File: 1383418384726.png-(1.48 MB, 1175x1200, CurrentMap.png)

1.48 MB PNG

This is the current Sector map, we have so far fluffed:

XV-113A7J
Vetinin
Dreshara
Jjojo
Akkari
Bivarar-Havn
Baunn
Marius
Fetillus Svel
Primrose
Donnybrook
Mobius/The Lighthouse
The Photom Sinkhole.

Everything else is fair game. Pick a planet and write something interesting about it!

Bumping for recruits.

>>28068579
If you really want to avoid being Mary sues, ban the use of nametags. It keeps ego out of the equation.

>>28068579
So where are we at on the Grendel?
I last suggested that they are a Pre-social, Survival of the Fittest mindset and that the Brood Mothers are what a Grendel will eventually grow into if they live long enough.

>>28069364
Not a clue, last time I checked the Brood Mothers were some kind of Dark Eldar experiment.

Hopefully some other anons will re-appear to confirm things. I was hoping just to get some more writefagging done for the Sector.

>>28069411
I don't remember anything about them being a DEldar experiment, I do remember that the DEldar were screwing with them though.

And yes, fleshing out the sector would be good, what do we have on the Slaaneshi Sirens anyways?

>>28069364

A Broodmother is the name of a cyborg titan-sized Grendel that's pumped full of growth hormones and implants. They function as troop carriers and main battle vehicles.

>>28069455
A little bit of writefagging, but nothing concrete I don't think.

>>28069478
They definitely weren't titan-sized, we were going along the lines of Sando Aqua Monster. As for everything else, I have no idea.

>>28069505

In the last thread, PacRim Kaiju sizes were mentioned for Broodmothers. And they were compared to Evangelion units, being armored giant cyborgs. Your information is out of date.

>>28069532
We're adding fucking Kaiju now? The hell is wrong with you?

>>28069478
I don't remember them being Cyborgs or the Main Battle Vehicles...
Mostly because I was thinking they were aquatic, thus they couldn't really work on land...

>>28069505
Eh, I think we were leaning towards Titan-sized, because Titan's are rather small when you actually compare their scale.

>>28069552
The Grendel are meant to be enough of a threat to necessitate the creation of an entire fucking Chapter, in the middle of bum-fuck nowhere.

They are bound to have some incredibly powerful units, so Kaiju aren't out of the equation.

>>28069654
Well I thought it was a combination of their Cyborg grafting Biotech and the possibility they may have been Dark age Humans that purposefully transformed themselves into inhuman monsters to survive the Deep if not a Xenophage that can use humans as fodder.

The "Oh god, they have Giant Murmaiders!" was just icing on the cake.

On the note of actual seas, do the Krakens have any Aquatic Warfare specialty?

>>28069751

They boil the oceans with lazers from orbit if the grendel are too strong.

>>28069929
...Sound sufficiently Grim and Dark.

>woo trigfag circlejerk thread #9000, "don't alter my fluff, i wrote it and it's mine" edition

>>28069751
>On the note of actual seas, do the Krakens have any Aquatic Warfare specialty?

I think we were going to leave that to the Abyssal Jaws and stick mainly with being excellent in boarding actions and microgravity.

Of course it does translate somewhat.

>>28073161
Indeed, and I was thinking the Grendel have plenty of Space Hulk and other Xenomorph style shipboard tactics to use when not making costal raids.
Also came up with a good name for their males/grafts, "Ick," since it's disgusting looking and grows sort of like the fish illness.

File: 1383439743202.gif-(462 KB, 500x207, url.gif)

462 KB GIF

>>28068579
What have you done??
You had so much promise, you were my brightest star, my one hope! I leave for less than a week, and come back to this? This, bloated monster?
Your ego has destroyed you, your pride has forced your eyes from the emperor and pushed inwards, focusing all thought on the individual,
>My company
>My character
>My fluff
>My ideas
The namefags have killed you, poor shadows of what once was, I am sorry I was not there to stop it.

>>28074081
Mmm delicious tears.

>>28074081
Sic Semper Threads-with-Namefags.

>>28074081
>the word 'my' isn't used once in the quoted post
dude, brah, homie... Nice try.

Star Kraken had a good run, but I think they're well and truly dead now. Ten threads isn't a bad effort though guys. You should be proud.

File: 1383456613084.png-(42 KB, 500x461, ae3kap.png)

42 KB PNG

>>28074081
I too had thought the namefags would be few, nothing but candles to light the path to a proper place on 1d4chan. But then they multiplied, and began claiming portions of the chapter, namefagging as the very individuals they were writing about, as if the chapter were about them, as if this were not a communal project but a piece of meat to be carved up and served.

I tried to let the namefags work, and fix what they made. Mokoyll Accentseverywhere became Canute the Great in Space. The mariner went from a shallow reference to full on colerdige stuff, with the Knights Tomb and Xanadu being referenced, as well as his dear friend Wordsworth.But there is not enough time, nor enough will, to fix everything. So the chapter sits, viking-ed out, and dragged along so that it maybe be disfigured more till it is a mess of brooding vikings and OCs. The OP who propsed them so long ago would weep, if the dead could weep

Oh for fuck's sake you guys. The tripfags have derailed less often than the people bitching about them.

As for the Grendel. We hadn't figured out what to do with the Broodmothers. Various ideas included Grendel supersoldiers, cyborg vehicles, or Titans. My personal opinion? Supersoldiers or vehicles. Titans seem beyond the ability of a species that has been described as using Kroot-level weaponry.

