any miniatures war game is the campaign supplement and The Horus Heresy has been killing it with these books since the very beginning. What I want out of a ‘Heresy campaign book is a focus on a particular theater of war through setting material and art, accompanied by a set of rules (scenarios, new models, alternate list building schemes, etc) that allow me and my friends to explore that theater of war in our own games. Whether or not these new rules are competitive or even “good” is absolutely not a concern for me; I want flavorful options that model the setting material and the recently released Campaigns of the Age of Darkness – The Battle for Beta-Garmon offers these in spades.
A large part of my love for the Horus Heresy as a setting is the breadth of its fictional universe. While it is driven by the narrative at its core the conflict it describes is so enormous that it’s very easy for anyone to tell their own small story within its broad confines. The Blackshields rules in the ‘Beta-Garmon supplement are a fantastic toolkit for anyone looking to craft their own band of rogue space marines in the era of the Horus Heresy. What this really is, though, is an opportunity to do a little world building of our own within an established setting.
The goal of any exercise in world building is verisimilitude, in other words, the impression of consistent realism. Now, obviously, realism in its strictest sense is right out the window in our game of super soldiers fighting a galactic civil war, but the operating word is “consistent.” Fortunately, the creators of the game and the authors of the over sixty(!) Horus Heresy novels have done the heavy lifting for us. What we want to do is look at that whole setting and find a hook or two that we can hang our creative work upon. Fortunately, for us, the setting is truly enormous, and is purposefully littered with throw away references, seeming contradictions, and unanswered questions. Rather than being plot holes or narrative deficiencies, these are gifts that allow us to explore the setting. Empty design space is where we find the beating heart of Warhammer: our own armies. So, join me as I start conceptualizing my own force of Blackshields.
Where to start?
As mentioned above, the universe of the Horus Heresy is vast. So vast that it’s easy to get a little overwhelmed when doing your own writing within it. It’s easy enough to get started creating your own company within one of the established space marine legions but where to start with a smaller band of rogue Astartes? Inspiration might strike anywhere. Maybe you’ve had an idea kicking around for a while about some rogue Word Bearers, maybe there’s a new rule you think is really fun in the ‘Beta-Garmon supplement, or maybe you simply have an idea for a cool paint scheme. Whatever it is, take a little time to examine just what you think is so cool, and why you think that’s cool.
In Sons of the Selenar, a few survivors of the Shattered Legions fall in with a Selenar genewitch as part of a desperate mission to keep a vital MacGuffin out of the hands of the Sons of Horus. I’ve always thought the term “genewitch” was hugely evocative and when I was reading through the narrative portion of The Battle for Beta-Garmon I was similarly taken by a reference to a Blackshields warband having gained access to a “geneloom.” This melding of genetic science and occult practice is the kind of stuff that I absolutely can’t get enough of in Warhammer so it was at the forefront of my mind when it came to thinking about creating my own Blackshields.
To differentiate Blackshields from the proper warriors of the Legiones Astartes, their rules prevent them from taking the usual benefits enjoyed by the legions, restricts access to all rites of war and limits them to the standard Crusade Force org chart. However, to make up for this, when you create your Blackshields you get to choose “Oaths of Wrath and Vengeance.” These are essentially small bonuses, often with accompanying drawbacks to help you build an interesting warband. All of these Oaths’ are dripping with thematic possibilities, but even better, you get to choose a pair of them in order to really give your Blackshields some character.
These Oaths range from options like “Panoply of Old” granting access to the specialized wargear of one existing legion, and “The Taint of the Xenos” which allows you to equip your marines with alien wargear. I’ve already seen someone in a Heresy group kitbashing their marines to carry tyranid weapons and it looks amazing!
Note: the following paragraph contains some light spoilers for the novels The Solar War and Sons of the Selenar.
The night before I read these rules, I had finished reading a novella in the “Siege of Terra” series, Sons of the Selenar and inspiration immediately struck. I’ve always loved the hints in about how the Emperor created the primarchs and space marine legions and that he did it with the aid of a lunar cult, the Selenar. This secretive group has appeared on the fringes of the Horus Heresy a few times, most notably in The Solar War when the Sons of Horus capture their facility and coerce the leader of the Selenar into doing their bidding. So, when I saw that one of the Oaths of Wrath and Vengeance was titled “The Broken Helix,” and described Blackshields who had begun tampering with the forbidden genetic knowledge of their origins, I knew I had a starting point.
