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Lasgun

2022-08-03T06:14:20Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* Why the Lasgun is still being used */

[[Image:Guardsman.jpg|thumb|right|This is painfully accurate.]]
[[image:KHARN LOEV FLASHLIGHT.jpg|thumb|right|[[Kharn]] also love <strike>Flashlight</strike>LASGUN!!]]
[[image:1271099410879.jpg|thumb|right|The closest thing to choice an Imperial guardsmen will have - what sort of lasgun he'll get (not an actual choice, depends on their regiment).]]

{{Topquote|IT'S NOT A LASER! IT'S A LITTLE LIGHT BULB THAT BLINKS!|Woody, Toy Story}}

{{Topquote|What do you call a Lasgun with a taclight mounted under the barrel? [[Twin-linked]].|Any 40k player ever (Hilariously, GW has caught onto this. Even more hilariously, on Regimental Standard they've got an in-universe nod where any Guardsman who makes this joke is sentenced to flogging)}}

{{Topquote|The Demolisher, the Vanquisher, even the mighty Deathstrike Missile Launcher pale in comparison to the sheer firepower of trillions of lasguns unleashing hell in unison!|Captain Garius Septus of the 263rd [[Maccabian Janissaries]]}}

The humble (and we DO mean humble) '''Lasgun''' is the most "standard-issue" armament of an average [[Imperial Guard]]sman in [[Warhammer 40,000]] setting. Given the incalculable number of Guardsmen under arms and the sheer scale of the [[Imperium]] itself, it is safe to say that a lasgun is probably the most common weapon in the entire galaxy that isn't some underhive piece of junk like stub guns, knives or other miscellaneous weapon. (Or something [[Shootas'an Dakkas|slapped together by an ork]], but that's another topic in and of itself.) On the tabletop it shares the same rules with [[autogun]]s.

The name is rather obviously a portmanteau of "laser" and "gun", but argument [[rage]]s [[skub|over how the word is meant to be pronounced]]. Many claim that it should be pronounced /ˈleɪzɡʌn/ (with the 'a' as in "laser"), but others contend that this sounds retarded, and /ˈlæzɡʌn/ (with the 'a' as in "glass") is a better pronunciation. According to [[Games Workshop]], its name is pronounced "Laze-gun"; however, Jeremy Vetock and Duncan Rhodes both say "Lazz-gun", so it really is a toss up. (And unimportant).

It is almost universally described in the [[fluff]] as discharging with a sharp crack (caused by the beam ionizing the air it travels through), but some authors describe the lasround as either a "bolt" as in Star Wars or as a "beam" as in Dawn of War. Other features of the weapon have greater variation - some [[Black Library]] works and items such as the [[Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer]] describe the weapon as possessing a fully automatic firing setting; this feature is represented by Rapid Fire rule on the tabletop, but not represented in [[Dark Heresy]], which can be explained away by virtue of the fact that there are many different patterns of Lasgun produced throughout the Imperium.

There is also some dispute as to the color of the "beam". Some fluff claims it to be blue, while games like Dawn of War portray it as red or something of a reddish-yellow. The popular ''Gaunt's Ghosts'' series of novels by [[Dan Abnett]] say that the Imperial weapons fire blue "beams", while the Chaos weapons fire red ones. In order to fix this [[Skub|mess]], we have proposed a Scientific fact on the issue...

*The Fact: the energy of each individual photon is determined by its frequency (i.e. colour); power output is energy per second, meaning the same power output is achievable with either more photons per second at a lower frequency (bright red) or fewer photons per second at a higher frequency (dim blue). In either case, the colour is also dependent on the gas it is traveling through, as the amount of energy transferred to the surrounding medium via [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compton_scattering Compton scattering] depends on the mass of each gas particle, while the brightness depends on the amount of gas particles, so the laser would look different on different planets. Regardless, a fired lasround would never look like a glowing projectile "bolt" to any camera (such as a human eye) operating at a frame rate lower than approximately a billion frames per second, so those depictions can safely be assumed to be [[heresy|heresy]]. It would look like an actual pulsed laser, i.e. a "beam" that visibly spans the distance from the weapon's muzzle to the impact point, for the duration of the pulse. The popular visual idea from [[Star Wars|other popular sci-fi weapons]] that fire glowing projectile bolts are not lasers at all, instead being described as magnetically-contained plasma bolts. It should also be taken into account that since damaged caused by a laser is higher the greater the photons-per-second impact the target location, and the Imperium’s advanced skill with laser technology, it may be possible that various patterns of lasgun might combine two or more or even all wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum to maximize photons-per-second. This would also influence the color of the laser and would change how the above factors influence the color. Easy way to think is: Lasgun = Red, Hellgun = Yellow/redish Lascannon = Pale Blue or just think of all of them as white or gold (white because whole spectrum, gold because holy light + religious fanatics)

== Why the Lasgun sucks ==
''See Also: [[Lasgun Patterns]]''

The lasgun is [[Derp|rather pathetic]] [[Grimdark|compared to the mainline arms and armour of most of the other armies of the setting]], useful only by virtue of the fact that Guardsmen come in ridiculous numbers (except in comparison to Tyranids, Chaos Cultists/Zombies, or Orks) and the application of statistical probability. The weapons are often derisively referred to as "flashlights," based on their individual uselessness, although this is arguably more of an example of how ridiculously tough everything else is in the setting.

Truthfully, the lasgun is very effective against any target equivalent to an unarmored human. The [[Warhammer 40,000 6th Edition| 6th Edition rulebook]] describes the lasgun as severing limbs at close range but further away it only goes about as deep as the liver, explosively flash-boiling said liver and all other squishy bits in the laser's path. That sounds awesome, until you remember that there are foes of the 41st millennium that are either equipped with [[Power_Armour|armour capable of deflecting heavy stubber and bolter shell impacts]], [[Orks|biology robust enough to shrug off a heavy stubber hit ''without'' armor]], or if you’re REALLY unlucky, [[Chaos_Space_Marines|those enemies that have both of the aforementioned traits]]. Because of the way that a lasgun's beam explosively flashes when it strikes a target, virtually any level of armor protection will greatly diminish the effectiveness of lasgun weaponry. Indeed, power armor is ''designed'' to shrug off the explosive flash-effect of energy weapons like the lasgun. A lasgun hit ''might'' briefly stagger an armored Space Marine, but the chance of a single hit incapacitating him is remote.

In other words, being a hand-held rifle of moderate tech designed to be wielded by un-augmented humans, the firepower and capability of a lasgun somewhat pales in comparison to many of the weapons wielded by mankind's enemies. In addition, while the effectiveness of a lasgun is comparable to an autogun (which are basically AK-47s in SPACE), the lasgun requires a somewhat higher level of industrial technology to construct. Therefore, while the lasgun is very common some Imperial worlds can't construct them locally. Finally, it can also be assumed that certain atmospheric conditions, especially those with a high percentage of airborne particulates, would greatly degrade a lasgun's effectiveness at range.

According to the ''[[Dan Abnett|Gaunt's Ghosts]]'' series the lasgun has an appreciable amount of recoil, which is fucking [[FAIL|stupid]]. The entire point of a handheld laser weapon is that there is no appreciable recoil since you aren't firing a physical projectile, which makes it easier to use. One of the main strengths of the lasgun is the fact that you can round up a bunch of [[Feral World|Feral Worlders]], give them lasguns with little to no training, point them in a general direction and just watch things die. This makes stubbers more or less obsolete, similar to how firearms made crossbows obsolete and crossbows made most bows obsolete. Not to mention the fact that if a lasgun had appreciable recoil, it wouldn't even be a lasweapon in the first place (because photons have next to no mass), but some kind of particle gun like a Tau [[Pulse Rifle]] or one of ''[[Mass Effect]]'''s Thanix cannons.

== Why the Lasgun is still being used ==
The lasgun is derisively known as a "flashlight" by most players, including Guard players themselves (including the ''Guards'' themselves actually, that's a joke among them). However, within the context of the 40k setting the lasgun is reliable, durable, extremely common, and quite accurate. It should be noted that the lasgun is described as being able to destroy a slab of cement, which means that it is quite a bit more powerful than most modern-day small arms. From a production standpoint the lasgun (and its power pack) requires a somewhat more advanced industrial base to construct than the autogun. In return, however, you get a compact, highly accurate infantry weapon that can fire over a hundred shots on a single power pack, has virtually no moving parts, and that largely removes the logistical headache of constantly restocking physical ammunition supplies. As long as a Guardsman has access to a power source that the lasgun's power packs can accept, he can, given time, replenish his "ammunition" as long as his equipment remains functional. Any source of electricity, from a common military recharging port to a domestic power socket to an exercise bike with a dynamo can be used to top up power packs. When cut off, guard units can even place their power-packs directly in fires to charge them, but this is an extreme measure since it’s [[heresy|frowned upon by the Mechanicus]] and will heavily reduce the pack’s lifespan. But a ''possibly'' useless power-pack is better than a ''certain'' bayonet charge.

Getting shot by a laser, even if you are protected, would at least flash a decent portion of the surface of what is hit into plasma. Explosively. So, most human-sized targets too tough to be penetrated by a lasgun would at least be stunned/stopped for a moment (in theory). In other words, lasers damage just about anything to some degree when powerful enough. This means that a lasgun can theoretically kill anything in the universe... eventually. Just like the [[Commissar]] told you! In 9th the gaurd get a rule, hammer of the Emperor, that let's there lasguns autowound on sixes, which mean with enough lasgun fire you can melt an imperial knight to slag.

A lightly protected or unarmored human, on the other hand, will almost certainly be critically wounded by any significant hit. Therefore, the lasgun actually has pretty good utility given the enemies the Imperium faces. In [[Dark Heresy]] the lasgun is far more useful than it is in tabletop 40k, because its reliability, availability and plentiful ammunition become real considerations against the human foes that an agent of the Inquisition is most likely to face.

One last thing about Lasguns is that they ''can'' be used as last-ditch grenades by basically making the entire power pack empty into the gun without ever actually firing it. It turns the Lasgun into an explosive comparable in power to a Krak grenade. In theory, the resulting blast can fracture even vehicle-level armor (it should be noted that this happened to a dreadnought whose front armor was already cracked from being hit by anti-armor weapons). In practice, this technique is rarely utilized because it's a desperation tactic, and in any event, only seasoned troopers would likely be aware that it's even possible.

In all seriousness, a lasgun is a deadly weapon when in the hands of someone competent. As being an effective combat weapon goes, anything not too heavily armored, like Traitor Cultists, Eldar Guardians, Ork Boyz, Tyranid Gaunts, and other Imperial Guard style forces are bound to be ridden with laser holes quickly and efficiently. Even [[Power armor]] is not invulnerable: helmet lenses, articulations, and joints are still susceptible to well-placed shots and a point-blank or short-range shot at maximum power can potentially penetrate some areas of a Space Marine's armor as well.

In the end, a quote from [[Black Crusade (RPG)]] sums up the lasgun perfectly: ''"The Legionnaire that scoffs at a lasgun has not charged across an open field against a hundred of them."''

TL;DR Because of how photons affect matter, lasguns can, potentially, damage nearly anything. When combined with its reliability, utility, wide availability, and near-perfect accuracy, the lasgun is basically the perfect infantry weapon.

==Uses for the Lasgun==
[[Image:Laysgun2_1974.PNG|300px|right|thumb|Also, a rare pict-capture of the ancient Laysgun.]]
*Warming soup
*Cigarette lighter
*Changing TV channels
*Selling to buy a new weapon
*Pissing off [[Thunderhawk]] pilots
*Shining in enemies' eyes
*Throwing at people (may cause more damage than shooting it at them)
*Burning ants
*Paperweight
*Laser sight for a boltgun
*Aide during PotentiaPunctum presentations
*Light shows
*Igniting gas stoves
*Laser tag for kids (who are probably more dangerous than the gun itself)
*Magic shows for kids
*Lighting candles on birthday cakes
*A Laser pointer
*Hair removal
*Tattoo removal
*Entertainment for your space-kitties
*Shooting bottles
*Hitting your officer's pipe (Warning, will result in [[Blam|BLAMing]])
*Flashlight
*Substitute baseball bat
*Salvaged for actual useful stuff
*Horsie rides
*Chair
*Marital aid
*Wall decoration
*Coat stand
*Creating a makeshift rave
*Pretend guitar for when you gotta shred that awesome solo
*An extension device for your more dangerous bayonet. (This use is recognized and approved by Regimental Standard)
*Choppa in the hands of an ork boy
*Larping and cosplay
*Grave marker/headstone

== Other laser weapons ==
The lasgun also comes in carbine, pistol, bullpup, sniper ("long-las"), and light machine gun varieties, and the Imperium fields many other weapons based on the same technology, such as the [[hellgun]] (a powerful lasgun powered by a backpack power pack), the mighty [[lascannon]], the even bigger [[Apocalypse|volcano cannon and turbo-laser]], the even even bigger Defense Laser, and the very much bigger ''still'' laser weapons mounted on [[Battlefleet Gothic|starships.]] Must be a different type, though, because a broadside from a Retribution class battleship can devastate half a continent depending on the [[Skub|calcs]]. A single barrage from an Imperator class Titan can devastate an ''entire'' city with weapons as strong as modern day nukes. Keep in mind how large an Imperial city is. So, far stronger than modern nukes.

Oh, and [[C.S. Goto|multilasers]].

=== Laspistol ===
''See main page, [[Laspistol]]''

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=== Lasgun ===
[[Image:lasgun.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Standard Cadian pattern Lasgun]]

You know'em, you love'em. There really isn't a point in repeating what has already been said since you are on a page talking about this wonderful piece of Imperial equipment other <s>then</s> than putting it in the Lasgun family. Of course there are certain modifications that may breach the line on what ''may'' count as a Lasgun. But overall, it is cheap, effective and put a lovely little dent to most light infantry contrary to popular belief.

Just don't try and attempt go all [[Leeroy Jenkins]] on this thing. The Lasgun is a light assault weapon, not a Titan-busting Volcano Cannon.

{{40k-Ranged-Weapon-Profile-7-8|name=Lasgun|r7=24"|type7=Rapid Fire|s7=3|ap7=-|r8=24"|type8=Rapid Fire 1|s8=3|ap8=0}}

<gallery>
image:CadianLasgun.png|<center>Cadian</center>
</gallery>

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=== Suppression Laser ===
[[File:Suppresion_Laser.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Suppression Laser]]
The Suppression Laser is a type of Lasgun often used by gang members in the underhive of a [[Hive World]]. As its name suggests, a Suppression Laser is a laser shotgun that has a [[Dakka|stupendous level of firepower.]] Within the tight confines of a underhive, the large spread of lasers makes the Suppression Laser a popular weapon, especially among members of House Van Saar.

Because its a shotgun, the Suppression Laser trades the reliability, range, and accuracy of the Lasgun with balls-out power. The Mechanicus equivelent of this is the Mitralocks.

On [[Necromunda]] tabletop, the Suppression Laser is a laser version of a different weapon; in this case its 10 credits more than the humble Shotgun, [[Derp|but for no perceivable benefits.]] It can’t even use any of the cool ammo that Shotguns can get.

=== Laser Gauntlet ===
[[File:Laser_Gauntlets.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Laser Gauntlet]]
Works essentially the same as a [[Boltstorm Gauntlet]] in function, just replace the bolt rounds with pew pew lasers.

These are multiple arm-mounted laser tubes. Laser Gauntlets can unleash a deadly storm of lasbolts at considerable range from the bearer's fists. With an increased power supply, the gauntlets can fire a series of sustained beams that can punch through enemy armour.

Laser Gauntlets are found mounted on the Yeld Spyrer hunting rig, used in the underhive of [[Necromunda]]. Would probably be useful if you like the idea of still having firepower without sacrificing one of your hands for weapon firing.

=== Hotshot Laspistol===
[[File:Hotshot_Laspistol.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Hotshot Laspistol]]

''See main page, [[Hellgun#Hellpistol|Hellpistol]]''

The Hotshot Lasgun's little brother, also known as [[Hellgun#Hellpistol|Hellpistol]] (although there do remain some canon conflict about these two weapons designation). Hotshot Laspistols are typically hand-crafted, rather than mass-produced in factories, and many of them are hundreds of years old and have acquired histories over the course of centuries of use in combat. Unless otherwise specified, a Hotshot Laspistol remains the property of the Departmento Munitorum, though an individual can be awarded one for heroic deeds. A Hotshot Laspistol fires a higher-intensity shot than a laspistol, therefore, despite its higher penetration it will cauterize the wound it causes and prevents too much blood from being shed. For this reason, Hotshot Laspistol are preferred for use as execution weapons for officers and commissars, as a shot to the condemned soldier's head will prevent any blood from staining their uniform.

<gallery>
image:TempestusPistol.png|<center>Tempestus Scion</center>
</gallery>

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=== Hotshot Lasgun===
[[File:Hotshot_Lasgun.png|200px|right|thumb|Hotshot Lasgun]]

''See main page, [[Hellgun]]''

A variant of the Lasgun, also known by the far cooler name "[[Hellgun]]" (although there do remain some canon conflict about these two weapons designations since they have different art, different models, and are used by different units in both the lore and in the models...so yeah, probably totally different things), the Hotshot Lasgun and Hotshot Laspistol are weapons used primarily by the [[Stormtrooper]]s (and presumably other arms of the Imperial war machine). In some canon sources, these are juiced-up versions of the Lasgun charge pack inside a normal Lasgun, or in ''other'' canon sources, the entire weapon has a beefier build with better conduits and optics to survive the prolonged increased strain of a higher power throughput. They are designed to be used by elite troops or officers, who are generally better shots. Instead of the Hellgun's design approach of using lots of batteries and a heavy-duty build to attain higher cyclic fire rates, Hotshots use a super-concentrated laser blast to achieve the same kind of armor-penetrating power. It seems to have just enough penetrating power to be able to pierce most forms of space marine power armor. Or at least as deep as a non-explosive bolt shell would.

{{40k-Ranged-Weapon-Profile-7-8|name=Hotshot Lasgun|r7=18"|type7=Rapid Fire|s7=3|ap7=3|r8=18"|type8=Rapid Fire 1|s8=3|ap8=-2}}

<gallery>
image:TempestusLasgun.png|<center>Tempestus Scion</center>
</gallery>

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=== Hotshot Volley Gun ===
[[File:Volley_Gun.png|200px|right|thumb|Hotshot Volley Gun]]

Another variation of the Hotshot category of Lasguns. These weapons are borne into battle by [[Stormtrooper|Tempestus Scions]] to deal with armored enemy infantry. The Hot-Shot Volley Gun is a larger version of the Hot-Shot Lasgun that "incorporates penitent-class heat sink arrays" which means that they "can maintain a punishing rate of high powered fire".

Think of them as a fully automatic LMG version of the regular old Hotshot Lasgun. As you can imagine, the sheer amount of [[Dakka]] means that they are more likely to be situated within the heavy weapons category then the normal Hotshot Lasguns. They are known to fire with a distinctive spitting howl. In UA these babies are carried by Airborne kasrkins and they're able to take down necron destroyers and their equivalents in no time.

The real life equivalent would be the the light machine guns of WW1 and WW2 (like the Lewis Gun and the BAR) and the modern Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW) concept, having the same ammo as the standard rifle (either a short round like the 5.56 NATO for logistics or a long one like the 7.62 NATO to drop what you hit. Though recently America has adopted .277 Fury to replace the latter. Where America goes NATO and its other allies fallow). If the Lasgun is a M16 with 5.56 shots and the Hotshot Lasgun is a 7.62 M14, then the Hotshot Volley gun is an MK48 M249 variant or a M240 firing 7.62x51 ammunition...but translated into their future, grimdark space variants.

<gallery>
image:TempestusVolley.png|<center>Tempestus Scion</center>
</gallery>

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=== Mining Laser ===
[[File:Mining_Laser.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Mining Laser]]

Mining Laser is not formally a weapon, but a tool for breaching tunnels in the mining process. In some cases though the Mining Laser can be used as a weapon, often by [[Genestealer|Genestealer Cults]]. For example, Dvarlock pattern Mining Laser, founded and identified by Tempestor Gulack of the Kappic Eagles have been modified so it can blast the hole through a meters-thick bulkhead with a single pull of a trigger. It also features three hand-grips, indicating its use in combination with a tertia pattern servo-arm (or the extra arms of a Genestealer Hybrid).

There is also the Heavy Mining Laser which is a heavier variant of the standard version, used on [[Goliath Truck|Goliath Rockgrinders]] (More can be read below). Although to be honest, it is only 'heavy' because it is on a turreted mount, other than that there is very little difference between the Heavy Mining Laser and the regular old Mining Laser.

It is fucking irritating in Space Hulk Deathwing, where it will be the number one cause of bullshit deaths.

<gallery>
image:HybridLaser.png|<center>Neophyte Hybrid</center>
</gallery>

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=== Long-Las ===
[[File:Long-Las.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Long-Las]]

In the good old days the Imperial sniper rifle was the poorly named [[Needler|'needle rifle']] which was in fact a kind of laser weapon. Well, partly. It had two parts to each shot. It fired a narrow beam laser to burn through armor, and then it fired a 'needle' bullet; a spike of some kind of metal filled with horribly poisonous toxins. With the armor removed first, the spiky bit all but ensured a kill if you hit, spurting deadly death juice into your unfortunate body. Sadly they weren't especially well conceived weapons (hitting the same spot with two different weapons, one that responds to wind and gravity, and the other that doesn't is something of a challenge) so they've pretty much been written out of the setting these days as being too expensive for regular use. Now the term "sniper rifle" is used fairly loosely in the Imperium; many sniper rifles are simply over-powered lasguns called long-las rifles, while many others (such as those used by [[Space Marine]] [[Scout]]s) are high-velocity slug-throwers which have more in common with [[autogun]]s than they do with energy weapons. Then there are other more exotic variants firing poisoned darts or even stranger payloads, such as the aforementioned needle rifle (which [[Ratling]]s still prefer) or the [[Exitus Rifle]] that fires straightup death. All of these variants have pretty much the same effect on the target, unless you play older editions or use special characters who have rules that say otherwise. Or play [[Dark Heresy]].

However, since you are on the Long-Las category, we might as well talk about it. The Long-Las is a sniper variation of the Lasgun with a much longer barrel for increased range and accuracy, and also to prevent overheating. However the barrel makes a Long-Las up to twice as long as a standard Lasgun and thus difficult to use in close quarters.

Within the Imperial Guard the Long-Las, formerly known as the Sniper Variant Lasgun, is issued only to those Guardsmen with the necessary marksmanship skills and knowledge in stealth and scouting operations. It uses the XC 52/3 strengthened barrel, longer and thinner than normal models, and lacks a charge setting slider, instead using hotshot power packs. It's also much quieter than other lasguns and features a flash suppressor to dampen the revealing flashes of its shots ([[FAIL|even though like other lasguns its laser beam is visible]]). However the increased wear on the barrel from using the overpowered energy packs means more frequent barrel changes than is usually required for normal lasguns. You may be wondering why the IG does not use a shorter, thicker heavy barrel version with improved cooling as standard issue for all Guardsmen to kick serious ass. Ask your local [[Commissar]] for a detailed explanation.

<gallery>
image:CadianLongLas.png|<center>Cadian</center>
</gallery>

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=== Lascarbine ===
[[File:Lascarbine.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Lascarbine]]

During the [[Great Crusade]] the Lascarbine was the great grandfather of the Lasgun. Basically the same weapon as the Lasgun in a smaller package. They were standard issue among the Imperial Army.

In modern WH40k, a Lascarbine is designed for use by special operations units and is usually employed by Drop Troopers or scout units of the Imperial Guard such as the
[[Elysian Drop Troops]]. Catachan troopers also use them.

<gallery>
image:CatachanLascarbine.png|<center>Catachan</center>
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=== Auxilia Lasrifle ===
[[File:Auxillia_Lasrifle.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Auxilia Lasrifle]]

The Auxilia lasrifles were the primary weapon of the [[Solar Auxilia]] during the Great Crusade and Horus heresy eras. And as befitting weapons from a time when Imperial Technology had not yet sunk into the abyss, they have better range compared to their inferior knockoffs. These weapons have the option of taking Blast-chargers, which turns the lasrifle into a miniature lascannon, though on the roll of 1 the charger melts in its operator's hands, preventing the player from using them for the remainder of the game (the gun can still fire after 1 turn of cooling off). They also [[awesome|come standard]] with Collimators, which switch out Rapid Fire for Heavy 2, making any opponent think twice about about charging a squad of [[Solar Auxilia]]. As if a Super Heavy tank as a Dedicated Transport wasn't enough reason to stay out of range. They were produced on selected few Forgeworlds (despite being the go-to armament of 20% of Imperial Army) to begin with, required advanced technology to make and specific combined-armed tactics (a big no-no for [[Imperial Guard]] thanks to a certain [[Roboute_Guilliman|genius]]) of Solar Auxilia cohorts to use effectively, so were shifted out of production in favor of a basic flashlight.

<gallery>
image:SolarAuxiliaLasrifleProfile.png|<center>Solar Auxilia</center>
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=== Blast Pistol ===
[[File:Auxillia_Blast_Pistol.PNG|150px|right|thumb|Blast Pistol]]
''Not to be confused with the [[Phosphor Blast Pistol|Phosphor Blast Pistol]], another 30k era weapon that fires <u>completely different rounds.</u> Nor the [[Dark Eldar]] [[Drukhari Blast Pistol]] which also fires <u>[[Herp|completely different ammunition]]</u>''

Basically a souped-up las-pistol that explodes in the user's hand. Their description makes them seem like laser revolvers used by officers of the Solar Auxilla, to mirror when an officer during the 19th century was issued a sidearm. This gave him a faster-firing gun compared to line troops who had to use lever and bolt-actions, which is similar to the Blast Pistol's apparently faster rate of fire.

These bespoke weapons like the Hotshot Laspistol and Hellpistol were able to fire only a handful of shots before reloading, but their damage output rivals that of arcane [[Volkite Weaponry]]. Due to this, Blast Pistols were seen as an emblem of wealth and prestige, and many were works of art in their own right, and thus they also became a widely used form of decoration and reward for extreme gallantry and commendation within the Solar Auxilia regiments.

On table top, Blast Pistols are 6" S5 Las-pistols with Twin Linked and Gets-Hot for two points. Twin linked counteracts Gets Hot, but if you want a good pistol just spend the extra 8 points on a Plasma Pistol.
<gallery>
image:SolarAuxiliaBlastPistol.png|<center>Solar Auxilia</center>
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=== Digital Lasers/Digital Weapons ===
[[File:JokaeroDigitalWeapon.jpg‎|200px|right|thumb|Digi-Weapon]]

These are actually melee weapons. However there isn't really anywhere else to put them.
In 40k they are exclusively made by [[Jokaero]]. During the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy they are weapons of [[Blood Ravens|unknown]] [[Heresy|Xenos origin]]. This section describes how the Imperium at large uses them.

Digital weapons are best described as a small laser used by Space Marine officers. It allows them to re-roll one failed hit during the Assault/Fight Phase, which is decent. However, it is not anywhere near as cool as when they are used in Black Library books or the weapons stated to be used by the [[Jokaero]]. Only the Xenos monkeys have them on the table top in 8th edition.

30k Digital Lasers are as usual better than the 40k version. Rather than just Space Marines, Inquisitors and the occasional gun/chain/power sword toting hero, every officer had access to them. They are short ranged but deadly weapons that are "small enough to be concealed in a ring, gauntlet, sword hilt or helm." So they should be as strong as a single Hot Shot Lasgun, Lasrifle or Las-Lock beam.

In the Horus Heresy game a Digital Laser gives the model one additional attack, [[Awesome|so the officer doesn't have to give up their sole ranged weapon for an extra melee hit.]] One would assume either weapon would also allow an extra ranged attack with the same strength and AP as a Hot-Shot Lasgun or Archaeotech Pistol, like how the Servo Harness gives [[Techmarines]] extra ranged and melee weapons. However, Games Workshop and Forge World aren't nice enough to give players an option that would be useful in more than one situation without making them pay extra real life money for it first.
In HH 2.0 they no longer have rules despite the Imperum being more advanced than their counterparts in the 42nd millenium . This might get FAQ'ed or return in up coming rulebook.

<gallery>
image:JokaeroDigital.png|<center>Jokaero Weaponsmith</center>
</gallery>

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=== Las-Lock ===

[[File:Las-Lock.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Las-Lock]]

Las-lock is like a granddad to "modern" Lasgun, or perhaps the lasgun's equivalent to a musket. While very few Guard Regiments still use it in-universe in 40k (see [[Only War]] by FFG), the Las-Lock is popular with the Mechanicum in 30k. [[Tech Thrall]]s are thus far the only known Mechanicum troops to carry las-weapons (on tabletop, but many las weapons are used by Skitarii and servitors in fluff), but oh boy, aren't they numerous. Las-locks sacrifice rate of fire and range for more damage per shot, making it a worse version of the Hot-Shot lasgun with higher Strength, but with miserable AP of 6 and 1 shot max. Not sure how this particular AdMech weapon fares in fluff, though. Since it’s AdMech, large, and has a ton of thick cables attached, it probably hits extremely hard.

In addition to the forces mentioned above, las-locks were commonly issued to low level Chaos occupation troops during the Sabbat Crusade. It's also not uncommon to find these in civilian hands.

<gallery>
image:TechThrallLasLock.png|<center>Tech Thrall</center>
</gallery>

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=== Mitralock ===
[[File:Mitralock2.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Mitralock]]

There is also the Mitralock, a [[what|laser shotgun]] with reduced range.
Both have the option to upgrade to Induction chargers [[awesome|increasing their shots to two.(represented as Assault 2 in game.)]] While still allowing them to Assault with no penalty. This turns them into a high risk unit for any opponent dumb enough to charge them.

In terms of tabletop, the Mitralock is the [[Shotgun|Scattergun]] of the Las Family. It is an 8" range Las-lock, but it gains Shred. It also has Induction Chargers which is an optional attachment to both Las-locks AND Mitra-locks (HH3, p. 221) it upgrades them to Assault 2. Meanwhile, the name is most likely a reference to the French term for grapeshot ('''Mitra'''illeuse).

<gallery>
image:TechThrallMitralock.png|<center>Tech Thrall</center>
</gallery>

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=== Lascutter ===
[[File:Bits-lascutter.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Lascutter]]

Lascutters are a powerful but extremely unwieldy type of Laser Weapon. Originally industrial tools used for cutting through armored bulkheads and dense ores, these weapons make use of disruption field-assisted short range laser arcs. They were later utilized for warfare, being used in sieges where they were able to breach enemy fortifications and if necessary become devastating close-quarters weapons.

Only Breachers can take them in the Horus Heresy game. In Horus Heresy 2.0, Lascutter stats have been fixed to work like other las weapons. Now their ''Exotic Weapons'' instead of ''Las weapons''.
They're still shitty at melee but that's not why your taking them. Lascutters are now 8 inches, Assault 1, S10, Ap 1 with ''Armorbane(Ranged)''. Making them better than [[Meltagun]]s and a viable alternative to [[Graviton_weapons|Graviton guns]]. Meltagun need to be at 6 inches to get their anti vehicle bonus. This may seem uncomfortably close but they pair well with [[Volkite Charger]]s. The original Space Marine energy gun. So now your Breecher troops can crack open [[Land Raider]]s while driving around in a [[Land Raider]]. Their melee profile has been nerfed to S7 while still having the ''Cumbersome'' and ''Unwieldy'' rules. Breachers shouldn't be participating in Assault's anyways.

Now Astartes don't have inferior weapons to Genestealers & other humanoid or xeno-terrorists. Lascutters stats currently paint them as proper precursors to [[Mining Laser]]s and [[Heavy Mining Laser|heavy variants]] they should be.

In 9E they can be taken by Elysian Drop Troops. They use the outdated profile with no ranged attacks and only one melee hit. Where you don't want them to be. So use Special or Heavy Weapon options and cross your fingers if you want them to be like their 30k counterparts instead of pieces of shit.

<gallery>
image:LegionBreacherLascutter.png|<center>Legion Breacher</center>
</gallery>

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===Lightning Gun===
[[File:Lightning+Gun.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Lightning Gun]]

[[Pretend|Despite the name,]] Lightning Guns are a type of laser weapons used by the AdMech. Whilst they do use electromagnetism (which is all photons, so duh it’s a laser), most of the killing power is from the pew pew lasers. Lightning Guns are Great Crusade era weapons used by various Adeptus Mechanicus troops, most notably [[Thallax]].

This aptly named weapon takes the form of a baroquely designed carbine connected to a micro-reactor or power core. It fires an ionizing las-beam along with a powerful phased discharge of electromagnetic particles (since electromagnetism is, y’know, <u>light</u>, but it would still operate as advertised). The ensuing effect makes the weapon able to overload mechanical targets in addition to its effectiveness against organic enemies. Essentially, it's an electrolaser.

<gallery>
image:ThallaxLightning.png|<center>Thallax</center>
</gallery>

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===Las-Fusil===
[[File:Las-Fusil.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Las-Fusil]]
''Not to be confused with the [[Pulsar-Fusil]] or the [[Phased Plasma-Fusil]]''

The more [[Awesome|chad version]] of the Long-Las.

The Las-Fusil is essentially the laser equivalent to the [[Mk.III Shrike Pattern Bolt Sniper Rifle]]. These are powerful, anti-personnel heavy Laser Weapon used by Space Marine [[Eliminator]] Squads.

Like the Hellguns and/or Hotshot Lasgun, the Las-Fusil requires an external battery supply to power its shots. Although instead of a large and ungainly backpack, it has a modular battery that can be held in the side pocket of the Space Marine. Because it has no mass, the Las-Fusil is more accurate and has greater range than the Shrike Bolt Sniper Rifle. However, it is heavily affected by atmospheric conditions and higher maintenance cost.

Seeing as how a Long-Las has the power to punch through power armor, the Las-Fusil which has a more advance powerpack and stronger focusing lense should be able to punch through vehicle armor like an anti-material rifle. The crunch seems to agree with the fluff as you can swap your Bolt Sniper Rifle for this weapon which is counted as an anti-light vehicle and anti-TEQ gun (36", heavy 1, S8, AP-3, D3).

=== Multilasers ===

''See main page, [[Multilasers]].''

The Multilaser is basically just a [[Hellgun]] that's been modded for more [[Dakka]], being a pretty good weapon against most non- to lightly-armored targets (infantry, Taurox-equivalents, skimmers, etc.). Gets a bad rep due to C.S. Goto, but it’s actually pretty awesome and the Guard should learn to spam them. Waaaaay cheaper than heavy bolters, after all. Because laser.

As stated above, if the Lasgun is an Assault Rifle, the Hotshot Lasgun/Hellgun is a Battle Rifle and the Hotshot Volley Gun is a General Purpose MG, the Multilaser is a Heavy MG bordering on light autocannon depending on the pattern.

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=== Heavy Mining Laser ===
[[File:GoliathRockgrinderLaser.png|200px|right|thumb|Heavy Mining Laser]]
The aforementioned Heavy Mining Laser. As previously mentioned, it is basically a Mining Laser on a turret. Like its smaller brother, the Heavy Mining Laser is used primarily to bore through rock and other quarry within Mining and Forge Worlds of the Imperium. However it can also be used to cleanly bore through the side armor of a Leman Russ and a Space Marine if needed. Rules of the Internet, Rule 40,000: if it exist, the Imperium will weaponize it.

The [[Genestealer Cult|Genestealer Cults]] have exploited its power because of this. The only difference between the regular Mining Laser and the Heavy Mining Laser is in its power supply. The regular Mining Laser carries its own portable power supply which makes it mobile but at the cost of a shorter battery life (eg: less 'shots') and a shorter effective range. The Heavy Mining Laser on the other hand, is connected to a much larger and thus, powerful power supply which allows for a longer battery life and a longer range.

It is often mounted on the [[Goliath Truck|Goliath Rockgrinder]], but it can also be mounted on the [[Achilles Ridgerunner]].

=== Lascannon ===

''See main page, [[Lascannon]].''

These are the main Imperial anti-tank weapon (Heavy1 72" S9 AP3 for D6), and they are mounted on [[Heavy Weapons Squad|E]][[Predator|V]][[Devastator Squad|E]][[Razorback Transport|R]][[Leman Russ Battle Tank|Y]][[Sentinel|T]][[Dreadnought|H]][[Land Raider|I]][[Tarantula|N]][[Fortress of Redemption|G]] and occasionally wielded by [[SPESS MEHREENS]].

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===Corve Las-Pulser===
[[File:ContemptorAchillusLasPulser.png|250px|right|thumb|Corve Las-Pulser]]
The Corve or ''Corvae'' Las-Pulser is a type of Laser Weapon used by the [[Adeptus Custodes]]. They are the giant Lascannon mounted on top of the giant Dreadnought-like spear. It was equipped to the Dreadspear of the Custodes Contemptor-Achillus class Dreadnought.

The Corve is a 36" S9 AP2 Heavy D3 weapon. It is an upgrade for the Agamatus jetbikes and found as part of the Contemptor-Achillus's Dreadspear, and most of the reason for it's 40 point upgrade cost. The Pulsar is one of the few weapons that Custodes have as a counterpart to Lascannons.

<gallery>
image:LasPulser.png|<center>Contemptor Achillus</center>
image:AgamatusLasPulser.png|<center>Agamatus Jetbike</center>
</gallery>

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===Las-Ripper===
[[File:Las-Ripper_Side_View.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Las-Ripper]]
Essentially a weaker version of the Las-Talon.

A Las-Ripper is a type of heavy Imperial Laser Weapon usually deployed on the Primaris Space Marines' [[Astraeus Super-Heavy Tank|Astraeus Super-Heavy Grav Tank.]] Las-Rippers are used as sponson weapons on Astraeus grav tanks, where they serve as the vehicle's standard anti-personnel weapons for close and messy encounters.

In terms of crunch, as previously aforementioned, the Las-Rippers are a weaker version of the Las-Talon. Although it is not a bad weapon per se, it suffers from the fact that there are much better weapons that the Astraeus could be equipped with.

Most often, the Las-Ripper is replaced with the more powerful Plasma Eradicators. This have got to do with the fact that the Plasma Eradicators are understandable more powerful per shot, but what is unusual is that the Eradicators have more range and is [[Wat|''cheaper'']] than the Las-Ripper of all things.

<gallery>
Image:AstraeusLasRipper.png|Alternate View
</gallery>

===Las-Talon===
[[File:LasTalon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Las-Talon]]
One of the primary weapons of the Repulsor and a discount Lascannon.

The Las-talon is a specialized type of Laser Weapon that can only be found on both the Stormhawk Interceptor air superiority fighter used by the Adeptus Astartes and the Primaris Space Marine Repulsor armored transport.

The Las-talon fires two potent blasts of laser energy in rapid succession, ensuring a clean kill against even the heaviest armored targets. Unlike other laser weapons, the Las-talon is relatively short-ranged, with its damage heavily reduced at great range.

And as you know, it is basically the big brother of the Las-Ripper.

<gallery>
image:RepulsorLasTalon.png|<center>Primaris Repulsor</center>
</gallery>

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===Laser Destroyer===
[[File:Laser_Destroyer.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Laser Destroyer]]
The Laser Destroyer is an Imperial laser weapon mounted primarily on the [[Destroyer Tank Hunter]], capable of destroying enemy tanks from long range. The Laser Destroyer however is a highly-complex system which all but a few Forge Worlds can no longer reproduce; even those who can create new ones must hand-craft each one through a painstakingly slow process. The result has been that these weapons and the vehicles which use them have become incredibly rare amongst the Imperial Guard. The chance of receiving any replacement for lost or destroyed models is very slim, often leading to recovered tank destroyers instead being fitted with another weapon.

During the invasion of Armageddon, though, a number of Chimeras were refitted with Laser Destroyers and re-designated APDS-6a 'Defenders' as an effective stop-gap measure against the Orks.

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===Neutron Laser===
[[File:NeutronLaser.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Neutron Laser]]
A Neutron Laser is a heavy weapon utilized by the forces of Adeptus Mechanicus' Skitarii Legions as a primary weapon for [[Onager Dunecrawler|Onager Dunecrawlers.]], and Imperial Guard forces on the [[Valdor Tank Hunter]]. A Neutron Laser is the last word in battlefield anti-tank weaponry.

With a stabilised neutronic coil arc reactor as its power source, a Neutron Laser is able to fire a beam so devastating that it not only is able to punch through the thickest of armour, but also sends a blast wave of electromagnetic energy that scrambles circuits and synapses alike when it strikes its target.

It doesn't seem to suffer as much of a backfire feedback that usually plagues its larger brother. So that's a plus.

<gallery>
image:OnagerNeutronLaser.png|A slightly more safer version of the Neutron Laser Projector. ''Slightly''.
</gallery>

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===Arachnus Heavy Lascannon Battery===
[[File:Arachnus_Heavy_Lascannon_Battery.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Arachnus Heavy Lascannon Battery]]
Not to be confused with the Arachnus Heavy Blaze Cannon.

The Arachnus Heavy Lascannon Battery was a Laser Weapon system that was used by the ancient [[Dreadnought#Deredeo Pattern|Deredeo Pattern Dreadnoughts]] of the Legiones Astartes during the [[Great Crusade]] and [[Horus Heresy]] eras. As one might expect, it is developed by Arachnus which also produce the Blaze Cannons used by everyone's favourite [[Adeptus Custodes|golden bananas.]]

The Arachnus Heavy Lascannon Battery was a set of two massive, twin-linked [[Lascannon]]s that has been suped-up and overcharged, taking up both the Deredeo's weapon mounts.

Far more powerful than any other pattern of Lascannon regularly fielded by the Legiones Astartes, the Arachnus could inflict devastating amounts of damage with each hit, far more than any standard Las-weaponry.

The Arachnus Heavy Lascannon Battery is still found in use by the various Space Marine Chapters and possibly the Traitor Legions that still maintain functioning Deredeo Dreadnoughts in the 41st Millennium.

On the tabletop, one must remember that this isn't twin-linked Lascannon, but it does fire 2 S10 AP2 shots, and if its shots score a penetrating hit on a vehicle the shot has a 50% chance of having it count as [[Awesome|''two'' penetrating hits instead of one.]]

===Sabre Neutron Blaster===
[[File:SNeutron_Blaster.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Sabre Neutron Blaster]]
[[Derp|Not to be confused with the]] [[Vespid|Vespid's]] [[Neutron Blaster]].

The Sabre Neutron Blaster is one of the three primary weapons that the [[Sabre Strike Tank]] could be armed with. Unlike the [[Volkite Saker]] which deals with mass infantry or the [[Anvilus Snub Autocannon]] that targets light armour. The Sabre Neutron Blaster is specifically designed to turn superheavy tanks inside out.

Nothing more than the [[Neutron Laser Projector]]'s little brother. The Sabre Neutron Blaster was constructed in the same manner as the larger neutron cannon employed by the [[Sicaran Battle Tank#Sicaran Venator|Sicaran Venator,]] the intense radiation emitted by the capacitors and charge packs of the cannon is so deleterious that it will eventually degrade the Sabre's own control systems.

Rules-wise, the Sabre Neutron Blaster is a relatively short-ranged ant-tank weapon. At only 24", you are not hitting far. But if it hits, it hits hard. S9, AP1, Heavy 1 weapon with Concussive and Shock Pulse rules. This thing can stun-lock enemy vehicles while [[Anal circumference|carving a new rear hole.]]

===Heavy Laser Destroyer===
[[File:HeavyLaserDestroyer.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Heavy Laser Destroyer]]
The bigger, badder brother of the regular Laser Destroyer.

The Heavy Laser Destroyer is a type of heavy Laser Weapon with powerful anti-armor capability. It is commonly mounted on the Space Marine [[Repulsor Tank#Repulsor Executioner|Repulsor Executioner tank]], with a smaller variant found also mounted on the [[Gladiator Tank#Gladiator Lancer|Gladiator Lancer Tank.]] The larger chassis of the Repulsor mounts much larger and more powerful generators which could release a more potent shot. Of course, this means that the barrel needs to be strengthened and lengthened to accommodate the high heat dispersal.

Crunchwise, this is a new Primaris weapon found on the Repulsor Executioner and the Gladiator Lancer. The Executioner's is a 72" range, Heavy 2, S12, AP-4 and D3+3 weapon whilst the Lancer is a slightly weaker 72" range, Heavy 2, S10, AP-3, Dd3+3 weapon, nevertheless, they are both dedicated tank killers, though it is an expensive weapon.

===Arachnus Blaze Cannon===
[[File:ArachnusCannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Arachnus Blaze Cannon]]
The Arachnus Blaze Cannon is a type of Laser Weapon used by the Adeptus Custodes. This weapon was a development of standard Imperial las-technology, but with built in esoteric and powerful components which could never be replicated en masse.

The Blaze Cannon is mounted on the [[Coronus Grav Carrier]].

On tabletop they are basically the bastard offspring of Multi-lasers and Lascannons, they have two firing modes. One is Burst for infantry shredding, the other is Concentrated for Vehicle killing with AP1 and Exoshock, which gives you an automatic second Penetrating hit which ignores cover saves on a 4+ after you score one (so you roll to hit, roll to penetrate, enemy rolls invulnerable/cover, and only then...)

The Blaze Cannon itself is a S6 AP5 Heavy Bolter, or 48" S8AP1 Heavy 1, Exoshock: In all honesty, the Burst mode is rather shitty, but Concentrated is essentially a Lascannon with nasty special rules.

<gallery>
image:CoronusBlazeCannon.png|<center>Coronus Grav-Carrier</center>
</gallery>

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===Arachnus Heavy Blaze Cannon===
[[File:CaladiusAnnihilatorHeavyBlazeCannonProfile.png|200px|right|thumb|Arachnus Heavy Blaze Cannon]]
A larger version known as the Arachnus Heavy Blaze Cannon also exist.

This time it is mounted on the [[Caladius Grav-Tank|Caladius Annihilator]] and it is basically a twin-linked Lascannon on steroids.

On tabletop they are basically the bastard offspring of Multi-lasers and Lascannons, they have two firing modes. One is Burst for infantry shredding, the other is Concentrated for Vehicle killing with AP1 and Exoshock, which gives you an automatic second Penetrating hit which ignores cover saves on a 4+ after you score one (so you roll to hit, roll to penetrate, enemy rolls invulnerable/cover, and only then...)

The Heavy Blaze Cannon itself is a 48" S8 AP3 Heavy 4, or 72" S10 AP1 Heavy 1, Exoshock: Optional turret replacement for the Caladius.

<gallery>
image:CaladiusAnnihilatorHeavyBlazeCannon.png|<center>Caladius Annihilator</center>
</gallery>

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===Arachnus Storm Cannon===
[[File:TelemonArachnusStormCannon.png|200px|right|thumb|Arachnus Storm Cannon]]
The big honcho mounted only on the biggest of Dreadnought walkers.

The Arachnus Storm Cannon is a large gatling-style Laser Weapon used by the Adeptus Custodes. Seeing as how it is a ''double-barrelled'' gatling weapon, there must be one hell of a cooling system to prevent this from melting the golden gunstick into a golden beatstick. Although, give how its godfather, the [[Superheavy Laser Weapons#Arachnus Magna-Blaze Cannon|Arachnus Magna-Blaze Cannon]], have a stupidly expensive cooling/containment system, I guess something like the Storm Cannon is just as capable in preventing a meltdown. It is most typically mounted on the [[Telemon Heavy Dreadnought]]. The Golden Bananas just wanted to have an oversized Multi-Laser and the Emprah delivereth.

On tabletop, the Storm Cannon is a 48" S7 AP3 Heavy 7, or 72" S9 AP1 Heavy 2, Exoshock: the Telemon's big Gatling gun and perhaps the most versatile of the Arachnus weapons. This is a must take if you are facing armies with a large amount of vehicles.

<gallery>
image:|<center></center>
</gallery>

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=== Helfrost weapons ===

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_cooling Laser cooling is actually a thing.]
''See main page, [[Helfrost Weaponry]]''

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=== Laser Destroyer Array ===
[[File:VindicatorLaserDestroyer01.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Vindicator Laser Destroyer Array]]
Laser Destroyer Arrays are a special type of lascannon array. Instead of firing in a single, solid blast the laser destroyer would fire short pulses microseconds apart from its various barrels, acting as a sort of long-ranged drill. On the plus side this means they're more destructive (never a bad thing) as it allowed them to bore through everything, on the downside it's apparently more of a pain in the ass to fire and reload them, going by their tabletop stats and they're nowhere near as portable. Note that despite sharing the name, they are not the same as laser destroyers.

In 7th edition (and Horus Heresy) this gave you a single lascannon shot which was Ordnance instead of Heavy and AP 1 instead of 2. It dealt with vehicles better but similar lascannon arrays fired 2 shots instead of the one (both are twin-linked) so if you had to decide on the two then you had to make a choice, quality hits or quantity of hits?
There was a way to up the shot count, but only if you took a Vindicator Tank Destroyer. If you stayed motionless and/or declared to overcharge it after remaining motionless, you could add +1/+2 to its shots respectively, and after it fired you'd do the equivalent of a Gets Hot roll. In practical terms if you were playing 40k you were free to remove whatever vehicle your opponent fielded that you didn't like, whereas if you were playing Horus Heresy you'd wish Flare Shields weren't a thing as you still couldn't kill that Spartan.

In 8th edition the Laser destroyer is hilariously powerful, being S 12, AP -4, D6 damage but before you roll for damage, roll a D6. On a 1-2, it's still just D6 damage. On a 3-5, it's 2D6 and on a 6, it's 3D6. Ever wanted to cripple a Knight, Land Raider, monster or just remove that one character who accidentally got a little too close in only one shot? Now you can. It's also surprisingly cheap meaning you can spam the fuckers and potentially forget about taking lascannons entirely. Also hilarious is that the Rapier Laser Destroyer has actual combat stats, and not the kind that are explained away via its crew steering it into the enemy, but literal stats as somehow the thing attempts to hurt the enemy by poking it with its barrels (presumably). Despite being (technically) a vehicle its pokes are also weaker than the Guardsmen who push it around, being S3 whereas these macho-men are S4.

<gallery>
Image:Rapier4.jpg|Rapier variant
</gallery>

===Superheavy Laser Weapons===

''See main page, [[Superheavy Laser Weapons]]''

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==See also==
*[[Hellgun]]
*[[Laspistol]]
*[[Dune]]: from which the term was [[Blood Ravens|cribbed]].
*[[Volkite_Weaponry|Volkite Weapons]]: The closest equivalent used by [[Space Marines]] during [[Great Crusade|the old days]]. Since their not las weapons their obviously better.

{{40k-Imperial-Weapons}}
{{40k-GenestealerCults-Weapons}}
{{40k-Chaos-Weapons}}

Squat Berserkers

2022-08-02T18:05:03Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* Overview */

[[File:SquatBerserker.jpg|240px|right|thumb|A modern rendition of a Squat Berserker.]]

'''Squat Berserkers''' (Not to be confused with [[Khorne Berserkers]], although they might as well be one) are close combat [[Squats]]. [[Dwarfs (Warhammer Fantasy)|Their fantasy analogues would be the Slayers.]] Like the [[Squat Thunderers]], Squat Berserkers only appeared in [[Epic]]. They excel at bonking heads on [[Orks]] and chopping up [[Grot|Gretchins]] if they get too close to Squat ranged units. They're often quite erratic and unhinged and maybe possibly pumped full with [[Drug|Drugs]] like an [[Eversor]].

They are also deployed in Berserker Battlecars from Squat [[Land Train|Land Trains.]]

== Overview ==

Squat Berserkers are made up from attack squads of the most ferocious hand to hand fighters in the Stronghold. Attack squads are armed with [[Bolter|bolt pistols]], [[Power weapon#Power Axe|power axes]] or [[Chain Weapon#Chainsword|chainswords]] and a variety of grenades. They are expert tunnel fighters and excel at clearing buildings and fortifications ahead of the Brotherhood's advance.

All Squats are doughty fighters in close combat but Squat Berserker units are renowned for their tenacity and courage against the most impossible odds, battling fearlessly against even the mightiest of opponents without thought for their own losses. Because of this heroic determination Berserker units automatically pass any morale checks if they are in close combat.

Following the 9th edition reboot of the Squats as the [[Leagues of Votann]] the berserks have been reimagined as heavily augmented close combat murder machines known as Cthonian Berserks, which is an alarming name. Cthonian means 'earth' but it also has meaning in both lovecraftian myth and it's also the name of the planet where Horus landed. These frontline fighters originally began as Kin from the Cthonian mining guilds who enhanced the physical capabilities of their cloneskeins with cybernetic upgrades and cyberstimms, all the better to extract precious minerals from rad-plagued nebulae, explosive asteroids, and fathomless ocean depths. Now tasked with dealing with their people’s enemies they eschew ranged weapons and the fancy STC weapons of their fellow kin instead charging into battle with modified mining gear like heavy plasma axes, concussion mauls, and power fists all while wearing little or no armor besides that which their cyborg augmentations provides. Overall: there probably be very bad unless there speed is higher then you expect with short squat legs or the league get's a good transport.

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Imperial]]

[[Category: Squats]]

{{Template:Squats}}

Twin-Linked

2022-07-23T10:18:07Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* In Real Life */

{{Wh40k-stub}}
[[File:Nerf_Twin_Linked.jpg|right|400px]]
'''Twin-Linked''' weapons are a subtype of weapon found in the [[Warhammer 40,000]] universe that embody the timeless tactic in warfare of ensuring a hit by slinging more rounds at the target. The way this is done is typically duct taping two guns together and firing them at once so that the target has to avoid twice the number of rounds. Typically vehicles, monstrous creatures and terminators carry twin-linked weapons, considering that typically only heavy weapons are twin-linked. Although storm bolters are twin-linked boltguns in appearance, they actually increase the fire rate of the weapon. Perhaps a prerequisite of being allowed to wear Terminator armor is knowing where those extra shots go.

Where exactly the other gun's shots go if you hit the first time is a mystery whose answers are known to none, but it means that twin-linked weapons are, somewhat ironically, [[Ork|horribly inaccurate]] as at least one of the guns is always guaranteed to [[Fail|miss the enemy]]. As of 8th Edition, this is now no longer an issue, see below.

==In Game Terms==

When trying to hit a target, you can reroll if you miss. This is useful especially if you are using a weapon that [[Plasma|has a good chance of melting your face off rather than firing]], as it means that if you get a Gets Hot! result you can reroll, though template Gets Hot! weapons roll for it before resolving scatter, [[Leman Russ Battle Tank#Leman Russ Executioner|so don't put too much faith in plasma cannons]]. Weapons that scatter reroll an undesirable result if they are twin-linked as well. This can be exploited to allow you to reroll ordnance (for example, coupling a [[Necron|Triarch Stalker with a Doomsday Ark]]).

This, however, resulted in a rather odd display of mechanics over common sense: if you hit with your first shot, rolling the second bullet would cause it to just disappear into the warp itself. This made twinlinking always flatly worse than just having a second shot: Two of the same gun have the same odds to get at least one shot, but the two guns have a chance to score a hit and wound with the second shot.

===8th edition===
Twin-linked no longer gives you a reroll - in an incredible display of common sense, [[Games Workshop|our overlords]] have decided that a twin-linked autocannon is simply two autocannons duct taped together, and twin-linked weapons now give you twice as many shots as a non twin-linked weapon.

Aside from the logical improvement to its advantages, since the additional shots now actually go somewhere (they can all hit the target), it also logically makes twin-linked plasma weapons more likely to melt your own face, instead of less likely. Which really does make sense.

==In Real Life==
Functionally in reality, twin linked weapons are most often seen in modern warfare in situations where you or the target are moving very fast and you need to increase your odds of hitting by shooting more bullets. This is why pretty much all small caliber AA weapons tend to be mounted in pairs such as the M45 Quadmount, which was quite literally 2 twin linked Browning Machine Guns that were twin linked, or the German Wirbelwhind AA tank, or the 4 twin linked 50 calibers on the P-47 for eight total. In ground combat twin-linking is rarer but not unheard of, the SAS jeeps used by long range desert patrols were sometimes armed with twin-linked Lewsguns.

The more common use in the past was for single shot weapons in which case reloading would take so long that being able to get a second shot off quickly was more important, cost be damned. This is why many old time 'elephant guns' have two barrels. If the elephant or even a boar turns on you if your first shot does not kill it you better pray you can get a follow up shot to connect. Shotguns are another example, Over under shotguns, breech loading double shot shotguns in hunting the ability to get a second round off matters in case your target escapes you, be it a deer or especially a bird.

Muskets can count too, as some variants were built custom by gunsmiths to fire both musketballs at the same time, though these would tend to fetch a higher price than just a good old normal musket, and as such were usually reserved to men of great wealth or standing within either the merchant classes or the nobility, the nobility being the more likely of the two.

===In Other Words...===

[[Dakka|MOAR DAKKA]]

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]

Harvester

2022-07-23T07:44:48Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: Undo revision 835485 by Derpysaurus (talk) well if bucket wheels are bigger then Emperor titans (length at least) this is just more true, though your stats are worth a mention as well.true.

On [[Agri-World|Agri-Worlds]] and [[Imperial Worlds#Mining Worlds|Mining Worlds]] or any planet whose [[Imperial Tithe|economy and tithes]] lay upon the foundation of agriculture, raw foodstuff and raw resources, large machines are used to harvest the annual crop/minerals in bulk. In equal to their [[Imperial Navy Logistic Ships|space counterparts in terms of importance]], these vessels are extremely important machines meant for the survival of entire planetary systems. They come from all shapes and sizes, with the smallest ones dwarfing [[Titans (Warhammer 40,000)|Titans]] in scale.

==Type==
===Agriculture===
====Mega-Harvester====
[[File:Silo_Crawler.JPG|300px|right|thumb|The Harvester. Not currently looking too hot. Also, Christ, what a waste of fucking grain!]]
Looking like a drunken three-way between a Combine Harvester, a grain silo and a food processing plant. The Mega-Harvester was first mentioned in the Short Story, Our Lord on Terra, however, they made their first appearance in the [[Marneus Calgar|Papa Smurf: Origins Comic]] as a mobile factory plant, on threads. At 54.8 meters wide, its large size and multi-use capability of its whirring autoblades of its slash-threshers allow these vehicles to essentially harvest, process and manufacture foodstuff all in one compact and mobile platform.

Their separator discs then ensure that only the grain is placed into three immense hoppers that make up the bulk of the Mega-Harvester's rears. Each hopper is capable of holding five hundred tons of grain and any non-grain material collected, is expelled through the Mega-Harvester's rear ejectors. This is done with enough force, that anyone standing behind the vehicles can be seriously injured by the impact. On Nova Thulium, Grain Harvesters were a standard vessel used to reap the yearly crops to feed neighbouring Hive World, Ardium. This allows the Imperium to easily reduce vulnerable strategic supply chains and cheapens the cost of maintenance on roads, electric cables and other forms of immobile structures in conventional farmlands.

