On Chastity

 "And from that gaping maw of darkness there roared and seethed a great stinging wind that choked at the lung and burnt the eyes and skin, and NONE could hear themselves within the terror! And the great wind roared and reared and swelled unto a vast and fearsome whirlwind that did dower beyond the highest reaches of the sky, blocking it out with burning smoke and brimstone, and the whirlwind howled and raged and tossed them about as dust before the storm, WHIPPING them round and round within the burning tempest until they all at once SCREAMED, SCREAMED with all their might that the pain might end, yet NO SOUND did leave their broken bodies that was not lost amongst the roar of the tempest an' the lightning! 

Then did the lightning crack and split the tempest that it might send forth a great rain, not of water nor of blood but of BOILING OIL, and their skin was lashed and scared and seared 'til red and black yet still the rain of boiling oil did not cease, raking across their wretched frames again and again and as one they cried forth in begging that 'EMPEROR is LORD! EMPEROR deliver us from ruin! EMPEROR deliver us from darkness!' 

And all them that were knew in their hearts that the END OF DAYS was at hand, and all them twisted and quaked with almighty terror at the judgement of the fire! 

YET! 

Yet it was not the end. 

For at once there came from on high a vast and awesome blast of trumpets, clear as the dawn and clarion to smite all sound before its ring! And the heavens broke, and before the pit did usher forth a great host of glorious golden light that split the eye and drove back the darkness in fear, and the lightning and the tempest did part and scatter! 

Then did there come a glorious voice speaking, 'I shall salve thy wounds and raise ye all unto the highest of heavens, where the clouds do not reach and where light is everlasting, 

I shall strike down thy foes with fire and fury and plunge them to the blackest pit, there to wail in horror as their flesh rots before them forevermore, 

I shall raise you up, all ye who are my chosen people, and carry you beyond pain and death, beyond heaven and hell unto a great shining kingdom of gold there to stay at my table in the eternal glory of absolute purity, if you will but honour my name in deed and word and body and soul!' 

And their shame was washed in the fire, and they did KNOW in their very hearts that they heard the word of their MASTER, the once and forever KING!" 

And such it is that when the night is darkest and most terrible, when all that is good and noble seems lost, does the most glorious and radiant of LIGHT shine through the filth and the storm to smite away the lighting and the tempest! 

Take heed and remember all you here today, that it was only when the men were lost in the very deepest and vilest bowls of the pit, only when they were utterly broken, hanging before the very precipice of DAMNATION, that it was at last that the EMPEROR did come to their aid, and it is this that is His covenant to mankind that in our darkest hour HE SHALL RAISE US FROM PERDITION! 

I will not lie to you. I have no doubt we are all aware these are dark days before us, the direst of signs are there for any with the eyes to look. It's true, times are harsh, the struggle before us is immense and it will only get more savage and terrible before the end.

But! 

That is precisely, PRECISELY, why it is now more than ever than you should take heart, and have FAITH, and fortify yourself with the TRUTH that is the GOD EMPEROR OF ALL MANKIND! For just as He reached down His hand in salvation for those fearful men in the pit, so too shall He again deliver the ultimate victory of man for all those who hold loyal to him NO MATTER THE COST! 

I was like them once. Once I too was lost and alone, cast adrift in the empty Babylon of progress, my body numbed by the false promises of comfort while my soul screamed out in excruciation yet I WAS SAVED! I opened my eyes to the darkness and corruption around me and opened my eyes to the TRUTH of the gospel of the God Emperor our once and true Lord, and when I gave myself unto his most sublime mercy I was DELIVERED from my torment, my sin was NAILED to the wheel and my soul was washed anew white as snow by the blood of my scars! 

Now I stand before you to tell you all to take heart, for all we need do to find our way to the Emperor and His Kingdom Of Gold is but to let go of our doubt and commit ourselves utterly to His word, in mind and deed and body and soul, and give unto him our ultimate loyalty unto death my brothers it is NEVER too late to renounce the darkness and cast yourself into the shining radiant purity of THE LIGHT! 

Let all who would stand with Him then behold the very face of His Light now, in the radiant purity of His Angels who walk among us, those personally saved by the Spirit Hand of The God Emperor, His most beloved Sororitas, keepers of the faith! 

Tremendous news! After so much hard work and loyalty to The Emperor my keeper, my faith has been rewarded with the first actual unit for my Witch Hunters. 

