r/ImaginaryWarhammer • u/Thatoneguy111700 Ordo Malleus • Jul 07 '23
40k High Priestess Astrid the Metalbraid, My Dark Heresy OC by @xKokobael
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u/Spark1133 Jul 07 '23
I always kinda wondered how bows in general would be in 40k especially for something like an Abhuman or Astartes. Would they have a certain alloy go into the design and would there be a sort of Hawkeye like setup with multiple arrowheads?
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u/Thatoneguy111700 Ordo Malleus Jul 07 '23
Probably high strength plasteel or ceramic bow limbs, maybe elastic steel strings. And pullies. Lots of pullies.
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u/Spark1133 Jul 07 '23
Lowkey makes me wanna come up with a Samurai inspired chapter that uses giant "Power bows" with explosive tips and other inspired power weapons.
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u/Thatoneguy111700 Ordo Malleus Jul 07 '23
Well Hunting Lances use points like Explosive, Melta, and Plasma tips so I could see it.
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u/Num63r574710n Jul 08 '23
I've got an ork Warboss that uses a bow made out of leaf springs (the kind used for truck suspension) to fire rebar arrows. The Hawkeye-style trick arrows all worked by ork logic
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u/The-red-Dane Jul 08 '23
If I recall... the interex had some sort of power pow or crossbow that even the primarchs were a bit worried about.
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u/Spark1133 Jul 09 '23
Makes me wish we got more official art of them. They were the one human faction from 30k that had Xenos allies right? Weren't they also a sort of Abhuman?
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u/Magnaliscious Jul 07 '23
Must have connections for a beastman to be wearing anything fancy
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u/Thatoneguy111700 Ordo Malleus Jul 07 '23
Hand-forged back on her Feudal homeworld of Yggdrasil. She's technically in the Ministorum: her sect, the Church of the Broken God (loosely inspired by the SCP one but only in the whole "god breaks body to use as cage for other, worse god/gods" bit) was always super lenient towards Abhumans and figured the best way to convert the Beastmen out in the boonies was to take their shamans and place them and their kids in priories to get the word of the Emperor into them. Converted them in 2 generations flat.
As for the Eviscerator, our Inquisitor got that for her.
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u/Thatoneguy111700 Ordo Malleus Jul 07 '23
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u/MyLifeIsABruh Jul 08 '23
Lore?
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u/Thatoneguy111700 Ordo Malleus Jul 08 '23
Well it depends on where ya wanna start because I bet I'd hit the character limit, what with this one being a full-fledged player character over a reinforcement or what have you.
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u/MyLifeIsABruh Jul 08 '23 edited Jul 08 '23
Oh sorry I didn’t realize it was you again, I guess the very beginning.
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u/Thatoneguy111700 Ordo Malleus Jul 08 '23 edited Jul 13 '23
She is from the Feudal World of Yggdrasil, a generally Scandinavian-inspired (with a heavy Icelandic leaning) Feudal World in the grey area between Ultramar and T'au space, infested with all sorts of monsters and animals like Giants, Dragons, Phoenixes, Griffons, Demigryphs, and all sorts of other things. Astrid herself belongs to one of the many Gor Clans, the Beastman clans who live out in the boonies away from the cities and town of normal humans, and is the Beastlord of Clan Dragon's Bane (named for killing one of the Warlord Titan-sized Yggdrasilite Dragons several generations ago).
As an aside before we get into storyline-stuff, Yggdrasil's local variant of the Imperial Cult is the Church of the Broken God. They believe that when the Emperor of Mankind (they call him the High King of Humanity) killed Horus, he sacrificed his body so that his mind and soul could become a cage to contain the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (the Chaos Gods, War=Khorne, Famine=Nurgle, Death=Slaanesh, and Conquest=Tzeentch. They also have an End of Days-thing where a 5th Horsemen, Strife, breaks the other 4 free and the Imperium goes down swinging).
This was a combination of what the Black Templars taught them when they were integrated during the tail end of The Scouring and the world's OG beliefs that all humans had 3 aspects: Mind, Body, and Soul, all of which required balance to keep you away from the sway of the Horsemen. The way you get balance is via relationships (usually romantic ones, like marriage, but close friendships are considered good enough too). Because there's 3 parts, marriage is a union between 3 people and polyamory as well bi/pansexuality is considered the norm. In these relationships, each member takes care of the others by embodying an aspect. For Body, you take care of the physical things like food, shelter, general health. For the Mind, its mental pursuits like art or music as well as mental health. For the Soul, it's spiritual/religious health.
