I know I’ve been absent for some time, but I have been making slow progress on painting and haven’t really felt like I had much to post. I am four marines away from competing my core of Grey Hunters and will post a group shot when I get there. I’ve also started on a squad of Long Fangs to break things up, pics of them will be posted when they’re finished. For now I’ve written the second half of the origin story for the Reavers. If you don’t remember it or haven’t read it the first half is here: https://creativetwilight.com/2011/07/kamuis-summer-challenge-2011-reavers-origin-part-1/
Now on to part two:Retreating under heavy pursuit the scout party was overrun, but not before finding a piece of high ground and defending it long enough to transmit a warning to the landing station. Immediately the Black Wolves went on full alert. Those who weren’t needed to man the defensive batteries organized and directed the local tribesmen who were willing to fight alongside their new-found gods. They were armed, given a brief training in how to wield their new weapons, then set to work building makeshift fortifications. Those who were too young or weak to fight were brought into the relative safety of the landing station to prepare supplies for the fighting parties.
As the hordes of corrupted cultists and ravening demons drew nearer the landing station they were harassed by ambushes and traps. Defensive lines had been erected and were held valiantly, only to be set ablaze and abandoned just before they were overrun. All attempts at communication seemed fruitless, the marines fought on with no hope for assistance. For months the Black Wolves and their allies held their enemies at bay but the bloodshed on both sides only served to fuel the fires of Chaos. Small warp rifts began opening around the planet to spew further horrors. Eventually a large rift was detected spreading toward the planet at an alarming rate, like a greedy tendril stretching from the Eye to embrace them. Facing certain oblivion the decision was made to abandon the planet. The tribes who had fought alongside the Black Wolves were ferried back to the orbiting Jotunheim along with any supplies that could be salvaged. The Black Wolves themselves remained to hold the landing station until the last of their allies had been evacuated before leaving their posts.
With everybody loaded the ship’s cargo bays were packed beyond capacity. Although it was well-organized the exodus had taken too long to execute with the small landing craft available and the growing warp rift had caught up with them. The Jotunheim’s engines failed under the strain and while it may have been possible for the marines themselves to escape aboard the smaller, faster crafts they refused to abandon the people who had fought so bravely along side them. Unable to generate adequate speed while towing the Jotunheim the Black Wolves were being drawn into the Eye of Terror when a large space hulk burst into real space. Using the smaller craft to manoeuver the Jotunheim into place before finding their own positions, the Black Wolves used boarding locks to secure their crafts to the passing space hulk in the hopes of riding it to safety. They escaped the Eye of Terror but it was not long before the space hulk slipped back into warp space with the Black Wolves still aboard.
When it was clear that they had not been pursued the engines of the Jotunheim were examined and found to be beyond repair. Parties were sent into the space hulk, eventually dubbed “Nidhogg,” in search for the components needed to repair it. As the exploration reached deeper into the Nidhogg staging camps were constructed to facilitate deeper forays. Eventually the refugees from Herjolfsnes began to colonize the more stable areas of the Nidhogg and after centuries of searching the Black Wolves came to terms with the fact that they cut off from the Space Wolves. Exiling themselves for their failure they adopted the chapter name “Reavers” and resumed their search for an escape from the warp. Only when they return to real space and find a way to regain their honor can they hope to rejoin the Imperium of Man.
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Nice job. Don’t see many fluff writers these days and you’ve done well with yours.
Thanks! The basic idea of Space Wolves lost in the warp and eventually emerging with a reclaimed space hulk as their base of operations has been with me since high school. Restarting the army and reading the fluff in the codex has inspired me to start putting it all in writing. Most of the names have been more recent additions.
So, are the Black Wolves a successor chapter, or a single Great Company from the Space Wolf chapter?
What’s your modelling plan? Mix Loyalist and Chaos parts in the 13th Company style, or something else?
The Black Wolves were a single Great Company from the Space Wolves. After becoming lost in the warp they’ve re-dubbed themselves the Reavers, knowing that in their absence they would have been deemed lost or renegade and replaced by a new Great Company.
Model wise I’m going with something similar to 13th company but more subdued. Most models will be vanilla/Space Wolf models but some will have parts looted from other chapters or improvised from the technology of other races.