It also allows for mass harvesting of crop yield on the ton, quickly shortening the harvest period by a significant fraction, whilst the smaller [[Land Crawler|Land Crawlers]] would assist in reaping small patches of crops that were missed from these ECKS BAWKS HUEG vessels. The Mega-Harvesters can be manually steered within the vehicles' control cabins or they can be set upon pre-determined routes. They are also armed with [[Harpoon Launcher]]s and crude [[Rotor Cannon]]s, to ward off potential attacks.

There is a catch, however. Because it is a Combine Harvester, a grain silo and a food processing plant all in one neat package, they are a vulnerable target for marauders and pirates. You disable one of these machines and there goes an 8th of the entire planet's food production. In the comics, Papa Smurf witnessed an example of one of these ships being thoroughly krumped by [[Cultist|Chaos Cultists]] before intervening and saving the machine from further harm.

*'''Height:''' 38.4m
*'''Width:''' 54.8m
*'''Length:''' 60.3m
*'''Mass:''' 60-70 kilotonnes; approx
*'''Crew:''' 400-500 crew; approx
*'''Max Speed:''' 2-8kph; approx

===Mining===
====Deep-Miner====
[[File:Mining_Excavator_The_Lord_Inquisitor.JPG|300px|right|thumb|Mining for the glory of the Emprah!]]
Deep-Miners are massive tracked Imperial vehicles, the size of hab-blocks, which are used to drill resources from beneath a world's surface, akin to a modern-day open-pit Bucket-Wheeled Excavator. In a sense, they are a catch-all term for any civilian mining vessel in the Imperium.

They were created before the rise of the Emperor, but are now used by the Imperium and each contain large clan populations. Those who live aboard them can live out their entire lives without ever leaving the vehicles and as a result, a Deep-miner's population is very insular. So kind of like the miniature version of a [[Mobile Hiveships]].

They only need to make contact with Imperial authorities when the vehicles' tanks are full of resources, in order to trade for fresh food, clean water and other necessities. Due to their age and advanced technological construction, the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] has asked that any Imperial forces invading a Deep-miner should try to do as little damage as possible to the remarkable vehicles.

A few folks have attempted to kitbashed a vehicle along the lines of the Deep-Miner as can be shown below. Bucket-Wheeled Excavators were also briefly shown in the teaser trailer of [[The Lord Inquisitor]] as shown to the right, but whether it is a Deep-Miner, we may never know since it has been shelved indefinitely.

Also, how big these vehicles are meant to be is unknown since the term 'hab-block' could mean anything, from single three-story buildings to skyscraper-sized spires. But seeing as how it is large enough to contain an entire 'clan' to house a self-sustaining population, the sheer complexity of its design to warrant a 'no touch'-list for the AdMech, and that modern IRL bucket-wheel excavators are already reaching scale of what 40k would classify as a 'titan', (Bagger 293, record holder for largest land machine, is 225 meters long and 96 meters tall. That's taller then a warhound and longer then an Emperor titan is tall) we can speculate that it is on the larger end of the scale.

*'''Height:''' 100-200m; approx
*'''Length:''' 300-400m; approx
*'''Mass:''' 100-300 kilotonnes; approx
*'''Crew:''' 3,000-9,000 crew; approx
*'''Max Speed:''' 2-8kph; approx

<gallery>
76205-Construction,_Industrial,_Mining_Rig,_Saw,_Scratch_Build,_Super-heavy.jpg|Credits to [https://www.dakkadakka.com/core/gallery-viewimage.jsp?i=76205 Dakkite Saw].
</gallery>
{{40k-Imperial-Ships}}

Autogun

2022-07-20T06:42:27Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* Rotor Cannon */

[[File:Autogun4.jpg|350px|thumb|right|Note the [[C.S. Goto|heretical sorcery]] shrinking its capacity to below an [[Bolter#Astartes Boltguns|Astartes bolter]]]]

{{Topquote|Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never encountered automatic weapons.|General Douglas MacArthur}}

The '''Autogun''' is a [[firearm|chemically-powered projectile throwing weapon]] (i.e. a slugthrower) which can be considered the direct descendant of 20th to early 21st century firearms. Autoguns are (probably) slightly more powerful than real-life firearms, which is why it avoids the title of [[Stubber]]. Alternatively, since [[Stubber#Stub_Gun|Stub Pistols]] are more powerful than Autopistols, it's possible the difference has more to do with calibre and/or tech level.

Simply put, autoguns use a propellant to accelerate a metal projectile to punch holes in things.

Oh, and if the Lasgun is a 'Flashlight' then the Autogun is a "Stapler:" similar power, more weight and less reliability.

== Autoguns versus Lasguns ==

The Autogun is a significantly older weapon than the [[Lasgun]], and does not see nearly as much use due to the [[Administratum|Departmento Munitorium]] saying it's a bad idea. So if a young and curious Guardsmen tries to ask a superior, likely a Commissar (yes, reasonable Commissars do exist) on why a Lasgun is preferred over an Autogun by Imperial Standards, they will provide you a whole list of things, with the next five points being the most important:

*A lasgun's "ammunition" can be replenished indefinitely as long as the Guardsman has access to a source of power that his lasgun's power packs can accept (such as heat, light, or a direct power outlet). Autogun ammunition, meanwhile, is dependent on logistics.
*Lasgun power packs provide somewhere around 80-120 shots per pack, compared to 12-20 shots for an autogun magazine.
*Lasguns are significantly more accurate than Autoguns; a properly zeroed lasgun will *always* instantaneously hit ''exactly'' what the weapon was pointing at when it was fired, meaning that misses and near-misses are almost completely subject to the user's skill and reflexes.
*Lasguns have no recoil, so any conscript from an 8-year-old schola kid to a dusty 70-year-old clerk can fire it straight with minimal training.
*Lasguns have very few moving parts, which lends the weapon a supremely high level of reliability in all conditions.

The ''big'' reason that Lasguns are favored over Autoguns is the first one noted above- logistics. Despite this, the Autogun still has a place because there are two things the Autogun has that the Lasgun doesn't. The first is the wide variety of different ammunition types that Autoguns can utilize. These include but are not limited to Incendiary rounds, Armor-Piercing rounds, Flechette rounds, and even High-Explosive rounds. This means that while the Lasgun is preferred for fighting wars on a galactic scale, certain organizations and individual operators may prefer the Autogun as a flexible ''tactical'' weapon. The other thing an Autogun can do that a lasgun can't is punch through light cover. A laser will react with things like foliage or even smoke and fog between it and the target, which quickly reduces its effectiveness. A physical bullet, on the other hand, will just punch straight through.

Ultimately, the sheer logistical advantage of not needing to ship massive quantities of bullets everywhere secured the Lasgun's place as the Imperium's primary infantry weapon. However, in spite of the ammunition problem the Autogun still sees use throughout the Imperium (particularly among PDF forces, who only have to worry about logistics on their own planet). Although the Autogun has been sidelined by the Lasgun in official service, it remains in development.

== Autoguns versus Stubbers ==

There is [[Skub|significant debate]] over the actual power of Auto and Stub weapons, with the "higher power" team citing higher tech level and advanced materials, and "modern power" team citing no mention of any kind of recoil compensation (limiting power) and less innovative designs. Modernist evidence implies some or even most autoguns may actually be less advanced than modern firearms. After all, 21st century cannon rounds are definitely more advanced than the average autogun, and autoguns are meant to be built on all sorts of backwater worlds. Regardless, it is more than likely that both sides are right, since strictly speaking an Imperial autogun is generally any type of automatic rifle, firing solid slugs. As such, there are great many models and patterns in existence, different in both internal mechanics of their action and the ammunition they use. While some autoguns *are* just a backwater-colony's locally-designed crude weapons, using black-powder-filled cartridges and prone to jamming, *other* autoguns may be high-tech products of AdMech factories, firing hypervelocity discarding-sabot needle-bullets, capable of easily punching through carapace armour. The debate rages on, with the question being what is considered average or typical for the weapon, with both sides for the most part aware that all types exist.

There is also a third possibility, which involves the Dark Age of Technology. It's conceivable that "Stubber" is a derogatory term for old gunpowder weaponry made before the Dark Age, and "autogun" was a Dark Age classification created to delineate the super-futuristic projectile weapons of the then-modern era from Stub Guns. The difference was only significant during the Dark Age of Technology, when "autogun" meant something more akin to a [[Eclipse Phase|Smart Assault Rifle]] and a Stub Gun meant an M1 Garand. But that's not a great theory since the original autoguns were made well before the Dark Age of Technology, sometime early in our current millennium. Bizarre high-calibre low-velocity weapons firing brass bullets.

Another theory is that the main difference would seem to be it's complexity. The heavy stubber, while automatic, relies on size for it's lethality and reliability and is simple for an automatic weapon. It's rate of fire is largely due to the fact that it can fire in long bursts. A high calibre autogun, while firing fairly powerful stubby rounds, is harder to design and build in a functional form. But the Mechanicus' "stub" weapons defy this trend.

The final theory has it come down to ammunition used as opposed to the gun itself, that being a futuristic rifle the weapon can take different sized ammunition, meaning it could be equipped with thirty regular gunpowder rounds no different then a AK-47 or twelve big ass canister rounds filled with jet propellant and in theory act just like a bolter but with a solid slug instead of a explosive round. It also answers the question why local PDF forces in some primitive backwater can field the weapon en mass while the guard (requiring more complex devastating rounds for what they fight) got rid of it for logistical reasons.

For further comparison between Stubbers and Autoguns, [[Stubber#Disambiguation|click here]].

==Imperium Variants ==
===Autopistol===
[[File:Autopistol.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Autopistol]]
Most often a machine pistol or submachine gun, the <s>Uzi</s> Autopistol is a single-handed submachine gun which is frequently used by Chaos heretics (and on occasion, traitor guardsmen) and cultists who don't particularly care about accuracy or expenses and wish to be able to make noise and cause death at a close distance (the former is done better by an Autogun than a Lasgun) as they close in to use their swords. Quite fittingly, many of the autopistols manufactured by the Imperium are based off the MAC-10/MAC-11 weapon series.

Autopistols are still in massive use throughout the Imperium and can be found even on low-tech worlds. Like the larger Autogun it is very easy to construct and usually available in large numbers. The autopistol is a common weapon amongst renegades, gang members, and lowly criminals, being as easy to use as it is to construct. They are not generally considered a military issue weapon, but are a favorite amongst many military veterans as a supplement for their standard lasgun or as a backup weapon, especially by the ones using unreliable melta or plasma weaponry. Some regiments, including the Cadian 8th, often equip all their troops with autopistols as sidearms, improving their combat firepower. Other commanders allow their troops to acquire spoils from the battlefield for their own use and autopistols are popular choices. It's not hard to imagine why, as while the laspistol wins out for utility, sometimes your life depends on how quickly you can down a charging ork. A weapon that's likely to save your life once or twice is probably better than one with a slim chance but can do it multiple times. Carrying one of each would be ideal.

{{40k-Ranged-Weapon-Profile-7-8|name=Autopistol|r7=12|s7=3|ap7=-|type7=Pistol|r8=12|s8=3|ap8=0|d8=1|type8=Pistol 1}}
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===Autogun===
[[File:Autogun.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Autogun]]
There are dozens of other Autogun models that have been created since, including more-advanced versions that use caseless ammunition. One common variety is an assault-rifle sized version formerly used by Imperial Guard regiments, known as the Agripinaa Type-II pattern Autogun (the one specifically noted to achieve stopping power on par with modern Imperial Guard-issue [[lasgun]]s). While pretty heavy at 6.2 kg / 13.6 lbs (with loaded magazine), this gun fires powerful (but having somewhat heavy recoil) 8.25mm rounds, accelerated to muzzle velocities of 825 meters per second while traveling through the autogun's 540mm (21.25 inch) long barrel. That's more powerful than NATOs 7.62 round but less powerful than a dedicated sniper round. It sounds a lot like a slightly stronger version of the 7.92mm Mauser (actually 8.22mm), the rifle cartridge of German G98 and Kar98k fame.<br>

Autoguns are commonly employed by pirates, rebel groups, [[Cultist|Chaos cultists]], [[Death_Korps_of_Krieg|Kriegers]], [[Planetary Defense Force]]s, [[Necromunda|Hive Gangers]], [[Adeptus Arbites]] and low-tech civilizations/Imperial planets that are too underdeveloped to create even a simple Lasgun, which puts into perspective just how poor these people are. (Hey, that includes us...) On the Tabletop, they're basically [[Rule 63]] versions of lasguns, with the same exact specs.

In [[Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior]], the Stormtroopers used by the Guard detachment on-planet uses Autoguns that have been given special armor-piercing rounds (also known as "Man Stopper" rounds, featuring a penetrator-tip of hardened adamantium alloy embedded in each bullet) to improve their damage output, essentially putting them [[wat|on-par with]] [[Hellgun]]s (which is ridiculous, since lasguns are already generally more powerful than Autoguns, but the Hellgun is now using a backpack mounted power source). Paired with the weapon's fast fire rate, they're probably the earliest weapon you can reliably take down a [[Space Marine]] or [[Chaos Space Marine]] with, though clearly better options are available.

{{40k-Ranged-Weapon-Profile-7-8|name=Autogun|r7=24|s7=3|ap7=-|type7=Rapid Fire|r8=24|s8=3|ap8=0|d8=1|type8=Rapid Fire 1}}
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===Rotor Cannon===
[[File:Rotor_Cannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Rotor Cannon]]

In previous editions, it should probably have been named Rotor Gun instead to avoid insulting the true cannons. The ancestor (read: feeble grandparent) of the Assault Cannon, firing smaller-caliber, less-capable ammunition and to date only seen in 30k and in the hands of Voidsmen at arms in the hands of a rouge trader. Unfortunately it was much weaker than its more recognizable descendant, with only half the stopping power (in fact it was on par with the standard autogun and outclassed by the ''Heavy Stubber'' of all guns) and much less armour-piercing ability, despite having the same shot output most of the time. About the only advantage it had over the Assault Cannon was the fact that it is man-portable by both Power-Armoured Astartes and unaugmented humans and can be fired on the move by both, whereas the Assault Cannon requires the user to wear Terminator armour, or for the Assault Cannon to be mounted on a vehicle. Based on the stats, it presumably fired similar rounds to an autogun (which is analogous to a modern battle rifle) but at a much higher cyclic rate, so it probably had some similarity to the real-life M134 minigun, which in technical terms would similarly classify the Rotor Cannon as a Rotary Machine Gun.

Even with the Rotor Cannon's poor stats and lack of special abilities, a few forces such as the Mechanicum and the Thousand Sons Space Marine Legion have improved the Rotor Cannon's utility by loading it with more useful ammo, such as Biocorrosive ammunition for the Mechanicum and the Thousand Son's own Asphyx shells that both allow for this humble weapon to be able to successfully wound its targets much more often. However, the Rotor Cannon's limitations against tougher opposition eventually led it to be phased out millennia before the 40k era, as Imperial Guard infantry forces eventually got access to crew-served versions of Astartes-grade Autocannons, Heavy Bolters, and Missile Launchers for their heavy weaponry, against which the Rotor Cannon could not compete even with its ability to be fired on the move by unaugmented humans.

In the 42nd Millenium, the Rotor Cannon appears to have been lifting, as it's now got an addition point of strength, a degree of AP and (bizarrely) 2 damage, turning it into (if the Assault Cannon is an automatic 20 mm cannon) basically a 50cal minigun. Really though, that 2 damage makes for a strange statline, as many related and much more powerful weapons lack 2 damage. This includes weapons like assault cannons, reaper autocannons, and even the Avenger bolt cannon. Combined with its less-than-impressive rate of fire this also means it's a portable rotary gun that ''doesn't'' specialize at horde-munching, instead being able to punch bigger holes in an ork Nob than a heavy bolter does (used to, 9e buffed Heavy Bolters to D2 as well), while also having a harder time actually wounding said Nob. Simply halving it's damage and doubling its rate-of-fire to 8 would've made a weapon that would've been the natural rotary version of an ironhail heavy stubber. Possibly the only logical way to resolve this would be to reason that its aim can only be changed very slowly while firing, and so can't be swept across hordes but can be held on a single target for more damage, but even that makes no sense when you roll badly and fail to kill a single ork boy with a burst of fire. A case of GW taking something weird and bad, and making it less bad and more weird.

{{40k-Ranged-Weapon-Profile-7-8|name=Rotor Cannon|r7=30|s7=3|ap7=6|type7=Salvo 3/4|r8=24|s8=4|ap8=-1|d8=2|type8=Heavy 4}}
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===Autocannon===
[[File:Imperial_Autocannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Autocannon]]
The Autocannon is the big-cheese of the Autogun family (and possibly related to the <s>88mm Flak gun</s> <s>Bofors 40-57mm</s> <s>20mm Hispano-Suiza</s> GW couldn't tell which is which anyway and they differ based on their world of production and pattern most likely), firing massive projectiles quickly enough that it can infatuate and butcher a group of Orks at the same time. Unlike personal autoguns, the Imperial Guard actually does use it despite the logistics because it splits the difference between the lascannon and the heavy bolter. Most commonly mounted on vehicles, but also seeing use in [[Imperial Guard]] heavy weapons teams, it possesses a frightening rate of fire and good armour penetration. Much like a heavy stubber, the autocannon proves that even older tech can work when scaled up in size. [[Great Crusade| Before]][[Horus Heresy| a certain temper tantrum]] and its aftermath, it used what were approximately [[Awesome|up-scaled Heavy Bolter shells]] to literally kill anything. Basically, ''these'' autocannon shells were to 40k's autocannon shells what Baneblade cannons are to battle cannons. Yeah. By the way most modern cannons actually use advanced shells like this.

The standard Autocannon makes a satisfying ''POM-POM-POM'' sound as it chews up targets up to four feet away. It hits at S7AP-1 and is a Heavy 2 weapon that deals D2, making it statistically better than the Heavy Bolter against everything except Toughness 4 and less models. The long-barreled Hydra variation is used on the [[Hydra Flak Tank]], and is designed to serve as anti-air support but used to chew up any cocky infantry that gets too close. Nowadays it gives warning shots that may clip an enemy if that enemy is standing right in front of it and jumps up and down screaming "SHOOT ME" (and even then might miss). Fortunately, it has an additional two feet of range, so while it only has one job, it tends to do it pretty well.

{{40k-Ranged-Weapon-Profile-7-8|name=Autocannon|r7=48|s7=7|ap7=4|type7=Heavy 2|r8=48|s8=7|ap8=-1|d8=2|type8=Heavy 2}}
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===Assault Cannon===
[[File:Assault_Cannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Assault Cannon]]
The Assault Cannon is a rotary ballistic cannon with an [[Dakka|outrageous rate of fire]], meaning it has to have rotating barrels to stop them from overheating. Although it falls rather short of its terrifying fluffy firepower (consistently going through several ranks of Astartes with each bullet) on the tabletop, the Assault Cannon was buffed up somewhat in 8th Edition. In-lore, this weapon fires unique, diamond-hard rounds at high velocity, resulting in far greater stopping power and armour penetration than might otherwise be expected. Early prototype versions were exclusive to the Imperial Fists and Blood Angels Space Marine Legions, but did have a rare tendency to jam and become useless without some involved repair work. Upgraded jam-free versions were implemented post-Heresy, meaning that Chaos doesn't get these meat-grinders (although [[Obliterators]] do).

Assault Cannons are primarily used by [[Space Marine]]s as anti-infantry weaponry on [[Terminator|Terminators]], [[Dreadnought]]s, and various other vehicles and aircraft. The assault cannon might actually be a stub-weapon, as some art shows it ejecting spent casings. [[Only War]] and several other sources show that there is a difference. Auto-weapons are (usually) caseless and can be anything from merely caseless, chemically-propelled rounds, to railrifles and gravitic-accelerated projectiles. Of course, knowing the Mechanicus, there are probably examples of both auto-weapons and stub-weapons for all solid-projectile weapons of the Imperium.

Being Rotary Cannons, Assault Cannons should in theory be able to spin at different speeds to deliver higher or lower firing rates depending on whether the target is a squishy 'umie or even a vehicle, but this isn't possible in the game. It's possible that the Mechanicus, being the hidebound institution it is, hardwired a one-size-fits-all maximum firing rate in all models of Assault Cannon to make maintenance easier and to keep these weapons from wearing out and overheating too fast, with the ideal firing rate being what a Terminator-armoured Astartes could effectively aim, control, and still be able to carry enough ammunition for in one battle (since faster firing rates also deplete ammunition more quickly). This hypothesis is made more plausible given how the Blood Angels had to resort to mounting twin-linked Assault Cannons in the turrets of their [[Predator_Tank#Baal_Pattern_Predator|Baal Predator Tanks]] to get more of this weapon's firepower in one mount, instead of just spinning one Assault Cannon's barrels faster to achieve the same result as in real life.

{{40k-Ranged-Weapon-Profile-7-8|name=Assault Cannon|r7=24|s7=6|ap7=4|type7=Heavy 4, Rending|r8=24|s8=6|ap8=-1|d8=1|type8=Heavy 6}}
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===Ironhail Skytalon Array===
[[File:Ironhail_Skytalon_Array.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Ironhail Skytalon Array]]
An overglorified Flak Gun and the main weapon for the [[Impulsor]].

Get two [[Stubber#Heavy Stubber|Heavy Stubbers]], mount them on a turret, duct-tape them and then twin-link it. Congratulations, you now officially have the Ironhail Skytalon Array, the most generic turret weapon of the [[Primaris Space Marines]]. Yes, it is as underwhelming as it sounds. You would think that these upgraded SPESS MEHREENS would be given something awesome like a [[Awesome|twin-linked assault cannon]], but nope, [[Roboute Guilliman|Papa Smurf]] seems to be running on a tight budget.

The Ironhail Skytalon Array on tabletop, is as unimpressive as it is in the fluff. With a range of 36", the glorified flak gun won't be sniping birds off a tree anytime soon. At Heavy 6, Strength 4, AP-1, D1, the Array is relativley mediocre against ground troops, scoring the occasional kill off a GEQ and MEQ.

The one saving grace of this weapon is the fact that it is an overglorified Flak Gun. The Ironhail Skytalon Array has a rule that allows it to get +1 to hit and wound vs flyers. For most bog-standard flyers, it’s wounding on a 4, which actually makes the Skytalon not that bad in harassing and taking down those annoying ass flyers. Unfortunately, the Impulsor also gets the [[Missile Launcher#Bellicatus Missile Array|Bellicatus Missile Array]], which, despite its jack-of-all-traits, is far more versatile than the Skytalon ''AND'' is able to target and hit aircraft just as well, if not, even better than the Flak Gun. Suffice to say, if you have the points, change the Impulsor's gun to something better and if you can't squeeze the points in and have to take this just shoot at jetpack infantry.

[[Tl;dr]], it is basically the limp dicked and far more disappointing cousin of the Icarus Stormcannon Array.

===Anvilus Snub Autocannon===
[[File:Anvilus Snub Autocannon.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Anvilus Snub Autocannon]]
The Anvilus Snub Autocannon is one of the three primary weapons of the newly revamped [[Sabre Strike Tank]].

The bigger cousin of the regular old Autocannon, the Anvilus Snub Autocannon is a twin-linked weapon mounted on the front hull of the Sabre. Of all the primary weapons that the Sabre could take, the Anvilus is the vanilla of the vanillas.

The twin-linked nature gives this Autocannon a sustained and consistent firing rate, in contrast to the semi-automatic nature of the smaller Autocannon. This gives the Anvilus a much higher rate of fire, which is great against fast moving light to medium armor. The Anvilus gets its snub name due to its relatively short barrel length for a weapon its size. It can be reasoned that the reduced length is there to balance the center of gravity for the Sabre so it could fire on the move.

===Taurox Gatling Cannon===
[[File:TGatling.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Taurox Gatling Cannon]]
The kid brother to the Punisher, in the same vein as the [[Taurox Battle Cannon]]'s role to the [[Battle Cannon]]. Although, unlike its big brother, this one ups it by having [[MOAR DAKKA|<u>''two''</u> gatling barrels.]] This nasty little bugger is a weapon mounted on the [[Taurox Prime]] in situations where the Taurox Battle Cannon is insufficient against large hordes.

Though smaller than the Punisher Cannon from which it was adopted, the Taurox Gatling Cannon is a still a fearsome weapon. These weapons lay down an impressive curtain of anti-infantry fire [[Dakka]] all for a relatively cheap price compared to the Leman Russ.

Crunchwise, the Taurox Gatling Cannon is a 24" ranged, Strength 4, Heavy ''10'' tarpit cleanser of goodness. In total, on a single round, you are outputting on average, [[Dakka|20 shots at Strength 4.]] Blob armies cry when they see this thing paired up with a Leman Russ Punisher.

===Punisher Gatling Cannon===
[[File:Punisher_Gatling_Cannon.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Punisher Gatling Cannon]]

The Punisher Gatling Cannon is the primary armament of the Leman Russ Punisher tank and one of the Vulture Gunship's variants, and is a recent addition to the Imperial Guard armory. Design-wise, the weapon looks like someone was impressed with the Assault Cannon's firepower, but became increasingly frustrated with the inability of Imperial Guard forces to procure it and its unique ammunition, and so decided to resurrect the concept of the long-discontinued Rotor Cannon (see above) and improved on it in most respects. The Punisher Gatling Cannon thus ends up as an intermediate step between the older Rotor Cannon and the much-vaunted Assault Cannon, possessing stopping power almost at the level of the latter weapon while not improving on the former's lackluster armour-penetration ability (likely a conscious design choice to keep manufacturing and ammunition costs down, below even what Heavy Bolter shells might require since Heavy Bolter shells have better armour-piercing ability compared to the Punisher's own ammunition).

Where the Punisher truly shines lies in the fact that it is vehicle-mounted only; since it's not bound by the need to limit its firing rate to allow a single Terminator-armoured Astartes to both effectively control and still carry sufficient ammunition for, the Punisher can instead achieve ''quintuple'' the firing rate of an Assault Cannon. This is a literal torrent of anti-infantry firepower, and puts the Punisher squarely among the fastest-firing weapons in the Imperial arsenal, <s>outstripping even</s> going toe-to-toe with the Vulcan Mega-Bolter (as of 8th edition, both the Punisher and the Vulcan have the same rate of fire) which is restricted to being mounted on superheavy tanks or Titan-scale walkers. In fact, the Punisher doesn't so much as go DAKKADAKKADAKKA, it instead goes BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT. Able to churn out more shots than a squad of Tactical Marines at even greater strength, this baby will swiftly ventilate any block of infantry it comes across and can even threaten Monstrous Creatures by sheer weight of fire even with its unsophisticated non-armour-piercing ammunition. The Punisher Gatling Cannon also has a kid brother in the form of the Taurox Gatling Cannon, which has less strength and half the shots.

{{40k-Ranged-Weapon-Profile-7-8|name=Punisher Gatling Cannon|r7=24|s7=5|ap7=-|type7=Heavy 20|r8=24|s8=5|ap8=0|d8=1|type8=Heavy 20}}
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===Punisher Rotary Cannon===
[[File:Punisher_RotCannon.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Punisher Rotary Cannon]]
A souped up version of the above for the [[Space Marines|Emperor's finest]]. Like all things originating from the [[Great Crusade|good ol'days of the 31st Millennium]], the Punisher Rotary Cannon is far and above of higher quality than its 41st Millennium counterparts. Interestingly enough, the Punisher Rotary Cannon was the main armament of the once common [[Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer|Cerberus Pattern Main Battle Tank]], but the discovery of a Neutron Laser Projector and the [[Derp|general stupidity of placing a anti-infantry weapon on a fixed-hull mounted vehicle]] meant that it was eventually replaced as the Cerberus' go-to primary weapon. Loses out on two shots, but gains -1 AP and 50% more range to compensate. Later equipped on what else? The [[Sicaran Battle Tank#Sicaran Punisher|Sicaran Punisher]].

Due to its natural ability in [[Dakka|unleashing a torrent of unrelenting]] [[Steel Rain]], the Punisher Rotary Cannon quickly rose to fame among /tg/ of being an absolute [[Rape|rape machine]] against blob armies of infantry and ''even vehicles'' when it first came out. And that is just the weapon firing simple solid ferro-carbide slugs, imagine them with actual Bolt rounds....Seriously, nobody is going to go out okay when they face [[FATAL|18 Heavy Bolter shots in the face that can re-roll failed hits on a 1.]]

{{40k-Ranged-Weapon-Profile-8|name=Punisher Rotary Cannon|range=36|strength=5|ap=-1|type=Heavy 18|}}
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===Onslaught Gatling Cannon===
[[File:OnslaughtGatling.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Onslaught Gatling Cannon]]
The latest weapon for the Adeptus Astartes, and currently restricted to use as a secondary weapon on the [[Repulsor Tank|Repulsor Hover Tank]] and [[Redemptor Dreadnought|Redemptor Dreadnought.]] As such, it is ''another'' weapon exclusive to the [[Primaris Marines]]. Why in the Emperor's mummified nipples a gun such as this cannot be wielded by the more common Space Marines just begs the question. Why?

This weapon was found thanks to the reintroduction of [[Roboute Guilliman|Robot Gullytan the Third]] and Uncle [[Cawl]]. It has the strength and armour penetration of a heavy bolter at two thirds the range and twice the rate of fire.

On the Redemptor Dreadnought, due to its size, the Onslaught is wielded much like an oversized Powerfist lugging a hand-held autocannon. The sheer size of the Dreadnought's fist in contrast to the comically small Gatling Cannon is bound to spawn a few compensation jokes. Suffices to say, this eventually led to the creation of the Heavy Onslaught Gatling Cannon as shown below.

On the Repulsor, it is notorious for being one of the primary weapon choices on a vehicle ''infamous'' for its [[Dakka|weapon placements and the amount of guns it carries along on the battlefield.]]

Given it's a Heavy Bolter but better, don't be surprised if this weapon ends up being wielded by the Chad's Devastator equivalents.

===Heavy Onslaught Gatling Cannon===
[[File:HeavyOnslaughtGatlingCannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Heavy Onslaught Gatling Cannon]]
Maximum dakka for the Astartes, the Heavy Onslaught is the primary weapon of the Repulsor Hover Tank and Redemptor Dreadnought and one of the coaxial weapons of the Repulsor's Executioner variant. Basically the Dreadnought's equivalent of a penis extension or a [[Rape|metaphor for the foreboding erection the Dreadnought pilot is about to feel before being let loose.]]

Like its smaller brother, the Heavy Onslaught Gatling Cannon is a weapon exclusive to the Chadmarines and like its smaller brother, it came to fruition thanks to the management of Grandpa Smurf and Uncle Cawl.

It has the same strength and armour penetration as its smaller brother, but a 30" range and an incredible 12 shots. Interestingly inferior to the Punisher gatling cannon against everything that doesn't have heavy (2+) armour.

===Anvilus Autocannon Battery===
[[File:DEREDEO-PATTERN-DREADNOUGHT-Side.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Anvilus Autocannon Battery]]
You take a normal Autocannon, get three of its brothers and than duct taped them together. Congratulations! You now have the Anvilus Autocannon Battery.

Not to be confused with the abovementioned Anvilus Snub Autocannon, although it could be due to the fact that they are made by the same company/forgeworld. The Anvilus Autocannon Battery, also known as the Anvilus Pattern Autocannon Battery, was the main ballistic weapon system used by the ancient [[Dreadnought#Deredeo Pattern|Deredeo Pattern Dreadnoughts]] of the Legiones Astartes during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras. The Anvilus Autocannon Battery was a set of two Anvilus Pattern Autocannons that shared a mount and firing system.

The Deredeo Dreadnoughts were armed with two such batteries that were then twin-linked together. The Anvilus Autocannon Battery was a fearsome development of the Autocannon that was able engage and destroy enemy armored targets with a punishing salvo of [[Dakka|BRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTT.]] The Anvilus Autocannon Battery is still found in use by the various Space Marine Chapters and possibly the Traitor Legions that still maintain functioning Deredeo Dreadnoughts in the 41st Millennium.

===Leviathan Storm Cannon===
[[File:99550101483_LeviathanPatternStormCannon01.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Leviathan Storm Cannon]]
The [[Hurricane Bolter]]s of Autoguns. The Leviathan Storm Cannon is the Anvilus' somehow ''MORE'' [[Dakka]] cousin.

The weapon is a heavy ranged ballistic weapon usable only by Imperial [[Dreadnought#Leviathan Pattern|Leviathan Pattern Siege Dreadnoughts.]] It is used when the Leviathan Dreadnought ''really'' want that horde army dead in its tracks.

Similar in design and function to the ubiquitous Autocannon, the Storm Cannon is a [[MOAR DAKKA|quad-linked rapid-firing weapon,]] purpose-built to scythe down infantry and clear out the defenders of tactical objectives.

On the [[Horus Heresy]] tabletop, this monster is a 24" range [[Awesome|S7 AP3, Heavy 6 horde cleaner with the Sunder rules.]] While the range is mediocre, its sheer rate of fire and high AP value makes sure that even TEQs stay the fuck away from this thing.
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===Hydra Autocannon===
[[File:Hydra_Autocannons.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Hydra Autocannon]]
In-between the Anvilus Autocannon Battery and the Icarus Stormcannon Array. The Hydra Autocannon is the primary weapon battery mounted on the [[Hydra Flak Tank]]. It is made up of four long-barrelled modified Autocannons with a modified reciever and beefed-up barrels to withstand a unholy amount of [[Dakka]].

Its [[Machine Spirit]]-assisted automated turret contains targeting and tracking equipment, including a predictive logic-engine, which allows it to lock onto and track enemy aircraft regardless of any evasive maneuvering. These control the four long-barreled Autocannons firing heavy calibre, high velocity explosive rounds capable of firing six hundred rounds a minute, shredding through enemy aircraft fuselages like papermache thanks to their high rate of fire. When used against infantry and light vehicles these rounds would change from papermache maker into [[Meatbread|mincemeat blender,]] allowing even a single Hydra to decimate entire formations in a heartbeat.

In 8th Edition, the Hydra Autocannon can hit ground troops on 5s and FLY units on 3s, and with its 6 feet of [[MOAR DAKKA|8 S7 AP-1 D2 shots,]] it's a potentially good investment even if you didn't expect FLY from your opponent.

===Icarus Stormcannon Array===
[[File:StormcannonArray.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Icarus Stormcannon Array]]
The big brother of the Anvilus Autocannon Battery for the sole basis of having a bigger bore-size.

The Icarus Stormcannon Array is a Space Marine anti-aircraft platform mounted on [[Space Marine Stalker|Stalker vehicles.]] Made up of two independently traversing turrets of triple-barreled cannons and a large radar dish, the Icarus Stormcannon Array can track and fire at two separate aerial targets simultaneously.

The Stalker mounts an array of two Icarus Stormcannons granted a capacity for independent targeting by the servo-mind conclave (Cogitator array) to which they are shackled. The cannons have a high rate of fire and can launch hundreds of solid rounds into the sky.

Each servo-mind can direct the Stormcannons to track separate targets with a lesser degree of accuracy, or when faced by more potent foes the array can concentrate fire in a single, withering salvo that will tear even the mightiest winged beast or enemy aircraft from the skies.

===Siegebreaker Cannon===
[[File:Siegebreaker_Cannon_2.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Siegebreaker Cannon]]
The main secondary weapon of the new Imperial Knight Dominus. The Siegebreaker Cannons can come in a configuration of either one or two depending on your preferences. They are mounted on the back or the shoulders in order to resemble the Warlord Titan.

The Siegebreaker Cannon is an automated turret that is aimed at demolishing light vehicles and MEQs and even TEQs if the going gets tough. Nevertheless, its nature as a secondary weapon is meant to pick off stragglers when the primary weapons are busy dueling out with some big ass units.

Crunchwise, the Siegebreaker Cannon is basically a more random version of the Autocannon. Each one is a Heavy D3 gun with a range of 48", s 7, ap -1, damage D3 and is capable of doing a maximum of 9 damage if you rolled perfectly, but on average will be [[Fail|exactly the same as the Autocannon]]. Do note that being d3 instead of a flat 2 damage like the standard Autocannon actually makes it worse against 2 wound models, however.

Ironically, while GW tries to claim that "If siegebreaker cannons were mounted on mainline battle tanks, you’d take them in every game", the Siegebreaker Cannons are [[Derp|shittier version of a Battle Cannon, aka the main gun of the most spammed tank in the galaxy.]]

===Ferrumite Cannon===
[[File:Ferrumite_Cannon.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Ferrumite Cannon]]
The Ferrumite Cannon is one of the two primary weapons for the giant rubber duck known as the [[Skorpius Hover Tank#Skorpius Disintegrator|Skorpius Disintegrator]]. Essentially looking like a normal tank gun with a disproportionately enlarged muzzle break, the Ferrumite Cannon is the 'vanilla' weapon of the Skorpius Disintegrator as much as the Battle Cannon is the 'vanilla' of the Leman Russ Battle Tank.

Judging from its name ("Ferrum" being latin for iron, and "ite" meaning rock or stone. ), the Ferrumite Cannon probably shoots out a solid slug of pure iron at its targets which, if true, is strange given that depleted uranium is a thing both in real-life and in 40k and is a denser and much better penetrator than conventional iron. Another option might be GW half assing the latin and splicing "Ferrum" and "thermite", perhaps implying it's suppose to be shooting Red Hot or even molten Iron/Steel at the target, making this more like a lava cannon in practice. Or it fires ceramite projectiles, being a hybrid of metal and stone and “ferrumite” basically meaning metal-stone.

On tabletop, the Ferrumite Cannon is your heavy hitter and is a threat to enemy heavy armor. Considered an Autocannon on steroids, it’s got a fixed damage of 3 with a fixed rate of fire of 3 – [[Awesome|that’s a possible 9 damage.]] That, and it is Strength 8, AP-3, which means it is gonna be reliable in punching a straight hole towards a Leman Russ Tank.

===Battle Cannon===
[[File:Battle_Cannon_Leman_Russ.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Battle Cannon]]
The big cheese of the Autogun family without going full on Titan. The Battle cannon is a larger and heavier version of the autocannon, its size restricting its use to vehicles only. It is the primary weapon of the [[Leman Russ Battle Tank]], where its explosive shells can decimate both infantry and other armor. It is also common armament on [[Imperial Knight|Imperial Knights]], though for these mighty machines are used special Rapid Fire Battle Cannons with improved rate of fire. Fulff says it's a standard 120mm cannon, but just look at that thing, that 200mm easy. Perhaps it uses sabot and so has a 120mm shell but the barrel is around 240mm. It is likely that either it is not sabot (despite some sources saying it is) or the 120mm refers to the projectile itself and not the barrel, unlike the modern method, and so the covering for the projectile might not be included in the 120mm measurement thereby resulting in a much larger barrel than a 120mm shell should be used in. Due to it being of Autogun in function, it has a wide variation of different ammunition that it can use. such as:

'''High Explosive:''' The standard round fired by Leman Russ battle cannons, HE shells like the Leman Russ Mk4 G4 round contain a highly explosive material such as Fyceline which detonates upon impact with the target. Since a high velocity is not necessary for the shell to work, a small amount of propellant allows for a larger amount of explosive material than in other shells. The explosion causes a blastwave lethal to anyone close by and shatters the thin shell casing into deadly high-speed shrapnel, making them deadly when used against infantry and light vehicles. While the sheer size of the blast can cause minor damage to armored vehicles, even stun or kill the crew within, HE shells lack the penetrative power of true anti-tank shells.

'''Anti-Tank/Armour Piercing:''' Anti-tank or armor piercing shells like the standard Leman Russ Mk12 G4 round are used to destroy hardened targets such as enemy tanks or bunkers. They consist of a solid round topped with an adamantium tip covered by a soft metal cap. A large propellant charge launches the round at high velocities, where upon impact the metal cap melts and creates a "sticking" effect so that the adamantium tip does not slide off of sloped armor or break. Most AP shells cause damage through kinetic energy, the sheer violence (and mass) of a penetrating hit causing spalling within the enemy tank's interior to damage internal systems and kill crew. Others include a small high explosive charge which detonates upon impact, causing additional secondary damage.

'''Infernus:''' Inferno shells like the standard Leman Russ Mk7 G4 round, also known as incendiary, phosphorine or thermite shells, work in similar principle to HE shells. However instead of an explosive charge these shells are filled with a combustible substance which instantly is scattered upon impact. The substance burns instantly and is particularly deadly when used against infantry.

'''Smoke:''' Smoke shells are used to create an instant smoke screen, hiding the tank or other friendly forces from enemy observations.

'''Hunter:''' Hunter shells are very rare tank rounds which can be fired by a battle cannon or Conqueror cannon. They contain a small logic-engine similar to the one found on Hunter-Killer Missiles which locks onto a target and directs the path of the shell towards it. Just before impact the shell's Machine Spirit causes it to rise above and hit the enemy vehicle on it's thinner top armor. Only ever produced on the Forge World Tigrus, the knowledge to construct Hunter shells was lost when the world was overrun by the Orks. Most tank crews will therefore never even see a Hunter shell, much less have the honor of firing one.

===Skyreaper Battery===
[[File:Skyreaper_Battery.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Skyreaper Battery]]

The Ironhail Skytalon Array's and Icarus Stormcannon Array's bigger brother.

The Skyreaper Battery was a type of anti-aircraft system used by Space Marine [[Mastodon|Mastodons]] during the [[Great Crusade]] and [[Horus Heresy]]. Resembling two giant Assault Cannons that has been duct taped and twin-linked, these weapons allow the Mastodon to have an effective deterrent against would be enemy attack planes. With how large of a target the Mastodon is, having a dedicated anti-air platform was a pretty smart design all things considered.

On the Horus Heresy tabletop, the turret-mounted Skyreaper Battery is a 48" Interceptor autocannon-analogue with a Strength 7, AP 4, Heavy 5 stats with both the Skyfire and Twin-linked rules. This makes it more than enough to threaten almost any conceivable aircraft short of super-heavy transports like the [[Stormbird]].

===Avenger Gatling Cannon===
[[File:Avenger Gatling Cannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Avenger Gatling Cannon]]

The Avenger Gatling Cannon is a six-barrelled (Though it can also come in triple, quad and [[Dakka|eight-barrelled]] versions) Heavy Onslaught Gatling Cannon firing high velocity mass-reactive bullets bigger than Autoguns, not to mention being much larger as well overall. It is an available option for the [[Imperial Knight#Knight_Patterns|Imperial Knights Warden and Crusader]] in place of their standard-issue large-ass [[Chain_Weapon#Reaper_Chainsword|chainsaw]].

The highly feared avenger gatling cannon is like an oversized assault cannon, though its larger calibre shells are more destructive and its rate of fire is even more prodigious. A single blazing volley from the rotary weapon can stitch a pattern of death across the foe’s battle lines, causing charges to falter and fail or destroying entire attack columns of light vehicles. Well-placed shots from the weapon also has the capability to destroy heavily armoured infantry and put a heavy dent into battle tanks.

There has been some confusion between this weapon and the [[Bolter#Avenger Bolt Cannon|Avenger Bolt Cannon]] due to the fact that both of them look like oversized miniguns as well as [[Derp|having the names 'Avenger' in them.]] However, it can be assumed that the Avenger Bolt Cannon's internal mechanics is more suited and specialized towards the gyrojet nature of the bolt rounds, whereas the Avenger Gatling Cannon is a more conventional rotary machine gun that just have a enlarged bore-size for it to fire massive bullets.

{{40k-Ranged-Weapon-Profile-7-8|name=Avenger Gatling Cannon|r7=36|s7=6|ap7=3|type7=Heavy 12, Rending|r8=36|s8=6|ap8=-2|d8=2|type8=Heavy 12}}

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===Thunderhawk Cannon===
[[File:Thunderhawk_Cannon.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Thunderhawk Cannon]]

A Battle Cannon given a [[/d/|penis enlarger]].

The Thunderhawk Cannon is a powerful, oversized, ballistic Battle cannon mounted on a Space Marine [[Thunderhawk|Thunderhawk Gunship]]. It is an over-sized version to allow it to be fired from the air at the most vulnerable parts of an enemy position or for clearing an area to land troops in.

However, despite the power coming from this weapon, most Space Marines would rather just replace the Cannon with the more destructive, accurate, ammo effecient, recoil friendly, longer ranged [[Superheavy Laser Weapons#Turbo-Laser Destructor|Single-Barrelled Turbo-Laser Destructor]] instead.

How the hell the Thunderhawk manage to stay stable without the cannon's immense recoil tearing the plane apart is unknown.

===Accelerator Autocannon===
[[File:AcceleratorAuto.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Accelerator Autocannon]]
Back when the Emperor still walked, the Imperium was capable of developing new and improved weapons, and the Accelerator Autocannon was one of those. Basically a cross between the Autocannon and a Rail Gun, the Accelerator Autocannon coupled a high rate of fire with a powerful shell and high accuracy. It shares it name with the Accelerator Cannon used on the [[Fellblade]] and [[Astraeus Super-Heavy Tank]]. Which would imply that this is a downsized version.

Currently the Accelerator Autocannon is primarily mounted on the main variant of the [[Sicaran Battle Tank]]. Each Sicaran has two of them. Why Tech Marines didn't bother mounting them on the [[Dreadnought#Contemptor_Pattern|larger]] [[Dreadnought#Leviathan_Pattern|more advanced]] [[Dreadnought#Deredeo_Pattern|Dreadnaughts]] is because they don't know how, [[Games Workshop|lazyness,]] or they have so much recoil it's impracticable. However individual [[Space Marines|Space Marines,]] [[Suppressor|with JETPACKS,]] [[Rape|can carry them now.]] Though only Suppressors so far. Looks like [[Cawl|somebody actually remembered]] these things still exists during M42.

===Quake Cannon===
[[File:Quake_Cannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Quake Cannon]]
The Quake Cannon is a gigantic artillery piece mounted on Imperial Titans and Super-Heavy Tanks. The Quake Cannon is used to engage targets at extreme range. Each Quake Cannon shot contains a [[Wat|fragment of a planet that has been subjected to]] [[Exterminatus]], which is to say the '''energy''' of the Exterminatus is harnessed and then weaponized....which is....unnecessarily complex to say the least....anyways, the weapon draws the contained earth-shattering power out and containing the blastwave within a Quake Shell.

On Titans, the Quake Cannon is commonly found on Warlord Battle Titans. The Imperator class titan can also carry one or more Quake Cannon on its carapace hard-points.

On Superheavies, the Imperial Guard Banesword Super-Heavy tank is also equipped with a Quake Cannon.

{{40k-Ranged-Weapon-Profile|name=Quake Cannon|range=180|strength=9|ap=3|type=Ordnance, 10" Blast|}}
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===Cruciator Gatling Array===
[[File:Cruciator_Gatling_Array.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Cruciator Gatling Array]]
Imagine the Skyreaper Battery grown a tad bit too large.

The Cruciator Gatling Array is basically the Gatling Blaster's little brother that has been twin-linked. As its name suggests, the Cruciator Gatling Array seems to be aimed towards an anti-aircraft role, as it is placed too high for it to be considered as an anti-infantry weapon.

This weapon system is the main secondary weapon of the [[Warmaster Iconoclast Heavy Battle Titan]]s. They are hull-mounted and fixed on the top of the lumbering giant, which is an odd design choice given that it is meant to target aircraft, so a full rotary turret should suffice. Therefore, the [[Revelator Missile Battery]] would actually be a much better choice than the Cruciator. The shells might be guided, or it is a specialist weapon against aircraft swarms.

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===Gatling Blaster===
[[File:Gatblaster.jpg|200px|right|thumb|The child of an [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAU-8_Avenger Avenger] and a battle cannon]]

Strapped to the mighty [[Reaver Battle Titan]] and above, this is the weapon you field when you need the biggest dakka the Imperium of Man has to offer, it's basically an Assault Cannon, [[Awesome|except that it fires Battle Cannon shells rather than bullets]], yeah... this is what you get if you thought about the Schwerer Gustav using Gatling Technology. Now if only they had some kind of Macro Gatling, ridiculous as that would be (Good news! Forgeworld has decided that Warlord titans do, or at least did during the Horus Heresy).

By function, each of the Gatling Blaster's six barrels fires once in turn during each revolution of the barrel cluster. The multiple barrels provide both a very high rate of fire and contribute to long weapon life by minimizing barrel erosion and heat generation. The Gatling Blaster is pneumatically-driven and electrically-primed. The gun rotor, barrel assembly and ammunition feed system are rotated by a hydraulic drive motor through a system of flexible drive shafts. The round is fired by an electric priming system where an electrical current from a firing lead passes through the firing pin to the primer as each round is rotated into the firing position. One of the drawbacks of the initial design was that the ejection of spent links created considerable (and ultimately insufferable) problems. The Adeptus Mechanicus compensated for this issue by creating a linkless feed system.

This is actually a pretty [[Reasonable Marines|reasonable and practical]] solution; a rarity in the AdMech. As what kind of sane Guardsmen would like to die from [[FATAL|giant empty bullet casings?]]

Galting Blasters can be mounted on the weapon limbs of Reaver and Warlord Battle Titans and the carapace mounts on Imperator Titans. It is too large to be fitted to Warhound Scout Titans however.

===Nemesis Quake Cannon===
[[File:99560108206_WarbringerTitanQuakeCannon01.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Nemesis Quake Cannon]]
The Quake Cannon on steroids, or the holy lovechild between a Quake Cannon and a Gatling Blaster, [[Skub|whichever you ask.]]

The Mars-Alpha Pattern Nemesis Quake Cannon or the Nemesis Quake Cannon for short, is a [[/d/|larger, thicker and longer version of the standard Quake Cannon with more ''girth''.]] [[Tl;dr]][[Slaanesh|, its a literal ''penis extension''.]] We in /tg/ like to joke that the [[Basilisk Artillery Gun]] and the [[Goliath Mega-Cannon]] are nothing more than a [[Dick|compensation weapon,]] but it seems that GW had forgotten the memo and took this shit [[Derp|''seriously''.]]

Mounted on the new and shiny [[Warbringer Nemesis Titan]]. This giant six-shooter of doom is designed to kill enemy Titans on sight, thus in any sensible usage, this weapon is regulated at the back lines as a giant sniper, unfortunately the Imperium [[Herp|lacks any sensibility]] and uses these as front line weapons instead. Nevertheless, having a fast firing Quake Cannon '''''is''''' a boon to any forces as now you have a very quick way to whither down the [[Void shields|Void Shields]] of enemy Titans in a quick and efficient manner rather than risking the time reloading. And seeing how this Titan gained prominence during the [[Horus Heresy]] when [[Emperor Battle Titan|Emperor Battle Titans]] were common enough to be thrown left and right like normal battle tanks, the nature of this weapon makes a whole load of sense. This cannon also works wonders against heavily fortified encampments and any forms of fortifications in general due to the monumental concussive force unleashed as its shell impacts the ground setting off powerful localized earthquakes.

Even if it doesn't directly hit its target, the concussive force from that cannon could still indirectly halt the advance of nearly anything on the battlefield up to and including battalions of Superheavy Tanks and enemy Knights.

===Deathstrike Cannon===
[[File:Deathstrike_Cannon.JPG|250px|right|thumb|Deathstrike Cannon]]
[[Derp|Not to be confused with the similarly named]] [[Deathstrike missile]].

The Deathstrike Cannon is a starship-grade Macrocannon that is fitted on a [[Warlord Battle Titan|Warlord-class Titan.]] A rarely-fielded and obscure conversion, [[Wat|it requires the whole head of the Warlord to be removed,]] [[Herp|and the cockpit to be installed on the top of the Titan's carapace instead]] ([[Lolwut|Usually exposed]]), [[Fail|it is as stupid as it sounds.]] One of the Titan's carapace hard points is then fitted with an advanced fire control system tower. This configuration opens two additional hard points that can be used to mount additional Titan-grade weapons.

The cannon's recoil is so powerful that it needs to be mounted along the centre line of the Warlord Titan. Despite the severe limitations, this imposes on the Warlord, the Deathstrike Cannon's colossal range and power make it a useful artillery weapon, able to obliterate fortifications or harass an enemy's rear lines and staging areas at extreme long range.

It is assumed that the Nemesis Quake Cannon is a more modern iteration of the Deathstrike Cannon. (An iteration is like a different model or version, while an alliteration is a literature term.)

===Macro Cannon===
[[File:Macrocannon.jpg|280px|thumb|right|A voidcraft Macrocannon, why the Mechanicus decided it was a good idea to use slaves to manually reload a EXBOXHUGE Cannon, despite already having auto-loaders is beyond our moral understandings.]]

The [[Dakka|Biggest of the Big]]. 'Macrocannon' seems to be a catch-all for any auto-type weapon larger than a Gatling-Blaster, ranging from [[Aquila Strongpoint|fortress-mounted field artillery]] to the literally apocalyptic, cathedral-sized weapons found on [[Imperial Navy|voidcraft]]. As is clearly evident, it causes a quantity of [[Rape]] proportional to its size, but even the smallest land-based Macrocannons are capable of laying waste to mostly everything, including [[Awesome|flyers]]. It is at its basest an autocannon that fires bullets ranging in size from that of a man all the way up to the size of a [[Baneblade]], depending on the weapon's calibre (no, seriously), and since this is the Imperium, instead of an automatic reloader, they need [[Grimderp|dozens of slaves to move each bullet]] for the ship-mounted Macrocannons (heretical theories suggest this is either because it is actually cheaper for the Imperium, which is overloaded with humans and not resources, or because they are stockpiling resources, or they are cutting down on chances of daemonic incursions through humans by putting more of them in the killzone, or they are testing to see just how far people will comply with slave labor in a totalitarian state, or - most heretical of all - some suggest it is a bureaucratic screw-up with paperwork or that the AdMech doesn't know how to repair the loading cranes).

Provided yields for these weapons can go from 42 exajoules (about 5.297 times more powerful than [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_Valdivia_earthquake the most powerful earthquake ever recorded]; a 42 exajoule earthquake would be approximately magnitude 9.98) right down to the measly [[What|15 tetrajoules]]...[[Derp|*sigh* Games Workshop never fails to surprise us]]. Seriously believe us, we know that tetrajoules isn't an official unit of measurement, but since tetra is Latin for four this essentially gives us....<s>[[Fail|4 joules]]</s> 60 joules of power....[[Herp|which is almost twice the force of a child's punch]].... Don't believe us? We got that from [[Rogue Trader (RPG)|Rogue Trader rpg: BattleFleet Koronus pg. 31 & 20]] which is quote on quote:
:''"Look at her, son. Isn’t she a beauty? Over two hundred Vulcan mega-bolter defence turrets, '''[[Wat|fifteen tetrajoule Sunsear las-broadsides]]''', prow plating ten metres thick, the finest auspex masts in the battlefleet… And the lines on her! Fluted prow, elegant statuary… those xenos scum won’t know what hit them!” – Bosun Phineas Jhule tempts fate at the embarkation of the Fire of Heaven''
:''"The Avenger dates from an earlier period of fleet tactics, when, squadrons of grand cruisers were employed as “line-breakers.” Traditionally, they were thrown into the midst of massive fleet engagements, soaking up enemy fire while racing into the middle of enemy formations, '''[[Bullshit|then crushing their opponents at short range with tetrajoules of energy from their oversized broadsides.]]'''"
''
Yeah...we in [[/tg/]] aren't sure whether this was [[Troll|intentional]] or a [[FAIL|gross example of a severe typo.]] So...um....[[Lulz|FEAR THE 60 JOULE BROADSIDE BATTERIES!]]. A possible explanation for this stupidity is that GW forgot that the term "quadrillion" is a thing and is using "tetrajoule" to mean 1 000 000 000 000 000 joules (as the word "billion" comes from the latin word for two, "trillion" for the latin word for three and so on.). This gives a result of 15 quadrillion joules in a broadside, which is 15 trillion times as powerful as the world's largest laser and '''over three and a half megatons''' of energy. Much better.

Jokes aside, if we use the picture to the right as a reference for size, and estimate the shell as a solid slug of density equivalent to lead, launched at a planet from geosynchronous orbit above an Earth-like planet (36,000km), you're looking at somewhere in the region of 50 Tera-Joules of energy when it strikes the ground, or slightly less than the Little Boy dropped on Hiroshima (and that's just from gravity, not including launch energy). About fifty or so of the land-based Macrocannons would equate to one ship-mounted Macrocannon, or one point of firepower in [[Battlefleet Gothic]]. Oh yes.

==Chaos Variants==
===Reaper Autocannon===
[[File:ReaperAutocannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Reaper Autocannon]]
There is the regular Autocannon and then there is the Reaper variant, which only the [[Chaos Space Marine]] [[Havoc]]s get because Assault Cannons were discovered after the [[Horus Heresy]], and everybody Imperial promptly thought they were cooler than the Reaper Autocannon. The reaper is an infantry-portable twin-linked Autocannon that wants to put its shells in your face at 36" or less. The reaper is effective against light vehicles and monsters, but the Imperials switched to the other gun for its boons against infantry. The current Imperial gun is mostly popular due to its reliability and durability, capable of operation for years without much care even if [[Ogryn|someone]] used it as a club. By comparison, the reaper autocannon [[Fail|needs its barrels to be replaced after each battle or else it loses reliability or even explodes]] (maybe the admech were drunk that day).

Then at some point, the Traitor Legions and their Dark Mechanicus pals looked at the Reaper Autocannon and asked, "How can we make this even more rapey?" So they came up with the Helstorm Autocannon, which apparently can only be fitted to vehicles and aircraft such as the Hellblade due to its sheer rate of fire. It has the same profile as the Reaper except for firing an extra shot per attack and adding delicious Rending because fuck assault cannons. Now if only GW would let the forces of Chaos get their collective shit together and replace every vehicle mounted heavy bolter with S7 AP4 Heavy 3, Twin-linked, Rending.

===Soulreaper Cannon===
[[File:SoulreaperCannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Soulreaper Cannon]]
You remember how we said earlier that the [[Thousand Sons]] AKA The Prodigal Bookworms found a way to make the god awful Rotor Cannon somewhat viable? Yeah, here is the end result of it all.

The Soulreaper Cannon is a type of gatling Inferno Weapon used by the Thousand Sons. This heavy weapon bears a strong resemblance to the Space Marine Assault Cannon, but since it is basically a modified Rotor Cannon, the Sons of Magnus can basically lug around this gun with their normal [[Rubric Marines]]. This actually increases the effectiveness of these walking tin bins as it [[Dakka|boosts their firepower to a ungodly amount.]] [[Awesome]].

As the Soulreaper is an Inferno weapon, it uses literal magic to further boost and enhance the weapon's lethality. Who says that mixing science and sorcery is an absurd idea eh? [[Necron|Suck it Crons!]]

===Reaper Chaincannon===
[[File:Reaper_Chaincannon.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Reaper Chaincannon]]
''Not to be confused with the similarly named [[Derp|Reaper Autocannon.]]''

