this grave is in use

Memorial Crown

Also known as the Crown, it is a decorative frame display to be attached to the Space Marine’s pauldron-- not to be worn in combat. The Crown frame would start small since its first created to commemorate their successful indoctrination based on the ore/gemstone they procured during a recruitment trial hosted on the homeworld known as the Diving. The Space Marine’s Crown would expand over time either by his own collection or by receiving gifts.

The frame can be attached anywhere on the pauldron, the SM below has made his Crown with a flower theme on a corner of his pauldron.

The tradition of the Crown started when the legion discovered the Primarch's geneseed was so heavily damaged the marines produced from his geneseed would have a limited lifespan and die within 50-60 years if they were not KIA. The Primarch was devastated and created a small token in memory of the first batch lost to the corruption.

Other marines began creating their own token to be remembered by after death, incorporating small stuff they pick up during their deployments to attach to the token- like grains of sand or shards of glass. Eventually the token is expanded into a frame to allow bigger objects to be added on, but ore/mineral/gemstones became the popular type of addition.

When a Space Marine’s service has ended, the body would be cremated and the Crown would be processed per the dead’s will. Often, the Crown would be delivered back to his homeworld, archived in the battleship or to a specific individual to be honoured after death. In the event the Space Marine chooses not to specify the Crown would be sent to the legion's homeworld to be devoured by the local fauna.

Gift of Awe

Originally called Gift of Ore, a Remembrancer had purposely transcribed the word Ore as Awe to make the tradition look more appealing on paper. The naming was approved by the legion including the Primarch (literally because it sounded cooler). Wyrm Grinders often use gemstones as their gift due to being able to show off their gem appraisal skill and because it will be installed onto the recipient's Memorial Crown.

As this gift is going to be inserted on the Crown, you can't just perform this tradition to anyone. There is a lot of planning between the two marines before the Gift can be produced. The giver must respect the conditions laid out by the recipient if they wish to add to their Crown.

Homeworld: Tiritan

Has anyone watched Arrival? I love the heptapods deep noises, it sounds so fitting in a deep dark water world. However, I’m guessing the noises are made due to a dense fog-like atmosphere they live in.

Additionally, I never really subscribed to the idea of massive worms being able to burrow in sand that easily no matter how much I love the concept.

However, liquefaction is a thing!

Imagine if Jupiter got smashed into another planet I guess? The only reason why the planet doesn’t have a solid core is cause of the mega Wyrms that keeps churning the deep layers underneath the sandy surface. That should in theory make pushing sand around easier for the fauna on the planet.

Tiritan is now a sand world with extremely dense layers of gases, the local fauna makes deep haunting noises and you can barely see anything in front of you with all the swirling gases around.

The Primarch’s Inner circle! I don’t have a name for the circle yet…

These guys are actually my OCs, I just revised their looks and they’re mostly just there for legion backstory.

Rie’vn has been the first captain before the discovery of the Primarch, so his geneseed is uncorrupted and that means he lived a normal astartes life span. When the Primarch finally became a renegade, Rie’vn defected and seeked refuge from another loyalist legion.

Deep down, he still had hope for his legion and secretly gave his Primarch a way to escape from total obliteration. He was absorbed into the other loyalist legion but was killed at the Dropsite Massacre.

Jure is one of the early generations of marines who got the corrupted gene seed, he is the first and only champion of the Legion. Even after death no one took the mantle. Wyrm Grinders are extremely good at close combat and Jure is exceptionally so with a knife. He’d be one of the best fighters but not at Sigismund level of course, he’s just among that reputation.

My personal bias is that he’s never lost a fight to anyone when he pull out his knife but that’s just too op at this point.

He died to geneseed breakdown, but never regretted serving his Primarch. Unfortunately, his death starts a terrible rift in the legion brotherhood that will eventually lead to the termination of the Wyrm Grinders.

Sheva is the younger step-brother of Jure… and just like in his original lore I don’t freaking know what to do with him. He’s dead though lol

Where is the Primarch and the Wyrm Grinders in 40k?

From the Lexicanum the bulk of the legion were absorbed into Ultramarines and Dark Angels I think? Those are the loyal ones to the Imperium.

The rest of the renegades and the Primarch absconded into the depth of the stars.

They are now a massive fleet based legion but not because the astartes population is a lot, their headcount is throttled due to majority bearing the corrupted gene seed. Instead, they are constantly expanding their ship size and numbers, and many years later they would return to their homeworld with a freaking massive ship, all so the legion could extract the mega Wyrms.

So the Wyrm Grinders managed to extract 4 of the 10 mega Wyrms before the Imperium reacted and the planet got exterminated. Eh, good enough.

The legion is a bit more like their own exclusive society now? The main ships of the fleet clustered together are like a pit stop space station. You can start your own warband and fly off to do whatever. You can come back to the main fleet anytime and maybe trade with other adventuring squads. Having a WG in your warband is good cause you’d have permission to enter the ‘pit stop’ too and do some trading through the WG member in your band.

