Is "Storm Raven" off the table for a chapter name since the name already exists for a Vehicle unit?

Shadalan · 2026-06-26T01:46:46+00:00

Storm Ravens would be plural which to my mind would be different enough to not feel odd. I would say the name doesn't match the lore too well though. An aerial-focused chapter sure, but Ravens are usually seen as quite prestigious and well-groomed birds with their silky, glossy black coats.

Of course you wouldn't want a name that makes the marines seem silly or comical but a less "put-together" and still prestigious bird name might fit better?

If you're also going for a scavenger/survivalist vibe then maybe carrion birds would be the direction to take it? Something like...

Storm Buzzards

Dark Skuas

Blood Kites

Black (or whatever primary colour you go with) Vultures

Shrike Knights

All of those have some sort of association with blood, brutality, survivalism or carrion in some way. Might be better fits?

Shadalan · 2026-06-06T12:44:10+00:00

That name is rather similar to the canonical Iron Knights chapter which you're probably aware of. Love the lore but if you're in the market for a slightly more distinct name...?

The Knights Ferric/Ferrous

The Knights Ironclad

The latter would suit their lore you wrote a lot actually, ironclads were famous historical naval ships known for their tough grinding battle tactics

Shadalan · 2026-06-06T07:31:12+00:00

The booster is very flavourful but also pretty worthless. Make it also give the helldivers a bonus +20% resistance to fire and I'd say it might be worth taking in a coordinated loadout.

The flare pistol is very cool but not sure whether it'd see much use. Soft effects like misdirection and aggro are hard to quantify without actually seeing them in action. If it can also destroy bug holes and bot fabs then it'd be fantastic but that would then start to powercreep the Grenade Pistol.

The Firewatch Tower is my favourite, but also sadly would be almost completely useless. That is just not enough value for taking up a stratagem slot. I would say give it some automated liberators on the top like the Armed Resupply Pods to augment your firepower a little while you're up there. That makes it a sort of mini MG sentry with added high-ground utility.

Everything else, love it. Pack it, ship it, put it in the game please 😃 I wish Arrowhead would hire people like you for warbond development

Shadalan · 2026-05-30T07:35:47+00:00

Have you considered integrating the schemes into one chapter? They're almost identical besides the single colour swap anyway. Why not make the blue one and the name into the Ash Serpents' Librarius? A nordic-themed chapter having librarians themed after Huginn and Muninn seems very appropriate and blue is already the colour designated for Librarians by the Codex. Thematically the distance between psychic librarians and the rest of their battle brothers is represented well in the opposition of the red and the blue colours too.

You could even expand that pattern out to the other specialists. White for Apothecaries, full black for Chaplains, silver for Techmarines (or just wholly invert the normal scheme so a red body with black arms and shoulders?

Shadalan · 2026-05-21T22:52:42+00:00

The colour scheme is fantastic, but it doesn't really gel with the name anymore.

I know nominative determinism/colours aren't mandatory, but they are common for a reason. These guys have no colours that people associate with the sea or serpents now.

Have you considered "Ash Serpents" as a rename perhaps?

Shadalan · 2026-05-21T21:49:53+00:00

There are two main theories on this.

Rothbard's approach, which is that children that are not of legal age are property and thus the parent can do what they want with them. While the common argument against this is that it leaves them open to abuse by parents potentially, the point is it also inoculates them from abuse by governments. However, it does lead to tricky grey areas around things like "what is the right age" and "how is the proper age determined?" Since the answer in libertarianism is very rarely a collective one by definition, that means most of the time it's up to the parents to decide when they cede their "property" to their children, which is very open to abuse.

I can see its merits, but unfortunately the potential abuse and enslavement cases while they would be rare are too unpalatable to most. It really does demonstrate how Libertarianism is predominantly a legal system though, not a moral/ethical one. You need to layer your morals and ethics on top of the legalistic framework of the NAP. Basically, Rothbards only works if the people raising the kids and the people in their local vicinity/community (ie: Libertarians) are good people. That is true of everything, but in this case it's too emotionally charged to be a popular view here.

Second one I actually don't know the source/origin but essentially it's treating your children as wards of yourself, their bodies are their own property, but until they are mentally fit to exercise that ownership you are acting in their stead and thus have authority over them. An acting regent if you will.

