Here's a thread I posted on dakka hope you all enjoy :

Well First how this all got started: I have been flipping through the Bell of Lost Souls Badab War mini-dex voraciously of late and was amazed by all of the very interesting fluff of chapters that I was not accuainted with and decided, wow that is something I would like to do. Being that I really don't subscribe to the idea of completely home-growing a chapter as I belive that someone can always find something to adopt within the existing 40k universe I decided to follow in Eldanesh's (from 40k Radio Freeboota fame) footsteps by taking a chapter with very little fluff and nothing in the way of an existing paint scheme and making them your own as he did with the Star Phantoms. I also wanted to make a historical or cultureal connection that haddent been done before: Ie: Ultramarines-romans, Iron snakes- greek hoplite, white scars- mongols, mantis warriors- samuai, attilan rough riders- huns, vostroyans- cossacks, tallarn- lawrence of arabia, praetorians- zulu british infantrymen, valhallans- russians, the list goes on and on, I wanted to find one that hadn't been done before, as well as not doing any space wolves- werewolves, blood angels- vampires, star phantoms- ghosts type connections I raced my brain and could not come up with anything historical or mythological wise that did not already exist in one form or another within the 40k universe. I really wanted a fighting style theme as well and was very attracted to a chapter that specialized in boarding actions. So i decided to just go through the known space marine chapters and see whats what.

The best way I thought to do this was to head to the list of space marine chapters on lexicanum and run through the list. I've gotten a little sick of these new chapters with names that just rip off of the origional chapters: Fire Angels, Red Wolves, Emperor's Hands, Space Sharks and the like, rather I enjoyed the ring Executioners, and Lamenters had to them. So as I was running through the list I would click on the chapters with the names I found interesting and would take a further look.

It came down to a final 3: Consecrators, Iron Hearts, Harbingers. The Consecrators already had an espablished paint scheme (black with some red, I already have black with raven guard so I didn't want to do that again), and the only fluff they had was that they were devoted to hunting the fallen, I really did like their chapter symbol though. The Iron Hearts were a chapter from an old short story in a BL novel (Into the Maelstorm who's chapter had been nerely wiped out) Cool but my last option was much better.

The Harbingers (love the name) were first listed in codex eye of terror where it was said they had devoted 8 companies to fight the 13th black crusade, next they appeared in codex space marines 3rd editions where it mentions that they engaged and defeated the ork controlled space hulk named Skylla and only suffered engine damage to their ship the Unrelenting Fury

Their final mention was from the BL Dark Angels Novel by Gav Thorpe ( Which I had read and thoroughly enjoyed) where they fought alongside Boreas and the Dark Angels against Ghazkull and Nazdreg on Piscina IV.

Under the chapters Generic informaition they had no paint scheme or symbol so I was free to work with what I wanted, the information that was given however was that they specialized in boarding actions and planetary strikes (yes just what I have always wanted and it would make sense for them to work alongside my raven guard), their homeworld was the black planet not having heard of this I clicked on the link- The Black Planet is just another name for Birmingham, a feral world that still uses muskets and is also a major imperial guard recruitment planet and is called the Black Planet b/c it receives very liitle visible light (I though a good way to work in fluff that the Harbingers have deeveloped night vision on the feral world). The planet is also just outside of the segmentum tempestus so it would make even more sense that they would fight alongside my Swap Stalkers of Myr imperial guard and Raven Guard.

The Final piece of information that I was given was the name of the chapter master- Nimrod Grudge, most people might think haha Nimrod like a dolt or an imbecile, but some may know him better as the ancient King who built the tower of Babel. Then my mind started racing the civilization that hasn't been done before in the 40k universe- the Sumerians, Babylonians and Mesopotamians, perfect!

Now how I arrived at deciding on chapter colors and a symbol: when you search King Nimrod on google images you will come up with images of him being depicted in a crimson robe with a lot of gold as well as some emeralds on his cloak. So I thought mostly that crimson with gold shoulder pauldrens and helmet with a little bit on the power packs, knee and shin guards so that the gold was almost as prevelant as the crimson, but not quite and emerald green for the helmet lenses. I came up with the symbol when I saw an ancient fresco style painting of Nimrod depicted with a white stag and recalled an old hungarian legend about nimrod (I have some hungarian ancestry and have always been very interested and proud of it) The legend goes that Nimrod had two sons: Hunor and Magor who each lead 100 men on a hunting party of a white stag these men were the start of the Hun and Magyar tribes that make up the current ethnicity of Hungary (or Magyaria) ,so in addition to coming up with the chapted symbol of the head of a white stag with emerald eyes I also cam up with the names of my 1st and 2nd company captains.

As I delved further into the whole Babylonian theme here is what I cam up with:

Name: Harbingers.

Founding Chapter: White Scars (I though the whole Birmingham being a Feral world, mongols and hungarian legend thing all meshed well together).

Founding: 4th (Something different)

Chapter Master: Nimrod Grudge

Homeworld: The Black Planet (Birmingham).

Fortress-Monastary: The Tower of Babel (cmon' I was just being begged to do this especially with the fluff about Birmingham saying that the people have become culturallly and LINGUISTICALLY isolated).

Main Colors: Crimson and Gold with some Emerald.

Specialty: Boarding Actions and Planetary Assaults.

Battle Cry: "Mene Mene Takel Upharsin" (I thought it was fitting and that the meaning of the phrase is very forboding and harbingeresk).

Estimated Strength: 2066 marines (There were multiple factors of how I arrived at this number 1. I wanted something different, 2. I belive that hey should have more marines since they are involved in 3 different campaigns (8 companies in the 13th Black crusade, fighting in the 3rd War for Armageddon, and their Home world is in the middle of Hive Fleet Leviathan!) 3. I wanted the 10th Company (the scouts) to be lead by captain Solomon (going with the cultural theme) to have 666 scouts in it as opposed to the usual 100 as that was the number of talents he had in the bible (and not the number of the beast that number was mistranslated and was actually 616) I digress so the Chapter has 14 companies: each chapter having 10 more marines than the usual 100, it has 2 veteran companies the 1st and 2nd and the 10th company has 666 initiate scouts.

Notable Harbingers:
Noah the 1st Chapter Master who lead the Battle Barge The Ark to discover Birmingham.

Cheif Librarian Gilgamesh (I think my reasons are a bit obvious )

Head Chaplain Belshazzar

Head Tech Marine -----------

Head Apothecary ------------

1st Company: Captain Hunor.
2nd Company: Captain Magor.
3rd Company: Captain Darius.
4th Company: Captain Nebuchadnezzar.
5th Company: Captain ---------------
6th Company: Captain -------------
7th Company: Captain -------------
8th Company: Captain ------------
9th Company: Captain ------------
10th Company: Captain Solomon
11th Company: Captain ----------------
12th Company: Captain ----------------
13th Company: Captain ----------------
14th Company: Captain ------------------

Well I hope anyone who has bothered to read it enjoy's it, I mainly wrote it to keep my thoughts in order and to catalog it, but I also hoped that some people might find the inspiration to pick up an unloved chapter and write some fluff for it and also would like to receive imput from the dakka community on name suggestions for my other characters or any quiestions or comments you might have. I was throwing the names Suleiman and Mustapha around as I know they are not Babylonian I am also of turkish ancestry and those names might fit the bill I also like Saladin and Abaraham let me know what you guys thing and again thank you for taking the time to read this and or respond.