Knights Inductor

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Knights Inductor
Battle Cry Light Up The Night!
Number 314
Founding 21st (ca. M36)
Successors of Desert Fangs
Successor Chapters None (looking to found one at next Founding)
Chapter Master Zakis Randi
Primarch Rachnus Rageous
Homeworld Aprior
Strength ~3000
Specialty Conflict resolution
Allegiance Imperium
Colours Azure on Ceramite, camouflage

The Knights Inductor chapter is an attempt to create a viable chapter of Reasonable Marines. The first tale of the Knights Inductor was penned by an Anon known only as LongPoster, telling the story of one Inquisitor Rightina Immam and her visit to the Aprior Sector, hoping to investigate them for heresy. She found it in large quantities. Unfortunately, the tale was left unfinished, and the Knights Inductor were all but forgotten, until another Anon, creatively calling himself "Not LongPoster," continued their story.

Index Astartes: Knights Inductor

Origins

"Our progenitors despised us, and our leadership didn't understand us. We were lost, until Captain Norys helped us find ourselves." - Chapter Master Zakis Randi

Of all of the Space Marine Chapters, none are so legendary in their hatred of the enemies of Man as the Desert Fangs, now known only as the "Angry Marines" since the Horus Heresy. The Angry Marines were also renowned for their resilience against the corruptions of Chaos. This was believed to be their rage shielding them from Chaos' whispers, but in M36, a Magos Biologis by the name of Jakobus Hamundr discovered ancient records on the Angry Marines' gene-seed. The information was incomplete, but it seemed that the Primarch of the Second Legion was a Null of phenomenal power, and that his anti-psychic nature had imprinted itself on his Legion's gene-seed. The effect had been suppressed for unclear reasons, and supplemented with the burning hatred which earned the Angry Marines their name, but Hamundr was convinced that he could restore it in order to create a Chapter with the same warp-resistance as the Angry Marines, but without the instability of the Angry Marines' berserk rage. The Angry Marines would not cooperate with a successor less angry than they, so Hamundr had to ask the Doom Eagles to lend a leadership team to instill a proper Codex-compliant nature into the inductees of the new chapter.

The next Founding turned out to be the Cursed 21st, and Hamundr's plan soon went awry. The Warp-resistance worked well enough, but while the Knights were not afflicted by the iconic berserk rage of their progenitors, neither did they exhibit the proper disdain for or hatred of Mankind's enemies; it seemed that the altered gene-seed had failed to carry over the vehement hatred that the Space Marines are so feared and admired for, and that they were resistant to the mental conditioning used to train inductees in other Chapters in the art of war. The chapter's leadership decided that a crusade would harden the Knights' hearts with the fires of war, and so the Knights Inductor set off for the nearby war-torn world of Kronos VI.

Kronos VI was a Hive World home to several munitions manufactora, where the working class had suffered for generations under the yoke of their planetary leadership, until they realized that they outnumbered their rulers by about six orders of magnitude. The Munitorum demanded that order be restored by any means possible, and the standard practice for such situations was that the rebellion be annihilated.

The Salamanders had also sent a detachment to Kronos VI, under the command of one Captain Carolus Norys. Where the Angry Marines shunned the Knights for their dispassion, and their leadership pushed them in a direction they did not truly desire, Norys gladly took the fledgling Chapter under his wing, and the Knights soon saw him as their spiritual liege. He instilled in them a sense of guardianship: that their purpose was to protect the Imperium first, and only to exercise force in the service of that purpose, and even then, to minimize collateral damage while doing so. Rather than destroying the rebellion, the Salamanders and Knights Inductor worked to address the populace's demands for better living conditions and a government more responsive to their grievances, overseeing the revitalization of the primary hive city. Their solution took longer than a simple extermination campaign would have, but it resulted in a stable government, better living conditions for the Kronans, and a more productive, stable world in the long run. The Knights Inductor knew that they had found their purpose at last: to seek troubled systems, repair them, and leave them better off than before.

