Imperial Fists: Difference between revisions
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|Founding = [[First Founding]] | |Founding = [[First Founding]] | ||
|Successors of = N/A | |Successors of = N/A | ||
|Successor Chapters = [[Black Templars]], [[Crimson Fists]], [[ | |Successor Chapters = [[Black Templars]], [[Crimson Fists]], [[Excoriators]], Executioners, Hammers of Dorn, [[Soul Drinkers]](sort of), [[Celestial Lions]] | ||
|Chapter Master = Vorn Hagan (formerly Vladimir Pugh) | |Chapter Master = Vorn Hagan (formerly Vladimir Pugh) | ||
|Primarch = [[Rogal Dorn]] | |Primarch = [[Rogal Dorn]] | ||
Revision as of 21:55, 21 April 2015
| Imperial Fists | ||
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| Battle Cry | "Primarch-Progenitor, to your glory and the glory of him on earth!" | |
| Number | VII | |
| Founding | First Founding | |
| Successors of | N/A | |
| Successor Chapters | Black Templars, Crimson Fists, Excoriators, Executioners, Hammers of Dorn, Soul Drinkers(sort of), Celestial Lions | |
| Chapter Master | Vorn Hagan (formerly Vladimir Pugh) | |
| Primarch | Rogal Dorn | |
| Homeworld | Used to be Inwit, then Terra, now a giant space fortress called the Phalanx | |
| Strength | 1000 Marines | |
| Specialty | Defensive Siege Warfare/Urban Warfare | |
| Allegiance | Imperium | |
| Colours | Yellow | |
The Imperial Fists are a First Founding chapter of yellow guys. Descended from Rogal Dorn, they are the forefathers of the blue guys with red hands, as well as the in-game Angry Marines. Sometimes they get together with their successors and have a sword fighting tournament. They aren't as angry as the Angry Marines (close though), but they get the shit done. Unlike some people.
Basically they're the true Vanilla Marines, albeit the most badass vanilla marines ever. Probably best represented on the table top by IA: 10's Siege Assault Vanguard list, since it includes most codex space marine options, plus additional siege-y stuff.
They're well known for their fixation on physical and spiritual mortification, predominantly through a gadget called the "pain glove" which is apparently a fucking bodysuit hung on a gibbet or something that hurts you a lot. The name probably comes from "body glove" instead of the glove that goes on your hand. Reading between the lines in many of their fluff articles, especially in earlier editions, implies that as part of their genetic degradation (which means they don't develop the organs they need for spitting acid or entering stasis) they are, to a Marine, masochists. Yep, they're the only Space Marines chapter that officially has anything implicitly resembling a sexual appetite, and it manifests as a love for having the shit beaten out of them. If taken as fact, this helps explain why they are so good at getting shit done; when getting hurt simply turns you on, you don't back down from anything, and you can keep going long after others would have fainted from the pain, because you just want to hurt more.
On the other hand, some other fluff indicates they rather use pain as a focus, this is, running at top efficiency not because they enjoy the pain but because they are trained to react to pain in that way, making an even greater effort to get shit done when things are starting to fall apart, at difference of, let's say an Slaanesh follower who wants to experience the pain for the joy of it, your average Imperial Fist will avoid getting hurt whenever isn't absolutely needed.
They appear in the Ultramarines movie, ostensibly to teach aforementioned smurfs how to get the shit done, or probably steal the movie from the smurfs and make the Theater explode due to epicness and faithful Imperium subjects yelling as many literal one liners of 40k when they see the motherfucking Imperial Fists. Also, John Hurt plays a IF chaplain in said film. Thus further solidifying that Imperial Fists = Awesome. Sadly, due to the amount of Smurf Fanboyism in said film, all but two of them die, their Chaplain gets shot by SPOILER a daemon in disguise, and some scrawny Ultramarine recruit saves the day instead. Normally we'd say this is fucking retarded, but the Fists die holding the line and fight to the last, both on-screen and off (and at the very least, one of the Fists survives the movie).
They are known for being one of the Chapters who try to keep the Imperium together as the Emperor intended the most, and defends Imperial soil with tenacity and stoic contempt. This harkens back to their Legion being one of the most imperial in morals, and known as the "true Imperial Legion", beside the Blood Angels (although only outwards - Things weren't as well internally) and the Ultramarines. They even recruit people from all the worlds of the Imperium, including Terra itself, thus making them to a degree Terra's marines and being known as the Defenders of Terra. Combine this with their standard reaction to pain ("This sucks... I'LL DEFEND IT EVEN MORE!!!") paints a picture of a stubborn Chapter who refuses to let go of the ideals that the Imperium was founded on, but unlike the catholics aren't afraid of showing it, and aren't a dick about it, like the vikings.
