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Rainbow Warriors

Created your own background storyline for your army? Want to discuss the 40k history?

Rainbow Warriors

Postby BDJV » Fri Sep 26, 2008 2:34 am

I am so sick of the Juvenile attitude of a large amount of the 40K gaming community when the Rainbow Warriors get mentioned. After seeing the innuendos and comments made on BoLS today. I have really had enough.

So I've decided to give a new perspective on them and flesh out some new background material.

There have been some nice attempts in the past like Philip Sibberings Aztec themes RW's. Which is pretty nice although very short. I love the Native American theme that's for sure.

I am part Cherokee and Hopi Indian, I thought I might take a page outta our history. I'm going to spin the Warriors of the Rainbow idea.

With this theme in mind I've decided that they will come from White Scars geneseed.

Here is what I've come up with so far. It's not complete or fleshed out it's just a basic idea right now.

The Rainbow Warriors

Tangakwunu (known as Prizm in standard Imperial) the Rainbow Warriors home world has been ravaged multiple disasters both unnatural and natural. It all started with the discovery of a Chaos Cult aided by the traitorous Alpha Legion on the southern continent. This discovery happened at a very inopportune time for the Rainbow Warriors as most of the Chapter was off world. To make matters worse there was an Inquisitor of the Ordo Hereticus on world at the time.

Upon here this dire news the Inquisitor immediately claimed control of the PDF forces of Tangakwunu, and requested aid from his Ordo. As luck would have it the Rainbow Warriors had destroyed the taint of Chaos before the forces of the Adepta Sororitas arrived. The Rainbow Warriors had earned a reprieve, but as a result of the incident come under tight scrutiny of the Ordo Hereticus.

In the year following these events Tangakwunu has been plagued with earthquakes, erupting volcanoes and severe storms. It’s as if something was set out of balance by the taint of Chaos.

It was a dismal stormy night as Wanikiya the Chapter Master of the Rainbow Warriors was walking the perimeter of the fortress monastery. The rain was cool on his face as he evaluated the events of the past year. He began to pray to the mighty All Father for guidance. Shortly after his prayers were answered as Cheveyo his Chief Librarian came frantically looking for is Lord.

Cheveyo had a vision of the Great Father Jaghatai Khan. The Great Father told him it was time to earn their name, for the Imperium was in great danger. He told them of the Chaos warp gate hidden in the Mountain ranges in the south, destroying it was the only way to save Tangakwunu. He then detailed the locations of twelve other Chaos warp gates that must be destroyed across the Imperium.

After hearing this from his most trusted Brother, Wanikiya wasted no time leading his Brothers to destroy the abomination from Tangakwunu. As he dispatched his Brothers to the six closest locations he also warned the Ordo Hereticus about the locations of the gates. Being a faithful servant of the Imperium was his undoing.
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Postby killmaimburn » Fri Sep 26, 2008 8:26 am

I think your right about a whitescars theme... that or ravenguard (infiltrating quick fast fragile)
But is khan a tribal name (did they cross over to mongolia much on their travels?)Genuine question I'm crap at local american history all I learnt I learnt from dee brown ;) .
Here's the BOLS link http://belloflostsouls.blogspot.com/200 ... sheet.html (I don't quite get the comparison to dark angels..i presume its about heresy-visions and spirit quests etc being not the emperors preffered way of doing things, but i think bigred is trying :) - as to other posters meh..some are foolish- some have just had brand associations alter their views.. (I thought of greenpeace and prettymarines for the first 3 seconds, e.g. you think about rainbow flags/banners.. mostly folks would think about the gay pride one, even though the more recently more popular one was the PACE (peace from every balcony) 2002 anti war flag actually started in '61 ish)

Its up to you the fate of the chapter and its reputation rests in your hands!!! :)
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Postby ruffian4 » Fri Sep 26, 2008 8:43 am

I haven't followed the bols link, so ape loggies if this is redundant.

Didn't the old deathwing models have a lot of feathers and the like on them???

