War Paint : Blood Drinker Priest Markings

Staying on the subject of Guy Haley's writing for the moment, I mentioned in Decembers post that the author had described a prominent marking on the Sanguinary High Priest character in his Hammer and Bolter short story, The Rite of Holos and that he was then kind enough to share his ideas about the marking with me.

Written in Blood : The Blood Drinkers return to 40k

As regular readers of this Blog will be well aware, I'm a huge fan of 40k lore; the ever expanding stories and history that makes up the Hobbies setting being as, if not more important to me than the game itself.

One of my consuming passions is the constant hunt for canon material relating to my chosen Space Marine Chapter, The Blood Drinkers; they've been with me since the start of my 40k journey some 25 years ago and as such have defined much of my Hobby experience.

Blood Drinkers Fandex : Chapter Honours

A final push on the Chapter background for the Fandex and I've put together a potted history of engagements and events involving the Blood Drinkers mostly over the past few centuries of the 40k timeline. I've included what I can find from the few official bits of writing featuring the Chapter, noting the source at the bottom of the post (although I have added or omitted minor detail to aid in the overall flow of my story telling) the rest is based on what battles I've fought with my army over the years and from the depths of my occasionally fertile imagination (they'll be the overly long bits).

Blood Drinkers Fandex : The Legacy of Sanguinius

Coming to the end of the Fandex installments detailing the background of the Blood Drinkers; here I look at the defining feature of any Chapter born of the Sanguinius bloodline, the Flaw and the duality it weaves into all aspects of Chapter life and in some cases, death!

It's been a tricky one to lay out coherently because when you sit down and really examine the Flaw you realise it's not a single entity, but rather a conglomeration of fluff, much of it contradictory. Anyway, here is my attempt at papering over the cracks.

Blood Drinkers Fandex : Chapter Organisation

A return to posting today, with another installment of my Fandex work.This is mainly bread and butter stuff, along the lines of the organisation pages in the official Marine codex's; but with my usual generous helping of fluff.

I am particularly proud of the Chapter composition diagram, I produced it last year but have been tweaking it along with the rest of the Fandex ever since; those that have seen the original post over on Bolter & Chainsword will note I've done away with a bit of the perhaps overly excessive nods to the Imperial Roman army.

Blood Drinkers Fandex : Creation of a Blood Drinker

Some more fluff for the Fandex today, a rather lengthy but hopefully interesting section detailing the selection and creation of an Astarte of the Blood Drinkers Chapter. I'm toying with the idea of fielding this over on the The Codex Project but as I'm still in the background stage and not the army list creation, I'm not sure it's quite ready for that.

Also I'm doing this whole thing for my own twisted amusement and it's a big bonus if others get something from it, do I really want the pressure of evaluation etc...? 'I just don't think I can take that kind of rejection!' ;o)

Blood Drinkers Fandex : Chapter Fortress

Well it's been a couple of months since I've posted on this subject, I keep going back and tweaking what I've already done as ideas get refined and new ones come to mind; it's a blessing and a curse as it means the material gets better but forward momentum is lost. It's a character trait which affects my painting efforts as well, as I'm constantly going back over finished miniatures to bring them into line with my newer stuff.

Anyway, here is a new addition to the Blood Drinkers Fandex detailing the various Chapter facilities of their homeworld.

A Matter of Choice : Your Thoughts?

I'm currently suffering the nightly after effects of a hard training week at work; with my body not so kindly reminding me, via various aches and pains, that I'm not as young as I used to be. My power save function seems to kick in as soon as my tired arse graces the sofa; as a result there has been little activity on the hobby front for me since my last post.

In the meantime I'd like to ask for your valued opinions on a special character / unit I'm considering for my Blood Drinker army.

Blood Drinkers Fandex : Origins

I've spent the last week or so of rare and precious free time working on the Blood Drinker Fandex project and after much cursing, gnashing of teeth and the odd ceremonial thump to the side of my cogitators casing (MS Word is truly a devil that refuses to be tamed) I've pieced together the following for the Origins section of the dex, a lot of it is a re-write of work I did over on B&C but having put it through the old grey matter sieve again, I think it's come out for the better.

I've also produced an orbital picture of the Chapter Homeworld of San Guisuga; the project is still in its infant stages and as such I haven't pinned down the layout yet, but I'll keep posting up the meat of the work as I finish it, with a view to eventually turning the whole thing into a PDF.

Blood Drinkers Fandex

Today sees the inaugural post relating to my Blood Drinkers Fandex project; but wait don't those guys already have a Codex? They're covered in the Blood Angels one aren't they? Yes and yes and please stop typing to yourself it's unhealthy!

As I've mentioned before, I joined ranks with the Blood Drinkers in the time of the original Rogue Trader and since then I've collected pretty much every scrap of info I could about them. And they are just scraps, despite the Chapter being one of the blessed twelve featured within that hallowed tomes pages, they even had transfers (decals) in the MKI Rhino set don't you know; the Drinkers have spent much of their existence in the shadow of their now 'older' brothers the Blood Angels.

There has been the odd paragraph here and there in White Dwarf issues and Codex over the years, they even got a nod in James Swallow's rather underwhelming Red Fury;

The Segmentum Tempestus: Your handy travel map

Here's a little something I've been working on for a while now, a comprehensive map of the Segmentum Tempestus. I make no claims to it being 100% accurate, such statements are rash in the face of constant GW retcons, creative errors and or omissions.

The Draco Sector - Welcome to the neighbourhood

This is the first in what I plan to be a series of posts focusing on a region of the 40k universe that I have created. It started out a simple objective to find some galactic real-estate to base my Blood Drinkers Chapter in; but over the years the piles of scribbled notes full of musings and meanderings (long night shifts are fertile ground for such things) began to take on a life of their own.