Squad Chastity is one of three planned 'assault' units of Battle Sisters. Much like my Tau, I'm building this army with a distinction between offensive core troop units equipped for going out and attacking the other side and defensive core troop units intended for locking down important sites and guarding against the other side coming out and attacking me (the key difference here of course being the total absence of a third force of flexible tactical units that can be used for either mission as needed). 

As alluded to earlier, this army represents my first ever clean sheet colour scheme, not reverse-engineered from any GW studio examples. Instead it comes from my own real life experience, being lifted directly from the school uniform of a Catholic Girls' School that some of my friends went to. In particular some goth girls I knew from there largely hated the place with a passion, and their horror stories about it left me with plentiful inspiration for grim dark religious horror about grim dark religious horror 40k factions. 

(One particular tall glass of gothic brooding with a fondness for fire and blood curdling threats left an especially strong impression on me, and ended up inspiring the basis for one of the characters in this army and a number of other villains across the Warhammers and beyond as I processed the apocalyptic fallout of an attempt to date her, but that is not a story for this blog) 

Most notably, ever since I have always seen the Sisters of Battle as Catholic Schoolgirls In Space. Forget that nuns with guns nonsense, they are absolutely Catholic Schoolgirls with rocket guns and power armour (right down to actually being Schola Progenium brats in the codex lore), not least because that concept is SO MUCH MORE BRUTALLY GRIM-DARK, between the child soldier connotations and the implications of them being bound to and bossed around by an order of sleazy old beardos with near unlimited power and near zero oversight or accountability. The Ecclesiarchy is supposed to be all the worst parts of organised Abrahamic religion thrown into a telepod and given half a space empire to do as they please, and I am here for that as the nemesis for my grey Supermarionation Space Wellsians. 

Anyway, this all culminated in one fateful evening after school when I had the sudden divine vision to try and take the uniform colours of this Catholic Girls' School and see how they looked on the Sisters of Battle in Dawn of War: Soulstorm. The final result was a lovely blue-white-gold colour scheme that I was so delighted with that I knew then and there that if I ever got the chance to do a Witch Hunters army on the tabletop that would be the colour scheme for the Sisters of Battle in it. The rest, as you can see, is history. 

This particular incarnation of the colour scheme takes full advantage of the total freedom of colour combination in real life model painting to introduce some colour-coding for the different ranks. Thus, the regular Battle Sisters have lighter medium-blue robes (the source material's colour for junior-year students) while the veterans like the Superior leading this squad wear dark blue robes (the source material's colour for senior-years). 

For those playing at home, the robes are respectively: 

Medium Blue - Regal Blue base, layered with Caledor Sky Enchanted Blue and highlighted with a 50:50 mix of Caledor Sky Enchanted Blue and Lothern Blue Icy Blue 

Dark Blue - Abaddon Black Chaos Black base, layered with Regal Blue and highlighted with a 50:50 mix of Regal Blue and Caledor Sky Enchanted Blue 

The white armour was built up in drybrushes starting from Mechanicus Standard Grey and then working up to Dawnstone Codex Grey then a 50:50 mix of Dawnstone Codex Grey and Administratum Grey Fortress Grey, then pure Administratum Grey Fortress Grey and finally White Scar Skull White. After some sage deliberation I settled on the grey-based white palette rather than blue-white palette, both shown in the painting guide featured in White Dwarf #292(UK). 

I also decided to use red lenses on the gunsights, both to act as a nice spot colour among all those blues and whites as well as to act as a perfect visual contrast to the green gunsights on my Tau. 

The Sisters themselves received a range of hair colours, including a few skunk stripes for maximum 2003 gothic energy, and as a throwback to one of my favourite 40k art pieces - a corner vignette in Cities of Death featuring a Battle Sister blasting away with her bolter through a ruined window while incoming fire impacts all around her. 

This illustration alone is a big chunk of why I rate Cities of Death equal to Codex: Cityfight. I just wish the PDF scan I got this from hadn't literally cut it off at the knees. You can feel the Evanescence and Within Temptation radiating from it

The same artwork was also major factor in my decision to go with dark grey urban rubble for the bases. From the outset I knew I had to base these models in a Witch Hunter army's natural habitat - sweeping through a dark gloomy Imperial city, wiping heretics and deviants away like the vermin they are with holy fire and blessed bolt-shells! This was also done with an eye towards building up this army with a central focus on Cityfighting for similar reasons. 

