+ inload: Behind the scenes of The War of the Lost Primarch +

+ Make new blogs, but keep the old +

+ New exciting projects always take up focus; but it's always good to keep an overview of things. Otherwise it's easy to end up a bit swamped and disenchanted after the chrome wears off (an image quite fitting for 40k...). I wanted the new site, Some Things Are Best Left Forgotten [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] to be as immersive as possible. As a result, it's very story-focussed, with little, if any, out-of-universe material like modelling or painting planned. +

+ Fortunately, that's exactly the sort of material I can put here (alongside the usual material) – and I hope these behind-the-scenes inloads help to shed some light on the project. +

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+ In the Emperor's footsteps: building a Primarch +

+ At the end of last year, lunax7070 offered me a cast of his awesome Mark II Crusade marine. When it comes to truescale, there aren't many bigger! It's a fantastic kit, with full poseability. It wasn't going to fit in any of my forces, but then inspiration struck – I could use it to build a Lorgar to face off against my version of Guilliman. +

+ Spool on a few days, and when I sat down to build, I just couldn't help thinking that I could use it for something else, and ideas started to percolate. To cut a long story short, I ended up combining some very old ideas to come up with a new setting to explore; a bit like the Alien Wars of M36 [REF: tab at top]. +

+ Foremost amongst these were the Silver Stars of an abortive Unification Wars project [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+]. I had really enjoyed exploring the period and playing with a different way of writing, but it had proven just too broad to give a decent result in a sensible amount of time. +

Seeds sown in late MMXV

+ Learning from that, and which bits of the Alien Wars that people seemed to like best, I hit upon theming it around the War of the False Primarch – one of those brief mentions in GW's colour text that always seems so ripe with potential. +

+ The text is very brief, and basically involves five named Chapters wiping out eleven. It's an intriguing idea, and so I went about contacting hobbyists who had already done some work on the named Chapters. Amongst them are the_midnightmare, count.hodo, the_iron_within and biohazardmodels –  I thoroughly recommend you check out their awesome work. +

+ With some talented allies on board, I started putting together some introductory text and having fun creating maps in between updating the Silver Stars. After all, if I was asking people to contribute their marines to oppose or follow a (supposed) Primarch and his (supposed) Legion, then I thought it was only right that I put my money where my mouth was! +

...and his big brother, six years later.

+ The first new marine popped up here a couple of inloads ago; and at some point I'll take the chance to talk through the updates and changes made. For the moment, though, I hope this gives some idea of where the idea for a collaboration comes from – and, more importantly than that, I hope it encourages you to get involved! +

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+ A call to arms +

+ This blog is blessed with a readership hugely talented in modelling, painting and writing. I'd love it if you would consider getting involved. The invitation to the project can be read in full on Some Things Are Best Left Forgotten [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+], but in short, if you want to help explore the M34 setting, then please do get in contact either via the comments section below, or via the + Death of a Rubricist + Facebook group [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+]. +

+ Like the Alien Wars, it's a huge palette; which can make it a bit daunting to pick where to start. Pretty much anything will fit – and the broader the take-up, the richer the setting will become. However, I know some people prefer a narrower focus to give them a lead-in, and to that end, if you're a Rubricist who wants to contribute but doesn't have a clear point of inspiration, then I encourage you to turn your hands to one of the following options, in order of urgency:

• A Vigilant Space Marine (see below).
• A Space Marine from the Partisan Chapters, detailed here.
• A Battlefleet Gothic model.
• One of the Death Eagles (and whether you prefer the black and white modern scheme or pink and white originals, both will be fantastically useful).
• A Space Marine from the Silver Stars (pictured above)
• A model to represent Imperial Guard or Naval forces operating in the area.
• An Inquisitor or Inquisitorial team.

+ All will be used to illustrate articles on the new blog, and I'll preview those articles here in the hope that it'll inspire you talented so-and-sos to paint up some figures we can use to illuminate them. +

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+ The Vigilants +

+ The Vigilants are a concept I've created to make getting involved as easy as possible. I think a lot of people like the idea of invitationals, but are worried that they're 'not good enough'. I'm very keen that this project is as open as possible and want to break down any 'hobby gates'. +

+ To that end, the Vigilants are a Chapter of Space Marines that operate like the Deathwatch – individuals and small groups are seconded to the Inquisition's Ordo Astartes. They keep their original colouring, but supplement it with a red armour panel (usually the helm) with a yellow and black stripe. As I put it on the War of the False Primarch discussion group:

There’s an article going up this weekend (basically as soon as I have a figure painted). Vigilants are marked out by a red armour panel with a yellow and black stripe. This is usually, but not always, their helm. Other than that, they wear their Chapter colours.

The underlying concept is a reimagining of the Military Police from Rogue Trader – a militant wing under the auspices of the Ordo Astartes that allow the Inquisition to fight fire with fire. 

Set up during the Scouring, many of the original members were made of Blackshields that sought to rejoin the Imperium after Horus’ defeat. 

Two thousand years later, it’s now a position of honour for many Space Marine Chapters, with implied ties to the long inward-looking Adeptus Custodes, who use them as an intermediary (a relationship which eventually leads to the Vigilants being disbanded in a later period).

The Vigilants are really well-equipped during the War. They receive priority equipment and specialist weaponry in order to best their peers – lots of the weird stuff like conversion beamers, graviton weaponry and eradication rifles.

+ Long-time inloaders will know that I like to involve retrohammer touches, and so will probably have already divined that the visual inspiration for this is from Rogue Trader's Field Police:

+ The idea is simple. If you have a marine sitting around, you can get involved simply by repainting his helm. If you do so, please let me know either via the comments or on the Facebook group – I'd love to have as many examples as possible for the article. +

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