I've been wanting to make my own Space Marine chapter for a while now but I feel I need someone to help me out I have a colour scheme (seen below), a name (The Heralds of Perdition) and a couple of basic details such as their home world and what Segmentum it's in. I really would appreciate some help in going beyond the extremely basic details I have right now. I will update my ideas further on in this thread.
Yeah, in a nutshell I'd say they specialise in the use of heavy weapons like lascannons and multi meltas for use against heavy armour and monstrous creatures. Also with a name like the Heralds of Perdition I'd say they're obviously not big fans of Chaos. Coming up with these things is relatively simple. Just really need to work on putting it down in detail and such.
Giving them a preferred/hated enemy and a reason for the chapter's creation is also a good way to expand. My main homebrew chapter's purpose of creation was to deal with increased Ork activity in an undisclosed sector of the Galactic East and I ended up expanding it in such a way that I got a homebrew Freebooter band out of it and a rather amusing love-hate relationship between the two.
Well then you should build a planetary culture around that, then those traditions bleed into the Chapter, to me what comes into mind for a heavy weapons focus is some sort of manufacturing planet, probably one that is rather rigid and looks to have a perfect methodology and hates divergence.
Maybe you'd like to steal a bit of this https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Space_Marine_Chapter_Creation_Tables At the very least it provides some ideas and may stir your own thoughts.
Well with the basic details of their homeworld I was going to go with an oceanic death world with lots of large, aggressive creatures in its oceans. In a nutshell imagine the Space Marines go whaling but with huge, monstrous sea creatures instead of whales and a lascannon instead of harpoons. I figure that'd sound pretty badass.
So I've done a little thinking about why the Heralds of Perdition exist. They were created in the 13th founding, just after the Cataclysm of Souls, in order to help maintain order in the Segmentum Pacificus after the fall of the Ur-Council(or from an in-universe perspective the Imperium thinks this is the case but isn't sure. We of course know they're right on the money). As a result of the nature of their origins the Heralds have good relations with the Ecclesiarchy. Their particular hatred of Chaos is due to later events. Also the chapter has no Assault Marine companies, instead having 2 more Devastator companies than one would see in a Chapter that totally follows the Codex. Thoughts on this little development I quickly came up with?
They look good, it's refreshing to see a homebrew chapter with strong ecclesiarchy relations, and especially one with a devastator focus. Do you want their progenitor primarch/legion/chapter known? You might also want to decide how well stocked they are. Seeing as they run a lot of heavy weapons, you're probably looking more ultramarine/Minotaurs level equipment than Marines Malevolent? It's also a good way to tie them into their location. If they're well stocked it might be that they tithe the surrounding worlds for protection, rule directly, or have an impressive fortress monastery with forges to provide what they need.
I plan on going with the tithe sort of thing for the rest of the system their home world is located in. Though due to the oceanic nature of their home planet they have a mobile Fortress Monastery called Traitor's Pyre and it is capable of sea travel. It is literally a massive battleship that doubles as their base. So if you're on their homeworld and they talk about ships you'll probably need to ask if they mean the typical battle barges and such most chapters use or the huge floating Fortress roaming around the planet that they live and recruit on.
