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Female Space Marines

2019-05-24T04:54:31Z

2601:147:4300:1949:31CB:7D9C:E94:4C91: /* Dark Imperium and FemMarines */

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{{topquote|The Adeptus Astartes can only contain males. No girls allowed. They are yucky.|[[If The Emperor Had a Text-To-Speech Device|The Emperor of Mankind]]}}
[[Image:beakiegal.jpg|thumb|right|Guaranteed to garner at least 100 replies. Also not enough pauldron.]]

There is no tactic more effective for [[RAGE|enraging]] a diehard [[Space Marines|SPESS MEHREENS]] fanboy than discussing/drawing their [[Rule 63]] companion, '''Female Space Marines'''. Not to be confused with [[Sisters of Battle]], the canonical equivalent to Space Marines and also armed with bolters and chainswords with the stats of shitty guardsmen (but still entirely equal to space marines), but ''Space Marine'' Space Marines of the Adeptus Astartes, you know, the hypermuscular ones with [[Pauldrons]]. According to [[Games Workshop]] [[canon]], the procedures that are used to create a Space Marine only work properly on male subjects, rendering female Marines impossible; however, masturbators on the internet have not allowed this to deter them. Sometimes it is pointed out that back in the [[Rogue Trader]] days, Games Workshop did briefly produce two power-armoured female models, but they were changed to "Female Adventurers in Power Armour" and were never meant to represent female Marines. Moreover, White Dwarf ''did'' in fact publish a Rogue Trader scenario back in the day featuring real, honest-to-[[Matt Ward|Ward]] female Imperial Space Marines, albeit with the caveat that such chapters were exceedingly rare. Considering this is from Games Workshop, who [[Squats|routinely violates their own canon in subsequent editions]], fanbase be damned, take this as you will.

It's worth noting, though, that Games Workshop hasn't deterred /tg/ (or indeed, the [[Black Library]] writers) from coming up with ways to potentially allow for them, even with Space Marines being exclusively male being one of the rare things they've kept consistent. This is because, as was brought up in [[Daemonette|previous]] [[Monstergirls|articles]], little gets between a man and his fapbait.

=The Canon Part=
While for a time GW's official stance was that it was impossible to create Female Space Marines, leading to spammed complaints about gender equality and claims  that male-only Space Marines are sexist. Therefore, a minor concession was made. According to new [[fluff]] the Emperor of Mankind ''did'' see fit to attempt the creation of female Space Marines, whether in the spirit of equality, for the sake of a larger recruiting pool, or [[/d/|because he had an incest fetish to indulge.]] Emphasis on ''tried''; since he had based his Sons off of himself, and then Space Marines off of the resulting genes, it was impossible to twist that base around to reliably make a female Space Marine. The Emperor tried again and again, but could not find a way to reliably create a Female Space Marine in a reasonable time frame and soon found that if Male Space Marines were one in a million, then Female Space Marines were one in a trillion. There were many semi-successful female Space Marines that showed promise, but nearly all of them died shortly after implantation due to organ rejection and various hormonal imbalances causing their biology to shit itself. Quickly realizing that this shit was a waste of time and resources better spent conquering the galaxy, he decreed that Space Marines would be male-only, '''NO GIRLS ALLOWED.'''

TL;DR GW got tired of angry letters, so they said that Female Space Marines were possible but stupidly impractical (even by 40k standards), so that's why there aren't any Female Space Marines so stop the angry letters please.

This all could have been avoided if the complainants had simply asked for (and GW gave) more focus on the [[Sisters of Battle|''real'', pre-existing Female Space Marines]] complete with a unique, empowering flavor all their own. [[Fail|Naturally, this seemingly obvious solution was lost on all parties involved.]]

On the Black Library front, it was mentioned in one of the [[Horus Heresy]] books that [[Malcador the Sigillite]] had suggested making one or two of the Primarchs female, half-jokingly saying that it might help to defuse competition between them. The Emperor was not amused by this at all and insisted that it simply couldn't be done, thinking Malcador was joking. And really, who wants to try to argue with him about it? He may have had time later to uplift all of humanity, but he is busy with that little ten thousand years in life support while fighting various eldritch horrors business.

==[[Sindri|SSSSSIIIIIINNNNNNDDDDRRRRRRIIIII!!]]==

Unexpected salvation - there are indeed (99.46% possible) Female Space Marines!...in The [[Eye Of Terror]]. Well, they're possible out of it too - see, due to the nature of [[Chaos]], mutations are often a fact of life. Some desired, some not. What if one hulked out, burning, warped Chaos Space Marine [[Moot|secretly wishes he was the cute little girl who got flowers? Who smiled with joy? Who was so sweet?]]

This was ''confirmed'' in one of the earlier Chapter Approved articles - one that re-introduced mounted [[Daemonette|Daemonettes]] - in which a Governor-Militant fighting a Slaanesh warband mused that there were (apparently female) creatures that [[Heresy|were once Space Marines, but no longer]]. Considering Chaos can cause [[Chaos Spawn|that which must never be named]], is anyone surprised by this?

Furthermore, in the [[Fabius Bile]] series, there was a female Chaos Champion who'd been mutated up to Space-Marine equivalent levels, and was a subcommander in a Emperor's Children war band.

==[[Honsou]], You Sick Fuck==

We know that you among the fans, despite all our attempts to dissuade you, want cute FEMALE SPHESS MAHREENS! And there is good news - technically, there ARE Female Space Marines IN OFFICIAL LORE. The catch? Yes there is a catch. And this one is the worst.

Your new waifu is a bloated, twisted, undying, insane, mutated pregnant mother-slave only alive because she's in the Eye of Terror.

You see, [[Honsou]] of the [[Iron Warriors]], in an effort to squeeze new MAHREENS into the ranks without having to pay that other sick fuck [[Fabius Bile]] for clones and because he was too lazy to do it the normal way, created a system of hideousness and sadness that pushes [[grimdark]] to a whole new level. He invented the [[Daemonculaba]], a system whereby a woman is chained and fed stuff which will morph her and her womb into something that was never meant to be. A boy is then (yes, a child), jammed, shoved or cut INTO the vagina and stays there for a while. When his time is ready, he, now XBAWKS HUEG and STRONG, will have to [[rip and tear|rip, tear]], or otherwise push his way out of his adoptive mother's womb/vagina. When he emerges, he will either be a skinless mutant abomination, or will emerge as a fully functional (albeit skinless) Chaos Space Marine in a fraction of the time, with all his growth stages and bionics and gene-seed already taken care of. How? [[Meme|It's fucking science]].