Tbh, though, I do find the name a little incongruous with the setting.

"Who are you then?"
"I'm a rainbow warrior."
"A what? Shouldn't you be a marine of deathly deadly doom warrior slayer, or somesuch?"

I like the background idea (are force fields ghost shirts?).

I was going to suggest some sort of ghost dance tie in (re chaos gates and the cults), but after some reading, realised I had it all arse uppards.

I thought it was about releasing spirits/daemons to drive out the invaders.
Could still work though.
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Postby LordMalekTheRedKnight » Fri Sep 26, 2008 8:53 am

ive not read any of the Rainbow Warriors fluff (just seen a couple of pics of example models painted), so apologies if this is of no help whatsoever...

could the Rainbow represent the spectrum of warfare - i.e. they embrace all methods of waging war (rather than specialising), even more so than other Codex chapters. each colour of the rainbow could represent a different aspect of war. then when all the colours come together to complete the spectrum (i.e. you field a force that can do a bit of everything), they bring the Emperor's light to the galaxy.

you could use a different coloured helmet stripe for your specialists (Assault Squads could be red, Devs could be yellow etc), and multiple colours for your Tacticals (based on what roles they are equipped for, e.g. a squad equipped for long range and CC could have both red and yellow stripes).

it would be a bit like a SM version of Aspect heavy Eldar.

hope that helps :)

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Postby Ljundhammer » Fri Sep 26, 2008 9:08 am

AFAIK there hasn't been any expansion of the fluff of the Rainbow warriors other than a couple of mentions in the RT/2nd Ed era & they appeared as one of the original RT Space Marine 'legions' as a paint scheme.

There was a picture of one being boltered to death by a Battle Sister in the Sisters of Battle Codex (which was new art for that Codex I believe). This, to my knowledge, has been interpreted as meaning that the Chapter (or some of the chapter) strayed from the Light of the Emperor at some time or other. However, a lack of any definative canon pretty much means you can do what you like (although I advocate you can do that anyway if you want - it is your hobby).

I like your Native American idea - as others have said Dark Angels have some of this mythology incorporated into their fluff (there is a short story called "DeathWing" around, which is cannon(!) surround a tyranid invasion & why the DeathWing are bone coloured which goes into the mythos IIRC - it'll hopefully show how this was incorporated into the 40k universe - although I expect it'll be hackneyed!). It's not an angle I knew about - I assumed it hasd been named after the GreenPeace ship.

The original paint scheme IIRC was very dark blue with a rainbow helmet-stripe.

I like your fluff (I like the Idea of the Alpha Legion infiltrating the planet disguised as Rainbow Warriors so that the OH think the RWs have turned when they haven't).

Good luck.
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Postby BDJV » Fri Sep 26, 2008 9:31 am

Thanks for the support and ideas. I'll go over them in depth in the morning. It's getting late here and I need to get some sleep.

BDJV signing out!
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Postby swordtart » Fri Sep 26, 2008 9:53 am

As an aside I am looking to paint my Kroot with native american face paint.

Some of our French and Indian war re-enactors use properly researched face designs but I was depressed when I tried to research on the internet as there seems to be a controversy raging about western attitude to "War-Paint" and the cutesy thanksgiving dress-up versions that are diluting the symbolism.

What for me would have been an exploration into another culture and it's symbolism became a fruitless digression into people attitude on history.

Can anyone recommend a good site that gives examples of this kind of symbolic art. To clarify I am not looking for a couple of stripes on the cheeks a-la Just William but (for example) a hand to distinguish one who had captured an enemy, dots and stripes to represent snow and rain etc. Also traditional colours like ochre to represent old bones and death, red for war (and good fortune).