>>28079103
Well I was of the opinion of "Titan-sized Vehicles/Spawn facilities..."
Titans... really aren't that big when you actually look at their stats, and an aquatic creature does have an excuse to be humongous.

>>28079211
Warhounds maybe. The problem is that if it's aquatic then it's not going to be fought. Massive flesh covered factories/buildings that surface guns blazing, disgorging troops and vehicles before returning to the protection of deep underwater would be cool though.

>>28079346
Eh, even the Warlord isn't that much bigger than a Warhound, we could probably safely go Reaver-sized on average.
They'd basically be small Blue Water Corvettes or Frigates, something the whole raiding force rides in on.

That said, they probably don't mount much heavy weaponry, instead lobbing their own troops as both an insertion method and bombardment.
Brood Mothers are far more valuable from a reproductive standpoint than your standard Grendel after all, so it makes sense that they wouldn’t make themselves a direct threat in a battle.

>>28079451
I don't like that the Broodmothers are tied into Grendel reproduction. A singular reproductive figure would change them to a hivelike species and wouldn't be put anywhere near combat no matter how many guns or how much armor is slapped onto them, much less have a functional battlefield role. Not to mention a species that possessed significant genetic engineering capability would recognize the flaws in a "queen" based reproductive system and change that. I think we're taking the term "Broodmother" too literal. It's just what the Imperium calls them and the Imperium knows a little more than jack and shit about the Grendel.

>>28079588
Well they wouldn't be the singular reproductive figure, just the last stage of the Grendel life cycle that is far more productive that the earlier stage.
Basically, if a Grendel lives long enough to grow to become a Broodmother, she's probably well enough adapted to that particular environment to warrant the increase in fertility.
That's why you see so few of them in the first place, it takes a long time for a Grendel to "go to seed" and by the time she does, she's too entrenched to leave her seas...

...Now, if the Dark Eldar were to provide a means to both force the Broodmother metamorphosis and for them to operate EVA, then we might have something for the Krakens to fight on their turf.

>>28079694
I get you, but that still doesn't really warrant a battlefield role since they're more valuable as far away as possible. It's great fluff and I can certainly see the DEldar wanting to get their hands on one.

>>28079740
Well they'd make great underwater transports, but being half whale tail doesn't make them terribly useful on land.
Instead they probably lurk off shore and hurl Grendel into the raid, basically catapult Deep Striking Troops.
It's a grey, dreary day, you think you see a whale breach off to the distance, and then suddenly WHAM WHAM WHAM!
Grendel raining from the sky!

I imagined Grendel reproduce by laying clutches of gelantinous eggs, and then the males who symbiotically make up their armour shed from them and fertilize the eggs in a big squirmy orgy. The female, now vulnerable, must stay with the nest to stay safe (and in turn guards the maturing eggs). Once they hatch the new males, which spawn in larger proportions, make up the new armour for the female and her few offspring.

For added horror each of the eggs may contain multiple females, whom consume each other in-vitero to the dual effect of providing food to each other and ensuring only the strongest survive.

>>28079843
Why would they be transports? They're baby factories. Unless, due to the continuing war with the Star Krakens, that's what happens when a Broodmother hits menopause.

Though they aren't catapulting troops into combat, they're launched into battle in what is basically a cross between a ballistic missile and a drop pod.

>>28079854
The males don't make up the entirety of the armor. Grendel technology is based heavily around cybernetics, not straight biotech. You've got it backwards basically, after fertilizing a couple batches the males would be shipped off to be converted into something else.

>>28079854
Eh, I personally wouldn't draw attention to the Males being symbiotic by requiring them to be shed to breed.

I was thinking that a standard Grendel lays a single egg, already fertilized, that will produce a Grendel spawnling and her first rudimentary armor.
As they grow, Grendel manipulate their male "Ick" to mutate and multiply to suit whatever they need.

Brood Mother, due to their sheer size, can produce dozens of eggs at a time.
They've also been able to force the Brood Mother Metamorphosis, but that usually results in the young developing too quickly and devour their birth mother from the inside, so this is normally reserved for captured prisoners or as a last desperate attempt to repopulate.

>>28079928
>Why would they be transports? They're baby factories.
...Because they are out in the Ocean, and swimming all the way to shore would leave your forces too tired to actually fight, let alone raid.

...And where are they getting fucking Missiles from?
I mean I know they use technology, but I was under the impression that it was stuff stolen from other groups with Bio-grafts attached...

>>28079995
>>28079979
Last thread I saw had them fully symbiotic and Titan sized bioships were being dismissed as idiocy. You guys need to keep track of this somewhere.

>>28080058
No, they were already a space-faring race before the Star Krakens were formed. They're more a bit more advanced than Kroot, but don't have the fancy stuff like plasma, power weapons, or whatnot. That's the stuff they steal.

>>28080133
It's the hazard of world building by consensus. I personally am opposed to the symbiosis, as it makes them too 'Nid like, and Titan-sized anything, as they're not that advanced and it goes against how they operate.

>>28080133
Yeah, this is really inconsistent...
I've been picturing the Grendel as Deep Ones who may or may not have been Dark Age Humans at one point, but do everything for the sake of Survival.
They've warped their minds to the point that they are Psychic Nulls, and their technology into this menagerie of Biology and Mechanics.
Lightning fast, Nietzsche as fuck.

>>28080150
Yeah, but it's not terribly hard to be Space Faring in this setting...
The Orks can manage it with Asteroids after all.

>>28080184
...How are they not advanced enough to have gigantic whale things as part of their forces?
Feral Orks pull off Elephant sized Squiggoth with regularity, and I assumed these guys were amphibious...