This goes back to our Female Space Marine - you see, while she was being morphed and changed, [[Dark Mechanicus]] Biologis hereteks worked on her body, implanting gene-seed and making her physically a Female Space Marine, even if the form is rather off. Thus, her womb can turn children as well into Space Marines by having her womb 'grow' the required organs and stages directly into their bodies in a fraction of the time - days and weeks instead of years. Thankfully for the entire universe, this horror was [[Uriel Ventris|destroyed]] before Honsou realized he could stick girls in there as well, and get double the recruits, and stumble upon the secret to true Female Space Marines.

==A Slightly More Reasonable Answer==

The problem really is one of terminology. Women can wear power armour, certainly; the Sororitas practically make it formal wear. Women can, through steroids, incessant bodybuilding, a high protein diet, and a little genetic modding to bring it all together, be as buff and rocking as a Space Marine. Pointlessly expensive and inefficient compared to grabbing a guy and shoving a growth hormone in him. But what really makes a Space Marine a Space Marine is all of the [[Geneseed|extra genetically-engineered organs and DNA and whatnot]] cloned from the Primarchs and implanted in the right way, which is impossible for women for reasons the Emperor himself ran afoul of. The closest thing to an exception in the fluff is any experiment involving [[Fabius Bile]] (the crazy old fuck basically cloned himself but then decided to make the clone female and have a [[Warhammer High|'daughter']] just for the [[lulz]]. And the best/worst part, he still made a better job out of parenthood than Big.E.), unless the topic is [[Daemonculaba|Honsou of the Iron Warriors]] (not reincarnation) inside a bloated woman's uterus, and it should be noted that the said woman is effectively lobotomized (and even there, the potential Chaos Space Marine candidate must be male since even that sick thing requires gene-seed to 'work'). And even if he did make you a female space marine for reals, she still wouldn't be a space marine, just a weird, mutilated, chaos infused thing that approximates a space marine but [[Ultramarines|can never truly be one.]]

Worth noting, however, that given that Bile's experimented on damn-near everything (including the entire civilian populations of several planets) at some point or another for his attempts to duplicate the methods for creating new Space Marines, there's ample evidence to suggest that [[/d/|he's tried it at least once]], ''going as far as saying Big.E. was an idiot for making gene-seed only compatible with men and thus cutting off half the potential supply of warriors''. Fucking [[Slaanesh]]. In his own recent novels his retinue has included a champion who is effectively, but not technically, a female Space Marine; when she claimed some Emperor's Children power armor on the battlefield it bonded to her like Chaos Armour from Fantasy does, and she's tougher in a fight than most true Space Marines.

Another possible reason is that all of the Primarchs are men, with male genes, thus meaning that, [[Samus|unless there's secretly a girl Primarch out there somewhere,]] female Space Marines cannot be made in the traditional sense. Space Marine blood alone can eat through many durable materials due to the mess of chemicals in them. Any attempt to breed Space Marines the traditional way would be almost guaranteed to fail in a tragic fashion.

Of note is the fact that despite the names and histories of the two missing Primarchs being utterly obliterated from Imperial records, they are still unambiguously referred to as sons of the Emperor.

==Dark Imperium and FemMarines==
[[Image:YouHaven'tMadeFemaleSpaceMarinesHaveYou.jpg|thumb|right|The Emperor's reaction to [[Primaris Marines]]]]
In the Master of Mankind and Dark Imperium novels, its revealed that the [[God-Emperor|Emperor]] never cared for the [[Space Marines]] [[Adeptus_Custodes|as much as his more favored sons]], and saw them as little more than tools to secure his [[Imperium of Man|empire]]. [[Ultramar|He never intended for them to rule over it]], as it was planned to be an empire [[High Lords of Terra|ruled by humans for humans]]. Given this revelation, its possible that the Emperor ''could've'' made female space marines, but chose not to because he wanted a reliable way to keep their population in check. Keep in mind that [[Belisarius Cawl|very few people outside of the Emperor himself]] were actually involved in the [[Primarch]] Project, so if he chose to lie about the gender thing, very few could call him out on it (and that's assuming any of them would want to). Also note that although he was adamant that FemMarines were impossible, no one actually tried to prove him wrong, they mostly just took him at his word. It is also simply far quicker and more efficient to implant recruits. Plus the changes needed to create a female Space Marine, given the large physical abilities differences between men and women, would be extreme, with an immense fatality rate, and expensive. You could make ten male and female Space Marines or thirty male Space Marines in half the time. The right choice is obvious. Besides, after the changes to put the women on par with the men Marines, the only real difference left would be genetalia, so the extra expense and risk would be pointless in the end. Sure, the fem Marines would only need to outclass the enemies of the Crusade so full body alteration wouldn’t be necessary. But, the male Marines frequently suffered heavy, sometimes dramatic casualties. Less durable, less strong female Marines added would mostly increase the body count. Not to mention the incredible risk of enemies getting DNA of both Marine types and making their own in their labs. Besides, Emps had Chaos to consider. Even if you don't buy into all the [[-4 Str]] [[bullshit]], the impracticality of the numbers is still worth noting.

Although Space Marines have their sex drive curbed or removed, we know that [[Space Wolves]] can still sleep around (especially true for [[Lukas the Trickster]]), to say nothing of the [[Emperor's Children]], who are explicitly described going on a [[RAPE|rape rampage]] during the [[Siege of Terra]], which likely means that the reproductive suppression isn't 100% effective or irreversible, though the latter example does carry a load of salt big enough to fill a Blackstone Fortress in that they worship Slaanesh. It should also be considered that although Space Marines have a reduced or eliminated sex drive, it's never been suggested that they're sterile, meaning that [[Fall of the Eldar|accidents could still happen]]. Space Marine sex drive also seems to be born more out of culture than anything actually biological, most marines consider themselves too busy to get sexually or romantically attached to other people and are "married to the job". However the Space Wolves, having a rowdy and raunchy chapter culture where picking up chicks is a sign of manly strength and a source of tales to laugh about at the mess hall don't see any problem with their brothers spending their free time having "fun" with the local women.

Given all this, it's possible that the Emperor didn't want to take any chances and potentially have his living weapons start reproducing and becoming self-sufficient, replacing the humans they were designed to protect. Keeping Space Marines mono-gendered and reliant on [[geneseed]] would ensure that he maintained tight control over his tools and how many there were at any given time. Of course, this is all speculation, so take it with a grain of salt. Keep in mind, Implants are not heritable, this is basic biology. Unless the Astartes-to-be DNA is altered, which once again would mean Female Astartes should be possible. Even then the theoretical baby astartes wouldn't get the implanted organs, meaning probable miscarriage. Instead they would have to be genetically altered clones. These attempts have almost have always created questionable results.

