Saturday 2 April 2022

HE WILL NOT BE TAMMED

 I decided to continue on finishing old projects, and as I still haven't got hold of a box of plastic Kroot, I've moved on to my Emperor's Children army. For anyone who is unfamiliar this army here is some background.

The Emperor's Children, also sometimes known after their fall as the Lords of Profligacy, are a Traitor Legion of Chaos Space Marines who devote themselves solely to the service of the Chaos God Slaanesh, the Prince of Pleasure, though they were originally the Imperium of Man's proud IIIrd Legion of Astartes.

The Emperor's Children was the only Space Marine Legion to bear the Emperor's own name and His own icon -- the Palatine Aquila -- granted to them by His hand as a symbol of the Legion's martial perfection. Few were ever so honoured amongst the ancient Space Marine Legions and given less cause to betray the Master of Mankind than the Emperor's Children.

Given the plaudits and accolades accorded them, few could doubt that they were the embodiment of what the Emperor had intended the Legiones Astartes to be: noble in action and aspect, excelling in all matters, strong, civilised, firm of purpose and loyal to the core.

From this height they descended in treachery to the lowest and vilest of creatures, enslaved to pride and consumed by hedonistic desires that no natural power could fulfill. The Emperor's Children are now a scattered Legion much like their counterparts the World Eaters, their unity devoured by their allegiance to Chaos.

The Emperor's Children Legion now exists only as scattered, autonomous warbands located in the Eye of Terror who are dedicated to their own pursuit of corrupt, hedonistic and usually murderous pleasures. The Chaos Space Marines of the Emperor's Children are known for possessing outlandish mutations and surgical alterations as "gifts" from Slaanesh which are designed to make them more "perfect" in the eyes of their twisted patron.

The Emperor's Children Traitor Legion exists for no other purpose but to exceed every extreme and to know every possible sensation. Its warriors are entirely in the thrall of Slaanesh, the Dark Prince of Chaos, but once, the Legion of the Primarch Fulgrim strived for perfection in all they did, and were counted as one of the most dedicated of all of the Emperor's followers.

The infant Primarch of the Emperor's Children grew up upon the bleak, dying world of Chemos, a mining colony long fallen to decay and decline as Old Night claimed the domains of Mankind. Isolated from surrounding systems, the industry of Chemos had fallen silent, the mines replaced by the reclamation plants and vapour extraction facilities that kept the dwindling population from vanishing entirely.

Within fifty standard years of his arrival on Chemos, Fulgrim had risen to become its leader, and it was his dream that the wonders of long lost ages might be rediscovered and rebuilt. However, it was only when the Emperor came to his world that the Primarch could begin to fully realise his vision.

By that time, it was not simply his homeworld that Fulgrim desired to see elevated to glory, but the entirety of Mankind. When Fulgrim was introduced to the Space Marine Legion that shared his genetic inheritance, he found not a resplendent host as did so many of his brothers, but a mere two hundred Battle-Brothers.

An accident had befallen the nascent IIIrd Legion early in the development of its gene-stock, setting it far behind its fellows. Thus, it was necessary that Fulgrim and his warriors be integrated into the ranks of another Legion until such time as their numbers were sufficiently restored for them to take to battle on their own. The Legion to which Fulgrim and his warriors were assigned was the Luna Wolves, the Legion of Horus, and Fulgrim could not have had a better companion at whose side to master the arts of warfare.

From the earliest days of its service to the Great Crusade, the nascent Legion was recognised for its drive to attain perfection in all its deeds. It was in recognition of this drive that the Emperor granted the warriors of the Legion the right to bear the Imperial eagle upon their chest armour, a unique honour at that time. In recognition that the Emperor was the very pinnacle of the perfection Fulgrim aspired to, the IIIrd Legion was named the "Emperor's Children," a title it retained even after the calamitous events of the Horus Heresy.