The Reaper Chaincannon is basically an upgraded Rotor Cannon that has been tinkered for 40,000 years by the [[Chaos Space Marines|Spiky Bois]] because the [[Fail|original was so shit in everything.]]

Sporting [[/d/|longer, thicker barrels]], beefier rotary cyclic mechanism and upscaled ammo that might as well be ''bolter shells''. The Reaper Chaincannon does what the Rotor Cannon failed to do, which is to [[Get shit done|get shit done.]] Compared to the Soulreaper Cannon, the Reaper Chaincannon is more ungainly, unwieldy and lacks the unique attributes of Inferno weapons, but it is also more utilitarian and can be used by non-Thousand Sons units. In contrast to the Reaper Autocannon which fires heavier rounds but with a slower rate of fire, the Reaper Chaincannon can rival even an Assault Cannon in its [[Dakka|BRRRRRRRRRRRRRT-ness.]]

On the tabletop, this thing shreds through MEQs like paper mache. It is able to fire 8 shots in one round, all at strength 5 and AP-1 but, [[Derp|''for some reason'']], despite having a longer barrel, it only has a [[FAIL|underwhelming 24" range.]]

Fun fact, the Reaper Chaincannon apparently uses [[Wat|''two belts'']] of bullets in its ammo feed. How the fuck ''that'' is able to fit inside the gun, let alone properly fire without the two ammo belts interfering with the firing mechanism, [[Herp|we have no clue.]] While a button to switch between them would work, there is nothing on the weapon that indicates this.

===Avenger Chaincannon===
{{Stub}}
[[File:Avenger_Chaincannon.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Avenger Chaincannon]]
''Not to be confused with the similarly named [[Derp|Avenger Gatling Cannon]] nor the [[Herp|Avenger Bolt Cannon.]]''

The Avenger Chaincannon is one of the primary ranged weapons used by the [[Chaos Knight War Dog]]s, specifically, the [[War Dog Knight Stalker]] and the [[War Dog Knight Brigand]]. It is a six-barrelled weapon that vomits out a large amount of lead at the target with [[Meatbread|appropriate results.]]

Crunchwise, from what we know, it is a pretty nasty anti-infantry weapon, spewing out its 12 infantry-shredding shots in a single turn.

{{Clear}}

===Hades Autocannon===
[[File:HadesAutocannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Hades Autocannon]]
The bigger version of the Reaper Autocannon.

Also because Chaos likes to add daemons to things, and daemons make things goofy, Chaos Space Marines have access to ''another'' vehicle-mounted variant, the Hades Autocannon, which bafflingly can only be mounted onto a dinobot (probably because it's propelled by warp-flame or something). Fielded onto a Heldrake for air support or in pairs on a Forgefiend for heavy support, the Hades Autocannon (R36", S8, AP4, Heavy 4, pinning) suffers the Reaper's slightly gimped range compared to the vanilla autocannon, but is slightly stronger and can pin units (but don't count on pinning too much); while it's not twin-linked like the reaper, having double the firepower more than compensates.

A Forgefiend can mulch most infantry short of [[Terminator]]s, pounding through power armour on sheer weight and power of fire, can make most Monstrous Creatures' lives flash before their eyes, and can hurt even a [[Land Raider]] or [[Monolith]] if the dice gods are in your favor. It's <s>almost</s> really/absolutely a real shame that the average Forgefiend isn't known for being a phenomenal shot.

===Skullshredder Cannon===
[[File:Skullshredder.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Skullshredder Cannon]]

The smallest of the weapons in the ridiculous [[Tower of Skulls]] Daemon Engine.

The two sponson-mounted twin-linked Skullshredder Cannons is used primarily for anti-infantry defense and it behaves similiar to a twin-linked Autocannon. Because it is mounted on the side, it can only target opponents in its field of view.

The Skullshredder is often seen as the least important weapon especially when there is the Doomfire Cannon situated just above the Skullshredder. Thus, it is often used to pick off any stragglers or provide additional wounds to would-be attackers.

Like all weapons from the Daemon Engine, it is powered by pure hatred.

===Skullreaper Cannon===
[[File:Skullreaper_Cannon.JPG|150px|right|thumb|Skullreaper Cannon]]

The Reaper Autocannon's father.

The Skullreaper Cannons is found only on the ridiculous [[Tower of Skulls]] Daemon Engine and is the primary hull-mounted weapon of the Tower itself. It is located further up the tower's height, and it is where the two hull-mounted Skullreaper Cannons is situated.

The Skullreaper Cannons resemble large hexa-barrelled weapons akin to a Hurricane Bolter, although it is not known whether the Skullreaper itself is a type of Bolter weapon, other than it fires large shells of pure hate. It is by far one of the most devastating anti-infantry weapons on a vehicle brimming with anti-infantry weapons, this is thanks in no part for simply having more barrels to load bullets in.

Due to its nature, it can be assumed that the Skullreaper is powered by the pure hatred of the Daemon Engine and uses the aforementioned shells of pure hate. It is unknown where the Daemon Engine supply the ammunition from, although it could be noted that the sheer size of the Tower of Skulls would mean that there should be ample room for stored ammunition, or we could just use the Warp simply whisking free ammunition like candy from a white van.

Nevertheless, because it is a six-barrelled weapon, the Skullreaper [[Count as]] a heavy weapon that can mulch most infantry trying to charge and attack the Tower of Skulls. Its unusual height advantage means that it can target enemies hiding behind cover with ease.

Unfortunately, the less can be said for its firing field of view, you could thank the stupid ass tower for being in the way.
{{clear}}

===Doomfire Cannon===
[[File:Doomfire_Cannon.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Doomfire Cannon]]

A giant fuck off gatling cannon that resembles a lot like the Space Marine's [[Thunderfire Cannon]] (Some may even accuse it of even being part of the Thunderfire kit, proving that GW can to, kitbash), heck it even behave like the Thunderfire Cannon, creating large explosions to shred infantry akin to a Bolter.

It is one of the secondary hull mounted weapons of the ridiculous Tower of Skulls Daemon Engine. Because it is mounted on a turret, the Doomfire Cannon is given a near 360 degree firing position. This makes it ''far'' more reasonable than the hokey Skullreaper Cannon whose very design seem to mimic the [[Warhammer Fantasy|Arrowslits found in medieval castles.]] [[Lolwut|Yes, you heard us right,]] [[Derp|GW]] and [[Herp|Khorne]] [[What|thought ''that'']] [[FAIL|was a 'good' design choice.]]

Of course, because it is lower to the ground, it has less range than the Skullreaper Cannon and is meant to rip apart closing infantry. Due to its explosive nature, it is unknown whether it is a Bolter, although Battle Cannons are known to have a blast template, so it could be assume that it just fire ''that'' big of a shell at such a rapid rate that it creates small blast templates in its wake.

Seriously, look at that ''bore size'' and tell me it doesn't fire fucking huge bullets?
{{clear}}

===Scorpion Cannon===
[[File:Scorpion_Cannon.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Scorpion Cannon]]
The Scorpion Cannon, also known as the Sting Cannon, is a large, multi-barrelled weapon that is wielded by [[Brass Scorpion]] and it is what happens when you have a Hades Autocannon mounted on a giant scorpion.

The weapon is mounted upon the Brass Scorpion's tail, giving the weapon a full 360 degree arc of fire, making it perfectly suited to unleash rapidly fired torrents of ballistic projectiles upon enemy infantry at close range. The cannon fires heavy caliber shells that are effective against most lightly armored infantry and vehicles.

The Scorpion Cannon features a set of blades allowing it to be used as a backup melee weapon against enemy aggressors. The weapon receives its ammunition from thick, semi-organic cabling that travels up the rear side of the creature's tail. It is basically Mortal Kombat's scorpion given more of a Khornate feel. Hence it receives the seal of [[Awesome]].

===Harvester Cannon===
[[File:Harvester_Cannon2.png|200px|right|thumb|Harvester Cannon]]
Take an [[Obliterator]]'s hand cannons and than multiply this by a hundred. You get the Harvester Cannon.

A Harvester Cannon is a large, multi-barrelled, rapid-firing weapon that is wielded by [[Soul Grinder]] Daemon Engines. The Soul Grinder is usually armed with a single Harvester Cannon on one arm, used in conjunction with an Iron Claw close combat weapon located on its other arm.

The weapon is attached to the daemon's wrist, on its right arm and can be used with an organic pincer version of the Iron Claw that it wields on its other arm or with a daemonic Warpsword. The Harvester Cannon is capable of firing large caliber solid shells that are effective against infantry and light vehicles and can also fire specialized flak shells to engage enemy aircraft. This thing is a very versatile form of [[Dakka]] and it can mow down both infantry, aircraft and vehicles alike.

===Butcher Cannon===
[[File:Butcher_Cannon.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Butcher Cannon]]
A Butcher Cannon is a heavy caliber, rapid-firing gun used by the Forces of Chaos. Think of it as the Reaper Autocannon on steroids.

The Butcher Cannon is commonly found on Chaos combat walkers and it is another primary weapon of the Decimator Daemon Engine as well as a weapon of choice for Chaos Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts. The shells fired by the Butcher Cannon are bound with sorcerous Chaos runes of anathema and bloodletting which causes severe blood loss. When used by Chaos walkers, the Butcher Cannon usually features a large blade that is attached beneath the weapon's twin barrels; this allows the walker to engage enemy forces in close combat if they get too close for it to effectively use the weapon at range.

It is not recorded in Imperial records if any other Chaos walkers such as Chaos Dreadnoughts or Helbrutes, Daemon Engines such as Defilers or Soul Grinders, or Chaos Space Marine tanks such as the Predator or Land Raider are able to be armed with a Butcher Cannon, although it is presumed to be possible.

<gallery>
File:Storm_Laser_2.JPG|Side view.
</gallery>

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:11 - Infiltrator.png|Autoguns - Better Than Your Crap Flashlights!
Image:Autogun01.jpg|A typical mass produced model.
Image:RenegadeArms.JPG|Traitor Guardsmen armed with Agripinaa-pattern Autoguns and Autopistols. You know you want 'em.
Image:LRPun.jpg|The Punisher Gatling Cannon and its tank. Sometimes you just need a little more gun.
Image:Gatling Blaster.jpg|The Gatling Blaster. For when you need big dakka.
</gallery>

{{Template:40k-Imperial-Weapons}}
{{40k-GenestealerCults-Weapons}}
[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]][[Category: Imperial]][[Category: Chaos]]
{{40k-Chaos-Weapons}}

Primarch

2022-07-13T07:22:07Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* Where Are The Lost Legions Now? */

[[Image:Primarchs big.JPG|thumb|right|500px|Several of the Primarchs at the Triumph of the Ullanor Crusade. From left to right: Sanguinius, Mortarion, Magnus the Red, Angron, Jaghatai Khan, Lorgar, Rogal Dorn, Horus, and Fulgrim. But the real impressive thing here is how that balcony is still standing]]
{{Topquote|Man must become stronger, more profound and more evil.|Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None}}
{{Topquote|There is but one good, and that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to him and bad when it turns from him. And the higher and mightier it is in the natural order, the more demoniac it will be if it rebels. It's not out of bad mice or bad fleas you make demons, but out of bad archangels.|C.S. Lewis}}
{{Topquote|Et tu, Brute?|Julius Caesar}}
The '''Primarchs''' were the twenty ([[Omegon|-one]]) genetically-engineered sons of [[The Emperor]] and the female [[Perpetual]] [[Erda]]. Using both His and her DNA in their creation, the Primarchs were designed to be far superior to even <s>[[Space Marines]]</s> the Adeptus Custodes: they were taller, stronger, faster and more intelligent. Artificial Perpetuals, to replace the Perpetuals that refused to be a part of His great plan throughout history. Certainly faster and stronger, but the intelligence they display, especially in the Horus Heresy books, seem to be limited to their own specialties, making them [[Roboute Guilliman|oddly]] [[Vulkan|normal]] in some cases and [[Perturabo|fatally]] [[Magnus the Red|underdeveloped]] in other areas; the more successful among them, like Russ and Corax, knew how to apply those specialties in various situations, while others, like Angron, just [[Angry Marines|brute-forced their way through situations]] using their talents like a (War)hammer(40k), but a few like Guilliman and Lion, [[Reasonable Marines|actually knew how to account for the opposition]]. Dorn, at least, knew a fair bit about how his brothers waged war, he just didn't care and stuck with what he knew best. They were also incredibly charismatic and were well suited to their role as the generals and leaders of the Imperium of Man.

Problem was, despite all that they were only human, and ultimately their sibling rivalries (and Chaos corruption, in the case of several of them) boiled over and ultimately developed into the [[Horus Heresy]].

==Creation of the Primarchs==
[[File:Warmaster's_Coronation.jpg|300px|left|thumb|Horus Lupercal being made Warmaster of the Imperium in Ullanor. From center counter-clockwise: Horus, the Emperor, Magnus, Mortarion, Lorgar, Angron, Jaghatai Khan, Rogal Dorn, Rogal Dorn's mustache, Fulgrim and Sanguinius.]]
The Primarchs began as a continuation of the Emperor’s [[Thunder Warriors|Thunder Warrior]] legions. Each of the 20 proto-legions were led by a general analogue called a Primarch. Unlike the later leaders of the Legiones Astartes, the thunder warrior Primarchs were the same as the troops they led and were hand picked by the Emperor for their skill and command ability. The instability (both physical, genetic, and mental) of the thunder warriors led the Emperor to try and find more stable and powerful generals to lead his armies. It can be safely assumed that the original Primarchs were killed in the line of duty or purged before history could record them thoroughly. The only one named thus far was Ushotan of the 4th Legio Cataegis - then known as the Iron Lords. Valdor considered him almost an equal in terms of his martial and command ability but was disturbed by his innate bloodlust and susceptibility to the then nascent effects of Chaos.

The modern Primarchs were created in a secret underground laboratory on what used to be the Himalayas, under the tightest security. All of them were derived from a subset of both the perpetual Erda and the Emperor's DNA that served as a template, which was altered differently for each of the Primarchs; it is also thought that he engineered them spiritually as well using long-forgotten psychic techniques. As the [[Raven Guard]] discovered after the Emperor granted them access to the original data from the Primarchs' creation, many of the Primarchs' gene-samples were wildly divergent from the original template- some had long gene sequences deleted, while others had non-human DNA spliced into them for reasons only known to the Emperor. (A particularly intriguing discovery was one sample labeled "[[Leman Russ|Subject VI]]", [[Furry| which had extensive amounts of canine DNA added to it]].)

[[File:BabyPrimarchs.jpg|300px|right|thumb|The Master of Mankind raises his eighteen babies as devoted father. The [[Grimdark|truth]] is less [[Anime|kawaii desu]].]]
The Emperor's original plan was to have His superhuman creations mature safely in His lab and guide them from 'birth' toward the role He'd foreseen for them. However, in a retcon, Erda did not want for her sons what the Emperor had planned for them and herself, and in spite of the safeguards the Emperor had set up, caused the scattering, an event in which the Ruinous Powers were able to spirit the Primarchs away from the laboratory right before they would emerge from their pods and scatter them across the universe (Conveniently, the canine sample was sent to a wolf-planet) [[Just as planned]]. For whatever reason, the Emperor did not punish Erda and she was allowed to live out her immortal life in seclusion, in the remnants of Africa. Somehow, the Emperor knew his sons were still alive but had no clue to where they could be nor any immediate way to search for them. So he took it in stride, shrugged it off as a minor setback (unknowingly, this would come to bite him back in the ass nastily later on) and went ahead with the second part of his plan: his Space Marine project. Using DNA samples from each Primarch before they were abducted, the Emperor created twenty legions of [[Space Marines]], in what would later be called the [[First Founding]]. They would form the core of the armies He needed to conquer the galaxy, and the absence of the Primarchs leading those would only serve as a motivation for the warriors to search for them.

One consequence of the abduction, however was that each of the young Primarchs were forced to adapt to the lifestyle on their new homeworld, something which would influence and mold them throughout their lives. The Primarchs rapidly grew to adulthood and quickly rose to power, often becoming the leaders of their world. As the Emperor crusaded to unify the galaxy he would occasionally stumble upon another long-lost son. When this happened, the Emperor would hold a celebration in honor of this discovery, give the Primarch their Legion to command, then tell them to [[Angron|fuck]] [[Mortarion|off]] [[Lorgar|and start]] [[Alpharius|conquering]] [[Perturabo|worlds]] while he [[Horus|fapped]] [[Rogal Dorn|to]] [[Sanguinius|his]] [[Leman Russ|favoured]] [[Roboute Guilliman|offspring]]. The Emperor was a [[Eldrad|dick]] like that.

==Did the Emperor Love his Sons?==
Before we get into the rediscovery of the Primarchs, we need to address this issue. Different writers have different interpretations of the Emperor, and GW never got any of them on the same fucking page. This lead to discrepancies in the various books; in the first duel between Horus and the Emperor for example, the Emperor could not bring himself to kill Horus because he loved him, and it was only after he witnessed Horus callously annihilate Ollanius Pius that he realised his son was gone, allowing him to finally let loose and destroy Horus.

Later authors would contradict this, writers like ADB would go on to claim he never saw the Primarchs as 'sons', just as carefully crafted tools to enforce his will and vision (even referring to them by number instead of name). Even later writers would go on to claim the opposite again, with the Emperor declaring the Primarchs to be his sons in the Siege of Terra series, so fuck if we know what's going on. The issue gets even more confusing when you look at his closest advisors, such as Constantin Valdor and Malcador, who are plagued with the exact same problems, writer to writer. Sometimes they claim the Emperor only saw his sons as tools, other times they do support the idea that he loves his children.

Hopefully one day GW will finally have some consistency, though that's about as likely as hell freezing over.

In case anyone is wondering, Erda claims she always loved the Primarchs, though considering the planets some of them were sent to, this is almost guaranteed to be a bullshit lie or self-deception.

==Rediscovering the Primarchs==
Originally Horus was the first Primarch to be discovered, but a retcon changed that to Alpharius and had it kept secret. Or did it? With Alpharius and Omegon, it's honestly impossible to tell.

Horus, who would become the Emperor's favoured son, was retconned to maybe being the second Primarch to be found, and the second missing Primarch was stated to be found after Corax in a different retcon. Thankfully these are the only three (or two?) GW fucked with in the order they were found, so the whole list of those being discovered is as follows (dates given by the website for the Horus Heresy tabletop game):

*'''Before 801.M30:''' Alpharius/Omegon (speculated)
*'''801.M30:''' Horus
*'''819.M30:''' Leman Russ
*'''821.M30:''' DELETED FROM IMPERIAL RECORDS, DAMNATIO MEMORIAE IN PERPETUAM
*'''824.M30:''' Ferrus Manus
*'''830.M30:''' Fulgrim
*'''832.M30:''' Vulkan
*'''835.M30:''' Rogal Dorn
*'''837.M30:''' Roboute Guilliman
*'''840.M30:''' Magnus the Red
*'''843.M30:''' Sanguinius
*'''846.M30:''' Lion El'Jonson
*'''849.M30:''' Perturabo
*'''854.M30:''' Mortarion
*'''857.M30:''' Lorgar
*'''865.M30:''' Jaghatai Khan
*'''896.M30:''' Konrad Curze
*'''899.M30:''' Angron
*'''922.M30:''' Corvus Corax
*'''927.M30:''' DELETED FROM IMPERIAL RECORDS, DAMNATIO MEMORIAE IN PERPETUAM
*'''981.M30:''' Alpharius/Omegon (officially)

The majority of Primarchs somehow recognized the Emperor on sight, immediately pledging their allegiance to their father. A few (such as Leman Russ and Vulkan) only swore allegiance after being bested in a contest. The only exception is Angron, who outright refused to follow the Emperor as he preferred to die in battle along with his rebels brothers and sisters in their fight against the oppressive Not-Romans. The Emperor simply shrugged and abducted his son, leaving Angron's followers to get slaughtered. Angron never really got over that dick move.

At the end of the period known as the [[Great Crusade]], Horus, who had recently been promoted to the title of Warmaster, fell to Chaos and rebelled. It didn't take long for eight of his fellow Primarchs to join his side against the Emperor, resulting in the full-scale civil war known as the [[Horus Heresy]]. Funnily enough, most of the Primarchs who sided with Horus were those who felt that the Emperor had taken a giant, steaming dump on them. So, regardless of whether the Emperor actually loved his sons or not, and while he is the greatest tactician, biologist, warlord, and leader in the history of mankind; in practice he's worse than a crack-addled transient junkie as a father.

==Primarchs and Legions==
{|align=center border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0"
|-
|align=center|'''Legion Number'''
|align=center|'''Name'''
|align=center|'''Title'''
|align=center|'''Homeworld'''
|align=center|'''Name of the Legion'''
|align=center|'''Allegiance'''
|align=center|'''Description/Current Status'''
|align=center|'''30k/40k'''
|-
|align=center|'''I'''
|align=center|[[Image: Lion_El%27Jonson_portrait.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Lion El'Jonson]]
|align=center|Lord of the First, The Lion
|align=center|[[Caliban]]
|align=center|[[Dark Angels]]
|align=center|ULTRA LOYAL, maybe even more than Rogal Dorn.
|align=center|
*Crushes the horrors of Old Night, destroys worlds, whole civilizations, erase stuff from history, <s>doesn't afraid of anything. </s>
*Sees himself as a man that no one else can compare to and constantly toils to maintain this standard (although he wasn't as excessively vainglorious as Fulgrim).
*Unlike Fulgrim however, The Lion's greatness caused him to be a hardcore pragmatist and largely detached from everyone around him. The Lion just couldn't relate to anyone else not even close to his level (even most of his brother primarchs couldn't fit the bill), so he always felt alone in the universe. A big part of this was that his insanely huge ego combined with his lack of people skills to result in a complete asshole who virtually nobody liked.
*Was a bit of a loose cannon with a long but explosive fuse. The Lion is as smart and introspective as he is merciless and brutal. He wasn't necessarily easy to piss off like Angron, but anyone who manages to cross his threshold of patience will find themselves on the business end of his weapon. Several times. And possibly dismembered to boot.
*Fought Luther during his betrayal at the end of the Horus Heresy, where he was wounded from their duel. He survived however, and was spirited away and tended to by the [[Watchers in the Dark]] in a super secret chamber in [[The Rock]] (that not even the Dark Angels knew about), where he spent the last millennia healing his wounds. As of the current edition; The Lion is now supposedly fully healed and all he's waiting for is the Emperor to tell him to wake up from his millennia-long cat nap.
|align=center|[[Image:Lord of the First.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[File:Lion vs Curze.jpg|150px|thumb|right|]][[File:Horus-Heresy-Lion-Great Crusade.jpeg|150px|thumb|right|]]
|-
|align=center|'''II'''
|! colspan="5" |+++Records expunged+++
|-
|align=center|'''III'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Fulgrim_Ancient_Sketch.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Fulgrim]]
|align=center|The Palatine Phoenix, The Phoenician
|align=center|[[Chemos]]
|align=center|[[Emperor's Children]]
|align=center|Traitor
|align=center|
*A patron of the arts, who wanted to enjoy the finest and most exotic things in life.
*Believes that he and his legion should be the avatar of humanity's perfection, and so everything about them should be flawless, everywhere from appearance and actions to their fighting style. Due to this, Fulgrim's battle tactics revolved around utterly perfecting their strategies. Everything from his soldiers to their strategies were intensely drilled until their fighting was closer to a intricately-choreographed play of death than anything. To him, war is an art, and he wanted to perfect his arts.
*A master blacksmith in his own right, capable of forging weapons that even [[Ferrus Manus]] couldn't help but deem "perfect". His artwork however, wasn't always the best in the universe due to being so perfect it hit uncanny valley levels.
*Was initially corrupted by Chaos through the Laer blade, a Slaaneshi-possesed daemon sword he looted as a trophy, but wasn't aware of what Chaos was. He would fully give in to the temptations of the sword after he beheaded Ferrus Manus, where his utter grief at the act caused him to succumb to the daemon within the sword.
*Daemon Prince of Slaanesh, ruler of the Pleasure World. <s>Fulgrim's actual consciousness however, may or may not also be still imprisoned within his own body by</s> the daemon who possessed him in the first place was eventually conquered by Fulgrim's inner will or whatever, but his new personality is generic "DEMON PRINCE OF THE DARKNESS AND EVIL".
*Managed to incapacitate Guilliman at one point by slicing his throat with a poisoned sword.
*Still has a soft-spot for his brother Ferrus. He asked [[Fabius Bile|Fabulous Bile]] to clone his brother several times so that he could attempt to lure Ferrus into Chaos' side again. All his attempts have ended in failure, which he has blamed Fabius for due to his certainty that a "perfect" clone would join him.
*Heard about [[Roboute Guilliman|Big G]] waking up and is a bit buttmad about it at the moment. He tried to give Guilliman a cursed artifact during his return party, but was found out and subsequently banished. Needless to say: he mad.
|align=center|[[Image: Fulgrim.30k.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image: 40k.fulgrim.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Warhammer-fuldrim-lorgar.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''IV'''
|align=center|[[Image: Perturabo_Portrait.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Perturabo]]
|align=center|The Hammer of Olympia, Lord of Iron, The Breaker
|align=center|[[Olympia]]
|align=center|[[Iron Warriors]]
|align=center|Traitor
|align=center|
*A man who already had the knowledge to create the best at everything he did from birth. Perturabo considered this a curse however, feeling it robbed him of any sense of accomplishment while growing up, contributing to his eternal grumpiness.
*Originally preferred diplomacy and was an admirer of the arts during his time in Olympia, but meeting the Emperor (who had no time for such things) caused a violent switch to flip inside Perturabo's mind, turning him into a ruthless warlord throughout the Great Crusade, likely because he wanted things to be different from Olympia once he joined E-money, but once he realized that The Great Crusade was basically Olympia 2.0; he just gave up, flipped the table, and accepted how things really are and played the part.
*Just as much as a master of siege warfare as Dorn (both in offense and defense), but the lack of opportunities and recognition led him and his legion to be specialists of tearing shit down.
*Unlike Dorn however, Perturabo's general strategy is a combination of stubbornness and ice cold-calculating efficiency, orchestrating war like it was one giant math problem. The problem with this is that he didn't even see his sons as people. As far as he was concerned, they're just armored meatbags who pull triggers and push buttons and were about as expendable as guardsmen. It worked incredibly well but won him few friends.
*Suffers from a massive inferiority complex, partially due to his certainty that the Eye of Terror was always watching and judging him. Nobody believed him when he said this, so it was mostly attributed to Rogal Dorn, whom the Emperor ''greatly'' favored over Pert, despite having similar skillsets.
*Daemon Prince, ruler of Medrengard. Described as the ultimate Obliterator; so expect him to be carrying around titan grade weaponry and millennia of pent-up [[Rage|RAEG]] when he finally shows up. Given that Magnus, Fulgrim, and Mortarion are back in action; he'll probably come out eventually as well.
|align=center|[[Image: 30k.Perturabo.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Warhammer-Pert-Angron.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''V'''
|align=center|[[Image:Karn.port.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Jaghatai Khan]]
|align=center|Warhawk of Chorgoris, The Great Khan, The Khagan
|align=center|[[Chogoris|Chogoris/<br>Mundus Planus]]
|align=center|[[White Scars]]
|align=center|Loyal
|align=center|
*A hard and stern Primarch, he rarely smiles and almost never laughs. Throughout the Heresy he’s often depicted as an introvert who only keeps the counsel of a hand select group. Though rather than making him into a recluse, he's fully capable of being charismatic when he needs to. The Khan is quiet, but he can quickly become the warrior: smile, laugh, bellow and be powerful when he sees the need.
*Encourages a painfully 'liberating' leadership structure on the White Scars. Every Khan (basically Chapter Master) has an extremely high level of autonomy - a byproduct of the steppes. Causes a lot of problems for logistics and cooperation with allies.
*Many Primarchs became a product of their homeworld, the Khan definitely did. He idolises the ways of [[Chogoris]] and venerates its lifestyle. A very Taoist and Confucian way of seeing things, no one else in the Imperium truly understands this, a fact that further isolates the White Scars from the wider Imperium. The White Scars is the amalgamation of Asian culture in the HH, it’s the most different and alien Legion simply because it tries to adopt a Asian-centric style.
*Has a strained relationship with the Emperor. On one hand he recognises the need of the Imperium and has always directly supported it. On the other hand, a major identity point for the Khan's character is his hatred of Empire and Emperors. On Chogoris he killed a lot of emperors and destroyed a lot of Empires. He sees Emperors and Empires as ultimately flawed and has a very low respect for them.
*Tying in with this hatred of Empire is his hatred of stagnation. Every Emperor he killed was fat, and this made him become a person who hates the easiest path. A big motivator for him during the novel Scars was his rejection of the path most travelled. The Khan's greatest fear is stagnating, so he will likely always chose the hardest option because of that. Emphasising this, The Khan is also described as being a compulsive, a part of him is always moving.
*The Khan really didn't like the Imperium, in Warhawk of Chogoris he flatly stated that the White Scars would leave the Imperium if he felt the Emperor was not respecting the White Scars enough.
*Unknown, disappeared into the [[Webway]] while hunting [[Dark Eldar]] after they raided Chogoris.
|align=center|[[Image:Past Khan.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:The path of heaven .jpg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''VI'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait..Leman.Russ.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Leman Russ]]
|align=center|The Great Wolf, The Wolf King
|align=center|[[Fenris]]
|align=center|[[Space Wolves]]
|align=center|Loyal
|align=center|
*Had a high opinion of himself and his legion, if only because he felt that he's earned that kind of respect through the centuries. Of all the Primarchs, Leman was the one most willing to cross any line to do what the Emperor asked, at least at first. Later on, he decided to become his own man and protect the people of the Imperium. Also notable for curbing the more savage tendencies of the Wolves and teaching them to control their ferocity, unlike [[Angron|some]] [[Konrad Curze|people]].
*Wanted to test his legion all the time, to prove he is the best.
*Unknown, disappeared into the [[Eye of Terror]] with the 13th company but promised to return one day. Magnus supposedly knows where he is, but he isn't telling. The Wolves found <s>his armor in a Khornate Shrine</s> an armor rumoured to be his on the Temple of Horus on Rudra, implying he either; turned into [[Wulfen]], to [[Chaos]], is dead, or is murdering his way through the warp [[Conan_the_Barbarian|as a half-naked barbarian]]. Allegedly a figure resembling him was spotted with the 13th company during the 13th crusade.
|align=center|[[Image:30k.Russ.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Scouring of Prospero2.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Horus_vs_Leman.jpg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''VII'''
|align=center|[[Image: Rogal_Dorn_Portrait.png|thumb|250px|]] [[Rogal Dorn]]
|align=center|The Praetorian of Terra, The Vigilant, The Unyielding One
|align=center|[[Inwit]]
|align=center|[[Imperial Fists]]
|align=center|MEGA DUPER Loyal
|align=center|
*A brutally honest and steadfast man, but was equally indifferent to those around him. Dorn's personality is akin to a wall, he was a man you could take at face value; he would never lie or deceive you, and he would always speak his mind without a hint of falsehood, even if it ends up working against his favor. That said, he could never properly relate with other people's emotions. He will speak the truth, but lacked any glib of tongue to express it in a way that wouldn't feel like he was delivering it with the bluntness and intensity of a power fist to the face.
*Embodied the "soul" of the Great Crusade unlike any other; he received the most accolades from the Emperor and fought alongside him most often.
*A master of siegecraft, although fortifications was his forte. So much that he was tasked with fortifying the Imperial Palace. He would also build grand fortresses on the worlds they conquered.
*Assumed deceased, disappeared while boarding a Chaos cruiser during a Black Crusade.<br>One of his fists were recovered and its skeleton is placed in a shrine, where each new Chapter Master of the Imperial Fists engraves their name upon it. Rumored to still be alive, though that begs the question of whose fist is in the Phalanx, though he could just be missing a hand.
|align=center|[[Image:The horus heresy praetorian of dorn by raffetin-dae3g5k.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Dorn-Sang-Primarchs-Warhammer-.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Warhammer-Dorn-malc.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''VIII'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Konrad_Curze_sketch.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Konrad Curze]]
|align=center|The Night Haunter, The Dark King
|align=center|[[Nostramo]]
|align=center|[[Night Lords]]
|align=center|Traitor
|align=center|
*A man of justice who believed that he needed to instill absolute fear into people to ensure lasting peace.
*Possessed psychic powers that allowed him to perceive the future in short glimpses. The problem was that they were uncontrolled and they constantly subjected him to see the worst possible future in the darkest, most vivid detail possible, including the deaths and fall of his brother Primarchs as well as the Emperor's own entombment on the Golden Throne. This only served to widen his ever-growing insanity as he came to believe that what he saw was an inevitability rather than a mere possibility.
*An unstable sociopath, to say the least. Curze's visions, upbringing, and perceived need for brutality took a heavy toll on his sanity, but he held firm under the belief he was making the galaxy a better place, like what he did with Nostramo. This all came crashing down after Nostramo reverted back to its old ways when he was away; deciding that nothing would ever change, he chose to bombard his home planet into rubble.
*That said, he was a master at infiltration and unconventional warfare, just as much as he was a master of scaring the shit out of people. His crowning achievement is that he managed to fuck up Guilliman's Imperium Secundus by himself, no aid from his legion what-so-ever, something his brothers couldn't even come close into doing.
*Lost what little sanity he still had after destroying Nostramo. By this time, Konrad stopped justifying his methods to himself and fully embraced the depraved side of his "Night Haunter" persona, spreading untold terror and pain wherever he went. By the time of the late Horus Heresy, the Emperor wanted to put a stop to it and sent a Callidus assassin named "M'shen" after him.
*Curze knew about her mission from the get-go but he made sure the assassin could reach him unimpeded. He did not resist when she entered his chambers and asked the Callidus to kill him. Initially it was speculated that Konrad realized he became the very thing he sought to rid the galaxy of and knew what had to be done- a perceived hero who lived long enough to see himself become a villain. It turned out that in his view, the assassination vindicated everything he'd ever said and done; he punished and killed evil-doers and now the Emperor used his own methods to kill him, thus proving that all his atrocities were both justifiable and necessary. Whatever the case, Konrad was already a jaded, broken man after the Nostramo debacle and wished only to die. The idea that the Emperor ''wouldn't'' have him killed or might even pardon him was horrifying to Curze, as he believed that there would be no justice in such an act.
|align=center|[[Image:Konrad-Curze-Primarchs-Warhammer-.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Night Haunter 8th Ed.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Horus-Primarchs-Curze-Lion.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''IX'''
|align=center|[[Image:SanguiniusArt5mt.jpg|thumb|250px|]][[Sanguinius]]
|align=center|The Great Angel, The Brightest One
|align=center|[[Baal]]
|align=center|[[Blood Angels]]
|align=center|Loyal
|align=center|
*A noble and unparalleled warrior, known for the angel-like wings that grew from his back.
*Was known as the greatest exemplar of the Emperor himself, mirroring many of his father's best traits, instead of only one or two of them like his brothers. If anything, Sanguinius is a reflection of what the Emperor could have been as a truly benevolent being, concerned not just for mankind's future, but man as individuals as well.
*A pretty cool guy to be around. Despite being a fabulous, angelic demi-god of war; he had mankind's best wishes at heart and fought for it with graceful ferocity, hell even the Primarchs couldn't resist Sanguinius being so bro-tier. He is essentially the vampiric, bishie version of Vulkan.
*Showed the same amount of concern for his legion. Sanguinius did all that he could to hide the Red Thirst from being exposed to the wider Imperium, knowing full well that the Blood Angels would receive the II/XI Legion treatment if it came to light.
*Psychic, and capable of seeing glimpses of the future.
*He was powerful as he was nice, Sanguinius was one of the most powerful, if not ''the'' most powerful, of the Primarchs in terms of martial prowess. Especially if you pissed him off. Feats include; ripping the wings off a bloodthirster and literally throwing him to the warp, single-handedly holding a defensive point during the Siege of Terra against numerous traitors, soloing Titans, and managing to damage Horus' armor ''even after being exhausted from literally soloing entire armies''.
*Deceased, slain by Horus. Spirit is evidently intact somewhere in the Warp. His body is currently in a stasis crypt in Baal, so his corpse remained fabulous for the last 10,000 years. Commemorated during Sanguinala, a holiday dedicated to his memory.
|align=center|[[Image:Heresy-Sang.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:The horus heresy book 26 unremembered empire by raffetin-dap4ekw.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Emperor Sanguinius Echoes of Imperium.jpg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''X'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Ferrus_Manus_sketch.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Ferrus Manus]]
|align=center|The Gorgon of Medusa
|align=center|[[Medusa_(Planet)|Medusa]]
|align=center|[[Iron Hands]]
|align=center|Extremely Loyal, rivalling The Lion and Dorn
|align=center|
*Wants to get things done quickly, without needless philosophizing.
*Contrary to his sons; Ferrus wanted to advocate the strength of one's flesh, rather than relying completely on bionics and mechanical augmentations as shown by the Iron Hands, if any he was appalled at the idea of turning man completely into machine. He wasn't able to realize this after getting a viking crewcut by his best friend, however.
*A master artisan, thanks to his metal arms, which allowed him to practice his craft with incredible precision and detail.
*Deceased, slain by Fulgrim and his head offered to Horus as a gift (which actually horrified him). Fulgrim still has the body, which he repeatedly clones and murders again in a futile attempt to make him turn traitor. <br>Some claim he is still alive on Mars, though [[Void Dragon|he almost certainly isn't]].
|align=center|[[Image:Ferrus.30k.jpg|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XI'''
|! colspan="5" |+++Records expunged+++
|-
|align=center|'''XII'''
|align=center|[[Image:Angron.port.jpg|thumb|250px|]][[Angron]]
|align=center|Slave of Nuceria, Red Angel, Lord of the Red Sands
|align=center|[[Nuceria]]
|align=center|[[World Eaters]]
|align=center|Traitor
|align=center|
*Embodies the name "World Eater". He and his legion consumes entire worlds in a whirlwind of indiscriminate slaughter until nobody but them is left, pre and post-Great Crusade.
*No real ambition beyond endless slaughter, thanks to the butcher's nails augment jammed into Angron's brain. It also made him incredibly violent and quick to anger. At first it was to satiate the unending bloodlust generated by the butcher's nails, but now its to glorify [[Khorne]].
*One of the most powerful of the Primarchs in terms of sheer melee combat prowess. Rivaled only by Sanguinius in terms of single combat capability.
*A poor leader and general, however. He could murder armies sent against him, but he lacked the tactical acumen (or anything resembling sanity) to focus on the objectives truly needed to win a war. Angron is in the end a gladiator let loose in a galaxy-wide arena: murdering all of his opponents is the only acceptable (or even concievable) way to win.
*A retcon made his [[Leeroy Jenkins]] behaviour one of the largest factors for fucking up the Horus Heresy. If Angron had kept his murderboner down for just a few more minutes and let Horus finish off the remaining loyalists on Istvaan with another Exterminatus strike; they would have been able to march to Terra faster and with much more manpower and have a better chance at winning. Whether this was Angron just being Angron or a secret ploy by Khorne to keep the blood flowing by thinking past the Horus Heresy is unclear (after all, if Horus won; Chaos eventually starves to death. If Horus lost; he has a aeons' worth of blood and conflict to revel over and maybe even an eternal stalemate ensuring he lasts forever, if at the cost of the Great Game continuing for eternity as well.).
*Daemon Prince of [[Khorne]]. Spend most of his time Getting Shit Done and being banished to the Warp for a hundred or so years after the Imperium responds to his Blood Crusades.
|align=center|[[Image:World-Eaters-Warhammer-40000-.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Angron .jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Angrondemon.jpg|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XIII'''
|align=center|[[Image: Robute Guilliman.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Roboute Guilliman]]
|align=center|Lord of Ultramar, Avenging Son, The Victorious, The Master of Ultramar, The Blade of Unity
|align=center|[[Ultramar|Macragge]]
|align=center|[[Ultramarines]]
|align=center|Loyal, barring [[Imperium Secundus| that one episode he doesn't like to talk about]]
|align=center|
*A proud and fair visionary who always looked towards building a better future for humanity. Guilliman never did anything without thinking what would happen at the end of the day and he always tried to plan a better outcome for whatever he did, whether its building an empire or subjugating an enemy civilization.
*Was more for the people than the Emperor, hence why he thought preserving his Imperium was more important than the survival of the Emperor himself.
*A general first and warrior second, which was the key to his success throughout the Great Crusade. He wasn't the best at crossing swords or gunfights, at least in comparison to many of his brothers; but he was exceptional at commanding his forces and resources, ensuring all wars he fought in were running at optimum efficiency.
*The greatest statesman among the Primarchs. Guilliman was best remembered for his ability to set up an efficient form of government on every planet his legion conquered, turning them into model, self-sufficient worlds in order to prepare them for the future after the Great Crusade. This is best exemplified by Ultramar, which still remains one of the most powerful and idyllic planetary systems in the Imperium, even after 10,000 years. More tellingly, was allowed by the Emperor to keep Ultramar's 500 worlds as a semi-autonomous mini-empire within the Imperium because it was just so well run.
*He's also a logistical genius, and invented the organizational model that 8 of the 9 First Founding Chapters still use (more or less).
*Previously kept in a stasis chamber after his throat was sliced by Fulgrim with a poisoned sword.
*Recently revived with the help of Belisarius Cawl and the Ynnari and their new soul manipulation powers. Is now active once more, and not very happy with how badly the Imperium has gone to shit since he was not-quite-dead. Currently back in his old role of Lord Commander of the Imperium, trying his hardest to keep the Emperor's work from going completely down the drain while while waging an unending war against the forces of Chaos and the Imperium's equally monstrous bureaucracy. Rather unhappy about it all but is keeping his head above water nevertheless.
|align=center|[[Image: 30k.Guilliman.png|thumb|150px|]][[Image: Primarchs-Guilliman-40000.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Roboute-Guilliman-Primarchs-Warhammer-40000.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XIV'''
|align=center|[[Image: Mortarion Portrait.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Mortarion]]
|align=center|The Pale King, The Death Lord, The Prince of Decay (Post-Heresy)
|align=center|[[Barbarus]]
|align=center|[[Death Guard]]
|align=center|Traitor
|align=center|
*A bitter, petty man, kind of like the edgy goth kid of the group. Mortarion didn't want to associate anyone who hasn't gone through the same brand of abuse he has during his childhood and also hated those who had relatively comfy ones in comparison (like Guilliman or Dorn). He would only find some friendship with Konrad Curze (due to his "raised alone and became psycho-Batman" origin) and Horus (because just about everyone liked Horus).
*Has an immense abhorrence for psykers and the warp, due to his experiences on Barbarus. As a daemon prince, he is the very thing he hated in the first place. He takes the resulting bitterness out on everyone else in the form of horrible diseases.
*Stubborn to the core. Mortarion's favored tactic that he passed onto the Death Guard is a combination of attrition and unrelenting assaults; they take the pain while dishing it out in greater amounts, non-stop. He also valued individualism throughout his legion, largely leaving it up to his troops to figure out the best strategy in a conflict, rather than micro-managing them.
*Was already disenchanted by the Imperium by the start of the Horus Heresy (Seeing the Emperor and his works as total hypocrisies), so he threw his lot in with Horus. However, due to a ruse by Typhus; he and his legion ended up being infected by a virulent Nurglite plague while in the warp, which caused them to be in a constant state of agony but remain alive due to their Astartes-grade toughness. Unable to bear the pain and see his sons suffer; he pledged his loyalty to Nurgle and the god "cured" them of the plague (cure is probably incorrect, it was more of mutate their bodies to be compatible with the plague). From here, he became a daemon prince.
*Went back to the warp after the Horus Heresy, where Nurgle gave him dominion over the Plague Planet, which he shaped into the image of Barbarus.
*Was banished by [[Kaldor Draigo|Grey Knights]] during the Battle of Kornovin, which was the origin of [[Kaldor Draigo|Draigo]] carving a name onto his plague-ridden heart (how Draigo did so is a mystery, so we'll just chalk it up to him being too high on drugs to be infected by Mortarion's plagues).
*Helped Abby by creating the zombie plague, along with other contagions, after he got the Hand of Darkness artifact.
*He eventually got better and waged a full-scale invasion of Ultramar when he heard that Guilliman's finally awake. Had to retreat after he had to deal with the other Chaos Gods' typical shenanigans (mainly encroaching on his strongholds in the [[Scourge Stars]] while he was off campaigning).
|align=center|[[Image:Warhammer-40000-фэндомы-Horus-Heresy-Mortarion-2073409.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Mortarion-40k.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XV'''
|align=center|[[Image:Magnus-The-Red-Primarchs-Warhammer-40000-фэндомы-4995855 (1).jpeg|thumb|250px|]] [[Magnus the Red]]
|align=center|The Crimson King, The Red Cyclops
|align=center|[[Prospero]]
|align=center|[[Thousand Sons]]
|align=center|Traitor, though he never planned this
|align=center|
*An optimistic scholar who thirsted for knowledge and always believed that information should be preserved for the greater good of mankind, regardless of its origins or the danger it might pose.
*As a psyker from birth, he was sympathetic to the discrimination faced by his fellow psykers and labored for his kind to be accepted. He did so by training psykers to control and enhance their powers, in the hopes of showing to people the benefits of his kind's gifts. This had mixed results with his brother primarchs, especially in the face of the Emperor's "psykers are bad" standing orders.
*Had an ego to rival the Emperor himself, but with far less justification for it.
*Defying the Nikea council's rulings, Magnus continued to experiment with warp powers and during a Tzeentch-induced prophesy that involved Horus' betrayal; he attempted to warn his father with a psychic message. During the sending process; he accidentally destroyed the Emperor's webway project, causing him to be arrested by Russ and the Wolves to answer for his disobedience.
*As Horus was already corrupted by this point, he altered the orders to instead destroy the Thousand Sons' homeworld. Realizing he's been played like a damn fiddle by Tzeentch, Magnus' resolve was broken and initially accepted his destiny of being destroyed by the wolves in an attempt to spite Tzeentch, but eventually decided to attempt to rebel against his fate but ultimately failing after Leman Russ beat him up badly. He then made a desperate deal with Tzeentch to save his legion in return for his servitude. He and the Thousand Sons were teleported to the Planet of Sorcerers, where more hijinks ensued with his [[Ahzek Ahriman|first captain]]'s certain ritual. Also his soul was broken into pieces somehow during the deal, and he's still trying to collect them all.
*Now a daemon prince, one of his first major campaigns was to invade the Space Wolves' homeworld. Was banished, but the Wolves were all but ruined; most of their upper command structure and progress with stabilizing their flawed gene seed was gone. Feeling they weren't down for the count yet; he went in again and bloodied the entire star system of Fenris itself, irreparably damaging the Wolves' home system.
*Appeared during the Gathering Storm, where he trapped and captured Guilliman and his retinue in the warp. After he escaped, Magnus chased and confronted Guilliman all the way to Luna, but was banished by the Custodes and Sisters of Silence. Now currently biding his time for another offensive.
|align=center|[[Image:Past Magnus.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image: 30k.magnus-the-red.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image: 40k.magnus-the-red.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XVI'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Warmaster_Horus_Remembrancer_Sketch.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Horus|Horus Lupercal]]
|align=center|The Lupercal, The Favorite Son
|align=center|[[Cthonia]]
|align=center|[[Black Legion|Luna Wolves/ Sons of Horus/ Black Legion]]
|align=center|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1rT6Vi5Ln4 DOUBLE TRAITOR link dead :(]
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*A charismatic strategist who overwhelmed his enemies through sheer numbers and precision tactics, with an emphasis on wiping out the leadership structures of enemy forces.
*Big E's most favored son, always being held in the highest regard, second only to the Custodes. This was a combination of him being the first Primarch found (before the retcon) and his long rap sheet of victories throughout the Crusade.
*Due to his position and experience, he was the most well-liked of the Primarchs during the Great Crusade. Just about everyone looked at Horus as the greatest among them.
*For all his charisma and leadership, Horus was still wracked with self-doubt once appointed Warmaster, constantly afraid that he was unable to live up to the title (poor dude basically thought that anything less than Big E levels of success was failure). Being overall commander of the Emperor's forces AND being his personal favorite was a lot to live up to. This was one of the reasons why he succumbed to the temptations of Chaos.
*Was one of the few Primarchs who was suspicious of the Emperor's plans for the Astartes post-Crusade, fearing they'd be disposed of like the Thunder Warriors and was mistrustful of the Emperor's intentions in the long run in general, to say nothing of his resentment about how the worlds he and his brothers had conquered would be governed by ordinary humans. The Ruinous Powers would also use this to their advantage.
*Rebelled against the Emperor after being fed a vision of the future by the Chaos Gods, in which the Emperor was being worshiped as a god and many of his fellow Primarchs (including himself) were reviled or outright forgotten. Little did he know that this was to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
*His essence has been erased from existence. When the Emperor mustered up the resolve to finally end Horus, he shot him with a psychic blast powerful enough to obliterate his very soul, ensuring that the Chaos Gods couldn't just bring him back from the dead. His body was recovered and brought to the Eye of Terror, but was later destroyed after an incident involving [[Fabius Bile]] and a clone of Horus.
|align=center|[[Image:Horus-the warmaster.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Horus-Primarchs-.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Emperor vs Horus.jpg|thumb|150px|]]
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|align=center|'''XVII'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Lorgar_Aurelian_sketch.png|thumb|250px|]] [[Lorgar|Lorgar Aurelian]]
|align=center|Bearer of the Word, Urizen (Colchisian for "wisest of the wise")
|align=center|[[Colchis]]
|align=center|[[Word Bearers]]
|align=center|Traitor Prime
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*A charismatic diplomat with a golden tongue, who relied heavily on his unparalleled speaking abilities to bring worlds into compliance during the Great Crusade. Lorgar would always prefer to talk out a peaceful solution, rather than resorting to violence. That said, Lorgar did know how to slap a bitch when needed.
*A deeply spiritual man, due to growing up in a theocratic society during his time on Colchis. Due to this, Lorgar saw The Emperor as a literal god and decided to spread the good word of the God-Emperor throughout the Crusade. During this time, he penned the "Lectitio Divinitatus", a book detailing how awesome the God-Emperor was, and always built grand cathedrals in all the planets he conquered. As you can imagine, this didn't sit well with the Man-Emperor's secular Empire, so he decided to bloody one of Lorgar's grandest cities to send a message with Guilliman. Little did the Emperor know what this act of dickery would lead eventually to.
*With Lorgar being completely disheartened and defeated; Kor Phaeron and [[Erebus]] lured him to the worship of the Dark Gods, who were more than happy to accept his rabid fanboyism. He would eventually corrupt Horus and ignite the [[Horus Heresy|single biggest clusterfuck in Imperial History]], ruining everything that the Emperor has striven to build since the [[Age of Strife]].
*Rules as a daemon prince of Chaos Undivided and currently located in Sicarius, the Word Bearers' home planet.
*Previously a shut-in NEET that left command to his legion to his Dark Apostles: Lorgar has finally gotten out of his tower and is personally leading the Word Bearers now. He has recently been seen evangelizing about Chaos in the material realm, with a large legion of Word Bearers behind him. Got his ass kicked by a warp-empowered Corax and is doing everything he can to avoid round three.

|align=center|[[Image: 30k.Lorgar.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Lorgar_portrait.jpg|thumb|150px|]]
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|align=center|'''XVIII'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Vulkan_sketch.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Vulkan]]
|align=center|Lord of Drakes
|align=center|[[Nocturne]]
|align=center|[[Salamanders]]
|align=center|Loyal
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*A true man of the people, concerned with the preservation and welfare of humans. Vulkan saw all humans in the Imperium as equals and would protect any servant of the Emperor with great ferocity regardless of their class or status.
*Growing up in a blacksmith society allowed him and his legion to craft some of the finest wargear the Imperium has ever seen. It's also the reason for their fire fetish in combat.
*Inherited the Emperor's perpetual powers, granting him the ability to reincarnate after dying.
*He and his legion took some of the worst losses during Istvaan, and he himself was eventually captured by Konrad Curze.
*Curze wanted to get his torture fetish on, so he tortured Vulkan to death. Several times. Vulkan's status as a perpetual ensured he always came back, but less and less sane as Curze's treatment got worse and worse.
*He eventually managed to escape, but accidentally teleported over Macragge's atmosphere, crashing down on the planet like a green comet of insanity. By this point, anything remotely resembling sanity had left Vulkan's mind. He was eventually "killed" by another perpetual, in a well-meaning attempt to reset Vulkan's brain. It worked (sort of. At least he wasn't a howling maniac anymore) and after taking a short death nap, he got better and disappeared for a while.
*Resurfaced during [[The War of The Beast]] and was recruited to lead the Imperial forces against The Beast's forces. Then disappeared after ramming The Beast into a plasma reactor and killing them both in a squall of gore. The Salamanders claim he continued to lead them for a few more centuries after that death, then left them with the Tome of Fire, claiming he had a special mission that they could not accompany him for.
|align=center|[[Image:Past Vulkan.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Vulkan Lives.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Vulkan-Primarchs-Warhammer-40000-фэндомы-4123369.jpeg|150px|]]
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|align=center|'''XIX'''
|align=center|[[Image: Corax Portrait.png|thumb|250px|]] [[Corvus Corax]]
|align=center|The Lord of Shadows, The Liberator, The Deliverer, The Raven-Lord, Chooser of the Slain, The Shadowed Lord
|align=center|[[Deliverance]]
|align=center|[[Raven Guard]]
|align=center|Loyal
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*Sought to overthrow oppression, bringing justice to tyrants.
*Possessed some kind of perception-manipulating psychic power, giving him the ability to be "invisible" to organics (He's still there clear as day, but your mind just can't process that he's right there).
*Preferred covert warfare, sabotaging, fast strikes and assassinating the enemy from the sides, and only striking in the open when the time is right. Basically one of the few primarchs who uses tactics of actual special forces units.
*He and his legion were bloodied during Istvaan and forced out of the conflict. Corvus wanted desperately to help the Imperium's deteriorating situation, so he asked the Emperor for assistance. Emps obliged and gave him the template to create the Primarchs themselves, giving him the ability to train marines at an even faster rate. This was wrecked after the Alpha Legion tampered with the creation process, resulting with the majority of the aspirants coming out as horrible mutants and aberrations.
*While it weighed heavily on his conscience, Corax had to be pragmatic. He made do and used his newly obtained mutant horde as shock troops and it worked; they were able to disrupt the traitors long enough to buy Terra some time to put up a defense.
*After the Heresy ended, he was reluctantly forced to euthanize his creations, wracking Corvus with a huge amount of guilt.
*Went missing after heading for the Eye of Terror to atone for his sins, saying only "Nevermore" before leaving. His status is currently unknown, but the Raven Guard believe he's still alive and will return once again. In reality, he is indeed alive and hunting his fallen brothers, although the Warp has changed him into a living, shapeshifting shadow.
|align=center|[[Image:Warhammer-Corvus-Corax-Primarchs.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Hh-walpaper-raven-Copy.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Corvus Corax.jpg|thumb|150px|]]
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|align=center|'''XX'''
|align=center|[[Image: Alpharius2.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Alpharius]] [[Omegon]]
|align=center|Head of the Hydra, Aleph Null, The Hydra, The Threefold Serpent, The Final Configuration, The Last Primarch
|align=center|They're not telling
|align=center|[[Alpha Legion]]
|align=center|[[Alpha Legion|Alpharius: Very loyal. Omegon: even Tzeentch can't keep track.]]
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*Shrouded in mystery. It's not even known what their homeworld is, let alone what their upbringing was like. Forge World gave no fewer than four mutually irreconcilable origin stories, all of which were dismissed as lies. That said, the only discernible fact we can give about them is that the two primarchs did not always agree with each other, exemplified with Omegon actively sabotaging Alpharius' operations during the Horus Heresy.
*As primarchs of the Alpha legion; the two frequently exchanged roles whenever needed with nobody ever noticing, but officially; Alpharius is the primarch of the legion while Omegon is commander of their elite covert forces.
*Masters of psychological warfare and manipulation. They didn't need regiments of soldiers or weapons to do his heavy lifting; all he needs is a handful of spies to plant paranoia, deceit, misinformation, and dissent in his targeted worlds. By the time his agents are done: the enemy would either be tearing each other apart and/or distrustful of each other; making them isolated, easy pickings for the main Alpha Legion forces once they're called to reign the planet in.
*Alpharius bought the Cabal's story about letting Horus kill all of humanity to kill off the Chaos Gods in the long run, and was eventually beheaded by Rogal Dorn during a battle on Pluto. Maybe. Quite frankly, with these two one can never be entirely sure '''what''' the truth really is.
*Omegon took on his mantle officially ("the jest made real") and this new "Alpharius" may or may not have been killed by Guilliman (the Ultramarines suspect they may have only killed a body double). His loyalties are unknown, but he was against the Cabal's proposal, indicating he either thought sacrificing his entire species was too big of a price (which would mean he's still loyal to humanity), or he wanted Chaos to survive by feeding off humanity (which would mean he was a traitor).
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==Their Eventual Fates==
[[File:Heresy_Time.jpg|300px|thumb|right|An accurate retelling of the final stages of the rebellion.]]
===Traitors===
*General downside to those who became Daemon Princes is that the further they go from the Eye of Terror, the more their power wanes. Also most of them spend most of their time in the Great Game (eternal war in the Warp), growing increasingly distant from the real world affairs.
* '''Horus''' was killed by the Emperor during the Siege of Terra, who utterly destroyed his soul. His legion enshrined his corpse until the Emperor's Children stole it. [[Fabius Bile]] managed to successfully clone him, but [[Abaddon]] killed the clone to cement his position as his successor as Warmaster of Chaos. While "Horus" is supposedly ''very'' dead, which was his fault for being a fuckwit, shards of his soul which were broken off in the Warp remain. Including one in the realm of Khorne...
* '''Angron''' is a Daemon Prince of Khorne. Still gets shit done, but did get his arse handed to him by the Grey Knights on Armageddon.
* '''Mortarion''' is a fucktwit who rarely does anything of interest (still sulking over his eternal existence as the thing he hates the most), but is a Daemon Prince of Nurgle. Apparently now holds the largest domain in the Eye of Terror, rather than just one planet he had in the old fluff. Got some open heart surgery, courtesy of Draigo/Ward. Created zombie plague from one of the artifacts Abbaddon used in his XII crusade. He invaded Ultramar after hearing news that Guilliman's finally awake, though he ultimately had to go back to the [[Scourge Stars]] due to his poor fortunes in the war as well as being summoned back by his patron God.
* '''Fulgrim's''' soul was trapped in a painting while his body was possessed by a daemon for a brief time before swapping places with the daemon and taking its powers (or so he claims). The first Primarch to become a Daemon Prince, although he aimed at achieving (demi)godhood instead (by sacrificing Perturabo). Abandoned what remained of his legion to rule his pleasure daemon world, and [[Troll|didn't tell them how to get there]] (yet Abaddon somehow manages to contact him anyways).
* '''Lorgar''' is a lazy fucknut who does nothing since they fled to the Eye of Terror, and handed the rule over his legion to the council of Dark Apostles, but still a Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided. Taught Abaddon how to summon daemons. Lost a duel with a powered-up Corax during sometime after the Heresy.
* '''Magnus the Red''' got broken into several pieces during his fight with Leman Russ, with several of them actually believing they were the real Magnus and going their own way. Some pieces were eventually put back together to form "the Crimson King", the Daemon Primarch form of Magnus who joined Horus in his rebellion. This sometimes also gets shit done, leading armies to the [[Space Wolves]]' planet and screwing with the Imperium, keeping his big red trollface on all the time until he gets his ass tossed back into the [[Warp]]. Other fragments seem to be floating around throughout history, appearing to have their own agenda, pretending to be daemons or helping the Imperium from time to time. By the time of the Gathering Storm and the 42nd Millennium the disparate fragments have mostly recombined to the Crimson King ''(leaving out a few key elements, namely the ones who embodied his best qualities; for example, the part of Magnus that embodied his love for his Legion chose to fade into nonexistence instead of being reabsorbed into the Crimson King)'' making him as whole as he can be.
* '''Perturabo''' becomes irrelevant after he goes on to drop largely out of post-Heresy fluff, but is still a Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided. Rules the most stable planet in the Eye of Terror, where he does nothing but watching his sons sieging each other. Helps Failbaddon in a couple of Black Crusades by giving him some Daemon Engines. It doesn't really help, but it's more than Lorgar's done for Chaos Undivided. He is also leading his Legion after the 13th Black Crusade in their new offensive against the Imperium.
* '''Konrad Curze''' allowed a Callidus assassin to infiltrate his lair and kill him, either because he himself became the thing he hated the most, or to justify to himself that every atrocity he has done in the name of justice was a necessary act. Except...there was that crown he always wore, the one with a stone in it that looked oddly similar to a soulstone...
* The Alpha Legion's story is a bit complex:
**'''Alpharius''' was slain by Rogal Dorn in combat during the Battle of Pluto. He is very much dead as he did not bargain with the Dark Gods and had his head split open by a fellow Primarch's chainsword. Conspiracy theorists will speculate that it wasn't really Alpharius, though the death is strongly corroborated by Omegon's response. So unless Alpharius used a body double to trick Rogal Dorn AND ''his own twin'' into thinking he was dead and allowed Omegon to take his place and identity permanently; there isn't any hard evidence to suggest that the dead "Alpharius" was anything other than the actual Primarch, but knowing the Alpha Legion that doesn't mean too much without definitive proof.
**'''Omegon''' reluctantly took Alpharius' identity after he sensed he was dead, and his legion a bee-line for Ultramar after the Horus Heresy, where he met his end after dueling [[Roboute Guilliman|Big Bobby G]]. However, because the rest of the Alpha Legionaries did not break even after the death of their primarch ''(in fact they managed to beat the Ultramarines in the conflict altogether);'' nobody could truly confirm if they did indeed kill the real deal, or if it was a body double.
**While it's been established that a decent amount of Alpha Legionnaires were surgically altered to resemble their Primarch and even ''believe'' they were Primarchs themselves; that and the figurehead role of "Alpharius" has been largely interchangable between both the twins and their sons, which makes sense for a legion whose MO is flexible leadership. While we can be reasonably certain that at least one of the twins is dead, whatever "Omegon-Alpharius" or at least whichever person who thinks he's Alpharius have been up to following the Heresy is a matter of fierce debate and speculation.
**One warband of the Alpha Legion believes that Omegon is still alive in the 42nd millennium and somehow certain elements of the Necron knows where he is. And there is that one big guy in scaled armor trapped in Trayzn's toybox...