For information on what the Knights Inductor did after pacifying Kronos, and other events pertaining to the Knights Inductor and the Aprior Sector, see the Aprior Sector Timeline.

Homeworld

"The only creature I've ever met with a more callous disregard for life than yours was a Dark Eldar Archon, and at least he had the courtesy not to proclaim his devotion to virtue while he murdered billions." - Chapter Master Jakob Morridus, shortly before executing Canoness Sarah Azaniel

At first, the Knights Inductor were a fleet-based Chapter, having dedicated themselves to repairing the Imperium world by world. Eventually, their crusade took them out to the Eastern Fringe, where the Astronomican's light pushes against the intergalactic calm in the Warp, setting up a great turbulence. In M40, the turbulence erupted into a full Warp Storm, enclosing the sector which the Knights Inductor were pacifying. With no means of leaving, the Knights decided to put down roots and push their skills to their limit in improving the sector.

Aprior was the most populated system in the sector, and was riven by internal division and external threats, so the Knights decided to improve that system first. They appeared to the fractious Apriori, and offered a deal: cooperate with us, and we will build a noble, bright future together. The Apriori were skeptical at first, having been disunited for so long, and several factions objected to the idea of unity or cooperation with their former enemies. The Aprior Commandery of the Order of the Sacred Rose was the most outspoken of these factions, especially when they learned that the Knights Inductor were willing to tolerate trade with xenos or attempt to rehabilitate heretics in the pursuit of peace. When their objections failed to attract popular support or produce results, they deemed the sector heretical, and sought to put it to the torch, starting with their home system of Marion. The Knights Inductor were able to stop the Sisters on the world of Dvi-Marion by incapacitating the Sisters' orbital assets, trapping them on the ground. The Knights tried and convicted the Sisters of crimes against humanity for the brutal tactics they employed, and offered a choice: use their expertise to help the Apriori, or be executed. The surviving Sororitas were reformed into the more scholarly and defense-focused Order of Reason's Light, in line with what the Knights Inductor felt was a more reasonable interpretation of the Decree Passive.

Once the Knights extinguished the immediate threat of rebellion and started to implement their social policies, quality of life started to improve for those Apriori who cooperated with them, and support for the Knights grew rapidly. The Apriori banded together and set to work fortifying their world, and then spread, first to nearby stars, and then to the whole sector, driving back the threats of the cosmos and advancing the Knights' social programs as they went. The worlds of the Aprior Sector are varied, but their societies have several common policies dating to this era: citizens are regularly screened for genetic mutation, starting before birth, and extensive public education programs include civil defense training to ensure that all Apriori citizens can contribute to their worlds' defensive efforts.

The Knights Inductor use these programs to identify children who are compatible with their gene-seed and have the potential for combat aptitude. Because Aprior is largely composed of Civilized Worlds as opposed to Feral or Death Worlds, there is not an easy way to identify which of these children are truly Space Marine material without actually putting them through training, so the Knights simply train them all: when flagged children reach age twelve, their parents are contacted and offered the opportunity to allow their child to go through training. There is no penalty for refusal, but having a child in the Knights Inductor is a high honor, and even those who do not become Knights are skilled enough to excel in the Chapter Staff, the Apriori Armed Forces, or almost any other technical or military career field, so most parents accept.

As the Knights Inductor were the leaders of the fleets which settled the Aprior Sector, they have the option to directly rule every planet therein. They have temporarily exercised this power on worlds in a dire state of emergency, but otherwise, they leave the systems outside of the Aprior Subsector to govern themselves, so long as they meet certain standards of economic viability, self-sufficiency, and protection of the rights of citizens.