Narrative Informs Rules Inform Narrative
The Broken Helix replaces a number of the core abilities of basic astartes troops (Fury of the Legion, Heart of the Legion, Spite of the Legion, and Inexorable) in exchange for your choice of one of two sets of army-wide rules: Clone or Aberrant. Clones represent speedily mass produced space marines who suffer penalties to their Leadership and Intelligence in exchange for a native 5+ “Cloned Resilience” damage mitigation roll. Alternately, Aberrant marines take penalties to their Leadership and Ballistic Skill characteristics but gain +1 Str with an additional +1 Str when making successful charges, but further, they must charge if they have any enemy units within 12” of them at the beginning of the Assault phase. Neither of these rules can be applied to characters, it’s really just for your rank and file troops. For my purposes, I think “aberrants” will better model the story that’s coming together around my Blackshields. My guys are meddling with things man was not meant to know, not trying to speedily clone a whole army, so that’s my choice settled.
This is flavorful stuff; an army of enraged mutant space marines being led by a cadre of “normal” astartes tampering in genetic mysteries! I knew this would form the foundation of my Blackshields force but how, exactly?
I liked the idea of a band of outcast marines operating on the fringes of the conflict. I didn’t want them to all be from a single legion (or why not just make them a company from a full legion?) but perhaps a group from several legions drawn together for some common purpose. Knowing that I wanted these guys to be involved in genecult related shenanigans I started thinking about what might motivate the heavily indoctrinated warriors of several legions to mess around with their own genetics. The answer was readily apparent: they’re seeking to redress the various genetic flaws that mar the geneseed of so many legions. With that motivation I could find reason for disparate marines on both sides of the civil war to come together, perhaps they believe that the traitors acted as they did due to genetic predisposition and that by improving upon their genetics they could create a force to end the conflict. Maybe others in the group are simply seeking salvation from the inevitable doom of their own genetics. No matter what their individual motivations, this is a group who could readily fight on either side of the Horus Heresy depending on their needs at any given moment.
Critically, they don’t see themselves as villains, which is important in writing believable characters and organizations as no one is the villain of their own story. Even Magnus keeps insisting he did nothing wrong, after all…
Refining Concepts
With the basic idea established it was time to dig a little deeper into it. Who would be the ringleaders of my little group genetic monsters? Every legion has some genetic quirks, but some are worse than others. Initially I considered the following as legions which might be represented in my Blackshields:
Blood Angels (a genetic predisposition to cannibalism, the Red Thirst)
Emperor’s Children (a genetic wasting disease)
Space Wolves (Animorphing into dogs, the Curse of the Wulfen)
The Thousand Sons (an unstable genome that invariably leads to total physical & mental degeneration)
All of the above are legions that suffered some serious genetic issue, and I could further add the tainted Raptors of the Raven Guard, created by the primarch Corax during the Heresy in an effort to rebuild his legion after the events of the Dropsite Massacre.
With these in mind, it was time to start refining a little. I knew I wanted legionaries whose legions fought on both sides of the conflict because it makes for compelling narrative to see them forced to cooperate. However, we already have some gene-tampering in the canon of the Emperor’s Children and I don’t want to just retread Fabius Bile’s story, so I decided to nix the III legion from my Blackshields. That leaves three legions to draw upon, maybe four if I do decide to draw upon the chaos-tainted Raptors of the Raven Guard.
This is starting to come together narratively, a renegade group of Blood Angels, Space Wolves, and Thousand Sons, all seeking to meddle in their own genetics for both personal survival and what they see as a way to perhaps save their brethren. But how did these disparate groups come together? Something to mull over.
This was already plenty for me to chew on but I needed to choose a second Oath. I read over the various options and saw a few possibilities. The Legacy of Nikaea was a strong possibility since I knew I’d have some rogue Thousand Sons in my warband but I didn’t want to commit to a choice just yet.
