The Pyre

[The Banished Ranger]

Like I said I would make fluff for these guys, have to edit the combat doctrine though...enjoy:)

THE PYRE
Renegades of the Imperium


For two thousand years the renegade chapter of The Pyre have stayed in their lava planet waiting to cause destruction and fire to the Imperium.

ORIGINS:

From the scraps of information gleaned from imperial libraries the Pyre was once the Brothers in Flame chapter that were based on the planet of Furio in the Segmentum Obscurus. Scholars are not completely sure what founding they belonged to but speculate that they were the only successors of the Salamanders coupled with Ultramarines gene stock. This led them to having a preference for flamers and melta weapons over other specialized and heavy equipment, but didn?t leave them with the slower reflexes and attitude of the Salamanders thanks to Ultramarine genes. The High Lords of Terra deemed the chapter worthy of battle after the 55 years of building the chapter. They gave them control of Furio as a homeworld and the battle barge ?Imperator Flamma.?

With vigour they set out to prove themselves. The chapter had quickly made a name for itself fighting off anything they were sent against. Every company performed superbly on the field in anything from open field fighting to sieges where the chapter could use their flamers and meltas to great affect.

The more they used their weapons, the more addictive they got to the flames of destruction. Often they would call in Titans even if they were not needed just to see the explosions of fire they caused. Other chapters started to see this and kept a vigil on the chapter fearing something terrible was going to happen.

When the heretics of Ydma in M38 were in open rebellion the chapter was called in. They burned scores of the Traitors laughing maniacally as they burned and destroyed buildings and broiled people alive. When they were finished they boarded their ship and virus bombed the planet killing everyone who remained. Then the whispers of Chaos came to the ear of the Judicator, Hann Figuris. They told him of the destruction he could cause with their help. He was seduced there on his barge and through him the entire chapter reneging their vows to the Emperor they renamed themselves The Pyre. After killing their chaplains they set off for the heated world of Furio.

When they arrived they burned the local populace alive and tore down the edifices of the planet in the name of destruction. They rampaged about, pouring vast amounts of oil around the landscape and set it to fire. The Pyre dug themselves in around the fire.

When news finally reached the rest of the Imperium of Ydma and Furio, they mobilized the Mortifactors and Salamanders chapters against the fiery planet. Drop pods of Mortifactors landed first against the renegades but some landed in the fire of The Pyre. Even marines could not take such heat as they were boiled alive in there power armour. When they finally mat up to attack the traitors they saw the extent of chaos on their brothers.

Hann Figuris stood on a rocky cliff smothered in flames, but they had no effect on him for he was covered in daemonic flames of ebony and his skin stretched against his face showing a skull form. The possessed of The Pyre also had such flames and shrinking skin. Daemons arrived from the warp as screaming skulls wreathed in flames flying at the foe with dexterous speed. The Mortifactors bore the brunt and suffered but held fast and received help from the Salamanders who were used to such heat. At the end The Pyre?s thunderhawks evacuated half the chapter?s forces of the planet with Hann and they fled upon the renamed battle barge, ?Destruction?s Child,? and fled to the blazing planet of Optumo V. But the fires of Furio have not burned out yet, and will never be put out until the chapter?s need for destruction is quenched.

HOME WORLD:

Furio is a temperate world in the Segmentum Obscurus, which is in orbit close to a sun causing very hot temperatures and only one season. When the emperor came to Furio he was seen as a great sun, blazing with energy. That is how The Pyre regarded him as before their fall from grace, and now they see him all burnt out and unable to cause destruction and fire. The landscape was generally a desert apart from numerous cities dotting its surface. Very little animal life was encountered on the planet. The population enjoyed relative peace and good trade from surrounding systems for the fuel they produced. The Imperial Guard regiments from Furio and the Brothers in Flame chapter handled any threat easily and without need of help from anyone else. Ironically the only time the guard needed help was when the Purging of Furio occurred. All that?s left of the people are ashes and everything else is a blasted wasteland of fire as far as the eye can see.

The new world that The Pyre preside in is Optumo V. It?s a world on the edge of the eye of terror. Its landscape is a vast ocean of lava with a big rock with volcanic mountains. The planet would kill any normal human because of the heat but generally it?s not hot enough to outright kill a Space Marine but unsafe for one to be there in any respect. The Pyre made a string of underground citadels in the volcanoes of the rock and thanks to the vicinity of the eye; fiery skulls fly in the soot-chocked skies and arch-viles as they are named stalk the planet.

COMBAT DOCTRINE:

Before their fall The Pyre followed strict codex doctrine. But when they turned renegade they change their tactics to better accommodate their destructive impulses. But they do not just charge in and destroy like the World Eaters. They are perfectionists in battle. They make sure they will win by sheer force of numbers or by poisoning water supplies or destruction of a command bunker. All of this is factored in the plans of The Pyre, but when they do reach enemy lines they burn, slash, kill, consume and destroy anything in their path.

On the battlefield the individual members compete on who can cause the most death and destruction. The Pyre revere obliterators as much as dreadnoughts are revered by Space Marines because of the sheer destruction they cause. Defilers are also a favourite. Raptors tag along the army having their own need for death and destruction.