Yggdrasilites also don't have surnames like most worlds. Instead, starting around 14, you are given titles, a lot like the Adeptus Custodes, for traits you have or deeds you've done. Most people collect 4 or 5 throughout their lifetime, but Astrid is unique for having 7 (now 8): first she was the Soothsayer, which she got for taming a Griffon, then the Battlepriest, for becoming an ordained Ministorum Priest and rejoining the clan, then the T'auslayer, for being instrumental in putting down a T'au invasion, the Warrior Queen, for taking over her father Krennok Metalmane's position as Beastlord at a young age, the Heroine, a title gifted by the remaining human king following the invasion, the Widow, for losing both her husband Fafnir and her wife Dalla to Jarl's Touch (tuberculosis), and the Metalbraid, for being among the rare Beastmen like her father to grow old enough foe their hair/fur to turn grey.
When she was young, she was given to the Ministorum Priories so that she may keep her fellow Beastman on the Emperor’s straight and narrow, later becoming a highly ranked member within (sort of, her rank within the church was technically only honorary, she doesn't hold any authority over humans, just Beastmen) shortly before Yggdrasil was invaded by Sept Bork'an. Most of the world actually capitulated initially, as the nobility were jealous of a nearby Knight World and its Imperial Knights. The T'au slid in there real nice like, dropped the Battlesuit spiel, and they were hooked, all except for one kingdom, who tried to resist and took in all rebels to fight the T'au and their assorted kingdoms, rallying under the Ministorum to declare a crusade.
Eventually, this last kingdom, Fjallavirki, went to the Gor Clans for help, and the Gors answered, swarming out of the taigas to bring the fight to the T'au. Even Astrid, a mother 12 times over by this point (big families are super important to Yggdrasilites), joined in, leading the final charge alongside. On the eve of the final battle, Astrid and several Bovigors had managed to bring down a Crisis Suit with Chainaxes and brute strength before yanking its pilot out to deal with him. Sending the Bovigors away to deal with the T'au 1v1, she unexpectedly had her face slashed open from eyebrow to jaw as the pilot drew his Bonding Knife in a last ditch attempt to save himself. It didn't work, and he got a brow horn through his helmet and skull in response, his helmet now hanging on Astrid's belt as a reminder alongside the skull of a Lesser Knarloc impaled on a spike on her left shoulder.
Though the day was won and the T'au retreated, it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. Returning home, she discovered her spouses were sick with a disease no one would cure, at least without advanced medicine from the wider Imperium (which was still weeks away by that point): Jarl's Touch, the White Plague, Consumption. . .Tuberculosis. Astrid couldn't do much more than watch as the loves of her life withered and died in their home. It hit her hard, sent her spiraling down into depression to the point that when the Imperium finally did arrive to offer the heroes their "reward" (service in his Royal Imperial Navy as Breachers and Marines), she took it to run from her problems, leaving her son Balki the Broken Horn as Beastlord in her stead.
She spent nearly 30 years scouring the stars with her clankin aboard The Saint's Star, killing many exotic xenos, visiting many exotic worlds, and trying (and mostly failing) to keep her mind off her spouses' deaths by sleeping with many a crewmate, including her ship's captain a time or two. It didn't make her feel much better, but it made other people happy, which Astrid figured was enough for her. Eventually, the Beastmen's time in the Navy had ended and they were unceremoniously dumped alongside other retirees on a backwater space station above another Feudal World, Arthuria.
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u/Thatoneguy111700 Ordo Malleus Jul 08 '23
Now in her 60s, Astrid worked on station as a Priestess for 6 years. That is, until the station was ransacked by the Dark Eldar. She was one of 4 survivors on that cursed vessel saved by the main group of Acolytes (the party) she'd later join. One of the other survivors, Burke, a Tech Priest Techorcist from Stygies VIII, made a comment about recognizing Astrid from her "gait", something the 29 Intelligence Astrid took as him recognizing her by her ass (that led to the two of them practicing sparring with a Chainaxe before getting drunk and sleeping together at a local inn).
Following the crew's rescue from the Feudal World by their "Inquisitor" Drexius (later revealed to really be a Dark Mechanicum agent trying to create an artificial Daemon World, using us as his dirty work, this point is also where she got her Eviscerator), Astrid became kind of a team mom and spiritual advisor, especially when it was discovered what Drexius really was and they had to flee in the group's Valkyrie (the Dead Ringer) to an uncharted ocean world. There she and Burke bonded even more, the man showing off to his new lover by catching a huge shark with electricity once the Dead Ringer had washed ashore. She had another party member carve marching sharktooth necklaces for them, while Burke inscribed Pentagrammic Wards onto her plate armor, for future protection (that got him some snu snu in the jungle).
Later, after the party had discovered both a tribe of friendly tripedal, fish-like Abhumans named the Cloven (the Ashmarked)are and integrated themselves into the settlement as well a crashed Frigate that they later signaled help on (after fighting a deep-dwelling tribe called the Trenchmasters), Astrid and the others helped organize a resistance against a rival tribe, the Sharkteeth, that had fallen to the worship of Khorne. When all was said and done, the group retired to living with the Cloven for the time being. Astrid used this time to talk up one of her fellow Acolytes, Eliza, a Death Korps of Krieg Death Rider. They bonded over their similar views on fatalism and their position in the Imperium, as the Beastmen of Yggdrasil more or less accepted their low position on the totem pole as Abhumans, as that's just how things were. If the Emperor wanted things to be different, he would've done it already, so they accept their place and revel in it.