Beliefs

"As we proceed in our duties, consider the Emperor of Man. Despite his genius and continuing honorable courage, he made a number of avoidable mistakes, even from the foundation of the Imperium. Even with the greatest ability, and noblest goals, mistakes happen. Therefore, let us admit to our own errors, that we may refine our ways." - Knights Inductor Invocation

Like most Space Marine Chapters, the Emperor is not worshiped as a god among the Knights Inductor, but as a man: and even then, although the Knights Inductor believe that he is powerful, worthy of admiration, and in many ways the best that mankind has to offer, they also believe that he is not perfect. They are scrupulously careful to avoid blind devotion, because doing so would blind them to their own imperfections. A significant part of the Chaplains' sessions with the Space Marines is spent in reflection, to recognize and learn from their failures and shortcomings and improve going forward; reminding themselves that even the Emperor of Mankind can make mistakes helps keep them humble.

The Knights Inductor's practice of recruiting from the worlds they pacify has given them a personal understanding of and respect for the diversity present in the Imperium, not to mention several millennia of experience in forging a viable alliance out of many disparate members, within and beyond the subsector. They believe, from personal experience, that every Imperial world and citizen is able to contribute to the Imperium and is worth protecting; and that protecting the Imperium, rather than seeking and destroying the Imperium's enemies, is their primary purpose.

Combat Doctrine

"Any Space Marine can apply force and destroy a target. The true measure of a Chapter is how it can achieve victory without force." - Captain Roland Darren, Third Company

Knights Inductor gene-seed makes them steadier but not as quick, relative to other Space Marine Chapters, and they use tactics to play to their strengths. Rather than making high-visibility close-quarters assaults, they use camouflage and more exotic stealth techniques to mask their deployments and strike from long range, usually with heavy mechanized support thanks to the Aprior Sector's thriving industrial base and growing manufacturing capacity. The Knights Inductor amplify this advantage through advanced electronic and psychological warfare, tricking enemies into reacting to forces which aren't really there, or even forcing them into surrendering in the face of apparently overwhelming opposition. Then, while the enemy is jumping at shadows, they employ surgically-precise strikes to eliminate enemy leadership or destroy enemy linchpins.

The most peculiar "combat doctrines" of the Knights Inductor have to do with their preference to limit or even avoid combat if it is reasonable to do so; they have found that a nonviolent resolution is preferable to a bloody war, and that, by not exterminating the enemy, prisoners taken can supply information and be used as bargaining chips, or even defect entirely. They may also leave a detachment behind after major combat operations are complete to help establish stability, rather than perpetuating needless and wasteful conflict and leaving the locals to clean up the mess by themselves. These practices have earned the Knights Inductor the moniker of "Reasonable Marines" among Imperial citizens.

Sometimes, this involves tolerating or cooperating with people (human or otherwise) whom more puritanical chapters or Imperial authorities would have exterminated; the Knights Inductor (and Apriori in general) are not picky about their allies, so long as they behave. When the encroaching Tyranids and Necrons calmed the Warp storms surrounding the Aprior Sector, Inquisitor Rightina Immam was sent to identify any deviations which had developed over the thirteen hundred years of isolation, and she was alarmed to find such tolerance; she immediately called an Inquisitorial Council to examine the Knights and judge them (see Report "An Investigation into the Heresy of the Reasonable Marines").

Radical Inquisitors, exemplified by Johannes Krieger of the Ordo Hereticus, advocated cautious acceptance of the Knights Inductor. Krieger acknowledged their deviations, but argued that their experience made them useful to have in the Imperium, and that their Warp-resistance and, in extreme cases, Warp-nullifying effect is especially valuable to the Inquisition. As a Recongregator, he also suggested to his like-minded colleagues that some "deviations" might be put to good use in the Imperium, such the Apriori genetic screening and public education policies. On the other hand, the more Puritanical Inquisitors, led by staunch Monodominant Inquisitor Lord Avius Damnos, claimed that no utility can justify the degree of Apriori deviation. He and his colleagues in the Ordo Malleus tried to rouse the Imperium in a Crusade against the Aprior Sector.

The Radicals gained the upper hand, if only through bureaucratic inertia: the Aprior Sector did not appear to be threatening enough to expend the effort to initiate a Crusade and the costs of eliminating an experienced and firmly-entrenched foe, especially when more immediate threats are always all around, though Inquisitor Rightina was dispatched to monitor the Aprior Sector as a concession to the Puritans.