Also the statement that the Emperor blatantly favors the [[Adeptus_Custodes|Custodes]] over the Space Marines? 100% true. Space Marines during the time of the Great Crusade were mostly just genetically engineered frontline soldiers with cybernetics, Power Armor and really big guns. Instead of being a mix of Tier 1 Special Operators and Dark Age Knight Orders like they are during M41 and M42. Some were even used as right out cannon fodder. More so if they wear traitors during the Heresy.(i.e Stor-Bezashk White Scars were those who were found to be on the side of the traitors and reassigned to take most deadliest missions as punishment. While getting all the shit jobs were one of the reasons the [[Iron_Warriors]] sided with [[Horus]]) The Emperor also had no problems purging two whole Legions of them for reasons that we'll never know about. So he wouldn't care about massacring Space Marines wholesale if they were made up of gender equal units.

A mass Legion purge is something he never consider doing to the [[Adeptus Custodes]] As they have no flaws that allows to be corrupted by Chaos or Xeno influence. And if it were possible they'd be too dead to talk about. Nor would he send them to some forsaken planet to be slaughtered like he would with Space Marines. Of course, female Custodes are also a whole different can of worms in of itself and turns the discussion into [[skub]].

==On The To-Do List?==
There is a paragraph in "Ashes of Prospero" were Arjac Rockfist identifies him self as a "Son as Russ", and a woman with a spear asks "Only sons?" Arjac thinks on it, and realizes that the spirit of Fenris, and of the Space Wolves, is in all the people of Fenris, men, women and children. Then he considers that Guilliman had made an even more deadly and powerful version of a Space Marine, so it was possible. At the end he pointedly does not reject the possibility of women space marines, ending with a "Perhaps."

Whether or not this is a case of fandom baiting/trolling, lampshade hanging, or just leaving space for '[[Your Dudes|Your Dude(tte)'s]]' is debatable, the fact that this happened among the [[Viking]]-themed Space Wolves is interesting given the Valkyrie and Shield Maiden connotations that go along with that theme. Additionally the wolves took a beating from the Thousand Sons, so increasing the recruiting pool would be a boon to the beleaguered Wolves. If female marines were going to be suddenly created, it happening to the Space Wolves would not be thematically out of the question the way it would be for other more monk like space marine chapters. This being said, Fenrisian Shield Maidens were mentioned as having fought in Wrath of Magnus, so it's also possible that the Space Wolves will stop being a Marines-exclusive force and start incorporating the native warriors of Fenris, though that would be a blatant case of legion building that would draw the attention of the already inclined to look disagreeable on them Inquisition in a way the more Inquisition friendly Ultramarine do not with the Ultramars IG and PDF.

=What Would A Female Space Marine Look Like If They Could Exist?=
[[File:Silver Skull.jpg|right|thumb|Tina likes long walks on the beach and slaying the Emperor's foes.]]
Obviously, in the land of Rule 63 they are amazingly hot [[Rape|(and would totally do]] [[Mary Sue| you)]], but in dark and gritty fluff-land where they would be optimised for combat rather than jacking off, they would probably have very few notable female features left following surgery and genetic fuckery. Marines are made from pre-adolescent kids who still have very little in terms of sexual dimorphism, and the process of transforming includes total rewriting of the hormonal system (which is responsible for developing secondary sexual characteristics).

Hypothetical femarine wouldn't have narrow shoulders, wide hips, (big) breasts, delicate face structures (though the blood angels often manage it), feminine voices or even traditional feminine character traits like higher capacity for empathy and increased aversion against danger as those two psychological traits are pretty easily conditioned in or out of people if you can control their social contacts. And unless you're one of the nice chapters like the Salamanders, Lamenters, or Celestial Lions; empathy is almost certainly going to be trained out of most recruits to make them better able to deal with the kind of guilt that killing other people inflicts on humans. If you don't think that's a big concern, note that this is the kind of guilt that notably caused [[Avitus]] to fall to [[heresy]] when the truth about his chapter master made it his old excuses of it being justified as the chapter being in the right invalid and found himself unable to live with his actions. An entire Chapter of Marines in service to the inquisition who purged civilians who knew too much was also driven insane by the guilt because they simply cared too much for other people. Too much humanity can and will drive space marines to madness over the course of their duties.

In essence neophyte does not mature into man or woman - it matures into '''marine'''. A female Space Marine would only differ from male Space Marine by having (possibly) different genitalia, so no "Samus is a girl" moments would occur, given that they would never have a traditional female puberty. Either way, Female Space Marines are not going to be conventionally attractive. Being recreated exclusively for war tends to do that. They would be bigger than an ordinary human, of course, but they would still be proportioned like a normal human. Or like some bikini model if the Emperor decided he wanted to make hot White Scar bikers or something.

It is worth noting that official art from GW shows that unarmoured space marines look pretty normal if tall and swole discounting all the plug holes in them; like Captain America if he were a head or two taller rather than blob like roid freaks. Which does make sense, as the hulking bodybuilder physique is actually not very good in a fight compared to the more lithe MMA fighter build or the kind of fat looking powerlifter bod and in the military, endurance and leg power matters far more than how big your gains are. It's also worth noting that the sons of Sanguinius in particular are generally handsome in an androgynous, angelic way and that most of the primarchs aren't half bad looking. The Alpha Legion and the Fallen are also able to pass off as normal if tall and buff humans without their power armour. Also worth noting is that many, many marines are somehow able to have long, flowing hair or beards (or both) and still fit helmets onto their heads without issue with what can only be explained by space marine helmets doubling as pocket dimensions.

As Space Marines are surgically altered with organic implants and not traditionally genetically modified, progenoid glands would still play a vital role in gene-seed replication, and any child a female Space marine would have would at most just be guaranteed to be at least somewhat compatible with the chapter's gene seed. All the extra organs that go into a space marine are lab grown things stuck into them that they're genetically compatible with no more inherently part of the body than a prosthetic arm, and it's very unlikely that they would develop on their own in a Space Marine's child. Knowing Lukas the Trickster's "hey babe, I'm a space marine, wanna see the inside of my land raider?" antics though, it's probable that unless trained to suppress it, they'll still have a sex drive.

And, assuming that Sister Generica can be considered attractive in any form, she's also wearing a ton or two of ceramite power armor, so you wouldn't tell until she speaks or removes her helmet. And even if she does, you'd have to be a very lucky man to catch her eye during her limited free time, and she'd need to be from a chapter where fraternizing with normal humans is acceptable.

Finally, God Emperor help you if you suggest they wear boob plate. Physics ITSELF says no, and it'd slow down production which - given the current state of the Imperium - all but ensures you'll be ridiculed and [[BLAM|"corrected"]] if you so much as try to suggest it.