The Compost Heap of Ideas
One of the best pieces of creative advice I’ve ever received was from a professional writer who refers to his approach to creation as the “compost method.” He said that before he’d start writing in earnest on a project, he’d spend a day or two thinking about it, making idle notes, watching related media, and generally spending a lot of time really focused on the ideas but not forcing himself to write unless it came easily. After that day or two he’d stop thinking about it entirely. He’d take the weekend off, or work on another project, or read something totally unrelated. He described this as “composting,” chucking all your raw creative materials into the compost pile and letting it decay and ferment. After a few days, almost invariably, a good idea of how to proceed with the project would occur and he’d find the writing to be relatively easy from there on out. The creative compost had matured into rich fertilizer in a way that it might never have done if he’d kept poking and prodding at it, or might have taken a lot longer to realize. I saw this method described years later in an episode of Mad Men, of all places, in which Don Draper advises his protégé, “Peggy, just think about it. Deeply. Then forget it. And an idea will jump up in your face.”
This approach has always served me well so I put down my supplements and Heresy fiction for a few days and lo and behold, while I was doing some unrelated writing an idea appeared fully formed in my mind.
The legions I have in mind are not ready allies so what would draw them together? What if the founding members of this warband, with their disparate motivations were separately drawn to a place or person? But who would that be and what would be so compelling that they’d choose to overcome their natural animosities in common cause? It would have to be a very formidable opportunity, indeed. What if they all found their way to the facilities of a rogue genewitch, perhaps a Selenar or even biomagus of the Mechanicum who promised them that with their help, they could overcome their flaws and improve upon even the Emperor’s work?
A scenario like that could see the survivors of the heresy’s massive and widespread battles find their way to some remote planet or station, one by one, and be inducted into this rogue genecult. Naturally, not all is as it seems. Perhaps the genewitch lured these warriors there for her own purposes. Likely, she sees these astartes as some combination of personal army and genetic stock for her own (nefarious?) purposes. She could be acting on her own without sanction from the traitors or loyalists, or she could even be in the pocket of a greater power on either side. Perhaps Fabius Bile has enlisted her to oversee some side project of his own, or maybe Malcador the Sigillite is running his own blacksite program in service to the Imperial cause. Of course, the astartes lured into this program likely suspect something is amiss, but desperate times make desperate men…
Filling in the Details
So, now we’ve got a small group of legionaries who were separately lured into the service of a schismatic genewitch building a small army for her own secretive purposes. Presumably she has access to a geneloom (I’m gonna call it a “genelathe”) or other equipment by which they populate their warband with vat-grown mutants. However an army, even a warband, needs supply, and this brings us to my second choice of Oath rules: The Spoils of Victory. As my Blackshields have started to take shape I’ve come to see them as raiders and pirates (though they probably think of themselves as something more noble, say, privateers), who are raiding battlefields for lost progenoid glands, genetic material, organs, and more mundanely, weapons, ammunition, and armor. The Spoils of Victory Oath means my units can’t make Sweeping Advances in melee, instead stopping to loot the dead and gaining extra Victory Points in game terms.
I was very tempted to take the Legacy of Nikaea instead. Psychic mutants would be pretty sweet, but I don’t think I want to theme the warband so heavily around the Thousand Sons and want to focus on the genetic tampering and ruthless character that their motivations must invariably breed. I’ll definitely include a psyker of some kind as an HQ choice to represent the presence of the Thousand Sons, though.
With the broadstrokes in place I’m starting to develop a sharper picture of what the army will look like in terms of collection. My warlord should represent the genetic/medical aspects I’ve defined above, which makes a Primus Medicae a pretty obvious choice. Normally, I’d probably take a Praetor for the Master of the Legion ability, but since Blackshields can’t take Rites of War, the only reason to take a Praetor is for the formidable statline. But I’m not very concerned about that and a mad doctor warlord sounds like a fun opportunity to do some kitbashing! As mentioned above, I’ll want to take a psyker of some kind as an HQ. Probably a Legion Librarian to represent a rogue Thousand Son. Since the warband is so focused on genetic salvage, it will make sense to take as many Apothecaries as I reasonably can and they’ll support a mix of aberrant Tactical and Despoiler/Assault squads to represent the genetic experiments they’re churning out as cannon fodder. HQs and officers will represent the relatively small number of full legionaries in the armies with all the rest being genetic chaff.