Teron I

Captain Darren has earned the honorific "Master of the Deal" for his successes in defusing conflicts without bloodshed; the "Non-War of Teron I" is one of his more famous accomplishments. When a Tau strike force claimed to own the Imperial world of Teron I, the local Imperial Guard Regiments were provoked to mobilize, which would invite a weightier response from the Tau Empire, and could only escalate from there. A long meat-grinder war was in the making, but cooler heads within the Administratum realized that the IG Regiments were needed to fight the Tyranids, and that driving out the Tau would leave them dangerously under-strength for such a deployment. Fortunately, Darren's Battle Barge was in the vicinity, and the Administratum asked him to handle the situation.

Rather than preemptively striking the Tau, as the IG force commander suggested, Darren established a defensive perimeter against a sudden Tau attack, and used some technological trickery to give the appearance of having many more Marines deployed than he actually had on hand. When he engaged the Tau diplomatically, he was able to convince them that the resources required to take the world by force would be better spent colonizing non-Imperial worlds, playing on the fact that the Tau desired expansion more than bloodshed.

In the debriefing session thereafter, Darren was asked what he would have done had he not convinced the Tau to leave without a fight. For his answer, Darren whistled, and twelve Terminators deactivated cloaking devices, appearing as if from nowhere. After the flustered leadership calmed down, Darren assured them that he was "well prepared for a hostile reception."

Organization

"There is no specific regulation to the number of Marines in a chapter." - Sergeant (later Captain) Aeron Sacres, Fourth Squad, Fifth Company

For the most part, the Knights Inductor operate under the Codex Astartes as taught by the Doom Eagles who first led the Chapter, but in the millennia since their founding, they have diverged to adapt to changing circumstances.

In order to be flexible, the Knights tend to separate their forces. It is very rare for a whole Company to fight together; they frequently fight as individual Squads, in fairly separated battles -- on many occasions, a Company has found itself split across multiple fronts of warfare. To ensure that each detachment has enough Marines to fight effectively, the Knights gradually increased their standard squad size from ten to its present (and likely final) value of twenty-four. A squad of this size can divide itself two, three, or even four ways depending on the tactical needs of a particular mission; thus, even a squad that finds itself alone can instantly become a four-fold threat. This organizational change has the additional effect of allowing the Knights to increase their numbers without technically violating the Codex Astartes, though this was not their original intent.

The Third Company takes this division to the extreme, loaning individual squads (sometimes with support from the Chapter Armory and Reserve Companies) to Imperial forces in need of Astartes assistance. While lending their support, the squads gather intelligence on the tactics and technology of their allies and enemies; often, they will be supported in these efforts by a Techmarine or Librarian. After the conclusion of the campaign, the squad returns home with an impressive record of victory, battle experience, and information to be shared among and dissected by their battle-brothers.

Joint Force Operations

For all their ability, Space Marines cannot win wars alone; only the vast legions of the Imperial Guard have enough boots and guns to take, hold or defend large territories. The Knights Inductor quickly learned that they were more effective as part of a combined, diverse force than they were alone, and the first step taken by any detachment of Knights entering a new conflict is to identify and join such a coalition, or attempt to found one if none exist. This is usually straightforward, as almost every Imperial world has some armed forces that the Knights can augment, but integration takes time, while Space Marines are at their best in rapid deployments, and many threats to the Imperium are extremely time-sensitive.

When the Knights Inductor came to rule the Aprior Sector, they decided to ensure that their Sector's armed forces were built from the ground up with joint operation in mind. Every Guardsman, Voidsman, Scout, and (eventually) Novice in the Sector is taken through several standard, cross-service courses during training, with extensive time devoted to joint training exercises. The result is a set of highly competent armed services, capable of seamlessly integrating into one unified force as circumstances require.