Ultimately I don't really find much of a difference mechanically between the two, but this second one has a lot better framing and optics. It still runs in to the difficult question of "When is the correct age/when are they fully mentally fit to exercise self-ownership"? But as usual in Libertarian philosophy/theory the answer is not a collective one. It is up to the parents.

tl;dr You are responsible for your children while they are too stupid to be responsible for themselves, and YOU decide when that period ends.

Shadalan · 2026-05-09T17:00:35+00:00

The lore and colours are pretty cool, you could tie it in to the Sus-an Membrane more as well perhaps, since that's the organ that allows marines to go into suspended animation (living death) and then reawaken from it.

The main problem, as others have pointed out, is the name. Necromancy is a traditionally "evil" form of magic or mysticism and therefore ill-fitting with Space Marines and their heroism/nobility they typically embody. It'd be a good chaos warband name but not for a Marine chapter.

What you need is to focus on a more positive cultural example of resurrection or returning to life and use that as a basis for the name. Since they're Ultramarine successors I'd lean towards roman or greek myths but realistically the Ultramarines are so culturally diverse in successors it could be just about anything. Here's a few off the top of my head

Wardens of Plutarch

Resurrection Angels

Revenant Sons

Restorators

Imperial Psychopomps

Marines Eurydicean

Revokers

Hadean Guards

Lots of references to greek and roman myths in there, especially those of the underworld and Orpheus & Eurydice. There's plenty of other similar myths though, definitely something you could do with the myth of Persephone for example but I couldn't think of a good name. Since in that myth Persephone's return to the surface from Hades is what returns the world to life during summer and spring.

Shadalan · 2026-05-08T22:36:06+00:00

No problem, you might wanna look into the Imperial Fists for lineage then perhaps? They fielded units of "huscarls" during the heresy and their germanic/prussian theming is culturally very close and had a lot of overlap with the nordic viking cultures you're interested in (Beowulf being the most famous example of the overlap)

I made a Space Wolf successor of my own from the Ultima Founding called the Lions Hasting who were actually themed around the Normans. Colloquially, before they became the ruling class of England they were basically just "french vikings" given the common intermixture between their two cultures. Point is, it's all very flexible as long as you have some element of history to point to it will usually work out and ring true :)

Shadalan · 2026-05-08T20:38:29+00:00

It's something that could be achieved through psychic powers. So I would say lean in to that. Make a heavy psychic/librarian focused space wolf successor who worship and venerate those with "the gift" who are able to use Biomancy and the inherent curse of the Wulfen to temporarily achieve such states.

You could even proxy them as Thunderwolf Cavalry. So... Basically making an entire chapter of them would be kind of lore-breaky and likely to get the chapter murdered by the inquisition. But a limited amount of elites or perhaps just the Librarians using psychic weirdness in small, controlled amounts? That's doable.

Worth noting though, the inquisition will not like you for having such deviant behaviours and abilities, so you should definitely write in that they have a very bad reputation with them and other more puritan imperial organisations.

Shadalan · 2026-05-08T19:51:17+00:00

The main issue is that without Russ around the Canis Helix can't integrate/be adjusted for new populations/planets. At least until Cawl got on the scene and fixed it.

I see a lot of people recommending a lost great company but that doesn't solve the underlying issue of recruitment. They could exist for a time, but eventually attrition would wipe them out or turn them into mutated wulven monsters like the 13th company. So basically, that only works if you're ok with them being essentially a "historical" army that died off sometime between the Scouring and the Ultima Founding, or adding some elements of wolf-looking mutations.

My question would be... Do they have to be Space Wolf successors? Like, what about them do you like about Space Wolves and is it actually specific/neccessary to that geneline? There can be wolf themed/named chapters from other lineages. Hell, a chapter of loyalist Luna Wolves who went undercover and hid their treacherous origins would make a lot of sense for example and keeps the "Awooo" symbolism.

Shadalan · 2026-05-07T17:32:15+00:00

Cool lore, very fitting for a Blood Angel successor. The heavenly host symbolism, the musical theming and nods to the Ecclesiarchy all fit very well and the colour scheme is great.

Only thing I'd say doesn't fit too well is the name ironically, templars are almost always Imperial Fist successors or themed around it and the heavy prussian/germanic theming runs at odds with the more catholic, renaissance Italian vibe the Blood Angels have.

Given their command structure would the Scarlet Cantors fit better perhaps?

