Heresy & Heroes

As mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been toying around with some custom rules ideas for my new First Captain, he of the skull helm and big nasty axe, Aikos Valedrix. I’ve also fleshed out his background a bit too with a little history and personality. Anyway, it would be great to get your take on what’s below. I’m not claiming to be an expert on writing rules, but I think I’ve done ok. Here goes…

Aikos Valedrix, 1st Captain of the Mortifactors (220pts)

WS    BS    S    T    W    I    A    Ld    Sv

6        5      4     4     3    5    3    10     2+/4++

• Infantry (Character)

• Terminator Armour

• Iron Halo

• Tezuka’s Axe

• The Dragon of Calth

Aikos Valedrix counts as an HQ Choice in a Mortifactors Army list.

Background

Valedrix’s rise to the position of 1st Captain was meteoric, but he has proven himself in the centuries since his appointment as a terrifying warrior, always determined to prove his worth and zealously transfixed on raising the standing of his chapter.

Placed in the 2nd Company as a tactical marine within Squad Vax, he was part of the force became known as The Heroes of Drannar IV. Out of eighty Space Marines deployed to the Ork infested warzone of the Drannar system, only fifteen returned to the Basilica Mortis having held the citadel on the fourth planet for over three months before a huge Imperial force arrived to relieve them. As the 2nd Company was rebuilt, his valorous actions prompted his promotion to Sergeant despite having only fought in a handful of campaigns.

He soon proved himself in the furnace of war, and time and again he was to be found at the vanguard of most assaults. His original tactics and defiant attitude pushed him from campaign to campaign, often without stopping to replenish troops and supplies. On the Moon, Franeth, he took just 24 Space Marines into battle to support a beleaguered Astra Militarum force facing down a Necron awakening and inspired all the Imperial troops to a rousing victory as he himself destroyed the tomb core.

Inducted into the 1st Company after Franeth, he became a master of combat in Tactical Dreadnought Armour and was soon commanding his own squad as ferociously as he had done in the 2nd Company. He was elected Captain after the death of his predecessor, Garon Manix, who fell during the cleansing of the Space Hulk, Blessed Horror.

Since then, he has raised his company to mirror his own actions in war, pursuing the Imperium’s foes without hesitation or the thought of self preservation. He now wields Tezuka’s Axe, a monstrous weapon and the first to be forged from Posul bronze, along with the ancient combi-weapon, The Dragon of Calth. He strides into battle as a terrifying spectre, an incarnate of death and a single-minded warrior intent on destroying the Imperium’s enemies.

Character Special Rules

• Fearless

• Hatred (Xenos)

• Fear

• The Will of Posul

• Chapter Tactics

Tezuka’s Axe

Range          S        AP      Type

N/A              +3        2        Melee, Unwieldy, Concussive, Master Crafted

When the young Chapter first arrived at Posul, they saw nothing but a world shrouded in darkness. Many among the chapter counselled that they ought to move on and find a different world in the sector to make their home, but unbeknown to them, Sasebo Tezuka had had a vision of the world below and knew that it had worth. He took a Stormraven down to the planet’s surface alone, and after thirteen days he returned with this mighty weapon in hand. It was forged in Posul bronze and he spoke of the tribes below and how they had found him and instantly recognised him as a great and noble warrior, and they had taught him to cast and work the metal. He handed the axe to his First Captain, Alino Darador, and it has been passed down to every First Captain in the chapter ever since.

The Dragon of Calth

This weapon confers one extra melee attack, already included in the profile above using the ‘Dragon Tooth Blade’ profile below.

Range       S       AP       Type (Flamer)

Template    5        4         Soulblaze (one use)

Range       S       AP       Type (Bolter)

24”             5        4         Assault 2

Range       S       AP       Type (Dragon Tooth Blade)

N/A         User      3        Melee

10,000 years ago, as the Word Bearers and Ultramarines battled through the caverns of Calth after the great betrayal on the surface, one weapon earned a fearsome reputation among the traitors and became a grim harbinger of hope for the loyalists. No one is sure of its origins, but some have claimed it was on route to be presented to Lord Guilliman himself by the Mechanicum who had crafted a unique weapon only fit for a primarch. In the tunnels below the surface, its firy breath belched corrosive flames that enveloped the enemies of the Ultramarines. It earned its name, The Dragon of Calth, from both sides of the conflict, and became a terrifying whisper in the eternal night of that subterranean world. None remember how it came into the possession of the Mortifactors, but it has been a fixture of their armoury since the chapter’s birth.

The Will of Posul (Special Rule)

All Mortifactors Models within 6” of Aikos Valedrix lose ATSKNF and gain Fearless.