Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/Rubric Marine

"All is dust..."

-...

The Rubric Marine is an Tzeentchi Chaos Astarte of the Herald of Chaos. Planned to be voiced by.

Tactical analysis

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History
"The minds of gods are not for mortals to know or to judge. Accept that Tzeentch has a place for all of us in his grand scheme, and be happy in the part you have to play."

-Demon Primarch Magna the Red

The tale of how the Rubric Marines came upon their unique fate is a twisted one.

Following the Burning of Prospero during the opening days of the Horus Heresy, the Thousand Children settled upon a world prepared for them by their patron Chaos God Tzeentch, the Changer of Ways. This world was the Planet of the Sorcerers deep within the Eye of Terror. Given the potent psychic heritage of their Primarch, it is no surprise that the Thousand Children Legion has always been prone to mutation. Prior to the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, stringent genetic purity checks and relentless discipline had kept mutation at bay whilst the Astartes of the XV Legion simultaneously developed their potent psychic powers. Having steeped themselves in the raw power of Chaos, however, the Thousand Children fell prey to the rampant and uncontrolled mutation they called the "Flesh-Change," to such an extent that a cabal of the Legion's senior Librarians, led by their Chief Librarian, Ahzek Ahriman, determined that something drastic must be done to save the Legion from complete dissolution. With the Legion's Primarch Magna the Red retired to the highest tower of the City of Light on the Planet of the Sorcerers, her mystic, all-seeing gaze cast bitterly upon the dimensions without, Ahriman and his cabal of like-minded Chaos Sorcerers set about enacting a mighty spell that would purge the Legion of mutation and impurity.

Ahriman delved deep into the pages of the Book of Magna, a massive tome compiled by Magna during the Great Crusade that was filled with forbidden lore and knowledge of the Warp from ancient, forgotten days. Ahriman believed the Book of Magna held the key to his Legion's salvation. In the labyrinthine collections of formulae, incantations, and rites, Ahriman devised what he believed would be the beginnings of a mighty arcane spell to undo all that had befallen his Battle-Kins, known as the Rubric of Ahriman. Ahriman and his cabal cast his Rubric, and the skies over the Planet of Sorcerers erupted in an ætheric storm of unprecedented proportions. The spell they wrought was of such unimaginable power that even daemonic horrors fled before the roaring maelstrom. The Planet of Sorcerers was enveloped in impenetrable storms of blue and yellow, forks of titanic energies arcing across the planet to strike down each of the Thousand Sons.

Bolts of power formed from the raw stuff of the Warp arced from the roiling clouds and struck down and engulfed the remaining Thousand Sons in the flames of magic, which turned their physical bodies to dust inside their Power Armour. With every clasp, joint and seam welded tight by infernal fire, their spirits were now bound irrecoverably within. In a multi-colored flash, they were transformed into little more than undead automata for all time. But still, the storm did not stop, and raged on over the entire Planet of Sorcerers, until all but Magna in her tower and Ahriman's cabal of Sorcerers had been scoured by the mighty rubric. Who knows what might have happened had not Magna intervened? The former Primarch was now an immortal Demon Princess, and her rage was terrifying to witness, her anger generating new storms that raged across the Warp. Using powers beyond the ken of mortals, Magna banished the arcane tempest.

When the storm finally receded, Ahriman saw the awful truth of what he had wrought. Those that possessed the greatest psychic powers found their abilities augmented, and they arose from the lightning strikes as the most dangerous Sorcerers in the galaxy. The majority of the Thousand Sons, however, had a much more sinister fate. Although the spell had worked, after a fashion, the effects of the Rubric of Ahriman were nothing at all like what the cabal had hoped for. In a single stroke, the Thousand Sons had been destroyed utterly, while simultaneously preserved for all time. Magically fused into their armor, and with no physical bodies to speak of, they were never again to suffer mutation. The Legion that Magna had sired, the ones for whom she had sacrificed everything, was no more. In their place were ghost-haunted armored shells, mindless servants, ready to obey, their thirst for knowledge wholly extinguished.

So great was Magna's wrath that she would next have obliterated Ahriman and his cabal of Sorcerers when Tzeentch himself intervened. Who can fathom what that most enigmatic and capricious of entities intended -- perhaps this was the plan all along. Forced to stay her hand, Magna instead banished Ahriman, condemning him to wander in a hopeless quest to understand the nature of the Changer of the Ways. With this done, Magna ascended the tallest tower on the Planet of Sorcerers. Everything she had ever done, every decision she had made had been founded on two beliefs: that knowledge was pure, and that she was its master. Now, with everything she had sought or cared for beyond her, she cast her bitter cyclopean gaze outwards and watched as the Coalition burned.

The newly created Rubric Marines were living suits of ancient battle-plate which still moved and functioned, and could respond to orders just like a sentient man, though they were now little more than robotic constructs. They quickly fell into inactivity unless a Chaos Sorcerer was nearby to direct them, although in the fire of combat something of their former battle hunger returned and they moved with greater clarity and purpose. The Thousand Children Chaos Sorcerers use their Rubric Marine brethren as bodyguards and enforcers as well as guardians for the great libraries of grimoires and vaults of ancient scrolls established on the Planet of the Sorcerers. The Rubric Marines are quite excellent at the latter role, for they have no spark of curiosity left and are utterly loyal. If promised knowledge and an opportunity to enhance their psychic powers, the Sorcerers are willing to offer the services of their unliving warriors to others. In battle, the Thousand Sons' Chaos Sorcerers enchant their weapons and those of their undead bodyguards, their bolts blazing with baleful sorcerous energies and exploding with sorcerous blasts that burn the souls of their targets as much as they do physical damage.