Yaketsuku
Name: YaketsukuSegmentum: Ultima
Sector: Manifestum
System: Yaketsuku
Population: 31,710,000,000 (Formerly)
Affiliation: Imperium
Class: Dead World
Tithe Grade: Aptus Non
The Last Flames: Togo Katoichi and Yoshihiro Takane
The Legend of Yaketsuku and the Death of the Emperor's Flames
Yaketsukujin religion was heavily inspired by Zhan spiritual beliefs. The Yaketsukujin believed the world was inhabited by many different spirits that resided on the various forms of the planet in the air, land, sea, and animals. These were later syncretized into newer forms or cast off by the missionaries after reunification. Central to their beliefs was an organizing force of order that came in the form of their local sun. They believed the sun to not be quite a sapient force but a force of nature. It was the force that grew their crops, lit their way, decided their seasons, and played an integral role in survival. They thought legendary warriors were blessed by the licks of flame from the sun as a sort of ascended inner essence that raised them to near demi-godhood. The sun was later refocused as the Emperor of Man by the Missionaria Galaxia and the Scars found the existing cultural framework to facillitate a new founding. Hence where the Flames arose.
The Flames' colors were a dark blue that was interrupted by select patterns of black and upon their pauldrons and chest was the symbol of the sun. Rather than a direct illustration, the symbol of the sun was a connected conglomeration of images that conferred the meaning the Yaketsukujin had derived from the sun. (it's the Date mon, basically)
Yaketsuku and the Flames' chapter culture differed from the White Scars. Rather than choosing candidates from various tribes over a planet, several families all over the planet would train their children from birth to become candidates for the Flames in a localized tithing. These families were known as ember houses. There was the odd criminal or non-ember house that contributed to the initiate pool but they were fewer in number. Owing to Yaketsukujin cultural primacy on the manner of selecting space marine candidates, a number of trials selecting for physical adeptness, martial skill, survivability, cohesion, discipline, and willpower were made based on Yaketsukujin culture. These trials were based on the feats of legendary ancient warriors, scholars, and artisans of Yaketsuku along with trials inspired by honoured venerable Flames astartes. Some of these ancient figures were actually pre-Creed religious figures or spirits syncretized into saints by the Missionaria Galaxia. Of these trials, the most controversial to other chapters and under scrutiny by the Inquisition was the test of willpower. The test was based on ancient tale of monks and an oni-baba, or a daemon hag, where the hag had attempted to entrap the monks after offering them sanctuary from a turbulent storm at night. The monks were able to dispel the daemon away with their conviction and prayers to the Emperor (which was originally based on another historical figure before the missionaries). The Flames took influence from this story and created a hidden castle deep within an ocean mountain chain. There, two tests would be made for Flames candidates. They would sleep within the fortress while hearing the voice of spirits brought upon the fortress by the librarians of the Flames, who were known as onmyodo. The spirits would tell terrible truth after terrible truth and test the candidates mental conditioning. The candidates that survived the night with their sanity intact were then properly inititated with the modifications needed to become transformed into astartes. The second test was secretive. The spirits were summoned and hidden within a null-material reinforced chamber deep within he castle. Those that were psychically adept would be able to track the voices to where their incorporeal forms were kept. They would be locked in a greater chamber containing the lesser chamber. While the others that survived the night were released, they were trapped inside. Then the null chamber would open. Those that could make the spirits hesitate for a second or summon psychic force to affect them would be chosen by the standing librarian to become onmyodo and the spirits would be exorcised. The obvious fear of this final test being similar to the fear of the Exorcists ultimate test. This would not turn out to be Yaketsuku's downfall but related to it.
The Flames battle tactics relied on quick, decisive strikes that broke morale quickly. The difference between their progenitors in the Scars and the Flames was that while the Scars were the master of mobility and hit and run tactics the Flames were adept at lightning fast attacks that then progressed to quickly tear the heart out of their enemies. They believed in devastating first strikes and believed probing attacks or prolonging fighting gave the enemy too much time to prepare. They had more reliance on air attacks and air support along with morale breaking tactics. The Flames had an almost Krieger-like dedication to insanely near-suicidal perseverance in their tactics.
