Hello to all my readers and enjoyers of this story. I have come to tell you that I am going to rewrite A Soldier's Love. It was one of my first stories I ever wrote and the first true fanfiction I ever wrote. Not the first one I published mind you, but it was one of my first works. And while I've published very little on Wattpad or any other platform, I've never given up writing. My writing has vastly improved as has my understanding of the lore and mythos of the Death Korps of Krieg and of Warhammer 40000 in general. Upon going back and rereading everything I feel that I have done you all a great disservice. A most egregious one at that and one that you may not even be aware of. I...failed. Yes, I know what you're saying, "What? How have you failed?"
Because dear reader! *Swoons dramatically* I did not capture the essence of the Krieg soldier! And here's why:
Krieg soldiers are not machine men. They're not simply brainwashed, they're not simply blindly obedient, they're not mindless drones (that's why we have the Mechanicus) They're are people like you and me... Well, almost like you and me. The common trope about the Krieg soldier that everyone falls into, that they will suicidally blindly charge into anything to die for the Emperor screaming towards the enemy like crazed cultists, or are suicidal for the emperor like lemmings of doom. This is not the case. They are more or less, with some exceptions, people like you and I. Some differences that you would find between a Krieg guardsman and a normal one are things like discipline and less of a tendency to panic under extreme situations (i.e. being charged by chaos space marines). The Krieg mindset is not "I need to get killed as soon as possible to atone for my sins." Rather it is more along the lines of "If I have to die to complete the mission, fine. It will cost what it will cost." One of my friends summed it up well:
"What the death korp is all about is willing sacrifice yes, but not POINTLESS sacrifice. They are keen to fullfill missions and objectives, sometimes suicidally so, but not to die, but to bring victory to the emperor. Their culture is one of pennance and prayer and forgiveness for past sins and martyrdom is how you get to the head of the queue. But they are not happy to die pointlessly. They're a dour lot by culture, bit they are still people."
Despite memes, the Kriegsmen are not the lemmings with shovels of ultimate doom, they are men... granted they are men who's would happily charge a machine gun nest headfirst if they deemed it necessary, but not without a point. Of you need to throw 50,000 Krieg soldiers against a fortress to bring victory, those 50,000 men will do it gladly. But if you are just pointlessly wasting lives, you will absolutely destroy their morale. Their sacrifice must have purpose and I did not feel like I captured this attitude well enough in my original writings.
I hope I've shed some light on this for you and hopefully thought you a little more about Krieg and her guardsman. I hope to start work on this rewrite soon. And if you've stuck around this far and enjoyed my work, then I am more thankful for you than you will ever know.
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A Soldier's Love (Warhammer 40K/RWBY Crossover) (OLD)
Fanfiction"In life, war. In death, peace. In life, shame. In death, atonement." These are the words that every man in the Death Korps of Kreig, serving under arms for the Emperor, recite before entering battle. Millions of soldiers, not born of mothers, but o...