=RAGE=

RAGE is generated by this tactic in two distinct ways; either the neckbeards assume that the creator of the work in question is unaware of the Space Marine fluff, and rage about his or her ignorance; failing that, it becomes clear that they are well aware of the fluff regarding these matters and willingly chose to disregard it, sending the poor neckbeards into fits of spastic rage that anyone would dare deliberately defile the sacrosanct canon of Games Workshop's masterpiece.

[[Troll|Still, the aforementioned creator will just ignore him.]]

Alternatively, call your all-female IG army converted to be [[Imperial Navy]] armswomen "custom female space marines" for a joke the guys at the game store will find funny once and infuriating forever after.

=What if I still unironically want this?=

Then it's time to apply some of [[Your dudes]]. GeeDubs has been downplaying Your dudes more and more in the marketing, especially going into 8th edition, but they still secretly love it and never want us to stop applying our stories and color schemes to their precious and expensive models.

As mentioned before, you could always invoke the two lost Space Marine primarchs and say their gene seed works in females. Maybe a successor chapter somewhere down the line got a mutation and now they need to recruit young girls instead of young boys. Maybe an incredibly eccentric [[Adeptus Mechanicus|Magos biologis]] found the bio-augmentations that turns adults into near-Space Marines (the kind [[Luther]] and [[Kor Phaeron]] used), wound up with a spare shipment of Astartes power armor, and decided he wanted Skitarii shaped like Female Space Marines. The possibilities are endless. Not all of them are ''good'' but what matters is that you tried.

Of course the easiest way that will generate the fewest complaints is just making an alternate universe where there were female primarchs and space marines to begin with. A highly detailed AU will generate a lot of interest and people generally extend a lot of good will to such projects and are willing to give up a lot of sacred cows of canon for one ''if'' it's well made (and that's an extremely big "if", you won't have been the first person to have tried it). It helps if female marines and primarchs are just one part of the alternate universe rather than the only thing different or the even the primary thing changed. If you earn the good will of the readers of said alternate universe through other interesting divergences; people might actually be outright enthusiastic about your Femstartes.

Of course making an entire alternate canon for something as big as Warhammer 40k is a massive endeavour not for the faint of heart and making a good AU will take a lot of work and research. Like with any other series or with alternate history, you first have to know and be familiar with the "canon" before you can start changing it around if you want your changes to be good, interesting, and plausible within the context of the work. But hey if you're willing to go the extra mile for this, godspeed you crazy bastard.

No, literally. Be ready to put up the flame shields.

=Writefaggery=

===A New Arrival===

* From the livelog of Inquisitor Perstringos, archive #32AA9-99
* Redacted copy dispatched to Magos Tzeel'Etil of Mars under code of practice 73-Greyfax-Cawl

The lifespan of an Inquisitorial liaison to the Angry Marines is a famously short one.

Take offence to their unorthodox methods, and you're likely to get your head exploded like an overripe melon. Partake too enthusiastically in their furious idiom and you're likely to get your head exploded like an overripe melon. Stand too near one when they're feeling a little more umbrage than usual and you're likely to... and so on.

I have lasted in the role for nearly seven Angermar months and so consider myself quite the survivor. Alas, my run of good luck may soon be at an end. The Angry Marines are not generally characterised by a cheerful acceptance of change...

especially changes imposed from without...

very particularly especially changes to their unit composition mandated by none other than the Ultramarines, whose very Codex Astartes (oh Guilliman Restored, forgive me!) I have been impelled to use as an item of intimate personal hygiene in the Angry Marines' commode.

And yet today the first company of Primaris Marrnes will be arriving on McRage to join their new battle brothers. The "Guillimarines", as I've heard them called around the barracks here from the day I arrived. The Ultra-Ultrasmurfs. The Fuck-knuckles. The Bitch-clone-fucking-sellout Poser Marines.

Such a momentous occasion will naturally require an Inquisitorial observer on site.

I am going to fucking die.

Which is why I am taking care to record this surreptitious livelog, tapped by my tongue against my molar-transcriptor as I take my place in the Rite of Welcome. My life is nothing, praise the Emperor. Direct observational feedback on the reception of our Imperium's newest super-Astartes into the Chapter deemed least likely to accept them will be invaluable to several parties.

They are docking now with our Battle Barge, the FUCKYOUNAMEITYOURSELF. Their vessel, officially the Undaunted but renamed in our local records "THE OFFICIOUS CUNT-BASKET", is busy initiating standard pre-docking handshake protocol, but I expect that...

yep, there it is. The Angry Marines have taken the simple expedient of ramming the FUCKYOU directly into the Undaunted's docking bay. It was a fair hit. Air is already cycling across both ships with only superficial loss to the void, it won't take long to clear the wreckage, and so the joining Rite is soon to begin.

A mere ten paces in front of me, well within explode-my-head-with-a-backslap range, stands Chapter Master Temperus Maximum himself. An AdMech representative, Magos Errant Gjarran 3FF stands some ways to my left. I am sure I sense fear in the writhing of its mechadendrites.

Two long lines of Angry Marines, each four long files of seven hundred ranks, stretch out behind us in a widening wedge, as though to flaunt the Codex Astartes prohibition on companies larger than a thousand. Aside from their numbers and their angry yellow banners, the most striking sight to one accustomed to other Astartes chapters is the conspicuous lack of bolt pistols in favour of a second chainsword or the heaviest of heavy weapons.

I also note that customary Space Marine practice is to greet newcomers with weapons RAISED, not brandished threateningly -- and thus also pointed directly at my back.

On either side of these lines there mills a mob of chapter serfs, aspirants, servitors and ordinary ship's crew. Banners burn with the emblematic angry face and raised yellow middle finger.

I now hear the stomp of boots but haven't caught sight of the 100 who will be the first in history to join the Angry Marines from outside their chapter. Having already written off my own life, I find myself idly wondering if anyone has warned them of what they will encounter. We went through sixteen liaisons in as many weeks before we started to get the hang of their red lines. How many of these "Primadonna Marines" will survive the year?

Ah, there they are. They march in a column five across, twenty files deep. I see the first file now...

I had heard that these new marines were taller but the effect is staggering. Every Space Marine inspires terrified awe with their size, their power, and above all their devotion to the Emperor. These new Primaris radiate the same majesty... perhaps it is as they humbly claim, that they are no better than their other battle brothers, but they are certainly... newer.

As my eyes take in the holy might of the Emperor's newest instruments, my trained Inquisitor's eye perceives what at first was a vague impression. The specifications of these marines' armor, while taller and sleeker than earlier models, are in fact even sleeker than the schematics of the Mark X Tacticus Armour I have memorised as a matter of course.

How strange. Thinner in the waist. Wider at the hips. Bulkier at the chest... at the bust!

Subtle as the difference is, certainly not detracting from their power and terror, their armour is unquestionably FEMALE.

How?