>>28080255
The Squiggoths are naturally occurring.

I never once assumed they were amphibious since all the threads have been using oceans and seas as a metaphor.

>>28080217
>>28080184
Maybe we should rebuild the Grendel from the ground up. Look at how they came to be from an evolutionary perspective.

They evolved in the Deep, right? Which is already an issue because the evolution of life needs energy, a lot of energy, and the Deep is described as lacking in light, the most abundant form of energy. Did their early ancestors rely on geothermic energy? Does their homeworld experience much light? Is it a dead world or lush with life?

These questions form the basis of Grendel reproductive biology, which forms the basis of their mentality, which form the basis of their society. If we can answer those questions solidly, they'll form a basis upon which questions of technology capability and social structure are answered more naturally.

>>28080347
Huh, and I thought that they raided aquatic hives and the like...

>>28080394
You know the Deep is... A nebula, right?

>>28080385
The Grendel were originally based on anglerfish. We've stated that a few stars exist inside the Deep, it's just whatever makes up the Deep blocks light so it's entirely possible to have a solar system that you can't see from the outside.

>>28080385
Hmmm, we could go with a Deep Ocean Geothermal adaptation...

But I'm rather fond of the idea that they may very well have been Dark Age Transhumanist who went far more Trans than Human, and leaving things vague enough that it could go either way.

>>28080432
Yes... still doesn't mean that the Grendel weren't based around Anglerfish like so:
>>28080442

As the writefag who came up with pseudo-plausible bullshit for the organisms that populate Icelus back during the Emperor's Nightmare craze, I would be happy to lend what I pretend is experience in armchair evolutionary biology.

Tell me what it is you want and I can try to concoct circumstances that would potentially lead to that desired end and what sort of pressures could hypothetically select for that. Of course except me to ask no end of questions about their homeworld once things get going because that is the sort of thing that determines quite a lot.

Or tell me to fuck off for being a pretentious namefag or something.

>>28080506
There is quite a bit of information on the Grendel in prior threads starting with number seven.

>>28080532
Yeah, but it's all disjointed...
Most of it came about due to having a Drawfag working on concept art.

>>28080532
So giant angry anglerfish-esque beasties that have extreme sexual dimorphism and sexual parasitism that are sapient and were able to independently develop their own space faring civilization?

>>28080631
Crtl+F'ing through all of it wouldn't take up too much time, plus it'd give him a complete overview of the various interpretations we've had and what we've discarded.

>>28080651
The females are sentient, the males are not and are used as raw material for their genetic engineering.

>>28080651
Basically, though we also had them combine their Biomanipulation with Inorganic Technology and have been playing with the idea that they are possibly either a Deep native Xenophage that can co-op Humans or Dark Age Transhumanist who went full Nietzsche Fishpeople.

>>28080666
True, but it doesn't help that the same things keep coming up over and over again.

>>28080651
>>28080506
TBH we don't need to know how many minutes of light, and what wavelength that light is, to make the Grendel a prominent figure in the setting. Likewise we don't need to know how many metric liters of spacewater their carrier vessels displace to fluff them out.

They're space anglerfish with horrific cyberbiotic weapons whom hit the shipping lanes to capture human slaves. The heroes have to stop them. That's it. They say the devil is on the detail... Well, in this case the devil is laughing at us for wasting so much time blathering on about this crap. Let's move on.

>>28080757
Move on to WHAT?
The Grendel are supposedly the reason this entire chapter was founded.
One of the biggest complaints I recognize about the Star Krakens is how their entire reason for being was something they supposedly EASILY curb stomped and they don't really have any reason to be moping around in the Deep anymore.
Hence why I’m trying to help make them their own abominable threat to the Imperium as a whole.

>>28080757
Knowing the conditions of their homeworld and evolution can shed a great deal of light on their behavior. Though this is only useful if they did indeed evolve instead of being made or the product of some horrifying merger an alien parasite and humans.

>>28080798
They've also got the Dick Ass Rogue Traders, Dark Eldar raiders, Eldar Corsairs, Ork Freebootas, human pirates, the Slaaneshi Sirens, the odd chaos cultist warband, genestealers, and a renegade naval fleet.

>>28080798
Yeah, such a dire threat that only the Sue Kraken could possibly stop them! It's well established that the crusade to kill them off cost the chapter dearly, drove their chapter master insane and brought them to the edge of renegade. Then they lost their homeworld in the fallout. What's easy about that?

>>28080821
Well I would like to keep the transmogrifying human captives bit, but with the Gigar twist that the transformee's are basically turned into giant egg sacks.

>>28080848
There is nothing easy about it, but the fact that the threat of the Grendel still lingered in the murk of the Deep is both reason enough for the Krakens to stay and insane enough for them to be regarded as fools by the Imperium as a whole.

Of course, this requires the Grendel to be a suitable Galatic threat in the first place.

>>28080962
The Krakens don't need a horrific enemy to stay. Their homeworld was rendered uninhabitable, their position in the Deep gives them a massive defensive advantage, they're currently tasked with helping explore the Deep and protect the surrounding sector, and they've found some nifty stuff in the Deep and are searching for more. The Grendel aren't some massive, galaxy-wide threat only barely contained by the best efforts of the Star Krakens; they were wiped out of their known locations during the crusade and the Star Krakens thought they had reduced the Grendel to nothing more than a dying race of raiders and pirates. It's only recently that the Grendel have begun re-emerging as a unified threat.

>>28081018
So why in the fuck did they found an entire Space Marine Chapter to wipe out some backwater Xeno?
Yeah I know they Krakens found enough shit to keep them busy in the Deep, but if the Grendel weren't something serious why throw Space Marines at them?

