Back in 1988 I picked up Warhammer 40,000 (Rogue Trader). The hardback book edition with the Crimson Fists fighting orks on the cover. That was a much stranger, more open and – frankly more fun – period for warhammer. Anything went and information was scant. White Dwarf was stil a fun, humour-filled gaming magazine rather than a catalogue that you paid for.

I had a lot of fun with it, particularly making up my own chapter, the Black Death chapter.

There were no army lists per se back then, you could put together your troops however you wanted and I bought miniatures based on how cool they looked, not to fulfil a particular set of codex requirements.

Of course, a lot of my ideas were stupid, childish, naive and laced with munchkinism back then, but I thought it might be fun to reinvent them for Death Watch as, with the RPG side of 40k out now, there’s the chance to indulge in some individuality and fun again.

The Atra Mors (Black Death – Or Terrible Death)
The Black Death chapter are – or rather were – a second founding chapter created using recovered, uncorrupted gene seed from the Death Guard, harking back to their time as the Dusk Guard when they still had honour. There was a desperate need to add diversity to the new chapters of marines, especially with so many coming from the ultramarines, pure, but orthodox. If the Horus Heresy had taught the Imperium anything, it was that threats could come from anywhere and at any time. The need for adaptability was sufficient to overcome objections to using the genetic material from a traitor legion, though the Atra Mors would be held under suspicion throughout their history and would often receive older and less prestigious equipment.

The Atra Mors were a feared chapter, exploring the periphery of the Imperium – out of harms way – identifying new threats and eliminating them before they could threaten the Empire of Man – all too often via the means of exterminatus. In particular the Atra Mors were invested in the identification, elimination and use of disease. The universe is a vast place and genestealers are not the only insidious biological threat that exists. There are diseases that could wipe out the whole imperium if they spread, there are the supernatural sicknesses associated with the ruinous powers, there are pathogens that control minds or turn men into beasts. More importantly there is a constant need for new weaponised diseases and chemical weapons to use in exterminatus or to adapt to the over-changing and ever-diversifying nature of the Imperium’s enemies.

The Atra Mors would eliminate diseases, wipe out populations, destroy cults and eliminate genestealer cults with flame, sword and viral weapons of their own. Something that only enhanced their already fearsome reputation.

The chapter disappeared some five-hundred years ago, leaving only a handful of knights errant scattered around the galaxy on individual missions, these being folded into The Dark Angels as it became apparent that their home chapter had disappeared. The nature of the disappearance remains unknown. Did they turn traitor? Were they corrupted like their ancestors? Did they run into something that they couldn’t cope with? Rumours abound, but truth is hard to come by.

Livery
Atra Mors power armour is typically of the Mk III and Mk VI model. Their terminator unit was unusual in that it was entirely equipped with the Mk I version of the tactical dreadnought armour. Smaller and more mobile on board ship, giving them greater mobility around the Keres and faster movement across planetary surfaces.

Atra Mors wear black armour with a bronze details and shoulderpads. Their chapter symbology typically includes skulls, carrion birds and bone detailing. Officers and veterans also typically wear cowls and robes of fireproof material as do the chapter’s devastator marines, though in their case it is more because of necessity than as a mark of rank or service.

Battleship Keres
The Atra Mors had no homeworld, their duties took them to the far flung fringes of the Imperium and required them to be mobile. It also allayed concerns that they might have access to the resources of a whole world if they went the way of their genetic ancestors. As such the Atra Mors were based not upon a world but upon an enormous battleship, a virtual hulk and a survivor of the space battles of the Heresy, the Keres.

Resembling nothing so much as an enormous castle, set afloat in space, the Keres was slow moving but implacable, sailing through the warp with a terrible, unstoppable inevitability and becoming a horror-filled legend amongst the xeno races whose paths it had crossed. A bringer of death and disease, a destroyer of worlds and a bearer of flaming destruction.

Lost to the warp, Keres has supposedly been seen, a drifting and battle-scarred hulk, fading in and out of real space across the Jericho Reach and Koronus expanse. These accounts are apocryphal at best but may have some truth to them. If they are true then, perhaps, something of the Atra Mors may survive or, at least, be recoverable. The samples of alien diseases and the compliment of virus bombs alone make the Keres a valuable and dangerous prize for any risk-taking pirates or Rogue Traders who want to claim it.

Survivor’s Strength
The Atra Mors took their recruits in a manner different to that of most Space Marine chapters. Rather than looking for necessarily the strongest, most dangerous or most accomplished warriors they looked for grit, determination and refusal to die. All of the chapter’s recruits were men who had withstood the ravages of disease and survived. Men who had an ineffable quality of luck or determination that allowed them to pull through, not only a guide to the toughness of the individual but a guard against the corruption of their forebears. The process of implantation could make any man strong, power armour could make any man tough, the Atra Mors were looking for something more.

Combat Doctrine
The Atra Mors approach to combat was one of sowing fear, confusion and dread and then exploiting the opportunities that created ruthlessly. When they had to confront an enemy in open battle they would seed the battlefield with smoke, hallucinogens, viral pathogens and toxins. Using the smoke, confusion and random death to approach to assault distance and to eliminate their enemies with some of the most fearsome weapons in the imperial arsenal, particularly melta and flame weapons. There was always a strong emphasis within the Atra Mors upon assault troops and devastators, but relatively little use of vehicles other than drop-pods and drop ships.

Black Death Characters
Atra Mors marines are relentless and implacable warriors with incomparable will and determination. They rely on fear and confusion to defeat their enemies and use terrifying and unconventional weaponry along with their fearsome reputation to turn the tide of battle.

Atra Mors space marines gain the following benefits. +5 Weapon Skill, +5 Willpower and the Chapter Ability Soul Survivor.

Relentless
Relentless is a demeanour unique to the Atra Mors. This demeanour is triggered when they are carrying on against the odds, struggling past terrible wounds or resisting toxins or diseases, even throwing off implantation by alien species and corruption by chaos in feats of extreme willpower.

Soul Survivor
Required Rank 1
Effects: As survivors of terrible personal suffering the Atra Mors can call on deep reserves of personal determination to keep going despite wounds and debilitation that would fell a lesser warrior. Once per combat the Black Death Marine can shrug off a single point of damage, ignoring it.
Improvement: At rank three and above this rises to two points of damage. At rank five to three. And at rank seven to five.