Saturday, April 15, 2017

Rogue Trader: Dead Men Space Marines Librarians and Cataphract Robot


From a manuscript discovered in the depths of the Scriptorum, The Emperor's Palace, Terra.

To:  His Excellency, The High Inquisitor Josephes T'Resque
From: Yacobe Scrivenius

Excellency:

Beneath my hand, a door of steel.  How thick?  A foot?  Two?  On the other side, passages to the upper world...ramps, stairs that should bear me up once more into the world of undying light could I but reach them.  But the door is shut.  And there is no other exit from this, my tomb.   I am not yet dead, yet truly I am a dead man.  All that remains is for my food and water to expire, and then will come an end.

I am still deep in researching the history and customs of the Dead Men Space Marines Chapter for you.  Shown within this set of datafaxes are two Librarians of the chapter and a Cataphract battle robot.
Attached here, please find a datafax image of the great Librarian Henc Morgunn.  Morgunn seems to have been a pivotal figure from the days of Battle Group Omega, and his name is still spoken with awe and reverence by all Dead Men.  It is from the writings of Librarian Morgunn and the great Chaplain Willym Pil Grimm that many of the doctrines of the Dead Men were formulated.  Morgunn is chiefly remembered now for a last stand made on a bridge against a horde of Space Orks amid the ruins of the first colony on Geminion Prime.  The image of the Great Librarian making his lone stand on a narrow bridge against impossible odds in order to buy time to allow settlers to escape is often repeated in the art and iconography of the Chapter.

Another, unnamed Librarian who often appears in photographs and datafaxes with Henc Morgunn.  The skeletal hand on his left shoulder plate and the skull on his visor mark him as having likely been a Librarian of The Death Eaters Space Marines before that chapter was dissolved and its survivors integrated into the Dead Men.  Obsolescent chapter imagery and symbols continued into the formation of the Dead Men, and this Librarian's appearance is actually not at all atypical of Dead Men Librarians of the present day.
Robots were in widespread use in Battle Group Omega during the heresy and many robots remained in service with the Dead Men long afterwards.  Some were made honorary Battle Brothers.  This Cataphract robot, named "Digitus Mortis" has a history of service with the 4th company that passes well beyond living memory.
Digitus Mortis...
...and friend...

...The faithful Tech marine.

Henc Morgunn on the fatal bridge on Geminion Prime...

"His wrath shall consume you...greenhide scum!!"

8 comments:

  1. Nice to see these classic older figures getting some love in these wonderful photographs. Great background fluffy stuff too. More please! (:

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    1. Glad you liked them, Orylgg! There's more of this stuff coming very soon. Main themes for this year are Rogue Trader and my Biblical collection. Thanks for stopping by!

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  2. lovely blast from the past. Very enjoyable look at an old game I absolutely loved playing back before the millennium. Great to see these older miniatures in all their glory.

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    1. Exceedingly pleased to know you enjoyed them so much, Steve! Yes, the industry produces sexier stuff these days, but being older than dirt myself, I enjoy old miniatures. Painting them up and getting them out on the board feels like meeting up with old comrades.

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  3. Mr. Mouse - I just love this project! I hadn't really thought about it before, but of course one of the casualties of post-Rogue Trader 40K codices (codexes?) is that the homebrew Space Marine chapters fell by the wayside.
    Anyway, fantastic work. I love that Finger of Death! I hope his programming is always righteous and secure!

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    1. Thanks, Matthew! Yeah, I always thought that making up your own fluff was half the fun of this kind of stuff. Mr. Digitus Mortis says Hi.

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