Ironically for being inspired by a Catholic school, all these blues and whites and golds ended up being wonderfully reminiscent of Orthodox Church aesthetics (which I have always deeply and openly loved), which ended up being the genesis for the army's backstory as being rooted in the Eastern Ecclesiarchy, a de facto third Convent/Synod of the Ministorum responsible for managing and enlightening the Ultima Segmentum and Eastern Fringe; in theory a subordinate offshoot from the main branches on Terra and Ophelia, but for all practical intents and purposes an equal and autonomous branch, a status quo accepted by all because of both the logistical difficulties of directly managing the galactic east from Ophelia in the galactic south and Terra in the galactic centre-west, and because much like Ultramar it ensures the Imperium has a solid power base on the other side of the galaxy from its capital worlds. 

In turn its primary Order Militant of Adepta Sororitas, the Order of The Crux Celestas that these Battle Sisters belong to, is technically an Order Minoris (though no-one is quite sure anymore whether it's supposed to be a subsidiary of the Convent Sanctorum or Convent Prioris, such information being long since lost to the ages), but has grown large and independent enough to be a full Convent in its own right, easily a match for any of the original six Orders Militant in size, equipment and significance. 

And of course all this puts the army in the perfect spot to get into lots of fights with my Tau. 

Unfortunately despite my best efforts the camera still seems to hate this colour scheme, stubbornly refusing to get the colour balance on the blues just right and leaving them appearing much lighter than they actually are in reality. The only exception so far has been this work in progress shot of the squad collected together in a corner of my painting space. 

But such matters are of little concern in the Emperor's divine plan! Now here, take plenty of these pamphlets and be sure to share them with all your family and friends. And remember we'll be meeting to discuss and study the Emperor's Holy Creed every Tuesday night, Thursday night and Sunday morning. And be sure to stop by our first community pot-luck next Saturday! 

I Lied

 I don't have Netflix. 

Die, Heretic.

A New Chapter

 My fellow Citizens, 

I come to you tonight in the midst of a truly historic moment. By now it is all too clear that we are in the grip of an unimaginable cataclysm that shows no sign of stopping. Indeed, all signs suggest that things will only get worse before they get better. Make no mistake, the storm we currently find ourselves in is here to stay, and we will not find reprieve any time soon. 

In such unprecedented times as these, we must be flexible and dynamic. If we are to have any chance of progress, we must adapt to the new changes and the new opportunities that present themselves. We must be prepared to adjust to a new situation, and sometimes we must be prepared to reevaluate our oldest and most foundational traditions. 

For over two-score millennia we have prided ourselves on defying the Space Marine hegemony compeleld on us by Games Workshop, and taken great satisfaction from our identity of independence that grew from it. We have long been a bastion against the hegemonic constructs of Games Workshop's marketing, and the crown jewel of that rebellion has been our fervent denial to ever host Space Marine models within our borders. 

But the Space Marines too have suffered under these arduous times just as we have, and now at last they too have found themselves betrayed by GW. They are no longer the face of GW's hegemonic power structure, and they are no longer the 40k player base's boot upon our throat. Yet even as they have found themselves cast out from power, usurped by unfathomable products of GW's CAD complex, we have stubbornly upheld our long-standing prejudices against them. 

Until now. 

My fellow Citizens, as of midnight tonight, at long last, the Non-Space Marine Player Charter of 2002 and the Space Marine Act of 2004 are to hereby be officially revoked. From this day forward, the Kakapo Empire will officially grant political asylum to any Space Marine refugees from 1998 to 2004 that seek it, and we will officially recognise their right to sanctuary and to apply for full Citizenship within the Kakapo Empire. 

For too long we have considered the Space Marines our adversaries. Make no mistake, we are now trapped in the same storm together, and only by putting aside our long-standing differences and uniting our efforts together can we weather this onslaught. 

Already the first groups of Space Marine refugees are making their way to our territory even now. I implore you, my fellow Citzens, one and all, to strive to ensure they are welcomed warmly as new friends, and made to feel comfortable in their new home. 

Well, there it is. It's happened. After 20 years, it's finally happened. Hell has frozen over, pigs have taken flight, cats and dogs are living together in mass hysteria. 

I'm starting a Space Marine army. 

