Emperor's Dragoons

Emperor's Dragoons
Battle Cry	WIP
Number	XIV
Founding	First Founding
Successors of	N/A
Successor Chapters	WIP
Chapter Master	WIP
Primarch	Jon-Frederic Aristide
Homeworld	Thiepval Prime
Strength	150,000
Specialty	Shock and Awe, Light Cavalry Assaults, Artillery Strikes, Massed Infantry
Allegiance	Separatist
Colours	White, Green and Black

This page is part of the Warmasters Triumvirate, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe. See the Warmasters Triumvirate page for more information on the Alternate Universe.

The Emperor's Dragoons were the XIV Legiones Astartes and led by the Primarch and Warmaster Jon-Frederic Aristide.

History

Pre-Primarch History & Reunion

He didn't. Linares did. Linares was found pretty shortly after JFA, and JFA was already instituting good order and discipline into the ranks, probably issuing the most amount of Courts Marshal ever in the entirety of military history before or since. He wasn't exactly unpopular, but there was growing pains, and general grumbling from the literal Grognards. But things, slowly, and reluctantly, got reeled in of only to make JFA stop bitching at them. Then they met the newly christened Silver Blades The Silver Blades were everything the Lancers were and more, and a lot of the old guard fucking loved working with them. On their first campaign together though, JFA and Linares, initially very friendly, began to butt heads over tactics. This came to a head when they had the enemy more or less corralled in a city situated in a valley. The problem, was that the city was an extremely soft target, filled to the brim with civilians. The enemy knew the gig was up, and was essentially forcing the Imperials hands in slaughter to make a point about their tyranny. JFA, of course, saw right through this and devised a plan to use the Dragoons to flush the enemy out into open terrain, then the Blades come through and wipe them out. Enemy: dead, civilians: unharmed The idea was for the blades to wait for a signal, then they would come through JFA let them sit there for a whole day, making the enemy nervous, antsy, more willing to break. After all, dying in service of sending a message is good and all at first glance, but after a good bit of sitting and being surrounded by an insurmountable force, death becomes much less attractive Dawn of the second day, Linares couldn't wait anymore, and they rushed down into the city JFA hoped that the plan would work anyway, and he would just use the Blades advance as the flushing out then clear them out himself Instead the Blades got bogged down in city fighting, unable to swiftly irrigate the enemy from their positions. His hand was forced, and the Dragoons piled in They were victorious, but his hesitations brought on unnecessary losses for the Blades, and the city and its non combatant population was utterly destroyed Linares never forgave Fred for imposing losses on hin he couldn't recoup given the gene seed flaw, and Fred never forgave Linares for his tactical indiscretion. At the end of the day, the Dragoons for the first time were forced to be the competent guys watching mavericks and hooligans ruin their plans. War is fun and games until you have to watch children float down a river of blood.

The Great Crusade

The Dragoons only had three major losses during the Crusade. The first happened a few decades after Aristide discovery, and it was the first time the Dragoons met an equal force. On Karserii Jon-Fred was opposed by static gunlines supported by orbital canons. He assumed he would be able to simply overrun their entrenched positions with an armoured vanguard shielding assault cavalry and light infantry. He was successful at first, the foremost lines collapsing. Eventually the enemy became so tightly packed that any assault force was mowed down far before arrival, and the orbital defenses, largely ignored, forced the Dragoons to mettle in ground siege, unsupported by the navy

It was a hard won victory, and JFA was taught that his marines were not gods, nor an expendable resource. His tactics grew, as did his humility, but he had a lost a significant number of troops. He memorialized his failure by embedding a stud forged from a single ceramite shards from the armour of each fallen Astartes recovered

The second was a logistical failure, a shipment of regular bolter shells was replaced by a shipment of incendiary rounds. It was a celebrated failure, but during a void engagement with Eldar a magazine of a transport ship was ignited, and the in the catastrophic explosion two more ships where lost, a frigate and a cargo ship, desperately hamstringing the capabilities of the legion for months, and the loss of personnel was unacceptable. Another stud was drilled onto his skull, carved from the hull of the lost ships.

The last stud was earned on Ullanor, and as rumour has it, a shard of the Emperor's armour is embedded within the stud.