Of the most skilled astartes in the Flames the six-string band stood above all. The six-string were the chapter master's personal bodyguard or hatamoto unit. Far from being stationary and forever near the chapter master, they were often sent as a specialized strike squad deep into enemy formations or weakpoints to debilitate the Flames enemies. They were often sent against enemy generals and leaders.
The battle cry of the flames was "ten'no heika, banzai" or shortened to "banzai" in Yaketsukujin.
The Flames fell when a librarian of the Flames, one Yoshihiro Takane, was found leading a progressivist cult and lashed out with the help of the Thousand Sons traitor legion. Takane loved his world. He fully believed in the promise of being in the Imperium. He had learned, however, through ancient texts that the Imperium's decrees held Yaketsuku in stasis technologically and culturally. He became discontent and wished to set on his own path. This ended in him being discovered, and unsure of what to do he asked for the help of the Thousand Sons that had helped to guide him on his path. Their help was not what Takane expected and he regretted their involvement. Yaketsuku was destroyed. He knew was too far gone, and fully pledged himself in the service of Tzeentch for great power in return. He seeks to destroy the Imperium's hold on humanity so that the galaxy may progress and change by the will of its inhabitants rather than stay in the slow agonizing death it seems to have held onto for millennia under the Imperium.
Katoichi witnessed the chapter master's demise at the hands of Takane. On the chapter master's battle barge, the Irohahime Maru, his master fell to Takane's sorcery and the constructs he and his Thousand Sons allies had made. Katoichi felt his master's body crash into him as the force of Takane's power pulverized his organs and pushed him through the air for meters. Katoichi felt what no Astartes should have. He took the two remaining relics of Yaketsuku found on his master's body. He fled to a shuttle on the barge and barely escaped. Through the viewport, he watched the scouring and destruction of his home.
The world was destroyed and Katoichi, merely the equivalent of a scout at the time, fled with the two most important artifacts of the Flames, the Oath of Hachiman and Amaterasu's Claw. The Oath is an ornate and beautiful katana with a powerfield that was forged for the first chapter master of the Flames, a son of the crown ruler of Yaketsuku during chapter's founding. Amaterasu's Claw is a masterfully crafted wakizashi with a powerfield was forged by the blind crown ruler Amaterasu a thousand years later as part of an Amalathian style oath of loyalty. Katoichi fled when he saw his chapter master, Imagawa Nobuhide, fall to an unending tide of daemonic constructs created by Takane and his traitor legion allies. He escaped to a shuttle and was lost in the vacuum of space without warp capability. He was rescued after weeks of being lost in space by the Cachorodons Space Marine chapter. He served with them, and later joined the Deathwatch as a blackshield. One formative moment of his was when he was stuck in collapsed ruins at the mercy of an Eldar harlequin. Katoichi was told many truths that day. All were more terrible than the last. He was later found and rescued and the harlequin escaped.
That day changed his worldview. It would be seen as heresy by the puritanical of the inquisition. He more fully understood Takane, but hated him more for it. He came to the conclusion that between the brutality and backwardness of the Imperium and the mass hypocrisy of people like Takane that the giant colossus of a war machine that was the Imperium was needed as long as people like Takane and xenos threatened mankind. Katoichi did not have power to change this ancient edifice but believes that a recongregationist attitude among those in power, and not the powers of Chaos which care less for mortal works than the numerous lords and nobles of the Imperium, is needed to ensure the survival of humanity. He would eventually gain the ear of those with the power to make proper change.
Katoichi continued his work, and one of his feats included storming the bridge of a freeboota ork ship and nearly single-handedly killing the captain with a single toss of a krak grenade (by the way, I ran a minisode session introducing this character and this literally happened). He was called one day to view a familiar sight. A traitor wearing the colors of his dead chapter with the helmet shaped like an Oni's head. He was called by an inquisitor to the Askellon sector to be the bloody tool of vengeance he was needed to be. He obliged. He now hunts down the traitor and his cohort in a manner similar to an acolyte, but is given the resources and manpower he needs to pursue his quarry.