Of course I'm also starting a Dark Eldar army too, for much the same reasons, but I've never had an official militant policy of prohibition against the Dark Eldar, and have seriously entertained the idea of a Dark Eldar army for a while now. So that's not really too earthshaking. Not like the Space Marines, that I promised I would  never collect, ever. 

When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married. 

It was always foreshadowed I suppose. The first Warhammer 40,000 model I ever saw was a Space Marine Landspeeder. When I first happened upon the big store display of Warhammer 40,000 stuff in the local Toyworld one fateful afternoon, there were no Tau boxes on display, so my attention instead wandered to the strange mysterious yellow flying APC I could see on one of the boxes. It wasn't until over a decade later that I was able to put two and two together and figured out that the mysterious flying APC I had spotted as a 7 year old was, in fact, a Landspeeder that my memory had warped - in particular, I had got it into my head that it was a hovering troop transport because I had mistaken the very conspicuous maintenance hatches on the side for doors to a troop compartment and my developing myopia had fused the entire cockpit and two crewmen together into a single enclosed bridge. 

And then of course later on there was the Blood Angels army I happened upon one night when my parents decided to take a shortcut to the Chinese restaurant were going out to which happened to bring us past the local Games Workshop store. 

But despite all that I have, for pretty much my entire hobby life, been legendary for my loathing of Space Marines and my fanatical refusal to ever start a Space Marine army. For decades I resented the publicity and central framing the Space Marines got, and the fact that the entire 40k player base seemed to lean into it, with the fury of a thousand suns, and swore I would be the only 40k player in history to never start a Space Marine army or even own a single Space Marine model, and make my name that way. As the years went on I took enormous, fierce pride in being the cool rebellious non-conformist doggedly sticking to an exclusive hobby diet of alien factions while all the sheeple around me mindlessly consumed their bland Ultramarines or whatever. 

Of course, deep down the truth was that as a Tau player I was being relentlessly marginalised by the wider 40k fanbase, and when you're on the fringes of the group often what you desperately want most of all is to be in the centre. Natalie Wynn is definitely onto something with her Envy-Contempt Sublimation thinking. 

I probably would have kept up this anti-Space Marine policy forever if it were not for GW. It is the one of the world's greatest ironies that the release of 8th edition and the NuMarines ultimately convinced me to start a Space Marine army. See, when GW released the NuMarines and re-framed them to be the stars of the spotlight, it meant that the Space Marines were no longer the golden poster boys they had always been. And that made them cool. That made it OK for me to like them, because now I could hypothetically collect a Space Marine army and still maintain my anti-establishment non-conformist street cred. It was the loophole I needed to reconcile the two impulses. I could collect some Space Marines, and I would be just preserving another part of Warhammer 40,000 for posterity and providing another opposing force for my Tau and Witch Hunters.. so long as I never, ever touched any of those filthy NuMarines. 

With my Envy-Contempt Sublimation re-targeted, I was then able to consider two factors. The first was a shocking realisation of just how little of the Space Marine range actually remains in circulation. While I had been aware for years about just how many GW model lines had been discontinued, I never really gave much thought to how that had impacted the Space Marine range, because they're the poster boys. The star prodigies. GW's flagship product. GW might discontinue other model ranges, but surely they would never shut down model lines for their flagship product. It was only as I sat down, looked through an archived copy of the Citadel Miniatures Catalogues and compared them to the GW website that I finally had the genuinely sobering revelation of just how much the Space Marine range had suffered - pretty much none of it remains available any more. And with that, I then realised just how important it was to preserve the classic Oldhammer Space Marine range from 2003 for posterity, just like all the others. 

The other was seeing an opportunity to do just this. See, I love Jungle Trees. Like, a lot. They are easily my favourite Warhammer 40,000 terrain kit of all time, and easily one of my top 3 GW terrain pieces of all time, and I desperately wish I had gotten more of them when they were still available from GW. In truth, a lot of my quest to collect classic Warhammer 40,000 Battleforce and army boxes is motivated entirely by the drive to acquire the Jungle Tree sprues they contain. Rick Sanchez has his Szechuan McNugget sauce, I have my Jungle Trees. And I've noticed that one of the best remaining sources of Jungle Trees (and their cousins the Ruined Buildings and Battlefield Accessories that I also crave) is in rescuing 3rd edition Warhammer 40,000 starter box sets off Ebay. And those starter box sets also happen to feature a bunch of Space Marine models in them. So if I'm going to be rescuing a bunch of Warhammer 40,000 starter boxes from Ebay, then I might as well put those Space Marine freebies to good use. 