>>28081054
The Star Krakens were formed to fight the Grendel, an expansionist xenos species attacking and threatening Imperial worlds which included the sector capital and main naval installation. Once underway the Star Krakens realized their intel on the Grendel was incorrect, turning into a long, drawn out fight.

>>28081108
Aright, HOW was their Intel incorrect?

>>28080962
Right from first iteration they were in the Deep. Always lurking. Always striking out. Some Star Kraken believed it was them, others just thought it was random space pirates, what was left open ended as a mystery was their strength.

It was shitposters who proclaimed them dead, not any of the fluff.

>>28081134
>>28081054
>not reading the fluff
It's all on the legacy wiki under chapter history. Sheesh.

>>28081134
They didn't know that the Grendel were highly resilent and could rip and tear in close combat. Imagine the US army going to fight the al-Qaeda only to find out al-Qaeda could walk off a bullet wound and rip a guy's arm out of it's socket.

>>28081171
I though the Grendel couldn't hold up to Bolter Fire?

That's what's on the CURRENT wiki page...

>>28081188
I'd say they're about as tough as Orks, just without the crazy regen.

>>28081188
Define "can't hold up"

Technically anyone who dies to a bolter couldn't hold up against bolter fire, didn't stop the Tau from fighting marines to a standstill at Damocles.

>>28081215
>>28081234
Well now I'm completely confused, I was picturing them as Lightning quick bruisers that have to rely on speed and trickery to get in close or else be scythed down by bolter fire...

>>28081391
In their body armor they can take some bolter fire. The problem is that their guns don't don't stand up to bolters and the Krakens' ship-to-ship specialty means that they're packed into long corridors with little cover against guys throwing up a wall of bolter fire. They're trying to take out as many marines as possible while advancing under fire to close quarters so they can use their claws and strength to even out the fight.

>>28081419
That's why I figured they'd Bio-graft the interiors of their ships, so they can pop out of trapdoors and false walls to catch the marines up close.

>>28081521
I'd imagine so. It'd be a good reason why the Krakens prefer to cut and blast their way directly to vital areas and blow them up rather than try to disable and capture ships.

The thing about the Grendel is that they're an outspring of the situation. Firstly the Phorcius Sector is extremely distant, and has a low population density. As a result the local navy is small and poorly equipped.

That wouldn't be a problem, however. A small navy can still glass a couple of xeno worlds, except for the Deep. Once the Grendel slip into it, the Imperial Navy disengages. They don't have the manpower to go gallivanting about in there. Once they're gone the Grendel return to raiding Imp worlds.

In any other sector the Grendel would have been wiped out whilst they still learned how to use fire, or exterminated from orbit the first time they attacked the Imperium. The Phorcius Sector was the perfect storm.

>>28081588
But then that begs the question of why they are even bothering to board in the first place...

>>28081613
The Deep messing with targeting sensors forcing very close ship combat.

>>28081603
Plus should Grendel manage to board an Imperial Navy vessel they'd make short work of the armsmen.

>>28081613
I imagine in some instances it's more efficient to destroy the engines and gunnery decks from within, rather than slugging it out at knife fight ranges.

So, assuming the Grendel evolved on their own, I can generalize several things about them.

1. They live on dry land.
Reason: Water sort of doesn't mix with fire, and without mastering fire you cannot have metallurgy, which then precludes an entire line of things.

2. Some in the distant past, geologically speaking, their world was experiencing a scarcity of food.
Reason: the extreme sexual dimorphism and the sexual parasitism is an adaptation that anglerfish that allowed them to reproduce in spite of the extremely poor odds of an encounter. The ancestor of the Grendel was likely in the same situation for a long stretch of time.
Extrapolation: There are hundreds, if not dozens of species on their homeworld that also use variations on the sexual dimorphism/parasitism tactic.

3. Some in the not as distant past, geologically speaking, their world had a resurgence and diversification of life because the scarcity of food ended. Reason: Sentience and subsequently sapience are not going to be selected for when the overwhelming majority of all energy is spent simply to obtain more energy.
Suggestion: If their homeworld is inside the Depths, then I'd say that the system is a void whale/whatever graveyard and it is not uncommon for the carcass of a void whale to crash into the world.

4. The Grendel are hardly the scariest thing on their world when their intelligence is discounted, much in the same way that when deprived of our tools that humans are chumps. Reason: picking up tool use when you are an apex predator is a waste of time, they already outperform everything around them so there's nothing to reinforce picking it up.

>>28081771
I disagree with the principle behind point 3. Increasingly we're seeing that higher order intelligence is never naturally selected for, and instead is a result of sexual selection. If smarter females bred, they'd get more intelligent as a species. The food shortage need not have ended, but rather predators which fed on them had to be outsmarted.

>>28081863
It's also theorized that diet plays a role in developing intelligence. Brains require a massive amount of energy to function, malnutrition can create lasting intellectual deficits in children.

>>28081863
Sexual selection is pretty much a part of natural selection but intelligence is energy intensive and if a species is currently pressured to optimize, intelligence is going to much much more rare.

If they are stuck with the same level of energy input as the bottom of the ocean, they aren't going to be able to develop enough to reach sentience until the carrying capacity of the environment increases.

5. If the Grendel are routinely taller than space marines and not this way because of manipulating themselves, then I'd venture that their homeworld is fairly cold.
Reason: Larger bodies retain heat better.

6. The Grendel were probably ambush hunters during their primitive phase of societal development.
Reason: their reported strength combined with the structure of the arms, hands, and legs leads me to this conclusion. They likely pounce out from hiding on smaller prey and break its neck using their powerful arms to make up for their legs being unsuited to running.