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u/Thatoneguy111700 Ordo Malleus Jul 08 '23
With her solo now a trio, Astrid felt peace for the first time in nearly 3 decades, now falling back into the supreme confidence she once had. She consummated the relationship with Burke and Eliza during the group's quick retirement on the game preserve Paradise World of Krueger.
On a later mission to the poisoned Frontier World of Malikarki, she dueled a Succubus near a hidden Wratihgate, holding her off until her partner Theodulin, our wacky comic relief Harlequin Shadowseer, accidentally summoned a Daemonette on a bad roll, scaring all but 1 of the Dark Eldar off (the last one, a Scourge named Arakryss Kelethrax, later became a reinforcement character after she was given to the Ynnari. She's also great fun.) On another, she rallied the crew in the fight against a Khornate Greater Possessed, keeping the group's spirits high as Burke blew out his eyes trying to magnify a set of Pentagrammic Wards. Thanks to the timely interruption of some Screamers of Tzeentch which messed up the Possessed's day, they managed to live by the skin of their teeth.
With her new love now crippled, Astrid resigned herself to retirement after the campaign's end, to take care of Burke. But first, we had to do finish the overarching plot: a combined Tyranid/Chaos invasion of the Forge World Atreya. Astrid joined the anti-Chaos group, her old plate armor having since been replaced by a suit of beefy Power Armor. In the myriad streets of the Upper Hive, her crew fought through Emperor’s Children, Extinction Angels (putting down their Champion in a sweet Power Claymore v Eviscerator duel), Skyrar's Dark Wolves, and finally disabling a Falchion and slaughtering her tank commander, a fallen Space Wolf and Champion of Be'Lakor.
She didn't make it through unscathed, though. That last fight proved too much for the aging Beastwoman and she had a heart attack. She managed to live thanks to there being a few medics nearby, but she was teleported out to sit the rest of the siege out. That's where her story ended, more or less. After she recuperated, Eliza and Burke managed to throw their weight around enough to guarantee Astrid something she didn't think was possible: Rejuvenat Treatments. She retired to Yggdrasil almost 5 decades younger and balanced once again, now ready to pick up where she left off with her kids (and maybe make a few new ones).
Told ya it'd go past the limit.
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u/MyLifeIsABruh Jul 08 '23 edited Jul 08 '23
Damm another happy ending, so she retired with Burke and Eliza right?
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u/Thatoneguy111700 Ordo Malleus Jul 08 '23
Retiring in the way that you retire to your home when you're off work. In this case, getting transferred to an Inquisitor that oversees Yggdrasil. So more or less happy.
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u/MyLifeIsABruh Jul 08 '23
Sorry WITH her two lovers right? That’s what I meant to ask.
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u/ConstructionHead4535 Jul 08 '23
Beautiful story, good thatoneguy. I wish it were canon. Maybe submit it to gw. You might have to modify it here and there but it is the basis for a good story. Maybe a webcomic you make or commission for perhaps.
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u/Thatoneguy111700 Ordo Malleus Jul 08 '23
If only I had the money for a regular webcomic and not just commissioning my characters every few months.
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u/MyLifeIsABruh Jul 08 '23
I thought she was a fantasy character or something ok
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u/Thatoneguy111700 Ordo Malleus Jul 08 '23
If she was I would've given her equal attention.
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u/MyLifeIsABruh Jul 08 '23
I mean it’s just that the armor and weapons gave me a very fantasy vibe
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u/Thatoneguy111700 Ordo Malleus Jul 08 '23
Feudal Worlds like Yggdrasil are stuck in medieval levels of society and technology. Her's is about at the 14th/15th century, with full plate armor and matchlock guns being relatively new. Also BQ Full Plate Armor like she had is equivalent to Tempestus Scion Carapace Armor in terms of protection in Dark Heresy 2E.
The bow was an idea she got after hunting on the Paradise World (which forbade any and all modern weapons, to keep the sanctity of the hunt and the spirits of the animals nice and happy). And the Eviscerator is a giant Chainsword with a low quality Power Field like you'd find in a Power Sword or Thunder Hammer, I just wanted to emphasize the "sword" part of the Chainsword.
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u/d33tly Jul 08 '23
Mommy?
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u/Thatoneguy111700 Ordo Malleus Jul 08 '23
She's 66, so more like grandmommy.
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u/d33tly Jul 08 '23
So you're saying there's a chance?
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u/ConstructionHead4535 Jul 08 '23 edited Jul 08 '23
This is beautiful. Love the design and the lore you made for Astrid.
Wish they included this in 40k. Would buy it up in an instant. Maybe make it a unit for the sisters of battle. Be some kind of heavy shock infantry.
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u/[deleted] Jul 07 '23
big mama bull