Before anyone speaks the center Primaris of their first file--surely their Lieutenant--is removing his helmet... HER helmet. By the Emperor! As strong and intimidating and, well, grizzled a face as any Space Marine's, and yet entirely feminine. Long luxurious red hair is cascading down her shoulders... by the Emperor, to live to see these days!

No word yet from the Angry Marines. I fear the worst. I'm enabling my audio pickup; it may well outlive me.

[Lieutenant Pedicaba]: WELL FUCK ME IT'S THE MUTE MARINES! HELLO THE FUCK TO YOU TOO, ASSHOLE!

[Assault Sergeant Dickface, interrupting]: OH NO NO FUCKING NO. NUH-UH. FUCK OFF. CHADMARINES ARE BAD ENOUGH BUT A STACY? GIRLYMAN AIN'T GONNA SHOEHORN SOME BOLTER BITCHES INTO OUR YEEEAAAARGH!!!

[Lieutenant Pedicaba]: WHOOPS DID I JUST "SHOEHORN" MY FOOT UP YOUR ASS? YOU CAN EAT YOUR OWN SHIT OFF MY BOOT LATER, SERGEANT. DO I LOOK TO LIKE I'M ARMED WITH SOME PUSSIFIED BOLTER?

[Chapter Master Tempestum]: WELL FUCKING ARSECHUNKS IF THIS ISN'T A CUNTY TURN OF EVENTS. I'VE SAID FOR MONTHS YOU NU-SMURFS HAVE NO BALLS AND WHADDYA KNOW.

[Lieutenant Pedicaba]: YEAH YOU CAN KISS MY TURGID OVARIES LATER FUCKLICK. LIEUTENANT PEDICABA REPORTING! BY THE EMPEROR'S SWEATY ASSCRACK WE HAVE ARRIVED THROUGH THE WARP INTACT, ONLY ONE LITTLE FUCKSLEAZE DAEMON INCURSION NEEDED ITS SHIT PUSHED IN. ONE HUNDRED NEW ANGRY MARINES ARE YOURS TO COMMAND, MY LORD CHAPTER MASTER!

(Oh Emperor protect us, they're all removing their helmets. Blonde hair, black hair, more redheads... if it weren't for their size you'd know they weren't Sisters of Battle by their color. And their language!)

[Chapter Master Tempestum]: HEY COGBITCH, YOU SURE THOSE FAGNUTS FROM MARS SENT THE RIGHT DELiVERY?

[Magos Gjarran]: All is in order, lord Chapter Master. These are indeed the Primaris Marines assigned by my masters to your most holy Chapter, uncorrupted by the Warp and in perfect genetic order. The Machine God smiles upon your union.

[Chapter Master Tempestum]: AND YOUR ARCH-ANUS FAGMASTERS DIDN'T SEE FIT TO MENTION THEY COME WITH A CUNT APIECE?

[Lieutenant Pedicaba]: YOU WANT "A PIECE" OF CUNT JUST FUCK YOUR OWN WHORE MOUTH, MY LORD.

[Chapter Serf Urguet Incelium, interrupting]: No!! Stop!! Please!! I can't bear it!

(Has this serf lost his mind! What is he doing?)

[Chapter Serf Urguet Incelium]: My lords, this cannot be! Kill me if you will, but we cannot have fucking WOMEN ruining EVERYTHING! It's all a trick by... by SLAANESH JUSTICE WARRIORS to force the evil of HEResy upon us. A trick! The holy gene-seed can't work on females! Blah!

(The Primaris nearest the serf has just spat on him. Looks like she got him right in the crotch.)

[Chapter Serf Urguet Incelium]: You stupid bitch! I'll fucking end you! I'll take a flamer to all the vapid whores in the Progenium! I'll...

[a distinct sizzling noise is audible]

[Interceptor Miserabila]: GUESS MY BETCHER'S GLAND WORKS AFTER ALL, HUH ASS-BADGER?

[Chapter Serf Urguet Incelium]: My DICK! Oh FUCK, OH EMPEROR! MY BALLS! MY BALLS ARE MELTING AWAY! AHHH!

[Lieutenant Pedicaba]: "BETCHER" WEREN'T USING THOSE ANYWAY, PANSY-ASS QUEEFSNIFF.

[Chapter Serf Urguet Incelium]: [voice dissolves into screams and groans]

[Chapter Master Tempestum]: HEH HEH, YOU'RE ALL RIGHT. MAYBE YOU REDRAGE WHORES WON'T EMBARRASS THE REAL SOLDIERS TOO MUCH AFTER ALL. TELL YOU WHAT, LET'S WIPE OUT THE ASSCHEESE HERETICS PLANETSIDE AND I'LL LET YOU FIX ME A SANDWICH.

[Lieutenant Pedicaba]: SAY THAT TO MY HAIRY PUSS, MY LORD CHAPTER MASTER PISS-BREATH. NOW ARE YOU GONNA FIND US SOME HERESY TO MURDER OR ARE YOU GOING TO STAND THERE ALL DAY LIKE YOU'RE SCARED OF A LADY?

[Chapter Master Tempestum]: WE MAKE PLANETFALL IN TWENTY MINUTES. WELCOME TO THE ANGRY MARINES... BATTLE BROTHER.

[Lieutenant Pedicaba]: YEAH, SLURP SHIT SISTER.

Audio pick-up disabled. I think that was the ceremony. The Angry Marines, Primaris and all, are exchanging soldierly embraces and head-butts and marching back to the barge, chanting as one, "ALWAYS ANGRY! ALL THE TIME! ALWAYS ANGRY! ALL THE TIME!"

I'm racing down the corridor with Magos Giarran as fast as my legs will take me. You just know they're going to perform an "expedited undocking" with fucking frag grenades. Again. Planetfall in seventeen minutes. If I'm somehow not rendered into inquisitor-flavoured jello... well, I'm already praising the Emperor's unlimited munificence that I'm alive at all.

Word must get back to Mars. If the Primera mix so well even with the Angry Marines, they'll be a valuable reinforcement to all our companies. In our darkest hour, the Imperium's new hopes redouble.

+++
Thought for the Day: The Emperor has fury enough for us all.
+++

=See Also=

*[[Golden Aquilas]]: /tg/ [[homebrew]] chapter, designed to cause as much [[Rage|RAEG]] and accusations of [[derp]] as possible.
*[[Space Marines]]: Rule 63 equivalent of female Space- wait...
*[[Sisters of Battle]]: The warrior nuns of the Imperium that wear power armor, often fight with bolters and chainswords, and are in a sense the "real female space marines" of Warhammer 40,000.
*[[Stormcast Eternals]], GW's [[Warhammer Fantasy|Fantasy]] Space Marines in [[Age of Sigmar]], which can be any species and gender thanks to their magical origins. At least one Stormcast group was announced to be comprised of men and women and SURPRISE WARHAMMER SHADESPIRE WAS ANNOUNCED AND FEATURES A FEMALE STORMCAST MINIATURE. And the Sacrosanct Chamber added a bunch more.
*[[Samus]]: How about a female Primar-{{BLAM}}{{BLAM|REVEALING IMPERIAL SECRETS IS HERESY!}}
*[[Daughters of Terra]] A not-quite Space Marines Female Space Marines chapter.