7. They are good climbers and grapplers.
Reason: Their longs arms and hooked fingers. If they are ambush hunters dropping in from above will be horribly effective, especially if going for larger prey.

8. They are also good at throwing things.
Reason: Same as above compounded with the forward facing eyes. With their arm strength and length, they'd be able to do a hell of a lot more with a crude javelin than humans ever could.

9. They likely eat by shredding it with their teeth rather than actually chewing, much like sharks and alligators.
Reason: The shape of their teeth is unsuited for chewing. Since they have hands they dont need to do the spinning and thrashing that sharks do and can instead just put whatever they wish to eat partly into their mouths before biting down and simply pulling back on it.

Grendel Weapons are made in a very unique style. The metal is crafted through a combination of brute strength and acid. The acid is changed in strength according to how the gun needs to be shaped. Then the weapon is attached to the Grendels arm. However, it is at this point just a lump of metal attached to an arm. It has no spark, no life to, no way to fire. The new requirement is the Symbiotic male of the Grendel. The male is attached near the arm, and special chemicals he produces are channelled to the weapon by small tubes. The closer the proximity of the male to the actual weapon, the shape of the weapon, all of these things impact on how powerful or how frequent the shots are.

>this much thought put into fluffing a femdom monstergirl race that uses jizz-based weaponry

jesus christ

10. The bioluminescent markings on them are used for either communication or as warning signals to deter predation (their position likely mimics some other much larger creature or gives the appearance of there being far more Grendel there than there really are).
Reasons: Given the way bioluminescence is used in nature those were the only that make sense to exist in the Grendel unless they are an atavism.

11. If the Grendel use humans/living beings to house their eggs it is likely that the egg develops a good deal within the female (like with some snakes) before being implanted. I would venture they hatch a short while later within their host and continue to develop over the next few weeks until they are large and strong enough to emerge from their emaciated half-eaten hosts and consume the rest.
Reasoning:This is likely an ancestral adaptation that serves a similar function to mammary glands in mammals, only much much more horrifying. If multiple eggs are put in a victim, I would imagine that only the strongest of the young emerge after eating their kin.

12. The Grendel have minimal affection for their young and see them more as an investment rather than a beloved child.
Reason: See 11.

13. The Grendel probably aren't very familiar with the warm and fuzzy emotions. Every single one of them has the upbringing that would match growing up in a gang so what we consider to be sociopathy is completely normal for them, making them quite similar to the Dark Eldar in that regard.
Reason: See 12.

>>28083191
14. The Grendel male, prior to advent of genetic engineering, likely develop similarly to their female kin before becoming mature enough to seek out a female.
Reason: The male has to be able to reach the female. They cannot do this unless they are capable of moving around and fend for themselves at least a little bit. Given that is the extent of their existence, they are much smaller and require far less in the way of food.
Speculation: Given the minimal presence of ethics among the Grendel, the moment they could engineer the males to go straight from egg to fusing with a female they probably did just because it'd be a hell of a lot more convenient.

15. Male Grendel probably cannot or will not fuse with a female that is too genetically similar to them. This leads to small tribes of related individuals exchanging males with each other, assuming they meet each others' standards. This probably results in tests of cunning and strength and leads to foundation of their society.
Reason: Incest is generally harmful in the long run.

16. In ancient times, the female with the most males fused to her had the greatest social status.
Reason: Tribes are not going to just give their males to another out of any sense of altruism. Instead its going to be a business transaction where each side tries to gain some manner of benefit in addition to their reproductive capability. This is likely true of many other organisms that share their mating strategy that are social.

File: 1383484369324.jpg-(25 KB, 310x206, 3szu21.jpg)

25 KB JPG

Why is so much effort being put into the Grendel backstory?
Why couldn't they stay at least a little mysterious? Some unknown, disturbing force lurking in the deep.
Knowing what they look like, that they have strange grafted weaponry, their trap tendencies or what have you on their ships, the fact that they take slaves, that's fine.
But, to me, that's where information should stop and conjecture starts.

Maybe they take the humans as slaves, maybe they're eaten, maybe they're turned into other grendel; who knows? Could be stories parents tell their kids on the fringe worlds around the deep, fisherman's tales.

They were better when we knew little. And what's more, how could we know so much? what perspective is this being told from?
As for knowing if their weapons are the males of the Grendel, sure. That is something that can be discovered through study. But don't overdo it, guys.

I'm gathering fluff onto a notepad, ignoring the shit that is pointlessly detailed, and using that.
There are bits of fluff that I don't like but should be kept, and will be kept. But ,I'm tired of the namefag wanking. And a lot of their fluff is well-thought and a good read.


tl:dr - Grendel should stay mysterious; have theories, but not too much concrete.
Namefags did a good job for a while, now y'all re overdoing it.
I'm simplifying parts of the fluff for myself. It's somewhat lazy, mind.

>>28083529
Cool your ass mad.

Now listen, we are separate from the creation here. We, by virtue of being outsiders, get the privilege to see whats going on backstage. We do not have the same limited view as the Star Krakens.

This sort of stuff is important because it lets us know how the Grendel operate and what they likely to do and not do. This is the sort of stuff that lets a GM plan more beyond stupid jump scares should anyone decide to take this stuff to Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader, or any other 40k RP.

So if this spoils the magic for you, you have no idea how fucking sorry I am for you.

Also, if you could take a moment out of your butthurt, you'd notice these were suggestions IF we wanted to go that route.