===Loyalists===
[[File:Imperium-good-ending.jpg|350px|thumb|right|If GeeDubs ever dared to make a multiple outcome final campaign World of Darkness style this will probably be the Golden Ending while respecting all the current canon material.]]
*It is believed by Mortarion that they are now returning to realspace.
*'''Ferrus Manus''' was killed by Fulgrim during the Drop Site Massacre. His body was not recovered, so some Iron Hands think he might still be alive, and for a time it seemed like he did survive. However, Vulkan later exposed the "Ferrus Manus" leading the remaining Iron Hands as a marionette-like machine with one of the Primarch's hands attached to it, destroying the fake soon afterwards. The fact that Ferrus was decapitated by Fulgrim after being defeated and had his head delivered to Horus makes this claim fairly dubious. Just don't say that to the Iron Hands, though. Unless you want free open-heart surgery from a ceramite and steel power fist. Fulgrim did try to clone him (several times) in the hope one of them would join the traitors, but every clone so far has refused and been subsequently killed by him. An apparition of an iron handed giant - the 10th son - was seen leading the charge in an army of human souls against an army of daemons when the Emperor entered the Webway).
*'''Sanguinius''' was killed by Horus. His body was recovered, and he's the only Primarch who doesn't have any legends about returning, though there are some theories on the identity of the [[Sanguinor]] which were later proven <s>incorrect</s> half correct (he is able to manifest Sanguinius to Dante during the events of the Dark Imperium). Sanguinius foresaw his death and accepted it as a necessary sacrifice for the future of the Imperium, in no small part because his visions also warned him that he would only survive the Horus Heresy by becoming corrupted himself. The trauma of his death by the Talon of Horus left a psychic manifestation of him still on the Vengeful Spirit. As of late it turns out his soul has been wandering the warp ever since, only deciding to make himself known to revive Commander [[Dante]] when he ended up as [[Swarmlord]]-shishkebab after realizing that you really don't want to get into melee with the Swarmlord a little too late (Dante being Dante, he still managed to banish it to the Hive Mind, showing just how bloody exceptional you have to be for Sanguinius to bother interfering).
*'''Lion El'Jonson''' returned to Caliban only to discover <s>that his friend Luther had stabbed him in the back.</s> THAT LUTHER HAD A PLANET-WIDE PARTY AND EVENTUALLY PASSED OUT INTO A COMA AFTER DRINKING 200 TANKARDS OF SPACE WOLF-GRADE ALCOHOL. He sleeps deep within the Rock, originally on life support and now fully-healed (but none of the Dark Angels seem to know this). Perhaps this is a sign of a coming advancement of the storyline, DUN DUN DUN!
*'''Jaghatai Khan''' disappeared into the Webway after chasing a group of Dark Eldar. The White Scars think he will return someday, and when you consider the fact that time is just as weird there as it is in the rest of the Warp, there is a small possibility he's still around.
*'''Leman Russ''' disappeared into the Eye of Terror but promised the Space Wolves that he would return for the Final Battle. Magnus appears to know where he is now, but he sure as hell isn't telling the Space Wolves. Reports during the Thirteenth Black Crusade claim that a figure matching Russ's description was seen leading the 13th Great Company have surfaced, but were never verified. Numerous crusades by the Space Wolves to find Russ have resulted in failure, although they did find <s> his armor in a shrine of Khorne in the Eye</s> an armor believed to be his in the Temple of Horus on Rudra - so either he succumbed to Chaos, was killed by a Khorne champion, devolved into wulfen, or is [[Conan the Barbarian|currently pillaging The Warp as a muscle-bound, half-naked barbarian hero]].
*'''Rogal Dorn''' disappeared during a [[Black Crusade]] in a desperate ship boarding action. Only his severed hand was recovered and its skeleton enshrined. Debate rages about whether the Zerg rush of World Eaters killed him, or whether he's still out there, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIJTvEo4N4Q murdering his way through traitors with an Astartes-pattern shotgun and a chainsword grafted where his hand used to be]. Original 40K novels stated his entire skeleton was on display on Terra, but it's been retconned to only his hands. Still, a Primarch without a skeleton would be bad-ass, if not a little amusing.
*'''Roboute Guilliman''' was formerly preserved in a stasis field, seconds from death after he was poisoned by Fulgrim. Fast-forward a few thousand years and some Eldar flubdubbery, however, and Big Bobby G is back in action, and he's mad at the current state of the Imperium. After a private meeting with the Emperor, he assumed direct command of the Imperium itself as Lord Commander of the Imperium. When he isn't curb-stomping traitors to death or otherwise trying to keep the Imperium afloat, Guilliman is busy re-vamping the Imperium with numerous reforms in an attempt to realize his father's dream for humanity. Needless to say; a lot of people are unhappy about this, but they can't exactly tell off one of the Emperor's actual sons and expect not to be on the business end of a Custodes guardian spear. He's also taken the time to rewrite the Codex Astartes as well.
*'''Vulkan''' got the shit kicked out of him during the Drop Site Massacre, whereupon his fluff gets a bit hazy:
**The old ''Codex: Space Marines'' states that his body was never found, only a book containing only the names of nine powerful relics and a bunch of annoying riddles as to where they might be found, penned by Vulkan himself. In the 41st millennium, the Salamanders believe that he is still alive and that collecting the nine relics - they've found five so far - will reveal his location.
** In the Black Library novels, starting with ''Vulkan Lives'' the big V had to be dragged into a Thunderhawk in bloody tatters. Kurze captured him and tortured him to death... repeatedly; as a [[Perpetual]], Vulkan would not stay dead. After an indeterminate amount of time and deaths, Vulkan managed to escape by teleporting himself into orbit around Macragge and reentering its atmosphere. When he recovered and learned that Kurze was planetside, he [[Rage|flipped out]] and went after him. A well-meaning Perpetual stabbed him with a fulgurite (a spearhead-shaped piece of stone that contains a bit of the Emperor's power), hoping to either cure his madness or kill him for good. Now apparently dead, Vulkan was put in a stasis capsule inscribed with the words "Unbound Flame," with an honor guard of Salamanders until his remains could be returned to Nocturne. As of the end of ''Deathfire'', he somehow managed to return to life again, although there's no indication as to whether or not he's still a Perpetual. As of the War of the Beast, he's still alive in M.32, after the wounding of Guilliman. He's apparently been wandering the Imperium for a millennium fulfilling his own oaths, but returns to Terra to take command and reclaim Ullanor from the united Ork race. Even with one of the greatest forces assembled since the Horus Heresy, with the remnants of the VII Legion Chapters, the fight devolved to Vulkan facing off with The Beast one-on-one, and sacrificing himself in The Beasts temple-gargant's core detonating it with both himself and The Beast inside it. Whether both of them died is highly unlikely. He hints that Dorn is also alive, meaning he is either privy to some secret information, doesn't know of his brother's death, or is going insane.
**The 8th Edition Codex reconcile these stories somewhat, by claiming that sources within the Salamanders themselves believe Vulkan led them for three millennia ''(which accounts for his appearance during the War of the Beast)'', sometimes falling in battle but apparently always returning ''(also accounting for his perpetual status)''. He eventually disappeared on some final undocumented mission, not without leaving his Tome of Fire and bequeathing his personal artefacts to the chapter but not actually saying where they were, giving rise to the legend that if they are all found he will then return.
*'''Corvus Corax''' disappeared into the Eye of Terror as an atonement for putting down the mutant hordes he created in trying to create Space Marines out of desperation. Quoth the Raven: "Nevermore." Beyond the Imperium's eyes, his wraith-slip powers began to mutate and he became a shadowy shapeshifter hellbent on killing all his traitor brothers. Corax was last seen beating Lorgar's ass so hard that the useless fuckwit had to run with his tail between his legs. Yeah, he beat a Daemon Primarch (who had Chaos Marine and likely daemon backup) into up and running, while Corax himself was on his own. Basically the battle between Guilliman and Magnus on Luna, in reverse. Eat it, Papa Smurf.

==Two Missing Primarchs | The Forgotten & The Purged==
Who are the two missing Primarchs, you ask? [[Sigmar|Sigmar Heldenhammer]] and [[Archaon The Everchosen: Lord of the End of Times; Chaos Incarnate; Herald of the Apocalypse|Archaon]] (depending on how WHFB fits in with 40K, if it does). Or maybe (per /tg/ canon) [[Rachnus Rageous]] and [[Tialoc Ekans]]. [[Samus]] and [[Berserk|Guts]] are also contenders, and many Bolter and Chainsword regulars consider Icarion and his Lightning Bearers to be their headcanon II Legion.

The Legions in question are the Legio II (Second Legion) and the Legio XI (Eleventh Legion).

What, you wanted a serious answer?

Okay, fine. Nobody really knows. It is very intentional that no lore exists about these two legions, making them completely unknown. References to their existence are common in canon, but no details are ever explicitly mentioned. This is a feature of the lore, an intentionally kept mystery whose details provide more questions than answers. What has been established is that they got killed for some reason and the existence of their Legions was wiped from record by the Emperor. [[Malcador the Sigillite]] claims that the Primarchs had been manipulated from the start, and were to be maneuvered into their proper roles prior to the Horus Heresy and those which would not be manipulated would be removed. Although Malcador's own testimony is tainted by the fact that he later admits he had to lie, though many of his statements do mirror what we have seen from the Emperor's own statements.

[[Games Workshop]] have mentioned Primarchs besides the eighteen above on other occasions, but they backtracked since. Back in the [[Rogue Trader|first edition]] of [[Warhammer 40,000]], all twenty [[First Founding]] Chapters were known, as were their Primarchs (though, at the time, the Primarch was just the first Chapter Master). Of these, the [[Valedictors]] and [[Rainbow Warriors]] were declared in a later [[White Dwarf]] to have been founded after the [[Second Founding]].

Later, in the short story '''Hell in a Bottle''' from the novel Into the Maelstrom, a chapter known as the Iron Hearts get fucked over by a [[Chaos Lord]]. The short story also mentions that the Chapter has a Primarch known as Rubinek. Of course, this was just a huge cock-up on the author's part, who himself admitted that he meant Chapter Master.

=== The [REDACTED] Event ===

*'''The First Heretic''' shows that by the Razing of Monarchia (43 years before the Isstvan V Drop Site Massacre of 006.M31), the II and XI Legions had already been stricken from the records. It also states that the remaining Primarchs had to swear an oath never to speak of their missing brothers and that the missing Primarchs' corresponding legions were personally purged by the Emperor, so it had to have been something extraordinarily bad. However, Lorgar still remembers something about them, saying "I still remember how they-", before Magnus cut him off. Lastly, it is revealed that the Emperor had considered purging Lorgar and the Word Bearers (making them the third legion to be purged) for starting a religion around him, but Russ had talked him out of it. #BlameLemanRuss
*In '''The Lightning Tower''' Rogal Dorn says that the lost Primarchs' disappearances were "separate tragedies", so it seems like they disappeared in two different incidents.
*In '''Descent of Angels''', which takes place as of the time Lion El'Jonson had been rediscoverd, Chief Librarian Israfael tells the then initiate, Zahariel El'Zurias, that the Lion has 19 brothers; indicating that as of that time they had not committed whatever atrocity lead to their demise. This also means that the existence of the Primarchs was not a secret among the Imperium.
*In '''Dark Imperium''', Roboute Guilliman declares "I was one of twenty. Two failed. Half the rest turned on my Father." This suggests that the downfall of the two lost primarchs was not a result of them betraying the Emperor. Instead their demise was a result of them "failing" their purpose as primarchs and being terminated as a result. Interestingly this line also seems to imply that it is no longer forbidden to speak of the two missing primarchs in the 42nd milenium, as Guilliman casually references them to make a point about primarchs being fallible. (The 2021 revision of the book adds a bit more to this; it looks like the Imperium has covered up the fact that there were even two deleted Legions and Primarchs in the first place.)
*'''The Chamber at the End of Memory''' has Rogal Dorn note that he was one of the few Primarchs who ever met with the II and XI Primarchs. It also reveals that not only was the entire Imperium forbidden to speak of the missing Primarchs' existence, but every non-Primarch save for Malcador who had ever interacted with them was mind-wiped so they would remember nothing about them - including their own gene-sons, presumably other than the fact that they were purged from all record and be left unable to speak even about that. Even the other Primarchs had their memories altered so they couldn't recall much more about their lost brothers beyond the fact that they existed - Dorn is dumbstruck by this discovery, and even more so when Malcador tells him that it was his own idea (and Roboute Guilliman's) to have his fellow Primarchs' memories altered. Malcador also states that '''whatever it was that the II and XI Primarchs did, it was against the very ideals of the Great Crusade and would have ruined everything the the Great Crusade had accomplished to that point.''' Their old living quarters in the Imperial Palace are protected by extremely powerful psychic wards, and when Malcador briefly restores Rogal Dorn's memories of them he realizes the '''''hateful truth'''. That '''the entire Horus Heresy up to the Siege of Terra was not so awful or threatening to the Imperium as what had happened to the Missing Primarchs'''; in fact, '''if they were still alive, the Imperium would have long since fallen'''.
*'''Deliverance Lost''' suggests that whatever happened to the missing Primarchs occurred sometime before the Emperor found Corvus Corax, as Corax asked the Emperor why there were only sixteen other Primarchs waiting for him if he was the nineteenth (it's unsure whether this was referring to him being the Primarch of the nineteenth Legion, or him being the nineteenth found); the Emperor avoided the question, claiming that "it would be a discussion for another day". This is no longer the case, somehow, as he is [[Retcon|now the third-to-last primarch found]], right before the second missing primarch.
*In '''Prospero Burns''', Leman Russ mentions that the Space Wolves had fought other Space Marines before the attack on Prospero, which may have something to do with the purge. A senior Space Wolf describes Russ' "wyrd" as being "the Emperor's executioner". Several books since have backed this up, though [https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/8q7qyg/the_space_wolves_what_were_they_really_for_little/e0hih9h/ ADB denies this].
*In '''Scars''' there's a reference to rumours and "whispers of past atrocities" that only a Primarch could kill another Primarch. Russ also turns up and talks a bit about fighting Magnus, and the resulting "shame". So if he's responsible for offing one or two of his brothers, they must've done something pretty fucking heinous.
*In '''The Dark King''', when asked if he will report the Night Lords for censure, Dorn remarks that he feared to add another empty statue to the Emperor's palace, implying that the missing legions were exterminated for committing severe atrocities.
*In '''The Last Council''' Malcador states that one of the missing Primarchs was '''fallen and disgraced'''. Alpharius mentions that one of the primarchs had died. While the lost Primarchs and their Legions were wiped before he was rediscovered, its Alpharius....you can't keep info like that from him.
*Their legions were purged in the times of the [[Rangdan Xenocides|Rangdan Wars]] they participated in.
*In '''The Wolftime''', which is set during the [[Indomitus Crusade]], two Adeptus Custodes are discussing the Space Wolves' resistance to their new [[Primaris Marine]] reinforcements. During the discussion, one of them, Hastius Vychellan, notes that, if [[Roboute Guilliman]] turned on the Emperor, the Space Wolves would be among his first opponents, as the Custodes' history with the Eleventh Legion demonstrates. The other, Maldovar Colquan, notes that this shared history is an example of how loyalty to the Emperor can be corrupted by lies and manipulation. It's quite vague, but the implication is obvious: someone manipulated the XI Legion into turning traitor without them realising it, and the Space Wolves (and likely the Custodes as well) went after them for it. The book doesn't say who manipulated them, but since Malcador mentions in ''The Chamber at the End of Memory'' that the lost Legions' Marines were spared and re-used after their deletion, but the Primarchs weren't, it's possible it was the XI Primarch.

=== Name of one of the missing Primarchs ===
*In '''The Last Council''', [[Horus]] (who had been outraged by the erasure of his brothers from Imperial records) struggles to mutter the name of one of the lost Primarchs while Malcador is using his psyker powers to seize his nerves so as to prevent him from saying it. '''Horus managed to say"M-Mal...al..."''', which pissed Malcador off to the point that it required Alpharius and the Khan to convince Malcador not to kill him outright. Obviously people looking for connections immediately found one in [[Malal]], the fact that hearing the name made Malcador remember something that stirred up a spiteful hate (Malal's primary emotional aspect), and the fact that Malal's favourite/sacred number is 11 (the number for one of the missing Legions, and the Roman numeral for "2" can be seen as two "1's,") there may be some circumstantial connection to the Anti-Chaos Chaos God (ignoring the fact that copyright caused GW to change Malal's name to Malice).

(50% Horus was just trying to say “Malcador” 50% Game's workshop is trolling us)

=== II Primarch ===
*The 2nd Primarch was the third Primarch rediscovered. After Leman Russ, but before Ferrus Manus.
*'''Fulgrim: The Palatine Phoenix''' mentions that the 2nd Legion's "normally contemplative", "quiet" and "humorless" Primarch had accused Fulgrim of arrogance for boasting he would bring a world under compliance with only eight total Astartes (& that Fulgrim considered the remark high hypocrisy, even bringing to mind the old adage of pots and kettles), which means that at least one missing Primarch was found early enough to have some kind of interaction with his brothers and make a contribution to the Great Crusade (being 3rd in line after Horus and Russ, actually). Considering how recent the encounter had apparently happened, and how Fulgrim refers to the Primarch as if he is still around, it appears that he was still very much active and un-purged at the time of the novel's events, although Fulgrim does not refer to him or his Legion by name (referring to him only as the "master of the Second" and "his brother").
*In '''Fabius Bile: Clonelord''', Flavius Alkenex mentions that Fulgrim once described one of the two (likely the 2nd since the 11th was almost last to be recovered) having made a pilgrimage to the Attila System of Ultima Segmentum to make an archaeological expedition inside the [[Necrons|Ymga Monolith]] for [[C'tan|unknown]] [[Heretek|reasons]] during the earliest days of the Great Crusade. Worth noting that "pilgrimage" has some pretty religious meaning's to it which is something the Emperor greatly and heavily frowned upon.

=== XI Primarch ===
*The 11th Primarch was nineteenth primarch rediscovered. After Corax, but before Alpharius Omegon.
*In '''The First Heretic''', when Argel Tal and the other Word Bearers are in the Emperor's gene-labs, they find the 11th's gestation pod. It is mentioned that the 11th was still "innocent and pure" prior to the Primarchs being scattered, although this was a vision given to the Word Bearers by a demon so take it with a grain of salt.
*In the 9th Edition of the Adeptus Custodes Codex, it is mentioned that the Dungeons and Vaults of the Imperial Palace contained many taboo and esoteric items and entities with Subject XI listed as one of them. Whether it's actually one of the Lost or a coincidence is an neverending debate.

=== The Lost Legions ===
*The Regimental Standard article '''Field Dressing a Lasgun Wound''' makes reference to the II and XI legions taking part in the Rangdan Xenocides, but cuts off before their names are given (though given the amount of whitespace between the word "the" and the end of the page, this would suggest at least one of them had a particularly long word in their name). Given it references the rank of "Warmaster", it means this was during the tail end of the war.
*'''The First Heretic''' specifies that the missing Legions were purged at least 43 years before the Drop Site Massacre, so we can conclude that neither one took part in the Horus Heresy. At the same time, members of the Word Bearers Seventh Company travelling through time with Ingethel the Ascended reveal rumors that the surviving members of the lost Legions were folded into the Ultramarines (their Chaplain thinks the rumor is a load of grox-shit, but their Captain does note that the Ultramarines are on record as receiving an increase in troops; however it should be noted that Ingethel is a Daemon Princess, and could easily have been bullshitting herself).
*In '''The Chamber at the End of Memory''', Malcador stated that when both the Primarchs were purged, it left their legions leaderless. Indicating that the the II and XI legions were around when both Primarchs did the thing. And that Dorn and Guilliman had spoken up to convince him that just purging the two lost legions completely would be a waste of good soldiers. Instead, Dorn and Guilliman created the plan to wipe the Legions' memories, and have them put to use elsewhere. While it is not actually said where they wound up, beyond Malcador saying that he ensured they were "attuned to new circumstances", it is possible that Dorn and Guilliman had the Marines integrated into their own legions. If true, this may support the fanon explanation of the [[Rainbow Warriors]] and [[Valedictors]] existence.
*In '''Fear To Tread''', Sanguinius admits to Horus that he had not told the Emperor about the Red Thirst because he feared that the Emperor would purge the Blood Angels in the same way as the missing Legions, indicating that some form of gene-seed flaw caused at least one of the Legions to be purged.
*'''Visions of Heresy - Book One''' has a pictographic list of all the original legions. Interestingly, the II Legion pict-capture is labeled "-ERROR #CDIV- file not found", while the XI Legion pict-capture is labeled "-CENSORED- by Imperial decree". This seems to indicate that the XI Legion was merely censored, while the records of the II Legion were wiped entirely. ‘Error #CDIV’ is a play on Error 404 using Roman Numerals.

=== Known Timeline ===
*'''792.M30''', the Primarchs were created . The 11th is still "innocent and pure". The Primarchs are scattered.
*'''798.M30''', The Great Crusade began.
*The 2nd Primarch is found and reunited. He is the 3rd Primarch found, after Horus and Russ.
*Sometime during the early years of the Great Crusade, the 2nd Primarch leads an expedition to the Ymga Monolith in the Attila System of the Ultima Segmentum.
*After the discovery of Guilliman, the (then) 8 found Primarchs all met up. The 2nd accused Fulgrim of hubris. Fulgrim feels the 2nd was guilty of the same and called him out on hypocrisy.
*Magnus is found and all (then) 9 found Primarchs meet up.
*Around the time Lion El Johnson (11th to be found) was discovered, the two lost Primarchs had not yet done whatever made them get un-personed.
*'''Between the 890s.M30 - 930s.M30''', both the 2nd and 11th Legions were deployed along with the Solar Auxillia to the Rangdan Xenocides. This is the last recorded action of either Legion. ''Something'' happened to them during this war. An Alpharius (who may or may not be THE Alpharius) met Lion and offered to manage the mess here in his stead. Clearly any non-Primarch person can just march in to meet Lion and ask to take away his job!
*'''approx. 898.M30''' Corax, the 18th Primarch discovered, is found "around a century" after the start of the Great Crusade.
*'''Between 898.M30 - 963.M30''', the 11th Primarch is discovered. At some point he is reunited with his legion.
*The information of the lost Primarchs and their Legions is wiped, leaving Alpharius as the only non-lost Primarch to not see all others at least once (if the Rangda's Alpharius is someone else entirely) .
*'''981.M30''' Alpharius Omegon is discovered and (or at least) given leadership of the XX Legion (the at least is because Horus found him/them first and took a while to tell others this).
*'''Between 981.M30 - 000.M31''' Horus confronts Malcador about the destruction of the lost Primarch's statues in the Reliquary. Attempts to say one of their names out of spite for Malcador, is force choked and can only get out an approximation of "Malal."
*'''000.M31''', Magnus mentions its the first time since [REDACTED] '''9''' Primarchs have met up in one place. Its likely that Magnus wanted to say something like "Since the 2nd was with us.".

=== Other Info ===
Lion El'Jonson wouldn't lead the fight against the Rangdan xenos until 890s.M30, and not until the 6th year of his involvement did the title of "Warmaster" get thrown around. Adding this to the document in "Field Dressing a Lasgun Wound", means that the 11th Legion's participation in the Rangdan Xenocides didn't happen until at least 8 years after Lion El'Jonson took the helm. The Xenocide would end by 930s.M30, meaning the 11th only participated in the war for a possible 32 to 42 years. The Horus Heresy didn't begin until 005.M31, and the 2nd and 11th had been expunged and condemned 43 years before the Dropsite Massacre which occurred at 006.M31, disproving the dates 965.M30 & 969.M30 as being the period where they were exterminated by the Space Wolves. By the time the Rangdan Xenocides ended, there would have been a possible 23 to 33 year gap between 930s.M30, the end of the Xenocides, and 963.M30 for them to have committed whatever atrocity called for damnatio memoriae, assuming it didn't occur during the Xenocides.

Considering that the 2nd was around for at least a century with no issues before the 11th showed up and they both got expunged three decades after the end of the Rangdan Xenocide, it's a strong possibility that [[that guy|the 11th was the ring leader of the two & dragged the 2nd Primarch down with him]].

Out of universe, [[Rick Priestley]] admitted that the unknown legions were supposed to be a reference to the three Roman legions wiped out in the [[Wikipedia: Battle of the Teutoburg Forest| Battle of the Teutoburg Forest]], whose numbers were never reused after they were slain to a man by Germanic barbarians as well as add an air of mystery and strangeness to the setting, that it had been so long since the primarchs and their full legion were around that people had entirely forgot about them .Nowadays, it doesn't even really let people do much with homebrew fluff since the setting has developed in such a way that it's almost impossible for someone to connect a homebrew chapter to the missing primarchs without getting laughed out of their [[Local Game Store]]. If you play in the privacy of your own home, however, there's nothing stopping you and your friends from nailing it down and having your Self-Insert Primarchs show up and give the Imperium a Noblebright/even GRIMDARKER (Delete as appropriate) kick in the ass.

It seems likely, given the frequent references to betrayal relating to these two Primarchs, that the Lost Primarchs did something rebellion-related or perhaps [[Imperium Secundus|tried to carve out their own empires]]. Perhaps they realized that there could be peaceful coexistance with the [[Xenos]] (as was the case of the [[Interex]]), and ended up thinking the Imperium was Evil. Either way, they did something massively damaging (or nearly pulled something off) that would have crippled the Imperium for its myriad enemies to finish off. A possible hint at the cause of their descent is mentioned in ''Extermination'' in the section regarding the Alpha Legion of all groups. Three incidents, all [REDACTED] in name, tell us that one Legion had a problematic source for its recruitment. Specifically, a [[Heresy|''potentially tainted'']] source. Although not said in sequential order, one Legion was deemed to have failed the qualification to be a Legion since it did not have enough marines to be combat effective. Lastly, a place called "Labryk Polaris" and another redacted incident point at attempts to replicate or even supersede the Emperor's gene-craft. Combining all of these cases, it's clear that one Legion had severe issues with their gene seed and their primary recruitment world. This led to said Legion failing the rudimentary testing regiment that all legions undergo. From there, the Primarch in question must have performed a few [[Daemonculaba|experiments in how to create more marines]]. Whatever the result, the Emperor clearly did [[*BLAM*|not like it.]]

It should further be noted that, in the 42nd Millennium, when asked why there were 11 symbolic chairs rather than 9 for the Primarchs, Guilliman replies something along the lines of "Of the 20, two failed and half the rest turned on my father", explicitly distinguishing this "failure" from heresy/treason, hence the reasoning in keeping ceremonial seating for them out of honor. Of the 20 Primarch plinths on Terra, 9 were destroyed but 2 were covered up. So it might be that they weren't traitors, but went '''TOO FAR'''(given that this is the Imperium of Man, the height of human Grimdark, that is not a good thing), perhaps by, for example, becoming a Chaos-fighting Chaos God (if true, It's likely that Malal would see it as the ''Imperium'' having betrayed ''him,'' explaining why he later decided to take the [[Sons of Malice]] under his wing). However, the memories of all the Primarchs regarding the two abolished legions were altered by Malcador, thus making Guilliman's input unreliable.

=== Where Are The Lost Legions Now? ===

''Note: This assumes that the theory of the Imperial Fists and Ultramarines absorbing the II and XI Legions is correct.''

Assuming that the survivors of the II and XI legions were mind-wiped and assimilated into the Imperial Fists and Ultramarines in ''The Chamber at the End of Memory'' (despite common misconceptions online, anyone who actually read the story would know that it does ''not'' confirm this, even if it's a possibility), it raises the question of where, if anywhere, the descendants of the two legions are now. Given that the Ultramarines are the progenitors of the majority of Space Marine chapters in the galaxy, and there is precident for chapter that are 'offically' Ultramarine to have gene-seed of the Tratior Legions, that leaves a lot of options. Even having the founder of the chapter appear in the [[Horus Heresy]] series is no guarantee that the chapter isn't descended from one of the lost legions, since the members of the chapter wouldn’t even know themselves. By the end of the Horus Heresy the only person who knew which marines were and weren't descended from the Lost Legions would be Rogal Dorn who likely took the secret to...wherever he went, and Roboute Guilliman once he 'woke up' from his Nap. As of ''Dark Imperium'', the one person who knows even part of the contents of the gene-seeds for these legions is [[Belisarius Cawl]], who most likely used what samples he had of these gene-seeds (as well as un-chaosified gene-seeds of the other eight) to raise additional [[Primaris Marines|super-space marines]] despite Guilliman's insistence to not entertain such notions. As with the original legions, these new marines and the chapters they eventually formed were equally dispersed among the official gene-lineages with no evidence of their true heritage being apparent.

The obvious place to start looking for successor chapters of the lost legions is any chapter that seems to deviate a bit too far from the behavior of their supposed primarch during the second founding and formation's within the original space marine legions that also strayed from the rest of the Legions

The [[Mortifactors]] and [[Doom Eagles]] are two such candidates, given that they don’t behave anything like [[Roboute Guilliman]] and the Ultramarines. Especially given that the II Primarch was described by [[Fulgrim]] as “normally contemplative”, “quiet”, and “humorless”. It would also explain why the [[Soul Drinkers]] believed themselves to be descendants of the Imperial Fists despite later being shown to not have Dorn’s geneseed, despite having a weapon gene-coded to the Soul Drinkers. The fact that the Soul Drinkers rejected the authority of the [[High Lords of Terra]] and fought for the common good of humanity rather than the Imperium itself also fits well with fan theories of one of the lost primarchs being a humanitarian who either believed coexistence with xenos was possible or rejected the Imperium for being just another tyrannical regime and unlike Jaghatai couldn't take the hypocrisy for the common good in the face of survival necessities against Chaos.

Then, of course, there is the elephant in the room, the red-headed stepchild of the Imperial Fists, [[Sigismund]] and the [[Black Templars]]. The Black Templars are about as un-Imperial Fist-like as it is possible to be, Imperial Fists being siege specialists who tend towards stoicism and prefer to dig in and defend until the last man, whereas the Black Templars are hyper-aggressive, always crusading, rarely if ever man any fortifications (they don't even have a homeworld, just maintaining a chapter keep on every world they liberate), and are known for their hatred of psykers and extreme piousness, something that is not really seen in the other Imperial Fist descendants. Though Dorn has been shown to have quite the well of rage himself. And, of course, [https://youtu.be/0Vh_N8CpcL0?t=1207 they do not have "fist" in their name]. A lot of attention is paid on Sigismund obsessive desire for Dorn's paternal favor, and there is a brief moment of attention paid to the fact that Sigismund offered to personally tear down the statues of the II and XI primarchs on Terra, sayng they are traitors and did not deserve to be remembered. Dramatic irony perhaps? There's also parallels to Sigismund's IRL namesake, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigismund,_Holy_Roman_Emperor#King_of_Hungary| whose father died when he was young, was basically adopted by King Louis the Great of Hungary and Poland, and ended up becoming king of Hungary]. Dorn even says in a moment of anger that Sigismund is “not his son, and never will be”. Regrettable statement made in a moment of anger? Or a subconscious Freudian slip?

Finally, the retconned OG first founding [[Rainbow Warriors]] and [[Valedictors]] are theorized to be lost legion loyalists too.

However, it should be noted that a Chapter's culture, tactics, and temperament aren't necessarily determined by ancestry. Deviations might just be a sign of a Chapter's circumstances affecting its internal culture and structure (e.g. the [[Red Scorpions]]' genetic purity leading to even more extreme xenophobia and intolerance of corruption than usual, and their Apothecaries being given authority than in most Chapters), or of a homeworld culture displacing that of the Chapter's founders (something that is discussed when [[Uriel Ventris]] fights alongside the [[Mortifactors]] in one of the Ultramarines novels). Even heritable traits might be lost, gained, become exaggerated, or otherwise change over time, due to mutation or [[Cursed Founding|genetic tampering]]. Applying Occam's Razor would lead one to conclude that most of the weirder Chapters' origins are probably [[Ultramarines|quite]] [[Imperial Fists|boring]], too, since Lost Legion heritage raises just as many questions as it answers, if not more.

==Rules on the Tabletop==
Thanks to Forge World, not only do we have models for the Primarchs, but rules as well. As you can guess, they are ungodly death machines who can easily win their points back and more. That's not to say they're invincible, though; they can still be killed if you screw up badly enough. Do be sure to see [[Primarchs in 8th Edition]] and the google drive link on that page as well, should you want to play 30k using the modern rule set. All currently released Primarchs have the following statlines:
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" align="left" class="wikitable sortable"
! || WS || BS || S || T || W || I || A || Ld || Sv || Invul || ML || Points
|-
| '''[[Horus]]''' || 8 || 5 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 5+1 || 10 || 2+ || 3++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 500
|-
| '''[[Angron]]''' || 9 || 5 || 7 || 6 || 5 || 7 || 6(10)|| 10 || 3+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 400
|-
| '''[[Fulgrim]]''' || 8 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 8 || 5 || 10 || 2+ || 5++/3++ in CC || data-sort-value=0 | || 380
|-
| '''[[Mortarion]]''' || 7 || 5 || 6 || 7 || 7 || 5 || 5 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 425
|-
| '''[[Ferrus Manus]]''' || 7 || 6 || 7 || 7 || 6 || 5 || 4+1 || 10 || 2+ || 3++ || data-sort-value=0 | || data-sort-value=455 | 455 or steal his hammer for 415
|-
| '''[[Konrad Curze]]''' || 8 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 5+1 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 435
|-
| '''[[Vulkan]]''' || 7 || 5 || 7 || 7 || 6 || 5 || 4 || 10 || 2+ || 3++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 425
|-
| '''[[Lorgar]]''' || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 5 || 6 || 4+1 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=2.5 | 2 or 3 || data-sort-value=375 | 375 or Chaosify him for 450
|-
| '''[[Perturabo]]''' || 8 || 6 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 5 || 4 || 10 || 2+ || 3++ || data-sort-value=0 | || data-sort-value=455 | 455 or give him Forgebreaker for 490
|-
| '''[[Rogal Dorn]]''' || 8 || 5 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 5 || 4 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 385
|-
| '''[[Corvus Corax]]''' || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6/5 || 7 || 6/5 || 10 || 2+/3+ || 5++ || data-sort-value=0 | || data-sort-value=450 | 450 or fuck him over for 350
|-
| '''[[Alpharius]]''' || 7 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 5 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || data-sort-value=415 | 415''.... or is it?''
|-
| '''[[Roboute Guilliman]]''' || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 4+1 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 400
|-
| '''[[Roboute Guilliman]] (40k, 7e)''' || 9 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 10 || 2+ || 3++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 350
|-
| '''[[Magnus the Red]]''' || 7 || 5 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 4 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || 5 || 495 or charge up for 670
|-
| '''[[Magnus the Red]] (Daemon, 40k 7e)''' || 7 || 7 || 8 || 7 || 7 || 7 || 6 || 10 || 4+ || 4++ || 5 || 650
|-
| '''[[Leman Russ]]''' || 9 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 6 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 455
|-
| '''[[Jaghatai Khan]]''' || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 8 || 6+1 || 10 || 2+ || 5++/3++ in CC || data-sort-value=0 | || 385 or give him a bike for 460
|-
| '''[[Lion El'Jonson]]''' || 8 || 5 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 5(7) || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 460
|-
| '''[[Sanguinius]]''' || 9 || 5 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 6 || 10 || 2+|| 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 485
|}<br style="clear: both; height: 0px;" /><br>
*'''Special Rules (not counting the ones specific for each Primarch)'''
**''Primarch''
***''Adamantium Will''
***''Independent Character''
***''Eternal Warrior''
***''Fear''
***''Fleet''
***''Fearless''
***''It Will Not Die''
***''Master of the Legion''
***''Precision Shots''
***''Precision Strikes''
**''Sire of the [Legion]''

As of 8th edition (special rules not included):
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" align="left" class="wikitable sortable"
! || M || WS || BS || S || T || W || A || Ld || Sv || Points/Power level
|-
| '''[[Roboute Guilliman]]''' || 8" || 2+ || 2+ || 6 || 6 || 9 || 6 || 10 || 2+/3++|| 360/18||data-sort-value=0 |
|-
| '''[[Magnus the Red]]''' || 16 || 2+ || 2+ || 8 || 7 || 18 || 7 || 10 || 3+/4++ || 445/21||data-sort-value=0 |
|-
| '''[[Mortarion]]''' || 12 || 2+ || 2+ || 8 || 7 || 18 || 6 || 10 || 3+/4++ || 470/24|| data-sort-value= 0 |
|}<br style="clear: both; height: 0px;" /><br>

Each of them have one or two close-combat weapons, all of which are AP2 or 1, backed by some decent gun to lay some dakka down while they run to the glorious melee. Their Primarch rule acts like a big bundle of USRs wrapped up together in one package, and as ICs they can join squads as well (though most of the Primarchs are better run solo). Each of them have a page worth of special rules and unique wargear, both of which can be stupidly powerful to the point of broken, but that's OK since even the cheapest of the Primarchs costs no less than 350 points and eats an extremely valuable Lord of War slot that might otherwise be spent on a [[Thunderhawk]] or a [[Fellblade]].

===Pimpin Rides===
Also worth mentioning, that Perturabo and Rogal Dorn are special enough to get their own personal special/unique vehicle, other primarchs may get their own vehicles in the future (who knows?). However, rules dictate that neither vehicle can be taken in games under 3000 points. Meaning you can only use it in 3000+ matches.

*'''Perturabo''' gets to ride in ''The Tormentor'', a Shadowsword with the Command Tank upgrade. Not only that, but Perturabo is so awesome, he managed to somehow give it 15 troop capacity, meaning it can take 12 Power Armoured dudes + himself, or 6 Terminators for his bodyguard. But, it doesn't stop there! It also has a single Void Shield! It costs 25pts more than a normal Shadowsword with the same upgrades, but following FAQs it also has BS4, free sponsons, and gains Tank Hunters/Monster Hunters any time it fires all its guns at one target.
*'''Rogal Dorn,''' on the other hand, gets a customised Thunderhawk Gunship, the ''Ætos Dios''. This ship has Turbo Laser as standard, plus a single Void Shield to protect it, it also has It Will Not Die so can regenerate some of its hull points and finally it ALSO has a 4+ invulnerable save against missiles, all on top of being a flyer which means you can only snap-shot at it, all for the bargain cost of 600 points - which is actually 175 points CHEAPER than a normal Legion Thunderhawk with a Turbo-Laser, though you obviously still have to pay for Dorn.
*'''Jaghatai Khan''' gets his own bitching jetbike: the Sojutsu Pattern Voidbike. It has two master crafted heavy bolters, ups his toughness to 7 and lets him do d3 hammer of wrath attacks, strangely enough though, it also costs him -1I.

==Douchebagginess==
It is well known that most of the primarchs were douchebags to varying degrees.

From least to most douchebag. Note, the scale really drops off into [[dick|'''fucking''' douchebag]] after Jaghatai, and straight-up villain after Fulgrim and '''FUCKING CUNT''' after Lorgar. Also, depending on what they did, the Lost Primarchs may be even worse than all actions depicted here. Generally speaking, we'll be grading these guys on their personalities, treatment of their legion and others, and their motives and reasons for their actions. Also, we'll be adding more weight to their actions during the Great Crusade rather than the Heresy, not many Primarchs had a clear head during the Age of Darkness. Keep in mind that, as charismatic and badass as they may be, the Primarchs are responsible for a level of warmongering and genocide that would appall even the worst of Earth's dictators. How they feel about these atrocities, and why they did it (is it grim necessity, standard Imperial procedure or baseless sadism?) is what separates the [[Sanguinius|"good"]] from the [[Konrad Curze|"bad"]].

# '''The Nice Guys'''
## '''Vulkan''' - The least douchebaggy primarch by far. Vulkan routinely put the lives of him and his men on the line for the sake of the Imperial citizens. Vulkan would throw himself to the defence of a no name human tribe with the same ferocity and zeal as he would Terra itself. A total bro. Also was the largest, strongest Primarch (Ferrus' metal arms were determined as cheating, though according to the Khan, Mortarion was as strong or stronger) and held back in sparring for fear of hurting his brothers. His only real fault was that, despite his strong distaste for terror weapons, he had a thing for setting people on fire. The only times he was an asshole were when he forgot who he was due to Curze's torture driving him mad. Of course, he's still a Primarch and a '''fiery''' general, and he ''will'' leave you a pile of ash if you end up on his shitlist.
## '''Sanguinius''' - Despite some... [[Red Thirst|unorthodox tendencies]], he is reported as being the most charismatic of the Primarchs, perhaps second only to Horus. He is particularly noteworthy for how much he improved his legion. The Blood Angels before his arrival were so bloodthirsty and terrifying that even other Astartes looked askance at them. But Sanguinius took these butcherous vampires and taught them humility and nobility, and to put the well-being of humanity above any personal glory. They actually managed such a total 180 that they were, and still are, regarded as one of the most heroic, resplendent legions out of all of them. A pretty all-round nice guy, he was so naturally charming that he actually managed to get ''Jaghatai Khan'' of all people to laugh at a joke of his. He was also exceedingly humble despite being such a giga-chad, and often played the role of peacemaker between his more cantankerous brothers. He can lapse at times however, as seen in his treatment of Curze by denying him a chance of changing his fate & earning forgiveness, and he regrettably had to kill many of his Red-Thirsted men when they got too batshit even for him. Like Vulkan though, he can still be a ferocious force if riled up, he once beat the shit out of guy for daring to imply the Signus III campaign was a trap (it was, but he had no reason to suspect Horus at that point). Sanguinius's temper was actually such that Leman Russ cited the Angel as one of two Primarchs he didn't know if he could beat. Basically if you pissed him off, he turned into the Hulk.
## '''Magnus the Red''' - For his faults, Magnus was one of the nicest Primarchs right up there with Vulkan and Sanguinius. Before the whole Prospero thing, this guy's MO was all about the advancement of humanity: always trying the diplomatic approach to preserve what could be preserved, using shock and awe tactics to limit damage when fighting, happily taking remembrancers along his legion (Although all remembrancers amongst the fellowship were psykers to some degree). Magnus was a friendly and open-minded idealist, which makes it all the more tragic when he gets deceived, framed, backstabbed and then coaxed into selling his soul to the [[Tzeentch|Cuttlefish of Keikaku]]. He is easily the most sympathetic of the traitors, considering he only joined them after being backed into a corner; had Jaghatai been at his side during and after Nikaea things might have turned out differently. He was also the only traitor Primarch who actually cared about his men, even after ascending to daemonhood. The novel ''Deathfire'' also ups his bro-ness quite a bit, as he proved himself the only traitor-aligned Primarch to ''sincerely'' do something very helpful for one of his loyalist brothers after the Horus Heresy was already in full swing. This "special favour" is made all the more striking given how it took place ''after'' Magnus had his adoptive homeworld burned out from under him. Perhaps his skin was red not only because of mutation, but because it also showed [[Lovedagger|the greatness of his heart]]? On the other hand, this was done by one of the fragments of Magnus that embodied his love for his gene-sons and fellow Primarchs (which ultimately self-destructed to keep the Crimson King from absorbing its power), so any hope that he kept that good heart died after Ahriman's failure at his Second Rubric on Prospero and when the Emperor offered him a chance to redeem himself as the Primarch of the nascent Grey Knights he threw it away. While his soul was still in one piece, Magnus's main character flaw was his arrogance. As in, this guy's ego had only two contenders in all the galaxy; the Emperor Himself, and Lion El'Jonson. Maybe Eldrad too. While he wasn't an in-your-face type like Fulgrim, Magnus and his Legion were still entirely convinced that they knew the Warp better than anyone else, which led to them disregarding many warnings and red flags that could've been avoided, leading almost directly to their awful, [[Rubric Marines|awful]] fates. It also caused him to have a complete blind spot where his own insufferability was concerned, as he genuinely believed himself to be the most intelligent of his brothers. This Sheldon Cooper-esque attitude caused many of the other Primarchs represented at the Council of Nikaea to wish Magnus personally rebuked despite their support of the Libraius initiative itself. When he learned of this, it appeared to have caught him completely off guard, and dismayed him tremendously. Also, Magnus wasn't ENTIRELY innocent as he had implanted sleeper agents and spies throughout the Imperium, ruining the lives of those brainwashed while betraying the trust of his brothers. Why he did this isn't exactly clear (it's very unlikely to be Chaos related) though it's most likely an attempt to obtain information and records his brother might otherwise destroy. Regardless however, his more questionable traits appeared not to have ever been the result of malice, but were instead a byproduct of his solipsism and thoughtlessness.
## '''Corax''' - Even after being raised under the tyranny of the Kiavahrans, he refused to take after their tyrannous ways, wanted to make things right, and asked the Emperor to end the civil war he started while liberating his homeworld of Lycaeus. Seeing the ruthless tendencies the Terran members of his legion had, he quietly shipped them way the fuck away from the rest of the Great Crusade to go fight xenos or had them all slaughtered during the Battle of Gate 42. He was also one of very few primarchs to readily admit his own mistakes, which were numerous and sometimes tragic. Developed a brutal habit of folding Chaos Space Marines into pretzels when shapeshifting into a tangible shadow during his hunt against his Daemon brothers Post-Heresy but left the slaves alone.
## '''Jaghatai Khan''' - Despite him being modeled after [[Genghis motherfucking Khan|the guy who holds the high score on raping and pillaging]], Jaghatai was actually very reasonable and [[Kharn|a pretty fun guy to be around]]. His main hobbies included [[Dark Eldar|raiding and jetbikes]], but he had an appreciation for [[Blood Angels|the fine arts]] as well. He was very good friends with Magnus and very pro-psyker. However he also kept his distance from pretty much everyone else, save Horus, not wanting to deal with other people's bullshit, unless they were really worth the effort - as the result very few people knew and trusted him (especially once [[Horus|most]] [[Magnus the Red|of]] his only bros turned traitor). He seemed to have something of a "live and let live" type philosophy, as after he conquered his home planet, he just kinda fucked off back to the Steppes with a warning to everyone not to piss him off too much. While the Khan didn't seem to care too much about the whole Great Crusade thing and spent most of his time doing his own thing, he never turned his back on the Imperium and sincerely believed in the idea of an Empire in the starry skies. And this was despite being the one of the few Primarchs to understand how bunked the whole [[Imperial Truth]] secular atheist propaganda really was (remember that the Chogorisian had Shamans, who also are the ones who select the White Scars' Chapter Master through mysterious initiatic trials); and of the Emperor himself he declared that he was "neither a monster nor a simpleton", mostly because he knew that [[Chaos]] was far worse (of course). So, the Emperor knew all along that the Khagan had his priorities right and would therefore not betray him, even when Malcador brought up the topic; and this was in spite of the personal relationship of father and son being explicitly awkward.
# '''The Competent Asshole Control Freak (Yes Guilliman needs his own category)'''
## '''Guilliman''' - R.G. is a jerk with a (or rather two) heart(s) of gold or a nice guy with a nasty mean streak, depending on how you look at him. Some people might say this dude was a statesman in the same vein as Augustus Caesar- he was great at building states and making life generally better for people, but only if you ignore the deported and murdered people who didn't agree 100% with the new regime. For somebody more reasonable, Guilliman was perhaps one of the most responsible and human among his brothers. He cared about the common man, personally planned post-war reconstruction and political integration into the Imperium of the planets he conquered and (unofficially) tolerated moderate presence of religion in Ultramar. But for sure the guy had a big ego, as he constantly spoke and behaved like he knew what was best for everyone, at least until proven wrong (multiple times). And you better not get on his shit list, although to be fair he was mostly a complete jerk with people he considers being [[Konrad Curze|psycho]] [[Angron|mass murderers]] with [[Perturabo|no respect for their own sons]] or [[Alpharius|civilian populations]]. And despite what [[Matt Ward|some people]] would have you believe, he knew he couldn't plan for every situation and expected people to use their own judgment rather than blindly follow his [[Codex Astartes|codex]]. Like Jaghatai Khan, we know Guilliman recognized that the Emperor was a horrible father (likely since he's one of the few among his brothers to have had actual decent adoptive parents) and that the ideals the Emperor espoused were far more important than the Emperor himself ever was, and after learning that his whole [[Imperium Secundus]] plan was based on bad assumptions he's been beating himself up about it all the way into the 42nd millennium. While he's grown more cynical since his revival and subsequent realization of how badly the Imperium had devolved in his absence, he has refused to abandon his noble ideals or his faith in humanity as a whole and has privately considered the possibility that in retrospect he had been overly dismissive of Lorgar's ideas about the Emperor's divinity. He also seems to be a bit more irritable than he used to be, but given [[Great Rift|his]] [[Age of the Dark Imperium|current]] situation it would be more surprising if that wasn't the case. Also, may have actually imprisoned [[Cypher]] and the Fallen so that the Emperor wouldn't discover [[Assholetep|who broke Lion El'Jonson's best sword]], ultimately causing him to die in battle in Emprah's mini-me's own pseudo Horus Heresy. Additionally, he has developed a legitimately unprecedented trait for a Primarch: that of sufficient self-awareness to not just recognize, but actually '''LEARN''' from his mistakes, such as during the Hexarchy coup attempt or not trying to secure Ultramar à la Imperium Secundus during the Terran Crusade.
# '''The Douches'''
## '''Horus''' - Pre-Heresy he was a surprisingly chill dude, except if you crossed his sensibilities. Was essentially flat-out stated to have been the most charismatic of his brothers, with the possible exception of Sanguinius. Unlike Sanguinius however, Horus's charisma was something he had deliberately cultivated rather than being a natural trait of his, which speaks volumes of his personality. He was also one of very few Primarchs who made a deliberate effort to ''not'' leave the planets he conquered as smoldering ruins, and had a personal philosophy that those the Imperium conquered "should be left better than we found them." Just to give you an idea of his character in the halcyon days, Horus ''killed Sanguinius'' but retains enough anti-douche credit to rank as the ''least'' douchey of The Douches. He was ''that'' nice before the Heresy. In fact were it not for the Heresy he would probably be in third place after Vulkan and Sanguinius. Got along well with both regular people and nearly all his brothers (Corax was seemingly the only Primarch who disliked him), but he gradually started treating some of them like shit after becoming Warmaster and resented the idea that he and his brothers would not be able to rule over the planets that they had conquered. His insecurities may have also made him vulnerable to the Dark Gods' lies when he received a vision of the Imperium 10,000 years into the future where the Emperor was worshiped as a god, he and many of his brothers were forgotten, and everything was Grimdark--a future that, unbeknownst to him, he would be directly responsible for creating specifically as a result of his own attempts to avert it. The whole [[Heresy]] thing just sort-of kills his position on the list. After going full Chaos, he rapidly became a much, much bigger dick.
## '''Rogal Dorn''' - Although one hell of a masochist, and at times thick-headed, he did see the idea behind the Imperium, and actually agreed with it. Honest and dependable, while Rogal didn't make for interesting conversation, he would always do his job without complaint. Had as much empathy and subtlety as one of his fortresses and ended up hurting a lot of people (mostly emotionally, but sometimes physically too) with his over-the-top brutal honesty. The prime example was when he betrayed Fulgrim's trust after they had a discussion regarding Konrad's visions, and provoked Curze into almost killing him. However, he could occasionally get quite philosophical, and is perhaps the only Primarch to admit that his own nature and power unsettled him.
## '''Leman Russ''' - Nowhere near as much of a dick as butthurt Magnus fanboys would have you believe. He was indeed savage and brutal, but ultimately always keeping the larger goal of betterment of humanity in sight and having good reasons for that myopia. Prone to picking fights with his brothers and destroyed Prospero under questionable circumstances. That said, he used the culture of his homeworld to give his Legion control over its savagery, and made the Space Wolves focus on protecting people from monsters instead of just butchering civilians. He did use terror tactics, mass killings, and the destruction of knowledge, but he did so out of loyalty to humanity and the Emperor, not just because he felt like it. Bottom line: Russ certainly had his fair share of flaws, but as belligerent and myopic as he could be he always tried to make the galaxy safe for humanity in the longer run. He was also capable of admitting to mistakes, which was uncommon amongst the Primarchs. During his fight with the Lion for instance, he started the brawl with the Lion over perceived kill stealing but after a while it dawned on him what an ass he was being, and he stopped fighting and burst out laughing at his own stupidity. He was ''awfully'' stubborn however, and as such this sort of thing didn't happen often.
## '''Ferrus Manus''' - A big dude with a penchant for bursts of choleric anger. Between his resting bitch face and his Social Darwinist ideals, he seems at first glance to be a natural candidate for a traitor. However, his honesty and loyalty to the Emperor mean he certainly wasn't as bad as Perturabo or Mortarion, and he did sincerely believe that weakness would cause the Imperium to collapse. He was... really a pain to deal with, however. Unlike, let's say, Dorn, who was only really mean when you made it on his shitlist, Ferrus was only nice to people who made it on his ''friends''list. Anyone else could, as far as he was concerned, either stay out of his way or get introduced to his fists. Most of the Loyalists and even some Traitors (at first) viewed the protection of the innocent as their goal, while Ferrus encouraged tactics that led to massive civilian casualties, and where Primarchs like Curze or Angron took Legions that were bad about mortal deaths and kept up such practices, Manus took a Legion that had tried to minimize mortal deaths and made them worse about it. All this said, he was loyal unto death to the Emperor's ideals and he also understood that his sons' fetish for cybernetics was beyond unhealthy and wanted to help them overcome it. His death ensured that last part would never happen, and indeed made them double down on their hatred of the flesh.
## '''Lion El'Jonson''' - The Lion was complex, to say the least. He had an arrogance that matched Magnus or Horus's worst moments combined with a difficult early life fighting Chaos beasts on Caliban. This "do-or-die" attitude spilled over into his interpersonal skills, hard. Too hard. Put simply, you had one chance with Johnson and if he ever decided you wasted it, then it was over and you went on his shitlist forever. The end result was a Primarch who was aloof and taciturn, whose poor communication skills made him unsuited to lead the Primarchs but whose ego made it impossible for him to accept the seniority of Horus or Russ. At the same time, there was a competitive, spiteful, and self-centered side to the Lion, which led him to execute one of his own Dark Angels over a conflict of authority and nearly kill Russ over an argument about kill-stealing. The Lion's own awe-inspiring presence, which was powerful enough to make Astartes from other legions literally drop to their knees when he crashed unannounced on a war-council aboard the Vengeful Spirit, didn't help his ego either. There's been speculation in-universe and out of it that he wasn't wholly loyal to the Emperor, but it has been made crystal clear in-universe that he personally was 100% loyal to Big E, and that the whole "muh secret traitors" thing is primarily due to a combination of bad luck and the Dark Angels already having a poor reputation. The Lion may also have been the most "douchey" of all the Primarchs who weren't outright evil at some point. For you see, many of the Primarchs had absolutely ginormous egos, but most of those who did also either possessed the people skills to hide it or were so charismatic that it just didn't matter. Fulgrim, Magnus, Guilliman, Alpharius, and especially Horus are notable examples of this tendency. As stated earlier, the Lion easily had one of the largest egos amongst all his brothers, matched perhaps only by Magnus, but since he had virtually no people skills he was unable to hide it very well. This resulted in him being the Primarch who was liked by the fewest of his brothers (he basically only got on with Jaghatai Khan). Practically everyone he ever met invariably formed the same opinion of him; he was incredibly good at his job but such an ass that it almost didn't matter. His ego cast such a long shadow over his achievements and ability to work with others that even though Guilliman considered the title of Warmaster a two-horse race between Horus and the Lion, he still didn't include the latter amongst his Dauntless Few (a list that included Ferrus Manus of all people).
## '''Alpharius Omegon''' - Damned if anyone knows. You just can't trust that/those guy(s), which does make him/them a pretty big dick by default. The fallout from some of the Alpha Legion's Crusade-era shenanigans suggests a certain inclination to showing off at the expense of civilian lives, probably due to an enormous inferiority-superiority complex. Still, they rebelled under perhaps the best intentions among all the traitors with Alpharius at least recognising Chaos had to be defeated (we think- it's still ambiguous as to their end goals) Omegon is possibly a bit better, in that he wasn't willing to sacrifice all of mankind to do so (maybe). The whole thing is made infinitely more irritating by the fact that Alpharius and Omegon apparently switched names and places when they first met. So after the Rangdan Xenocides, anything attributed to Alpharius was actually Omegon's work, and vice versa. After Omegon's probable death by Dorn at Pluto and Alpharius taking his mantle (back) to (allegedly) die at Guilliman's hands, the legion debatably turned into a schizophrenic monster, though this is better than what Fulgrim's actions turned his legion into by far. Alpharius himself (maybe) in his own memoirs presents himself as a tactician and combatant worthy of inclusion in the [[Reasonable Marines]], but who in person had a Lion-sized (hah) chip on his shoulder. Problem is that the memoir itself purports to be a lie, so who really knows.
## '''Fulgrim''' - Rather like Horus, Fulgrim was one of the Traitor Primarchs who started out as quite a kind fellow, and even [[Dawww|fondly remembers his foster parents as doing the best they could]]. Initially he was an incredibly idealistic artisan who wanted to help humanity improve to the absolute limits of its potential. He did this primarily by trying to be the best example of humanity he could be, and demanded the same of his sons. To their credit, they succeeded quite splendidly at this for the most part. Unfortunately he had a rather fragile ego which was probably due in large part by the fact that his legion was virtually non-existent when he came to command it. As such, he had the Primarch equivalent of a Napoleon complex due to the head start most of his brothers got on him, and as such could get fairly petulant if he was challenged in a personal way. This led to him ultimately having a somewhat elitist view of himself and his legion, and he could be a bit of a dick when it came to Astartes and mortals who failed to live up to his astronomically high standards, even before his fall. He also can't keep a secret, betraying Konrad Curze's trust and causing him to go nuts on Dorn's face. Other than Horus and Sanguinius, was the only Primarch to really get along with all his brothers (save Jaghatai, but that's his fault. Oh, and Mortarion thought he was a prancing idiot, but Mortarion low-key hated everyone. And Fulgrim considered Russ a dumb hick. And he didn't seem to like the Second very much), and was BFFs with Ferrus Manus, of all people. That is, until he chopped his head off. Rude. Also took pride to the extremity of arrogance, hence his fall to Slaanesh. Interestingly, his bizarre fixation on friendship with Ferrus never left him, constantly cloning him with help of Fabius Bile and trying to win him over his side. Needless to say, he's failed thus far.
# '''The Self-righteous Jerk (Yes Lorgar needs his own category too)'''
## '''Lorgar''' - The dude who brought this whole fucking mess into fruition. If only he had strangled Erebus and Kor Phaeron at the first mention of Chaos. Instead he decided he was going to ruin everything for everybody because his daddy was a NAYtheist and none of the brothers really supported him. He started off as a well-intentioned idealist who sought to use what he knew best to uplift humanity, religion, before the Emperor's actions on Monarchia destroyed his psyche, allowing Erebus and Kor Phaeron to let him know about [[Chaos|the other gods who would appreciate his worship]]. While it's true he shouldn't have been treated so harshly by the Emperor (even Malcador and Guilliman privately said as much), and even though he believed Chaos was necessary for humanity to survive and continue existence, the fact that Chaos & the Horus Heresy caused the 10,000 year old Imperium to become the grimdark, bloody, corpse-littered cesspool we all know and love would normally outweighs all of the slivers of sympathy that he might have had. And yet, there are people far, far worse than him. To be honest, he was one of the nicest primarchs before the destruction of Monarchia, comparable to Magnus before the Burning of Prospero. He tried to befriend everyone and was one of the primarchs that mostly conquered planets by words and faith, instead of by fire and sword and along Dorn and Guilliman, was one of the rarer ones that wouldn't leave conquered worlds as utter shitholes, instead rebuilding them and integrating its population. All this make his downfall even more sad and tragic, and even after his fall, he seemed to be generally concerned about his brother Angron's (of all people) life, which was a primary reason that he was in a hurry transforming him. Also, confrontation with Corax shows that he genuinely cares for his son's lives, putting him above the disgusting fucktards below. Then again, he was completely blasé about the ''horrific'' fates the Forces of Chaos inflicted on people (see the Gal Vorbak for reference), regardless of whether they wanted it or not. Also, he's arguably the only Primarch who is completely unrepentant about his crimes towards the galaxy at large (even Horus acknowledged what a piece of shit he himself had become, and Fulgrim sometimes expressed regret when the pink haze wasn't clouding his mind). In sum, Lorgar is why we can't have [[Noblebright|nice things.]]
# The '''FUCKING CUNTS'''
## '''Mortarion''' - Described by Alpharius as being "bleakness personified", Mortarion rubbed virtually everyone the wrong way and gave precisely zero shits about it. He seemingly got along with a grand total of three people; Horus, because it was almost impossible ''not'' to like him, Konrad Curze, because he too had a garbage tier childhood, and Eidolon, because he told Eidolon he intended to work with him instead of lord over him (a statement that shocked Eidolon into silence, after the treatment he'd received from Fulgrim). Still happened though. Terse, grim and blunt, he was downright bigoted against psykers, and resented (or at the very least looked down upon) nearly everyone who he felt had it easier than him. He was also notorious for using chemical and radiological terror weapons and generally not giving a fuck about who got killed by them. In fairness to him however, he and his legion were usually (though not exclusively) deployed to environments so awful that such weapons typically didn't make things much worse. Also his opponents were usually xenos due both to them typically being the only ones who could survive on the planets he got sent to, and the fact that he really liked killing them. He also was at least somewhat justified in his hatred of psykers, as his necromancer foster father and his fellow overlords had all been psykers, and had been horrific in their subjugation of Barbarus's human population. Had he not turned Traitor, he likely would have been somewhere near Lion El'Jonson in terms of overall dickishness; a spiteful lone wolf type who had a habit of nursing grudges, gave very few shits about who or what his legion killed, went primarily on extermination campaigns, and was generally disliked by everyone for being an ass. Over time, he became more and more disgusted with people's acceptance of [[Emperor|tyrants]] and [[Magnus the Red|psykers]], and became much more likely to kill everything in the vicinity of what he considered evil. Over time he also lost what little tolerance he had ever possessed for weak mortals, and decided that the Imperium was being crafted in such a way as to coddle the weak. Not good as far as he was concerned. Interestingly he did care deeply for his own people, which is why he was so driven to take down both monsters and tyrants after witnessing how his foster father oppressed the populace, though he didn't exactly do much, if anything, to show it. Then [[Nurgle]] made him his plague-ridden bitch and Jaghatai fucked him up and humiliated him in the Siege of Terra, at which point he decided to just take his bitterness out on everyone lacking the Plaguefather's "gifts".
## '''Angron''' - Loved killing people and not much else. Most of the casualties within his legion were a result of him being a team-killing psycho because quite frankly he didn't care what he got to kill as long as he got to kill it. That said, Angron at least had an excuse for being such a rampaging dick all the time. The Butcher's Nails had effectively turned him from being a genuinely nice fellow who could empathically relieve the suffering of others by taking it into himself into a half-mindless killing machine, as it actually has not just remapped but ''replaced'' parts of his brain, effectively removing from him any emotions other than pain, hatred, and battle-lust while also destroying his capacity for empathy and compassion, which arguably means he doesn't even have any Moral Agency (that's Philosopher-speak for saying that he can't be held ethically accountable for his actions any more than a toaster can for burning your fingers). One may wonder what sort of guy he would have been without the implants, presumably he'd be more like his pre-retcon White Dwarf version where he was an honourable warrior whose martial valour ended up leading him down Khorne's path (this was very quickly retconned with the Black Library novels). But he stick to his guns despite the suffering. On top of that, he got fucked over pretty hard by Big E when they first met, so it's no wonder he went traitor the moment Horus made him an offer, we may even credit him for enduring years fighting for the Imperium instead of just getting himself killed in any of the battles as he himself personally wanted. At the end of the day, Angron was probably the Primarch who gave the fewest fucks about his legion and was content to let it run itself without his leadership, although he never really wanted one to begin with. As a result, many of the saner parts of his legion ''loathed'' him, to say nothing about his general reputation (Itvaan III wasn't the first time...). The action that places him so low on this list is the fact that he allowed the spread of Butcher's Nails throughout his Legion, despite his own hatred of the damn things and the fact they cause him so many issues, not least going psycho rage-monster most of the time; which is a pretty fucked up thing for him to condone. Then again, many of his sons accepted the mini-Nails to get closer to their Primarch, psykers, however, died horribly, not that Angron gave a shit. Perhaps he allowed it because seeing his sons with Butcher's Nails reminded him of his fallen gladiator brothers and sisters on Nuceria, but then again he blew up the planet along with all of the people he once fought to liberate just because they were bad-mouthing him. He really wasn't all that great of a guy even during his moments of lucidity, and he was one the few Primarchs to willingly kill his own men during the Great Crusade, an act even ''Horus'' thought was unthinkable.
## '''Konrad Curze''' - Arguably the most sadistic of all primarchs, Konrad really got off to torturing people and manipulating the masses through fear. What started as a quest to use fear to save lives in compliance actions turned through time and circumstance to a simple desire to torture and maim. The man who was supposed to be the ultimate harbinger of justice ended up as an unholy combination of Batman and Joker. By the time the Heresy broke out, any ideas of mercy or decency he may have harbored had long ago been buried under a massive pile of flayed guts. Somewhat like Angron however, the Night Haunter's actions are mitigated somewhat by the fact that the guy practically redefined crazy. His upbringing had much to do with shaping his awful view of reality, but what really screwed him over were his visions. He saw the future in psychic visions constantly, but the futures he saw were always permutations of the absolute worst outcome to any given situation, and he couldn't do anything to stop them. These visions came with severe psychic fits during which Curze would violently spaz out. They became worse and worse as time went on, and the psychological and psychic stress of them reduced Curze from a Punisher-esque individual to a completely sadistic screwball who would build stuff out of corpses and then sincerely thank those corpses. He also suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder, with the Konrad Curze and Night Haunter personas constantly warring for supremacy within his mind. Needless to say, the Night Haunter ultimately won out. He did admit that what he had done was wrong, but instead of trying to atone for his atrocities, he used the excuse that the future was set in stone (which he mostly believed) to justify just going along with the horrors he saw in his visions. In fact, the only two things that genuinely seemed to scare him were the possibilities that the Emperor '''wouldn't''' order his death -- or even worse, be forgiven for his behavior ''(and render his entire outlook on life meaningless)''. The fact that he refused to turn back to heroism at so many opportunities because he felt himself a puppet of fate makes one unable to decide whether he is contemptible or pathetic. Curze skirts this foul line.
## '''Perturabo''' - Perturabo suffers from somewhat inconsistent characterization due to having been written by a series of disparate authors, each of whom seemingly couldn't be bothered to read the previous guy's book. However, the easiest way to sum him up would be as a stone cold monster possessed of an absolutely massive martyr complex. What makes him the worst on this list is the fact that, unlike the other members of the '''FUCKING CUNTS''' tier, Perturabo never had any real justification for being as evil as he was. He wasn't lobotomized like Angron or bat-shit crazy like Curze, and unlike Mortarion his homeworld and upbringing were not bad at all; Olympia was basically just ancient Greece in space, and he had a family who loved him as much as possible given the culture and circumstances. In fact his world and upbringing were actually fairly similar to those of ''Guilliman'' of all people. He didn't even have the religious conviction of Lorgar; he turned Traitor simply out of spite and bitterness. He also seemed perfectly capable of feeling empathy and compassion as well; he genuinely loved his sister for instance... not that it stopped him from strangling her with his bare hands. This fact serves to make his actions all the worse however, as he clearly could understand right from wrong. He seemingly had absolutely no regard whatsoever for human life; hell the very first thing he did upon meeting his legion was to have a random tenth of them murdered by their brothers for not being good enough to suit him. He spent the lives of his legionaries like they were bolter rounds, and despite his bitching about how hard he and his legion had it, he never made any effort to change his way of making war. Though he was deployed to some of the worst battlegrounds in the Crusade, they were hardly worse than those in which the Lion, Russ, or Mortarion engaged in. Yet not one of them ever sulked about it or felt slighted. Not even Mortarion, who got sent to battlegrounds that would literally kill other Astartes by simple virtue of the environment. He is one of the few Primarchs who made his legion objectively ''worse'' by joining it, as he took a group of hardy siege warfare specialists and, by way of deliberately getting the bulk of them killed for decades on end, turned them into spiteful, bitter monsters with as little regard for life as himself. In fact, he made them so callous that the Iron Warriors both in and out of universe are a top candidate for the title of "[[Daemonculaba|evilest]] [[Honsou|motherfuckers]] in the setting", potentially beating out such luminaries as the Night Lords and Dark Eldar. Only the modern Word Bearers really have a fair claim at being worse. The atrocities that occurred under his command were all the result of inhuman barbarism caused not by madness or uncontrollable compulsion, but because Perturabo calculated that said barbarism was the most efficient means of achieving victory. He could and would calculate precisely the amount of ammunition, fuel, vehicles, ships, and human beings needed to win a campaign down to the last bolter shell and drop of blood, and would then spend those resources accordingly. And to his credit he was ridiculously good at it; his logistical skill was such that he could lose a good 90% of an attacking force in any given action and have his numbers replenished well in advance of the next campaign. Problem was that losing 90% of a force was something he wouldn't so much as bat an eyelash at. By the end we was just an envious, petty bastard who was always complaining whenever things didn't go his way (which was always). The intervening ten thousand years haven't improved his personality in any way either. Like Mortarion he didn't get along with any of his brothers and his inferiority complex and "woe is me" attitude was a cornerstone of almost all his interpersonal relationships, perhaps more notoriously in his all-consuming hatred for Rogal Dorn, in a rivalry that was completely one-sided until the two came to blows during the Heresy. Their rivalry being another example of Perturabo's unwillingness to try to improve his situation, instead preferring to sulk in his own misery, as his jealousy from Dorn stemmed from him being chosen as a builder and architect from the biggest projects in the Imperium, but never once Perturabo is shown trying to build anything outside his private workshop, instead bulldozing through whole planets with his Iron Warriors.