History
They were masters of siege warfare and construction, like the Iron Warriors, though the Horus Heresy Forgeworld series tells us that it was Perturabo who turned the Iron Warriors into siege specialists with his head for numbers and engineering (they were intended as a "workhorse" legion). The Imperial Fists were designed to consolidate their victories and build fortresses in their wake, leaving well defended systems that the Imperium could count upon. (contrasting with the War Hounds who were absolute destroyers)
Since ALL First Founding Legions originally recruited from Terra, their first home-world was officially Rogal Dorn's planet of Inwit which is exactly as it sounds, a frozen planet of low-tech Inuit people, though Dorn was such an impressive dude, managed to turn the feral worlders and their ice caves into a sprawling interplanetary Empire (beat THAT Girly-pants!, though to be fair Guilliman was probably better at actually setting up and "running" societies, while Dorn was better at crusading and consolidating).
Rogal Dorn was the only Primarch (aside from Magnus the Red) to actively seek out the Emperor rather than be discovered by him, so when he showed up with the Phalanx, big Emps was like "oh Hay... erm... I wasn't expecting you yet... Dorn? was it? okay here's your Legion." And then when Dorn met the Space Marine who was the place-holder Legion Master he simply said "Cheers dude, you're in command of Inwit now, make me thirty more regiments of you guys, I'm off on crusade" (seriously, that's pretty much how it went).
It wasn't all Noblebright crusades though, they were described as zealous as the Ultramarines or Word Bearers when it came to conquering and drawing recruits. On one feral world they recruited EVERY SINGLE male child old enough to hold a spear, whilst on one hive world they went down into the underhives and walked away with half of the male population. This was perhaps not the best way to get results, and most of the potential recruits would end up dead, though one can guess that the ones that survived would be guaranteed to be the best of the crop, probably in a similar way to how the Space Wolves whittle out the weaklings from the strong.
They did so well at crusading during the Great Crusade (go figure) that the Emperor landed more honours on them than anyone else and fought alongside them more often than any other. One might figure why Dorn wasn't named Warmaster, but was probably more to do with Horus being a) already well established and crusading on his own, b) presumably a better all-round general than Dorn and c) Dorn was noted as lacking in the interpersonal skills necessary to keep the primarchs in line. The Imperial Fists were considered by many to be the bedrock of the Imperium (and most associated with the Emperor, thus midway through the Great Crusade when big Emps retired to his dungeons to play with warp trinkets, they got the job of guarding Terra and the surrounding solar system (but not guarding the Emperor himself since the Custodians already had that job), fortifying the Imperial Palace and so they became the most publicly visible loyalist Astartes during the time of the Horus Heresy. Not only that, their Primarch personally carried the Emperor's fucked up body all the way to the Golden Throne.
How smurfs became more famous for writing a book about how to be a Space Marine than the chapter who did all the shit for/with the Emperor, the Imperium may never know. Actually that's pretty well-known. Dorn blamed himself for failing the Emprah and Sanguinius for not being there when they faced Horus, so he was a bit angry and wanted nothing else than punish the traitors.
When Rowboat Girlyman arrived with his "Bro', I've got an awesome idea!" for the Imperium, Dorn first answered "GTFO! Gotta punish traitors! You should punish traitors too!". Then he got trolled by Perturabo and lost many of his Battle-Brothers, and when Girlyman came again with his "Bro', you should really listen to my awesome idea", he was a bit down because he just got trolled, and listened to Girlyman. Okay... one mistake in a whole lifetime! Awesome Primarch is still fuckin' Awesome!!
Rogal Dorn is also portrayed as having a manly mustaches and/or sideburns. This naturally solidifies his position as demigod. He died after skullfucking an entire Chaos armada with a handful of Marines in rowboats he built in a cave, with a box of scraps.
Not all bad things though, since he split his legion into the ever raging Black Templars which remains the largest and busiest Chapter to date, and the conservative Crimson Fists who actually have brains and don't throw themselves wastefully into wars about glory or honour.
