Warp Riders

Warp Riders
Unknown
Battle Cry	Ride or die!
Number	N/A
Founding	N/A
Successors of	Multiple
Successor Chapters	None
Chapter Master	Shad'ck the Foe
Primarch	None/Multiple
Homeworld	The Dust Bowl
Strength	Unknown.
Specialty	Biker tactics
Allegiance	Chaos: Undivided
Colours	Black and bronze, with subfaction identification.

The Warp Riders are a Chaos Undivided warband based on biker culture and fiction.

The Warp Riders

A warband, a brotherhood, a large sprawling clan. The Warp Riders come from all places. The Marines, the cultists, even the daemon-kind. They come together and share one overiding trait, they love to ride. A biker force who ride into battle on living daemon-bikes, they have raided through vast sections of real space and the Immaterium. Outlaws in every way, they tolerate no authority save those who have proven themselves to be the best riders and warriors. They settle their scores on the race-strip. They traverse the Warp Road, the Immaterial Highway, always itching for a rampage in real-space. And though they are in theory a single force, they have warbands within their warbands, competing factions that try to take control of the band as a whole.

The Black Rider Renegades - they claim to be the 'true' Warp Riders, sticking to the renegade origins. They pray only passingly to the Chaos Gods, their real figure of worship the Wild Ride itself.

The True Skull - The Khornate, who favour getting stuck in with axes and road hauling guys on spiked chains until there's nothing left but a torso. They ride big wheeled machines of brass designed to just crush everything they ride over.

The Cadaver Kings - The Nurgle Boys, their bikes rolling spits of toxic fumes. Every where they ride they leave a trail of disease in their dust, the fumes literally made up of buzzing flies swarming out of the pipes. Dudes on motorcycle back wielding scythes.

The Diamond Dogs - The Slaanesh, who are all about going as fast as possible. Lightning strikes and trick stunts, taking every opportunity in the middle of battle to show off. Their bikes are more organic than most, almost human bodies that they plug into creating an intimate connection between the rider and their daemon-machine.

The Riders of Fate - The Tzeentchian wizards, they have warp effects ripple out from their vehicles, the vibration of their engines literally manipulating the physical reality around them. As a result only the best psykers can maintain control of the bike and stave off exploding into a warp spawn while mounted, and only the best of the best can do that while still flinging out spells at the same time.

And the Little Brothers and Sister - the cultists and the mutants always racing for a spot, thinking if they go fast enough on their pure machines they might earn the right to get up there with the Chaos Marines. Maybe get a favour or two from some grinning god, maybe get some blessed augmentation out of a less than scrupulous dealer of such things, but for the most part they're chasing wind and getting eaten up in the fumes. Some get to sit a daemon-bike and the best of them last a good hour before the speed and raw power rips them apart. And they get the privilege of having their soul stuff keep that bike going in the material world, so they do their part.

Some of them get to slip off that meat-sack they called a body and join the daemon-brigade, but only one or two cats ever managed that. The little brothers and sisters, ninety-nine times outta a hundred they get eaten up, but they try.

Competitive races are the only way to advance in rank amongst the Warp Riders. An aspiring champion MUST race to prove his right to command others. The more races survived, the better.

The Original Six

The founders are something of a mystery. Originally pure renegades who were just sick and fucking tired of being told what to do after their indoctrination started breaking down after decades of combat, just six bike squad members of one of the more authoritarian chapters. They fragged their sergeant and got the fuck out of the Imperium. Originally they made a pact, that no single one of them had complete authority over his brothers. On the fringe their philosophy attracted like minded traitors and renegades, and it eventually blew up into a big thing. Something between a warband and social experiment, practising individual freedom for the first time in their lives.

One by one the original six finally fell to Chaos when they met the warp-smith that converted their bikes to living daemon-engines.

He told them he could make them ride as fast as the winds of eternity, with space itself a long road, but there was just a little price they had to pay.

And each one fell to a different power, and one of them held on as a pure renegade, but they all started forming their own coterie of followers and groupies. What started out as an experiment in brotherhood turned into a petty squabble of power plays for control of the Warband. And it didn't help that the new people started whispering in their ears and turning brother against brother.

But they made a pact that when they were riding out into combat they;d forget those games, and they'd be brothers in battle together again. And even as they were killed and corrupted and murdered each other, they never broke that pact of brotherhood.

Because when the Warp Riders ride out, they ride together.

The Rally On Dust Bowl

The Warp Riders are a strange breed. Every ten years or so on a shitty little dust bowl world they all congregate together. Every warband descends on it for a year long festival of decadence. The slavers raid and bring new victims that sell to their brothers. The warriors get together and fight it out, with warlords falling and new leaders emerging. The pleasure seekers form vast carnival tents and engage in all manner of twisted pursuits. Daemons are conjured into the material realm, captured for the whims of the revellers or to be honoured as a patron.