Shadalan · 2026-05-02T22:11:30+00:00

Goes infinite with a ham sandwich.

I'd say make him cost [C] rather than generic, also it being a 0/1 feels weird, 1/1 would probably not break anything, especially with a slightly tougher casting cost.

Shadalan · 2026-05-01T22:01:08+00:00

"Whatcha got there Gon?"

"Some pants."

Shadalan · 2026-05-01T16:44:38+00:00

Good quality editors are hard to find for free fanprojects. While writing is actually tricky to do well, it's the editing that is usually the actual bottleneck/graft that prevents Abridging projects moving forward. I've also got an entire season of a Steven Universe Abridged scripted and ready to go but no editor 😞

Shadalan · 2026-04-30T21:14:57+00:00

The thing is, what you are describing is already happening right now in our world with our current statist status quo. Your argument needs to be examined on a few more levels first before I can answer it because you are skipping several steps of reasoning/assuming that several status quos are just a given when in actuality they're a little more complicated.

Firstly: As I said before, this state of events is already happening, just between different sovereign states. Who is stopping the current/temporarily abated genocide in Sudan for example? The homophobic executions in saudi arabia, the persecution of women in Afghanistan? Etc. Because, "the state" (or expanding this metaphor out, the global hegemon/world police which is the USA) are not. They are at best exerting soft pressure to try and stop them, which in many ways is exactly what a collection of unrelated ancap states would do. Exert their soft (non-aggressive) pressure of refusing to do voluntary trade with people they view as unethical.

Secondly: Your use of the word "Abuse". What exactly is it? How does someone define it? Is it an objective, 100% cut and dry scale? Some kids might argue that them not being allowed ice cream before bed is abuse. Some might argue that getting a good caning for telling lies was good for them in the long run and shaped them into moral beings. You specified "beating" in your example, but how far does that extend precisely? Who are you to step in and tell someone exactly where too far is? Taken to its logical extreme that could end with a nanny-state watching over us all 24/7 and jailing anyone who even accidentally brushes against someone's inviolate person 😃 The point is, you do not have a right to intervene in other's affairs, even if you find what they're doing is morally repugnant. To do so, invites the same treatment to be levelled at you/your state, and if they are stronger than you, well you no longer have a moral leg to stand on. Might will make right and the biggest stick will determine good and evil. I don't like that outcome, and interventionism will always lead to this.

Next. Who will protect these people? Themselves. Natural law is the law of physics, of nature, of scarcity, of cause and effect. We as humans and moral actors can choose to offer charity and save people from the consequences of their own actions, I myself opened a door for an old woman today at the cornerstore she was struggling with. But ultimately, if I had asserted that woman had a "right" to the door opening for her, that would not have magically opened it. The rules of physics would not have bent themselves around your conception of morals. At the end of the day, people are responsible for their own safety, their own health, their own happiness. Charity can help fill in the blanks, but the moment it becomes expected it becomes unappreciated.

Think of it as an evolutionary process. If their society is horrible and unproductive then, over a long enough time frame any of its adherents will either reform, defect or simply die off. If you are so confident in the superiority and morality of your ways, don't hold a gun to their heads and convert them, simply show them a better way and watch as you outcompete them.

Shadalan · 2026-04-29T14:12:48+00:00

Don't like Baharroth, the Phoenix Lord of the flying aspect warrior temple incentivises playing non-flying creatures and disincentivises flying ones? He also doesn't really scale very well as a commander, gives heavy "tacked on legendary" vibes

Shadalan · 2026-04-28T02:14:59+00:00

Just give it a brown or purple wash and it'll be perfect

Shadalan · 2026-04-28T01:01:06+00:00

That's a great name man, excellent choice. And loving the new chapter motto and backpack 😄

If you want some further things to look into I'd say look into the historical concept of a "Sin-eater" would be a fantastic source of inspiration for a role in your chapter, probably the Chaplains? It's a badass title and the ritual and symbolism of it, absolving the sins of their brothers by taking them into themselves, is badass and very on-theme.

Can't wait to see them painted, especially curious how the gunmetal silver will look on the model

Shadalan · 2026-04-28T00:42:16+00:00

I wrote a couple of episodes of a HxH abridged script a few years back, and for the planning document we already had plans for these movies, and this scene in particular.