Ultimate Baddasses
If you still doubt that the Imperial Fists are awesome, then look at this guy, First Captain Darnath Lysander. You see Lysander was a Terminator, he and almost the entire first company teleported down on a planet, all regular business, but the Chaos Cultists used the warp to send most of the company into a mountain side (Good excuse for not loading the P-code into their GPS!). Just as planned. Lysander found the Company Captain dying, but before he died he gave him the thunder hammer named, Fist of Dorn. After that, Lysander was named 1st Company Captain, he did so much crazy shit most people thought he was insane, but he was just awesome. Lysander lead a force of Fists into a warp stormed planet, hey not his best move but nobody is perfect. Many thought Lysander and all those with him died, but they re-emerged out of the Warp in a hijacked Iron Warrior Ship. You see, Lysander and his force were taken prisoner by the Iron Warriors. Eventually Lysander, without weapons or armor, escaped and fought his way out to freedom. When he returned to the Imperial Fists Chapter, several centuries had passed in the material universe. After they made sure he wasn't corrupted by the years he spent in that god forsaken place, Lysander returned back his position as Captain of the 1st Company. Lysander then led a force to fuck up the Iron Warriors, and killed them all. Not forgetting he likes to hunt Titans on foot, getting his Titanhammer squads to reduce them to extra parts for use in the TV show "Scrapyard Wars". Also, he's technically older than even Commander Dante, with only Bjorn being an older living SM, since he was a sergeant (~approx 150yrs) in 567.m40, making him roughly 1600yrs old. No mention is ever made of what happened to the guy who was already leading the first company when Lysander returned. (Actually, he was named Chapter Champion and accepted it, presumably while giving Lysander a brofist of badassery)
In short, Lysander is badass, he's not perfect (ironically, he's even less of a Mary Sue in the Matt-Ward written supplement for the Imperial Fists - as it turns out, he was demoted to 3rd Company Captain after a bout of stubbornness considered suicidal even by Imperial Fist standards led to the near-destruction of the 3rd Company), he's no smurf, but he is still awesome, and don't believe me, check Lexicanum out; http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Lysander. And he's tough as shit: 4 wounds @ 2+/3++ with eternal warrior to boot. And his hammer is arguably one of the best anti-tank weapons in the game. Nope, nothin' wrong here.
IMPORTANT NOTE: While many say that the Imperial Fists do not follow the Codex Astartes, this is in fact incorrect. While they do not follow it as obsessively as the Smurfs, the very reason why Dorn participated in the Iron Cage was not only to atone for the sin of letting the Emprah die, but also to create a force of hardened warriors ready to follow the Codex. If you read the unofficial 40 wiki (http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Imperial_Fists), you'll see that their adherence to it is second only to the Smurfs (at least until the appearance of these guys). A key difference however, is that the Fists combine the formidable wisdom contained in the Codex with actual brains and thus win more battles than the faggots in blue.
In fact, thanks to the existence of the Ultramarines' non-Codex Tyrannic War Veterans, the Imperial Fists are - in organizational terms - more Codex-adherent than the Ultramarines.
Daily routine
3:00-Reveille: The Imperial Fists are roused from their iron slabs and spiked beds to start the day. Morning Prayer is still an hour away, but it takes that long just to get past the locks and barricades they put up the night before.
4:00-Morning Prayer: The Imperial Fists assemble for a sermon by the Chaplains. The poses of fealty they maintain are specifically designed to be the most physically uncomfortable possible.
5:00-Morning Firing Rites: The Imperial Fists assemble to practice their firing drills. You can imagine everyone's surprise when the Chapter serfs learn that the Fists have built up fortifications around their firing ranges.
6:00-Battle Practice: The Imperial Fists descend into the battle cages for practice in close combat and moving targets. Frequently the Imperial Fists will forgo medical attention for injuries.
10:00-Pain Stimulation: The Imperial Fists undergo pain stimulation and endurance tests. Such tests range from the Pain Glove to sitting naked in rooms where the temperature is designed to simulate the night-side of Inwit during winter.
12:00-Midday meal: A light meal is prepared by the Chapter serfs. Showing pleasure at the taste earns you an hour in the Pain Glove. Rumors that Imperial Fists deliberately say they enjoyed the meal to get into the Pain Glove have never been proven.
12:30-Tactical Indoctrination: The Imperial Fists undergo tactical indoctrination on what sort of enemies they can expect to be crusading against in the near future, how to best design fortifications to stop them, and what sort of pain contact with their weapons causes.
16:00-Evening Firing rites: The Imperial Fists engage in evening firing drills.
20:00-Evening Prayer: The Imperial Fists assemble for a sermon by the Chaplains.
21:00-Evening Meal: A feast is prepared for the Imperial Fists by the Chapter serfs.
22:00-Evening Fortifications: The Imperial Fists set up fortifications in their cells to make sure no one can get into their room and surprise them while sleeping.
23:00-Rest: The Imperial Fists retire to their iron slabs or spiked beds for the evening.
See Also
- Their theme, done by HMKids, Fucking Awesome!
Gallery
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Line Holding Specialty. Angry Prussians in Space FTW! -
Marcius Flavius, the first(and only) space marine assigned to a Federation starship in the historic Federation-Imperium officer exchange program -
First Captain (later Third Captain) Lysander. -
Rogal Dorn.