This was all starting to coalesce together into a solid action plan right around December last year, when something truly crazy happened. Games Workshop re-released the starter box for Warhammer 40,000. Now, it was only the army component of the starter box, there were none of the terrain kits and no rulebook or whippy sticks, but on close inspection it appeared that the model sprues for the Space Marine and Dark Eldar sculpts featured a copyright date of 1998 on them, which meant that they were very likely complete recreations of the original sculpts, painstakingly close if not identical. This in turn meant that GW had made a conscious step towards meeting my demands of it, so I removed some of my economic trade sanctions on it and ordered a set for Boxing Day of last year as a show of good faith. 

Supply chain issues due to the general apocalypse going on in the world at the moment meant that it then took almost a year for the box to get shipped to me, and now here we are, with the start of a brand new Space Marine army. Of course it probably won't actually get painted any time soon, not only because there are more pressing things I'm prioritising but also because before I can paint it I have to settle on which Chapter I want to paint them as. 

See, for those of you not in the know, the Space Marines in Warhammer 40,000 are organised into a bunch of different groups called Chapters. Each one has a very, very, VERY distinct colour scheme, lore and identity, though most Chapters can be grouped together as 'Codex' chapters, which means they're normal Space Marine Chapters that don't really do anything unusual. Chapters are a very big deal for a Space Marine army, and there are several ones I like the colour scheme and/or concept of, which makes figuring out which one I want to do a massive headache. 

Right now, here is the current short-list: 

FLAME FALCONS 

Pros: 

- The COOLEST Space Marine Chapter ever. 

- No, seriously. 

- They're Space Marines that fight ON FIRE. It doesn't get any cooler than that (for Space Marines anyway) 

- The Cursed Founding is easily the best part of Space Marine lore, ever. 

- Major mystique and non-conformist points for playing a Cursed Founding Chapter. 

- The Cursed Founding rules for Flame Falcons in Chapter Approved are pretty neat. 

- Can have fun expanding on the Chapter's recent history. 

- An excellent outlet for all my fire-related puns, leaving my Witch Hunters free to focus on in-character roleplay. 

- No official paint scheme means I can have fun with colours. 

Cons: 

- Models would require extensive greenstuff work, since they're all on fire. 

- Sculpting greenstuff fire is a pain in the ass. 

- I kind of want to preserve the 2003 Space Marine model range as it was, and covering all the Space Marines in greenstuff fire defeats that purpose. 

- No official paint scheme means I run the risk of getting constantly harassed for not painting them right. 

- The Cursed Founding rules restrict some of the unit options I can use, and I want to feature as many Space Marine units as possible for maximum diversity and to preserve the entire range for posterity. 

- I'm really not sure I'm comfortable with covering precious irreplaceable 1998 - 2003 models with greenstuff fire. 

- "You're using the normal Space Marine codex for a Cursed Founding Chapter? You have no respect for the lore or the unique character of the army! WAAC! WAAAAAAAC!!" 

- No official paint scheme means I actually have to plan one myself, and still avoid it being too similar to all the other Chapter paint schemes. 

- OH DEAR SWEET GOD NO IT'S THE EMPIRE PROBLEM ALL OVER AGAIN! 

LAMENTERS 

Pros: 

- The second coolest Space Marine Chapter ever. 

- The most relatable Space Marine Chapter ever. 

- Really, if I were a Space Marine I 100% would be a Lamenter given the way my life has gone. 

- "Blood Angels but without the Blood Angel problems except they get horrific bad luck instead" is just a really neat concept. 

- The Cursed Founding is easily the best part of Space Marine lore, ever. 

- Major mystique and non-conformist points for playing a Cursed Founding Chapter. 

- The Cursed Founding rules for Lamenters are pretty neat. 

- All the Natural 1s and appalling game losses I ever have with the army would be completely 100% in character. 

- No, really, I relate to the Lamenters on a cellular level. 

Cons: 

- Paint Scheme isn't the prettiest. 

- Chapter Logo has no transfer decals. 

- Chapter Logo incorporates a checkered background, which is a PAIN IN THE ASS to paint. 

- Chapter Logo incorporates a black and white checkered background, which is even more of a PAIN IN THE ASS to paint. 

- The fucking 2010s retcon. 