The place is a neutral ground and the Primarch closely monitors the main fleet to ensure the peace is enforced.

The bulk of the population remains directly under the Primarch, and you can do your own thing as long as you obey the Primarch when he gives orders. If the Primarch recalls all of the astartes you either obey or never show your face again cause you’re no longer welcomed. The Primarch seldom gives orders nowadays anyway— busy trying to find godhood or a miracle in the mega Wyrms.

I’m trying to leave the legion somewhat open ended in 40k cause I want to be able to play in the sandbox lol

SO ABOUT MY PRIMARCH I’m also sorry if my info is jumbled, there’s quite a few connecting dots that makes it hard to organize this right, I’ll also try to break it up with some images

(Img source of worms linked in their names)

40k has taken quite a fair bit of inspiration from Dune and I love Dune too but only for the worms and the desert/cave system— the planet. I also love the design of the worm gods from Destiny2, and the gilded wurms from Risk of Rain remastered, the lava worms in Risk of Rain 2 is also cool, and Driller from Transformer DOTM…

Yea so, worms! I like big monster worms! It’s probably called Wyrms in 40k, but that’s why the Primarch has Wyrm motifs and the teeth-like spikes on his armour. This is the first theme where I started planning his design and some bits of his lore.

On top of my great interest for monster Wyrms, the lore from The First Heretic book mentioned that the lost legions were expunged for religiosity, so I thought that the Primarch worshipping or getting obsessed with some big af Wyrms is probably a good idea and would also be a good connection to all the Wyrm motifs on his armour.

(Disclaimer: I only have the Lexicanum to rely on atm, not the actual books)

I decided he lost his legs to a Wyrm attack and this aspect of the design is important to me cause imo I believe Primarchs looking whole is a way to show that despite the extreme conditions they grew up in they can adapt and thrive, so I personally wanted my Primarch physically changed because if all these demigods can come out whole but this one Primarch didn’t then something might be wrong, out of the ordinary even. Whether it means his homeworld is extremely brutal to survive in or he’s been weakened enough to be inflicted such damage is up for interpretation.

Ropes! I was building both the homeworld and his story together at the same time. I incorporated ropes & twine on his armour cause this is a frequent tool used in his homeworld, chains are rarely used cause metal is an extremely difficult resource to get when the wildlife eats metal as food, and metal is a main contribution to the planet’s imperium tithes. I wanted the homeworld and the Wyrm ‘gods’ to be the reason to why his legion was expunged so I’ve been trying to tie in as many of his homeworld references onto his armour.

(Wyrm Grinders logo is meant to look vaguely like a radioactive warning symbol)

His hair is not too critical to his design but it’s meant to look somewhat dry and brittle— like he’s trying to keep them healthy, his planet has spots of intense radiation due to radioactive metal deposits which is usually avoidable but his pod crashed into one—and no sane human would want to go digging in a radioactive deposit unless absolutely necessary, so his biology & geneseed has been damaged due to prolonged exposure. This is also designed to tie into Fear to Tread book prologue where it’s implied the legion was expunged for genetic flaw

Also in the book where Horus was dreaming(?) about being in the geno-vault with all the Primarch capsule he punched the XI capsule and slightly damaged it, while it’s not confirmed whether this was an actual punch or a dream, it helped to imply that his gestation pod have been compromised before the scattering and that could be why the radiation was able to damage the Primarch.

(I actually think a living body would burn from the radiation before genetic breakdown happens if it’s that intense but I’m still struggling to understand the types of radiation and effects on biology)

(I almost forgot about this ) He carries an executioner sword and… I’ll be honest I’ve no idea what is the second one I drew, I thought it was a real weapon but I cannot remember and reverse image search of my sketch didn’t provide the result I expected, and the closest result I got was the two handed Mezzaluna kitchen knife but my design was meant to be one handed. The name of the executioner sword is ‘For Everything’ and the other weapon is ‘For Nothing’, but the ‘For’ is not always required.

The sketch for them is kind of basic cause I’m not confident this is the right weapons for him, but so far…

For Everything is the weapon he always uses. He only draws the sword to kill and never for any other reason, For Everything is used to further whatever purpose needed that caused/led to your demise. The Primarch fights, for everything is at stake and your death is necessary.

For Nothing is almost never used ‘cause it’s a last resort. His legion is meant to be lethal in close combat and if someone can force the Primarch to lose/throw away Everything to fight with Nothing, it means this has become personal, the Primarch has nothing at stake, and he has nothing to lose.

Slightly wide eyes are a minor detail, I just want him a bit unnerving when making eye contact. His eyes are the colour of peridot— a common gemstone from meteorites cause… the baby capsule crash landed like a meteorite?

Okay imma stop myself here and get to the Sacred beast— it’s a short one and we’re done haha

This was inspired by the few Japanese temples I had visited, I don’t really remember much of the experience tbh but after the visits I felt like designing a creature draped in fortune knots. I think the concept of worship might be the reason. The idea of a handler touring a powerful entity to different villages and the locals making wishes to it not knowing if it is benevolent.