My Own Created Fluff For The Moltovan Guard (Imperial Guard Regiment)

[The Weekly Wargamer]

Hey guys, The Weekly Wargamer here.
So, I have come to the conclusion that I mainly enjoy playing armies with a good background story (Fluff). So I created my own regiment of IG called the "Moltovan Guard" (not very imaginative I know but I couldn't do any better). Let me know what you think!

The Moltovan Guard were originally founded in M41, when a large invasion of Dark Eldar flooded to the world of Moltova. As no regiment had ever been raised, it looked as if the people of Moltova were doomed.

One month prior to the invasion, Lord Commissar Ishmael Darking had left his home planet of Moltova to take command of a regiment of Catchan Jungle Fighters fighting the Tau at Nimbosa. On departure from Moltova, Darking took 10 of his strongest friends from Moltova to be taken in by the Imperial Guard and trained as Veteran Guardsmen. This command was followed and his 10 men accompanied him to Nimbosa. He believed that having fellow Moltovans fighting with him would give him the confidence to win wars.

Upon encountering the fleet above Nimbosa, Darking heard of the assault on Moltova. He asked the Departmento Munitorum to send resources and aid to his planet, but the Munitorum decided that Moltova was "Of no strategic value and no Guard unit of any decency could ever be raised there".

Outraged by the decision to so easily disregard his home planet, Darking commandeered a supply vessel containing armour, weapons and one solitary Battle tank. with the Crew members on board now under his command, he ordered them to paint the armour to match his planets colours, purple and green. So was the colours of The Moltovan Guard born.

Upon descending on Moltova, Darking noticed the dramatic change to his beloved world: It was a bleak place. Roaming squads of Dark Eldar stalked the ruined cities, searching for slaves to torture. Out of all 5 major hive cities, only the capital, Hive city Maximus, survived.

Darking was outraged. Arming his best men from the survivors, he created the Moltovan Guard 1st regiment, "Moltovas finest". Consisting of His veteran squad, a infantry platoon, 5 Ratlings and his battle tank, it wasn't the greatest regiment ever. But Darking had a plan.

With the next charge of the Dark Eldar, their Archon, Archon Malek Sythius, charged with them. Darking had planned for this. Charging at the head of his Veteran squad, he led the fight right to Malek. Even with his renown Powerfist making him slow and cumbersome, he still managed to keep pace with Maleks huskblade.

Upon parrying another blow, Darking saw an opening. Firing his Bolt Pistol as a distraction, he swung his Powerfist for Maleks head, smashing it into bloody chunks.

Seeing their leader defeated, the Dark Eldar scattered and most were eradicated in the retreat, Lord Commissar Ishmael Darking had saved Moltova.
Sending word to the Departmento Munitorum, the Moltovan Guard were officially stated as a new chapter. Now with a large intake of recruits each tithe, the Moltovan Guard keep saving planets forgotten by the Departmento Munitorum, always led by their heroic leader Ishmael Darking.

So there it is! My first attempt at fluff! Let me know what you think!

[Obispal]

great first start, though I think the Departmento Munitorum would not take kindly to one of their vessels been stolen regardless of the reasons why

[Katharon]

They'd be hunted down as renegades at the least or heretics at the worst. The Imperium of Man cannot afford to allow anyone to have their own ideas about the best way of saving its citizens.

Also, Commissars are trained by centrally-controlled Scholam Progenium academies and such -- breaking all ties between any homeworld or otherwise between the children and their new training regimen. This, coupled with indoctrination into the Imperial Cult, learning the laws and regulations by which they must live, and the power imbued into their titles as commissars -- almost literal avatars of the Emperor's will and authority amongst the ranks of the Imperial Guard, judging them for worthiness in the eyes of the God-Emperor -- they become a different kind of animal compared to other Imperial functionaries and officers.