>>28083780
It would give more freedom to the GM to have their own style of what the Grendel is like backstage beyond the jump scares.
I know these are suggestions, but they've been going on for several threads, trying to put everything into them.

I'm not mad, I'm sad. I know I'm being whiny. I like to think about the Star Krakens fluff as a codex, and thus from the POV of the Imperium/ chapter. Tyranids are from the point of view of the Imperium, there's still a lot of mystery, and what they do know is from reports and studies.
Tau is from their point of view, and Eldar from theirs.
So, when I look at any kind of 40k fluff, I default to that perspective.

>>28083905
You're 100% correct, and;
>>28083780
You win the 2013 award for massive over-reactions.

>>28083529

The stuff in >>28083430 and prior posts are simple, logical extrapolations of evolutionary biology and ecological principles. It would be very easy for a Magos Biologis or similar Imperial official to reach these conclusions. In fact, with a minimal editing the above posts could make up a small codex blurb. Note that this says nothing about whether any of this is actually TRUE, only that it's reasonable assumptions to make and that Imperials could make them also.

Hi guys.

Dang, so much already?

BTW, we still didn't fluff out those Techmarines. Mokyoll said that he'd fluff them out, but since then he didn't appear with it.

>>28085274
Looks like all the old guys are either out or contributing anonymously. Haven't even seen Krakendor update the wiki in a few days.

>>28085274

Do we? I mean, couldn't we just leave them as regular techmarines that don't deviate much from most chapters' standard? I don't see why we need to elaborate on them at all.

>>28085461
I didn't see anyone else apart of the other named anons who were doing the original threads. As if there was a large traffic jam on /tg/.
>>28085470
Lets face it. The other specialist marines are also slightly beyond the normal standard.

>>28085531

The chaplains and librarians have an actual reason to deviate, since the Krakens have a particular cult and their history includes a lot of stuff about the Deep. But I don't see why we should customize the techmarines, "we've customized the others" isn't really that convincing as an argument.

>>28085553
Maybe they almost kinda sorta know how the ship works better than normal techmarines because they have to perform more repairs and such.
There ya go.

>>28085582

As is the norm for a fleet-based chapter.

>>28085630
And that's fine with me.

>>28085644

Yeah, me too. I suppose it does merit a couple sentences in the wiki, but I'm too hung over to do a proper job at it.

>>28085553
>>28085582
>>28085630
>>28085644
>>28085667
Why not give them something like a habit of making some truly amazing weapons from time to time?

Plus does anybody remember Techmarine Fansworth?

>>28085691
I mean Farnsworth.

>>28085691
That's fine with me, too.
Nothing wrong with a techmarine making something innovative, or 'mastercrafted' in my eyes.

>>28085691
Not the Techmarines themselves, but in general the members of the Star Krakens should have a bit more in-depth knowledge of how to work with machines, along with large numbers of techpriests seconded to them by the AdMech.

>tfw the two homebrew marine threads you've hosted either sink into obscurity or are trolled to death because of the chosen geneseed mutation and accusations of speshul snowflake

>>28087083
They are not snowflakes at all. They don't have any serious mutations and have under 1000 marines.

>>28087083
Try not having a geneseed mutation? Most of the chapters don't have any and the ones that do are usually cosmetic. Once you get into "purged lest we keep this terrible shame a secret" you're approaching snowflake territory. Are you using a creation table? I find those suck the fun right out of a homebrew. Which homebrew marines were you working on?

I just wish any of the SoB homebrews would go anywhere.

>>28087509

Uh, they don't have any mutations other than a faulty (overactive) mucranoid gland on account of being Raven Guard successors.

>>28087689
I was referring to anon's failed homebrew chapters, not the Star Krakens.

>>28087083
Which were your Chapters?

>>28087750
on was a dark angels descendant known as The Petrus Angelus if I remember right,

the seconds one I didn't start but have attempted to revive, the mourning sons...yeah.

I'd love to know about the Grendel more

An army of them seems too cool to pass up

>>28088135
I remember these guys. If I have the time, I'll look for their stuff in the archives and do something on the 1d4chan wiki.

Hold Fast Anon-san.

>>28088706
You have my eternal thanks.

>>28088733
Nah. Yer making me blush now.

>>28088135
I liked the mourning sons, but the trolls really latched onto the leaking occulobe thing. And even though we dropped the stupid ass Alpha Legion origin, no one ever let that go.

>>28081603
It still doesn't excuse the creation of a Space Marine Chapter...
That would be like founding a Chapter to wipe out the Tau; Yes the Xeno must be Purged, but there are FAR more pressing matters to deal with than some bumfuck Nebula that can't even be navigated through.

>>28081637
Ok... Still doesn't explain why they'd bother risking men going aboard if they're just going to scuttle the thing anyways.

>>28081687
True enough, but one of the reasons I wanted to hint at the Grendel possibly having once been Dark Age Humans was that some of their Bio-graft shit is built on Archeotech, thus the Krakens often loot Grendel vessels for Lost Technology.

>>28081771
I'm going to debate with Point 1, simply because their skill at biomanipulation suggest that the Grendel did not evolve into their current form through natural process.
If they're some kind of messed up Xenophage, their current form is probably a result of adapting the most readily available Sapients in the Warhammer Universe, Humanoids.
If they were originally Dark Age Transhumans, they probably adapted themselves to biologically survive around Deep Oceanic Thermal Vents, which is probably a better bet than relying on Solar Radiation when the Nebula is filled with murky, star obscuring crap.

>>28082533
>>28083191
>>28083430
Everything else however fits.

>>28083529
Because they are the damn reason the Chapter exist in the first place!