Katoichi fights with a mixture of his Astartes training, including supplementary honing of his skills in the Deathwatch, and a traditional style of combat native to now dead Yaketsuku. He is versatile and able to switch between boltguns and the ancient blades he keeps at all times. Using the Oath and the Claw, Katoichi becomes a whirling tornado of devastation. Using a mixture of techniques including Yaketsukuite iaijutsu, Imperial military techniques, and dueling blade disciplines he stays true to his roots while incorporating greater Imperial techniques into his repertoire. Along with his blades is a specially crafted power spear given to him as a gift from the techmarines of the Deathwatch. It resembles the mainstay weapon the old warriors of Yaketusuku wielded versus the blades which were symbols of power. It has been specially built to be balanced and useful in throwing, acting as either a long ranged weapon to keep foes at bay and as an opening attack before closing in with blade or gun. He named it "Takane's Judgement" personally, and seeks to spit the heretic's heart upon it as revenge for his chapter and people.
Takane now sports the title Oniboshi (The Demon Star in his native language). He wields the Flame's Crescent, a force glaive in the form of a naginata. He had it built by hereteks during his flight to the planet Guelph after the sundering of Yaketsuku. It is a symbol of his psychic prowess and his dedication to his mission to rend the Imperium to dust in the memory of his beloved Yaketsuku. He believes the sacrifice of the planet has to mean something. Built into the Crescent is a psyfocus that Takane has kept since his days as a librarian for the Flames, a marked piece of chiseled stone with a death poem inscribed upon it. The Crescent is devastating in its own right, allowing him to rend foes with the force of not only his superhuman strength but with the might of his soul, but the Crescent is most often seen as a channeling rod for Takane's abilities. Oniboshi is one of the most powerful sorcerers in Askellon. His service to Tzeentch and the honing of his abilities against rivals since his escape from Yaketsuku has made him extremely cunning and dangerous. Along with his own abilities, Takane learned how to imbue constructs with daemons early in his path to heresy. As a gift, he was also given a retinue of rubrics by his allies in the Thousand Sons. While he remains bitter against their "help", the archaic armored spiritual automatons still serve him very well.
Along with his personal abilities and resources, he is now the head of the Tzeentch portion of the Tarot, a grand conspiracy set to shake the foundations of Askellon. He maintains contact with the domestic Tzeentchian cults of Askellon's planets and settlements and commands a few as personal vassals. Of special note is the Portent Agony cabal of sorcerers on Askellon. They are a golden masked circle of nine divinators and skillful psykers whose mission is to bring divined futures of great calamity to fruition. He is also the main contact with another powerful person in the Tarot, both sharing very similar ideologies.
Katoichi finds his survival shameful. He feels he has dishonored himself, his dead chapter, and the Emperor. He seeks absolution to his sins, and he seeks to kill his former friend and brother of the Flames. Once Takane dies, Katoichi will take his own life in the manner befitting the ancient warriors of Yaketsuku.
Katoichi is reserved and respectful. He is not afraid to speak his mind but only after he has carefully considered his thoughts and can give them during a time he thinks they will be effective during. He demands full loyalty and obedience from those he commands. He is ferocious in battle, often charging in and screaming the warcries of Yaketsuku and The Flames. A common one is "Ten'no Heika, Banzai!" He is quick to anger when confronted by Takane. Otherwise he keeps a steely focused demeanour during combat.
Takane is overwhelming and always speaks with superiority in his heart. He will always seek to dominate conversations with his equals, which he does truly believe the Masque and Erioch to be, and makes his thoughts extremely clear. He does not waste his resources. However, he will not let underlings disrespect him without punishmen. His enemies are often the subject of taunt and ridicule. These are not the childlike insults of a bully but rather his attempts to try to demoralize his foe or incite them into making a foolish move. Takane also fights with steely determination but is often focused on weakening his foe through his speech and focused on using his sorcery and his enhanced fighting strength as an ex-librarian of the Astartes.
Togo Katoichi Profile:
Oniboshi profile:
Katoichi has a motif: Ona Hei by Jeff van Dyck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwJ1EpxiWb4
Oniboshi has a motif: Sonaiyo by Jeff van Dyck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nzt_6YeINF8
No comments:
Post a Comment