The idea that a Commissar would disagree with the institution that trained him and gave him his position on the fundamental idea of "life is unfair" isn't good enough to me, at least as a motivation. Your Commissar Darking needs a far more immediate and deep emotion to make him backtrack on his oaths to do what he did -- even if he did so with the best of intentions. Also, he should make his actions -- at least in some twisted way -- somehow conform to a line of reasoning to justify his actions in light of the laws and regulations by which a commissar must usually abide.

[The Weekly Wargamer]

I could do as SM have done, have them declared excommunicate tratoris but still fight loyal to the emperor?

[Katharon]

I could do as SM have done, have them declared excommunicate tratoris but still fight loyal to the emperor?

Not saying you can't, but that is not the point I raised. I said that you need to find a better catalyst for causing a commissar to abandon his duty.

[The Weekly Wargamer]

Not saying you can't, but that is not the point I raised. I said that you need to find a better catalyst for causing a commissar to abandon his duty.

Hmm... I know!

Before leaving to join the ranks of the Guard, he said goodbye to his wife, Olivia and child, Mathias. As he walked away, Mathias ran after him and placed into his hand a totem hand carved out of wood.

upon hearing of Moltovas plight, he hoped some one would send help, but tried to focus on the task ahead. While reaching into his pocket to check his pocket watch, he felt the little wooden idol of the emperor. Realising his family are in danger, he immediately commandeered a supply ship, not fearing being cast out as Excommunicate Tratoris.

Any Good?

[Katharon]

Better...but even more great would be if he found out that his world had been abandoned and destroyed. His grief over both his homeworld (still iffy on that one) and his family's likely death (better motivation) leads him to suddenly race back home in whatever piece of metal that fits warp engines to it. Once he gets back home he should find most of it all destroyed, his family's home ashes, and maybe the remains of his child's favorite toy half charred and burned on the ground or something. He'll hunt through the city and come across a few survivors (enough to form a demi platoon of IG) and learn who is responsible -- then comes the Punisher theme song and they all ship out to try and track down the perps and extract vengeance (hoping against hope that their loved ones might have been taken as slaves and not killed outright -- or praying that they were killed and are not suffering).

[morninson]

Pretty sure Commissars are orphans that don't know where they came from? Certainly wouldn't have a wife and child. Might it work better if he were not a Commissar at all? Maybe a sergeant in the Moltovan PDF who along with a modest force were sent to Nimbosa by the Imperium only to find out that his now defenceless planet was overrun by the DE, he and the Moltovan survivors get back by any means possible to sort it out...

Any cool Commissar Lord model you had could easily be added into the fluff as a high level advisor sent by the DM to make sure that the Moltovan Guard are loyal given the nature of their first founding? Glad the arkon guy got his head mooshed, not a fan of the DE.

[Kaptain Badrukk]

Pretty sure Commissars are orphans that don't know where they came from? Certainly wouldn't have a wife and child. Might it work better if he were not a Commissar at all? Maybe a sergeant in the Moltovan PDF who along with a modest force were sent to Nimbosa by the Imperium only to find out that his now defenceless planet was overrun by the DE, he and the Moltovan survivors get back by any means possible to sort it out...

Any cool Commissar Lord model you had could easily be added into the fluff as a high level advisor sent by the DM to make sure that the Moltovan Guard are loyal given the nature of their first founding? Glad the arkon guy got his head mooshed, not a fan of the DE.

No requirement for Commissars to be single, or celibate. If Ciaphas Cain is to be believed anyway.
As for the orphan thing, Cain (the only Commissar in gw fluff who bothers to mention an upbringing (or for that matter anthing other than the urge to smite or the motivation to smite)) remembers growing up on a hiove world before his parents died. Not all orphans are babies in the schola it seems.

[Katharon]

Pretty sure Commissars are orphans that don't know where they came from? Certainly wouldn't have a wife and child. Might it work better if he were not a Commissar at all? Maybe a sergeant in the Moltovan PDF who along with a modest force were sent to Nimbosa by the Imperium only to find out that his now defenceless planet was overrun by the DE, he and the Moltovan survivors get back by any means possible to sort it out...