=Gallery=
<center><gallery>
Image:Sisters of anger2.png|And if you think this is bad, once a month they all gain Frenzy.
Image:1227373581722.gif|Lol. Why u mad tho?
Image:Nidsrape.jpg|Brother-sister Igpay Atinlay boldly distracts the Tyranid foe.
File:Love is a Battlefield by blazbaros.png|An almost perfect example of a female space marine, complete with the typical bulky space marine form.
Image:spessbitch.jpg|Not in fact [[Horo]].
File:Female_warhammer_40k_imperium_model_--_100D0212.jpg|She'd be even scarier if she took off that mask
File:Female_space_marine_warhammer_40k_model_--_Female_Warrior_Gabs.jpg|DYKE OUTTA FUCKING NOWHERE!
File:Female_space_marine_warhammer_40k_model_--_Female_Warrior_Jayne.jpg|Your eyes should start bleeding right about now.
File:Female_space_marine_warhammer_40k_--_Ingunna_Daughter_of_Russ_by_Greymark.jpg|PMS BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!
File:1k heresy.jpg|<s>Not</s> [[Just as planned]]. Now you know why Tzeentch doesn't invite Slaanesh to his birthday parties anymore.
File:Primarchs as teen girls.png| The Emperor made the Primarchs to be the greatest human warriors of all time, but [[Warhammer_High|even they were not immune]] to [[Rule 63]].
File:Femprah_by_Mr-Culexus.jpg|She was not amused by this development.
File:Saber ultra marine.jpg|Don't piss off Mama Smurf. Your genitals will not survive.
File:Chaos saber.jpg|Somehow still less of a failure than the real Abaddon. (Of course! Her arms haven't fallen off!)
File:Belldandy_blood_raveness_for_propertyoflamb_by_elvishprincess25-d9z451u.jpg|Belldandy of the Blood Ravens... Bloody Bell?
File:Propoflambcomm_urd_space_wolf_by_elvishprincess25-db1s3ab.jpg|Urd of the Space Wolves.
File:Skuld_amg_as_wh_iron_hand_by_elvishprincess25-daeba5v.jpg|Skuld of the Iron Hands.
File:The Little Sisters of Purification 1.png| Canon or not, the ideas's been around for a while.
File:The Little Sisters of Purification 2.png| Featuring Jokaero. Yes, there is a scenario.
File:Adepta Mechania Warpsmith (Pre Heresy) 01.png|Because metal tentacle rape That's Why.
File:Ariel Ventris 01.png
</gallery></center>

[[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Space Marines]][[Category:RAGE]]

Stormbird

2019-05-23T19:27:10Z

2601:147:4300:1949:31CB:7D9C:E94:4C91:

[[File:Stormbird.PNG|thumb|350px|right|With this and the [[Warlord Battle Titan|Warlord]], all we need now is a model for the [[Imperator Battle Titan|Imperator]], the [[Emperor]] [[Lion El'Jonson|and the rest of]] [[Jaghatai Khan|the Primarchs.]] And a doctor to call when your dick is still hard, 4 hours later.]]
The Thunderhawk’s big older brother and predecessor, the Stormbird was to the [[Legiones Astartes]] of the Great Crusade what the [[Thunderhawk]] is to the Astartes Chapters of the 41st Millenium: a primary means of transport and air support for Space Marines. The Stormbird, however, was much bigger, able to carry up to 50 Space Marines as well as dreadnoughts and rhinos, protected by void shields, and armed with a ton of firepower. So it was basically an Imperial [[Manta]] for all intents and purposes. It replaced the Skylance used by the [[Thunder Warriors]].

By the time of the Horus Heresy, though, while some of the bigger Legions insisted on keeping their Stormbirds in service, most had begun relying more and more on the smaller and easier to produce Thunderhawk. After the Codex Astartes reforms, the ability to carry half a company’s worth of marines all in one aircraft wasn’t even arguably economical anymore, and the remaining Imperial Stormbirds were finally mothballed. A rare case of a weapon disappearing from the Imperium's arsenal, not so much because of a lost ability to produce it, but because it simply didn't fit into the changing playbook of Astartes tactics anymore. One would think they would have re-purposed them for anti-Titan operations, into heavy bombers or for transporting vehicles full time.

If the Wrymworld size chart is correct it would be possible to fit a Fellblade or two inside this thing. All they would have to do is convert that empty space for Fellblade cannons, Turbo-Laser Destructors (kind of odd that the Thunderhawk is the only Space Marine plane with an actual anti-Titan weapons isn't it?) or maybe even weapons used by Knight Titans. With enough left over for all the ammunition or power generators, coolant, and anything else they would need. However in the Imperium efficiency and creative thinking is considered [[Heresy|Tech Heresy]].

As of the 41st Millennium, it’s currently unknown if there are any Stormbirds still left in Loyalist vaults, though Traitor Legions like the Word Bearers are said to still have a few around, and if Forge World’s recent release of the model and 40k rules for the Stormbird is anything to go by, odds are there probably will be [[Ultramarines|a couple]] [[Dark Angels|of chapters]] that will be revealed to, surprise, surprise, still have their Stormbirds as well.

It is interesting to note, though, that Forge World's stormbird is almost an entirely different aircraft from the one pictured in older fluff. Where the old Stormbird looked like a giant [[Valkyrie]] with two tiltrotor turbofan engines each almost as big as the aircraft itself, the Sokar-pattern Stormbird is basically just a Thunderhawk on steroids (The old Stormbird was also fluffed as having a ''100-marine'' carrying capacity, rather than the Sokar's 50). A bit odd, as Forge World has generally tried to maintain the Rogue Trader look when updating the old material.

As it turns out, the Sokar is simply one of several very different patterns of the same general classification of aircraft (unlike the Thunderhawk, the Stormbird is not a standard template design), and the Sokar itself is actually among the smallest of them. Legions variously fielded Condor- (Sons of Horus), Khonsu-, and Apophis-pattern (the Wolves deployed 30 on Prospero) Stormbirds, the latter being known as "sun-killers" for their size and appearance. There was also the Warhawk-pattern Stormbird, which can carry 100 marines like the Rogue Trader version and, given its description as "monstrous and fat-bodied", likely looked like that version as well.