==See Also==

[[Return of the Primarchs]]: A What IF? series filled with pure [[AWESOME]] and [[Fist of the North Star|MANLY TEARS]].

A little side note, if you want an awesome look at the Primarchs in all their Crusadey goodness, go look at Aerion the Faithful's Libris Primaris project. http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/152862-artwork-libris-primaris/

==Miniatures==

* The official 30K miniatures are produced by [[Forge World]]
* [https://www.hitechminiatures.com Hitechminiatures] has good alternative models
* [https://wargameexclusive.com Wargame Exclusive] also has very good alternative models but a smaller selection - yet.
* [https://cadwallon.com/ Cadwallon] has [https://cadwallon.com/?s=chibi&post_type=product Chibi Primes] (well, some still.)

==Gallery==

<center>
===Loyal===
<gallery>
File:Lion El'Jonson.JPEG|[[Lion El'Jonson]]
File:JaghataiKhan-1-.jpg|[[Jaghatai Khan]] (can't hate a man who wears heeled calfboots)
File:LEMAN RUSS.jpg|[[Leman Russ]]
File:Rogal Dorn Portrait.png|[[Rogal Dorn]]
File:Sanginuscool.jpg|[[Sanguinius]]
File:Ferrus Manus Pre-Haircut.jpg|[[Ferrus Manus]]
File:Robute Guilliman.jpg|[[Roboute Guilliman]] (Big Bobby G)
File:Vulkan's Face.jpg|[[Vulkan]]
File:Corax Portrait.png|[[Corvus Corax]]
</gallery>

===Traitor===
<gallery>
File:Horus Portrait.png|[[Horus Lupercal]] (THAT ONE FUCK-UP)
File:Fulgrim by slaine69.jpg|[[Fulgrim]] (look at his sexyness)
File:Perturabo Portrait.jpg|[[Perturabo]]
File:Konrad Curze Mugshot.jpg|[[Konrad Curze]]/Night Haunter/Batman
File:Angron Butchers Nails.jpg|[[Angron]] (GETS. SHIT. DONE.)
File:Mortarion Portrait.jpg|[[Mortarion]]
File:Magnus.jpg|[[Magnus the Red]]
File:Lorgar Handsome.jpg|[[Lorgar Aurelian]] (goldboy)
File:Alpharius2.jpg|[[Alpharius]]/[[Omegon]]
</gallery>
<center>

===How To Make A Primarch===
<center>
{{Heresy}}
[[File:How to make a primarch.jpg|thumb|center|Artist's depiction of a primarch's creation]]
</center>

{{Template:Primarchs}}
{{Imperium}}

[[Category:Chaos]]

Titan Train

2022-07-12T09:58:20Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* Overview */

[[File:Necromunda_Koloss_Titan_Train.JPG|300px|right|thumb|[[Meme|I Like Trains 2: Electric Boogaloo.]]]]
A Titan Train is an ECKS BAWKS HUEG freight train used to, as you can guess by its name, ferry parts used for the construction of [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Imperial Titans]]. These are multi-kilometre long mega-trains with transport cars big enough to literally house multiple [[Baneblade]]s, let alone Titans. Seriously, the locomotive engine itself is already over in excess of a 100 meters if calc'ed correctly and you cross several cars just as long, you are easily crossing a length of over a 1km bare minimum. 'Tis a big train indeed.

*'''Length:''' 0.8-3km; approx
*'''Weight:''' 0.7-1.2 megatonnes; approx
*'''Crew:''' 10,000-15,000 crew; approx
*'''Max Speed:''' 300-400kph; approx

==Overview==

As they are used to ferry literal Titans around an Imperial World, Titan Trains are an incredibly important logistical vehicle for the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]], so crucial that they are basically a critical infrastructure all by itself.

Due to its immense size and several decks-worth of space, a Titan Train is actually pretty versatile, able to ferry more than just Titan parts, but other goods and services as well, essentially turning it into a [[Heavy Transport|Heavy Transport ship]] on tracks. Combined with its fast speed and you essentially get a vehicle that could ship large bulks of materials to neighbouring megalopolis in a very cheap and efficient manner. Due to this, Titan Trains are also an important logistical vehicle for [[Hiveworld]]s.

The only downside is well...It's a train and they can't really go anywhere without track. Destroy the tracks and you restrict where the train can go, making it quite fragile for a vehicle of such size.

Despite making its official debut in the new Necromunda: Hired Gun game, this isn't technically the first time you see such a train. Funnily enough, its sheer size and high speeds attracted the [[Ork]]s in [[Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine]] to turn this thing into a [[Locomotive Battering Ram]].

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Imperial]]

[[Category: Vehicles]]

[[Category: Ships]]

[[Category: Adeptus Mechanicus]]

{{40k-Imperial-Vehicles}}
{{40k-Imperial-Ships}}

Harvester

2022-07-12T09:55:18Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* Deep-Miner */

On [[Agri-World|Agri-Worlds]] and [[Imperial Worlds#Mining Worlds|Mining Worlds]] or any planet whose [[Imperial Tithe|economy and tithes]] lay upon the foundation of agriculture, raw foodstuff and raw resources, large machines are used to harvest the annual crop/minerals in bulk. In equal to their [[Imperial Navy Logistic Ships|space counterparts in terms of importance]], these vessels are extremely important machines meant for the survival of entire planetary systems. They come from all shapes and sizes, with the smallest ones dwarfing [[Titans (Warhammer 40,000)|Titans]] in scale.

==Type==
===Agriculture===
====Mega-Harvester====
[[File:Silo_Crawler.JPG|300px|right|thumb|The Harvester. Not currently looking too hot. Also, Christ, what a waste of fucking grain!]]
Looking like a drunken three-way between a Combine Harvester, a grain silo and a food processing plant. The Mega-Harvester was first mentioned in the Short Story, Our Lord on Terra, however, they made their first appearance in the [[Marneus Calgar|Papa Smurf: Origins Comic]] as a mobile factory plant, on threads. At 54.8 meters wide, its large size and multi-use capability of its whirring autoblades of its slash-threshers allow these vehicles to essentially harvest, process and manufacture foodstuff all in one compact and mobile platform.

Their separator discs then ensure that only the grain is placed into three immense hoppers that make up the bulk of the Mega-Harvester's rears. Each hopper is capable of holding five hundred tons of grain and any non-grain material collected, is expelled through the Mega-Harvester's rear ejectors. This is done with enough force, that anyone standing behind the vehicles can be seriously injured by the impact. On Nova Thulium, Grain Harvesters were a standard vessel used to reap the yearly crops to feed neighbouring Hive World, Ardium. This allows the Imperium to easily reduce vulnerable strategic supply chains and cheapens the cost of maintenance on roads, electric cables and other forms of immobile structures in conventional farmlands.

It also allows for mass harvesting of crop yield on the ton, quickly shortening the harvest period by a significant fraction, whilst the smaller [[Land Crawler|Land Crawlers]] would assist in reaping small patches of crops that were missed from these ECKS BAWKS HUEG vessels. The Mega-Harvesters can be manually steered within the vehicles' control cabins or they can be set upon pre-determined routes. They are also armed with [[Harpoon Launcher]]s and crude [[Rotor Cannon]]s, to ward off potential attacks.

There is a catch, however. Because it is a Combine Harvester, a grain silo and a food processing plant all in one neat package, they are a vulnerable target for marauders and pirates. You disable one of these machines and there goes an 8th of the entire planet's food production. In the comics, Papa Smurf witnessed an example of one of these ships being thoroughly krumped by [[Cultist|Chaos Cultists]] before intervening and saving the machine from further harm.

*'''Height:''' 38.4m
*'''Width:''' 54.8m
*'''Length:''' 60.3m
*'''Mass:''' 60-70 kilotonnes; approx
*'''Crew:''' 400-500 crew; approx
*'''Max Speed:''' 2-8kph; approx

===Mining===
====Deep-Miner====
[[File:Mining_Excavator_The_Lord_Inquisitor.JPG|300px|right|thumb|Mining for the glory of the Emprah!]]
Deep-Miners are massive tracked Imperial vehicles, the size of hab-blocks, which are used to drill resources from beneath a world's surface, akin to a modern-day open-pit Bucket-Wheeled Excavator. In a sense, they are a catch-all term for any civilian mining vessel in the Imperium.

They were created before the rise of the Emperor, but are now used by the Imperium and each contain large clan populations. Those who live aboard them can live out their entire lives without ever leaving the vehicles and as a result, a Deep-miner's population is very insular. So kind of like the miniature version of a [[Mobile Hiveships]].

They only need to make contact with Imperial authorities when the vehicles' tanks are full of resources, in order to trade for fresh food, clean water and other necessities. Due to their age and advanced technological construction, the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] has asked that any Imperial forces invading a Deep-miner should try to do as little damage as possible to the remarkable vehicles.

A few folks have attempted to kitbashed a vehicle along the lines of the Deep-Miner as can be shown below. Bucket-Wheeled Excavators were also briefly shown in the teaser trailer of [[The Lord Inquisitor]] as shown to the right, but whether it is a Deep-Miner, we may never know since it has been shelved indefinitely.

Also, how big these vehicles are meant to be is unknown since the term 'hab-block' could mean anything, from single three-story buildings to skyscraper-sized spires. But seeing as how it is large enough to contain an entire 'clan' to house a self-sustaining population, the sheer complexity of its design to warrant a 'no touch'-list for the AdMech, and that modern IRL bucket-wheel excavators are already reaching the lower end of what 40k would call a 'titan'. we can speculate that it is on the larger end of the scale.

*'''Height:''' 100-200m; approx
*'''Length:''' 300-400m; approx
*'''Mass:''' 100-300 kilotonnes; approx
*'''Crew:''' 3,000-9,000 crew; approx
*'''Max Speed:''' 2-8kph; approx

<gallery>
76205-Construction,_Industrial,_Mining_Rig,_Saw,_Scratch_Build,_Super-heavy.jpg|Credits to [https://www.dakkadakka.com/core/gallery-viewimage.jsp?i=76205 Dakkite Saw].
</gallery>
{{40k-Imperial-Ships}}

MathHammer

2022-07-10T01:11:36Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* Causing an Unsaved Wound, the dirty eyeball method */

==Overview==
'''MathHammer''' at its most basic refers to the application of statistics to judge army composition decisions or determining how many attacks of a given type you would need to apply to a unit to kill it on average or determining the likelihood of killing a unit given that you put a certain number of attacks into that unit.

As the name implies it's frequently used in Warhammer 40k, but can apply to any chance-based game. The type of math we employ in Warhammer 40K is also known as Bayesian Probability.

=Causing an Unsaved Wound, the 216 method=
Being built around 3 successive rolls of 1d6 (To hit, To Wound, Save), 40k lends itself to a very quick and effective method for getting a % chance of causing an unsaved wound, without having to resort to spreadsheets. The 216 method (6^3) simply totals up the chances of getting a result you want, then divides them by the total number of results that can occur, which for rolling 3d6 is 216.

This example will use a Chaos Marine attacking a Guardsman in close combat

# Total the number of roll results that result in a hit - 3+ so 4
# Total the number of roll results that result in a wound - 3+ so 4
# Total the number of roll results that result in a FAILED save - 5+ so 4
# Multiply them together: 4x4 = 16, 16x4 = 64, this is the number of possible dice rolls on 3d6 that result in what you want, i.e. a casualty.
# divide the number you got from step 4 by 216, in this case 0.29~, which is the % of causing an unsaved wound.

This gives a result of one attack having a slightly worse than a 1 in 3 chance of killing a Guardsman in close combat.

==Feel No Pain or Ignoring Unsaved Wounds==
Some units have abilities or can benefit from psychic powers that let them ignore unsaved wounds on a roll of 6+ or 5+. To calculate the effect of this divide 6 by the number of rolls that will go through the Feel No Pain ability, with a 6+ that would be 6/5=1.2 and with a 5+ it is 6/4=1.5. So assuming the damage of the weapon is 1 then a 6+ FNP increases durability by 20% and a 5+ by 50%.

With multiple damage it becomes a little more complicated. A given unsaved wound with a damage characteristic of x has a 1/6, 1/36, 1/216, 1/1296, 1/7776, 1/46656 of being reduced by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6‬ damage by a 6+ FNP or 1/3, 1/9, 1/27, 1/81, 1/243, 1/729 by a 5+ FNP.

Let's say your Deathshroud Terminators with 2 wounds per model and a 5+ FNP fail 10 saves with D3 damage. The first wound will cause 3 damage 27/81 times, 2 damage 27/81 times and 1 damage 27/81 times.

:3 damage gets reduced to 0 damage 1/27 times, 1 damage 6/27 times, 2 damage 12/27 times, 3 damage 8/27 times.
:2 damage gets reduced to 0 damage 3/27 times, 1 damage 18/27 times, 2 damage 6/27 times.
:1 damage gets reduced to 0 damage 9/27 times, 1 damage 18/27 times.
:13/81 times the first wound does 0 damage, 42/81 times the first wound does 1 damage, 18/81 times the first wound does 2 damage, 8/81 times the first wound does 3 damage.
:To make up for the wounds that do no damage we multiply by (81+13)/81
:To make up for the wounds that cause 1 damage we multiply by (81+42)/81
:10*(81+13)/81*(81+42)/81=5.67 Deathshroud Terminators die on average.

==Re-rolls==
An ability to re-roll will multiply the number of results that result in a hit or a wound by (6+x)/6, where x is the number of facings on a hit roll you can re-roll, so if you re-roll 1s x is 1, re-roll 1s, 2s, 3s and 4s x is 4.

Chaos Space Marines within 6" of a Chaos Lord can re-roll 1s to hit so you multiply their number of results that result in a hit by 4*(6+1)/6=4.667

The efficacy of re-rolls cannot be understated, a Chaos Lord increases the damage output of nearby units by 17%, that means that if you have 6 times the value of the Chaos Lord in nearby units then the Chaos Lord will be effective for his pts simply based on his Aura, note that as you lose units the Aura will become less and less effective and Characters are often less durable for their pts than other units, so while a Chaos Lord is amazing while you have 10 times the number of pts within range of his aura, if you only have 2 times the number of pts within range of his aura he needs to do more work himself to justify his pts cost and inclusion in your army.

==Required Attacks to Kill a Unit on Average==
Divide the number of unsaved wounds you want to cause by the chance of causing an unsaved wound with an attack, say you want to kill an Infantry Squad with 10 Guardsmen in melee with your Chaos Space Marine unit in melee you would divide 10 by 0.29 and get 34.48.

==Average Damage Output==
To calculate the average damage output of a unit simply multiply the number of attacks with a given weapon by the chance of causing an unsaved wound and the average damage of the weapon. Say you have a unit of 10 Chaos Space Marines with 21 attacks, you want to know how many Guardsmen they kill on average. 21*0.29=6.09.

==Points per Wound==
To calculate the effectiveness of a given unit you can divide the average damage output by the cost of the unit. 10 Chaos Space Marines cost 130 pts, so each unsaved wound in close combat costs you 130/6.09=21.35 pts.

You can go one step further and divide it by the cost of a wound on a model that you are killing. 10 Guardsmen cost 40 pts so 1 is 40/10=4 pts, 21.35/4=5.34.

Now you can compare the squad to other units available to you, 5 Khorne Berzerkers for example pay 7.91 pts per unsaved wound they cause assuming they don't lose any models when the Guardsmen strike back before they can fight a second time. That means Khorne Berzerkers with chainaxes are 2,69 times as effective at killing Infantry Squads in melee compared to a Chaos Space Marine unit with chainswords. For this reason and because attacking twice also gives a lot of tactical flexibility Chaos Space Marines with chainswords are never used, on the other hand Khorne Berzerkers get used a lot more relative to the Chaos Space Marines. You also need to factor in how vulnerable a unit is, in this case Khorne Berzerkers pay 30% more per wound, but if you are paying for a Rhino to transport and protect your melee unit, suddenly you are paying very little extra to have Khorne Berzerkers instead of Chaos Space Marines and the durability issue is mitigated by the Rhino.

=Causing an Unsaved Wound, the dirty eyeball method=
If your in a hurry or have a lot of attacks to mathhammer at once you can instead use this methoid for a quick and dirty approximation. Since The odds of a dice landing any indivdual result is the same, then in theory if you rolled six dice you are expected to get one of each of the results. In practice your never that lucky but over an infinity amount of time that is the expected result.

As such if you take the number of attacks and divide the number by six you have the expected out come for each results on a d6. As an example, if you had 60 attacks you'd expect 10 1's, 10 2's, 10 3's, 10 4's, 10, 5's and 10 6's. From there you can keep eye balling results as each gets winnowed down.

For a more expansive example we will have 60 conscripts under the effects of First rank fire, second rank fire, shoot lasguns at rapid fire range at 20 chaos space marines, for a total of 80 shots. We will also have them be caidan's for reroll to one's and Hammer of the Emperor will be active so Sixes's will auto wound.

#Divide number of attacks by 6, in this case 80/6=13.33 round down to 13. So we can expect roughly 13 of each results. Conscripts hit on 5 and 6 so 13 results are hits and 13 are hits that auto wound due to hammer of the emperor. Additionally 13 of those misses were on a 1 so those are re rolled. Repeating the step: 13/6=2.16 round down to 2. So 2 more of those to hit's are 5's and 2 more are sixes. (since again we are expecting 2 of each kind of result on a d6)
#Divide number of hits by 6. In this case we have 15 hits that need to wound, and 15 that have already wounded. 15/6=2.5 round up to 3. lasgun's wound on a 5+ so we can expect 6 wounds as the 3 fives and 3 sixes we can expect will wound meaning adding the 15 that have already wounded thanks to Hammer of the Emperor we have 21 wounds.*
# Divide the number of wounds by 6 again. 21/6=3.5 round up to 4. Since marine's fail on a 1 or 2 that's 8 unsaved wounds.
# If there is an ability that let's them ignore wounds then take the number of failed wounds and again divide by six to give you the number of expected results for each number, then take the number of brackets it ignores wound by that's you result. So back to the chaos marines 8/6=1.33 round down so if they ignore wounds on a 5+, then 2 of them ignore the wounds.

This method is quick and dirty with the final number being far less precise then the 216 method. However rather then telling you the odds of any individual lasgun shot killing a marine, this method can give you the rough expected out come of a lot individual attacks happening at once. It fails however if at any point in the process you need to divide by less then 6, since again we divide by six to let you know how many of each result we can roughly expect to happen. So it can't tell you the odds of a single lascannon wounding or hitting but works better for large volume's of attacks.

*This method also show's why any ability that auto hit's or wounds is powerful since it completely skips a step thus preventing results from being reduced either by failed BS or To wound rolls.

=Why you would want to do this=
So why exactly would you want to recreate statistics 101 in your hobby time? Because GW didn't. Running Mathhammer against your army list will show up the truly junk options that were crammed in your codex, and in turn the absolutely insane power breaks that have no bearing on units points cost. It can however be very useful in avoiding trap units, and putting together viable counters if you are struggling with army composition.

=Beware!=
Mathhammer, like employing the power of the [[warp]], can be a force for good when used with discipline and restraint. But reckless mathhammer is a step on the path to [[that guy|damnation]].

=External Links=
*[https://www.unitcrunch.com UnitCrunch (40k 9th Edition MathHammer web app)]
[[Category:Warhammer_40,000]]

MathHammer

2022-07-09T23:08:16Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* Causing an Unsaved Wound, the dirty eyeball method */

==Overview==
'''MathHammer''' at its most basic refers to the application of statistics to judge army composition decisions or determining how many attacks of a given type you would need to apply to a unit to kill it on average or determining the likelihood of killing a unit given that you put a certain number of attacks into that unit.

As the name implies it's frequently used in Warhammer 40k, but can apply to any chance-based game. The type of math we employ in Warhammer 40K is also known as Bayesian Probability.

=Causing an Unsaved Wound, the 216 method=
Being built around 3 successive rolls of 1d6 (To hit, To Wound, Save), 40k lends itself to a very quick and effective method for getting a % chance of causing an unsaved wound, without having to resort to spreadsheets. The 216 method (6^3) simply totals up the chances of getting a result you want, then divides them by the total number of results that can occur, which for rolling 3d6 is 216.

This example will use a Chaos Marine attacking a Guardsman in close combat

# Total the number of roll results that result in a hit - 3+ so 4
# Total the number of roll results that result in a wound - 3+ so 4
# Total the number of roll results that result in a FAILED save - 5+ so 4
# Multiply them together: 4x4 = 16, 16x4 = 64, this is the number of possible dice rolls on 3d6 that result in what you want, i.e. a casualty.
# divide the number you got from step 4 by 216, in this case 0.29~, which is the % of causing an unsaved wound.

This gives a result of one attack having a slightly worse than a 1 in 3 chance of killing a Guardsman in close combat.

==Feel No Pain or Ignoring Unsaved Wounds==
Some units have abilities or can benefit from psychic powers that let them ignore unsaved wounds on a roll of 6+ or 5+. To calculate the effect of this divide 6 by the number of rolls that will go through the Feel No Pain ability, with a 6+ that would be 6/5=1.2 and with a 5+ it is 6/4=1.5. So assuming the damage of the weapon is 1 then a 6+ FNP increases durability by 20% and a 5+ by 50%.

With multiple damage it becomes a little more complicated. A given unsaved wound with a damage characteristic of x has a 1/6, 1/36, 1/216, 1/1296, 1/7776, 1/46656 of being reduced by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6‬ damage by a 6+ FNP or 1/3, 1/9, 1/27, 1/81, 1/243, 1/729 by a 5+ FNP.

Let's say your Deathshroud Terminators with 2 wounds per model and a 5+ FNP fail 10 saves with D3 damage. The first wound will cause 3 damage 27/81 times, 2 damage 27/81 times and 1 damage 27/81 times.

:3 damage gets reduced to 0 damage 1/27 times, 1 damage 6/27 times, 2 damage 12/27 times, 3 damage 8/27 times.
:2 damage gets reduced to 0 damage 3/27 times, 1 damage 18/27 times, 2 damage 6/27 times.
:1 damage gets reduced to 0 damage 9/27 times, 1 damage 18/27 times.
:13/81 times the first wound does 0 damage, 42/81 times the first wound does 1 damage, 18/81 times the first wound does 2 damage, 8/81 times the first wound does 3 damage.
:To make up for the wounds that do no damage we multiply by (81+13)/81
:To make up for the wounds that cause 1 damage we multiply by (81+42)/81
:10*(81+13)/81*(81+42)/81=5.67 Deathshroud Terminators die on average.

==Re-rolls==
An ability to re-roll will multiply the number of results that result in a hit or a wound by (6+x)/6, where x is the number of facings on a hit roll you can re-roll, so if you re-roll 1s x is 1, re-roll 1s, 2s, 3s and 4s x is 4.

Chaos Space Marines within 6" of a Chaos Lord can re-roll 1s to hit so you multiply their number of results that result in a hit by 4*(6+1)/6=4.667

The efficacy of re-rolls cannot be understated, a Chaos Lord increases the damage output of nearby units by 17%, that means that if you have 6 times the value of the Chaos Lord in nearby units then the Chaos Lord will be effective for his pts simply based on his Aura, note that as you lose units the Aura will become less and less effective and Characters are often less durable for their pts than other units, so while a Chaos Lord is amazing while you have 10 times the number of pts within range of his aura, if you only have 2 times the number of pts within range of his aura he needs to do more work himself to justify his pts cost and inclusion in your army.

==Required Attacks to Kill a Unit on Average==
Divide the number of unsaved wounds you want to cause by the chance of causing an unsaved wound with an attack, say you want to kill an Infantry Squad with 10 Guardsmen in melee with your Chaos Space Marine unit in melee you would divide 10 by 0.29 and get 34.48.

==Average Damage Output==
To calculate the average damage output of a unit simply multiply the number of attacks with a given weapon by the chance of causing an unsaved wound and the average damage of the weapon. Say you have a unit of 10 Chaos Space Marines with 21 attacks, you want to know how many Guardsmen they kill on average. 21*0.29=6.09.

==Points per Wound==
To calculate the effectiveness of a given unit you can divide the average damage output by the cost of the unit. 10 Chaos Space Marines cost 130 pts, so each unsaved wound in close combat costs you 130/6.09=21.35 pts.

You can go one step further and divide it by the cost of a wound on a model that you are killing. 10 Guardsmen cost 40 pts so 1 is 40/10=4 pts, 21.35/4=5.34.

Now you can compare the squad to other units available to you, 5 Khorne Berzerkers for example pay 7.91 pts per unsaved wound they cause assuming they don't lose any models when the Guardsmen strike back before they can fight a second time. That means Khorne Berzerkers with chainaxes are 2,69 times as effective at killing Infantry Squads in melee compared to a Chaos Space Marine unit with chainswords. For this reason and because attacking twice also gives a lot of tactical flexibility Chaos Space Marines with chainswords are never used, on the other hand Khorne Berzerkers get used a lot more relative to the Chaos Space Marines. You also need to factor in how vulnerable a unit is, in this case Khorne Berzerkers pay 30% more per wound, but if you are paying for a Rhino to transport and protect your melee unit, suddenly you are paying very little extra to have Khorne Berzerkers instead of Chaos Space Marines and the durability issue is mitigated by the Rhino.

=Causing an Unsaved Wound, the dirty eyeball method=
If your in a hurry or have a lot of attacks to mathhammer at once you can instead use this methoid for a quick and dirty approximation. Since The odds of a dice landing any indivdual result is the same, then in theory if you rolled six dice you are expected to get one of each of the results. In practice your never that lucky but over an infinity amount of time that is the expected result.

As such if you take the number of attacks and divide the number by six you have the expected out come for each results on a d6. As an example, if you had 60 attacks you'd expect 10 1's, 10 2's, 10 3's, 10 4's, 10, 5's and 10 6's. From there you can keep eye balling results as each gets winnowed down.

For a more expansive example we will have 60 conscripts under the effects of First rank fire, second rank fire, shoot lasguns at rapid fire range at 20 chaos space marines, for a total of 80 shots. We will also have them be caidan's for reroll to one's and Hammer of the Emperor will be active so size's will auto wound.

#Divide number of attacks by 6, in this case 80/6=13.33 round down to 13. So we can expect roughly 13 of each results. Conscripts hit on 5 and 6 so 13 results are hits and 13 are hits that auto wound due to hammer of the emperor. Additionally 13 of those misses were on a 1 so those are re rolled. repeating the step, 13/6=2.16 round down to 2. So 2 more of those to hit's are 5's and 2 more are sixes. (since again we are expecting 1 of each kind of result on a d6)
#Divide number of hits by 6. In this case we have 15 hits that need to wound, and 15 that have already wounded. 15/6=2.5 round up to 3. lasgun's wound on a 5+ so we can expect 6 wounds as the 3 fives and 3 sixes we can expect will wound meaning adding the 15 that have already wounded thanks to Hammer of the Emperor we have 21 wounds.*
# Divide the number of wounds by 6 again. 21/6=3.5 round up to 4. Since marine's fail on a 1 or 2 that's 8 unsaved wounds.
# If there is an ability that let's them ignore wounds then take the number of failed wounds and again divide by six to give you the number of expected results for each number, then take the number of brackets it ignores wound by that's you result. So back to the chaos marines 8/6=1.33 round down so if they ignore wounds on a 5+, then 2 of them ignore the wounds.

This method is quick and dirty with the final number being far less precise then the 216 method. However rather then telling you the odds of any individual lasgun shot killing a marine, this method can give you the rough expected out come of a lot individual attacks happening at once. It fails however if at any point in the process you need to divide by less then 6, since again we divide by six to let you know how many of each result we can roughly expect to happen. So it can't tell you the odds of a single lascannon wounding or hitting but works better for large volume's of attacks.

*This method also show's why any ability that auto hit's or wounds is powerful since it completely skips a step thus preventing results from being reduced either by failed BS or To wound rolls.

=Why you would want to do this=
So why exactly would you want to recreate statistics 101 in your hobby time? Because GW didn't. Running Mathhammer against your army list will show up the truly junk options that were crammed in your codex, and in turn the absolutely insane power breaks that have no bearing on units points cost. It can however be very useful in avoiding trap units, and putting together viable counters if you are struggling with army composition.

=Beware!=
Mathhammer, like employing the power of the [[warp]], can be a force for good when used with discipline and restraint. But reckless mathhammer is a step on the path to [[that guy|damnation]].

=External Links=
*[https://www.unitcrunch.com UnitCrunch (40k 9th Edition MathHammer web app)]
[[Category:Warhammer_40,000]]

MathHammer

2022-07-09T23:00:50Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* Causing an Unsaved Wound, the 216 method */ My own methoid of eyeballing number of wounds

==Overview==
'''MathHammer''' at its most basic refers to the application of statistics to judge army composition decisions or determining how many attacks of a given type you would need to apply to a unit to kill it on average or determining the likelihood of killing a unit given that you put a certain number of attacks into that unit.

As the name implies it's frequently used in Warhammer 40k, but can apply to any chance-based game. The type of math we employ in Warhammer 40K is also known as Bayesian Probability.

=Causing an Unsaved Wound, the 216 method=
Being built around 3 successive rolls of 1d6 (To hit, To Wound, Save), 40k lends itself to a very quick and effective method for getting a % chance of causing an unsaved wound, without having to resort to spreadsheets. The 216 method (6^3) simply totals up the chances of getting a result you want, then divides them by the total number of results that can occur, which for rolling 3d6 is 216.

This example will use a Chaos Marine attacking a Guardsman in close combat

# Total the number of roll results that result in a hit - 3+ so 4
# Total the number of roll results that result in a wound - 3+ so 4
# Total the number of roll results that result in a FAILED save - 5+ so 4
# Multiply them together: 4x4 = 16, 16x4 = 64, this is the number of possible dice rolls on 3d6 that result in what you want, i.e. a casualty.
# divide the number you got from step 4 by 216, in this case 0.29~, which is the % of causing an unsaved wound.

This gives a result of one attack having a slightly worse than a 1 in 3 chance of killing a Guardsman in close combat.

==Feel No Pain or Ignoring Unsaved Wounds==
Some units have abilities or can benefit from psychic powers that let them ignore unsaved wounds on a roll of 6+ or 5+. To calculate the effect of this divide 6 by the number of rolls that will go through the Feel No Pain ability, with a 6+ that would be 6/5=1.2 and with a 5+ it is 6/4=1.5. So assuming the damage of the weapon is 1 then a 6+ FNP increases durability by 20% and a 5+ by 50%.

With multiple damage it becomes a little more complicated. A given unsaved wound with a damage characteristic of x has a 1/6, 1/36, 1/216, 1/1296, 1/7776, 1/46656 of being reduced by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6‬ damage by a 6+ FNP or 1/3, 1/9, 1/27, 1/81, 1/243, 1/729 by a 5+ FNP.

Let's say your Deathshroud Terminators with 2 wounds per model and a 5+ FNP fail 10 saves with D3 damage. The first wound will cause 3 damage 27/81 times, 2 damage 27/81 times and 1 damage 27/81 times.

:3 damage gets reduced to 0 damage 1/27 times, 1 damage 6/27 times, 2 damage 12/27 times, 3 damage 8/27 times.
:2 damage gets reduced to 0 damage 3/27 times, 1 damage 18/27 times, 2 damage 6/27 times.
:1 damage gets reduced to 0 damage 9/27 times, 1 damage 18/27 times.
:13/81 times the first wound does 0 damage, 42/81 times the first wound does 1 damage, 18/81 times the first wound does 2 damage, 8/81 times the first wound does 3 damage.
:To make up for the wounds that do no damage we multiply by (81+13)/81
:To make up for the wounds that cause 1 damage we multiply by (81+42)/81
:10*(81+13)/81*(81+42)/81=5.67 Deathshroud Terminators die on average.

==Re-rolls==
An ability to re-roll will multiply the number of results that result in a hit or a wound by (6+x)/6, where x is the number of facings on a hit roll you can re-roll, so if you re-roll 1s x is 1, re-roll 1s, 2s, 3s and 4s x is 4.

Chaos Space Marines within 6" of a Chaos Lord can re-roll 1s to hit so you multiply their number of results that result in a hit by 4*(6+1)/6=4.667

The efficacy of re-rolls cannot be understated, a Chaos Lord increases the damage output of nearby units by 17%, that means that if you have 6 times the value of the Chaos Lord in nearby units then the Chaos Lord will be effective for his pts simply based on his Aura, note that as you lose units the Aura will become less and less effective and Characters are often less durable for their pts than other units, so while a Chaos Lord is amazing while you have 10 times the number of pts within range of his aura, if you only have 2 times the number of pts within range of his aura he needs to do more work himself to justify his pts cost and inclusion in your army.

==Required Attacks to Kill a Unit on Average==
Divide the number of unsaved wounds you want to cause by the chance of causing an unsaved wound with an attack, say you want to kill an Infantry Squad with 10 Guardsmen in melee with your Chaos Space Marine unit in melee you would divide 10 by 0.29 and get 34.48.

==Average Damage Output==
To calculate the average damage output of a unit simply multiply the number of attacks with a given weapon by the chance of causing an unsaved wound and the average damage of the weapon. Say you have a unit of 10 Chaos Space Marines with 21 attacks, you want to know how many Guardsmen they kill on average. 21*0.29=6.09.

==Points per Wound==
To calculate the effectiveness of a given unit you can divide the average damage output by the cost of the unit. 10 Chaos Space Marines cost 130 pts, so each unsaved wound in close combat costs you 130/6.09=21.35 pts.

You can go one step further and divide it by the cost of a wound on a model that you are killing. 10 Guardsmen cost 40 pts so 1 is 40/10=4 pts, 21.35/4=5.34.

Now you can compare the squad to other units available to you, 5 Khorne Berzerkers for example pay 7.91 pts per unsaved wound they cause assuming they don't lose any models when the Guardsmen strike back before they can fight a second time. That means Khorne Berzerkers with chainaxes are 2,69 times as effective at killing Infantry Squads in melee compared to a Chaos Space Marine unit with chainswords. For this reason and because attacking twice also gives a lot of tactical flexibility Chaos Space Marines with chainswords are never used, on the other hand Khorne Berzerkers get used a lot more relative to the Chaos Space Marines. You also need to factor in how vulnerable a unit is, in this case Khorne Berzerkers pay 30% more per wound, but if you are paying for a Rhino to transport and protect your melee unit, suddenly you are paying very little extra to have Khorne Berzerkers instead of Chaos Space Marines and the durability issue is mitigated by the Rhino.

=Causing an Unsaved Wound, the dirty eyeball method=
If your in a hurry or have a lot of attacks to mathhammer at once you can instead use this methoid for a quick and dirty approximation. Since The odds of a dice landing any indivdual result is the same, then in theory if you rolled six dice you are expected to get one of each of the results. In practice your never that lucky but over an infinity amount of time that is the expected result.

As such if you take the number of attacks and divide the number by six you have the expected out come for each results on a d6. As an example, if you had 60 attacks you'd expect 10 1's, 10 2's, 10 3's, 10 4's, 10, 5's and 10 6's. From there you can keep eye balling results as each gets winnowed down.

For a more expansive example we will have 60 conscripts under the effects of First rank fire, second rank fire, shoot lasguns at rapid fire range at 20 chaos space marines, for a total of 80 shots. We will also have them be caidan's for reroll to one's and Hammer of the Emperor will be active so size's will auto wound.

#Divide number of attacks by 6, in this case 80/6=13.33 round down to 13. So we can expect roughly 13 of each results. Conscripts hit on 5 and 6 so 13 results are hits and 13 are hits that auto wound due to hammer of the emperor. Additionally 13 of those misses were on a 1 so those are re rolled. repeating the step, 13/6=2.16 round down to 2. So 2 more of those to hit's are 5's and 2 more are sixes. (since again we are expecting 1 of each kind of result on a d6)
#Divide number of hits by 6. In this case we have 15 hits that need to wound, and 15 that have already wounded. 15/6=2.5 round up to 3. lasgun's wound on a 5+ so we can expect 6 wounds as the 3 fives and 3 sixes we can expect will wound meaning adding the 15 that have already wounded thanks to Hammer of the Emperor we have 21 wounds.
# Divide the number of wounds by 6 again. 21/6=3.5 round up to 4. Since marine's fail on a 1 or 2 that's 8 unsaved wounds.
# If there is an ability that let's them ignore wounds then take the number of failed wounds and again divide by six to give you the number of expected results for each number, then take the number of brackets it ignores wound by that's you result. So back to the chaos marines 8/6=1.33 round down so if they ignore wounds on a 5+, then 2 of them ignore the wounds.

This method is quick and dirty with the final number being far less precise then the 216 method. However rather then telling you the odds of any individual lasgun shot killing a marine, this method can give you the rough expected out come of a lot individual attacks happening at once. It fails however if at any point in the process you need to divide by less then 6, since again we divide by six to let you know how many of each result we can roughly expect to happen. So it can't tell you the odds of a single lascannon wounding or hitting but works better for large volume's of attacks.

=Why you would want to do this=
So why exactly would you want to recreate statistics 101 in your hobby time? Because GW didn't. Running Mathhammer against your army list will show up the truly junk options that were crammed in your codex, and in turn the absolutely insane power breaks that have no bearing on units points cost. It can however be very useful in avoiding trap units, and putting together viable counters if you are struggling with army composition.

=Beware!=
Mathhammer, like employing the power of the [[warp]], can be a force for good when used with discipline and restraint. But reckless mathhammer is a step on the path to [[that guy|damnation]].

=External Links=
*[https://www.unitcrunch.com UnitCrunch (40k 9th Edition MathHammer web app)]
[[Category:Warhammer_40,000]]

Mutalith Vortex Beast

2022-07-03T18:13:28Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* Overview */

[[File:Mutalith.jpg|260px|right|thumb|[[Tyranids|OMNOMNOM]] and [[Dakka|DAKKA]] have never gone together so well before.]]

Basically the [[Chaos]] version of the [[Haruspex]], if it weren't for this abomination being around before the Haruspex was made. The Mutalith Vortex Beast is a creature that can be found in [[Warhammer Fantasy]]/[[Age of Sigmar]] and more recently has made its debut in [[Warhammer 40,000]].

Honestly, its aesthetically one of the ugliest looking from the Chaos line, beating out even They-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named, and while the model quality is great, a great rendering of a hideous bag of flesh and slimy tentacles ''is still'' a hideous bag of flesh and slimy tentacles. Not even [[Nurgle]] can help its ass in the makeover department.

==Overview==

Mutalith Vortex Beasts are terrifying abominations of nature, which have been mutated beyond all reason by the power of Chaos and is now a conduit of raw abstract and chaotic powers of absolute [[Bullshit]]. Because of this, any servant of the Dark Gods who wishes to use these avatars of living tentacle rape, risks suffering from mutation or madness (atleast more-so than usual).

The Mutalith Vortex Beast differs from the average [[Chaos Spawn|disgusting thing]] in a striking manner: a vortex of raw Chaos echoing the shape of the 8-pointed star looms up from its back, with a shard of the great eye that crowns [[Magnus the Red]]'s tower in the star's center. Nine huge tentacles extend out of its mouth, each of which is dripping with ichor. Finally, it possesses two tails that end in mouths, tongues and claws. It comes with an alternate head that has no tongue; instead there is a grimacing maw and growths protruding from its face.

Mutaliths also aren't born (un)naturally in contrast to most [[Chaos Beast]] or God-aligned creatures. Instead, they are formed by the collapsed fusion dance of multiple [[Chaos Spawn|They-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named.]] When under the exposure of the warp energies that flow around the surface of the [[Sortiarius|Planet of the Sorcerers]], they undergo another form of mutation. In most cases, the would-be mutalith is unable to handle the mutations it goes through, and collapses on itself, turning into ooze. But when Tzeentch feels like it, the shall-not-be-named entity will instead continue to mutate into a full Mutalith with continued warp-energy exposure. Additionally, through a stroke of good/bad luck, Tzeentch can also turn one of his chosen champions into a Mutalith, instead of achieving daemonhood.

Basically, they're the daemon prince version of [[Chaos Spawn|They-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named.]] Either becoming more powerful with a god's patronage, or devolving further into nothingness.

So far, only the [[Thousand Sons]] seem to be able to both tame and master control of these beasts in 40k, though in Age of Sigmar there more common across the various chaos faction rather then just the Tzeentch ones.

== Gallery ==

<gallery>
Image:HERESYTOTHEMAX.jpg|Once this was considered just a joke. Now you can reenact this in an actual game.
</gallery>

{{Chaos-Daemons}}

{{Thousand Sons}}

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Warhammer Fantasy]]

[[Category: Age of Sigmar]]

[[Category: Chaos]]

[[Category: Chaos Space Marines]]

[[Category: Thousand Sons]]

[[Category: Daemons]]
[[Category: Slaves to Darkness]]
[[Category: Megafauna]]

Dark Commune

2022-06-30T03:40:47Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* Overview */

{{Skub}}
{{Heresy}}
[[File:DarkCommune.jpg|300px|right|thumb| Yo dawg. I heard you liked chaff, so I added chaff in your chaff!]]

Looking like they came straight out of a [[Lord of the Rings]] convention, the Dark Commune are the leaders of [[Chaos Cults]]. These ragtag council of [[Murderhobos]] include a [[Cult Demagogue]], a [[Mindwitch]] and an [[Iconrach]], who are protected by [[Blessed Blade]]s.

==Overview==

A Dark Commune is not to be confused with the [[Renegade Command Squad]], as the Renegade Command Squad is a ''military'' leadership squad made up of a [[Renegade Demagogue]] with his disciples of chosen henchmen. The Dark Commune on the other hand, represents a Chaos Cult's ''spiritual'' leadership core, which makes sense as these cosplayers are in charge of the actual bonafide [[Cultist]]s and all their sacrificial daemon-summoning shenanigans. Or in layman's terms, the Dark Commune represents the [[Ecclesiarchy|Ecclesiarchal]] aspects to the Renegade Command Squad's [[Imperial Guard|Imperial Guardsmen]] aspects without the usefulness of either.

Because they represent the spiritual and religious head of a Chaos Cult, these guys are the juicy number#1 targets of [[Officio Assassinorum|Imperial assassins]], [[Witch Hunters]], [[Sisters of Battle]], [[Space Marines]], the [[Imperial Guard]], [[Adeptus Arbites]], [[Acolyte]]s the, ok look a lot of people want them dead.

Costing a whopping 100 points for 5 easily-killable dudes with half the selection of prayers and spells, unable to be fielded without a Core <Heretic Astartes> babysitting them, requiring no other Character unit in a character-heavy army just to be your Warlord, and also a supreme lack of rules and options normally given to a basic troop; they’re [[FAIL|entirely dead in the water.]]
{{Lost-and-Damned}}

Dark Commune

2022-06-30T03:40:33Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* Overview */

{{Skub}}
{{Heresy}}
[[File:DarkCommune.jpg|300px|right|thumb| Yo dawg. I heard you liked chaff, so I added chaff in your chaff!]]

Looking like they came straight out of a [[Lord of the Rings]] convention, the Dark Commune are the leaders of [[Chaos Cults]]. These ragtag council of [[Murderhobos]] include a [[Cult Demagogue]], a [[Mindwitch]] and an [[Iconrach]], who are protected by [[Blessed Blade]]s.

==Overview==

A Dark Commune is not to be confused with the [[Renegade Command Squad]], as the Renegade Command Squad is a ''military'' leadership squad made up of a [[Renegade Demagogue]] with his disciples of chosen henchmen. The Dark Commune on the other hand, represents a Chaos Cult's ''spiritual'' leadership core, which makes sense as these cosplayers are in charge of the actual bonafide [[Cultist]]s and all their sacrificial daemon-summoning shenanigans. Or in layman's terms, the Dark Commune represents the [[Ecclesiarchy|Ecclesiarchal]] aspects to the Renegade Command Squad's [[Imperial Guard|Imperial Guardsmen]] aspects without the usefulness of either.

Because they represent the spiritual and religious head of a Chaos Cult, these guys are the juicy number#1 targets of [[Officio Assassinorum|Imperial assassins]], [[Witch Hunters]], [[Sisters of Battle]], [[[[Space Marines]]]], the [[Imperial Guard]], [[Adeptus Arbites]], [[Acolyte]]s the, ok look a lot of people want them dead.

