IN THE GRIM DARKNESS
OF THE FAR FUTURE
THERE IS ONLY WAR.
It is the 41st Millenium, and humanity is beset on all sides, from without and from within. The Imperium of Mankind faces threats from the mutant, the heretic, and the alien. To allow them to triumph is to doom the galaxy, so it commits unspeakable atrocities with each passing day to forestall the end. It is now a rotting edifice and mockery of the God-Emperor's dream, who is forced to watch with his decaying husk bound to the Golden Throne on Holy Terra.
There are those though who dare hope. Who dare believe that this crumbling vision can yet be saved or restored, one way or another. Perhaps it may not be the Imperium then, or perhaps it will require asking for aid from the unthinkable. They are the fleeting flickers of light that combined together may yet save the universe.
But this is not their story. This is a story about those whose fates are not quite so grand, but no less worthy of chronicle. It is a tale about the masses who fight not only to serve the Imperium, but to survive another day, another battle, another war. They are the countless heroes who entrust their lives to you, the many faceless comrades you will lose along the way. But their story shall never be forgotten, their fates recorded as the martyrs that may one day be remembered.
Perhaps you will join them in time. Assuming that there is an Imperium left.
Choose your branch of service.
[ ] Adeptus Astartes The superhuman Space Marines, among the mightiest defenders of the Imperium. Once they were the promise of the final warriors humanity would ever need to see peace. But now they are the bare minimum that is holding the Imperium together, keeping traitors and xenos at bay even as they fall.
[ ] Adeptus Mechanicus The legions of tech-priests from Mars that care for the Imperium's machines, an empire unto themselves. They are the worshippers of the Omnissiah that claim dominion over technology, the caretakers of ancient wonders whose purpose has been long forgotten. Their pursuit of knowledge is one filled with holy enlightenment mixed with fatal adventurism.
[ ] The Inquisition The secret agents of the Throne, charged with protecting the Imperium from that which requires special care. They are those who understand what needs to be done to prevent further tragedy, to expose what is hidden in the shadows. It is their expertise that determines which can be saved and which is already damned, the power to condemn entire worlds if they so deem it.
[ ] Astra Militarum The endless Imperial Guard, the masses that hold the line in the face of unspeakable horrors. Drawn from innumerable worlds from countless backgrounds, they are the common soldiers with whose blood the Imperium is watered everyday. They are the hammer and the harbinger, unafraid of whatever sacrifice is needed to buy time.
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- "Didn't you say that you could only really do two quests at best to maintain quality?" Yes, which is why this is not a narrative character-driven quest. It is a narrative wargame quest that honestly is aiming for a smaller scale than what it could be. This is sort of what Reluctant Vassal eventually evolved from, but with far less scale.
- So this is not a "fix the Imperium" campaign. You are not grand actors with the means to try and reform it, or who just start over anew. You're going to be the people who buy time at the frontlines that enable others to do it.
- Most rules and stats will be coming straight out of 8th Edition, or at least what Battlescribe uses. It's got the most catalogue of stuff to pull from, and I'm not above doing homebrewing. Or Rule of Cool.
- As for what to expect, it'll be wargame battles that have persistent tracking between fights. Stuff like troop upgrades, special weapons, all that fun stuff that is normally taken for granted on an army list is fair game for progression here.
-This is just picking a general idea of what sort of background dressing/setting you are interested in. You'll choose specific subfactions later within each. I will note that in particular, the Inquistion subfactions are the ones who are significantly different between the three primary Ordos. You could even say that they're different armies.
- Very long moratorium for questions, discussions, and suggestions. Note that worst comes to worst and ya'll die, we'll just start over from character creation with new options based on what you had accomplished in the time.
24 hour moratorium to grab models.