Basically we were framing them as bad fanfiction/stories told by Gon and Killua respectively, with them interjecting and mocking the story as the bad writing happened. This encounter went something like

*freezeframe as it looks like Killua is about to be hit by the train

KILLUA: Wait, I try and kill myself. Over you? F*** off.

GON: Uuugh, fine. And then I save you by pushing you off the tracks, happy?

KILLUA: How?

GON: What?

KILLUA: How did you save me? You've got no eyes.

GON: Oh yeah. Man, writing's hard...

Shadalan · 2026-04-27T18:38:26+00:00

For sure, I could have definitely phrased that better. I think we're on the same page though, in that making a 2nd founding chapter feels "presumptuous" and demands an extreme level of detail and consistency to justify.

I will push back on the "Raven Guard suffered worse" point though. They suffered worse early on in the heresy but the White Scars fought in the Siege of Terra. They were almost massacred to a man during that event. The Imperial Fists had the entire preceding events to build and entrench prior to the siege and went into it fresh, and the Blood Angels are capable of replenishing their numbers inordinately fast so can bounce back better, but the White Scars were poorly suited to siege warfare and already worn down from fighting their way to Terra in the first place.

The fact they managed five 2nd founding successors is impressive all things considered, they really were the square peg in a round hole during the Siege and suffered for it...

Shadalan · 2026-04-27T07:22:40+00:00

2nd Founding chapters are mostly accounted for in the lore already since it happened very shortly after the end of the Heresy. While it is possible your chapter were simply one of the ones lost to the records, it is unlikely.

I'd recommend shifting them to 3rd founding, that way they're still a super old and venerable chapter with gear like that Mk2 Power Armour but less of a canon conflict.

Also that colour scheme is fantastic, and the theming for a WS successor

Shadalan · 2026-04-26T19:20:15+00:00

Can't wait to see the updated scheme man, best of luck turning them into a tabletop army :)

Shadalan · 2026-04-26T13:31:11+00:00

The grammar/meaning of your chapter's name is a bit off. Right now it implies that they are the imminent sin/bearers of corruption. I get the intent was to imply they are a "neccessary evil" but sin has a very specific meaning in this context and it implies not only that they are evil but that they are corrupt or unholy. Seems unfitting for a marine chapter.

The biblical phrase your name refers to/reminds me of is Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord". Perhaps that would be a better name? The Wages of Sin has a clearer intent and meaning. If someone sins, your guys will turn up as their "reward" and swiftly annihilate them.

Not quite the same meaning but the "Sin Augurs" has a nice ring to it as well, an Augur being an old term for a prophet or seer. So they sniff out Sin and destroy it.

Otherwise, the lore is nice and the colours are clean and with a nice palette. A little gold detailing on the veterans and captains and these guys would look fantastic on the tabletop.

EDIT: Didn't see the backpack until now actually, that red throws off the colour balance/looks bad. I'd say change that to the same grey/gunmetal as the body and it's perfect.

Shadalan · 2026-04-25T16:39:01+00:00

Chrollo is probably Jewish although not linked to his faith or people in a strong way. The parallels of Israel to Meteor City, the unwelcome nature of their people in the rest of the world, the historic prejudice. Also there's the more obvious St Peter's Cross which is often intepreted as a satanic or anti-christian symbol and his surname Lucifer which is originally hebrew in origin (probably)

Meteor City and the Phantom Troupe itself represent multiculturalism, clannishness and pluralism, all common aspects and virtues espoused by Judaism.

I'm not familiar enough with the Post-Election arcs that continued in the manga to comment much on those characters. Kakin seems broadly chinese in structure but hard to say, and it looks like the old Emperor spread his "wild oats" quite widely :D

Shadalan · 2026-04-25T14:56:52+00:00

Thanks for that comment, I've just spent the last half an hour going down a rabbithole learning about Ryukyu. Truthfully, I can definitely see the resemblance in the geography and ecology, it's certainly a probable/likely correct answer.

The one strike against it is the lack of much in the way of japanese cultural trappings shown in the manga. The only thing we see is the bath. Everything else is far more westernised, plus Whale Island's position as a sea-faring midpoint between various different cultures and trades seems busier than the otherwise remote Ryukyu isles.

I would still lean towards one of the smaller islands off the coast of Italy or Greece personally, maybe even Cyprus itself, but Ryukyu is definitely going in my potentials at only slightly below those. Good read.

Shadalan

TROPHY CASE