Costing a whopping 100 points for 5 easily-killable dudes with half the selection of prayers and spells, unable to be fielded without a Core <Heretic Astartes> babysitting them, requiring no other Character unit in a character-heavy army just to be your Warlord, and also a supreme lack of rules and options normally given to a basic troop; they’re [[FAIL|entirely dead in the water.]]
{{Lost-and-Damned}}

Gear Krieg

2022-06-29T18:41:10Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D:

[[image:GKgermanmecha.jpg|thumb|Well, you know what they say about [https://youtu.be/7w8aG3VhArE| German science!]]]

Gear Kreig is a [[Weird Wars|weird war]] RPG and 28mm wargame made by [[Dream Pod 9]] and unofficial prequel to the Ring of Red video game. It's ran by, you guessed it, the [[Silhouette]] system and is set in an era of SUPERSCIENCE and two fisted pulp run amok during the global boogaloo that was [[The World Wars|the second world war]].

When it comes to Weird war settings, it's all about the "what ifs." What if Hitler hadn't lost in 45? What if Japan's Unit 731 made zombies and demons? What if scientists had access to tons of [[/m/|japanimation about transforming robots?]] All these and more are what Gear Krieg tries to tackle with DP9's staple [[autism|love]] of [[Mecha]] taking front and center along with the other mandatory weird war tech like your [[Tesla]] coils, and your rocket troopers and your Italians with a functioning, competent military. You know, all the amazing out of this world kinda stuff.

When it comes to companies trying to take a bit out of Game Workshop (that's not proper historical game) it comes to what you offer to the players. Gear Kreig is offers interesting models and also sells the STL files for those models so if you have a 3d pritner you can make them at home at a discount and faster then shipping, and in theory can edit those files if you know what your doing to make custom print jobs.

==External Links==
[https://store.dp9.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=89 Models and books]

[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnlRvDMuqZbOddwCqDvcZ3baMC6Aj7gcO Mandatory listening for any GK campaign]

[https://store.dp9.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=140_141 3D printable Models]

[[Category:Wargames]]

[[Category:Roleplaying]]

Rubric Terminators

2022-06-29T14:17:30Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* Why did they get Rubric'd? */

[[File:99120102066_ThousandSonsTerminators02.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Try and call us a walking dustbin again! Come and just fucking try it!]]

Rubric Terminators. Rubric. [[Terminator]]s. Have you ever read the Horus Heresy novels and noticed that the [[Thousand Sons]] had these sweet ass, psychic, foreshadowingly stoic Scarab Occult Terminators that were literally described as "automatons" and "like robots" by [[Jaghatai Khan]] and [[Ferrus Manus]] (although the latter was most likely a compliment)? Did you ever wonder what happened to them? Apparently, the Thousand Sons still had them all this time, but [[Magnus]] had stuck them into the bottom of the pantry to save them for a rainy day. War Zone Fenris was that rainy day.

==Why did they get Rubric'd?==
You may have noticed the Scarab Occult was originally composed of the legion's best and most disciplined psykers. So, if Ahriman's Rubric transformed astartes who had little to no psychic abilities into dusty power armors, why did most of the Scarab Occult also get the Rubric treatment? Because the Rubric was retconed into affecting everyone but the most ''powerful'' psykers. Meaning that only a few of these guys managed to power through it, while the rest turned to dust because they just weren't powerful enough. That and Tzeentch likes ambition. These guys were automatons in all but name, who loyally served Magnus and...that's it really. Tzeentch no likey.

==On The Tabletop==

===7th Edition===
While the anti-Rubric Marines group are probably groaning at the moment, they're actually pretty good. You'd probably expect the 2+/4++ saves, Fearless, and AP3 combi-bolters, what you weren't expecting was the '''lack''' of Slow and Purposeful, one of Rubric Marines' chief weaknesses just gone and resulting in the odd scenario of Tactical Dreadnought armoured Marines being faster than regular Power Armoured Marines. You probably weren't expecting the Aspiring Sorcerer to keep the good stuff and be upgraded to ML2 (which means the option to roll a power on a second psychic discipline), and ''2 wounds''. They also have weapons options for a shorter-ranged [[Hellfyre Missile Rack]] that shoots kraks, and AP3 [[Heavy Warpflamer]], or that odd [[Soulreaper Cannon]] mentioned above.

However, they still share in the Rubric Marines other traditional weaknesses. No combi-weapons and no AP2 power weapons means that they're still anti-MEQ specialists with limited options for countering cover, TEQs, and walkers. And with a minimum of 5 guys, the're still not a cheap option. The lack of options to negate cover saves is a particular issue as the targets you'd want to use them against the most; MEQs and Necrons, are almost certainly going to have cover saves (and inferno bolts do nothing about RP rolls or the FNP of Slaaneshi, Nurglite, Iron Warriors, and Iron Hands marines or the added toughness of Nurglites) and they are very pricey for the rather mediocre firepower per model they bring to the table. The AP3 heavy warpflamer is nice for roasting cover camping marines but it will require deep striking them to point blank range to get the most use out of and you still have to pay for the other terminators. However with two wounds they're pretty good at soaking up large volumes of fire thanks to their [[Scarab Occult Pattern Terminator Armour|Scarab Occult Armour]]; requiring an average of 38-39 lasgun shots to kill and with their invulnerable saves and their two wounds they can tank plasma fire decently well; requiring roughly eight shots from guardsmen to kill and if you can get Endurance on them from some source they can be amazingly resilient to the point of nigh invulnerability. In conclusion their firepower is overall quite mediocre but their durability is top class among TEQs; though against the likes of meltaguns and lascannons they aren't anymore resilient than any other T4 model with a 4++ save.

For some reason even though the Forge World 30k line shows them in Cataphractii, in 40k they're in Tartaros.

===8th Edition===

===9th Edition===
Scarabs are probably one of the best-improved(if not the best) units in the codex. They wield magic versions of Loyalist Terminator weapons, and they're now led by a fully-fledged Psyker. Compared to previous editions, all your Aspiring Sorcerer now act like the nerds they're supposed to be, able to cast the same D3/D6 Smite as everyone else, and still know at least 2 other spells beyond that. The codex also gives them many ways to make them [[Your Dudes]] by inducting them into a secret, special clubhouse, spending points for Legion Command Upgrades or even spend a CP to give them a pimped out staff. For example, by inducting them into the cult of time and spending +15 points for Rites of Coalescence, you can restore a model back to full-wounds each Command Phase AND bring one model back from the dead in the Psychic phase, which makes them insanely durable as they are now 3W a model and Obsec. If you really want to out-endure Death Guard, for 1/3 CP you can steal their 9E Disgustingly Resilient Rule and subtract 1 from damage, which is supposed to help you trigger All is Dust

T4 3W, 2+/5++, 1+ Armour against D1 weapons, but All is Dust unfortunately only applies to Armour Saves now so no more 4++ Invulns against other bolters. Inferno combibolters are still RF2 S4 AP-2 D1, but you're a terminator so you're always shooting all four shots. The virgin Power Swords of 8E are now the Chad Prosperine Khopesh, which is S+1 AP-3 D2, which means they can do ok in melee against other marines (Interestingly, Grey Knight force weapons are now a flat D2 as well, so it could be that your Scarabs still retain enough of their powers to channel into their weapons, but your sorcerers must take the super swingy S+3 AP-1 Dd3 Force Staves unless you give up bolter to take a sword, too)

One in 5 (2 in 10) can replace the combi with a heavy weapon, and move and fire without penalty. Your options are: Hellfyre Missile Racks, which are Heavy 2 Krak missiles, and the same model can also take a Heavy Warpflamer (Heavy Flamer with -2 AP, pass because 4 warpflamers on cheaper rubrics is always better) or a Soulreaper cannon (Heavy 5 S6 AP-3 D1)

Tactics

*Terminators can teleport around the field with the Cult of Duplicity. As falling Back now stops you from casting, and redeploy abilities are specifically NOT falling back nor coming out from reserves, you are much more mobile in this cult than in others, still able to shoot,charge, or cast to contest objectives.
*You are not the best in combat, but you can definitely bully those who aren't built for it/have Damage 1 weapons. Shred TROOPS with AP-2, but leave enough of them to charge and challenge those objectives. Even Intercessors will get chopped up with 3A D2 Khopeshes, and if they survive, unless they're rocking PFs or thunder hammers, they're punching you at 1+, so you only get wounded if you fuck up and roll a 1.
*A full squad, fully kitted out and given Rites of Coalescence will set you back 430-450 points. One big model of ten would see the most use from Rites of Coalescence and Cult of time. For 1 CP, you can also use them as shields for your Daemon Princes, making them unable to be targeted, ignoring positioning rules, number of models, or Look Out Sir! so long as you're within 3".
*But splitting them in two is VERY helpful, partly for Cabal points and the additional sorcerer, but also since the best stratagems in 9e cost a lot more for 6+ models than for just one.
{{Thousand Sons}}

Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Destruction/Orruk Warclans

2022-06-29T14:14:39Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* {{color|#cc9900|Warchanter Beats}} */

{{Age of Sigmar Faction|Faction=Orruk Warclans|Logo=Gordrakk.jpeg|Alliance=Destruction|Motto=Waaaaaaaaaagh!!}}

The greenest, most successful and most violent race of Mortal Realms got an additional new army: Villainous Kruleboyz are going to stab you with a poisonous dagger, pierce you with a crossbow bolt from a far or drown you in a swamp instead of....you know.. just kill you like other <s>orcs</s> {{AOSKeyword|orruk}}s would. The Ironjawz, Bonesplitterz and Kruleboyz are together for a big WAAAAAAGH! soup party.

==Why Play Orruk Warclans==
Savage [[Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Old/Destruction/Bonesplitterz|Bonesplitterz]] and Brutal [[Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Old/Destruction/Ironjawz|Ironjawz]] with the new Kruleboyz together under one battletome. You can play them as three different armies or combine them together in Big Waaagh. You can also take Gloomspite Gitz as allies.

===Pros===
*Mix-and-match Army Building with three factions and the Big Waaagh. Warclans are basically three armies in one.
*Each Warclan specializes in their own thing: Ironjawz is a fast and strong melee army that tries to get into combat they want, then smash everyone there thanks to their killyness, and then fight again with their other units. Bonesplitterz are horde army with good wizards that can support giant blobs of troops and deal damage with spells and abilities. Kruleboyz are your combined force army with insane mortal wounds output, strong shooting and one use tricks.
*Models for two factions have been produced in AoS times and look great, Bonesplitterz don't look bad either.
*Warclans are simple to learn: Many units while having solid base stats don't have complex special or command abilities. They don't have too much in the way of complicated strategies, just slap a command ability, buff them with a shaman and go to town with great base stats.
*The All-In faction: Orruks hate holding back and playing safe (but you can do this if you want), most of their abilities are designed to help them push forward and be as aggressive as possible. You'll rarely have a situation that can't be solved by just drowning it in angry green morons.
*Ironjawz and Bonesplitterz are fast armies: it's not hard to run across the table and start clapping cheeks on turn 1. Kruleboyz are pretty slow army but they don't mind when enemy is coming to them.
*All Clans have access to stong buffs that your enemy can't dispel/unbind. Bonesplitterz and Kruleboyz have additional +1 to save buff.
*Penalties to Hit aren't shit to Ironjawz, who mostly hit on 3's as it is (even goddamn boars). With how easy it is to get to a 2+ to hit you'll be unconcerned about what is normally a pretty crippling debuff. Kruleboyz usually don't care about to hit debuffs at all, most of their damage is coming from Mortal Wounds from unmodified 6(5+) to hit anyway.
*If a Clan doesn't have access to strong mortal wounds output it has access to -2(3) Rend (Ironjawz). If a Clan doesn't have access to rend it has armywide access to Mortal Wounds. (Kruleboyz, Bonesplitterz Icebone).
*Megabosses issue commands to three units for 1 CP, Bonesplitters has a subfaction which attacks ignore any wards armywide, Kruleboyz can drown their opponent in mortal wounds, Wurgogs Mask can explode Archaon in one phase, Foot of Gork can trample Archaon in one phase, what not to like?
*Tough as old boots. Your enemies will struggle to take your tough orruks off the board, even Bonesplitterz have plenty of ways to avoid death. Almost all models have 2 or more wounds, your army is rather tough and hard to kill.
*Everything in your arsenal is ready to be anvil, hammer, Can opener or whatever the hell you want.

===Cons===
*DATZ A LOT OF GREEN PAINTS YA GOT DERE BOSS (though made a lot easier with Ork Flesh and other green contrast paints)
*[[Squats|The generic Greenskinz from Fantasy Battles are now effectively snuffed with the new battletome.]]
*Bravery across every faction is pretty low, you have means to deal with it though.
*If you are playing Ironjawz you are likely to have a low model count. It's an elite army and you are prone to being outnumbered, making it hard to secure objectives. This is made doubly worse by Reinforcement Points, as you can't get bigger than 15-strong squads of Ardboyz and you're stuck with 5-man squads most of the time.
*Ironjaws may have troubles fighting against god magic users (Teclis, Nagash)
*While having pretty good spell lores, Kruleboyz and Ironjawz don't have access to strong wizards with + casting. Dedicated magic users with many + casting bonuses have a pretty good chance to unbind their spells. Ironjaws can partially solve this problem but it requires sacrificing their command trait and artefact. Bonesplitterz will often use their Mask Ability instead of casting spells.
*In 3rd edition Bonesplitters lost thier anti monster specialities and a lot of their warscroll abilities have been purged. They also have no monsters in a monster related edition. (you still can take Rogue Idol though)
*If you are playing Kruleboyz, your forces focus more on being subversive and ganging up on the enemy. They lack the typical boosts to fight up-front. Your only unconditional battleline is a little squishy and a little overpriced for what they do, and if you're Big Yellers, your other battleline option is impossibly squishier. Play like a bastard and sneak out victories, because as soon as you're fighting on a level playing field, you're donezo.
*If you're playing BIG WAAAGH!, the three chunks of the army don't really play too nice. While all three factions can carry some abilities over, they lose out on quite a bit just by being mashed together. Not to mention, your allegiance has absolutely no effect whatsoever until you start getting some Waaagh points. Mixed warclans army can '''ONLY''' be played in Big Waaagh! allegiance.
*Not having dedicated hammer and anvil can make this faction challenging for experienced players, as not even your cavalry hits harder than your normal dudes, its just faster and hurts a little on the charge.
*LOTSA DICEZ! Playing as a bonesplitterz only army means that you have something on the line of 3 attacks for model in horde units, with always the possibility to generate some more. Expect to play with almost the double amount of dices than your adversary.
**While the new reinforcements rule limits just how many you roll, it also means that you're going to have to live with a lot of units only being at the minimal size.
*Warclans don't have any coalitions with other factions and can only ally with 200/400 points of Gloomspite Gitz in 1000/2000 points games (1 in 4 units in your army can be allies) or take a named mercenary gargant.

==Rulebooks==
{{AOSRulebooks|tome=Orruk Warclans (2021)}}

=={{color|#cc9900|Ironjawz Allegiance Abilities}}==
Ironjawz Allegiance Abilities tailored to help your big armored boyz to get into the fight and then absolutely destroy everyone there. They are focused on movement and improving your ability to fight and win in combat phase.

==={{color|#cc9900|Battle Traits}}===

;Ironjawz Warclans : Warclan counts as a battle trait, you are getting only one ability for picking a warclan. You pick one and that's it. (Yes, only one ability. You no longer have to pick a warlord trait or an artefact from that subfaction first - there are none). All Ironjawz units in your army are getting a keyword for that subfaction (warclan) and can use allegiance abilities (in our case one ability) of that subfaction except for if unit already has a subfaction. You still can pick that unit for your army(this unit can't use his subfaction abilities). Warclans are Ironsunz, Bloodtoofs and Da Choppas.

;Smashing and Bashing : If '''Ironjawz''' unit completely destroys an enemy unit in the combat phase then choose another {{AOSKeyword|Ironjawz}} unit that has not fought yet in this combat phase, that friendly {{AOSKeyword|Ironjawz}} unit can pile in and fight immediately instead of waiting till later in the phase. This adds a lot of finesse to an Ironjawz army as the order of activation of each unit becomes extremely important. Smashing and Bashing allows your units to fight one after another instead of players alternate picking units with which to fight.
**Ability that represents Ironjaws domination in combat phase, and simultaneously pushes you into picking several strong units that capable of destroying enemy unit in one go and allow your other strong units to fight first.
**Having this ability means it's you should be the one picking fights to win them. Try not to fight something you can't kill unless there is a reason for that.

;Mighty Destroyers - Command Ability: For 1 command point, in your hero phase pick a friendly {{AOSKeyword|Ironjawz}} unit wholly within 12" of your {{AOSKeyword|Ironjawz}} hero, or 18" of your general. If there are no enemy models within 12" then you must make a normal move. If they are between 3" and 12" away from any enemies then you can make a charge. If they are within 3" then you must make a pile-in move. A unit cannot benefit from this command ability more than once per hero phase.
**Very important change from 2nd to 3rd edition: you can no longer fight in hero phase with Mighty Destroyers, it's still a very important movement ability that can help you reach your opponents units and prevents him from using Redeploy (in your movement phase) or Unleash Hell (in your charge phase).
**It worth noting that while this command ability has range of 12' all Megabosses have a {{AOSKeyword|Totem}} keyword which allows them to issue any command abilities including this one to units wholly within 18" of them.

;Ironjawz Waaagh!: No longer a command ability which means it's no longer cost any command points. Once per battle at the start of your charge phase if your army has {{AOSKeyword|Ironjawz}} general until the end of that turn add 1 to all charge rolls for friendly {{AOSKeyword|Ironjawz}} units and improve rend for all '''melee''' weapons of {{AOSKeyword|Ironjawz}} units by 1. Improving Rend by 1 boardwide makes Ironjawz Waaagh an extremly important ability.

==={{color|#cc9900|ENHANCEMENTS}}===

Since 3rd Edition GW made an attempt to sort all kind of enhancements for Armies and Heroes in Age of Sigmar. These enhancements are now called {{AOSKeyword|ENHANCEMENTS}}. They are divided and contain '''command traits''', '''artefacts of power''', '''spell lores''', '''prayer scriptures''', '''mount traits''', '''triumphs''' and one or more sets of '''unique enhancements'''. Enhancements are picked after you have chosen the battalions for your army. '''You can always take 1 enhancement of each type''' for your army, and the '''battalions or battlepack''' you are using may '''allow you to take additional enhancements''' for your army. Enhancements cannot be given to Unique units or allied units, unless noted otherwise.

==={{color|#cc9900|Command Traits}}===
Your general gets to choose ONE (and only one) of:

<tabs>
<tab name="Ironjawz Warlords">
{{AOSKeyword|Megaboss}} only
#'''Hulking Brute:''' After your general made a charge move, pick an enemy unit within 1" and on a 2+ that unit takes D3 MW's. When you really don't want to fight that 2+ Mystic Shielded guy just kill him with Mortal Wounds from a charge! In combination with Mawcrushas Destructive Bulk and Stomp Monster Rampage ability with Mean Un mount trait your general can potentially inflict up to 12 mortal wounds on a charge (7-8 MW average). If you pick this trait you better make sure your general will charge multiple times. Wording of this trait is "after your general makes a charge move" so you can potentially deal mortal wounds with Mighty Destroyers charge in your hero phase and with help of Ironsunz command ability in your opponents charge phase.
#'''Mega Bossy:''' You can issue Mighty Destroyers Command Ability one more time even if it has already been issued by another friendly model. Very good for moving your slow boyz! With this trait you can issue up to 4-6 Mighty Destroyers Commands per hero phase for 2 command points which is absolute bonkers and greatly helps with turn 1 alpha strike/capturing objectives/movement and getting into combat. Make sure you do have command points to spend before picking it.
#'''Mighty Waaagh! Leader:''' If you use Ironjawz Waaagh! you can reroll charges for friendly Ironjawz units wholly within 12". Simple and effective trait when you have to get the charge.
</tab>
<tab name="Champions of the Weird">
{{AOSKeyword|IRONJAWZ WIZARD}} only
#'''Master of the Weird:''' Pick 1 extra spell from Lore of the Weird. Not Great in comparison to other one
#'''Touched by the Waaagh!:''' before casting pick a unit in 6' it takes D3 Mortal Wounds (it can be the caster too), add number of inflicted MWs to casting. Actually really good if you want to more or less reliably cast Foot of Gork (10) or Bash 'Em Lads(8). The only source of + casting in {{AOSKeyword|Ironjawz}} allegiance. (Aside from +1 for being in 6' from Rogue Idol)
* Currently there is no strict order in which you can pick enhancements in Core Rules. That means you can pick Arcane Tome for a MEGABOSS and become a WIZARD, after that this model will be eligible for picking Touched by the Waaagh! Command Trait. Congratulation, your cabbage now does an additional d3 MW in Hero phase, in addition to always having a Mystic Shield you can also pick a +1 damage for one melee weapon (including mount) from Flaming Weapon from Universal Spell lore or pick a spell from lore of the Weird. You can even cast and control Endless spells (yes, like emerald lifeswarm)
</tab>
</tabs>
You can pick Command Trait from Core Rules but they aren't that great in comparison to these ones. (Reroling charge and run rolls for a general and getting CP on 5+ at the start of your hero phase are worth mentioning)

==={{color|#cc9900|Artefacts Of Power}}===

A {{AOSKeyword|hero}} can get one, in addition other heroes can get more for certain battalions:

'''{{color|#cc9900|Da Boss's Hoard}}'''

{{AOSKeyword|Megaboss}} only
#'''Armour of Gork:''' 6+ ward save, add +1 to hit for '''bearers''' melee weapons, lose 2" to your move and you can't run. <s>Likely it won't be taken over Amulet of Destiny.</s> After December 2021 FAQ nerfed amulet of destiny ward save from 5+ to 6+ Armour of Gork might actually be in a pretty good place as a better alternative on fast heroes (mawkrusha will still fly 10' with it). Might be good on having on a 2nd Mawkrusha in your army.
#'''Destroyer:''' Pick a melee weapon, once per battle at the start of combat phase, add +3 to the damage of that weapon until the end of that phase. When you absolutely need to kill an important enemy unit or trigger smashing and bashing or take an objective. Works best with Their Finest Hour, Ironjawz Waaagh and Inspired Triumph. Obviously pick a melee weapon with the best stats (attacks). In combination with Fast Un mount trait and Mighty Destroyers can create a Maw-Krusha Missile that can fly 36' and then charge 2d6 and absolutely destroy anyone! Forces your opponent into playing defensively, Yes let them fear you!
#'''The Boss Skewer:''' Add 1 to bravery for friendly {{AOSKeyword|Ironjawz}} units wholly within 18" of the bearer, subtract 1 from enemy units within 12". Probably not a bad option for a second artefact against bravery reducing armies (Legion of Blood etc.) Instead of taking a pole just keep one CP for 3x Inspiring Presence from MegaBoss.

** Artefacts of power and command traits that affect attacks made by friendly models '''do not''' affect attacks made by their mounts, unless noted otherwise.
**While Artefacts from battletome aren't bad they lack of what our heroes really need - more protection, thankfully Core Rules allow us to pick '''Amulet of Destiny''' for 6+ ward save which is important for keeping our Megaboss alive. (since amulet of destiny has been nerfed from 5+ ward save to 6+ in December 2021 FAQ it's not as important as it used to be)
**'''Arcane Tome''' from Core Rules can be helpful as a secondary artefact as well:
**Since our Weirdnob shaman doesn't have any + casting you can give this artefact to basically any hero to save points on a dedicated Mystic shield caster.
**Give it to your Megaboss on foot and he will for sure make a good use of Flaming weapon with his 8+ attacks (even if someone will kill him). Give it to your Megaboss on Maw-Krusha and you can protect yourself with Mystic Shield or improve your Maw-Krushas Fists damage to 4! (or 5 if buffed by Violent Fury from a warchanter).
**Ironjawz general Weirdnob Shaman hero with Arcane tome and Touched by the Waaagh! can cast 2 spells with average +2 to cast roll also inflicting 2x d3 MW to any unit in 6'. In addition to spells he casted Weirdnob Shaman can also cast 2d6 range d3 mortal wounds Green Puke spell in the end of the hero phase if 10 or more {{AOSKeyword|Ironjawz}} MODELS are in 12' from him, you have to roll 6+ to cast it, that is d3 more mortal wounds in 6' from Touched by the Waaagh!. Not to mention you can actually cast spells that deal mortal wounds. Weirdnob is a very fragile hero though, especially in 6' from enemy.

==={{color|#cc9900|Warchanter Beats}}===
There are no priests in Ironjawz army, but there are warchanters. Every Warchanter in your army knows a warbeat. Pick one from the table below, you can only use this ability once per turn. (i.e. no point of picking same warbeat with different warchanters, unless you want a back up for a specific chant) Note that this DOESN'T count as an Enhancement, since all warbeats are available on the Warchanter's battlescroll. Since 3rd edition you can cast warbeats on +3 instead of 4+.

#'''Get 'Em Beat:''' At the start of ''charge phase'', roll a dice, on a 3+ pick a friendly {{AOSKeyword|Ironjawz}} unit wholly within 12", that unit can charge with 3D6 dice and can attempt a charge from 18". You CAN'T use this with Mighty Destroyers since it only works in charge phase.
#'''Fixin' Beat:''' In the hero phase, pick a friendly MODEL within 12" and on a 3+ you heal it for D3 wounds. A warbeat to heal your boss on a cabbage. No keyword so it works on allies/big waagh.
#'''Killa Beat:''' At the start of the combat phase, pick 1 enemy unit within 12", on a 3+ your units get +1 to hit when attacking that target in that phase. Most of IRONJAWZ army hits on 3+ anyway but:
**Can be pretty useful when you need to debuff a tough target before mawcrusha or a unit of brutes is about to fight it.
**Use it on enemy units you're not sure you will kill to start Smashing and Bashing
**Ardboyz, Gutrippas, many Bonesplitters Units have 4+ to hit and a lot of attacks and models. This warbeat can help them immensely.

==={{color|#cc9900|Spell Lore}}===
When you pick an Enhancement Spell lore for your army '''Each wizard''' in your army can pick '''one''' spell from '''ANY lore''' he knows in addition to spells he already knows (i.e. arcane bolt, mystic shield and a warscroll spell). Ironjawz wizards can pick a spell from ''Lore of the Weird'' or ''Universal Spell Lore''. If you are picking additional Enhancement Spell lore (battalion or battlepack may allow you to do this), you can pick one additional spell for each of your your wizards again (and so on).

<tabs>
<tab name="Lore of the Weird">

Only Ironjawz wizard can cast this. Expensive and impactful spells that only a wizard with Touched by the Waaagh! Command Trait can reliably cast (usual weirdnob doesn't have any + cast bonuses)

#'''Foot of Gork:''' On a 10+, pick 1 Enemy unit within 18" that unit suffers D6 MWs, then roll a dice on a 4+ they suffer another D6 MWs. Keep rolling until you roll a 1-3. Crazy potential but gimmicky and very hard to cast on a 10+. Doable with Touched by the Waaagh! Command Trait with Weirdnob as your General.
#'''Mighty 'Eadbutt:''' On a 5+, pick 1 enemy hero within 18" and visible, it suffers 1 MW, if it's a Wizard then it suffers D3 MW's instead. A cheap spell to trigger Green Puke for additional mortal wounds. You'll probably never pick this spell.
#'''Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork:''' On a 7+, pick a friendly {{AOSKeyword|Orruk}} '''wholly within 12"'''(nerfed from 24' from previous edition) and more than 3" from enemy units, pick it up and set it up more then 9" away from enemy models, it can't move in the movement phase. (But it can charge in charge phase later) (Ironjawz units can move or charge in Hero phase thanks to Mighty Destroyers) Since this spell no longer has IRONJAWZ keyword it can teleport literally ANY friendly {{AOSKeyword|Orruk}} unit.
#'''Bash 'Em Lads:''' On a 8+, add 1 to wound rolls for friendly {{AOSKeyword|Ironjawz}} units wholly '''within 16'''" of the caster. Expensive spell with a huge radius that turns your army 3+ to wound into 2+. Great if you can cast it in Waaagh turn.
</tab>
<tab name="Universal Spell Lore">
Spell lore that can be used by any army.

#'''Flaming Weapon:''' Casts on 4+. Pick '''one''' melee weapon of the ''caster'' adds +1 to damage until your next hero phase, which matters more for a wizard meant to be up-close and personal. Works on a mount melee weapon too (FAQ 2021).
**Alternate Take: Combine this with the Arcane Tome which makes any hero unit a Wizard, give it to a hero with a lot of attacks. Stacks with Violent Fury +1 damage buff from warchanter.
#'''Levitate:''' Casts on 8+. One friendly unit within 18" can fly until your next hero phase.
#'''Ghost Mist:''' Casts on 5+. Pick a terrain feature within 6" of the caster. Until your next hero phase, visibility between 2 models is blocked if a straight line 1mm wide drawn between the closest points of the 2 models passes across more than 3" of that terrain feature. This effect does not block visibility to or from models with a Wounds characteristic of 10 or more.
</tab>
</tabs>

==={{color|#cc9900|Warclans}}===
Like in most recent battletomes, when you pick the Ironjawz allegiance you may say they are from a certain clan and get their bonus. This will probably define how are you going to play with your Ironjawz.

'''{{color|#cc9900|Ironsunz}}''' ''The posterboy choice''. Not only Ironsunz are kunning but they are also fast and can get to you when you aren't expecting. (and kill you after that, yes)
;Command Ability - Alright, Get 'Em!: '''For 1CP at the end of the enemy charge phase''' If a friendly unit in 12' from enemy unit and out of 3' from other from enemy units that friendly unit can make an attempt to charge.
**yes, this is charge '''in the end''' of enemy charge phase in his turn. Your unit charges when your opponent done with his actions.
**you can issue this command for up to 3 units by megaboss on MK if they meet conditions described in this ability.
**opponent that is aware of this ability will be very careful about his charges into your units and his movements (because in return you can countercharge with some nasty melee unit, simultaneously do this to his other units, kill his unit in subsequent combat phase and start a series of Smashing and Bashing and if your units are strong enough your opponent may never have a chance to actually fight.)
**If you have a CP your opponent will stay the fuck away from your units that are not in combat. This can be problematic for him, he has to capture objectives and use his tactics.
**you can charge units that just reached objectives and don't want to charge you. (charge punny 1 wound umies with brutes and literally deny them from even contesting it)
**You can even ambush enemy unit on objective(or anywhere) when he approaches you in his movement phase: Position units near objective. Enemy unit finishes its move in 9' - use 3x Redeploy to move closer to him, in the end of his charge phase charge him with your three units! You need two CP for that.
**another charge in a charge phase means another Stomp from your mawcrusha (if you are out of combat), don't forget about Hulking brute command trait that deals mortal wounds at the end of the charge move by general.
**IF you were unable to reach your opponent units in your turn, you probably can do that in his turn.
**Keep in mind that playing Ironsunz can be very CP intensive. Think about getting an ally GSG HQ Fungoid Shaman for 95 points(1CP at the start of YOUR hero phase on 4+ roll) or/and second Warlord battalion(1 free cp once per game). Core Rules CT that provides 1CP on 5+ on at the start of your hero phase might not be the best idea. Don't forget you can also use once per EACH hero phase Heroic Leadership action that provides CP on 4+ (no finest hour or heroic recovery after that though)

'''{{color|#cc9900|Bloodtoofs}}''' ''They wear red armor, so you should know by now what their playstyle is about.'' Alpha strike Gore Grunta oriented clan. Picking this warclan turn Gore Gruntas into Battleline (you can take them instead of ardboys and brutes to fill your battleline slot in batallions)
;Trait - Hunt and Crush: At the end of the combat phase, your Gore-Gruntas that ''fought in that phase'' can pile in while within 3" of an enemy unit. Otherwise, they can move or charge.
**It's like a Mighty Destroyers but for Gruntas and better, and it's free and you don't have to charge! You can move and block your opponent from charging your mawcrusha with your giant bases or get yourself to objective.
**Fast Gore Gruntas are getting even more movement. They can go and charge your opponents units and keep them from getting objectives or shooting your mawcrushas.
**You can use Mighty Destroyers to move in hero phase, then move in movement phase and then charge, kill enemy unit and at the end of combat phase charge again to tie down backline/shooter or move anywhere. That's just nuts.
**You have to kill first unit you've charged before that combat phase will be finished in order to go further. Buff your gruntas with warchanter or/and charge enemy with multiple GG units, charge weak units with smaller GG units, that should be enough to get through screens.
**Now armed with rend -2 Gore Hackas Gruntas can go through small armored elite unit if buffed with Violent Fury, keep in mind they do have plenty of attacks but their Rend only works on half of their attacks.
**You need a Mawcrusha(or two) to charge with gruntas and multiple warchanters to support them.

'''{{color|#cc9900|Da Choppas}}''' ''Buffed battleline that smashes faces.'' Warclan that focuses on smashing everything to pieces.
;Trait - Rabble Rouserss: Your Warchanter's Violent Fury can target up to three Brutes or Ardboyz. This makes Warchanters even more useful in buffing your forces and greatly increases damage of your battleline.
** Both battlelines are pretty strong in their own right, with their large numbers of attacks and damage being buffed by 1, with 4+ armor and respectable amount of wounds (more than 1) they are a force to be reckoned with, however their roles in the battlefield are different (since 3rd edition).
** Relatively cheap ardboyz with their partial 6+ ward, getting models back on 4+ Rally from a champion and 4+ to hit are better suited for tanking damage, and holding objectives. Big (15 max) unit of ardboys with 4+ rally will never fucking die. (you have to be in 3' away from enemy unit to rally though). They still can kill 1w models with ease, especially if buffed with violent fury. In 2022 season they can now realibaly attack in two lines again thanks to the Bonds of Battle rule of Galletian Veterans (which they are since they are an unmounted battleline with 4 or less wounds).
** Since brutes weapons recieved a buff in 3rd edition they became what they are always supposed to be: Elite Killer murder machines and probably one of the few battlelines in game with rend -2. Buffed by a warchanters violent fury a unit of 10 brutes with 2' range 3а +3(2) +3 -3 2 and Special weapons on waaagh turn will obliterate anything and will start smashing and bashing for another unit of brutes.
** Downside of this clan is that it buffs units that are both slow and have low bravery (6), likely you would have to make up for that with Inspiring Presence, Mighty Destroyers (maybe even Redeploy) which makes it rather CP intensive clan. Don't forget about Get Em beat, Great Green Hand of Gork maybe even Soulscream Bridge to get your boyz in combat.
** Your warchanter still can buff your other units with Violent Fury, but only one unit at a time. This should not be a problem since you'll probably have way more than one warchanter anyway.
** New 2022 Season brought new battalion (Bounty Hunters) that will provide +1 damage against Galletian Veterans (i.e. unmounted battletine with 4 or less wounds) for YOUR troops (i.e. not behemoths/artillery/leader units) in that battalion. Which stacks nicely with Mass Violent Fury. With damage 3 and that many attacks your ardboys and brutes will decimate your opponents battleline. Keep in mind you are vulnerable against this battalion as well.

=={{color|#009933|Bonesplitterz Allegiance Abilities}}==
Bonesplitters drew a short <s>straw</s> bone in this edition. Most of their interesting stuff has been purged from the battletome, their magic has been nerfed and doubles no longer doing anything, some iconic spells have been removed (Breath of Gorkamorka), they have been stripped off their monster hunting abilities, there are almost no alternatives in artefacts and command traits, clans only provide one ability and their interesting stuff has been removed as well, most units lost their special abilities as well. What did they get in return? Exploding hits, Icebone Mortal wounds on 6 to wound, Wurgog Mask ability and 4+ Ward in Waaagh combat phase.

==={{color|#009933|Battle Traits}}===

'''Bonesplitterz Warclans:''' Warclans in 3rd edition are represented by only one ability per clan. No longer you are forced to pick an artefact and Command Trait for choosing a warclan subfaction. All units in your army are getting that subfaction keyword and can benefit from warclan ability. If unit already has other subfaction keyword, it can't recieve a new keyword and cant benefit from it. You can still pick this unit (it can't use it's subfaction ability). Warclans are Bonegrinz, Icebone and Drakkfoot.

'''Tireless Trackers:''' After armies are set up, but before the first battle round begins, half the {{AOSKeyword|Bonesplitterz}} units in a Bonesplitterz army (rounding up) can move up to 5". If both players can move units before the first battle round begins, they must roll-off, and the winner chooses who moves their units first.
*One of the reasons why Bonesplitterz is considered as a fast army. Can be improved to 8' with a Command Trait. You are moving big blobs of your units forward while small and cheap units are staying.

'''Warpaint:''' Your {{AOSKeyword|Bonesplitterz}} gain a Ward of 6+. Your army wide ward save for your poorly armored boyz.

'''Spirit of Gorkamorka:''' If the unmodified hit roll for an attack made with a '''melee''' weapon by {{AOSKeyword|Bonesplitterz}} unit is a 6 the attack inflicts 2 hits instead of 1. Now a named army wide buff for exploding hits. Good for your giant melee blobs of boyz.
*Per 2022 Battlescroll errata this was changed from the unit to be numbered 5 or more. Now everything just gets the ability regarless of unit size (so great for big stabbas and Rough Idols).

'''Bonesplitterz Waagh!:''' Once per battle at the start of the combat phase, you can pick one friendly {{AOSKeyword|Bonesplitterz}} general to call a waaagh. All {{AOSKeyword|Bonesplitterz}} on the table get a 4+ ward save until the end of the phase. No longer a Command ability, new 4+ ward allows your army to survive when your opponent pops everyhting to delete your green dudes. Keep in mind it won't save you from shooting it only works in '''combat''' phase.

==={{color|#009933|Command Traits}}===
Your general gets to '''choose one''' of these:

<tabs>
<tab name="Savage Warlords">
{{AOSKeyword|Savage Big Boss}} only

#'''Killa Instinkt:''' Savage Big Boss attacks with an unmodified 6 wound roll do 1 MW in addition to normal damage. When you miss your Monster Hunters ability from previous edition on one model. (don't ever take this)
#'''Great Hunter:''' When using the '''Tireless Trackers''' trait, move up to 8" instead of 5. Trait you are taking in 100% of times for your Savage Big Boss. Allows your army to move even closer to your enemy or objectives before battle even started.
#'''Monster Killa:''' If the general has fought for the first time in the combat phase and is within 3" of an enemy '''Monster''', it can attack for a second time. Sounds great until you realise this is your Savage Big Boss general gonna do the fighting. His weapon profile is not bad, but he is pretty fragile for a general and if he dies he no longer generates command points and he cant call a Waaagh. Not only that but choosing this trait means not choosing Great Hunter.
</tab>
<tab name="Shamanistic Quirks">
{{AOSKeyword|Bonesplitterz Wizards}} only

#'''Voice of Da Great Green God':''' when this general issues a command it can be recieved wholly within 24'. Not bad for issuing commands all over the board.
#'''One Wiv da Beast:''' Pick 1 extra spell from the spell lore of the Savage Beasts. When you REALLY need that second LotSB spell for your ONLY one 2 casts wizard and you don't want to pick additional enhancement spell Lore. Very situational. (Not only that but choosing this trait means not choosing Great Hunter.)
</tab>
<tab name="Universal Command Traits">
Core Book Traits.

#'''Battle-lust:''' You can re-roll run rolls and charge rolls for this general. Not Bad but you general is Savage Big Boss.
#'''Skilled Leader:''' If this general is on the battlefield at the start of your hero phase, roll a dice. On a 5+, you receive 1 extra command point. If you really need CPs for some reason. Keep in mind you may faill all rolls for that.
#'''High Priest:''' You can re-roll chanting rolls for this general. No point of taking this, Wardok dances aren't chants and he is no longer a priest.
#'''Heroic Stature:''' Add 1 to this general’s Wounds characteristic. Meh.
#'''Master of Magic::''' Once per hero phase, you can re-roll 1 casting roll, dispelling roll or unbinding roll for this general. Might be good
</tab>
</tabs>

Command traits are pretty bad, in short it comes down to Savage Big Boss with Great Hunter, if for some reason you don't want Great Hunter, you can pick Wurgog and buff his spellcasting. Make sure you survive long enough to call Waaagh.

==={{color|#009933|Artefacts Of Power}}===
One {{AOSKeyword|hero}}, plus one per battalion with Magnificent icon (allows to pick additional enhancement), gets to pick one of:

<tabs>
<tab name="Boss Bones and Other Gubbins">
{{AOSKeyword|Bonesplitterz hero}} only

#'''Dokk Juice:''' Heal D6 wounds in your hero phase once per battle. Not great not terrible.
#'''Lucky Bone:''' Once per phase, re-roll '''ONE''' hit, wound or save roll for the bearer. Rerolling saves is great, but your armor save is pretty bad and it's only one reroll once per phase.
#'''Glowin' Tattooz:''' Hero gets a +2 to ward rolls. (your 6+ ward is now 4+) Your best artefact and the most important thing for Wurgogs Mask ability.
</tab>
<tab name="Reservoirs of Waaagh! Energy">
{{AOSKeyword|Bonesplitterz wizard}} only

#'''Mork's Boney Bitz:''' +1 to casting, dispelling and unbinding for '''each''' enemy monsters within 24". Potentially great on Wurgog Prophet against monster armies/casters. Almost every time it's going to be +1 to casting.
#'''Beast-Lure Glyphs:''' Once per battle at the start of your hero phase that hero can pick one additional spell from lore of the Savage Beasts that he doesn't know and attempt to cast it in addition to his other spells. Very situational even if you don't want to pick second Lore Enhancement.
</tab>
<tab name="Core Book Artefacts">
Any hero can take this.

#'''Amulet of Destiny:''' <s>5+ ward from everything. You know it, you love it. Give it to your second Wurgog and ZAP your opponents units with your second Mask.</s> Since Amulet of Destiny has been nerfed to 6+ ward it's no longer better than default bonesplitterz 6+ ward. No reason to take it anymome.
#'''Vial of Manticore Venom:''' Pick '''one''' of the bearer’s melee weapons. Add 1 to wound rolls for attacks made with that weapon. Even if you pick three artefacts there are better alternatives than this one.
#'''Seed of Rebirth:''' You can re-roll heroic recovery rolls for the bearer. Heroic Recovery like all Heroic actions happens '''at the start of the hero phase''' just like Wurgogs Mask. If your Wurgog is damaged, you can Heroic Recovery and then you can use your Mask. Might not be the best artefact for Bonesplitterz but it's not useless.
#'''Arcane Tome:''' The bearer becomes a Wizard that knows the Arcane Bolt and Mystic Shield spells. They can attempt to cast 1 spell in your hero phase and attempt to unbind 1 spell in the enemy hero phase. If the bearer is already a Wizard, they can attempt to cast 1 additional spell instead.
*Wurgog that is actually going to cast spells instead of zapping people with his mask can take this for additional spellcasting. (3 spells/unbids per hero phase)
*Fast Maniak Weirdnob is a wizard with 12' move, with a book he can cast his +1 to wound spell and Gorkamorka’s War Cry that forces a unit in 12' to fight last. (this can be a bit random since both spells have CV7)
</tab>
</tabs>

==={{color|#009933|Spell Lore}}===
When you pick an Enhancement Spell lore for your army Each wizard in your army can pick one spell from ANY lore he knows in addition to spells he already knows (i.e. arcane bolt, mystic shield and a warscroll spell). Bonesplitterz wizards can pick a spell from Lore of the Savage Beast or Universal Spell Lore. If you are picking additional Enhancement Spell lore (battalion or battlepack may allow you to do this), you can pick one additional spell for each of your your wizards again (and so on).

<tabs>
<tab name="Lore of the Savage Beast">
{{AOSKeyword|Bonesplitterz wizard}} only

#'''Squiggly Curse:''' On a 6+ pick an enemy hero within 3" of the caster and it suffers D3 MW's, If the enemy hero died from this spell you get +1 to cast for the rest of the game. Nerfed and no longer deals d6 on doubles.
#'''Glowy Green Tusks:''' On a 5+ pick 1 friendly BONESPLITTERZ unit wholly within 18" that has a mount, that unit improves the rend characteristic for all mount attacks by 2.
#'''Gorkamorka's War cry:''' On a 7+ pick 1 enemy unit wholly within 12" and visible to caster, that unit has to fight last in the following combat phase. No longer deals d3 MW. Range nerfed from 24' to 12' now you have to be pretty close to a fight in order to use it.
#'''Power of the were-bore:''' On a 6+ pick 1 BONESPLITTERZ unit within '''24'''", until your next hero phase, add 1 to run rolls and charge rolls, and add 1 to hit rolls made by that unit. However the unit can no longer shoot. Renamed and nerfed from previous edition, no longer can be used on 2 units on a double, it forces unit in melee, so archers are no go. Still it's a good spell with a very long range to increase volume of hits of your melee blobs even more.

</tab>
<tab name="Universal Spell Lore">
Spell lore that can be used by any army.

#'''Flaming Weapon:''' Casts on 4+. Pick '''one''' melee weapon of the ''caster'' adds +1 to damage until your next hero phase, Works on a mount melee weapon too (FAQ 2021). Combine this with the Arcane Tome which makes any hero unit a Wizard, give it to a hero with a lot of attacks.
#'''Levitate:''' Casts on 8+. One friendly unit within 18" can fly until your next hero phase.
#'''Ghost Mist:''' Casts on 5+. Pick a terrain feature within 6" of the caster. Until your next hero phase, visibility between 2 models is blocked if a straight line 1mm wide drawn between the closest points of the 2 models passes across more than 3" of that terrain feature. This effect does not block visibility to or from models with a Wounds characteristic of 10 or more.
</tab>
</tabs>

==={{color|#009933|Warclans}}===
Just like all the latest battletomes, when you pick the Bonesplitterz faction you may say that they hail from a certain clan.

'''{{color|#009933|Bonegrinz}}'''
''These guys are now Arrowboyz focused clan that gives them an additional attack they used to have by default''
;Trait - Barrage of Arrows: Savage Orruk Arrowboys add 1 to the attacks characteristic of their missle weapons. Arrowboys are battleline in this warclan.

'''{{color|#009933|Icebone}}'''
''Your best clan in this edition, boarboyz related clan that provides strong mortal wounds output''
;Trait - Freezing Strike: Unmodified wound rolls of 6 from '''melee weapons''' cause mortal wounds equal to their damage characteristic of that weapon. Savage Boarboyz are battleline in this warclan.

'''{{color|#009933|Drakkfoot}}'''
''Clan that wage war against spooky things like ghost and demons, their attacks ignore wards.''
;Trait - Strength of Purpose: Ward saves cannot not be made for wounds and mortal wounds caused by '''attacks''' made by Drakkfoot units. Morboys are battleline in this warclan.

=={{color|darkred|Kruleboyz Allegiance Abilities}}==

==={{color|darkred|Battle Traits}}===

*'''Venom-Encrusted Weapons''' - If the unmodified hit roll for an attack made by a {{AOSKeyword|Kruleboyz Orruk}} model is 6, that attack causes a number of mortal wounds to the target equal to the weapon's Damage characteristic and the attack sequence ends (do not make a wound or save roll). This ability has no effect on attacks made by a mount.

*'''Kruleboyz Waaagh!''' - The Kruleboyz are unique in that their Waaagh! has a direct effect on their general and isn't army-wide. Instead, the general has to pick two friendly units of Kruleboyz within 18" and these three units can act one after the other. The issue here is that this requires the three units to actually be able to do something, so it might result in getting hamstrung by circumstances. If you just plan on charging one thing though, that's fine.

*'''Dirty Tricks:''' Because these are the Morkier of the orruks, these guys can pick a special turn 1 condition that only works when you're in a pure Kruleboyz army.
**''Noisy Racket:'' The enemy takes a -1 penalty to wound for the first turn - a pretty potent issue since it's universally effective.
**''Lethal Surprise:'' Roll 3d6. For each 4+, you can mark one piece of terrain or objective outside of the enemy's territory and rig it with a trap. When they walk next to this spot, they'll suffer d6 mortal wounds on a 2+.
**''Disappearin' Act:'' Roll 3d6. For each 4+, you can pick one enemy unit - if this roll exceeds the Wounds characteristic in the unit's battlescroll, you can throw this unit into reserves.
***"But why would you do this? Doesn't this give the enemy an advantage?" You ask. Well, when this unit shows up next turn, they need to arrive inside their end of the table and over 9" away from your guys, meaning you can seriously cripple a frontline by making those slow-ass Annihilators start even slower to arrive or force chaff units to only show up after you're hitting the real meat of the enemy's forces.
**''Covered in Mud:'' Roll 3d6 (noticing a pattern?). For each 4+ select one of your non-'''Hero''' and non-'''Monster''' units, and for the rest of the game, if they're in cover, the enemy cannot see them. Now you truly can have camouflaged snipers by simply placing your biggest unit of Man-Skewer Boltboyz in a forest, and the enemy can't pick them for spells or ranged attacks. They can still be charged and attacked in melee, however!

==={{color|darkred|Command Traits}}===
'''{{color|darkred|Kunnin' Warlords}}'''

{{AOSKeyword|Killaboss}}, {{AOSKeyword|Snatchaboss}} or {{AOSKeyword|Breaka-boss}} only
#'''Slippery Skumbag:''' Your general can fall back and charge at the same turn.
#'''Supa Sneaky:''' If your general's on the field before the first turn, you can re-deploy one of your Kruleboyz units.
#'''Egomaniak:''' Whenever your general's attacked, you can use a nearby friendly unit to be a meatshield on a 4+.

==={{color|darkred|Artefacts of Power}}===
'''{{color|darkred|Krule Artefacts}}'''

{{AOSKeyword|KRuleboyz Hero}} only
#'''Eye-Biter Ash:''' Pocket Sand as a relic. Once per battle during the fight phase, you can toss this in an enemy unit's eyes. On a 3+, the enemy suffers a -1 to hit for the turn, but a lucky 5+ makes that penalty PERMANENT.
#'''Mork's Eye Pebble:''' Triggered during the enemy shooting phase for a 12" bubble of 5+ wards for the phase. Kharadron, Lumineth Realm Lords, other Kruleboyz, Cities of Sigmar, and so on absolutely ''hate'' this. Once per battle.
#'''Beastkilla Slop:''' Target one enemy Monster the bearer fights during the fight phase. Roll a d6 - on a 2+, the monster takes d6 mortal wounds, but a lucky 6 makes that 2d6 mortal wounds. Once per battle.
#'''Spiker Seeds:''' Triggered once per game when an enemy charges within 6" of the bearer. Roll a d6 for each model in that unit; every 5+ deals a mortal wound. Charged by a big ass horde of zombies/skeletons/moonclan grots/clanrats? Reduce their numbers by roughly a third. Once per battle.

==={{color|darkred|Spell Lore}}===
'''{{color|darkred|Lore of the Swamp}}'''
#'''Da Black Pit:''' CV 7+. Pick one enemy unit within 12" of the wizard and roll a d6 for each model in this unit. For each 6/roll equal or greater than the enemy's save, the unit takes a mortal wound. Truth be told, this is a big confusing, as most of the mobs have trash saves but the high-save models like Stormcasts tend to have enough wounds that you'll be only removing a model at best.
#'''Choking Mist:''' CV 7+. Pick a spot within 24" of the wizard. All units within 6" of that spot can't run and take -1 to attacks with any weapons. As this can affect your guys as well, this is going to be the spot where you throw boltboys and killbows.
#'''Sneaky Miasma:''' CV 6+. One friendly Kruleboyz monster within 18" can move out of turn - Which can be vital to set them up for the big charge.
#'''Nasty Hex:''' CV 7+. An enemy unit within 12" loses their ward saves for the turn. Plenty nasty, and worse for some units.

==={{color|darkred|Warclans}}===
'''{{color|red|Grinnin' Blades}}'''

;Trait - Out of the Mists: For the first turn, your units aren't considered visible unless they're within 12" of the enemy. Perfect for protecting your guys until the first turn.

'''{{color|gold|Big Yellers}}'''

;Trait - Only Da Best: Your Orruks add +3" to the range of your missile weapons, a decent perk to your bows. On the first turn, your units also get to re-roll one hit roll per unit. You can also take Boltboyz as battleline, and have a unit of nine models too.

'''{{color|blue|Skulbugs}}'''

;Trait - Crawly Swarm: When an enemy unit fights and is nearby one of your units, roll a d6 (+2 if near a monster). On a 6+, the enemy suffers a -1 to hit for the phase.

=={{color|darkolivegreen|Big WAAAGH Allegiance Abilities}}==

==={{color|darkolivegreen|Battle Traits}}===

'''{{color|darkolivegreen|The Power of the WAAAGH}}'''

Now this is where it gets funky. The Big Waagh! allows you to take any '''Orruk''' unit in the army. Build your dream Orruk army with Ardboy frontlines, Boarboy cavalry on the flanks, Beast-skewer artillery, and everything else in between. This is the only way to ally one faction with another, they can not ally in any other way because they are from the same Orruk Warclans Army book.

If you choose to take the Big Waaaagh! allegiance you get access to the Waaaagh ability table as displayed below. All these effects are cumulative and will strengthen the Waaagh the longer a battle goes on. You can never have more than 30 Waaaagh! points and any waagh points that go over this limit are lost.

'''{{color|darkolivegreen|Waagh ability table}}'''
*8 Points - '''Zog 'Em''' - Passive ability - Your Orruk units add +1 to run moves.
*10 Points - '''Get 'Em''' - Passive Ability - Add 1 to charge rolls for any Orruk units.
*12 Points - '''Zap 'Em''' - Passive ability - Your Orruk wizards add +1 to casting, dispelling and unbinding rolls.
*16 Points - '''Smash 'Em''' - Passive Ability - Add 1 to hit rolls for ''melee attacks'' made by orruk units.
*20 Points - '''Bash 'Em''' - Passive Ability - Add 1 to wound rolls for ''melee attacks'' made by orruk units.
*24 Points - '''Waaaagh!''' - Active ability - General can use Da Big Waaaagh! ability at the start of combat phase. You can add 1 to the attack characteristics to all Orruk units in the army, but you'll lose all your accumulated points at the end of the phase.

'''{{color|darkolivegreen|Waagh Points table}}'''
*D6 points if your general is alive at the start of your hero phase.
*2 points if any Warchanters are on the battlefield at the start of your hero phase.
*1 point if any Bonesplittaz Wizards are on the battlefield the start of your hero phase.
*1 point in your charge phase for each orruk unit that made a charge move.
*1 point at the start of your combat phase for each orruk hero within 3" of an enemy unit.
** Gordrakk no longer provides flat 6 points but he's a general now, so if your general is dead you are still getting d6 points for a general on the the battlefield from Gordrakk.
** Kragnos can be included in any Destruction army if there are no Mercenaries there, if general of this army has {{AOSKeyword|Destruction}} keyword Kragnos also becomes a general.
** Stacking warchanters and wizards no longer get you points, so you are getting abilities at slower rate.
** Using Waaagh only provides 1 attack and then at the end of the phase you are losing everything, make sure it worth it. It should be a killing blow to your enemy or at least it should cripple him to a point where losing bonuses won't matter that much.
** You are free to not use Da Big Waaagh! at all and keep all bonuses.

'''{{color|darkolivegreen|'Ere We Go, 'Ere We Go, 'Ere We Go!}}'''

A unique heroic action available to your heroes. Roll a d6; if the roll exceeds the current turn number, you gain a number of Waaagh points equal to what turn it is. A pretty nifty pick when you want to amp up the big table of powers early to mid-game.

'''{{color|darkolivegreen|Kunnin', Brutal and Savage}}'''

Your army cannot use any of the factions' ''Battle Traits'' except for Venom-Encrusted Weapons, Mighty Destroyers, and Warpaint. You can't pick any ''Clans''. You are exchanging factions battle traits and clan bonuses for bonuses from Big Waaagh! table.

==={{color|darkolivegreen|Big Waaagh Enchancements}}===
''Command Traits'', ''Artefacts Of Power'' or ''Spell Lore'' can be chosen from the Ironjawz, Kruleboyz and Bonesplitterz allegiance abilities '''accordingly'''. (means Ironjawz '''aren't''' getting Bonesplitterz artefacts)

==Universal Enchancements==
Other non Warclan Specific Enhancements, available to every clan:

===Triumphs===
A new development, Triumphs are '''once per game buffs''' you can trigger for a turn ''when the points total for your army is less'' than that of your opponent. You can pick one. You can pick the same triumph more than once if you wish when you pick your additional ENCHANTMENT.

<tabs>
<tab name="Triumphs from corebook">

#'''Bloodthirsty:''' Once per game you can re-roll one charge roll for a unit. Mostly for when you seriously need that one unit stuck in.
#'''Inspired:''' Once per game when a unit is chosen to shoot or fight, you can use this to add +1 to their wound rolls. Turns your 3+ to 2+ to wound. Very good.
#'''Indomitable:''' Once per game you can outright declare that one unit automatically passes battleshock and loses no models.
</tab>
</tabs>

===Orruk Warclans Mount Traits===
Mount Traits are {{AOSKeyword|Enchancement}}s that {{AOSKeyword|Hero}} of every clan can take, it doesn't matter if it's a Mawcrusha, Gnashtooth, Mirebrute Troggoth, Maniak Weirnob's Boar or other {{AOSKeyword|Mount}} (not a keyword). You can take one for free for your {{AOSKeyword|Orruk Warclans Hero}} and more for picking additional enhancements for battalions.(Core Rules FAQ 2021) Named characters can't take mount traits because they can't take enhancements. Some mount traits are only available to {{AOSKeyword|Monster}}s.