The Sokar, Khonsu and Apophis, sharing a naming convention (derived from minor Egyptian gods) are likely the last generation of Stormbirds to enter general service before the Crusade.

One notable Stormbird is the one Nathaniel Garro had pimped out for his personal use by Malcador so that he could cruise around the galaxy hunting down members for his loyalist A-Team.

== Tabletop ==
Funnily enough, the reasons the Imperial Manta was mothballed in the fluff are also kind of represented in the crunch. The Stormbird is one of those units that could be tentatively referred to as Mega-Super-Heavies (like the Reaver, Warlord, and the actual Manta for instance). Units that are just so big and so expensive that outside of the very biggest games (as in, boards where Basilisks run out of range), they have close to zero practicality. In the case of the [[Stormbird]], a [[Thunderhawk]] probably ''would'' be a more economical option most of the time. With all that said, though, the Stormbird certainly delivers your points worth. The Stormbird has 14/13/12/ and 12 HP. It comes with five turreted Twin-linked Lascannons (so right then and there, you got more laser [[dakka]] than a Terminus Ultra), six Dreadstrike Missiles (S10 AP2 Ordnance, small blast) which can be replaced with a single use 3D6 Apocalyptic Barrage that hits like a Battle cannon. It can buy an Orbital Strike, with Strength D AP1, Massive blast, Indirect fire only and '''multiple use''' for the low, low price of 150 pts. Its 2 Void Shields can become a 12" bubble if you go into hover mode, which is a safe idea since you also get Armoured ceramite and a 5++ invul. Transport capacity of 50 can carry pretty much everything including Dreadnoughts and (possibly fully loaded) Rhinos which take up 10/25 slots respectively. Good thing the Age of Darkness FoC limits you to 25% spending on LOWs and no one actually has the money to play Apoc with FW, right?

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:StormbirdOld.jpg|The only image of a Stormbird people had for years (and the basis for many an [[awesome]] scratch-build) before Forge World came out with the Sokar Pattern.
Image:Stormbird_Scratchbuild.JPG|One of said scratch-builds. The new Stormbird model is cool and all, but work like [http://www.tanksandtrolls.co.uk/40k%20Stormbird%20Troop%20Transport.htm this] kinda makes you wish Forge World had stayed closer to the original. This one also seems to have a case of divided loyalties, given that it is painted in Ultramarine colours and has omegas, [[What|but also has both Iron Warriors and Imperial Fists symbols]].
</gallery>

{{Template:40k-Imperial-Vehicles}}
{{Template:Marines-Forces}}
{{Chaos Space Marines}}
{{Custodes}}
{{Death Guard}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Space Marines]][[Category:Vehicles]]

Fellblade

2019-05-23T18:57:28Z

2601:147:4300:1949:31CB:7D9C:E94:4C91:

[[File:Fellblade2.jpg|400px|right|thumb|The Space Marines felt jelly when they saw the Imperial Army and their wide assortments of superheavy tanks. So they produced their own...to kill superheavy tanks.]]

The '''Fellblade''' Super-Heavy Tank is a [[Space Marine]] tank based on the [[Baneblade]] chassis, used during the [[Horus Heresy]]. Like the [[Predator Tank]]s of that era, it has a bubble-top turret (like the [[T55AM2|T-55]] and any later Soviet tanks), though it also built with a more durable internal structure and power plant (apparently, it took nearly thirty thousand years to get the secrets of arc reactor technology from Stark Industries). This tank, along with many other tank classes during the Great Crusade, was equipped with a Flare Shield. This is basically the E-Web from Babylon 5; it reduces the energy (kinetic or otherwise) from concentrated strikes and it spreads any damage out across the armor and shields. It's a lot more potent than it sounds (seriously, think about it - the reason the bullets and weapons generally work at all is by focusing energy onto very small points. It takes a lot of energy to punch through solid metal, but you generally only need to bust through a small area of it to deliver murder to the delicious squishy internals. The smaller the area you can deliver force to the lower energy needed to reach punch through because that's how pressure works, force over area. So if the shielding can increase the effective surface area of projectiles even by small amounts it hugely decreases the rounds ability to punch through armor.)

On the other hand, you might have been here looking for the ''other'' Warhammer item of note by this name, the legendary warpstone-gromril blade of the [[Skaven]] that was used to fell [[Nagash]]. See the bottom of the page instead.

== Model and Rules ==

[[Games Workshop]] first released rules for Space Marine super-heavy tanks in a [[White Dwarf]] expansion to ''Space Marine'' (the game that later became [[Epic]]); these were the Glaive, the equivalent of the [[Baneblade]], and the Falchion, a [[Shadowsword]] equivalent.

The Fellblade name first appeared in the [[Horus Heresy]] collectible card game, around the year 2005, though it would not receive rules until after the release of [[Apocalypse]] in 2007; inspired by the inclusion of Baneblades and other super-heavy vehicles in 28mm-scale [[Warhammer 40,000]] games, Bell of Lost Souls wrote a datasheet for the Fellblade, based on the Baneblade datasheet. It was generally well-received.

Around 2010, some guy called Machinator wrote updated rules for four Fellblade variants - the Glaive, the Lance (anti-tank las/plas variant), the Broadsword (anti-infantry/fast dakka/flamer variant), and the Warmaul (anti-fortification [[Vindicator|giant Demolisher Cannon]] variant). He did this partially because it's cool, [[Blood and Skulls Industry|and partially to sell bits from his eBay store]].

In 2012, [[Forge World]] released a line of books and models tying into the [[Horus Heresy]] era, and the Fellblade is part of their first wave of models, coinciding with the release of the first book, ''Betrayal''. It looks like a Baneblade with smooth sides and a larger engine (presumably representing the ceramite armor and arc reactor, respectively), topped with a monster Deimos [[Predator Tank]] turret with a twin-linked rape cannon on the top. And that's in addition to the hull Demolisher Cannon, the twin-linked hull heavy bolters, and the two quad lascannon batteries (just like ones on the [[Spartan Assault Tank]]), for a total of THIRTEEN BARRELS OF HELL (all for only 25 points more than a vanilla Baneblade, if you don't spring for the +1 BS upgrade). If that's still not enough guns, it can also be outfitted with hull-mounted [[Combi-weapons]], a [[Havoc Missile Launcher]], and a [[Hunter-Killer Missile]] Launcher. Marine fanboys everywhere wet their pants.

== Variants ==

Like the Baneblade, there are a few Fellblade variants; unlike the Baneblade, Space Marines are creative with naming their super-heavy tanks, as opposed to rolling dice which say "Bane," "Sword," "Storm," "Shadow," "Blade" and "Hammer" on them.