>>28091427
it's the only thing keeping me from reviving them.

>>28091654
>Because they are the damn reason the Chapter exist in the first place!

Well aware of that, they are a good enemy and, at first, cool and intimidating.
But, there is such a thing as too much information. We've been shoehorning as much detail as we can fit into the grendel and, to me, has ruined the magic. They were a strong, scary foe of unknown number hiding within the Deep; taking humans from their homes, raiding ships, causing panic. And they weren't well understood.
Knowing what they look like was great, we have a helluva concept art floating around of them. Their weapons are fine, the discovery that their bio weaponry was the male species was something to be discovered.
The reasoning behind human enslavement- to turn them into grendels- that could have been left as theory and superstition. I like to think that an alien intelligence would be difficult to understand. And that's intimidating. Who could fathom the horror of the deep that is the Grendel? Pushed from the fringes by our great chapter, backs against the wall, more dangerous as they fight to survive- the only reason people believe they might be nearing extinction is their increased aggression.
Plenty has been written about them. They are scary, dangerous, shrouded in mystery. That's enough for them. We don't need their bloated brood mothers shitting out young from the oceans of planets to reach the surface and fight, or be armored space-faring not-hive-ships.

don't overfluff the chapter or the grendel. That's my only request. Leave a bit of leeway for other people to have their own little dream bits and whatnot. It's a homebrew. If you're fapping over your oc, that's fine. It doesn't have to go on the wiki, stick it in a word document for yourself.
One of the companies is still unfluffed, right? Keep it as such for someone using the army and not liking what the namefags came up with.

>>28091654
>The Imperium
>Doing things efficiently
choose one. The Star Kraken might have been founded to wipe out a distant alien threat because that particular administratum scribe was boners for astartes, and that would be a perfectly acceptable canon reason.

>Orlog

A planet that is far from Imperial dominance, Orlog is constantly embroiled in a shadow war with the Grendel. While it was once a normally terriformed world, it is one of the most chaotic and claustrophobic battlezones in the whole of imperial memory.

It was discovered and terriformed early in the history of imperial activity in the sector, becoming a frontier world, from which the imperium would gain a small foothold in the lower regions of Phorcius. Many factories and other structures of importance were built here.

Nobody is quite sure when the days became darker, or the clouds more obscuring in the vast skies. Nobody quite recalls why the nights got longer. What is known is that, eventually, the clouds of white had become a pitch black lined with grey; a titanic shroud of darkness that covered the world.

Shortly afterward, Grendel were confirmed in the area only after several ships had mysteriously disappeared while trying to enter Orlog's orbit. Imperial response was too slow, as the Grendel were considered a minor threat at the time. The few ships dispatched to destroy them would never be seen or heard from again.

The Grendel were meticulous. They struck communication arrays and vital systems first, disabling military coordination. Isolated from each other, armed resistance would either be left alone entirely or destroyed utterly by the Grendel. Hundreds of thousands were left in the darkness when Grendel disabled power plants, but lack of information makes the fate of these civilians unknown.

The world has only held a partial imperial presence since this attack, called "the Massacre of Silence." Large portions of the planet are obscured from imperial observation, but a luminescent glow eminates from the dark zones occasionally. Only Ivaldin, with troops from nearby worlds, have been able to hold a few small footholds. Orlog has already fallen to the Grendel, with most opposition drowning in the sea of darkness this place has become...

>>28091654
You know by pushing this DaoT humans stuff you're kind of robbing the Grendel of their magic.

>>28094980
neat.

>>28092255
>But, there is such a thing as too much information
To you maybe, but don't for a moment think you speak for everyone. Personally, I seems like you want them to be constantly swaddled in their shroud of mystery simply to make up for the shortcomings of your own imagination as you appear to think knowledge equates to a lesser sense of awe.

Secondly, all of the stuff the Rogue Xenobiologist said is speculation based solely on pre-existing fluff and the picture. It's nothing an that an in-universe member of the Ordo Xenos wouldnt also come up with.

> I like to think that an alien intelligence would be difficult to understand
Difficult does not mean impossible. An intelligence we are unable to comprehend means that it would have to be subject to wildly different rules of existence, so unless you are suggesting that the Grendel are really Chaos critters or some other brand of extra-dimensional space horror, its only going to take a matter of time to figure them out.

>>28095159
Did I say I was speaking for everyone?
And no, I just think that a little mystery can go a long way. it leaves the grendel open to interpretation by the individual. Ya know, imagination. As for difficult to understand, why do they have to be understood now? I like the multiple theories because it leaves things open for interpretation. Don't assume I meant impossible. You're over-analyzing.

>>28095550
Well then by all means present other possibilities and interpretations. When there is only one and you say "nope can't have that" it doesn't exactly reflect upon you very well.

And sorry for sounding like a jerk above.

Who the hell is this Captain Yngvar guy, and why did he replace Vastergo?

>>28096883
some guy thinks he's better at names than everyone else. He literally edits the wiki just to change one name and add maybe a sentence of unnecessary detail, often at odds with everything else.

Increasingly I'm getting the feeling he's "de-sueing" the wiki, simply by changing names other people from earlier threads thought up. However really he's just reducing the overall quality.

>>28095005
True, but at least it would give the Imperium a serious reason to take a look at them.

>>28095550
Still man, there is a difference between "a little mystery" and "No fucking clue whatsoever"...
The Grendel having Archeotech is a great example of this, it ask "How the fuck did they get this shit?"