Most Commissars are indeed orphans, but not exclusively. Commissars, like any Imperial Guard officers, are allowed to have families.


Any cool Commissar Lord model you had could easily be added into the fluff as a high level advisor sent by the DM to make sure that the Moltovan Guard are loyal given the nature of their first founding? Glad the arkon guy got his head mooshed, not a fan of the DE.

Considering that the forces that turned a ship of His Majesty's Imperial Navy around, taking it hostage via mutiny or by force to get it there, they wouldn't send a commissar to "advise" the Moltovans. They would send a punitive force to do two things: (1) arrest them, court martial them, and shoot them; or (2) shoot them on sight. The Imperium of Man and its bureaucracy does not forgive anyone who disrupts its operation or deny them. They would have no choice but to destroy them. Maybe if they were lucky they could request transfer to a penal legion.

[morninson]

I don't think a Cain or a Gaunt would court martial these guys, by the time Imperial forces arrive to deal with the now defeated DE they find the battle hardened remnants of the local PDF and think 'this guy was a bit naughty but he saved the planet'... I think there's room for a Commissar with empathy. Gaunt got to keep the ghosts even though a) Commissars sit outside the command structure and b) the Inquisition kept a close eye believing the Tanith might be tainted somehow after their close run thing.

The idea of an elite IG force having a few misdemeanours overlooked because of their usefulness is appealing. I don't think the answer to every infringement is a lasbolt to the head. Besides DM are so slow the Emperor will have woken up before they realise someone jacked one of their ships.

[Katharon]

I don't think a Cain or a Gaunt would court martial these guys, by the time Imperial forces arrive to deal with the now defeated DE they find the battle hardened remnants of the local PDF and think 'this guy was a bit naughty but he saved the planet'... I think there's room for a Commissar with empathy. Gaunt got to keep the ghosts even though a) Commissars sit outside the command structure and b) the Inquisition kept a close eye believing the Tanith might be tainted somehow after their close run thing.

Gaunt is an exception, and extremely rare in a quintilian rare exception, where he was given a dual rank of Colonel-Commissar by diktat of an Imperial Warmaster. The only ones who could have denied Gaunt his promotion would have been the Adpetus Terra, millions of light-years away. Also, he is even more rare because of his unique upbringing and the pathos he was instilled with from a young age. He was brought up to be an honorable man and had a religious paradigm that reinforced his ideals.

Gaunt also had a personal relationship with several high-ranking officers of the Sabbat Worlds Crusade he was part of, such as Van Voytz, and had been a personal favorite of the original Warmaster Slaydo -- who gave him his dual-rank. Naturally he was and did receive some leeway in the choices he was given and the manner in which he could most effectively serve the Imperium during its crusade. He was watched by the Inquisition as a matter of course, but wasn't executed because he was proved in trial to be untainted -- and it was further determined that his life would be better spent on the battlefield where he might have some positive impact rather than in a body bag.

Cain is another rare example, out of the tens of millions of commissars in the IoM, who might be willing to give some men a little leeway. However, even he says more often than not that he would willingly shoot any man he believed a threat to either himself of the IoM as a whole. This is stated throughout his books and indeed he has executed several men.


I don't think the answer to every infringement is a lasbolt to the head.

That's what penal legions are for.


Besides DM are so slow the Emperor will have woken up before they realise someone jacked one of their ships

That's why they created a relatively flexible chain of command, from Terra to the Fringe. Local Imperial Commanders and regional authorities would be "first responders" and alert the higher ups, a ripple effect that's length is determined by how long it takes to deal with the situation. I imagine that any Navy captain worth his ship would easily get off a message that his ship was being hijacked and other warships nearby would respond. Those ships don't come cheap now, you know?