This grants the Aprior Sector a substantial advantage over invaders, compared to the rest of the Imperium, as each facet of their defenses are trained to fight together for maximum effect, but it also serves them well on offensive campaigns, because it requires next to no time at all for an Apriori Joint Force to establish an optimal plan of action. The cross-training also helps each respective service integrate cohesively with their counterparts from other worlds. For this reason, detachments of Knights Inductor bound for high-conflict zones, such as the Damocles Gulf Campaign, are often accompanied by a Battlegroup from Battlefleet Aprior and several Guard Regiments. The reverse also applies; large Navy or Guard forces will often have a detachment of Knights Inductor for support.

Gene-seed

"Our Primarch is lost. All that remains of him is our gene-seed, and through that, he is always with us." - Apothecary Stephan Aigle

Like their parent Chapter and Legion, Knights Inductor gene-seed has mutations in the organs that affect the brain. These mutations enhance the abilities of Nulls to the point that they can manipulate the shape and strength of their "null aura" to some degree, while psykers' abilities are severely blunted, if not outright deadened. All Knights Inductor receive significant mental resistance to Warp powers and emotional stabilization, allowing them to keep a cool head under all circumstances and resist corruption. It also seems that the psychic resistance makes the gene-seed itself less vulnerable to further mutation. These traits endear the Knights Inductor to the Inquisition, especially the Deathwatch, encouraging them (and thus the other Imperial factions) to turn a blind eye to the Knights' more deviant practices and beliefs. This resilience comes at a cost: the Omophagea has been rendered ineffective, training takes up to a decade longer as the Neophytes are less susceptible to hypnotherapy, and a Knight's reaction time is about 15 percent longer than that of the average Space Marine.

The Knights Inductor still need psykers for astropathic communication, so Neophytes who happen to be psykers are trained and armored without implants, though this leaves them less capable in combat than their counterparts in other Chapters. The Knights Inductor also need Blanks to become full Marines to ensure they have proper psychic warfare units, so their recruitment program places special emphasis on identifying Blanks for the Librarius; thanks to this program, they have about as many "Silencers" as most Chapters have Librarians.

Their gene-seed banks are regularly screened for signs of any deviation, the fact that they are resistant to corruption doesn't not replace caution in any measure. There are three major gene-bank pools throughout the Aprior Sector, though the locations are highly classified, and the number stored in each is an even more tightly-held secret. The Knights Inductor know well the value of their Pariah gene factor within their gene-seed and take great lengths to insure that even if the whole Sector was destroyed, the gene-seed would live on.

Null Knights

The mutations in Knights' Inductor gene-seed make them all but immune to Chaotic corruption, but have left them open to other fates. The Necrons originally planted the Pariah gene in humanity, and when the Desert Fangs encountered the tomb on Voralia, the Necrons were pleased to see how much their plan had matured. Knights Inductor are already much stronger and faster than a normal human being; their potential power after upgrading was nearly limitless. Over the years, some three dozen Knights Inductor have been captured, augmented with Necron technology, and conditioned to see all life as essentially chaotic; they now serve the Necrons, reborn as Null Knights.

These Null Knights have caused a good deal of grief to the Knights Inductor, as they superficially appear to be Knights in a remarkable likeness and wreak havoc where ever they tread. Nominally it is elements of 6th Company that is tasked with tracking down and eliminating their cursed Necron counter-parts. However the galaxy is vast and clues to the Null Knights' whereabouts scarce, and over the millenia only approximately a third of the Null Knights have been successfully eliminated. Attempts at containment and rehabilitation of the Null Knights themselves have proved to be unfeasible, to the cost of two whole Tactical squads of the 6th Company.

Each encounter with the Null Knights is seemingly always marked with gruesome violence upon the discovery of one. They are invariably found in high positions of power, having achieved their status through intimidation and manipulation. The cost of apprehending a discovered Null Knight is depressingly high, but the costs of an undiscovered one wreaking havoc are much, much higher. Upon discovery, a Null Knight will not attempt to flee until it has done maximum damage to the subsector or planet they are in, even if doing so increases its chance of capture. It is unknown as to why they do this, though amongst the 6th Company hunters it is attributed to the Null Knight's programming that causes them to inflict massive chaos.