That said I am intending to paint some cannibal bird things using that symbolism so maybe I'm in no position to ask.
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Postby killmaimburn » Fri Sep 26, 2008 2:01 pm

Here are a few (pinch of salt required as not sure as to how much sources were "cutesy wootsy ified")

http://www.kivatrading.com/symbol1.htm (basic use of symbolism in the culture-)
http://www.face-painting-fun.com/cultur ... nting.html (although called FUN, this site seems to be the most comprehensive so far (eek))

I'd say that the variety of languages\customs might prevent there being a default/generic design.. and that each tribe had a certain way of using the basics with their own spin to identify themselves.(I know that different tribes have different songs for each announcement)
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Re: Rainbow Warriors

Postby Angelwing » Fri Sep 26, 2008 5:25 pm

BDJV wrote:I am so sick of the Juvenile attitude of a large amount of the 40K gaming community when the Rainbow Warriors get mentioned.


I've deliberately painted one of my Deathwatch marines as a rainbow warrior just to be different.

I think they get some stick simply because the name sounds a bit silly when compared to the majority of other marine chapters. It doesn't really fit in with the whole wrath/retribution of the angels of vengeance theme.
Rainbows have recently been taken up as a symbol of gay pride and are also considered 'girly' (see Care Bear and My Little Pony toys). This wouldn't sit well with the demographic of teenage boys who I suspect make up a large proportion of GW players.

I thought that Rainbow Warriors were just a throw away line (in the same stable as the planet Birmingham) by Rick Priestly as a nod towards the Greenpeace ship that the French secret service decided to sink?
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Postby Ben » Fri Sep 26, 2008 9:51 pm

I thought Rainbow Warriors were a first founding back in the days when Ultramarines were a second founding.
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Postby mattjgilbert » Sat Sep 27, 2008 10:21 am

"You didn't hear it from me, but word on the street is these dudes give the Dark Angels a run for their money (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)!"

I think this is refering to the origin of the DA theme... you know the apparently homosexual poemcalled Dark Angel written by Lionel Johnson here - it's the 7th poem in the list.

So the inference is that the Rainbow Warriors are "even more gay" than the Dark Angels.

A theme you can crush by taking the chapter the way you are. I like the Native American idea and you can make up some great fluff and some very cool models for them. I think you could easily come up with a great colour scheme and look which doesn't scream "gay pride" but "rock hard and cool". I'd suggest using the BoLS decals and then posting pictures and fluff on there for what the chapter "really" looks like.

Actually... here's a thought. You know how Warseer has it's own chapter with everyone contributing...... ;)
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Postby KInG » Sat Sep 27, 2008 11:42 am

Matt is right, whoever came up with the dark angel fluff initially for GW was having a little bit of a laugh with it.

It does indeed come from a writer of a poem about a gay boy coming out I think, or something similar.

I bet they would have fired them if they hadn't already left the company. :)
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Postby WolflordHavoc » Tue Feb 10, 2009 9:33 pm

Okay taking them away from being a Brighton Based Chapter......what.....I only work there....anyway....another example of Rainbow warriors was the name given by....nah its gone.....to the multitude of British Regiments and Commandos in reference to the different coloured berets worn. Ie Red (Para Troopers), Green (Royal Marine Commando's) Black etc etc.

To take Tims idea further - Perhaps the Chapters Battle Companies could each specialise (above the norm) in a particular aspect of warfare - i.e. Orbital Insertion, Armoured attack, City Warfare, Ship Boarding etc in addition to their normal roles. Perhaps a Marine would have to have been through all 5 Battle coys and mastered the 5 main types of Warfare before becoming a Sgt and being a Sgt in all 5 battle coys before becoming a Veteran and so on.

Perhaps the Marine Keeps the Stripes relating to the company he has served in across his helmet starting with the Blue of the Devestator Company!

Anyway I always fancied that the Rainbow Warriors were one of the missing two Legions (The XI Legion to be exact).

If you look on pg 8 of the 'previous' Marine Codex the 2nd 'scratched out' Legion Name looks spookily like it could be 'Rainbow Warriors'.

Sadly their is no hint what so ever of the name in the latest codex Legion list, also on pg 8.
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