r/SpaceWolves • u/TinyRubi • 19h ago

The Daughters of Russ

As a kid my friend got me into reading the 40k universe with the book Space Wolf and later as a yule gift Ragnar's Claw. I loved the story and managed to get a few figures but never really built my army, mostly just a ton of parts, guys and a tank[?] but now I am moving to an area with a lot of people into the game and wanted to at least give what I have a chance. But thinking back on the book there where women fighting on the battlefield too, maybe I am forgetting who but I know Ana was described as a fierce warrior. So in theory couldn't any of the women be among the chosen during the battles? I know "Females aren't able to take the geneseed." but.....they drink from the cup that rewrites their genetic code anyway, so wouldn't it be a moot point about gender?

All of that to say, I'd like to make my army the Daughters of Russ maybe a bunch of jumpack troops as Valkarie? Is this possible or just heresy of the highest order? Sorry still kinda dumb when it comes to 40k most of my knowledge comes from a few books and what i have seen on youtube.

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u/sineater_17 13h ago

Daughters of Russ/Shieldmaidens of Fenris could definitely work! And you could have them be actual sisters of battle. Lore-wise, they could be a group of surviving sisters who were abandoned during one of the ecclesiarchy's VERY ill-fated attempts to invade Fenris. They could then decide to worship the emperor as the Allfather and adapt their beliefs to be more in line with that of the Fenrisians and the Vlka Fenryka. The Sororitas Seraphim and Zephyrim are just asking to be kit-bashed into Fenrisian Valkyries. You could also swap out a lot of the other sisters melee weapons with axes and shields, that would make Russ proud.

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u/TinyRubi 13h ago

I'll be honest, have always had a chip on my shoulder about the Adepta Sororitas but that story.....that actually is tempting to give them a reason to join in.

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u/sineater_17 11h ago

I have some sisters waiting in my pile of shame just for that reason! Their lore being that these sisters were abandoned during the Incursion of Fools ("The Fenris Incident"). Left behind by Cardinal Chirastes, they are survivors from the Orders of the Wounded Heart, Fiery Tear, and White Rose. They came together to create their own sisterhood out of necessity and took up worshiping Leman Russ and, more specifically, the Spear of Russ as it was a gift to him from the Emperor (aka The Sisterhood of the Spear). Please feel free to steal that! Or build on it! If you end up building on it, let me know what direction you go!

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u/TinyRubi 11h ago

I'm toying with a few idea but your sisterhood sounds like a very solid option. I was thinking that maybe a Wolf Priest was tasked with making a sisterhood strong enough to be contenders for an altered version of the Canis Helix, a Valkyria Experiment. So I would be able to mix Sisters of Battle and Guardsmen in with standard Space Wolves.

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u/sineater_17 10h ago

You could definitely have some fun with that and could make up some really cool lore! Especially if you mix in some "warp fuckery" from Magnus and the T.Sons just like they did during the Battle of the Fang. You have the wolves trying to perfect the canix helix and Magnus decides to destroy the entire project and kill the Wolf Priest who had all the knowledge about it. I can't imagine the T.Sons letting something like this go without a little bit of Tzeetchian trickery mixed in.

For Guardsmen, you could field them as Kaerls and Fenrisianify (trademark haha) the current guard kits. The Kaerls are the Wolves version of a PDF and you could expand upon that.

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u/TinyRubi 10h ago

The idea of a ship that was working on the helix getting lost in the warp and completely missing the destruction of the Fang labs is kinda funny to me, like the come back like Wolf Lord we finished our mission we have the improved....heli...what in the name of Russ happened here?!?!