Should the Hunters fail or falter in their duty, the greater Imperium's doom would be assured as the Null Knights leave countless planets ripe for Necron awakening or incursions, and possibly threatening Holy Terra itself.

Battle-Cry

"Light up the night!"

It's based on their motto "Ex Tenebras, Lux" ("From Darkness, Light"). Some commanders shorten it to "Light 'em up!" when they are confronting a foe with force.

Deathwatch Rules

Chapter Purpose
Counter to Chaos
Chapter History
21st Founding (M36)
Chapter Progenitor
Desert Fangs
Gene-Stock Purity
A New Generation
Chapter Demeanor
"See, But Don't be Seen."
Gene-Seed Deficiency
Missing Omophagea
Chapter Flaw
We Stand Alone
Chapter Characteristic Modifiers
+5 Willpower, +5 Ballistic Skill
Figure of Legend
Captain Carolus Norys, Salamanders Second Company
Deed of Legend
Early mentor and spiritual liege to the Chapter
Chapter Home World
Aprior Regius (Civilized)
Chapter Home World Terrain
Varies
Home World Relationship
Stewardship (most worlds in the Aprior Sector have representative governments, like most worlds the Knights pacified while fleet-based)
Organization
Codex, with squads of 24 rather than 10.
Combat Doctrine
Codex
Solo Mode Ability
Mental Fortress
Squad Mode Attack Pattern
Fire for Effect
Squad Mode Defensive Stance
Regroup
Specialty Restriction
Cannot be Librarians (Knights Inductor do not posses Librarians as portrayed in the Deathwatch Core Rulebook, though a Silencer could be used as fluff to justify use of Librarian crunch.)
Special Equipment
Customized Technology (their long isolation has resulted in technological adaptation, without the Mechanicus to keep their techmarines under control)
Chapter Belief
The Emperor Above All (more accurately, The Imperium Above All)
Chapter Status
Over Strength (~3000, looking to found a Successor at the next Founding)
Chapter Friends
Apriori PDF and Guard, Salamanders (and successors)
Chapter Enemies
Dark Eldar (esp. the Kabal of the Hand of Fate), Inquisition (Puritan)
Battle Cry
"LIGHT UP THE NIGHT!"
Heraldry
Balance
Livery
Camouflage (in combat), or Azure on Ceramite (ceremonial)
Custom Chapter Advances
Death From Afar

Tabletop

True Reasonable Marines would be pretty broken on the tabletop, but Knights Inductor can be used in Epic and Apocalypse games as a fluff reason to have many different armies cooperating -- the Knights Inductor aren't picky about their allies, so long as they behave.

A playable (and not broken) codex is in the works, with unique units such as Silencers and Apriori Auxiliary units. Hopefully, it will be made of awesome. Codex in Progress, regularly adding moar stuff.

Gallery

  • A depiction of a Knight's left pauldron, painted azure for a ceremonial occasion.

    A depiction of a Knight's left pauldron, painted azure for a ceremonial occasion.

  • Knights Inductor are known for their preference for stealth over high-visibility close-quarters assaults.

    Knights Inductor are known for their preference for stealth over high-visibility close-quarters assaults.

  • Typical Knights Inductor camouflage for desert or scrubland operations.

    Typical Knights Inductor camouflage for desert or scrubland operations.

  • What a typical major city in the Aprior Sector looks like.

    What a typical major city in the Aprior Sector looks like.

Writefaggotry

Several stories and other pieces of fiction have been written about the Knights Inductor, including:

  • Apriori Public Service Announcements, a sort of Apriori equivalent of "The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer" and "Imperial Munitorum Manual:" an in-universe piece of writing meant to convey the feel of the setting.
  • Aprior Sector, a guide to the Knights' home, including brief descriptions of all planets, organizations, characters, and technologies featured in the other stories.

External Links

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