Who Are The Silver Stars? And What Is The War Of The False Primarch?

A Kill Team of Silver Stars prepares for action.

So in this post I want to use these Marines to introduce a new project - they are painted in the colours of the Silver Stars, key players, the War Of The False Primarch. These particular figures combine Mark II power armour marine body kits from Tortuga Bay, while the arms, helmets, weapons and other accessories all come from various GW sources, ranging from Forge World 30k kits to the new Primaris Intercessor 40k kits.

What Is The War Of The False Primarch?

Test model for the Silver Stars.

The War of The False Primarch is an instance of civil war that disrupted the Imperium around the time of the 33rd millennium. Nothing so large as the Horus Heresy, maybe closer to a Badab-War sort of thing. It is a piece of formal lore for the 40k history, but of course an obscure one compared to the various campaigns and sub-settings that have received official attention from GW's marketing efforts over the years. 

Marine in action during a Kill Team game.

In the 33rd millennium, a group of Space Marine chapters rallied around a figure acclaimed as a lost Primarch, a returned Son of The Emperor - perhaps one of the "crossed out" Legions we see on those lists of initial Space Marine Legions in our Horus Heresy books? Who can know the truth of that? But this so-called Primarch did have his own Legion, or at least pseudo-Legion, and rallied other chapters to his cause - these were the Partisans.

A Sergeant directs his unit.

Opposing them were the High Lords of Terra, who dispatched five fresh and full strength chapters to impose a brutal blockade and purge, expunging this dangerous deviant and his followers from the Imperium in the name of The Emperor. This core force of Chapters were known as The Pentarchy.

Volkite Caliver, still handy during the 33rd millennium...

I learned of all of this through work of a blogger known as The Rubricist. Dallas first turned me on to his blog years ago, and I have been a keen follower of  the blog for some time. The Rubricist's blog posts are an entertaining and eclectic mix of 30k and 40k projects, and the great modelling and painting on display on the blog are matched by the quality of writing with a great flare for the lore of the settings. The Rubricist enjoys not only the modelling and painting, but the setting as well, and is keen to inspire others. In this, he succeeded where I am concerned with The Silver Stars.

Who Are The Silver Stars?

Pict capture of a possible Siver Star banner - source [+REDACTED+]

The Silver Stars are the Legion of the returned Son. Driven by mystery and symbology, few records survive regarding The Silver Stars and their ways. Often equipped with Legion-era equipment last seen during the Wars of the Horus Heresy and the subsequent Great Scouring, the Stars formed the bulk of the Partisan resistance during the War.

Ready for another game of Kill Team.

When the Rubricist premiered the Silver Stars on his blog, I thought they were really cool. I loved the look, the colours, and the lore around them and the setting. The Rubricist tells a story in a way that leaves lots of room for conjecture - and thus room for your own ideas, if you want. In fact, that is one of the neatest aspects of this project. 

A Community-Driven GW Story

A preview-pict grab of an advisor to the lost legion.

With the Rubricist and a few others at its core, there is a small community around the world who have joined this sort of grassroots project to create the story of The War of The False Primarch. They leverage the 40k-setting-Inquisition's tendency to suppress and repress everything to present the story of the war as a series of recovered stories, reports and anecdotes, to give the feeling of a scholar in the 41st millennium looking through records that are dangerous and unwise to acknowledge and access. The vibe is fun, and allows great scope for creativity and individual approaches to a community-driven story.

You can tell it has really grabbed some people's attention, and inspired them to chip in with neat supports - like custom decals! A fellow in the Facebook group just whipped up custom decals for all of the units in the story, and made them available! The four-pointed star design you can see on the shoulders come from those decals. 

Another snippet preview of a Silver Star figure...more to come...

I really can't do justice to the project here in this post - and besides, it would be much more fun for you to check it out yourself. I encourage you to check out Some Things Are Best Left Forgotten, the blog that is the beating heart of this effort. There you will find deeper background on the story, profiles of key characters and forces in the conflict, and see the efforts of the many different hobbyists bringing the War Of The False Primarch to life in their painting and gaming tables. You should also follow the Death Of A Rubricist blog, where you will see many figures painted for this project, as well as many other fantastic 30k and 40k modelling and painting efforts. You can also find them on Facebook and Instagram, under hashtags such as #somethingsarebestleftforgotten.

These Marines have already seen action in a few games of Kill Team here in Sault Ste Marie. I will be adding a few more elements to them here and there over the coming weeks and months. 

That's all for now - thanks for reading!