Opening Post
- Location
- Dresden, Germany
It is the time of the Great Scouring.
Above Terra, Warmaster Horus has fallen, his soul obliterated by the mortally wounded Emperor of Mankind.
Yet even enthroned on the Golden Throne on Terra, a rotting carcass writhing invisibly with power from the Dark Age of Technology, the Emperor remains Master of Mankind, Lord over a million worlds by the power of his will and the might of his inexhaustible Armies.
And guided through the daemon-infested miasma of the Warp by the beacon of His Astronomican, His vengeful Sons pursue all those that dared to betray the Emperor.
For while none safe for the Gods of Chaos can be said to have won Horus's War, not truly, it is the Host of the Warmaster that lost the most.
They are the discarded tools of Masters that have given their souls to monstrous higher forces, some willingly, some under duress, all of them deluded.
They are scattered, divided against themselves and weak against their enemies, fighting amongst each other as much as they fight their common foe.
They are traitors, not deserving of mercy and not expecting any, and they are weak, forced to run and hide from Loyalist Guns, for there can be no victory in any stand-up battle, not now, not in their state.
Only few Havens remain, for these forces, fleeing in all directions in the aftermath of the Siege of Terra: those that do promise fates worse than death to those that take refuge within them. Warp Storms wound the fabric of reality, large and small, and though it is utter folly to enter them, to the desperate Renegades they are the only option.
One of these is the Eye of Terror, a vast anomaly towards the Galactic North. Another is the Maelstrom, smaller then the Eye of Terror yet still vast, located within the Ultima Segmentum.
Yet another is the Eternal Maw, located within the Segmentum Tempestus. Smaller than its brethren, the Eternal Maw is nonetheless vast, a churning vortex where the material and the immaterial intermix and break down.
The forces that fled here soon found that they were cut off from returning to the outside world: any attempt to escape it led, inevitably, to destruction.
Time is meaningless, within the Eternal Maw: for some who entered it, mere moments had passed since that point, while others have fought within its confines for centuries. For all that dwell within it, however, it is an inescapable prison, the confines of their entire world. Some have been born within its confines, never knowing any other life, while others still cling to the outside, to the Imperium they helped forge and the war they lost.
Yet resigned to their fate or raging against it, none swallowed by the Eternal Maw can hope to escape it: a feat such as that is known by all to be impossible.
Until now, that is.
Above Terra, Warmaster Horus has fallen, his soul obliterated by the mortally wounded Emperor of Mankind.
Yet even enthroned on the Golden Throne on Terra, a rotting carcass writhing invisibly with power from the Dark Age of Technology, the Emperor remains Master of Mankind, Lord over a million worlds by the power of his will and the might of his inexhaustible Armies.
And guided through the daemon-infested miasma of the Warp by the beacon of His Astronomican, His vengeful Sons pursue all those that dared to betray the Emperor.
For while none safe for the Gods of Chaos can be said to have won Horus's War, not truly, it is the Host of the Warmaster that lost the most.
They are the discarded tools of Masters that have given their souls to monstrous higher forces, some willingly, some under duress, all of them deluded.
They are scattered, divided against themselves and weak against their enemies, fighting amongst each other as much as they fight their common foe.
They are traitors, not deserving of mercy and not expecting any, and they are weak, forced to run and hide from Loyalist Guns, for there can be no victory in any stand-up battle, not now, not in their state.
Only few Havens remain, for these forces, fleeing in all directions in the aftermath of the Siege of Terra: those that do promise fates worse than death to those that take refuge within them. Warp Storms wound the fabric of reality, large and small, and though it is utter folly to enter them, to the desperate Renegades they are the only option.
One of these is the Eye of Terror, a vast anomaly towards the Galactic North. Another is the Maelstrom, smaller then the Eye of Terror yet still vast, located within the Ultima Segmentum.
Yet another is the Eternal Maw, located within the Segmentum Tempestus. Smaller than its brethren, the Eternal Maw is nonetheless vast, a churning vortex where the material and the immaterial intermix and break down.
The forces that fled here soon found that they were cut off from returning to the outside world: any attempt to escape it led, inevitably, to destruction.
Time is meaningless, within the Eternal Maw: for some who entered it, mere moments had passed since that point, while others have fought within its confines for centuries. For all that dwell within it, however, it is an inescapable prison, the confines of their entire world. Some have been born within its confines, never knowing any other life, while others still cling to the outside, to the Imperium they helped forge and the war they lost.
Yet resigned to their fate or raging against it, none swallowed by the Eternal Maw can hope to escape it: a feat such as that is known by all to be impossible.
Until now, that is.
Hello, everybody, and welcome to Warlords of the Eternal War, a game of Player-created Chaos Warbands fighting each other in the (more or less, as the concept of linear time is somewhat broken down) direct aftermath of the Horus Heresy.