Legion Doctrine

Legion Culture & Personality

The Lincorne Solaire

The sunburst stallion of the Dragoons has been the mark of the legion since the reuinion with their Genesire early in the great crusade. For many in the legion, its a symbol of their greatness, and that of their Primarch, the Stallion of the Emperor. For Frederíc himself, its a symbol of hope. When he was the Warhorse of Rayuex, his banners displayed a wild black stallion drenched in blood, rampant upon a mountain of flaming skulls. For his soldiers, it was a sign of indomitable will on the battlefield, for his enemies it was a grim omen of swift and merciless destruction. When he beat peace into the chaotic people of Theipval, it was simply a macabre reminder of what that peace had cost. The arrival of the Emperor marked a new dawn for the Primarch, an opportunity for him to be a figure of inspiration, not of terror. Only the most seasoned Dragoons, those who have been steeped in war, understand this philosophy. By the time of the Scouring, the sun no longer represented a shining new age, but was an icon of vengeance. For the Nova Dragoons, it is the burning of Theipval, the removal of their Primarch's good deeds and the degeneration of the Emperor's good works. Often the Lincorn will be displayed shedding a tear, or blood coming from its eyes, a reminder that there is no peace in the galaxy, only eternal war.

Legion Organization

>The Palantine Guard: Jon-Frederíc's personal guard and mounted cavalry division, less of a dedicated protective unit than the Primarch's personal strike force. The Palantine Guard is compromised nearly entirely of former Stags, a fraternity of skill and honour formed from the grueling experience in the armour of the Stag. Also called the Lances of the Stallion, the Palantine Guard are all exemplary pilots and bikers, able to keep pace with the lighting gene-sire no matter the environ, mounted on platinum grav bikes and in Xiphon fighters, armed with several metre long power lances capable of driving through enemy ranks and heavy armour alike. The garb of the Palantine is a pure white body, with the the green helm of the legion with a silver crest. Red sashes and capes trail behind them like trails of blood, another tell tale of their approach from afar.

Special units

The Stag is an anonymous Dragoon, clad in sterling white armour. An exemplar of the legion, the Stag is chosen from Winners of the Grand Joust, a tourney held amongst the legions, and the Great Hunt, a wargame held by JFA with variable rules or objectives, most often held in a real environment. In the Great Hunt the Stag leads the hunt, either acting as a solo player against all other participants, a hunting hound of a sort, or even sometimes the objective himself. The best Marine in the legion, but rarely participates in open battle unworthy of status. Instead the Stag will be used to boost mortal morale, hunt down enemy commanders, or lead the charge on the most dangerous of missions. Dragoon commanders will also ride exotic Xenos creatures, when they can find and tame them, as a mark of status.

Special equipment

Special equipment only this legion has

Naval Assets

Flagships etc

Notable Members

Guy Maxíme is the oldest of the Theivpal Dragoons, the first generation of marines sourced from the Primarch's homeworld. Harvested from the most brutal slums of Theivpal, even as a young child, Guy was inured to suffering. Maxíme began his career like many Dragoon aspirants, promising but otherwise insignificant. His promise as a Marine was proven in the many Xenocides of the early Crusade, where the Dragoons suffered one of their greatest losses of life prior to the Brotherwar. An entire company lost to the Rangdan, and of them Guy Maxíme the lone survivor, wreathed in blood. He carried that loss and violence with him for the rest of his life, and became a figure of contention in the Legion, being a vocal critic of the haughty attitudes of the Legion, the aloof and superior nature of his Primarch, and most dangerously the tyranny of the Emperor, the former landing him heavy censure which only served to embitter him to the Dragoons further. Despite his controversial history, surly manner and unkempt appearance, Maxíme was the single most dangerous marine in the Dragoons, serving as Stag for the longest of any Dragoon. Guy Maxime was a Stag, but revealed his identity when he traded armour with another marine when he was instructed to act as a distraction for a saboteur team on what was surely going to be a suicide mission for both. So he swapped places with the best rider of the infiltration team and instructed half of the team to provide overwatch for the "Stag", which halved the chance of mission completion but minimized risk of death.

He went with the infiltration team and ensured mission success, sabotaging enemy gun placements and a commander. He was chastised for shattering tradition it his commander and breaching the sanctity of the most revered position, who he promptly told to go sod off as no life is worth meaningless tradition. This started a famed career of butting heads with the prim and proper of the legion, and his disheveled appearance and gruff demeanor and complete lack of decorum was a protest against the pomp and ceremony of the legion, and the lack of true warriors in command

As he climbed the ranks outside the white armour of the Stag, socially disgraced, he proved his worth as a warrior and commander. Unlike many Dragoon commanders, he prefered to lead from the front and would not segregate himself from his men. Though largely hard to get along with, he inspired a unique sort of loyalty from those he led, and he never missed an opportunity to punch up.

Eventually he was able to butt heads with his own genesire, but ironically they disagreed because of their similarities nstead of their differences. As he was cast down from command for his boldness saw the direction was going and abandoned the legion at the Primarch's announcement of secession

The Stag is skill based. The best Dragoon becomes the Stag unless they are in a position that they're removal would cause massive issues. A new battle brother could become a Stag if the current one dies, is injured beyond repair, or fails to maintain his standards of performance. This means that the fifth best marine in the legion becomes the Stag, because number one is a chapter master or something.