- The fucking 2010s retcon took away what made them actually interesting and just made them Blood Angels but shitty. 

- Fuck do I really have to engage with the fucking 2010s retcon. 

- Fuck it's going to get brought up even if I refuse to engage with it isn't it. 

- "Ughuuh, you know that Ackchually they have Death Company all along right? Your army isn't legal and is wrong for a Lamenters army!" 

- "Ughuuh, you know there's this little thing called KANOHN that doesn't care about your feelings right? Dumb baby casual git gud" 

-  "You're using the normal Space Marine codex for a Cursed Founding Chapter? You have no respect for the lore or the unique character of the army! WAAC! WAAAAAAAC!!"

- "You're not using the Blood Angels codex for Lamenters? You have no respect for the lore or the unique character of the army! WAAC! WAAAAAAAC!!" 

BLOOD ANGELS 

Pros: 

- I have an AWESOME concept for a Blood Angels army 

- Spoiler Alert: 90s Comic Book Blood Angels 

- Think About it: Blood Angels themed around the 90s era of Comic Books 

- It'd be so cool and so meta! 

- And they could be led by Rob Liefeld as a Space Marine! 

- This concept is everything my brain has ever wanted to think about 

- I'm actually pretty confident about painting red. 

- Baal Predator goes BPPPPPPPT! 

Cons: 

- Models would require massive amounts of additional pouches to really sell the joke home 

- Space Marine model sprues contain insufficient amounts of pouches for this. More would need to be sourced. 

- I kind of want to preserve the 2003 Space Marine model range as it was, and covering all the Space Marines in pouches defeats that purpose. 

- The Blood Angels army is not a Codex Chapter and is has a very distinct array of unit options and fighting style. 

- I kind of want to showcase a normal Codex: Space Marines army for posterity. 

- Baal Predator is a Unicorn online 

- I don't know I really want to lean into the whole Jump Pack thing. I'd kind of like a shootier, more footslogging Space Marien army. 

- Would have to source a bunch of extra models for Death Company. 

- "You're using a Blood Angels army with no Honour Guard or Veteran Assault Squads? Or Furioso Dreadnoughts? You have no respect for the lore or the unique character of the army! WAAC! WAAAAAAAC!!"

ULTRAMARINES 

Pros: 

- THE archetypal Space Marine army, which would be a plus given the goal is to showcase the classic Space Marine army for posterity. 

- Has all the unit options I'd like to try. 

- Has all the thematic justification for fighting my Tau and Witch Hunters a lot. 

- Captain Motherfucking Ardias 

- Captain Ardias is a stone-cold badass and the single coolest Space Marine character GW ever created. 

- No seriously forget all the ninnies from Dawn of War. They only wish thy could be as awesome as Captain Ardias. 

- Holy shit I could kitbash a model for Captain Ardias. 

- Holy shit I could use that model of Captain Ardias alongside the models of Ui'Kais I'm going to make. 

- I HOLD YOUR DEATH IN MY HANDS!!  

- Let your DARK SOUL feel the LIGHT OF THE EMPEROR!! 

- FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELL THE IMPERIUM'S MIGHT!! 

-  THE EMPEROR ORDERS YOU TO DIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEE!! 

Cons: 

- The most boring of Space Marine Chapters 

- Not the biggest fan of the colour blue

- Forever Tainted by Matt Ward 

- Will attract ALL the stupid memes 

- Will attract ALL the mean comments 

- "Urrhurrhurrr Rawbutt Gurllymann!" 

- "uLtRaSmUrRfS!" 

- "OMG r u in love with Matt Ward?" 

- Really need a 1990s Ultramarine army to really hammer home the Chaos Gate memes 

IMPERIAL FISTS 

Pros: 

- Always liked the colour scheme 

- Yellow and red is a winning combination 

- Was the first Space Marine colour scheme I ever saw 

- The other archetypal Space Marine chapter, which helps with the posterity mission 

- Also have all the unit options I'd like to try 

- Kind of like the defensive specialists/siege veteran angle 

- Have a special character named Lysander, which pleases my inner Thespian 

Cons: 

- Yellow is a pain in the ass to paint 

- Especially bright yellow

- Also a lightning rod for memes 

- "Oh my god the pain glove amiright" 

- Fuck I'll have to deal with all the Black Library Horus Heresy stuff won't I. Fuck. 

- Fuck I'll get an earful of all the 30k stuff too. 