Some would say that it was Fulgrim's impossible desire to attain perfection in all that he did that ultimately led him and his Legion into the service of Slaanesh. The exact circumstances of Fulgrim's fall are all but lost to history, but certainly, Horus must have appealed to his refined sensibilities and stoked the fire of what, in retrospect, was an increasingly disturbing quest to attain otherwise unattainable heights of sensation.

Gifted with the physique and intellect of a Primarch, no endeavour was beyond Fulgrim's attainment. Having mastered every strategy and tactic of war, he sought ever more esoteric pursuits, turning his hand to every creative pursuit imaginable, from poetry to sculpture.

As his soul was slowly poisoned by the insidious taint of the Prince of Chaos, Fulgrim's passions grew ever darker and his drives ever more extreme. At the last, acting at the behest of Horus, he attempted to persuade his brother Primarch Ferrus Manus of the Iron Hands Legion that factions within the nascent Imperium were aligning themselves against him and his kin, resulting in a bitter confrontation between erstwhile brothers. Though Ferrus survived the confrontation, the reward for Fulgrim was damnation, setting him well and truly upon the road that led to the Emperor's Children siding with the Traitors at Istvaan V, and ultimately to Terra.

Though the Emperor's Children were present at the siege of the homeworld of Mankind, they were not numbered amongst the formations that assaulted the mighty fortifications erected by Rogal Dorn, Primarch of the Imperial Fists Legion, to defend the Imperial Palace. While the World Eaters and other Traitor Legions launched assault after assault upon the palace, the Emperor's Children are said to have laid waste to the surrounding city and other outlying regions, slaughtering untold thousands, perhaps even millions, of the Emperor's subjects in an orgy of unfettered cruelty.

Some have even suggested that the Emperor's Children were using the unprecedented violence of the Siege of Terra to slay sufficient victims to render their vital fluids into some abominable distillation, a stimulant that would grant them access to previously unheard of heights of sensation. In the end, the Siege of Terra was lifted when the Emperor slew the Arch-traitor Horus, and the Emperor's Children were driven from Terra along with the rest of the Traitors.

Leaving a trail of desecrated worlds and violated populations, the Emperor's Children joined the ranks of those Legions taking refuge from the Imperium's wrath within the Eye of Terror, beginning a new and devastating series of wars against their erstwhile allies.

The history of the Emperor's Children in the period that followed the defeat of the Traitor Legions at the Siege of Terra is largely obscured from Imperial scholars, for obvious reasons. Perhaps the greatest mystery surrounds the fate of the Primarch Fulgrim himself, for it appears that he disappeared entirely. Some say that the Dark Prince of Chaos had already granted him apotheosis, and he assumed the mantle of a Daemon Primarch.

There are those that claim that Fulgrim has retreated to some Daemon World of his own creation, and rules there still, overseeing such debased extremes of sensation and experience as no mortal can imagine. Some of those who revere Slaanesh regard this mythical place as the holy of holies, and spend entire lifetimes obsessively questing after it.

Now the first piece I've finished is a Noise marine Dreadnought. For those who don't know a Dreadnought is a robotic construction that houses the remnants of a fallen marine, for those of the Emperors Children, it is worse than death as they are sealed away from sensation and pleasure, which is why I made this one, with the sarcophagus plate removed, as if the marine inside tore off the front so he can still experience as much as possible.


The model started off as an Imperial Dreadnought, which I added a twin linked sonic blaster from Forgeworld, then I added all the details to the body and other shoulder. The close combat weapon came off a Defiler which I shortened and shaped.


And here he is with his 3 brothers, the two on the left are both Forgeworld models, and the one on the right is GW latest version a Hellbrute, which I will use as a demonically possessed dreadnought.

That's all for today, so until next time stay safe and have fun ! 

Cheers Dave   

22 comments:

  1. It's always a joy to see some noisy bois, and these degenerates are excellent! Great work on all four, Dave, you've done the III Legion proud with such a visual assault on the senses :-)

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    1. Thank you Matt, being a legion all about excess, they seemed a perfect fit for me ! LOL Plus being a legion that needs a lot of conversions to achieve the look I wanted, it was always likely to happen ! LOL

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  2. Is this an old metal dreadnought, Dave? I too love the Emperor's Children and I had started a little army of them 30ish years ago. One of these days I'll paint up something from this faction as a way of commemorating my love for this faction... As you can tell, seeing this made me quite nostalgic! I love the little metal shoulder noise things that Emperor's Children have and seeing them on this dreadnought is awesome. The conversion and the story behind it is amazing as well. I hope you have some more Emperor's Children to share with us as this was really cool to see!