He was the best rider in the legion as a Sergeant, second only to six other marines, the best swordsman second only to three, the tenth best shot in the legion, and had a history of success on the battlefield. He was voluntold to the position and was ran through the qualifying gauntlet.

-Gallian Fourniret-Chanal, The Butcher of Ardennse. A Dragoon Captain infamous for his disdain for mortal life, Chanal was censured several times for needless loss of life and overlly brutal tactics. While the records of Stag identities are generally secret, it is commonly rumoured that the Captain was the Stag known as the Red Stag, named so for his penchant to be showered in blood.

-Tiberius-Madèlio d'Aubræ, Marquis of Colchis. A Terra Dragoon, Marius was a successful field tactician, diplomat, and artist. By all appearances the ideal Dragoon, and all but confirmed to be amongst the first Stags. However, his lust for honour and glory made him unpopular amongst other officers, and his penchant for utilizing horrific psychological tactics further along in the crusade, such as forcing families in populations that didn't come to diplomatic terms to copulate with one another or choose a member for them to flay upon threat of death, earned him censure. However his efficacy was unquestioned in these times, and the Primarch did not see him demoted.

-Mathurin Françoise Bachiremont, the Alchemist of the Trenches. An accomplished saboteur, Mathurin earned his moniker on Ullanor. Behind enemy lines en route to rendezvous with the Emperor's foward forces, Mathurin's kill team was ambushed by a Kommando horde. The fighting halted the kill team's advance, and forced the Dragoons into melee within Ork trenchworks. His entire team fell to the xenos force, outnumbered and out manuevered. Bachiremont survived, however, salvaging together improvised bombs and chemical weapons, burning, smoking, and poisoning his way through the trenches using any means available. He cleared enemy territory only to find the Emperor himself in medi-vac. The rest of his career, he was deemed morose and grim, nearly always venturing without his assigned killteam. The only time he was ever reported to feel joy was when making and deploying chemical and biological weaponry.

-Emil-Róthgeir d'Muirebe, the White Raven. The Dragoons were not without their intelligence assests, and these are often sourced from saboteur elements. However, Artillery Captain d'Muirebe proved himself worthy of intelligence command after a protracted hive siege where warpstorms cut off ground forces from the fleet. Using Imperial Soldiers smuggled into the hive by Saboteurs, d'Muirebe was able to coordinate collection, misdirection and assassination cells, crippling the hive governance and defenses to the point where the new "Militia" was able to take over and surrender the hive to the Dragoons without further bloodshed. Rewarded for his actions, d'Muirebe became a saboteur operative commander, and utilized mortal auxilia to great effect. He was threatened with censure, however, after his decentrialized cells would accidentally combat eachother, a deliberate measure he claimed confused the enemy. He was eventually censured after it was discovered that many of the assassinations he ordered were being carried out himself, risking the chain of command (that he nearly decimated via restructuring).

Emperor Jon-Leothe Antredes Merovín, Lion of the East: By the closing days of m41, the Dragoon Sovereignty was in flames. After the decades long Chaos subversion campaign by Telemus the Herald, the Genestealer shadow state of Wyrmic Corsocia, and the Nouveau Imperialist movement the nobility of the Sovereignty was hugely distrusted by the Union, and massive sanctions and measures of control were placed on the state to bring them back into alignment. This did little to bring the state to a state of order, as many systems resisted these measures on principle, however the devastation of the Hive Fleets and Devilshark incursions limited their bargaining power. The Sovereignty needed a hero to bring balance to the state, and inspiring figure to stoke the flames of hope and restore the people. Instead, they received Leothe Antredes Merovín. Leothe was the Grand Lord Brigadier of the Nova Dragoon 17th Regiment Winds of Victory, and was poised to become the Lord High Marshal of the Dragoons and win the state seat on Ultramar, with many seeing a clear progression to running for the seat of Ultramar itself. Those hopes were dashed in the ensuing military coupe. Merovín did indeed get promoted the command of the Dragoons, then promptly went on an extermination campaign against the nobility that resisted the Union. Those that resisted saw their worlds burn, those that did not simply had their houses eradicated in their totality. The choice was theirs to make, but seeing the results should their lords fight the Lion peasant revolts broke out and in many cases, the noble houses would have been murdered before Merovín and the Dragoons could have reached them. Leothe saw the reconquest of the Sovereignty and with the support of the local Dusk Phantom temples was able to successfully combat and defeat the noble alligned Regiments after a year long conflict. At the dawn of m42 he not only had brought the state back into compliance, but crowned himself the Emperor of the Sovereignty, an action supported by both the military establishment and the common people.

Rules

If available, tabletop rules