'''Tough 'Un:''' {{AOSKeyword|Monster}} only. This hero's stats won't degrade until they lose over half their wounds, which is a mighty promising buff.
* Not worth it on Mawcrusha. Mawcrusha is starting to lose an attack, 1 destructive bulk and 2 move at 11 wounds when half of it's wounds is going to be 9+ (since number of MK wounds increases when enemy models killed by it).
'''Fast 'Un:''' Once per battle your hero can move in the hero phase.
* Trait that provides a very strong tactical advantage, an ability to position your powerful (and usually fast) unit before he moves and charges.
* A mawcrusha with this trait can move 12" in hero phase with Mighty Destroyers and then move 12" with Fast Un' trait and then move 12" in movement phase and then it can charge 2d6. Now your opponent has a cabbage in his backline eating his expesive units turn 1.
* Same can be done with Kruleboyz {{AOSKeyword|Monsters}}s, you can cast 6+ Sneaky Misasma on them for additional movement in hero phase. This trait puts Snatch in a Snatcha boss! Go get this expensive on-foot character!
* Ironjawz can Move in hero phase with this trait and then charge with Mighty Destroyers, preventing your opponent from using Unleash hell or Redeploy.
'''Mean 'Un':''' {{AOSKeyword|Monster}} only. Whenever this hero uses the Stomp monstrous rampage, the target suffers d6 MWs on a 2+ rather than d3.
*Good trait that stacks really well with other impact MW hits like Megaboss Hulking Brute trait and Mawcrusha's Destructive Bulk ability (Stomp)
* Keep in mind Monstrous Rampage only works the in end of the '''charge phase'''. While Megaboss Hulking Brute trait works after general makes a charge move!
* Good against heavy armored units because they can't roll armor saves against this.
* Can you declare Stomp in the end of your enemy charge phase if you charged? Because Ironsunz command ability allows you to charge in the end of enemy charge phase? Only Ironsunz bosses know the answer. (probably)
* If your opponent is SCE he may choose Astral Templars subfaction - that wound make his units entirely immune to any monstrous rampages. (but not his NAMED characters, most of them are from Hammers of Sigmar and can't recieve Astral Templars keyword)
'''Loud 'Un:''' {{AOSKeyword|Monster}} only. Whenever this hero uses the Roar monstrous rampage, it affects ALL units within 3" rather than just one of them.
* Prevents issuing and recieving command abilities in the following combat phase for three units in 3'. (by roaring at the end of your charge phase)
* Prevents All-out Defence and also prevents heroes from using other command abilities simultaneously if they are together.
* Situational (like Roar) and it's value depends on opponents command abilities and stacked together heroes.
* Be careful of SCE Astral Templars because they are immune to any Monstrous Rampage.
'''Smelly 'Un:''' If this hero has not charged on this turn, then all melee attacks against them take a -1 to hit. It's at least a minor perk when dealing with prolonged combats.
* Not bad for a tanky Hero that is going to stuck in and stay there forever. Keep in mind -/+ hit debuffs/buffs don't stack more then -1/+1. But you can prevent +1 to hit buff with one -1 to hit debuff and then apply another -1 debuff from another source. (value of buff/debuff can't be more than +1/-1)
'''Weird 'Un:''' This model has ward of 4+ against wounds and mortal wounds caused by spells and endless spells.
*Nerfed from previous edition and now only saves from mortal wounds from spells on 4+ Instead of just negating spells on 4+. Still a pretty good trait against magic armies.

==Warscrolls==

===<span style="color:#cc9900;">Ironjawz===
Ironjawz is a melee powerhouse army with even battleline having 4+ armor and 2 plus wounds. Their biggest unit size is only 15 models. Units have a lot of attacks, wounds and a pretty good armor. No ranged units and almost no mortal wounds outside of impact hits. Battleline has access to rend -2, damage output can be high too. Army has strong buffs that your opponent can't prevent, teleport spell and killy, tough and fast HQ Monster that can issue multiple commands simultaneously. It also provides good objective play and allows execution of monster related tactics. Ironjawz is a fast army but mostly thanks to their abilities. Ironjaws want to get in combat but only in combat where they will win. You '''have to pick your fights''' and win them in order fight first again and again.

===={{color|#cc9900|Leaders}}====

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_orruk_mawcrusha_megaboss_eng.pdf Megaboss on Maw-krusha]''': (480pts) Big Murderous Flying Cabbage with a Big and mean Megaboss on top of it. Even cheaper and more powerful than in previous edition.
**Your only {{AOSKeyword|Ironjawz Monster}} in the book which is important in the third edition. Cabbage damage, mobility and ability to issue commands to three {{AOSKeyword|ironjawz}} units for one CP simultaneously makes it an auto include in almost any {{AOSKeyword|ironjawz}} list and also makes it a fire magnet for your opponent.
**Tough with 18 wound and 4+ armor save which can be '''changed to 3+''' (''not +1 modifer'') at a small cost of having 7 (3+ 3+ -1 2) attacks instead of 9 on a Megaboss (always take this)
**Cabbage itself has ranged 8' Roar with 4 (2+ 3+ -1 1) attacks and 8 (3+ 3+ -2 3) attacks with it's Mighty fists and tail.
**If this model kills ''any model'' in combat phase '''Megaboss weapon''' gets +1 attack and unit gets +1 to 'Wounds' '''characteristic''' at the end of the combat phase for entire battle. (if you had 14 out of 18 wounds now you gonna have 15 out of 19). Stacks after every combat phase.
**Counts as a Behemoth and flies 12' which makes it the fastest unit in {{AOSKeyword|ironjawz}} army.
**When using Stomp Monstrous Rampage if it's succesful you can add up to 3 additional mortal wounds to result thanks to Destructive Bulk ability, if there are no models in 3' after that you can move d6 and use Stomp Monstrous Rampage '''again'''. (range of that ability has been nerfed to d6 from previous edition, but wording still allows you to Stomp after Stomp until there is a model in 3' after enemy models have been removed from Stomp damage. ("If you carry out Monstrous Rampage..."))
**Cabbage can take a Mount trait and any other Enhancements

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_orruk_gordrakk_eng.pdf Gordrakk, Fist of Gork]''': (540pts, unique): AKA The Big Green Cheek Clapper. Your named MegaBoss on a Cabbage. The biggest meanest Orruk in town riding the biggest monster cabbage around that'll stab you, stomp you, chop you and bite you, Orky style!
**Rather considerable price-tag both in green dough and points. It sure does want to make up for it though, being an unsurprising brute force in melee. This amazing centrepiece is a juicy pick for any Waaagh!
**It is said his two axes, Smasha and Kunnin' once were two parts of Gorkamorkas legendary axe Worldchoppa, an axe, forged of metal ripped from Sigmars throne. Gordrakk said he split it to make the weapon twice as killy. Smart!
**Both Axes have the same profile with 5 (2+ 3+ -1 2) attacks each.
***Samsha deals 2MW on '''unmodified wound rolls of 4+''' to a {{AOSKeyword|HERO}} that is '''not {{AOSKeyword|WIZARD}}''' and the attack sequence ends.
***Kunnin' doing the same but only against {{AOSKeyword|WIZARD}}s and the attack sequence ends.
***Attack sequence ends means your opponent won't be able to roll armor save! <s>Nice!</s> BRUTAL!
**It worth noting since Gordrakk has two weapons he is getting one additional attack, one for each weapon when this model kills other model in combat phase. (in addition to one wound)
**His Maw-krusha (named Bigteef) has two additional Roar attacks, an additional fists and tail attack, and doing one more mortal wound from it's destructive bulk ability. Unfortunately you can't pick mount trait for Gordrakk's mount.
**Gordrakk has 20 wounds but only 4+ armor save and unable to take Rip-Tooth Fist to change this! This in conjunction to him being a unique character (which means he's unable to pick artefacts and amulet of destiny in particular) makes him very vulnerable in comparison to normal Megaboss on Maw-krusha
**While Megaboss on Maw-Krusha can issue up to three commands for 1 CP to {{AOSKeyword|Ironjawz}} units Gordrakk is doing the same but for '''friendly units'''. Which means he can issue commands in Big Waaagh to {{AOSKeyword|Kruleboyz}} or {{AOSKeyword|Bonesplitterz}} or to any other friendly allied unit.
**Gordrakk is also a general in Warclans armies, so '''if your general is dead''' you are still getting a Command Point for a general on the field and in Big Waaagh you are still getting d6 waaagh points if Gordrakk is on the field.
**Unlike Megaboss on MawKrusha Gordrakk is NOT a {{AOSKeyword|Priority Target}} unit and won't award your opponent with additional victory points if killed.
**Bottomline: With more attacks from his Mawcrusha, additional, more numerous and precise(2+) armor piercing attacks that deal mortal wounds from his axes, Gordrakk is a more offensive character than a stock Megaboss on a cabbage. His ability to issue multiple command abilities at once to other friendly units and him being a general makes him an interesting option for Big Waaagh. On the other hand with his 4+ armor save and inability to take artefacts (for protection), command trait or mount trait makes him very vulnerable and even with 20 wounds he's gonna go down fast from shooting and magic (not to mention he should be in combat to deliver his massive damage). Usual Cabbage on the other hand is still a beast in melee combat and can be way more survivable (thanks to Rip-Tooth Fist, amulet of destiny/armor of gork, smelly 'un trait) or/and faster (fast un) or it can deliver huge damage when you need to kill something important (destroyer, hulking brute CT+Mean un). And it's 60 points cheaper.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_orruk_megaboss_eng.pdf Orruk Megaboss]''': (140pts) Big boss on foot. Buffed in 3rd edition to be even more killy and bossy and cheaper, he is still slow though.
**Basically Megaboss without Maw-krusha (no tail attack, no charging ability, no flying, not a behemoth or monster)
**He has Choppa and Rip-tooth Fist as his weapon, he has 3+ save 7 wounds and 8(!) attacks with a megaboss profile (3+ 3+ -1 2) which makes him more than a match for many characters and units.
**Also gets the +1 attack and +1 wound after killing.
**Can issue a command to TWO Ironjawz units for 1 cp. Great!
**If he killed in combat phase but never fought in it, he fights and then you can remove the model. Take your enemy with you!
**Good for his points and if you play at 1k points. If you play at more points, go for his monstrous cabbage riding brother.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_orruk_warchanter_eng.pdf Orruk Warchanter]''': (115pts) Orky Drummer that's missing the drum, so he just slams his sticks together! And it just works! A guy that buffs your army big time! One of the most important units in IJ army.
**He has the most important support {{AOSKeyword|Ironjawz}} ability Violent Fury: In your hero phase you can pick one unit of {{AOSKeyword|Ironjawz}} wholly within 15', until your next hero phase that unit adds +1 to Damage for attacks of all its melee weapons. This does NOT stack with itself...
**Warchanter can pick and attempt to cast '''only one''' of the 3 beats. Each turn on a 3+ you can either heal d3 wounds for a '''friendly MODEL''' within 12" in hero phase, let a friendly {{AOSKeyword|Ironjawz}} unit charge an enemy within 18" by rolling 3d6 at the start of charge phase, or debuff an enemy unit within 12" to get +1 to hit against it for your units melee attacks.
**Warchanter can't attempt to cast a similar warbeat if other warchanter already attempted to do this (even if he failed)
**Not too shabby in combat either: 6 attacks with d3 damage. Also now hits on 3+. His Melee attacks profile has been buffed in 3rd edition and now he is probably capable of taking on many weakly armored units if he attacks first.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_orruk_weirdnob_shaman_eng.pdf Orruk Weirdnob Shaman]''' (90pts) Your {{AOSKeyword|Ironjawz}} wizard. You know him, you better love him!
**He can cast/unbind one spell without any bonuses and like all wizards he knows Mystic Shield and Arcane Bolt
**His spell, Green Puke (CV6) draws a line 2D6 long which deals D3 mortals to each units it touches.
**'''In the end of your hero phase''', If he's within 12' of at least 10 other {{AOSKeyword|Ironjawz}} models he can attempt to cast Green Puke in addition to another spell he casted, even if another wizard has already attempted it. He may even cast it if he already casted it himself if he is doing this in addition to casting other spell.
**Picking an Enhancement Spell Lore Allows him to pick one spell from Lore of the Weird or Universal Spell Lore.
**Lore of the Weird has pretty high casting rolls for a wizard without + casting. (7 8 10)
**Making Weirdnob a general and giving him Touched by the Waaagh CT allows him to inflict d3 MW before every casting roll to a unit in 6', after casting all spells you can inflict d3 mw again before rolling for Green Puke. Then deal d3 MW more with Green Puke.
**You can give him Arcane Tome to increase number of spells he may cast to 2 (plus green puke) per hero phase. That is going to improve his mortal wounds output in 6' with Touched by the Waaagh as well.
**If you are giving him Touched by the Waaagh pick Foot of Gork (CV 10) as well and try to cast it on +3 to casting. IF not a 3+ wizard will cast CV 10 spell then who?
** In Big Waaagh all wizards are getting +1 casting at 12 Waaagh points. 4+ to Casting is max limit for TbtW Weirdnob. (you can improve his casting to 5+ if you are in 6' from Rogue Idol)
**Endless spells now move in your and your opponents hero phase. With that much + casting you can at least try that. You can control an endless spell in 30'. Not only that but in 2022 Season Endless spells are now way cheaper and very impactful.
**Weirdnob is a very fragile 6w 5+. Giving him CT and Artefacts and Endless Spells might not be the best idea.
**Crazy builds aside if you don't need to cast Hand of Gork (CV 7) to teleport your {{AOSKeyword|Orruk}} units into battle or Aoe 16' Buff Your {{AOSKeyword|Ironjawz}} units with +1 to wound with Bash Em Ladz' (CV 8). You can skip Weirdnob.
**If you want to pick a Wizard only to be a dedicated Mystic Shield caster for your Mawcrusha better pick an Ally GSG Fungoid Cave Shaman, he's only 95 points HQ, has 6w 5+ 4+ ward, his spell is meh but he gives you 1 CP on 4+ in you hero phase! Glorious!
**Interestingly Weirdnob has 3 base Attacks at damage D3 each, rend -1, making him not completely useless in melee.

===={{color|#cc9900|Battleline}}====
''Battleline in {{AOSKeyword|Ironjawz}} or {{AOSKeyword|Big Waaagh!}} army''

2022 GHB changes to battleline units: All unmounted batteline units with 4 or less wounds are now {{AOSKeyword|Galletian Veterans}}. {{AOSKeyword|Galletian Veterans}} have Bonds of battle special rule that allows them to fight in two lines even with 1' range weapons (i.e. big squads with 1' weapons are back in the game despite of Coherency). Also only {{AOSKeyword|Galletian Veterans}} can score proving grounds (objective that 2nd acting player picks). There are also two new battalions that based on that keyword as well. Ironjaws {{AOSKeyword|Galletian Veterans}} are Brutes and ardboyz.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_orruk_ardboys_eng.pdf Orruk Ardboys]''': (85pts, min 5, max 15)
The Ironjawz version of ~100 points, 10 wounds infantry, but boy is that description selling them short. Three attacks (Unit boss gets +1 to attacks) at 1' 4+/3+/-/1 is a pretty good attack profile and they make great use of your buffs. They have a 4+ save, two wounds and two out of every five models may carry a shield for a 6+ ward against wounds AND mortal wounds on these models. One in five models can carry a battle standard and one in five can take an instrumet. The banner gives the unit +1 bravery and the musician adds +1 to charge

The ardboyz overall have seen some changes in the update. They lost their rend on their weapons and are a little slower overall along with a worse hit roll and bravery. However they have gained a unique way of reinforcing the unit. If the '''unit leader''' attempts a Rally command and they are wholly within 12" of a Warchanter, they can return models on a 4+ instead of a 6+. Allowing a unit to be returned to full health more reliably. Keep in mind that you can only do this further than 3' from enemy units. While obviously good it does force your Ardboys to be even more reliant on being near Warchanters, and the loss of rend unless you are calling a Waaagh really hurt their hitting power (along with now never hitting better than a 3+ in combat due to their hit rolls getting nerfed).

Overall Ardboys are still very good and still make an excellent battleline choice, however they have lost some hitting potential and are now no longer the obvious choice when fielding Ironjawz or Big Waaagh (so that can be a good thing if you were tired of them being the obvious spamming choice). Their role is now more clear as an anvil rather than hammer. With Brutes and Goregruntas both hitting harder than them.

Their problems with coherency were mostly solved in GHB2022. You can now field 15 ardboys in 2 lines with all of them attacking enemy unit. (OLD Positioning pics can stay just in case. [https://i.imgur.com/H7zecBd.jpg Theory.] [https://i.imgur.com/uEV8x6s.jpg Practice.] )

It worth noting that when moving and postioning a large unit of ardboyz make sure your boyz with shields are on the sides of your formation, that way when you resolve your wounds and remove models from a unit your coherency remains intact. Also according to 2021 FAQ when you Rally to return models you can return a model with any wargear on it that previously has been in this unit. Always return Shield bros. (Q: Do any restrictions that applied when I picked a unit for my army
still apply when I return a slain model to that unit? A: ''No. For example, if a weapon can only be taken by 1 in every 5
models, you could return a slain model with that weapon option to a unit that has fewer than 4 models in it.'')

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_orruk_brutes_eng.pdf Orruk Brutes]''': (160pts, min 5, max 15)
Brutes are your Hero, elite infantry and cavalry killers. For 160 points you get 15 wounds worth of angry green muscle that gets +1 to hit if they target a unit with a Wounds characteristic of 4 or more. An entire unit should pick either short ranged Brute Choppa 1' 4a 3+/3+/-1/1. '''OR''' Jagged Gore-Hakka 2' 3a 3+/3+ '''-2''' 1 which has been buffed. The unit boss gets to pick between two different weapons. Three attacks at 1' 3+/3+/-1/2 or four attacks 1' 4+/3+/-1/2. One in five models can take a massive Gore-choppa that has been buffed for additional rend since previous edition. Which is an impressive 2" 4+/3+/-2/2

Brutes have gotten some excellent new abilites that allow them to be a real nightmare as a frontal hammer, but less so as an anvil. They don't have a banner or a musician, so they're stuck at 6 bravery and no bonus to movement or charge, so their 4" move will mean they risk falling behind your other battleline options. There are ways to mitigate this, with Ironjawz generals being able to use Mighty Destroyes command ability on multiple units of Brutes will help immensely in getting them up the board faster, this combined with a Get 'Em Beat from a Warchanter will go to great lengths in helping your Brutes get into combat. You can also teleport your Brutes with Weirdnobs Great Green Hand of Gork (CV7+) to 9' from your enemy.

Now as for actual combat roles the addition of extra rend on the Jagged Gore Hacka and extra reach give it an amazing boost in the new addition where +1 save and coherency issues is much more rampant. In short Jagged Gore Hackas allow you to fight in two lines with each model which is very important for brutes with their giant bases. If facing something with a halfway decent save always go with that. Short ranged Brute Choppas should be saved for small units of brutes for when light chaff need to be cleared. Always take the Gore-Choppa as it is too good not too. The Boss has a similiar weapon loadout as before with two options of better attacks or better hitting, generally the choice is up to whether the user wants better hitting or more attacks.

However the true biggest change to Brutes comes in the You Messin'? ability that fully NEGATES contesting points to ANY 1 WOUND POINTS units within 3" of a Brutes unit. Making these guys utterly brutal on the objective game to 1-wound horde armies. With their hit bonus against larger targets helping them against elites. This helps in their original intended role as hard-hitting assult troops, that can get in quickly, cause tons of damage and keep your opponent from contesting the objectives. And with the Ardboys changes in profiles and Brutes combat upgrades they very handily take the role of combat units for Ironjawz forces.

Just don't forget, again they lack the Bravery bonus and rally buffs of Ardboys, so cannot play the attrition game as much. Keep one CP for to Inspire them (and other units) in the Battleshock phase or use other units to wear down the enemy, and save your Brutes for the brutal conuterattack and objective steal. With some Warchanter buffs and Ironjawz Waagh to get them to lovely 2+ hitting and even -3 rend 2 damage attacks when you need it.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_orruk_goregruntas_eng.pdf Orruk Gore-gruntas]''': (170pts, min 3, max 6, (Battleline in Bloodtoofs army, max 9)
Heavy cavalry, Ork style. For 170 points you get three piggies with 9" movement and five wounds. Oink oink, motherfucker. The riders can choose between short ranged 1' 4a 3+/3+/-1/1 Pig-Iron Choppas '''or''' 3 attacks at 2" range with their Jagged Gore-hacka 3+/3+ '''-2''' 1d . The piggies get four attacks at 3+/3+/-/1. If the unit charged the same turn, roll a dice for '''each''' enemy unit in 1" for each model in the unit. Adding 1 to the roll if the unit is armed with the 2" spears, for each 3+ the enemy unit takes a mortal wound.

Your fastest battleline unit and a very flexible anvil and hammer! They make for great screens for the Maw-krusha due to their speed. The 1" Choppas are great at dealing with enemy hordes. A MSU of the 2" Spears are a surprisingly great scalpel, good for targeting enemy 6 wound heroes and elite infantry. If you charge an enemy 6 wound support hero with your spear wielding big-riders, they will be utterly annililate them with their 2+ mortal wound spam.

Overall pretty similiar to what they were previously but now can reliably fight elites with their -2 rend Gore-Hackas, overall better damage output with their much better mortal wound spam and mount attacks being greatly improved. Still a fast and reliable heavy calvary and still essential in frontal assualt and late game objective play.

Jagged Gore-hacka vs Choppa: Since October 2021 FAQ changed Gore-Hackas to rend -2 these guys are now literally Brutes that move two times faster (and even faster in Bloodtooth clan) and can do mortals on the charge. These guys now can fight and kill elites, in fact they are now pretty good at it. (especially on a Waaagh turn buffed by VF). Jagged Gore-hacka appeal is also in 2' range which becomes important in a world of coherency and large units of Gruntas because of their huge bases. (it can be hard to [https://i.imgur.com/BPNesoo.jpg postition them properly] using choppas) Pig iron Choppas is still a good choice for killing hordes and lightly armored units. Gore Gruntas with 7 (8) attacks each is a perfect target for a Violent Fury from a warchanter, that provides even more damage with each attack (and even more damage against {{AOSKeyword|Galletian Veterans}} if Gruntas are in Bounty Hunters battalion).

===={{color|#cc9900|Other Units}}====

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_orruk_ironskulls_boyz_eng.pdf Ironskull's Boyz]''': (80pts, unique) The quartet of Ardboys from Shadespire. Slightly undermanned but a better unit of Ardboyz because now they are trully Boyz from a better past and by that i mean from a previous second edition with -1 rend and 3+ to hit on most of their weapons!
**Since previous edition these guys lost 1 bravery, no longer hit on 2+ with choppas. Boss lost his headbutt ability but gained 2 more attacks instead! (they never had any musician and standart bearer and they don't have 4+ rally)
**These guys have their weapon profiles changed: three of them have range 1' 3+ 3+ -1 1 weapons. Boss have 5 (five!) attacks and other two guys have 3 each. The last guy has a big choppa 2' 2a 4+ 3+ -1 2.
**All of them have 6+ ward (5+ for the boss Ironskull).
**These guys are slightly tougher and more killy unit of hardboys for 5 points cheaper. With Violent Fury on a Waaagh turn they can deliver 11 (3+ 3+ -2 2) and 2 (4+ 3+ -2 3) attacks for 80 points, not bad.
**These guyz look appealing as an objective holding unit.
**They do have Ironsunz keyword interestingly, which means you can't mass buff them with Da Choppas Warchanter because they can't recieve Da Choppas keyword. (but you can buff them as a single unit).

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/aos_morgoks_krushas_en.pdf Morgok's Krushas]''': (90 pts, unique). Ironjawz warband from Warhammer Underworlds changed a bit in a new edition Morgok got himself a better weapon with additional damage (usual boss choppa) but no longer has additional attack rule. His brute bro lost rend on his Krushas and got an addition attack.(meh) ,Gore Basha brute still has the same neutured specialist weapon with -1 rend. These guys are brutes without denying objectives rule but with their own special rule. While regular Brutes are 32 PPM, those are at 30 PPM.
**The special knack of this unit is that once they finish a monster for the first time in a battle, they get +1 to wound permanently(thus wounding on 2+) which seriously boosts up they attack power, and these guys have 11 attacks!
**To help them in this endeavour, they still get the Brutes' bonus of +1 to hit against models with 4 wounds or more, meaning they can be efficient minor heroes hunter too, and by that I mean if they can make contact with any ~100 pts hero they will turn him/her into a bloody pulp.
**They are good monsters FINISHERS, as they lack the number to take them down by their own.
**They have 9HP with a 4+ save, which makes them reasonnably tanky for a unit this size, at A LOT more survivable than a lot of other overpriced specialist units with 1W per model.
**These guys are also Ironsunz

==={{color|#009933|Bonesplitterz}}===
Bonespillerz is mostly melee oriented horde army with big blobs of tough(two wounds) but poorly armored orcs with large volume of low quality attacks with exploding hits. This army can be fast and it's also supported by buffs from wizards and shamans. Army lacks strong and tough Hero-Monster (aside from rogue idol) but can field several HQ wizards that can absolutely decimate anything with mortal wounds thanks to their special ability(it's a bit random though). One of the warclans provides access to reliable armywide mortal wounds output in melee. Army has 6+ ward save and has One use 4+ armywide ward save in combat phase.

===={{color|#009933|Leaders}}====
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_orruk_wurrgog_prophet_eng.pdf Wurrgog Prophet]''': (150pts) A 7 wound wizard who can cast and unbind 2 spells and is pretty good in a scrap for a caster. His mask has changed. Now he gets the Wurrgog mask standard and instead of casting or unbinding or dispelling he can instead at the start of your hero phase roll a 3+ to do D3 mortal wounds to an enemy within 12". Afterward you can attempt to do it again, if you succeed you do more mortal wounds, however if you roll a 1 or 2 you take d6 mortal wounds (which you can save with the warpaint ward). And you can keep doing that as many times as you like, with good rolls you can wipe out a squad, with bad you'll be dead after a couple rolls so essentially a really high-stakes Russian roulette ability. His Fists of Gork spell has a good 24" range and rolls as many dice as models in the unit, doing mortal wounds on 6's <i>unless</i> you cast on a 10+, in which case it does the damage on 4+! So now the Wurrgog has changed up to now being a pure Mortal wound generator. A couple of Wurrgog Prophets in your army can put out a potential insane amount of mortal wound spam, since the Wurrgog Mask is now an ability not an artefact and can really help with anti-armour. But remember your giving up casting and unbinding to do this, and you might blow up your prophets in the process, so weigh the pros and cons of doing this.
**Glowin' Tattooz can greatly increase your Wurgog chances of Zapping someone with a Mask.
**Mask ability works at the start of hero phase, Heroic Recovery (like all heroic actions) also works at the start of hero phase. You can heal your wounded Wurgog with it and then start Zapping!

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_orruk_big_boss_eng.pdf Savage Big Boss]''': (65pts) A melee force multiplier. Decent melee fighter with an ability allowing another Boneplitterz unit nearby to fight immediately after he does. Now for only 65 points you are getting a 7 wounds in 6+ armor with 6 3+ 3+ -1 2d attacks! Still an effective melee hero and can put out some good damage in combat. He is vulnerable but you are taking one anyway for Great Hunters CT.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_orruk_wardokk_eng.pdf Wardokk]''': (80pts) Cheap caster with no unique spell but the ability to do buff friendly units with his dances on a 3+ instead of casting/dispeling ES. He can heal friendly {{AOSKeyword|Bonesplitterz}} unit within 12', increase save rolls by 1 for {{AOSKeyword|Bonesplitterz}} unit or give a {{AOSKeyword|Bonesplitterz}} wizard within 12' +1 to cast/unbind/dispel. Although the buffs don't stack, you can heal a unit more than once with a couple of these guys. Never leave home without two. No longer a Priest.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_orruk_maniak_weirdnob_eng.pdf Maniak Weirdnob]''': (100pts) A nutter on a piggy, another wizard with surprisingly good melee abilities (if you are lucky) and move 12'. His inbuilt spell allows a unit of Bonesplitterz to add +1 to wound rolls for melee weapons. Nothing terribly fancy but still good and now one of your best way to get that with the rules changes to some other units. Also gets the buff to its mounts attacks on the charge as other Boarboys, meaning if you have too he can also be a potential recipient of the Glowy Green Tusks spell for a little more offense on the charge. Overall still the Bonesplitterz fastest and best non-Big Boss hero in combat. Can be good for keeping up with Boarboys and Boarboy Maniaks lists to give them buffs such as Glowy Green Tusks as he is still our only mounted hero option that can keep up with them realiztically.

===={{color|#009933|Battleline}}====

All of these units can have banners and musicians that give them +1" charge and +1 Bravery

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_orruk_savage_eng.pdf Savage Orruks]''': (Battleline, 165pts, min 10) At two wounds a pop minimum, there are no truly cheap units in the army, but these guys are the closest. Armed with chompas (blades) or stikkas (spears), they each get 2 attacks with the stikkas having one worse to wound roll but a greater range. Other things of note is +1 to wound if the unit charged. In adddition to coming with standard banner and muscian for +1 to charge and bravery. A good improvement their save is now a flat 5+, instead of just in combat, making these the closest thing to cheap anvils (especially if you call a waaagh for that sweet 4+ ward). <s>In bigger units stikkas are best, 32mm bases will make attacking in two ranks with chompas difficult especially with coherency.</s> GHB2022 fixed this with The Bonds of Battle rule, they can reliably fight with 1' weapon.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_orruk_arrowboys_eng.pdf Savage Orruk Arrowboys]''': (145pts, min 10 conditional Battleline in Bonegrinz) How the mighty 'ave fallen. Lost a third of the shots allowed, from which they lost the special conter-Monster rules. Now they simply improve their rend by 1 when targeting monsters. Even in Bonergrinz they are barely any better (simply regaining their lost attack they used to have for having 15 models), bringing their shooting up to 3. In addition they only get +1 to charge now with their banner instead of 2. However it is not all bad. As they now all gained an extra melee attack means they are now almost as good as Savage Orruks in combat (simply having a worse save and 1' melee range). Meaning they can be more versatile than what you would expect from a shooting unit. However it is highly recommended if you are commiting to them that you bring them in Bonegrinz. That extra shot is essential to help with their poor accuracy, and you can argue the inherent extra attack is better than the +1 at 15 or higher they used to have. Like many things in the book also went up in price, so consider wisely if commiting to them as they are very much a "go big or go home" type of unit.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_orruk_boarboys_eng.pdf Savage Boarboys]''': (140pts, min 5, max 15 conditional Battleline in Icebone) Basically the Savage Orruk onna pig. Extra wound, 12' move and 3 (4+ 4+ - 1) additional piggy attacks, boyz with sticka(only) and the boars get + 1 to hit <i>and</i> wound on the charge. Overall very fast and very hitty. Not as strong as Gore-Gruntas but still deadly. Synergizes well with Glowy Green Tusks spell to give the boars -2 rend and if taken in Icebone (which incidently makes them battleline) they also get mortal wound output for a surprisingly good anti-armour force. Throw on a Waagh on them and and they won't die. Though make sure you get Glowy Green Tusks off, it makes them so much better on the charge.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_orruk_boarboy_maniaks_eng.pdf Savage Boarboy Maniaks]''': (145pts, min 5, max 15) Maniaks lose the shield save and stikka option, but their chompas get another attack. They also get +1 attacks on the charge so less defensive but more damaging. They're also a little braver than the non-maniak boarboys. Overall more offensive than standard boarboyz but may face some coherency problems in large sqauds due to a lack of spears. Like your Maniaks best to pile on the buffs on them and get them into the enemy as quickly as possible as they will die even faster than standard boarboys otherwise. Can be good for getting stuck in when you call a Waaaagh! as well.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_orruk_morboys_eng.pdf Savage Orruk Morboys]''': (155pts, min 10, max 30 conditional Battleline in Drakkfoot) In a similar vein to the Maniaks, Morboys are Savage Orruks with one extra attack, no shield, and a bit more bravery and lost the spear option. Lost their old ability to get +1 to hit if a monster died around them. Instead they now add 1 to attacks characteristic if they made a charge in the same turn. Which is I guess you can say arguably better though lost a little of their flavour. Obvious candidate for Power of the Were-boar spell as these guys want to be be doing nothing but chargeing. And since they can put out a metric ton of attacks on the charge they are obvious targets for a Wardokks save buff or a Maniaks Weirnobs Bone Spirit +1 to wound spell. Get these off with a Bonesplitterz Waaagh! and you got a pretty deadly unit. However their lack of rend could be an issue outside of Icebone subfaction if up against heavy armour (especially when coherency rears its ugly head as they lack spears). So be aware of their strengths and weaknesses. Since they are battleline in Drakkfoot clan they are also getting {{AOSKeyword|Galletian Veterans}} keyword that grants them Bonds of battle special rule, that allows them to reliably fight in big units in two lines. (each one of them have 4 attacks on a charge - literally buckets of dice)

===={{color|#009933|Other Units}}====

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_orruk_big_stabbas_eng.pdf Savage Big Stabbas]''': (80pts, min 2, max 4) A couple of Orruks lugging around a massive spear, each big stabba hits as hard as some melee heroes (3' 3a 3+ 3+ -2 2d), being one of the armies only access to -2 rend. Lost a lot of their previous abilities and almost no bonues against monsters, except for a +2 to their spear chuck roll when they die to do mortal wounds to monsters. Because of this don't be surprised if the enemy tries to shoot them down early. Lost a lot of their former utility but with their 3" range they can be good for attacks safely into combat with their high rend, high damage attacks. Since you'll normally be lacking ap in full bonesplitterz lists definately considering a few of these guys to help with anti-armour. Just be aware enough to keep them alive long enough to get into combat.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/ENG_Hedkrakka_s_Madmob_Combined.pdf Hedkrakka’s Madmob]''': (220 points) Warhammer Underworlds Bonesplitterz warband that consists of Wurgog Prophet Hedkrakka, Gob of Gork, two SavageOrc/Morboy-like orcs and one Arrowboy. Hedkrakka has a Wurgogs statline, no rend and 1 more attack, his squiggy snake Maw bite deals a MW on 6 to hit. He can cast and unbind 2 spells, his warscroll spell is Bone Krusha (i.e. removed spell from 2nd edition battletome) CV6, range 24' deals d6 MW in 6' or d3 MW in 12' or 1 MW in 24 to one enemy unit. He kept "Subtract 1 from hit rolls for attacks made with melee weapons that target this model." rule. His ability allows him to debuff a unit in 18' until your next hero phase, add 1 to hit rolls for attacks made by him and his warband (only) against this unit. His three guys have 2 wounds each, 6+ armor, Arrowboy hits on 4+, but only has one melee attack. Two others have different weapon profiles 4a (3+ 4+ - 1d) and 2a (4+ 3+ - 2d). His retinue has +1 to wound on turn they charged and can also recieve wounds instead of Hedkrakka on 4+. It worth noting that Hedkrakka and his boyz are two separate units (you take them together anyway)
** While Hedkrakkas ability is not bad it only works on his subpar comrades without any rend. His spell with luck can deal substantial amount of mortal wounds in 6', but is it worth 220 points when you can pick a Wurgog Prophet with a Mask for 150 points instead that can microweave someone from 12' with a river of mortal wounds?
** These guys are from Bonegrinz, so they can't recieve any other clan keyword, and Bonegrinz clan ability is useless for them.
** If anything you can use Hedkrakka as a Wurgog proxy. His model is great.

==={{color|darkred|Kruleboyz}}===

===={{color|darkred|Leaders}}====

*'''Gobsprakk, Mouth of Mork''': (280 points, unique) Kragnos's personal wrangler. 14 inch flyer with a 14 wound base with a 5+ armor and 6+ ward. Also a 2 spell caster that beats the shit out of wizards he manages to dispell, doubly so if he does it on a 10+. Once per game, he can dispel on 3d6, too, so you can nearly guarantee some free "fuck you" damage on top of your dispel. As a final bonus, he enhances the command abilities he uses, allowing you to reroll the movement from Redeploy, and removing the hit penalty from Unleash Hell. Just a crazy wizard bastard who'll fly around annoying the shit out of opponents until he gets shot down.

*'''Swampboss Skumdrekk''': (320 points, unique) A Grinnin' Bladez tribe hero, basically just a little better version of the Snatchaboss in several ways. Over the Snatchaboss, he gets an extra attack with his Grappling Hook, his Sludgeraker's bite does one extra damage, he's got an extra wound, and his abilities are slightly different. First, he gets Expert Snatch and Grab, instead of regular Snatch and Grab, allowing you to eat your target if you beat OR EQUAL their wounds characteristic on the roll. Second, you get a betting ability if you've also got a unit of Hobgrots in your army. You pick a Hobgrots unit, and another unit in your army. If the second unit you picked is killed off first of your whole army, then you get a free triumph for your Hobgrots. All this for 5 points more than your standard Snatchaboss. The only real downside is that he can't take command traits, mount traits, or artifacts, making him technically less tough. Still a good second sludgeraker choice!

*'''Killaboss on Corpse-rippa Vulcha''': (240 points) A big-based flyer with 14 wounds, a 4+ save, and a 14" move. Has a handful of decent attacks, and the Vulcha benefits from Venom-Encrusted Weapons! Nice! Has a unique ability to re-use command abilities if someone else has already used them previously in the phase, as long as you don't pick the same target.
** Big and vulnerable to shooting, with only alright but not impressive damage. The Vulcha-Boss is best used as your fast moving troubleshooter who can support wherever he needs to. Actually respectably cheap for a 14 wound 4+ save flyer, he doesn't excel in any one area but can be where he needs to to help out. Just don't expect him to solo a big block of Blightkings himself.

*'''Snatchaboss on Sludgeraker beast''': (315 points) Your big buffing beastie boss. This slow idiot only moves 8" but has 14 wounds on a 4+ save. A handful of decent attacks, but most importantly, the Sludgraker mount benefits from Venom-Encrusted Weapons! Nice! Gives off an aura that enhances all Venom-Encrusted Weapons wholly within 12" by boosting the damage of natural 6s by 1 (important note, this explicitly only enhances natural 6s, not shaman-buffed rolls of 5 too). Also has a once-per-game ability called Snatch and Grab, where he targets single model within 3" and with 7 or fewer wounds, and rolls 2d6. If you beat the target's wounds characteristic, that model is removed from the game without saves.
** An incredible force multiplier. Kruleboyz are all about the crits and this guy makes your crits all the crittier. Plonk this greasy beast behind 9 Boltboyz or 20+ Gutrippaz and watch the mortal wound scores soar. This guy can also put on the hurt himself, with the rider alone pumping out 4 mortals per 6 rolled on his hits.

*'''Breaka-Boss on Mirebrute Troggoth''': (180 points) A big stupid idiot and the Troggoth ain't all that bright either. Has no command potential beyond being a hero. Has regeneration like a Gloomspite Troggoth (Roll a die every hero phase, on a 4+ you regain d3 wounds). More interestingly, at the start of the combat phase, the rider can yank on the reins painfully, inflicting d3 wounds to himself, but pissing off the Troggoth. For every mortal wound suffered, add 2 attacks to the Mirebrute's club attacks this phase. Considering the profile is 4 attacks, 3+/3+/-2/3 damage, a potential 10 swings is pretty scary. The Mirebrute doesn't get poisoned weapons, sadly, and is a bit slow at 5". Does have 12 wounds, but is somehow not a monster.
** Between the Breaka-boss and the Gnashtoof Killaboss (who are very similarly priced), the Breaka-boss provides nothing to the army beyond being a hero with the basic command abilities, and having WAAAY higher damage. Slowly clump across the board and swing your hardest, and if you do manage to get in, you'll very likely cause a big ass bruise.

*'''Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof''': (170 points) Now reduced in price 30 points from the Dominion box, the Killaboss on Big Dog remains the same. 10 wounds with a 10" move and a 3+ save. 8 decent attacks, getting +1 to hit on the charge. Sadly, the dog doesn't get poisoned weapons. Has the ability "All Part of Da Plan" that makes only 1 model maximum flee from any unit that fails battleshock within 3" of him (does NOT have to be wholly within).
** Between the Gnashtoof Killaboss and the Breaka-boss (who are very similarly priced), the Gnashtoof Killaboss has mediocre damage for their price, but has fantastic defense even without benefitting from "look out sir," and provides a useful aura. Not to mention, the Gnashtoof Boss is twice as fast as the Snatchaboss.

*'''Killaboss with Stab-grot''': (110 points) Now reduced in price 30 points from the Dominion box, the Killaboss with Mini-Me remains the same. Can choose either a flail or a shield, the flail granting 2 attacks 3+/3+/-1/1 damage, the shield changing the Killaboss's armor save to a 3+. Has the same "All Part of Da Plan" ability as the mounted Killaboss. Can kick his little stab-grot minion in front of a scary attack, rolling a dice: on a 1-5 [[Blam|the poor little bastard dies]], and you lose access to his little stab attacks, on a 6 [[Awesome|the crazy little bastard survives unscathed]].
**Never, ever, ''ever'' take the flail. Seriously. The 3+ save is way better, since you want this guy to actually survive for a turn or two. You didn't bring this guy to kill things, and god knows 2 more alright 1 damage swings isn't going to change that. If you want to kill shit you'd take a Snatchaboss on Mirebrute, or even a Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof.
** Despite being your "budget" option, realistically you're going to find better use paying 60 points more for a Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof, who's twice as fast, far tougher, and has a much higher average damage output.

*'''Murknob with Belcha-banna''': (95 points) Now reduced in price 20 points from the Dominion box, the Stinky Burp Flag Boy remains the same. Has 6 wounds on a 4+ save. Has 3 alright attacks. This hero is cheap and shitty and you're not taking him for his combat potential. His banner, however, channels the power of Kragnos in two different ways. First, he provides a belching aura that extends out 12", any friendly unit wholly inside it has a 5+ chance to ignore the effects of enemy spells and endless spells. Second, at the start of the combat phase you roll a die for every enemy unit within 3". On a 1 nothing happens, on a 2-5 they take 1 mortal wound, and on a 6 they take d3 mortal wounds.
** Surprisingly decent anti-magic, combined with a pair of Swamcalla Shamans, a Murknob gives you a stunning amount of magic resistance that would make Duardin jealous. A small, easy-to-miss benefit is that the Murknob's a '''Totem''', meaning that your command abilities have an 18" range rather than a 12" one.

*'''Swampcalla Shaman and Pot-grot''': (105 points) Now reduced in price 20 points from the Dominion box, the Soup Wizard and his Soup Midget Apprentice remain the same. A 1 spell caster, they can also choose to distribute Poisons or Elixers in the hero phase instead of casting a spell. If they dole out poison, pick a friendly Kruleboyz Orruk unit within 3" AND wholly within 12", their Poison-Encrusted Weapons now trigger on either a 5 or 6 until your next hero phase. If they give out elixir, select a friendly unit within 3" AND wholly within 12" and until your next hero phase they get +1 save. All Swampcallas (including Gobsprakk) know the Summon Boggy Mist spell, which casts on a 7 and affects the whole battlefield, granting Kruleboyz +1 to charge and enemies -1 to charge.
** Probably the single most important hero in the Kruleboyz, they can either massively enhance your mortal wound potential, or toughen you up, and you don't even have to worry about being dispelled. On top of this, they provide a dispel attempt each, and are cheap as chips.

===={{color|darkred|Battleline}}====

*'''Gutrippaz''': (180 points, min 10, max 30) Your only unconditional Battleline. These unethical assholes love to hold the line and deal out some poisoned whacks. 2 wounds, 5+ save, and a 5" move make them rather slow and vulnerable. However, those potential mortal wounds from the Poison-Encrusted Weapons makes them surprisingly scary in melee to heavily armored targets. Can pick from either a stikka (for a 2 inch reach), or a hacka (for wounding on 3s). Either way, they have 2 attacks. They can take a banner that grants +1 bravery, bringing you to bravery 6. They can take musician, which gives them +1 to charge. Lastly, they have an ability called Scare Taktiks: at the start of the charge phase if they are not in melee, they can pick an enemy within 12" of them and roll 2d6, adding +1 to the roll for every full 5 models in your Gutrippa unit. If they match or beat the target's bravery, that target has -1 to hit the Gutrippaz unit until your next hero phase. Since GHB 2022 For each Gutrippaz unit included in your army, you can take 1 Hobgrot Slittaz unit as a Battleline unit.
**Having these guys in Bounty Hunters battalion potentailly doubles their mortal wounds output from VEW against other battleline units.

===={{color|darkred|Other Units}}====
*'''Man-skewer Boltboyz''': (120 points, min 3, max 6, or 9 as conditional Battleline in Big Yellers) The Kruleboyz answer to the question, "where are all the orc snipers?" These crossbowmen can pick from one of two profiles, an aimed shot 24' (1a 2+ 3+ -1 2d) or hasty shot 12' (2a 4+ 3+ -1 2d). They take aimed shots if they don't move and aren't in melee, with 1 shot [[Awesome|hitting on 2s at a 24 inch range]] (take them in the Big Yellers Warclan for 27 inch range), and wounding on 3s, with a -1 rend and 2 flat damage. If they move or are in melee they get 2 shots, but hit on 4s at a 12 inch range instead. The leader gets an extra shot with either profile. These little snipers can devastate entire armies if protected and buffed by your Swampcalla Shaman or/and Snatchaboss, the enemy will be shitting their pants.

*'''Hobgrot Slittaz''': (80 points, min 10, max 20) Now reduced in price 15 points from the Dominion box, the Chaos Dwarf Refugees remain the same. The hobgoblins are back for all 6 people who missed them! Weirdly enough the Hobgrots aren't Battleline anywhere, and are slow, nearly defenseless, and have mediocre, un-poisoned attacks. They can throw some surprisingly decent grenades at an 8 inch range, but you're not taking them to kill stuff. They're there to provide a buffer between your Boltboyz and your enemies. A banner lets them reroll battleshock tests, and a musician lets them run and still shoot.
** These guys suck hard ass. They are incredibly weak, die in droves, have no real leadership protection (rerolling battleshock tests means nothing when you're bravery '''4'''), and can't kill anything when they're inevitably charged in melee. In an army that already has a very, very hard time filling battleline, these guys don't even do that. They're not fast enough to get on points early or make a late game capture, they're too feeble to defend themselves even from other chaff units, and their ranged attacks, which are surprisingly decent, are so short range that they won't cause any real damage without putting themselves in the "I can graze you with a single Sunmetal Spear and your whole 80 point unit vanishes" range. Just pay for Gutrippaz; they're unconditional battleline, only cost a bit more than 20 Hobgrots, can actually do damage, and have better defenses thanks to both a 5+ save and the Skareshields.

*'''Beast-Skewer Killbow''': (130 points) The king of anti-monster artillery, this beastly ballista hits on 2s at a 24inch range as long as no one's in melee with it and it doesn't move. It skewers its target, rolling a number of dice equal to the <s>victim's</s> target's wounds characteristic. For each 5+, increase the damage by 1, plus the base 2 of the bow. The damage caps at 12. [[Awesome|Yes, the Killbow can benefit from Poison Encrusted Weapons]].

*'''Marshcrawla Sloggoth''': (150 points) A funky wrinkly creep. 12 wounds and Troggoth d3 Regeneration makes this model surprisingly decent survivability. Has a handful of alright attacks (without VEW), and at the end of the combat phase you can pick an enemy model within 2", and roll a die. If you roll at least double that model wounds characteristic it is slain. More relevantly, all '''FRIENDLY''' units wholly within 18" gain a +1 to hit in melee. Somehow, not a monster. Finally recognized as a {{AOSKeyword|Kruleboyz}} unit following a hilariously brief errata published October 20, 2021. More importantly can also be taken in any Destruction army that can Ally with Orruk Warclans. Actually nuts for 150 pts.
** Hilariously enough, Kruleboyz don't actually care about the Sloggoth's buff very much. They don't appreciate quality of attacks beyond rolling 6's (and occasionally 5's), and aren't enough of a pure melee faction to care much anyway. The Sloggoth is, however, an absolutely amazing ally, in Big Waaagh, Mawtribes, and Gloomspite Gitz, where a permanent +1 to hit on an extremely forgiving aura range is quite tasty. Doubly nice for Troggoths, where the Sloggoth's aura combines fantastically with the Instinctive Leader command ability of the Troggboss for Troggoth's hitting on 2's, rerolling 1's. Actually makes the Troggoths sound pretty good.

*'''[https://www.warhammer-community.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/m9kzThkVE509e4Nq.pdf Da Kunnin' Krew]''': (170 points) WU Harrowdeep warband of Kruleboyz. Counts as two separate units that you have to pick together. Mannok da Kunnin' is a boss of this band, he has Killaboss statline and can allocate wounds on his Krew in 3' on 2+ roll(on 6 wound is negated). Instead of stab-grot he has a crow companion Morkrow that counts as his ranged weapon (3d6 range, 1 less to wound than stabgrot). His melee weapon is literally a casino, '''3'''' range 4a 3+ 3+ -1 d3 damage, the good part is that with Venom-encrusted Weapons battle trait for this unit mortal wounds are caused on an unmodified hit roll of 5+ instead of 6. Yes you can inflict 4 damage with his weapon OR you can inflict 12 Mortal Wounds! (16 with Slugedraker). But this is not even the best part about him, instead of having Part of Da plan rule he has Kunnin’ Tricks rule: This guy is so kunnin that having him in your '''Kruleboyz''' army allows you to pick one additional Dirty Trick from Kruleboyz Battle traits on a 5+ roll (4+ if he's a general (unlikely to happen)). This trait must be different to the first one you picked. This is just great! His Krew counts as a separate unit: One orc, two grots and one hobgrot, all of them have 5+ save 6 bravery and as long as Hobgrot is alive they are immune to batteshock. Grots and Hobgrot have 2 wounds! Ork has three. Orc Torka Tuffskul armed with Mansnappa (killaboss hacka weapon with -1 damage), Hobgrots dagger has 1 more attack and wounds on 4+(instead of 5+), he also has d3 attacks with his grenades instead of one. Grots have two different weapons: Krule Irons 1" 2a 4+ 4+ - 1 and Krude Net 3" 1 4+ 4+ - D3. All of them are {{AOSKeyword|Orruk, Kruleboyz}} and can benefit from normal Venom-encrusted Weapons. They also have improved Marshcrawla Sloggoths rule: At the end of the combat phase, you can pick 1 enemy model within 2" of this unit and roll a dice. Add 1 to the roll if this unit includes Orc with Mansnappa , and add 1 to the roll if this unit includes Grot with a Net. If the roll is at least double that model’s Wounds characteristic, it is slain!
**According to wording of Mannoks VEW it works on bird attacks as well, but it's lore description states otherwise.
**All of them are from Grinnin’ Blades clan which is fine and only prevents them from taking Skullbugz keyword (Skullbugz ability is not great anyway).

==={{color|#999900|Others}}===
{{anchor|FWRogue}}
*'''[https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/resources/fw_site/fw_pdfs/aos_warscrolls/Downloads-AoS//aos-warscroll-rogue-idol-2019.pdf Rogue Idol]:''' (430pts) Your resin FW melee beast. Now with {{AOSKeyword|Orruk Warclans}}, {{AOSKeyword|Ironjawz}}, {{AOSKeyword|Bonesplitterz}}, {{AOSKeyword|Kruleboyz}}, and {{AOSKeyword|Greenskinz}} keywords so that you can field him as you see fit in any pitched battle according to Monstrous Arcanum 2021. Tough (16W 4+ armor 5+ ward) rather Fast (10') and Fighty Monster with two range 3' +3 +2(with degradation) -2 D6 damage attacks and additional 10 (with degradation) 2' 3+ 3+ -2 2d stompin feet attacks. Adds one to hit rolls for it's attacks on a charge turn and also a decent support for any Orruk army. In addition to its combat powers, it also adds one to Orruk and Grot casting rolls (within 6') and Bravery(wholly within 18'). Make sure that your units don't get too close to it, if he dies rocks will fall off it and on a roll of 4+ will harm units in 3' with d3 MW. It laso inflicts 1MW at the end of combat phase on a roll of 4+ to enemy units nearby.
**After recieving keywords of each warclan Rogue Idol can get benefits from the most of Warclans Spells and abilities.
*** Can benefit from of any Warclans Waaagh (10 attacks with rend -3 damage 3 that hit on 2+ on a charge? Ironjaws can help you with that) and other Battle traits like Smashing and Bashing, Tireless Trackers or Spirit of Gorkamorka etc and subfaction warclan abilities (Icebone Mortal wounds equal to it's damage on 6 to wound, Drakkfoot Rogue Idol that ignores wards). (it '''CAN NOT''' benefit from Venom Encrusted Weapons and Big Waaagh bonuses table because he is not {{AOSKeyword|Orruk}} !) (for same reason he can't be teleported with Great Green Hand of Gork)
*** Can be teleported to enemy by Kruleboyz Supa Sneaky CT.
*** Can be a target for Alright, Get 'Em!(Ironsunz) and Mighty Destroyers Ironjaws Command ability, Command Abilities can also be issued in 18 from Rogue Idol since it has a{{AOSKeyword|Totem}} keyword.
*** Kruleboyz wizard can cast Sneaky Miasma (CV6) on a Rogue idol for additional 10' move in hero phase since it's a {{AOSKeyword|Kruleboyz Monster}}.
*** Ironjaws hero can use Mighty Destroyers on Rogue Idol for additional 10' move (or 2d6' charge/3' pile in) in hero phase.
*** Combine these two methods in Big Waaagh, move your Rogue idol 20' in hero phase, then move 10' in movement phase and charge 2d6. (you can add Fast Un+MD Mawkrusha with 36' move + 2d6 charge to that and you opponent gonna have two big threats near his expensive and important units turn one)
*** For Bonesplitterz Rogue Idol is one of the few {{AOSKeyword|Monster}}s they can take to execute their monster related tactics.
***It can be buffed by many warclans factions spells. So Bonesplitterz can send out a Rogue Idol with a 2+ save! or add +1 for to wound or to hit rolls. Warchanter can buff it's damage or charge range. Bonesplitterz Wardoks(no limits) and Warchanter(one) can heal Rogue idol for d3 wounds on 3+ roll in 12' Can be helpful since it's degradation has serious effects on its performance.

*'''Kragnos, The End of Empires:''' (720 pts) Our Big Boy, Avatar of Destruction that nobody asked for, himself. After finally recieving an update in Battlescroll Gods and Heroes Dec 2021 Kragnos may finally see some play, it is still unclear if he is worthy of his enormous point cost but he is for sure much better than he was before. While he doesn't have any Warclan Keywords (or any other destruction faction keywords) he doesn't throw any allegiance perks out the window for the rest of the army thanks to his Warmaster ability, he is also always a general for any destruction army. Kragnos is very much a beatstick leader, his melee weapons are all quite deadly: The Dread Mace (3' 6a 3+ 2+ -3 4), Hoves (1' 6-3a 3+ 2+ -1 2) and a shield named Tuskbreaker (1' 3a 3+ 2+ -2 d3) and if you think that this is not enough to absolutely smash anyone to pieces he still has his Rampaging destruction ability: After his charge every enemy unit in 1' from him recieves d6 MW on a 2+ roll '''OR''' you can pick an enemy {{AOSKeyword|Monster}} in 1' and roll 2d6, on a 7,nothing happens. On any other roll, that enemy Monster suffers a number of mortal wounds equal to the score of the dice used for the 2D6 roll '''multiplied together'''. For example, a 2D6 roll of 2 and 6 would inflict 12 mortal wounds (2 × 6 = 12). Yes, if you roll 2 sixes enemy monster will recieve 36 MW! Kragnos no longer provides +1 bravery to destruction units and no longer rerolls charge against dragons but he recieved much better abilities instead! Any friendly {{AOSKeyword|Destruction}} unit wholly within 12' of him can charge 18' and roll 3d6 for that (including himself (Kragnos has 10'-7' move)) which is huge for many Desruction units including Kragnos himself (essentially that allows him to more reliably stuck in combat turn 1 where he can deliver his massive damage potential). Kragnos also recieved new Mightiest Makes Rightiest ability and now counts as 30 (degrades to 18) models on objective! Take that Mega Gargants! Kragnos is rather tough with his 18w, 2+ armor save. His shield can ignore spell effects when rolling 3d6 and beating the CV of the spell. (including endless spells), with his update he also recieved 6+ ward and new Avatar of Destruction ability that protects him from oneshot abilities (hand of dust, kingslayer, dagger of jet etc.) instead of dying from them he recieves d6 MW. Also at the end of any phase when wounds were allocated to him he roars for d6 MW to every unit (including friendly units) in 6' on a roll of 5+ AND does it more easily the more he's wounded (up to 2+).
**Kragnos 3d6 charge aura can be very useful in Mawtribes army, where Mawtribes units can inflict more impact MW for longer charge distance.
**While more resistant to mortal wounds after an update Kragnos is still very vulnerable to them. 6+ ward won't protect him form mass mortal wounds spam from ranged units.
**Since Kragnos doesn't have any Warclans related keywords he has almost no interaction with most of Warclans spells and abilities. (only "friendly unit" wording works: Warchanter healing, Mystic Shield, Levitate, Endless spells, Mork's Eye Pebble artefact from a hero nearby, Marshcrawla Sloggoth +1 to hit aura, core command abilities)
**Kragnos is a totem and can issue commands in 18' from him.

==={{color|mediumspringgreen|Greenskinz}}===
Greenskinz are allowed in a Big Waagh faction as the keyword requirement for these units is {{AOSKeyword|orruk}}, which all greenskinz possess. However, they are no longer on sale and have been relegated to [[Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Legends|Legends]] as of GHB2020. Feel free to use them if your opponent allows and you really want an uphill challenge. [[Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Legends/Greenskinz|Tactics can be found in the Legends section]].

==Battalions==

In 3rd edition GW made battalions and their bonuses universal for all factions (they are now called [https://i.imgur.com/BsTmNEQ.png Core Battalions]). You are still having some ([https://i.imgur.com/pxlNV2x.png 3 in Warclans case]) faction specific battalions and two [https://i.imgur.com/3e4PgRD.png Ghur related] ones (realm for this year) from GHB 2021 Handbook. Battalions are formations of specific units that give you access to additional abilities. There are two types of battalion: warscroll battalions (since 3rd edition this is for your kitchen and narrative play) and core battalions (these ones you are going to use). The battlepack(instructions on how to pick your army, set up the battlefield) you are using will say whether you can use battalions and which types of battalion you can use. Battalions are picked after you have picked the units for your army. (but you pick your units having your battalions in mind). Keep in mind you only have to fill roles for battalions to get bonus after that you can take whatever units you want just don't exceed [https://i.imgur.com/K3GHrJe.png limits] of your point bracket.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">

===<span style="color:#9400D3;">Old Battalions from 2nd edition</span>===

<div class="mw-collapsible-content">

Due to how Battalions are now universal, expect see the whole lot of this on the trash bin outside of narrative games. Bonus rules, traits and doodads are going to be likely added to the faction rules as default.
===Ironjawz Battalions===
'''{{color|#cc9900|Ardfist}}'''
''(120pts) 1 Orruk Warchanter, 3-5 Orruk Ardboyz''
:The Warchanter of this battalion learns the '''Drawn to the Waaagh!''' command ability, use this command ability when a unit from this battalion is destroyed. Roll a dice, on a 4+ a new identical Orruk Ardboyz unit appears, set it up wholly within 6" of the table edge and more then 9" from enemy units. Amusingly, this new unit is added to the battalion, so its destruction can trigger another roll, and on and on.

'''{{color|#cc9900|Brutefist}}'''
''(120pts) 3-5 Orruk Brutes''
:1 Orruk Brute boss has 5 wounds instead of 3.
:Whenever a model from this battalion makes a charge move, pick 1 enemy unit within 1" of that model and roll a dice, on a 4+ it takes 1 MW.

'''{{color|#cc9900|Gorefist}}'''
''(130pts) 3-5 Orruk Gore-Gruntas''
:1 Gore-Grunta boss has 7 wounds instead of 5.
:In your first hero phase, each unit wholly within 18" of the battalion boss can make a normal move but cannot run.

'''{{color|#cc9900|Ironfist}}'''
''(160pts) 3-5 Orruk Brutes, Orruk Gore-Gruntas or Orruk Ardboyz''
:1 Brute Boss or Gore-Grunta boss gets +2 to its wounds.
:Once in each of your hero phases you can use the '''Mighty Destroyers''' command ability from the Ironjawz Allegiance for free, using the battalion boss as if it were a Megaboss.