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    1. Thank you Jeff, it was the old plastic Imperial dreadnought when it started, but the original style of the old metal ones, before GW went away from this. Glad it gave you a trip down nostalgia avenue, and would love to see what you come up with when you tackle this subject. I'm currently going through all the elements of this army to be able to call it finished so will have noise marines to show and some basic (if you can call all the converted models basic) Emperor's Children as well, plus some more vehicles, and some large pieces too.

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  3. Oh, nice one. I love the concept of the removed plate. Fresh air is for sure painful for the guy inside (as well as the lack of protection being an issue!), but that's exactly what he is looking for, to reach the edge of sensations. Cool work!

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    1. Thank you Suber, I think originally I was going to have part of the front plate left on the front, but after putting all the detail inside, I left it off. Glad you like the concept

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  4. Corking effort Dave! The foursome looks like they’ll be shredding and lovingly bathing in the remnants of their targets in no time.

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    1. Thank you Dai, probably won't use them all together very often, unless I do some interesting scenarios for the four.

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  5. Very cool! Back when I had 40k miniatures the dreadnought was one of favorite ones; I just like the way it looks. Yours of course looks way better than mine ever did. 😀

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    1. Thank you Stewart, the concept of the dreadnoughts and their look was cool, and I'm sure you're underselling the dreadnought you did

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  6. Splendid looking chaos dreadnought!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thank you Iain, Chaos allows you to go totally over the top ! LOL

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  7. Fab work it looks brilliant. Love the flail you gave it

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    1. Thank you Simon, it was sat in the bits box, and probably would never have got used, apart from this crazy idea ! LOL needed a lot of shortening and bending, but was worth the effort in the end.

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  8. Something I've heard, if if only fleeting. Hge models on 60mm bases ?
    GW certainly odea like to throw detail on their stuff and added to make a masterpiec of conversion and to top it off you show three more, basically in the same colour scheme - wonderfl stuff !

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    1. Thank you Joe, GW do indeed like their details, which made sculpting all the detail on this one necessary to tie in with the others, and as two of them were Forgeworld, even more detail was required ! LOL
      To keep the army looking cohesive I stick to the formula anything with a noise weapon, black with pink detail. Anything without a noise weapon, pink with black detail, makes them nice and easy to identify on the table.

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  9. The Emperor's Children are like the Cenobites of 40K. These are wonderful, Dave. I've always been fond of noise marines, too. But...FOUR Dreadnoughts? YIKES!!!

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    1. Thank you Keith, can see the resemblance, and as I like the Hellraiser franchise, they're a perfect fit for me. I did the four to have options when fielding a Dreadnought, but have thought of some cool scenarios where using all four could be fun ! LOL

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  10. I always thought the EC,s cool Dave but GW of today's world seem a bit scared of them xo it will be interesting to see how then handle them in the new HH game coming out soon.
    I didn't read all of the HH books but of the ones I did read I thought that Fulgem was among the best, love the dreads mate 👍😊

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    1. Thank you Frank, in the PC regime now, I think they're struggling to find a balance, but who knows we may see some again soo.
      I read a lot of the HH books, and having the EC army made their stories even more prevalent for me, and they were very well written, which wasn't the case on all the books sadly.

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  11. John@justneedsvarnish9 April 2022 at 05:50

    Nicely done, Dave, fits in well with the others! :-) I don't think me and pink get on well, so I'd never cut it as a Slaanesh acolyte!

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    1. Thank you John, I stayed away from painting pink for a long time, but once I was happy with the recipe, I got in the swing of it, although my Mother in Law, always laughs when she see's my pink army ! LOL

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