- Starting to realise I don't really have a compelling hook for the backstory. 

- Aren't they missing that gland implant that lets them spit acid venom? That sucks and is totally lame. 

BLACK TEMPLARS 

Pros: 

- The iconic 3rd edition Space Marines 

- Completely native to 3rd edition, no roots in 80shammer or 90shammer 

- The mixed model squads are kind of cool 

- The poster boys for the starter box AND rulebook, which is a case for the posterity mission 

- Could possibly dabble in Sword Brethren with the 4th edition codex 

- Land Raider Crusader goes BPPPPPPPT!

Cons: 

- Colour scheme is black and white, which is a pain to paint 

- The Black Templars army is not a Codex Chapter and is has a very distinct array of unit options and fighting style. 

- I kind of want to showcase a normal Codex: Space Marines army for posterity. 

- Land Raider Crusaders also seem to be a Unicorn online. 

- Forever tainted by Flashgitz. 

- Oh god I have to choose between assault weapons and specialist close combat options for the infantry squads? But there's only six of them!  

MY OWN CHAPTER 

Pros: 

- Sidesteps a lot of canon bullshit 

- Can work out my own colour scheme 

- Already have a few Chapters of my own invention that could work 

- Can even make them a 21st Founding Chapter if I want 

Cons: 

- Would have to decide which of the Chapters I've invented to do. 

- Oh sweet god this is torture. It's Sophie's Choice I tell you! 

-  I kind of want to preserve the 2003 Space Marine model range as it was, and giving all the Space Marines a wild new colour scheme defeats that purpose. 

- "Oh so your guys are [GW Chapter that has similar colours to mine]?"

So as you can see, it's a tough call. Fortunately for me I've got time for now. 

Crying Wolf

Julia tried to shy away towards the back of the crowd as best as she could. She was starting to feel sick inside. She hadn't wanted any of this to happen. It had all gone wrong.

For all of her fourteen years of life Julia had lived in the same place on the same world, named New Heathsfall. It had a few cities and towns that were islands of humanity in a sea of endless plains and fields. Every once and a while a ship would show up in orbit and shuttles and landers would ferry goods between it and the surface all day, and every so often another ship would show up and an enormous number of the world's men would be hauled onto it (and sometimes a few of it's women too). Almost all of them were never seen again, and the few that did never talked about what happened to them after they left. Julia dreaded that ship, because she knew one day it would come for all the boys she knew. She wouldn't mind if some of the mean or irritating ones left and never came back, but there were also ones she was friends with and others she admired, and she'd like them to stay for as long as possible. Julia knew that the world was ruled by a planetary governor, and she knew from her school classes that the world was on the distant edge of the galaxy, and a long, long way from Terra, the home of mankind.

But Julia cared little for that. She was young, a teenager, and her days were still carefree, filled with friends and laughter and parties, in between studying when she had to. She paid homage to the Emperor of humanity just as everyone else did. But her main concerns in life at the moment were good grades, finding a date to the annual dance social, and what her friend Madeline was doing.

Madeline. For almost as long as Julia could remember she had been inseparable from her. Thick as thieves when they were children, best friends when they grew older. They liked the same songs, the same style of clothing, the same books. Whenever one was upset or hurt, the other would be rushing to her side to comfort her. They were like sisters, and Julia had thought she was perfect in every way.

But things had changed in recent times. More and more Julia had started to gain a creeping, growing feeling of neglect. It felt like the spotlight was constantly on Madeline, with her and her actions being constantly praised. Julia had studied just as hard, and earned top marks in her exams, but Madeline had received the academic award that year, amongst others. When Julia had proposed an idea for a class project, she was ignored, but when Madeline proposed an identical one it was chosen. The final straw had been when Julia's crush had asked Madeline to a date, and the two had been in a relationship that seemed to grow ever closer and more romantic ever since.

Julia had started to grow desperate. She knew she was just as deserving of credit and praise and fortune as Madeline was, but no-one seemed to notice her. In her frantic search for something that would shift some of the limelight away from Madeline and back onto her, she had recalled the stories and tales told to her as a child. Tales that were told to every child that she knew, and indeed every child on the world. Strange, frightening tales of evil witches who would gather in the dead of night to spread terror and death, slaughtering beasts and razing fields, and conjuring up horrible monsters to slay and torment townspeople. Julia was certain that they were just simple fables meant to frighten children into obedience, but she also knew that the people of her world were very superstitious. So she did something, something malicious and cruel, but something she did not intend to seriously harm anyone with.