I’m starting to envision the warband as being focused on guerilla raids, so they probably don’t have much (or any) heavy armor, but rely upon jet bikes, landspeeders, and maybe light vehicles like rhinos and sabres. I could also envision them utilizing a few storm eagles as their main transport to and from an orbiting ship from which they launch their strikes before returning to whatever hidden facility the genewitch operates from.
And naturally, I’d like to be able to have that genewitch on the battlefield herself! To represent her, I think I’ll be taking a small allied detachment of her and her personal guard of genetic experiments. The Mechanicum list should provide some good “counts-as” material for this stuff. I think she’s probably a pretty small part of the actual force. If she had a proper army she wouldn’t need to dupe all these space marines!
From here I need to start figuring out a name for the warband, something juicy I can hang a cool logo on. My normal go-to for naming Warhammer stuff is stealing from heavy metal band names or songs but nothing along those lines struck me as cool. A little time spent googling about genetics wasn’t particularly fruitful either, but I ended up making a creative blind jump thinking about the mystery cult aspect of the Selenar which led me to read up on the mystery cults of the ancient world. I started imagining the genewitch behind my blackshields as something of a high tech priestess with the marines and her own acolytes making up her small congregation. The historical cults of Cybele (a goddess of motherhood and fertility among other things) caught my eye immediately:
- Cults of Cybele– A number of cults following Cybele, or Magna Mater, were present in Greece, Anatolia, and Rome. This cult followed Cybele, which was an Anatolian “mother goddess”. However, after it became present in Rome, the Romans reinvented Cybele as a Trojan goddess. In Rome, the cults of Cybele were often restricted and gained few members because of strictures against castration, which was considered a ritual necessary for initiation. This was later replaced with animal sacrifice, but numbers were still limited.
Now here’s something to sink our teeth into! Space marines may not be castrated but they can’t reproduce sexually and that’s a great angle for a weird sci-fi Cybele cult. My genewitch (obviously calling herself Cybele or something derived from that name) will make a fantastic priestess/mother figure for a bunch of space marines with their mandatory parental issues. Reading more about Cybele, I was delighted to learn that the Romans called this goddess “Magna Mater” which is also the name of the MacGuffin in Sons of the Selenar! It’s always satisfying when you realize you’re on a path of parallel creation and this means my little homebrewed genecult is already inadvertently anchored in existing Heresy lore.
Finally, part of the joy of creating in the world of Warhammer is crudely mashing up and disfiguring Greek and Latin words, so that’s just what I did along with the “genelathe” I invented above, and voila! my Blackshields warband/cult has a name: The Lathe of Cybell, or more casually among themselves, “The Lathe.”
I’m pretty happy with where this is going. The background I’ve got has plenty of room for further development, the name is enigmatic and evocative without being overly descriptive (and carries with it a nice little nod to Ursula K. Le Guin’s immortal scifi novel, The Lathe of Heaven). Rooting far future science fiction in the real world history of our deep past is fertile ground for convincing and intriguing versimiltude, especially as the Horus Heresy already has some themes and tropes lifted from the history and mythology of the bronze age.
Next, I need to figure out a paint scheme and flesh out my various characters backstories a little which will inform how they’re equipped and how the rest of the army will be built. I’ll only need a paragraph or so for my primus medicae warlord, Cybell the genewitch, and perhaps the librarian. With those nailed down the rest of the force should come together pretty easily. Color scheme is a little trickier but the Hellenistic influence I’ve introduced with the cult might be worth further exploration. Between the Blood Angels and Thousand Sons red is probably a good choice for a primary color, as even the Space Wolves often use a deep red as an accent. Surgical blues and greens might be an interesting choice here, as well, but I might want to reserve those for spot colors on all my apothecaries. Come to think of it, some gnarly blood effects probably have a place in this army, as well as a propensity for chainfists to get at all that precious genetic material…
Much to think about! The next step is going to be messing around with paint schemes a little and then I’ll return with a follow up blog as I further refine the writing above and start a test paint scheme.