The game takes place entirely within the titular Warpstorm of the Eternal Maw, a Warp Storm created by myself for the purpose of this game. My aim is to create a feeling similar to that of the Legion Wars of canon, with many Warbands jostling with each other for influence, competing ambitions clashing, any would-be overlord hard-pressed to keep his allies and subordinates from killing each other and forced to make deals and play them as well the other powerful forces within the Eternal Maw against each other to stay on top. The Game will run until an Abaddon-style uniting figure emerges and a successful breakout from the storm has occurred, though to become such a figure is far from the only goal attainable within it: if everything functions as I imagine it, there will be plenty of ambitions, useful both for creating conflict between players but also for creating compromise.
That said, it is still a game concerning the Forces of Chaos: they already committed the greatest act of treason imaginable to them, and any smaller acts of betrayal are likely to seem small in comparison: easy to commit, yet also (somewhat) easier to forgive (provided a proper pound of flesh is extracted, of course).
Character Creation:
The Warbands, and the Warlords that lead them, are to be created using this Spreadsheet,
Details on the Forces and Institutions which you and your Warlord can be allied to will be available on the Discord here, which is mandatory for all prospective players, as it also provides a space for quick and easy communication between players, a place for questions to be asked for me, and generally a community to exchange ideas and feedback and to possibly rp with one another. Information on the various NPCs and factions that can be hold a allied, rivalled, indebted to, etc. are also available there.
To apply, a filled-out Character Sheet, either within SV or as a linked Google Sheet or Document, is all that is neccessary. That said, any further flavor provided by you will be appreciated, as it'll allow me to come up with potential narrative hooks for the characters.
I will be limiting the number of characters within the game to twenty, provided more then that even apply, of course. This is to reduce workload on myself, as this is my first game and I wish to provide a somewhat decent quality in reports, something that likely will not be possible if I have to do them for more then twenty characters. Obviously, if less people apply, that won't be an issue, but I figured it'd be only fair to warn ahead of time.
Please remember, in creating your sheet, that this is primarily a narrative game, and that the final interpretation of what Flaws and Perks mean lies with me. Flaws are Flaws, and the Points gained through taking them are awarded for a reason: they can and will present a downside, ones which might be significant, depending on the cost of the Flaw. Further it should be noted that I do not believe in suboptimal builds: there is no skeleton key to winning that game, and though some builds might be better at certain things then others, the main drive for making a character should be whereever inspiration takes you, not whatever is an optimal or suboptimal build. A Character using a 1000 points might be exactly as enjoyable as one using 4000, and they will certainly be able to defeat each other, provided of course clever strategy and tactics taking advantage of their own Perks and the opponents Flaws is utilized.
Please remember also that you are not playing people in any way resembling the good guys here: you are playing Chaos Space Marines, men already gene-engineered and indocrtinated to be absolutely remorseless killers for a conquering regime and then turned from the service of that regime, the few restraints they might have had utterly swept aside. They are now, by and large, serving Gods actively feeding on the suffering of sentient beings, Gods that award awful actions taken in their name. They have, can, and will perform awful deeds: that should be kept in mind, when playing and writing them. This does not mean that they can't be compelling characters, of course, or that they can't have sympathetic character traits, but it should always be kept in mind that these are awful people, their actions not justifiable by any standards.
Turns:
Time....doesn't really work all that well, within the Eternal Maw, as it is a Warp Storm and the laws of reality tend to work badly if they work at all, and so turns will not be covering anything approaching a discrete amount of time: instead, the time covered will be kept intenionally vague, mostly covering whatever happens from one narrative beat to the next. I will attempt to keep up a relatively quick pace, but bear in mind that there might be the occassional delays: I am just one guy, and I do have other things besides running games on the internet to do (I know, it's sad).
Still I'm committed to keeping up the pace as best I can, and will try to warn ahead of time for any significant delays. Similarly, though missing a turn will obviously come with some opportunity cost, it can also be simply explained as the Warband being affected by the weird time distortion of the Eternal Maw, allowing people to jump in after abscence.
Stats:
Stats for the Warbands of the Players will be provided, and updated with each turn. They will be kept somewhat vague, and often not represent the actual strenght of a Warband all that well. Still, they might be useful, and so will be provided.
Map:
Trying to map out the ever-shifting, unreal nature of a Warp Storm is an impossible endeavor, and there will therefor not be a map in the traditional sense. Instead, each turn will bring a list of potentially interesting going-ons to react to, with most of these being reachable from anywhere within the Warp, though who reaches them at what time is of course determined by the capricious whims of the Gods more then by any notion of physical distance. There are some important fixed locations, such as Player Homeworlds and those associated with the various NPC Factions available within the Lore Section of the Discord Server: these will be compiled within a Google Sheet that will be made available at Game Start.
The Character Application Process will run for a week from the post of this Thread, closing at midnight (CET) on the 4th of December: if there is a significant slow-down beforehand, I might ask in thread if it can be closed earlier, and do so if there is no request for more time. You can, however, take your time regardless: this is not a matter of first come, first serve.
I hope you all have fun making your Warband, and to provide a game experience enjoyable to all. Here once again the Discord Link. I will be glad to answer any questions either there, or here within the Thread.
Last edited:
