Hello Again! I've just started
to piece together my first project! and I'm going to be planning A TON, but ill also do some drawings and sketches to keep everyone interested!, I'm terrible at writing but i thought it would be cool to offer you lot a bit of backstory for my project, this is simply the background of their rebellion and creation, and my next post will be on heir achy and traditions.
THE ARMY OF ANGELS
The horde of angels started in the Imperial shrine world of Keradversk I, a infamous planet, whose corrupt or extremely puritan priesthood used the massive hive cities surrounding their cathedral city as essentially slave labour, with cities such as Deckavsvin sending their populace to go and man the colossal engines and machines which lived below the statues of generosity and kindness ironically constructed by their ancestors before them, this would occur every month, whilst the corrupt and heretical priesthood descended upon the hive's many bars and sources of unsavoury entertainment and spent their own currency made by them, the holy nail.
This is one of the main reasons of rebellion, and the eventual creation of The holy army, because the priesthood had formed their own nation, a nation which some could call independent from the glorious Imperium of Man, which had been almost forgotten about by the local population and authority (deliberately) and was thus taken over as the supreme power by the bishops and preachers who led the foul regime, leading to repeated visits from inquisitors and Adeptus ministorum officials.
These visits were important, as they became more frequent and even started being used as opportunities to potentially overthrow the heretical priests and apparent holy men, as many various ministorum preachers were soon sent into the lower hive depts to rally support of the population (the lower areas of hive cities were the most easy to gain support in, due to the high amount of poverty), the most bombastic and charismatic out of all these was Skavidska-Keedrak, a man so draped in holy icons and purity seals, that he he appeared to be a messenger from a holy place far beyond the imagination of the inhabitants of Keradversk. Skavidska was soon taken to being called "The ashen angel" and he was seen gaining more and more support, mass burnings soon commenced to show his follower's power and ferocity, with hundreds of accused witches and mutants being tortured and maimed in celebrations in which families went to go and witness in glee.
With this came much suspicion from the planetary authority, executions for standard of work became more and more frequent, and enforcers were employed by the priesthood, these enforcers did not work for faith but for coin, and many were bribed by The Ashen Angel's cult, this led to the cult being more militarised and efficient, with routine witch-hunts and executions being a common sight. However, the cult had grown too big for the lower hives, and soon burst out into the spires and cities, this caused the priesthood to become more tyrannical than ever, with public trials and lynchings for anyone deemed in contact with the cult.
The public executions and horrors however did not lower morale in the cult, and because of their newer, wealthier members and their more militarised appearance, they started to collect firearms and vehicles, these vehicles however, were only mining equipment converted into troop carriers and portable machine guns, the guns too were unpredictable, as they were shotguns fixed up with brass and cogs, making them look archaic and antique, but dangerous and broken.
After years of preparation and recruiting, the cult was soon ready to rise up against the heretical oppressors slaving them away, and The Ashen Angel signalled an uprising through all of the major hives on Keradversk, telling his most senior preachers (which he now had named Seraphs) to lead the cultists through the rising tunnel systems, which they had been using for communication after purging them of the mutants that dwelled within them.
The Ashen Angel knew that most would join his cause as his men ran through the streets, but commanded that if any rejected, then they were to be crucified in the symbol of the imperial eagle. and that they were to be paraded as means of cleansing the enemy. He also stated that any area of debauchery or gambling was to be burned to the ground, and that the owners and all within were to be executed and crucified too, he saw that crucifixion would cleanse them of their sins, and that they could be risen up to the Emperors holy realm, however, this was not apparent to those watching, and they joined purely out of fear.
In the multiple hive cities, victory was fast and quick, if not a bit bloody, and members of the cult joined worldwide in a celebration of what they called "The Ashen-angel's might", and started a mass execution (or "cleansing" as they called it) of all those deemed heretics, it had seemed that the ministorum's preacher had worked, although he had now gone insane and commanded an extremist cult.
The Ashen Angel waited until all of the hive worlds were under his command, and ordered the celebration of prayer and death to stop, he told all of his disciples to state that the biggest enemy was undefeated, the priesthood and that himself and his disciples would march out into the wasteland in which the people of Keradversk had marched to every month for the work their slave-masters had forced them to do...they did, and a huge amount of cultists followed them, forming a sea of crucified heretics and insane "angels" donning makeshift angel wings, showing their faith in the cult and in the Ashen Angel.
They marched for 2 days, chanting songs about the emperor and St.Sabbat (Keradversk is in the outskirts of the sabbat worlds, but was however unaffected by the chaos invasion or the Imperial crusade, however the Army of Angles would fight in it), many died of exhaustion, and their bodies were used as religious icons, with the most famous having their bones used as relics and Imperial decorations, which some would say rose the morale of those marching on.
After 2 days they reached the Shrine city, it was unguarded and unprotected, the priesthood could not protect it themselves, as they were nothing but feeble hunched men with despicable minds and despicable bodies. The horde swarmed through the city, burning down all religious icons they declared as heresy, and ripped down statues made of gold and melted them to construct statues of The Ashen Angel and his Seraphim, who had since ironically named themselves saints, this continued along with the search for the tyrannical men who had been the former masters, with every man, woman, and child hoping to get to them first.
They were found in a panic chamber underneath the spiral of tunnels below the main chapel, some had committed suicide, rather than suffering a painful death they suffered a cowardly one with a bolt pistol, some were crying, begging for mercy, some were silent, looking off into the distance, as if their soul was removed from their body, and some were defiant, pushing off those who found them with swearing and and noise...this made no difference.
The Seraphim and The Ashen Angel forced all out of the chamber, except the priesthood, they bought tools of torture, spiked wheels, torches, spikes, "holy" acid, and shut the doors behind them. It is unknown what exactly happened in the chamber, but upon re-opening, the bodies of all were found desecrated, ripped apart, left in awful manners which made any sane man vomit, the most interesting but also vile out of all of these was that of deacon Histei, who had been nailed to the wall, disembowelled, and given a pair of wings, these wings however were not constructed of feathers and flesh, but of the bloody bones of his fellow holy men, this was the symbol of the Ashen Angel, and it terrified or inspired, or both. ..
So! thats it! sorry for being so long! it would be nice for any feed back, and I'm going to add some of my sketches when i can get to a scanner. I wanted to make an army which crusaded around the galaxy, but at the same time was just made out of religious nutjobs and average people found in the Imperium (if you can call them average!), I'm thinking of a colour scheme which won't copy the style of the redmeptionists, there will be the style of hood that they wear on the models similar to the redmeptionists, but not on all of them, so you can tell them apart, so colour schemes will be greatly appreciated!
Im thinking about giving the Ashen Angel some sort of Kingdom of heaven mask, its the one which King Baldwin wears (Edward Norton), it just seems a bit creepy to me but also shouts a lot of religious iconry like the Imperium should be, i might do the same with the seraphim, who will act as some sort of Company command squad (army is gong to be using Imperial Guard rules, due to the cheap bodies and stuff).
Thoughts?