Although tanks are difficult to maintain on Optumo V there are a few that follow the companies to war. When they are deployed they crash through obstacles they burn and flay everything that tries to stop them. The bestial engines leak fire onto to the ground leaving a trail of fire and ash in it?s wake. Anything left behind from the tank are easy targets for the lost souls the demons with the resemblance of burning skulls with horns. The other daemons spawned by the gods of The Pyre are the arch-viles thin humanoid monsters that conjure fire by clasping their fists together.

Very few armies can hold out for long against The Pyre on ground but in the darkness of space the Imperium usually finds itself fighting boarding actions against The Pyre and then finding their ships either stole by the traitors or in flames to a point of the ship being unsalvageable. (It?s a real word)

ORGANISATION:

The legion organized itself in the same way a loyal chapter does. Ten companies form the body of the chapter except each company has equal amounts of army composition, so terminators were in each company as were scouts. This led to the warriors competing against other companies to try to out do each other.

Instead of having Masters and Captains the old chapter of the Brothers in Flame had Judicators and Praetors and The Pyre use these titles today but they inspire dread instead of honour.

Like the loyalists space marines they had 1000 marines in their loyalist days, after the purging of Furio they left 600 dead on the planet. Of the 400 that were left, they got evenly divided into four companies. The Optumo System is home to multitudes of pirates and evil characters of all types, perfect for recruits to the fallen Pyre. The twisted and burning apothecaries watch the backwater humans rabble amongst themselves and pick the most ruthless individuals who themselves have a liking to destruction.

In this way the four companies have swelled in number in these past two millenniums. Each company has around 1500 marines. And with Hann Figurus the Judicator and his four Praetors they are 6000 strong and ready to burn the galaxy.

The fleets of The Pyre stay within the eye of terror and are called upon from Hann Figuris to lay waste to the Imperium once more.


GENE SEED:

The Pyre, after seeing so much destruction have grown a need for destruction. This may go down as far as the gene seed itself giving the body satisfaction for the sight of fire, death and destruction. This obsession been built up for centuries so is permanent and unable to fix.

And with making the act with the dark gods of chaos undivided the chapter seems to have a common mutation causing the skin to burn but stay deathly pale and also causing it to stretch or shrink against the bone and muscles causing a skeletal look.

BELEIFS:

The close orbit of the sun of Furio caused the people there to regard the sun as a deity. The heat that it made on the planet sometimes engulfed a continent in flames and destroying buildings with explosions occurring with the natural gas.

The chapter regarded themselves and the emperor as a sun that would never burn out and cause fire and destruction across the galaxy. But when they took a look at the other chapters they didn?t see the destruction they wanted. Other chapters tried to cause as little collateral damage as possible while The Pyre caused all the damage they could. When the reports to the adepts of Terra were sent the High Lords of Terra ordered the chapter to stop the calamity, at that point they saw the Imperium as a burnt out sun ready for destruction and then they went to Ygma and finally to Furio for the purging.

BATTLE-CRY:

?Let the galaxy burn!? A battle cry often stole by other renegades chapters.

CHAPTER COLOURS AND ICONOGRAGHY:

The colours of The Pyre are a blazing orange with black trim. Their symbol was long ago a space marine head with a background of flames, but now they have no symbol and the old ones were scratched off leaving a blank shoulder pad.

Post edited by: The Banished Ranger, at: 2007/01/01 22:40

[DarthXander]

Fantastic idea!

I love it!


Karma boost!

[The Banished Ranger]

Thanks Xander, but this does need some touching up to do. If anyone has any suggestions I will take them to heed.

[Knight of ne]

its great banished ranger, one question, do they have a weapon they use most? like DA and plasma.

[Mycosynth]

I would be guessing the like flamers:) Good peice though, you seem to have a knack for writing fluff.

[Skrall]

you know i think i like the idea. Its a shame you didn\'t go for something like \"the pyre has spent so long burning that now they have become flame itself. Flesh has turned to lava, only hidden by lose black plates\" in a balrog style

hawke

[The Banished Ranger]

Yes, meltas and flamers. If I were to do this I\'d even make the havocs have meltas and flamers.

You know how raptors were the old jump suit guys of the Heresy. Well say and Assualt Marine stayed in the eye(or in this case on the edge) for two millenium would they become more advanced raptors?

Maybe I\'ll do something like that for the edit. I still have to finish it. I\'ve saved it on word and spent 2 hours last night brainstorming. Chaos is cool... Maybe I\'ll do them before SMs

Post edited by: The Banished Ranger, at: 2006/12/31 18:07

[Mycosynth]

Chaos is pretty cool. I used to play Iron Warriors but it pretty much played like a Space Marine army with a different list. No Demons or anything. Then i went to tau. Maby ill go back to chaos after.

[The Banished Ranger]

I\'m just trying to figure out how to do this list. Will it be a space marine codex rules or should it be using the chaos codex.

I\'m thinking it should use the chaos codex because of the daemons and they are on the eye for 2000 years

[Aun O Vader]

this is really cool, I really like it. I\'ve got a couple of things to mention, but Mrs V is telling me its time to get ready to go out, so I\'ll try and do them after I\'ve recovered from my Hangover, but a definitely good start!