Concept and Design

Now that I have the celestial bodies out of the way, I figured I'd give a little insight and background into what I'm doing here.

Years ago, my buddy Aaron got me into Warhammer 40k and I started painting my first army, Ultramarines. I picked them because I'm not the greatest of painters, and they had the most artwork.  My interest ebbed and flowed, and it took me forever to finish them (they're still not technically finished, but damn close).

I wanted to come up with a project that interested me, and could keep me in the hobby for longer stretches of time. I liked the idea of coming up with my own armies and their own fluff.  But that wasn't enough, and I needed something to tie them together.  That's when I came up with this project.  I've spent time on The Lexicanum, Bolter and Chainsword and DakkaDakka doing research and gathering ideas, not to mention many conversations with other hobby minded friends.

The system itself is based (loosely) on the Mu Arae star system.  I wanted it to have a relatively realistic feel, like it could actually exist.  The other system I had considered using was Gliese.  You'll see that both those names appear as Tau and Eldar respectively.

My main influence, at least in naming conventions, is Inuit mythology.  This started when I was trying to find a name for my Hive Fleet, and stumbled upon Tizheruk.  It fit well, and so did Malina and Amarok.  Secondary influences are Hindu (Lava and Kusha) and Japanese mythology (the 7 hive city names on Amarok).  Names of people in system will also fit into those three cultures with some exceptions (notably, the Falcon Guard, although Hayabusa is "Peregrine Falcon" in Japanese.)

The only army that isn't designed by me are the Thousand Sons.  When researching splinter groups of Chaos Space Marines, I felt my options were limited.  I could have created a Space Marine chapter that fell to chaos (and I still may, because the idea intrigues me), but the Thousand Sons fit in well with why the Gliese Craftworld was even in the vicinity.

So aside from their imagery, I'm doing my best to keep all logos, icons, and pictures as creations by me.  I don't have a ton of artistic talent, but I can create some stuff in photoshop.  All the planets were done using photoshop techniques combined with cool textures I found (as well as some help from Grey_Death when I couldn't get my water or gas giant looking right).  All the army logos were created by me in photoshop as well (they'll appear when I start putting armies up).  Any painted models that go up will also be by me, unless otherwise noted.  Chances are I might pony up for some commissioned work on the centerpieces (for example, my Commissar will be commissioned, because I know I can't do it justice).

In the coming weeks, I plan on putting up army backgrounds, character backgrounds, general fluff, army lists and anything else that I think relates to this project.

If you've got any questions, feel free to pester me in the comments.