And it all ends with the big race, where every daemon-biker measures of for the continental blitz. And the winner of the race gets to launch a Wild Ride against a planet of his or her choice, and all the warbands have to help out under their authority as the temporary overlord.

But they better get it done in ten years, because the bikers will drop anything to go back to the shitty dust bowl, have their year long festival, and crash out again for another Wild Ride.

And most times they get it done in under ten years, with the bands splitting up on every point of the Chaos star, ripping up the warp road. Or sometimes the overlord gets killed and the rest don't give enough of a shit to finish that guy's ride. Sometimes the overlord is just a shitty fucking commander and they ditch his ass to go do their own thing.

But every ten years they meet up for their planetary rally, like god damned clock work.

The Birth of the Dust Bowl

Before the Warp Riders came Dust Bowl had been a very different place. A healthy, thriving agri-world, pious in its devotion to the God-Emperor. With green fields and gold fields of grain, and pleasant lakes that saw even the poorest had a meal of fresh fish. The people were humble, happy, and safe.

In those days it was called Verdania. It was governed by a Bishop of the Ecclesiarch and provided a way station for pilgrims. It fed half a system.

Then a strange pilgrim came on one of those ships that often stopped by Verdania. A wild young man, who drank and debauched and caused quarells to break out where ever he went. Handsome, he caught the eye of a young lady of the church. He pursued her as if it were a mission, and she became receptive to his advances, breaking her vows of chastity.

When the Bishop discovered the affair he put the young man to death and sent the young woman to a penitence.

When he was being led to a funeral pyre she prayed for his salvation.

Unfortunately for her, it came.

A warp road jester had caught her pleas on the wind, heard her words through the vibrations of the immaterium. And he told his Overlord, a Diamon Dog Slaaneshi, who took deep amusement in the affair.

They sent out to the woman instructions, disguised as the dictates of a holy saint. Blinded by her love she followed them, offering up her own soul willingly to spar her wild lover.

A warp storm set on Verdania, and out of it came the flagship of the Warp Riders. It was only as the drop pods began to fall and the mad cackling broke over the vox network that she realised her terrible mistake, and the doom she had brought to this world.

He rode with them that day, using the road jester as a vessel and burning the fool apart. The Doomrider blitzed through the fields of the agri-world, churning wheat to ash, and the warp riders struggled to keep up with the Prince.

They slaughtered their way into the capital, killing any that crossed their path. They kept their bargain, they freed the wild young man and his lover. And the lady of the cloth who broke every vow wept when she saw the young man embrace the overlord of the riders like a lost brother, and gave no resistance when he offered her up to him in tribute.

And they gave him a suit and a bike, and he rejoined their brotherhood. He took up the bishop and wrapped him in chains. Gracing the bishop with a kiss, he tore across the countryside on a daemon-bike, dragging the bishop all the way until the priest rattled apart all over the road.

And the rampage continued, the tread of the bikes ripping up the fertile fields and destroying the crops. The lakes boiled from the warp touch and they pitched the screaming peasants into it, until the waters dried altogether.

And Verdania died, and Dust Bowl was born.

Shad'ck the Foe

Also known as the Cobra, or the Renegade Prince. He currently reigns as the Overlord of the Warp Riders and head of the Black Rider Renegade faction.

Once a promising young aspirant of the Astartes, he lost his way in a scouting mission against the forces of Chaos. An enthusiastic rider of the biker scout squad, he spent years trying to find his way back to his home world before falling in with a band of Astartes renegades.

Proving himself a worthy rider, and far from the ministrations of his chaplain, his faith began to erode under their tutelage. He was briefly returned to his old comrades, but when he got back it was too late. His faith was gone, and he chaffed under the authoritative strictness of the chapter. Before he could be taken back to his homeworld for indoctrination, Shad'ck gave up his position to the Black Rider Renegaes, who stormed the position and killed his brothers. Baptised by this treachery, he was inducted as a member of the Black Riders and introduced to the larger warband as a talented new recruit. He proved himself in the ship-circuit and on Dust Bowl as a rider on par with the best in the Warp Riders, and quickly rose up the ranks of his own faction, before taking command altogether after defeating his former mentor in a hammer armed mounted duel. He crushed the old man and keeps his skull as a fond trophy, one he is often caught conversing with in his more withdrawn moments.

The man is a one of shifting moods and interests. He never keeps his focus on anything for long before grasping a new obsession, and quickly grows bored with his victories. He is only truly loyal to two things, his bike and his hammer, and has earned a cut throat reputation as a result. Mostly content to sit around and enjoy himself in hedonistic revelry and games of oneupmanship, his rule of the Warp Riders is punctuated by his fleeting obsessions; when something strikes his fancy he'll lead his forces out to procure or destroy the target of his desires. His latest target was the first daughter of the El-Aim sector dynasty, kidnapping her in a raid that left half a hive in ruins, destroyed a spaceport, and crashed a space station into the planet's surface.