She had said that Madeline was a witch.

She had spread it in secret as a rumour. She had pointed out how people were drawn to her, and said that it was not in fact because of her merits, but because she had cast spells on them. She had even planted some evidence, just a few odd-looking trinkets and an occult book or two, in and around her room and school cabinet. And the word spread like wildfire. Soon all the students in her school were whispering about it, and cold looks were given at Madeline when she went past.

But then things began to spiral out of control. She did not know how, but the story had managed to reach the ears of the planetary governor. And then a few months after Julia had started the slander, a new ship had arrived in the sky. This one carried a tall, brooding man. He wore a long coat and a wide-brimmed hat, and was adorned in seals and I-like emblems. He frightened Julia. He had come with a large number of black and grey armoured soldiers, who carried large weapons that some of the more militarily-interested boys called hellguns (while some others insisted they were lasguns, and others still said they were hotshot lasguns). They had set up a perimeter around an apartment building, cleared out it's tenants, and kept Madeline there for weeks.

Julia's plan had worked. She started getting noticed more. She started getting more praise. In a few days she became the most popular girl in school for exposing the wicked creature in their midst, though they didn't know she had made all that up. Madeline's boyfriend, Julia's crush, had even asked her out. It was everything she had wanted to get, but now she no longer wanted any of it. Especially when she managed to catch a glimpse into Madeline's new prison and saw what was being done to her...

And now it had come to this. Julia was in the middle of a gigantic crowd, gathered in the town square, jeering and shouting and snarling out at what was before it. The object of their attention was a vast stage that had been erected, and on it was dear, innocent Madeline, Julia's best friend, lashed to an enormous black monolith, emblazoned with skulls and other icons of death, and the same I-like insignia the man in the hat and coat wore. It was late afternoon, and the sun was setting and painting the sky a great, agonising, resplendent triptych of reds, pinks, oranges and yellows. At the fringes of the sunset the sky was turning to deep mournful midnight blues, and New Heathfall's two moons were just starting to show in the haze. An icy, bitter wind was scourging through the square, and it pierced straight through Julia. Amber and ochre leaves chased each other on the breeze. A black cat slinked around the fringes of the square. And Madeline waited, her comely, elegant features gripped in a heart-skewering look of confusion and sorrow, her great sapphire-blue eyes brimming with tears as she tried desperately to search for a reason why all this had happened to her, why she was about to die and her family were cheering for it, and why her friend hadn't tried to help. Her long golden tresses feebly reached out in the winds, and struck out like torchlight against the cold grim obsidian black of the device she was tied to.

The man in the hat and coat was on the stage, with a book in his hand, and he was preaching to the crowd about how the righteous must be ever-vigilant in these dark and terrible times for the unclean and the wicked, and that the people had done a great service to humanity for exposing this heretical fiend. He condemned Madeline for consorting with vile powers and acting out against mankind, and said she was now sentenced to death.

Then a great and terrible whirring whine began to radiate out of the black monolith.

Julia looked down and saw herself in a puddle, her raven coloured hair flanking her face and grape green eyes like curtain drapes. She shut her eyes quickly. She couldn't bear to look at herself. Her head was filled with thoughts of guilt and regret. A small voice whispered out amidst the despair, a strange serpentine purr that she did not recognise, and tried to ignore. A voice that said she had done the right thing.

A burning lump was catching in Julia's throat, and her insides churned. Her veins were on fire. She wanted to go far, far, far away from this place, and curl up in a cave somewhere and never come out. She never wanted this to happen. She never wanted her friend dead. She just wanted a bit more attention.

But what Julia didn't know, what she couldn't know, was that those stories told to her and the other children of their world weren't just tales. There really were witches and monsters out there.

And the people like the planetary governor and the man in the hat and coat had very good reason to do what they were doing.

Upon the stage, Madeline gave a sigh, and made one final look upwards into the heavens, calmly resigned to her demise. The whining reached a crescendo, and at once burst into a brilliant flash of light and fire, and a wave of heat roared over the crowd. In the centre of the firestorm, Madeline was turned to silhouette, then bones, then ashes that were swept upwards into the wind.

And as the sparks and embers swirled upwards with them, a shooting star streaked across the midnight painted sky.