=== Fellblade ===
[[Image:Fellblade.jpg|right|thumb|300px|13 Barrels of Hell for Marines.]]

The "original" Space Marine super-heavy, released in ''Betrayal''. The Fellblade was most notable for its use of both Mechanicum atomantic arc-reactor technology and a reinforced metaplas alloy chassis superior to that of the Baneblade. It mounted a twin-linked Accelerator Cannon as its primary weapon and would also take to the field equipped with a suite of secondary weapons: a demolisher cannon, sponson-mounted quad-lascannons or laser destroyers, hull-mounted twin-linked heavy flamers or heavy bolters, and a variety of pintle-mounted weapons.

At 302 tons, the Fellblade is lighter than the Baneblade. This can be attributed to its reinforced metaplas alloy which seems to be far lighter than, but just as strong as (pound for pound), the ceramite armor found in most Imperial vehicles. This is akin to advanced composite armor in comparison to conventional homogeneous rolled steel.

Rules-wise, its primary weapon is the above-mentioned twin-linked turret-mounted [[Accelerator Cannon]] that can either fire high-explosive shells comparable to a super-charged Battle Cannon (S8 AP3 7" Blast) or armor-piercing shells comparable to the Vanquisher battle cannon (S9 AP2 3" Blast, rolling 2d6 for armor penetration), so it's good for nearly any situation. Also comes equipped with a demolisher cannon and twin-linked heavy bolter. It has double twin-linked lascannon sponsons as well, for extra [[dakka]], which can be switched out for laser destroyers if you have to fight another superheavy. Fancy enough that Argel Tal, arguably the Word Bearers' most senior Chapter Master, had one as his personal tank.

=== Glaive ===
[[File:Glaive.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Nothing like the smell of burning chaos in the morning. Scaled up, that barrel would be more than five feet wide.]]

Released in Book Two: Massacre, the Glaive Super-heavy Special Weapons Tank or '''Fellglaive''', was a variant of the Fellblade, armed with a volkite carronade, designed to destroy xenos beasts and enemy light vehicles in a single overwhelming shot. Its primary weapon is so ridiculously overpowered that the Techpriests of Mars only agreed with some acrimony to the Emperors demand that only a tank could be armed with it. 'Cause even the Imperium have standards.

Though all eighteen Legiones Astartes received limited quantities of Glaives, the [[Salamanders]] and [[Dark Angels]] were noted to operate them more regularly. Its rarity was because the Glaive was an overcomplicated trainwreck to produce and cost an equally ridiculous amount of Imperial moolah. The Dark Angels were given specialized Fellglaives for use in the Dreadwing which were designed by the Emperor's greatest armorers. [[Cheese|These vehicles were equipped with]] [[Warp Weapons|Vortex Weapons]] in place of its volkite carronade, [[That Guy|because they're Dark Angels,]] [[Bullshit|why the fuck not?]]

On tabletop, the Glaive has that big [[Volkite Carronade]], which fires a big beam that hits everything in front of it at S8 AP2; combined with Haywire and the Deflagrate ability inherent to Volkite weaponry, its short range is compensated for quite nicely with its knack for vaporizing anything in front of it (unfortunately, this includes any allied units which happen to be in the beam's path, so use carefully). In addition, should it hit a Super-Heavy or Gargantuan Creature, they take an extra D3 hits. Doesn't have a Demolisher, though.

=== Falchion ===
[[File:Falchion.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Oh Lord! There are too many lasers! Too many lasers! Quickly someone tell [[C.S. Goto|CS Goto!]]]]

Sure enough, announced as part of the run-up to Book Three: Extermination, we have the Falchion Super-Heavy Tank Destroyer. Also known as the '''Mammoth''' in a clear and blatant nod to [[Command and Conquer|a particular RTS game.]]

The Falchion uses a potent weapon which combines technologies fielded in the Fellblade and the Shadowsword super-heavy tank. It's got a twin-linked [[Volcano Cannon]] guaranteed to ruin the day of any [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Titan]] or super-heavy tank that gets in range. Like the Glaive, it misses out on a Demolisher and twin-linked heavy bolter, though unlike the Glaive, it must bodily aim its Volcano Cannons at the target: the capacitors for the twin cannons are too bulky to put inside a turret. The miniaturization of the Falchion's Volcano Cannon's power source as well as the fact that they need to twin-link it, made the Falchion a stupidly expensive investment even when compared to its sister tanks, so don't expect to see that much of them in the 41st Millennium.

Interestingly enough, the Falchion was developed long before the outbreak of the [[Horus Heresy]] and as such its prey was not the enemy Titans it would later see such extensive combat against. As the [[Great Crusade]] expanded ever outward, the Expeditionary Fleets encountered a staggering array of foes, some of whom were of a truly gargantuan scale, but all were turned to molten swiss cheese once this tank rolls onto the fields.

{{Marines-Forces}}
{{Chaos Space Marines}}
{{40k-Imperial-Vehicles}}
[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]]

{{clear}}

==Warhammer Fantasy==
In [[Warhammer Fantasy Battles]], the Fellblade is the name of a legendary magical artifact, a sword crafted by the [[Skaven]] Grey Seers from a cocktail of [[warpstone]] and gromril, bathed in the most potent killing curses the Grey Seers could invent (inscribed with runes so deadly simply reading them would kill the reader). The result, in the game, is a weapon regarded as one of the most outright killy in existence, so deadly even holding the thing will eventually kill whoever is wielding it.

The Fellblade was created for one purpose, and one purpose only: to kill [[Nagash]], who at that time was preparing to perform his Great Ritual, which eventually reduced [[Nehekhara]] into the land of the dead that it is today. Also Nagash was sitting on a big vein of Warpstone, which was the reason skaven wanted the Great Necromancer dead in first place. Using a human pawn, the Skaven succeeded, inflicting the first death of Nagash. In fact, they did even better than they knew; according to the 8th edition, the Fellblade not only killed Nagash, it kept on killing him, leaving a curse that meant each subsequent reincarnation of Nagash was weaker and weaker. For this reason, the Fellblade was one of the artifacts sought to resurrect Nagash before the beginning of [[The End Times]], with [[Mannfred von Carstein]], [[Mortarch]] of Shadow, eventually recovering it during The Battle of Mordkin Lair. During the dread ritual that restored unlife to the Great Necromancer, the Fellblade was destroyed, undoing its baleful effect on Nagash's spirit.

The most recent rules for the Fellblade were in the 7th edition Skaven armybook. It's a magic weapon that costs an insane 100 points with the following effects: attacks from it are Strength 10 and force a reroll of successful Ward saves, with each unsaved Wound being multiplied into D6 wounds, but the wielder must roll a D3 on the end of each of his turns; on a 1, he suffers 1 Wound with no armor saves allowed.