Dia El-Aim, Songstress of the Warp Riders

Once the daughter of a powerful Imperial dynasty, Dia El-Aim was abducted by the leader of the Warp Riders, a charismatic snake named Shad'ck the Foe. Dragging her through the warp on a wild ride through the cosmos, he exposed the terrified young princess to the energies of Chaos. Being young and susceptible, the young woman put up a valiant effort to stave off his corruptive influences but in the end she was only mortal.

Taken by the pleasures that come with submitting to the Chaos Gods, she was no longer recognizable as the frightened young princess but became a powerful songstress of Slaanesh, composing music in honour of her captors, marking out their horrific deeds for their entertainment.

She rides with her Lord into battle, blasting her voice across the battlefield, visiting sweet temptation into the minds of their opponents. She has used her powerful voice to win her lord many victories both obvious and subtle, staving off many of his would be usurpers through manipulating the politics of the warband.

A foolish band of heroes are on a quest to try and rescue the songstress, but after so long amongst the warp-bred even the most radical Inquisitor would consider her beyond redemption.

The Battle Barge

When the Warp Riders travel, they travel in style. Once a proud ship-of-the-line of the Imperial Navy, the Warp Riders base of operations has been converted into a world of anarchy and danger. They've put a big damn racing strip all through the thing, going as fast as fucking possible in death races to pass the time. A lot of rookies end up plastered on the walls because the turning is too damn tight for shit-birds to manage. There are sections where the artificial gravity has failed, and this has not been repaired, leading to three-hundred meter jumps and zero-gravity mid-race combat.

The most dangerous course, available to only the highest echelons of the group, is Captain Johnny's Rally, celebrating the capture of the vessel by the first overlord. A nightmarish course of twisting turns and pitch-black corridors, the racers have to enter the track by warp portal before braving a course full of servitor-controlled weapons, deadly mutants, and escaped warp creatures.Sections of it cross through Webway Portals into racetracks in Comorragh, where Dark Eldar Reavers and Helions occasionally join in the race.The incursions into Comorragh by the Warp Riders have given them a vicious enemy in the skyboard gang known as the Hellcat Mongrels. This all female gang led by the one-eyed Di-Di takes pride in collecting the demonic bikes of the Warp Riders and displaying them as trophies around their lair. Likewise the Warp Riders take great pride in capturing Dark Eldar and taking them back to their ship, to suffer as prisoners for the amusement of the riders.

A band of Noise Marines have taken up permanent residence in the Barge, playing for the racers as they plunge through the twised tracks, giving a heavy screaming sound track that amplifies the races.

Crunch

Work in progress, a couple wip characters.

Warp Rider Overlord

90 points

WS 6 BS 6 S 4 T 5 W 3 I 4 A 3 Ld 10 Sav 3+

Unit type: Bike (character)

Wargear: Power armour, bolt pistol, close combat weapon, frag grenades, krak grenades, Daemon bike

Special rules: Ride or die, Champion of Chaos, Independent Character, Fearless

Ride or die: Chaos Bikers become troop choices for any warband led by an Overlord of the Warp Riders. Chaos bikes also become mandatory war gear options for all HQ and Elite choices, unless the elite is physically impossible to mount(i.e Terminators, Helbrutes, etc).

A Warp Rider Overlord may not take terminator armour or the veterans of the long war special rule.

A Warp Rider Overlord may take items from the Melee Weapons, Ranged Weapons, Chaos Rewards, Special Issue Wargear and/ or Chaos Artefacts sections of the wargear list.

Special gear: Daemon bike

Warp Road Jester

115 points

WS 5 BS 4 S 4 T 5 W 2 I 4 A 2 Ld 10 Sv 3+

Unit Type: Bike (Character)

Wargear: Power armour, bolt pistol, power maul, frag grenades, krak grenades, sigil of corruption, chaos bike (upgrade to daemon bike)

Special Rules: Champion of Chaos,Independent Character, Zealot.

Praise the Dark Gods: After deployment, if a character in the Warp Road Jester's unit (including the Jester himself) rolls on the Chaos Boon table, he may re-roll the result.

Preacher of the Road: Friendly units within 6" of a Warp Road Jester must use his Leadership instead of their own.

Universal Special Rule: No member of a Warp Rider warband can take the Veteran of the Long Wars special trait. No member of a Warp Rider warband can take terminator armour.

Daemon Bikes

Work in progress

Gallery

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  Colour scheme of the Black Rider Renegades

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  Colour scheme of the Cadaver Kings

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  Colour scheme of the Diamond Dogs

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  Colour scheme of the Riders of Fate

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  Colour scheme of the True Skulls

External Links

First thread: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/26284975/