Boss Krom's Dead 'Ard Blitz Boyz
An elite Goff mercenary warband. Boss Krom is a firm proponent of survival of the fittest, having realized on his own (without help!) how the principle is practically built-in to Ork physiology - Orks that fight get bigger, and bigger Orks win more fights, which means even more bigger Orks to fight with, and so on. To that end, he intentionally takes on foes and missions where the odds are stacked against his forces, in order to weed out the weak. Orks love nothing better than a good fight, so Krom's reckless disregard for the welfare of his forces only earned him a reputation for being a great warboss. Despite the abysmal rate of survival among Krom's recruits, any time Krom's kroozer joins a Waaagh the boyz line up to get their chance at making a name for themselves, or at least some good loot.
Krom's right hand Ork, a big mek that calls himself Orkulus Rivt, is one of the few disciples of the infamous Orkimedes, the architect of the invasion of Armageddon and the pioneer of tellyporta technology. Despite being mostly ignored during his apprenticeship, Orkulus is nonetheless a gifted mek with an aptitude for teleportation and forcefield technology. Krom could care less about his education, of course - all he knows is that Orkulus and his entourage of renegade meks are a vital part of his army. After all, they're the ones keeping the vehicles running and the weapons shooting.
Remnants of Craftworld Shydh
The Craftworld Shydh suffered terribly from the Fall of the Eldar - unlike it's swifter brethren, Shydh had barely left home when the Eye of Terror came screaming into existence. The Craftworld received extensive and irreperable damage, not to mention thousands of casualties, and was left adrift for millennia. With the majority of the populace dead, their souls consumed by Slaanesh (or the lucky few who were saved and placed in the infinity circuit), the Eldar of Shydh were forced to drift aimlessly in their ghostly shell of a craftworld and survive however they could. It took ages to come back into contact with the surviving craftworlds, but by then the damage was done. The attrition of their grim existence had left Shydh a shadow of a Craftworld, it's meager populace barely able to support itself. Refusing the charity of their more beneficent fellows, the Eldar of Shydh took solace in the increasingly popular belief in the God of Death, Ynnead - fitting all too well with Shydh's overflowing infinity circuit. Ynnead, they believed, would reward the craftworld for seeking their own means to recovery, and raise them up from the barbaric survival state they had lived for so long.
Lions Defiant
Among the Unforgiven, the successors of the mighty 1st Legion, it is almost expected that fealty be shown to the primogenitor chapter. The Unforgiven share the Dark Angels shame, and their clandestine mission of redemption. But there are those Chapters who question this state of affairs, and none more so than the Lions Defiant. Formed at the behest of the High Lords to guard a bountiful and well-established sector of space in the Galactic West, the soon-to-be chapter master was already known for being a dissenting voice at high council, ever ready to be the contrarian and question the assumptions of his brothers and betters. None could dispute his combat record, and respect for his valour and honour were great, and so the occasional remarks of disrespect were at least tolerated, if not overlooked. But the Lions Defiant quickly earned their place as black sheep among the Unforgiven - where other successor chapters felt they had a duty to the Dark Angels, and to seek out the Fallen above all else, the Lions maintained their duty was first to the Emperor and the Imperium, and to their primogenitors second. Having been raised as one of the traditional knights of Old Caliban by an old mentor, the Chapter Master's respect for the martial traditions of the knightly orders was great, and thus he kept some of the structure and traditions of his own chapter. However, many of the vagaries of Dark Angels battle doctrine were overlooked in favour of being a modestly Codex compliant chapter, to help foster relations with fellow chapters and better coordinate their forces. The Lions' difference in philosophy, that the sins of the father are not the sins of the son so to speak, as well as their irregular order of battle for one of the Unforgiven, caused no small amount of consternation among the rest of the council. At one point, it even seemed the Dark Angels might go so far as to correct their newly-founded successor chapter with a stern - and violent - reprimand. But cooler heads prevailed, and while the Lions Defiant are much more disparate from their primogenitor chapter, they maintain a healthy respect and fealty to the Dark Angels, and continue many of the knightly traditions that were the distant origin of the 1st Legion.