I think the whole thing about the chapter being explicitly created to combat the Grendel doesn't match the fluff about Achab. I mean, it basically entails the Administratum going "well, these xenos are so much of a threat that we have to create a chapter of Astartes to deal with them" (note that even TAU didn't get that kind of response) and then, once the crusade got underway, the same Administratum goes "what do you mean you're asking for aid? These xenos are pushovers! Stop whining and wipe them out". If they believed them to be pushovers, why would they create a Chapter?

I think it would be better if the Krakens were created not to fight the Grendel, but to SECURE AND GUARD THE DEEP. The Administratum knew there were archaeotech relics and stuff there, so they commissioned a chapter to spearhead a crusade to reclaim it.

>>28099323
Because the administratum is really bad at administrating. That's established 40k canon.

File: 1383553547323.jpg-(23 KB, 300x300, this.jpg)

23 KB JPG

>>28099323

>>28099445

Look, as much as /tg/ likes to imagine everyone in 40k being some kind of huge retard, I just gave you a reason that both keeps the Grendel as an important opponent for the chapter (since they're still around, the Krakens' mission to secure and hold the Deep remains incomplete) AND to make sure the Grendel don't become the main focus of the fluff, because having them be the REASON the chapter was founded has been the cause of this wierd back-and-forth between boosting their power levels (because they "have to be strong enemies") and drastically reducing their power levels (because they can't be mary sue). This way, the Krakens and the Grendel are disentangled but all current fluff can remain in place.

>>28099530
This guy knows what he's talking about. Guarding/Securing the Deep is a good call for the reason the SK exist.

>>28099323
>>28099464
>>28099530
>>28099738
So. Much. Samefagging.

Another thing for your consideration: What if the reason the Krakens lost so many men and resources fighting the Grendel wasn't so much an Administratum fuckup, but rather that Achab refused all help? The company commanders saw the crusade was going badly and wanted to request reinforcements, but Achab vetoed it.

"I will not have this Chapter debase itself. If we ask for aid, we will admit to failure, and consign ourselves to be unfit for carrying out the very task for which we were founded. So long as I am in command of the Star Krakens, we will not run and hide, like a boy behind his mother's skirts," in his agitation, Achab turned to the idioms of his native planet, "we will not flee at the first signs of a challenge. We are Astartes! The Emperor's eyes are upon us, and we must prove ourselves worthy to Him. From now on, anyone expressing defeatism will be subject to stricture and punishment."

With this, Achab forbade all dissent and the chapter fell in line. Battle reports were edited, casualty counts retooled, and requests for aid silenced. No news on the situation reached crusade command or the Administratum. The Krakens would stand alone, Achab had declared. That decision would cost them dearly.

>>28099323
Not to burst your bubble, but the reason the Kraken were formed (and the Heorot Crusade launched) was to secure the Phorcius Sector and reinforce Imperial control, as established in thread 4.
Running headlong into the Grendel was the crux of the Crusade, and being mismanaged by the Administratum a core concept FOR shaping Achab's backstory, which is essentially a tragedy. Taken in context nothing about it is out of place, but changing it drastically upsets the canon in its present state.

>>28099530
I'm ok with this.

>>28099530
>/tg/ likes to imagine
The administratum is literally described, in dozens of canon sources, as losing entire planets because some only stamped Form 48B-XXV five times instead of the requisite seven times. In this case no extrapolation of their incompetence is required.

>>28100556
>to secure the Phorcius Sector and reinforce Imperial control

Does not disagree with >>28099323 in the least, and why do we have people in every thread going "the Grendel is the reason the chapter was formed" if the above is the actual reason?

>>28097895
A arse changing names because he thinks they are better? Extremis Diabolis

>>28100748
Because no one has read any further back than thread 7, as anon drove out the Kraken oldfags with cries of: "circlejerk!" and "marysue!" leaving us with this sorry lot going off in stupid directions.

BTW, is the thread even saved?

>>28103908
Does it matter? Is there anything of value in this thread? Let ten be the last and create no twelve after this. Star Kraken's are done.

>>28104124
There is some info, so I'll save...just in case.

OK, saved.

File: 1383594065425.gif-(500 KB, 500x281, 1373567101048.gif)

500 KB GIF

>Haven't been on one of these threads since like the 4th or 5th thread
>my face right now

Holy shit you guys have done amazing things.

>>28101085
Yes, the anons became their worst enemy, but we did have a thread or two that became "Captain Awesome and the Awesomettes doing Awesome Stuff;" we made our bed, now we sleep in it. There's nothing stopping them from coming back.

I say we need to quit focusing on the Grendel. There are plenty of other enemies in the sector that pose threats to Imperium control.

So uh

What have I missed? What's changed? Last time I was in one of these we were still hammering out details on Mokoyll

>>28106529
You missed on a whole bunch of bitching mostly.

>>28106563
Well that's no good

What happened?

Wait whoa, what happened with Huginn/Muninn and the Lighthouse?

WHERE IS MUNINN I DO NOT LIKE THIS

>>28106582
Usual tripfag vs. anon shit. The 1d4chan page has all the threads linked.

>>28106634
I'm wondering that myself.

>>28106671
Well Huginn's a Battle Barge now, not sure when that happened

I remember agreeing that since it was such a young chapter that they wouldn't have one

Huginn and Muninn were a sensor array and a data repository, respectively, and the Lighthouse was an archeotech ship that could pierce the darkness of the Deep within a certain radius, when did that change?

Man you guys fucked it up real bad

Yo I'm like wicked bummed out about what happened to this Chapter

Now it's just a mess

>>28106935
Don't get bummed, get busy!

>>28106755
The simplest solution would be to say that Huginn is the Lighthouse.