'''{{color|#cc9900|Weirdfist}}'''
''(140pts) 1 Orruk Weirdnob Shaman, 3-5 Orruk Brutes or Orruk Ardboyz''
:If the Weirdnob Shaman of this battalion is wholly within 18" of 2 or more units from this battalion, it can use it's Brutal Power ability to attempt to cast Green Puke twice, in addition to other spells it can cast.

'''{{color|#cc9900|Brawl}} (Superbattalion)'''
''(140pts) 1 Orruk Megaboss, 1 Orruk Warchanter, 1 Orruk Weirdnob Shaman, 3-5 Brutefist, Gorefist, Ardfist, Weirdfist or Ironfist warscroll battalions''
:Once per battle if your general is alive, another Orruk hero from this battalion can use the '''Ironjawz Waaagh!''' command ability. This does not stop you from using the regular Ironjawz Waaagh! command ability but you may not use the command ability more than once in the same combat phase.
::Here's a fun thought - an Ironfist costs 160 points apiece, and you need at least a squad of Brutes to make it useful, but can otherwise fill it with Ardboyz. Two min units of Ardboyz and a min unit of Brutes is 320 points, plus the 160 points of the battalion makes 480. Three of these would be 1440 points, plus 110 apiece for Warchanter and Weirdnob, 150 for the Megaboss and 140 for the Brawl itself - 1950 points in total, just enough for an extra command point if you so desire (or swap out one or two of the Brute squads for a min squad of Gore-Gruntas). So, at 1950-2000 points, you can have a Superbattalion.

====Ironsunz Battalions====

To take the ones below, you need to be part of the '''{{color|#cc9900|Ironsunz}}''' Warclan. You can only at most take one Da Bossfist and one Moggorz's Rekrootin' Krew in an army.

'''{{color|#cc9900|Da Bossfist}}'''
''(220pts) 1 Megaboss on Mawkrusha (Dakkbad Grotkicker), 0-2 Megaboss on Mawkrusha, 2-3 Megabosses on foot, 2-3 Orruk Brutes''
:Dakkbad must be the general and have the Right Fist of Dakkbad Command Trait. In addition, at the start of each hero phase, if Dakkbad is on the field, roll a d6. On a 4+, get a CP. Also, all units in this battalion gain +1 to the attack characteristic for all their melee weapons, including mounts.

'''{{color|#cc9900|Moggorz's Rekrootin' Krew}}'''
''(150pts) 1 Orruk Megaboss (Moggorz), 1 Orruk Brutes (Da Rekrootin' Krew), 1-5 Orruk Brutes or Orruk Ardboyz (Aspirants)''
:Aspirants don't benefit from Ironsunz Kunnin'. Instead, they ignore Battleshock while wholly within 18" of either Moggorz or Da Rekrootin' Krew.

'''{{color|#cc9900|Dakkbad's Brawl}}'''
''(120pts) 1 Orruk Warchanter, 1 Orruk Weirdnob Shaman, 1 Da Bossfist battalion, 1 Moggorz's Rekrootin' Krew battalion, 1-3 Brutefist, Gorefist, Ardfist, Weirdfist or Ironfist warscroll battalions''
:Once per battle if your Dakkbad is alive, another Orruk hero from this battalion can use the '''Ironjawz Waaagh!''' command ability. This does not stop Dakkbad from using the regular Ironjawz Waaagh! command ability but you may not use the command ability more than once in the same combat phase.

===Bonesplitterz Battalions===

'''{{color|#009933|Brutal Rukk}}'''
''(140pts) 1 Savage Big Boss, 2-5 Savage Orruks or Savage Boarboyz.''
:Battalion units that are wholly within 12" of the Big Boss at the start of the charge phase can run and charge.

'''{{color|#009933|Kop Rukk}}'''
''(140pts) 2-5 Wardokks, 2-5 Savage Orruk Morboyz''
:One of the Wardokks that is wholly within 18" of 2+ units with 10+ models from this battalion can attempt to cast the Fists of Gork spell from the Wurrgog Prophet warscroll in addition to any other spells it can cast.

'''{{color|#009933|Kunnin' Rukk}}'''
''(140pts) 1 Savage Big Boss, 2-5 Savage Orruks or Savage Orruk Arrowboys''
:In your hero phase, pick 1 unit from this battalion that is wholly within 12" of the Savage Big Boss. That unit can make a normal move or shoot, units in this battalion cannot have more then 20 models.

'''{{color|#009933|Snaga Rukk}}'''
''(120pts) 1 Maniak Weirdnob, 2-5 Savage Boarboy Maniaks''
:You can re-roll charge rolls for units wholly within 12" of the Maniak Weirdnob.

'''{{color|#009933|Teef Rukk}}'''
''(140pts) 1 Savage Big Boss, 2-5 Savage Big Stabbas.
:+1 to the attacks made by units that are wholly within 12" of the Savage Big Boss.

'''{{color|#009933|Big Rukk}} (Superbattalion)'''
''(80pts) 1 Wurrgog Prophet, 3-5 Brutal Rukk, Kop Rukk, Kunnin' RUkk, Snaga Rukk or Teef Rukk warscroll battalions.
:You can re-roll the dice to determine if you negate wounds with your warpaint ability.

</div></div>

==Tactics==
'''Ironjawz Army Tactics'''

*'''Mawkrusha Nuclear Option'''

One combo you can run to trigger your Smashin' and Bashin' with your Mawkrusha would be the Destroyer Artefact, as you will most likely wipe out the unit you're fighting. If for some reason you feel you might not be able to go ahead and use your Ironjawz Waaagh! and watch your opponents Giants and God characters cry when you use Titanic Duel and Best Day Ever Mawkrusha hitting on 2s/2s yes please.

You can also torpedo your Mawkrusha across the map with Fast Un' mount trait and move 24" during the Hero Phase with Mighty Destroyers + Fast Un' then you get to move another 12" in the move phase. 36" move Mawkrusha with Destroyer Artefact will make your opponent hate giving you the first turn, if they are not setup properly it can also catch a lot of people off guard. Best way to accompany this is with a fellow Mawkrusha or Great Green Hand of Gork on some key units (get your -3 Rend Brute Boyz in there with Waaagh!) or why not both?

'''Kruleboyz Army Tactics'''

The Kruleboyz faction tends to generate [[Rage|passionate]] discussion over [[Skub|how they ought to be played]], with the core debate being over whether or not the army wants to be a [[Shooty|ranged]] or [[Choppy|close combat-oriented]] force overall. Articles can be found throughout the internet claiming Bolt Boyz in Big Yellers clan armies are a default go-to and anything else is a waste, while other Finkin' Ladz argue that approach is a trap and can result in potentially disastrous results and that the real power of the lineup is in their diversity. One thing we can all agree on, however, is this army is very fun to play. Here are a few army ideas for your Kruleboyz:

*'''Da Magik Troggoth'''
Per the GW summertime AOS FAQ released mid-2021, mount weapons qualify when the rider casts Flaming Weapons. Consider the humble Mirebrute Troggoth: 180 points, 4 club swings, 5 bident stabs. But, the rider may yank his chain and inflict D3 mortal wounds on the troggoth. Each MW suffered thusly generates 2 more club swings each as the trog gets angrier. This could potentially yield 10 club swings. At 3 damage each, this thing has a pretty spectacular amount of potential for the point cost, and sporting the typical troggoth ability to regenerate D3 wounds on a 4+ roll during your hero phase means he has some sustain. In essence, he is a good template to work from. This approach will turn your smoothbrain, tire-eating Mirebrute into a archmage capable of ignoring enemy spells on a 4+. As your army general, give him the Arcane Tome with Flaming Weapons (which improves the club peak damage potential from 30 wounds to 40, a 33% increase in damage!), assign the troggoth the Weird 'Un mount trait (ignores enemy spells on a 4+), and give his rider the general trait of Master of Magic to reroll those sweet, sweet casting/dispell rolls each hero phase. You're pretty guaranteed to roll a 4+ for Flaming Weapons at this rate, and if you dislike the low roll and are fighting a wizard-heavy enemy then the free re-roll can be used to gamble a higher casting roll and make it that much harder to dispell. Overall, this makes the Mirebrute's total damage potential (if mount + rider) at 50 wounds per combat phase. Put him next to a Sludgeraker and he can spit out 60 wounds per combat phase as each VEC weapon (the rider's bident) is empowered to do an additional MW on top of the usual. Now that's a lot of damage.
*'''Kruise Kontrol with Bolt Boyz'''
This list capitalizes off of the Bolt Boyz output potential, the increased range from the Big Yellers clan trait and that this faction allows Bolt Boyz to be taken as battleline, and the potential to shoot out-of-phase through Unleash Hell. It's pretty simple: three units of 9 Bolt Boyz for a total of 27, a Sludgeraker, at least one Beast-Skewer Killbow and at least one Swampcalla. Fill out the remaining points as you wish, but the core principle of the army is to maximize the potential ranged mortal wound output of the faction by leaning heavily on your Bolt Boyz and Killbow(s). With a sludgeraker nearby and assuming perfect rolls, the Bolt Boyz max out at 152 mortal wounds per shooting phase (NOT including Unleash Hell) and the Killbows can help instagib bigger targets. Simply point and click and keep CP nearby for Unleash Hell.

*'''Buggy Soup'''
Best introduced as the collector's army, this list approaches the faction from the perspective of a tool for every situation and aims to bring the full arsenal of Kruleboyz abilities onto the table rather than specialize in one given strategy a la Bolt Boy spam. First, the army is a Skullbugz list with the idea of increasing survivability on your side. You will need the following:

- Gobsprakk

- Sludgeraker

- Beast-breaka

- Swampcalla

- Murknob

- Killaboss on Gnashtoof

- 3x Gutrippaz

- Marshcrawla Sloggoth

- Beast-Skewer Killbow

As this list has two MONSTER-keyworded units (Gob and Sludgeraker) which gives the Skullbugz trait a +2 on the roll, you should see results. Anyway, get a Sludgeraker general with an Amulet of Destiny and Loud 'Un for his mount trait, and take Supa Sneaky as a command trait. Gobsprakk is your dedicated wizard and extra punch/objective snapper with his fly and being a double caster - the key thing here is Gobsprakk is to be seen as a support model, not a determining factor in your army. Remember to organize these units into a Battle Regiment and Command Entourage with Magnificent, because you may as well since it's free and you have the units. Now comes the fun part: all of your units enhance each other - the Sludgeraker increases mortal wound damage around him, while the Marshcrawla should always sit around your Gutrippaz to help them win fights for objectives with his drummer. The Murknob's totem helps nearby units ignore every third spell or so on them. The Breaka-Boss on Mirebrute Troggoth is your suicide bomber/Distraction Carnifex: use the Sludgeraker general's Supa Sneaky trait and redploy him somewhere threatening. If you get lucky with your opening Dirty Tricks play you'll remove some important screening units from the enemy army, thereby creating an opportunity for some round 1 knockouts in their backline. Make your command entourage battalion Magnificent and give the Breakaboss Fast 'Un as a second mount trait alongside the Sludgeraker's Loud 'Un to get the Breaka into even more of a lethal position in your hero phase, then fine-tune in the subsequent movement phase after. Your Killaboss fights alongside the 30 gutrippaz to keep them from withering as they hold down the enemy battlelines and defend/secure objective due to their abysmal bravery, while the Swampcalla spends the whole game dipping the Killbow's bolts into his pot-grot's cauldron, which should help you bring down big beasts on the field.

*'''Gutrippaz Zerg Rush'''
Some would argue a single unit of 10 Gutrippaz is unimpressive; a 5+ save, 2 wounds, but sporting a 2" range with spears and benefiting from the Venom Encrusted Weapons rule while also possibly giving a single enemy unit -1 to hit in a subsequent combat phase thanks to their Skare Shields makes these basic boyz an interesting battle line unit. However, be it a Big Yellers, Skullbugz, or Grinnin' army, the idea of 20 Gutrippaz backed up with a Sludgeraker and Killaboss (on foot or gnashtoof) is a scary thing: a 60-wound blob who can fight in two ranks, with potential to deal 40 mortal wounds if in perfect fighting trim and positioned well who can only lose one model from battleshock so long as the Killaboss is well-placed. This 785-point cohort can be a serious problem with 60 total wounds all summed. An extra 95 points for a grand total of 880 points will get you a Murknob who can possibly deflect a third of the spells which target this raiding party.

==Allied Armies==
Since 3rd edition Orukk Warclans can only ally with Gloomspite Gitz, you can't ally with yourself (can't ally Kruleboyz into Ironjaws). Any mixed Orruk armies are only available in a Big Waaagh allegiance.

*'''Gloomspite Gitz:''' Reunite the old Orcs and Goblins faction by bringing some grots and troggoths.
**'''Stabbas''' or '''Shootas''' are an obvious pick to get some hordes onto the table, allowing you to fit 60 of the little guys into your 400 point limit. Sadly you won't have a loonshrine, so no regeneration, which is going to make them a little expensive. Gordrakk's ''Voice of Gork'' stacks nicely on them too. If you take a full set of 60 they are just slightly too expensive to fit in a '''Loonboss''' which would have made the grots deal mortals on wound rolls of 6, or '''Sneaky Snufflers''' to increase the number of attacks the grots give.
**'''Fungoid Cave Shaman''': You want more CPs? Take two of these.
**Squigs might be worth a look if you don't mind their randomness.
**'''Rippa’s Snarlfangs''' is a WU warband with 12' move and 6 wounds in 5+ armor for only 70 points! Not bad for slow Kruleboyz army for capturing objectives (preferably away from danger).
**Bring back the good ole Giant with the '''Aleguzzler Gargant'''. A bit on the frail side but a decent monster for any list.

*'''Sons of Behemat:''' Thanks to their mercenary mechanic, you can recruit one of four named Mega-Gargants with unique abilities.
**'''Bundo Whalebiter''': A Kraken-eater mercenary. You can choose at the start of the Combat phase for him to fight at the end of the phase, in exchange for re-rolling failed hit rolls.
**'''One-Eyed Grunnok''': A Warstomper mercenary. Reroll jump attacks of 1, plus enemies within 6" get -1 to hit if the giant used his jump attacks earlier in the combat phase.
**'''Big Drogg Fort-Kicka''': A Gatebreaker mercenary. He has a breath attack that attacks one unit within 3" at the end of the combat phase; roll a dice for each model in the unit and deal 1MW on a 6+.
**'''Brawlsmasha:''' A Bonegrinder mercenary from Forgeworld. Gives friendly Orruk wholly within 12" +1 Bravery. The Bravery buff is not enough to justify its high pts value and lackluster attack profile.

{{Age_of_Sigmar_Tactics}}

Primarch

2022-06-23T04:13:26Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* Where Are The Lost Legions Now? */

[[Image:Primarchs big.JPG|thumb|right|500px|Several of the Primarchs at the Triumph of the Ullanor Crusade. From left to right: Sanguinius, Mortarion, Magnus the Red, Angron, Jaghatai Khan, Lorgar, Rogal Dorn, Horus, and Fulgrim. But the real impressive thing here is how that balcony is still standing]]
{{Topquote|Man must become stronger, more profound and more evil.|Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None}}
{{Topquote|There is but one good, and that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to him and bad when it turns from him. And the higher and mightier it is in the natural order, the more demoniac it will be if it rebels. It's not out of bad mice or bad fleas you make demons, but out of bad archangels.|C.S. Lewis}}
{{Topquote|Et tu, Brute?|Julius Caesar}}
The '''Primarchs''' were the twenty ([[Omegon|-one]]) genetically-engineered sons of [[The Emperor]] and the female [[Perpetual]] [[Erda]]. Using both His and her DNA in their creation, the Primarchs were designed to be far superior to even <s>[[Space Marines]]</s> the Adeptus Custodes: they were taller, stronger, faster and more intelligent. Artificial Perpetuals, to replace the Perpetuals that refused to be a part of His great plan throughout history. Certainly faster and stronger, but the intelligence they display, especially in the Horus Heresy books, seem to be limited to their own specialties, making them [[Roboute Guilliman|oddly]] [[Vulkan|normal]] in some cases and [[Perturabo|fatally]] [[Magnus the Red|underdeveloped]] in other areas; the more successful among them, like Russ and Corax, knew how to apply those specialties in various situations, while others, like Angron, just [[Angry Marines|brute-forced their way through situations]] using their talents like a (War)hammer(40k), but a few like Lion and Guilliman, [[Reasonable Marines|actually knew how to account for the opposition]]. Dorn, at least, knew a fair bit about how his brothers waged war, he just didn't care and stuck with what he knew best. They were also incredibly charismatic and were well suited to their role as the generals and leaders of the Imperium of Man.

Problem was, despite all that they were only human, and ultimately their sibling rivalries (and Chaos corruption, in the case of several of them) boiled over and ultimately developed into the [[Horus Heresy]].

==Creation of the Primarchs==
[[File:Warmaster's_Coronation.jpg|300px|left|thumb|Horus Lupercal being made Warmaster of the Imperium in Ullanor. From center counter-clockwise: Horus, the Emperor, Magnus, Mortarion, Lorgar, Angron, Jaghatai Khan, Rogal Dorn, Rogal Dorn's mustache, Fulgrim and Sanguinius.]]
The Primarchs began as a continuation of the Emperor’s [[Thunder Warriors|Thunder Warrior]] legions. Each of the 20 proto-legions were led by a general analogue called a Primarch. Unlike the later leaders of the Legiones Astartes, the thunder warrior Primarchs were the same as the troops they led and were hand picked by the Emperor for their skill and command ability. The instability (both physical, genetic, and mental) of the thunder warriors led the Emperor to try and find more stable and powerful generals to lead his armies. It can be safely assumed that the original Primarchs were killed in the line of duty or purged before history could record them thoroughly. The only one named thus far was Ushotan of the 4th Legio Cataegis - then known as the Iron Lords. Valdor considered him almost an equal in terms of his martial and command ability but was disturbed by his innate bloodlust and susceptibility to the then nascent effects of Chaos.

The modern Primarchs were created in a secret underground laboratory on what used to be the Himalayas, under the tightest security. All of them were derived from a subset of both the perpetual Erda and the Emperor's DNA that served as a template, which was altered differently for each of the Primarchs; it is also thought that he engineered them spiritually as well using long-forgotten psychic techniques. As the [[Raven Guard]] discovered after the Emperor granted them access to the original data from the Primarchs' creation, many of the Primarchs' gene-samples were wildly divergent from the original template- some had long gene sequences deleted, while others had non-human DNA spliced into them for reasons only known to the Emperor. (A particularly intriguing discovery was one sample labeled "[[Leman Russ|Subject VI]]", [[Furry| which had extensive amounts of canine DNA added to it]].)

[[File:BabyPrimarchs.jpg|300px|right|thumb|The Master of Mankind raises his eighteen babies as devoted father. The [[Grimdark|truth]] is less [[Anime|kawaii desu]].]]
The Emperor's original plan was to have His superhuman creations mature safely in His lab and guide them from 'birth' toward the role He'd foreseen for them. However, in a retcon, Erda did not want for her sons what the Emperor had planned for them and herself, and in spite of the safeguards the Emperor had set up, caused the scattering, an event in which the Ruinous Powers were able to spirit the Primarchs away from the laboratory right before they would emerge from their pods and scatter them across the universe (Conveniently, the canine sample was sent to a wolf-planet) [[Just as planned]]. For whatever reason, the Emperor did not punish Erda and she was allowed to live out her immortal life in seclusion, in the remnants of Africa. Somehow, the Emperor knew his sons were still alive but had no clue to where they could be nor any immediate way to search for them. So he took it in stride, shrugged it off as a minor setback (unknowingly, this would come to bite him back in the ass nastily later on) and went ahead with the second part of his plan: his Space Marine project. Using DNA samples from each Primarch before they were abducted, the Emperor created twenty legions of [[Space Marines]], in what would later be called the [[First Founding]]. They would form the core of the armies He needed to conquer the galaxy, and the absence of the Primarchs leading those would only serve as a motivation for the warriors to search for them.

One consequence of the abduction, however was that each of the young Primarchs were forced to adapt to the lifestyle on their new homeworld, something which would influence and mold them throughout their lives. The Primarchs rapidly grew to adulthood and quickly rose to power, often becoming the leaders of their world. As the Emperor crusaded to unify the galaxy he would occasionally stumble upon another long-lost son. When this happened, the Emperor would hold a celebration in honor of this discovery, give the Primarch their Legion to command, then tell them to [[Angron|fuck]] [[Mortarion|off]] [[Lorgar|and start]] [[Alpharius|conquering]] [[Perturabo|worlds]] while he [[Horus|fapped]] [[Rogal Dorn|to]] [[Sanguinius|his]] [[Leman Russ|favoured]] [[Roboute Guilliman|offspring]]. The Emperor was a [[Eldrad|dick]] like that.

==Did the Emperor Love his Sons?==
Before we get into the rediscovery of the Primarchs, we need to address this issue. Different writers have different interpretations of the Emperor, and GW never got any of them on the same fucking page. This lead to discrepancies in the various books; in the first duel between Horus and the Emperor for example, the Emperor could not bring himself to kill Horus because he loved him, and it was only after he witnessed Horus callously annihilate Ollanius Pius that he realised his son was gone, allowing him to finally let loose and destroy Horus.

Later authors would contradict this, writers like ADB would go on to claim he never saw the Primarchs as 'sons', just as carefully crafted tools to enforce his will and vision (even referring to them by number instead of name). Even later writers would go on to claim the opposite again, with the Emperor declaring the Primarchs to be his sons in the Siege of Terra series, so fuck if we know what's going on. The issue gets even more confusing when you look at his closest advisors, such as Constantin Valdor and Malcador, who are plagued with the exact same problems, writer to writer. Sometimes they claim the Emperor only saw his sons as tools, other times they do support the idea that he loves his children.

Hopefully one day GW will finally have some consistency, though that's about as likely as hell freezing over.

In case anyone is wondering, Erda claims she always loved the Primarchs, though considering the planets some of them were sent to, this is almost guaranteed to be a bullshit lie or self-deception.

==Rediscovering the Primarchs==
Originally Horus was the first Primarch to be discovered, but a retcon changed that to Alpharius and had it kept secret. Or did it? With Alpharius and Omegon, it's honestly impossible to tell.

Horus, who would become the Emperor's favoured son, was retconned to maybe being the second Primarch to be found, and the second missing Primarch was stated to be found after Corax in a different retcon. Thankfully these are the only three (or two?) GW fucked with in the order they were found, so the whole list of those being discovered is as follows (dates given by the website for the Horus Heresy tabletop game):

*'''Before 801.M30:''' Alpharius/Omegon (speculated)
*'''801.M30:''' Horus
*'''819.M30:''' Leman Russ
*'''821.M30:''' DELETED FROM IMPERIAL RECORDS, DAMNATIO MEMORIAE IN PERPETUAM
*'''824.M30:''' Ferrus Manus
*'''830.M30:''' Fulgrim
*'''832.M30:''' Vulkan
*'''835.M30:''' Rogal Dorn
*'''837.M30:''' Roboute Guilliman
*'''840.M30:''' Magnus the Red
*'''843.M30:''' Sanguinius
*'''846.M30:''' Lion El'Jonson
*'''849.M30:''' Perturabo
*'''854.M30:''' Mortarion
*'''857.M30:''' Lorgar
*'''865.M30:''' Jaghatai Khan
*'''896.M30:''' Konrad Curze
*'''899.M30:''' Angron
*'''922.M30:''' Corvus Corax
*'''927.M30:''' DELETED FROM IMPERIAL RECORDS, DAMNATIO MEMORIAE IN PERPETUAM
*'''981.M30:''' Alpharius/Omegon (officially)

The majority of Primarchs somehow recognized the Emperor on sight, immediately pledging their allegiance to their father. A few (such as Leman Russ and Vulkan) only swore allegiance after being bested in a contest. The only exception is Angron, who outright refused to follow the Emperor as he preferred to die in battle along with his rebels brothers and sisters in their fight against the oppressive Not-Romans. The Emperor simply shrugged and abducted his son, leaving Angron's followers to get slaughtered. Angron never really got over that dick move.

At the end of the period known as the [[Great Crusade]], Horus, who had recently been promoted to the title of Warmaster, fell to Chaos and rebelled. It didn't take long for eight of his fellow Primarchs to join his side against the Emperor, resulting in the full-scale civil war known as the [[Horus Heresy]]. Funnily enough, most of the Primarchs who sided with Horus were those who felt that the Emperor had taken a giant, steaming dump on them. So, regardless of whether the Emperor actually loved his sons or not, and while he is the greatest tactician, biologist, warlord, and leader in the history of mankind; in practice he's worse than a crack-addled transient junkie as a father.

==Primarchs and Legions==
{|align=center border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0"
|-
|align=center|'''Legion Number'''
|align=center|'''Name'''
|align=center|'''Title'''
|align=center|'''Homeworld'''
|align=center|'''Name of the Legion'''
|align=center|'''Allegiance'''
|align=center|'''Description/Current Status'''
|align=center|'''30k/40k'''
|-
|align=center|'''I'''
|align=center|[[Image: Lion_El%27Jonson_portrait.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Lion El'Jonson]]
|align=center|Lord of the First, The Lion
|align=center|[[Caliban]]
|align=center|[[Dark Angels]]
|align=center|ULTRA LOYAL, maybe even more than Rogal Dorn.
|align=center|
*Crushes the horrors of Old Night, destroys worlds, whole civilizations, erase stuff from history, <s>doesn't afraid of anything. </s>
*Sees himself as a man that no one else can compare to and constantly toils to maintain this standard (although he wasn't as excessively vainglorious as Fulgrim).
*Unlike Fulgrim however, The Lion's greatness caused him to be a hardcore pragmatist and largely detached from everyone around him. The Lion just couldn't relate to anyone else not even close to his level (even most of his brother primarchs couldn't fit the bill), so he always felt alone in the universe. A big part of this was that his insanely huge ego combined with his lack of people skills to result in a complete asshole who virtually nobody liked.
*Was a bit of a loose cannon with a long but explosive fuse. The Lion is as smart and introspective as he is merciless and brutal. He wasn't necessarily easy to piss off like Angron, but anyone who manages to cross his threshold of patience will find themselves on the business end of his weapon. Several times. And possibly dismembered to boot.
*Fought Luther during his betrayal at the end of the Horus Heresy, where he was wounded from their duel. He survived however, and was spirited away and tended to by the [[Watchers in the Dark]] in a super secret chamber in [[The Rock]] (that not even the Dark Angels knew about), where he spent the last millennia healing his wounds. As of the current edition; The Lion is now supposedly fully healed and all he's waiting for is the Emperor to tell him to wake up from his millennia-long cat nap.
|align=center|[[Image:Lord of the First.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[File:Lion vs Curze.jpg|150px|thumb|right|]][[File:Horus-Heresy-Lion-Great Crusade.jpeg|150px|thumb|right|]]
|-
|align=center|'''II'''
|! colspan="5" |+++Records expunged+++
|-
|align=center|'''III'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Fulgrim_Ancient_Sketch.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Fulgrim]]
|align=center|The Palatine Phoenix, The Phoenician
|align=center|[[Chemos]]
|align=center|[[Emperor's Children]]
|align=center|Traitor
|align=center|
*A patron of the arts, who wanted to enjoy the finest and most exotic things in life.
*Believes that he and his legion should be the avatar of humanity's perfection, and so everything about them should be flawless, everywhere from appearance and actions to their fighting style. Due to this, Fulgrim's battle tactics revolved around utterly perfecting their strategies. Everything from his soldiers to their strategies were intensely drilled until their fighting was closer to a intricately-choreographed play of death than anything. To him, war is an art, and he wanted to perfect his arts.
*A master blacksmith in his own right, capable of forging weapons that even [[Ferrus Manus]] couldn't help but deem "perfect". His artwork however, wasn't always the best in the universe due to being so perfect it hit uncanny valley levels.
*Was initially corrupted by Chaos through the Laer blade, a Slaaneshi-possesed daemon sword he looted as a trophy, but wasn't aware of what Chaos was. He would fully give in to the temptations of the sword after he beheaded Ferrus Manus, where his utter grief at the act caused him to succumb to the daemon within the sword.
*Daemon Prince of Slaanesh, ruler of the Pleasure World. <s>Fulgrim's actual consciousness however, may or may not also be still imprisoned within his own body by</s> the daemon who possessed him in the first place was eventually conquered by Fulgrim's inner will or whatever, but his new personality is generic "DEMON PRINCE OF THE DARKNESS AND EVIL".
*Managed to incapacitate Guilliman at one point by slicing his throat with a poisoned sword.
*Still has a soft-spot for his brother Ferrus. He asked [[Fabius Bile|Fabulous Bile]] to clone his brother several times so that he could attempt to lure Ferrus into Chaos' side again. All his attempts have ended in failure, which he has blamed Fabius for due to his certainty that a "perfect" clone would join him.
*Heard about [[Roboute Guilliman|Big G]] waking up and is a bit buttmad about it at the moment. He tried to give Guilliman a cursed artifact during his return party, but was found out and subsequently banished. Needless to say: he mad.
|align=center|[[Image: Fulgrim.30k.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image: 40k.fulgrim.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Warhammer-fuldrim-lorgar.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''IV'''
|align=center|[[Image: Perturabo_Portrait.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Perturabo]]
|align=center|The Hammer of Olympia, Lord of Iron, The Breaker
|align=center|[[Olympia]]
|align=center|[[Iron Warriors]]
|align=center|Traitor
|align=center|
*A man who already had the knowledge to create the best at everything he did from birth. Perturabo considered this a curse however, feeling it robbed him of any sense of accomplishment while growing up, contributing to his eternal grumpiness.
*Originally preferred diplomacy and was an admirer of the arts during his time in Olympia, but meeting the Emperor (who had no time for such things) caused a violent switch to flip inside Perturabo's mind, turning him into a ruthless warlord throughout the Great Crusade, likely because he wanted things to be different from Olympia once he joined E-money, but once he realized that The Great Crusade was basically Olympia 2.0; he just gave up, flipped the table, and accepted how things really are and played the part.
*Just as much as a master of siege warfare as Dorn (both in offense and defense), but the lack of opportunities and recognition led him and his legion to be specialists of tearing shit down.
*Unlike Dorn however, Perturabo's general strategy is a combination of stubbornness and ice cold-calculating efficiency, orchestrating war like it was one giant math problem. The problem with this is that he didn't even see his sons as people. As far as he was concerned, they're just armored meatbags who pull triggers and push buttons and were about as expendable as guardsmen. It worked incredibly well but won him few friends.
*Suffers from a massive inferiority complex, partially due to his certainty that the Eye of Terror was always watching and judging him. Nobody believed him when he said this, so it was mostly attributed to Rogal Dorn, whom the Emperor ''greatly'' favored over Pert, despite having similar skillsets.
*Daemon Prince, ruler of Medrengard. Described as the ultimate Obliterator; so expect him to be carrying around titan grade weaponry and millennia of pent-up [[Rage|RAEG]] when he finally shows up. Given that Magnus, Fulgrim, and Mortarion are back in action; he'll probably come out eventually as well.
|align=center|[[Image: 30k.Perturabo.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Warhammer-Pert-Angron.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''V'''
|align=center|[[Image:Karn.port.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Jaghatai Khan]]
|align=center|Warhawk of Chorgoris, The Great Khan, The Khagan
|align=center|[[Chogoris|Chogoris/<br>Mundus Planus]]
|align=center|[[White Scars]]
|align=center|Loyal
|align=center|
*A hard and stern Primarch, he rarely smiles and almost never laughs. Throughout the Heresy he’s often depicted as an introvert who only keeps the counsel of a hand select group. Though rather than making him into a recluse, he's fully capable of being charismatic when he needs to. The Khan is quiet, but he can quickly become the warrior: smile, laugh, bellow and be powerful when he sees the need.
*Encourages a painfully 'liberating' leadership structure on the White Scars. Every Khan (basically Chapter Master) has an extremely high level of autonomy - a byproduct of the steppes. Causes a lot of problems for logistics and cooperation with allies.
*Many Primarchs became a product of their homeworld, the Khan definitely did. He idolises the ways of [[Chogoris]] and venerates its lifestyle. A very Taoist and Confucian way of seeing things, no one else in the Imperium truly understands this, a fact that further isolates the White Scars from the wider Imperium. The White Scars is the amalgamation of Asian culture in the HH, it’s the most different and alien Legion simply because it tries to adopt a Asian-centric style.
*Has a strained relationship with the Emperor. On one hand he recognises the need of the Imperium and has always directly supported it. On the other hand, a major identity point for the Khan's character is his hatred of Empire and Emperors. On Chogoris he killed a lot of emperors and destroyed a lot of Empires. He sees Emperors and Empires as ultimately flawed and has a very low respect for them.
*Tying in with this hatred of Empire is his hatred of stagnation. Every Emperor he killed was fat, and this made him become a person who hates the easiest path. A big motivator for him during the novel Scars was his rejection of the path most travelled. The Khan's greatest fear is stagnating, so he will likely always chose the hardest option because of that. Emphasising this, The Khan is also described as being a compulsive, a part of him is always moving.
*The Khan really didn't like the Imperium, in Warhawk of Chogoris he flatly stated that the White Scars would leave the Imperium if he felt the Emperor was not respecting the White Scars enough.
*Unknown, disappeared into the [[Webway]] while hunting [[Dark Eldar]] after they raided Chogoris.
|align=center|[[Image:Past Khan.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:The path of heaven .jpg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''VI'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait..Leman.Russ.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Leman Russ]]
|align=center|The Great Wolf, The Wolf King
|align=center|[[Fenris]]
|align=center|[[Space Wolves]]
|align=center|Loyal
|align=center|
*Had a high opinion of himself and his legion, if only because he felt that he's earned that kind of respect through the centuries. Of all the Primarchs, Leman was the one most willing to cross any line to do what the Emperor asked, at least at first. Later on, he decided to become his own man and protect the people of the Imperium. Also notable for curbing the more savage tendencies of the Wolves and teaching them to control their ferocity, unlike [[Angron|some]] [[Konrad Curze|people]].
*Wanted to test his legion all the time, to prove he is the best.
*Unknown, disappeared into the [[Eye of Terror]] with the 13th company but promised to return one day. Magnus supposedly knows where he is, but he isn't telling. The Wolves found <s>his armor in a Khornate Shrine</s> an armor rumoured to be his on the Temple of Horus on Rudra, implying he either; turned into [[Wulfen]], to [[Chaos]], is dead, or is murdering his way through the warp [[Conan_the_Barbarian|as a half-naked barbarian]]. Allegedly a figure resembling him was spotted with the 13th company during the 13th crusade.
|align=center|[[Image:30k.Russ.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Scouring of Prospero2.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Horus_vs_Leman.jpg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''VII'''
|align=center|[[Image: Rogal_Dorn_Portrait.png|thumb|250px|]] [[Rogal Dorn]]
|align=center|The Praetorian of Terra, The Vigilant, The Unyielding One
|align=center|[[Inwit]]
|align=center|[[Imperial Fists]]
|align=center|MEGA DUPER Loyal
|align=center|
*A brutally honest and steadfast man, but was equally indifferent to those around him. Dorn's personality is akin to a wall, he was a man you could take at face value; he would never lie or deceive you, and he would always speak his mind without a hint of falsehood, even if it ends up working against his favor. That said, he could never properly relate with other people's emotions. He will speak the truth, but lacked any glib of tongue to express it in a way that wouldn't feel like he was delivering it with the bluntness and intensity of a power fist to the face.
*Embodied the "soul" of the Great Crusade unlike any other; he received the most accolades from the Emperor and fought alongside him most often.
*A master of siegecraft, although fortifications was his forte. So much that he was tasked with fortifying the Imperial Palace. He would also build grand fortresses on the worlds they conquered.
*Assumed deceased, disappeared while boarding a Chaos cruiser during a Black Crusade.<br>One of his fists were recovered and its skeleton is placed in a shrine, where each new Chapter Master of the Imperial Fists engraves their name upon it. Rumored to still be alive, though that begs the question of whose fist is in the Phalanx, though he could just be missing a hand.
|align=center|[[Image:The horus heresy praetorian of dorn by raffetin-dae3g5k.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Dorn-Sang-Primarchs-Warhammer-.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Warhammer-Dorn-malc.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''VIII'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Konrad_Curze_sketch.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Konrad Curze]]
|align=center|The Night Haunter, The Dark King
|align=center|[[Nostramo]]
|align=center|[[Night Lords]]
|align=center|Traitor
|align=center|
*A man of justice who believed that he needed to instill absolute fear into people to ensure lasting peace.
*Possessed psychic powers that allowed him to perceive the future in short glimpses. The problem was that they were uncontrolled and they constantly subjected him to see the worst possible future in the darkest, most vivid detail possible, including the deaths and fall of his brother Primarchs as well as the Emperor's own entombment on the Golden Throne. This only served to widen his ever-growing insanity as he came to believe that what he saw was an inevitability rather than a mere possibility.
*An unstable sociopath, to say the least. Curze's visions, upbringing, and perceived need for brutality took a heavy toll on his sanity, but he held firm under the belief he was making the galaxy a better place, like what he did with Nostramo. This all came crashing down after Nostramo reverted back to its old ways when he was away; deciding that nothing would ever change, he chose to bombard his home planet into rubble.
*That said, he was a master at infiltration and unconventional warfare, just as much as he was a master of scaring the shit out of people. His crowning achievement is that he managed to fuck up Guilliman's Imperium Secundus by himself, no aid from his legion what-so-ever, something his brothers couldn't even come close into doing.
*Lost what little sanity he still had after destroying Nostramo. By this time, Konrad stopped justifying his methods to himself and fully embraced the depraved side of his "Night Haunter" persona, spreading untold terror and pain wherever he went. By the time of the late Horus Heresy, the Emperor wanted to put a stop to it and sent a Callidus assassin named "M'shen" after him.
*Curze knew about her mission from the get-go but he made sure the assassin could reach him unimpeded. He did not resist when she entered his chambers and asked the Callidus to kill him. Initially it was speculated that Konrad realized he became the very thing he sought to rid the galaxy of and knew what had to be done- a perceived hero who lived long enough to see himself become a villain. It turned out that in his view, the assassination vindicated everything he'd ever said and done; he punished and killed evil-doers and now the Emperor used his own methods to kill him, thus proving that all his atrocities were both justifiable and necessary. Whatever the case, Konrad was already a jaded, broken man after the Nostramo debacle and wished only to die. The idea that the Emperor ''wouldn't'' have him killed or might even pardon him was horrifying to Curze, as he believed that there would be no justice in such an act.
|align=center|[[Image:Konrad-Curze-Primarchs-Warhammer-.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Night Haunter 8th Ed.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Horus-Primarchs-Curze-Lion.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''IX'''
|align=center|[[Image:SanguiniusArt5mt.jpg|thumb|250px|]][[Sanguinius]]
|align=center|The Great Angel, The Brightest One
|align=center|[[Baal]]
|align=center|[[Blood Angels]]
|align=center|Loyal
|align=center|
*A noble and unparalleled warrior, known for the angel-like wings that grew from his back.
*Was known as the greatest exemplar of the Emperor himself, mirroring many of his father's best traits, instead of only one or two of them like his brothers. If anything, Sanguinius is a reflection of what the Emperor could have been as a truly benevolent being, concerned not just for mankind's future, but man as individuals as well.
*A pretty cool guy to be around. Despite being a fabulous, angelic demi-god of war; he had mankind's best wishes at heart and fought for it with graceful ferocity, hell even the Primarchs couldn't resist Sanguinius being so bro-tier. He is essentially the vampiric, bishie version of Vulkan.
*Showed the same amount of concern for his legion. Sanguinius did all that he could to hide the Red Thirst from being exposed to the wider Imperium, knowing full well that the Blood Angels would receive the II/XI Legion treatment if it came to light.
*Psychic, and capable of seeing glimpses of the future.
*He was powerful as he was nice, Sanguinius was one of the most powerful, if not ''the'' most powerful, of the Primarchs in terms of martial prowess. Especially if you pissed him off. Feats include; ripping the wings off a bloodthirster and literally throwing him to the warp, single-handedly holding a defensive point during the Siege of Terra against numerous traitors, soloing Titans, and managing to damage Horus' armor ''even after being exhausted from literally soloing entire armies''.
*Deceased, slain by Horus. Spirit is evidently intact somewhere in the Warp. His body is currently in a stasis crypt in Baal, so his corpse remained fabulous for the last 10,000 years. Commemorated during Sanguinala, a holiday dedicated to his memory.
|align=center|[[Image:Heresy-Sang.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:The horus heresy book 26 unremembered empire by raffetin-dap4ekw.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Emperor Sanguinius Echoes of Imperium.jpg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''X'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Ferrus_Manus_sketch.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Ferrus Manus]]
|align=center|The Gorgon of Medusa
|align=center|[[Medusa_(Planet)|Medusa]]
|align=center|[[Iron Hands]]
|align=center|Extremely Loyal, rivalling The Lion and Dorn
|align=center|
*Wants to get things done quickly, without needless philosophizing.
*Contrary to his sons; Ferrus wanted to advocate the strength of one's flesh, rather than relying completely on bionics and mechanical augmentations as shown by the Iron Hands, if any he was appalled at the idea of turning man completely into machine. He wasn't able to realize this after getting a viking crewcut by his best friend, however.
*A master artisan, thanks to his metal arms, which allowed him to practice his craft with incredible precision and detail.
*Deceased, slain by Fulgrim and his head offered to Horus as a gift (which actually horrified him). Fulgrim still has the body, which he repeatedly clones and murders again in a futile attempt to make him turn traitor. <br>Some claim he is still alive on Mars, though [[Void Dragon|he almost certainly isn't]].
|align=center|[[Image:Ferrus.30k.jpg|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XI'''
|! colspan="5" |+++Records expunged+++
|-
|align=center|'''XII'''
|align=center|[[Image:Angron.port.jpg|thumb|250px|]][[Angron]]
|align=center|Slave of Nuceria, Red Angel, Lord of the Red Sands
|align=center|[[Nuceria]]
|align=center|[[World Eaters]]
|align=center|Traitor
|align=center|
*Embodies the name "World Eater". He and his legion consumes entire worlds in a whirlwind of indiscriminate slaughter until nobody but them is left, pre and post-Great Crusade.
*No real ambition beyond endless slaughter, thanks to the butcher's nails augment jammed into Angron's brain. It also made him incredibly violent and quick to anger. At first it was to satiate the unending bloodlust generated by the butcher's nails, but now its to glorify [[Khorne]].
*One of the most powerful of the Primarchs in terms of sheer melee combat prowess. Rivaled only by Sanguinius in terms of single combat capability.
*A poor leader and general, however. He could murder armies sent against him, but he lacked the tactical acumen (or anything resembling sanity) to focus on the objectives truly needed to win a war. Angron is in the end a gladiator let loose in a galaxy-wide arena: murdering all of his opponents is the only acceptable (or even concievable) way to win.
*A retcon made his [[Leeroy Jenkins]] behaviour one of the largest factors for fucking up the Horus Heresy. If Angron had kept his murderboner down for just a few more minutes and let Horus finish off the remaining loyalists on Istvaan with another Exterminatus strike; they would have been able to march to Terra faster and with much more manpower and have a better chance at winning. Whether this was Angron just being Angron or a secret ploy by Khorne to keep the blood flowing by thinking past the Horus Heresy is unclear (after all, if Horus won; Chaos eventually starves to death. If Horus lost; he has a aeons' worth of blood and conflict to revel over and maybe even an eternal stalemate ensuring he lasts forever, if at the cost of the Great Game continuing for eternity as well.).
*Daemon Prince of [[Khorne]]. Spend most of his time Getting Shit Done and being banished to the Warp for a hundred or so years after the Imperium responds to his Blood Crusades.
|align=center|[[Image:World-Eaters-Warhammer-40000-.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Angron .jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Angrondemon.jpg|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XIII'''
|align=center|[[Image: Robute Guilliman.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Roboute Guilliman]]
|align=center|Lord of Ultramar, Avenging Son, The Victorious, The Master of Ultramar, The Blade of Unity
|align=center|[[Ultramar|Macragge]]
|align=center|[[Ultramarines]]
|align=center|Loyal, barring [[Imperium Secundus| that one episode he doesn't like to talk about]]
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*A proud and fair visionary who always looked towards building a better future for humanity. Guilliman never did anything without thinking what would happen at the end of the day and he always tried to plan a better outcome for whatever he did, whether its building an empire or subjugating an enemy civilization.
*Was more for the people than the Emperor, hence why he thought preserving his Imperium was more important than the survival of the Emperor himself.
*A general first and warrior second, which was the key to his success throughout the Great Crusade. He wasn't the best at crossing swords or gunfights, at least in comparison to many of his brothers; but he was exceptional at commanding his forces and resources, ensuring all wars he fought in were running at optimum efficiency.
*The greatest statesman among the Primarchs. Guilliman was best remembered for his ability to set up an efficient form of government on every planet his legion conquered, turning them into model, self-sufficient worlds in order to prepare them for the future after the Great Crusade. This is best exemplified by Ultramar, which still remains one of the most powerful and idyllic planetary systems in the Imperium, even after 10,000 years. More tellingly, was allowed by the Emperor to keep Ultramar's 500 worlds as a semi-autonomous mini-empire within the Imperium because it was just so well run.
*He's also a logistical genius, and invented the organizational model that 8 of the 9 First Founding Chapters still use (more or less).
*Previously kept in a stasis chamber after his throat was sliced by Fulgrim with a poisoned sword.
*Recently revived with the help of Belisarius Cawl and the Ynnari and their new soul manipulation powers. Is now active once more, and not very happy with how badly the Imperium has gone to shit since he was not-quite-dead. Currently back in his old role of Lord Commander of the Imperium, trying his hardest to keep the Emperor's work from going completely down the drain while while waging an unending war against the forces of Chaos and the Imperium's equally monstrous bureaucracy. Rather unhappy about it all but is keeping his head above water nevertheless.
|align=center|[[Image: 30k.Guilliman.png|thumb|150px|]][[Image: Primarchs-Guilliman-40000.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Roboute-Guilliman-Primarchs-Warhammer-40000.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
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|align=center|'''XIV'''
|align=center|[[Image: Mortarion Portrait.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Mortarion]]
|align=center|The Pale King, The Death Lord, The Prince of Decay (Post-Heresy)
|align=center|[[Barbarus]]
|align=center|[[Death Guard]]
|align=center|Traitor
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*A bitter, petty man, kind of like the edgy goth kid of the group. Mortarion didn't want to associate anyone who hasn't gone through the same brand of abuse he has during his childhood and also hated those who had relatively comfy ones in comparison (like Guilliman or Dorn). He would only find some friendship with Konrad Curze (due to his "raised alone and became psycho-Batman" origin) and Horus (because just about everyone liked Horus).
*Has an immense abhorrence for psykers and the warp, due to his experiences on Barbarus. As a daemon prince, he is the very thing he hated in the first place. He takes the resulting bitterness out on everyone else in the form of horrible diseases.
*Stubborn to the core. Mortarion's favored tactic that he passed onto the Death Guard is a combination of attrition and unrelenting assaults; they take the pain while dishing it out in greater amounts, non-stop. He also valued individualism throughout his legion, largely leaving it up to his troops to figure out the best strategy in a conflict, rather than micro-managing them.
*Was already disenchanted by the Imperium by the start of the Horus Heresy (Seeing the Emperor and his works as total hypocrisies), so he threw his lot in with Horus. However, due to a ruse by Typhus; he and his legion ended up being infected by a virulent Nurglite plague while in the warp, which caused them to be in a constant state of agony but remain alive due to their Astartes-grade toughness. Unable to bear the pain and see his sons suffer; he pledged his loyalty to Nurgle and the god "cured" them of the plague (cure is probably incorrect, it was more of mutate their bodies to be compatible with the plague). From here, he became a daemon prince.
*Went back to the warp after the Horus Heresy, where Nurgle gave him dominion over the Plague Planet, which he shaped into the image of Barbarus.
*Was banished by [[Kaldor Draigo|Grey Knights]] during the Battle of Kornovin, which was the origin of [[Kaldor Draigo|Draigo]] carving a name onto his plague-ridden heart (how Draigo did so is a mystery, so we'll just chalk it up to him being too high on drugs to be infected by Mortarion's plagues).
*Helped Abby by creating the zombie plague, along with other contagions, after he got the Hand of Darkness artifact.
*He eventually got better and waged a full-scale invasion of Ultramar when he heard that Guilliman's finally awake. Had to retreat after he had to deal with the other Chaos Gods' typical shenanigans (mainly encroaching on his strongholds in the [[Scourge Stars]] while he was off campaigning).
|align=center|[[Image:Warhammer-40000-фэндомы-Horus-Heresy-Mortarion-2073409.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Mortarion-40k.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
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|align=center|'''XV'''
|align=center|[[Image:Magnus-The-Red-Primarchs-Warhammer-40000-фэндомы-4995855 (1).jpeg|thumb|250px|]] [[Magnus the Red]]
|align=center|The Crimson King, The Red Cyclops
|align=center|[[Prospero]]
|align=center|[[Thousand Sons]]
|align=center|Traitor, though he never planned this
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*An optimistic scholar who thirsted for knowledge and always believed that information should be preserved for the greater good of mankind, regardless of its origins or the danger it might pose.
*As a psyker from birth, he was sympathetic to the discrimination faced by his fellow psykers and labored for his kind to be accepted. He did so by training psykers to control and enhance their powers, in the hopes of showing to people the benefits of his kind's gifts. This had mixed results with his brother primarchs, especially in the face of the Emperor's "psykers are bad" standing orders.
*Had an ego to rival the Emperor himself, but with far less justification for it.
*Defying the Nikea council's rulings, Magnus continued to experiment with warp powers and during a Tzeentch-induced prophesy that involved Horus' betrayal; he attempted to warn his father with a psychic message. During the sending process; he accidentally destroyed the Emperor's webway project, causing him to be arrested by Russ and the Wolves to answer for his disobedience.
*As Horus was already corrupted by this point, he altered the orders to instead destroy the Thousand Sons' homeworld. Realizing he's been played like a damn fiddle by Tzeentch, Magnus' resolve was broken and initially accepted his destiny of being destroyed by the wolves in an attempt to spite Tzeentch, but eventually decided to attempt to rebel against his fate but ultimately failing after Leman Russ beat him up badly. He then made a desperate deal with Tzeentch to save his legion in return for his servitude. He and the Thousand Sons were teleported to the Planet of Sorcerers, where more hijinks ensued with his [[Ahzek Ahriman|first captain]]'s certain ritual. Also his soul was broken into pieces somehow during the deal, and he's still trying to collect them all.
*Now a daemon prince, one of his first major campaigns was to invade the Space Wolves' homeworld. Was banished, but the Wolves were all but ruined; most of their upper command structure and progress with stabilizing their flawed gene seed was gone. Feeling they weren't down for the count yet; he went in again and bloodied the entire star system of Fenris itself, irreparably damaging the Wolves' home system.
*Appeared during the Gathering Storm, where he trapped and captured Guilliman and his retinue in the warp. After he escaped, Magnus chased and confronted Guilliman all the way to Luna, but was banished by the Custodes and Sisters of Silence. Now currently biding his time for another offensive.
|align=center|[[Image:Past Magnus.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image: 30k.magnus-the-red.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image: 40k.magnus-the-red.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
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|align=center|'''XVI'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Warmaster_Horus_Remembrancer_Sketch.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Horus|Horus Lupercal]]
|align=center|The Lupercal, The Favorite Son
|align=center|[[Cthonia]]
|align=center|[[Black Legion|Luna Wolves/ Sons of Horus/ Black Legion]]
|align=center|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1rT6Vi5Ln4 DOUBLE TRAITOR link dead :(]
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*A charismatic strategist who overwhelmed his enemies through sheer numbers and precision tactics, with an emphasis on wiping out the leadership structures of enemy forces.
*Big E's most favored son, always being held in the highest regard, second only to the Custodes. This was a combination of him being the first Primarch found (before the retcon) and his long rap sheet of victories throughout the Crusade.
*Due to his position and experience, he was the most well-liked of the Primarchs during the Great Crusade. Just about everyone looked at Horus as the greatest among them.
*For all his charisma and leadership, Horus was still wracked with self-doubt once appointed Warmaster, constantly afraid that he was unable to live up to the title (poor dude basically thought that anything less than Big E levels of success was failure). Being overall commander of the Emperor's forces AND being his personal favorite was a lot to live up to. This was one of the reasons why he succumbed to the temptations of Chaos.
*Was one of the few Primarchs who was suspicious of the Emperor's plans for the Astartes post-Crusade, fearing they'd be disposed of like the Thunder Warriors and was mistrustful of the Emperor's intentions in the long run in general, to say nothing of his resentment about how the worlds he and his brothers had conquered would be governed by ordinary humans. The Ruinous Powers would also use this to their advantage.
*Rebelled against the Emperor after being fed a vision of the future by the Chaos Gods, in which the Emperor was being worshiped as a god and many of his fellow Primarchs (including himself) were reviled or outright forgotten. Little did he know that this was to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
*His essence has been erased from existence. When the Emperor mustered up the resolve to finally end Horus, he shot him with a psychic blast powerful enough to obliterate his very soul, ensuring that the Chaos Gods couldn't just bring him back from the dead. His body was recovered and brought to the Eye of Terror, but was later destroyed after an incident involving [[Fabius Bile]] and a clone of Horus.
|align=center|[[Image:Horus-the warmaster.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Horus-Primarchs-.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Emperor vs Horus.jpg|thumb|150px|]]
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|align=center|'''XVII'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Lorgar_Aurelian_sketch.png|thumb|250px|]] [[Lorgar|Lorgar Aurelian]]
|align=center|Bearer of the Word, Urizen (Colchisian for "wisest of the wise")
|align=center|[[Colchis]]
|align=center|[[Word Bearers]]
|align=center|Traitor Prime
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*A charismatic diplomat with a golden tongue, who relied heavily on his unparalleled speaking abilities to bring worlds into compliance during the Great Crusade. Lorgar would always prefer to talk out a peaceful solution, rather than resorting to violence. That said, Lorgar did know how to slap a bitch when needed.
*A deeply spiritual man, due to growing up in a theocratic society during his time on Colchis. Due to this, Lorgar saw The Emperor as a literal god and decided to spread the good word of the God-Emperor throughout the Crusade. During this time, he penned the "Lectitio Divinitatus", a book detailing how awesome the God-Emperor was, and always built grand cathedrals in all the planets he conquered. As you can imagine, this didn't sit well with the Man-Emperor's secular Empire, so he decided to bloody one of Lorgar's grandest cities to send a message with Guilliman. Little did the Emperor know what this act of dickery would lead eventually to.
*With Lorgar being completely disheartened and defeated; Kor Phaeron and [[Erebus]] lured him to the worship of the Dark Gods, who were more than happy to accept his rabid fanboyism. He would eventually corrupt Horus and ignite the [[Horus Heresy|single biggest clusterfuck in Imperial History]], ruining everything that the Emperor has striven to build since the [[Age of Strife]].
*Rules as a daemon prince of Chaos Undivided and currently located in Sicarius, the Word Bearers' home planet.
*Previously a shut-in NEET that left command to his legion to his Dark Apostles: Lorgar has finally gotten out of his tower and is personally leading the Word Bearers now. He has recently been seen evangelizing about Chaos in the material realm, with a large legion of Word Bearers behind him. Got his ass kicked by a warp-empowered Corax and is doing everything he can to avoid round three.

|align=center|[[Image: 30k.Lorgar.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Lorgar_portrait.jpg|thumb|150px|]]
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|align=center|'''XVIII'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Vulkan_sketch.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Vulkan]]
|align=center|Lord of Drakes
|align=center|[[Nocturne]]
|align=center|[[Salamanders]]
|align=center|Loyal
|align=center|
*A true man of the people, concerned with the preservation and welfare of humans. Vulkan saw all humans in the Imperium as equals and would protect any servant of the Emperor with great ferocity regardless of their class or status.
*Growing up in a blacksmith society allowed him and his legion to craft some of the finest wargear the Imperium has ever seen. It's also the reason for their fire fetish in combat.
*Inherited the Emperor's perpetual powers, granting him the ability to reincarnate after dying.
*He and his legion took some of the worst losses during Istvaan, and he himself was eventually captured by Konrad Curze.
*Curze wanted to get his torture fetish on, so he tortured Vulkan to death. Several times. Vulkan's status as a perpetual ensured he always came back, but less and less sane as Curze's treatment got worse and worse.
*He eventually managed to escape, but accidentally teleported over Macragge's atmosphere, crashing down on the planet like a green comet of insanity. By this point, anything remotely resembling sanity had left Vulkan's mind. He was eventually "killed" by another perpetual, in a well-meaning attempt to reset Vulkan's brain. It worked (sort of. At least he wasn't a howling maniac anymore) and after taking a short death nap, he got better and disappeared for a while.
*Resurfaced during [[The War of The Beast]] and was recruited to lead the Imperial forces against The Beast's forces. Then disappeared after ramming The Beast into a plasma reactor and killing them both in a squall of gore. The Salamanders claim he continued to lead them for a few more centuries after that death, then left them with the Tome of Fire, claiming he had a special mission that they could not accompany him for.
|align=center|[[Image:Past Vulkan.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Vulkan Lives.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Vulkan-Primarchs-Warhammer-40000-фэндомы-4123369.jpeg|150px|]]
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|align=center|'''XIX'''
|align=center|[[Image: Corax Portrait.png|thumb|250px|]] [[Corvus Corax]]
|align=center|The Lord of Shadows, The Liberator, The Deliverer, The Raven-Lord, Chooser of the Slain, The Shadowed Lord
|align=center|[[Deliverance]]
|align=center|[[Raven Guard]]
|align=center|Loyal
|align=center|
*Sought to overthrow oppression, bringing justice to tyrants.
*Possessed some kind of perception-manipulating psychic power, giving him the ability to be "invisible" to organics (He's still there clear as day, but your mind just can't process that he's right there).
*Preferred covert warfare, sabotaging, fast strikes and assassinating the enemy from the sides, and only striking in the open when the time is right. Basically one of the few primarchs who uses tactics of actual special forces units.
*He and his legion were bloodied during Istvaan and forced out of the conflict. Corvus wanted desperately to help the Imperium's deteriorating situation, so he asked the Emperor for assistance. Emps obliged and gave him the template to create the Primarchs themselves, giving him the ability to train marines at an even faster rate. This was wrecked after the Alpha Legion tampered with the creation process, resulting with the majority of the aspirants coming out as horrible mutants and aberrations.
*While it weighed heavily on his conscience, Corax had to be pragmatic. He made do and used his newly obtained mutant horde as shock troops and it worked; they were able to disrupt the traitors long enough to buy Terra some time to put up a defense.
*After the Heresy ended, he was reluctantly forced to euthanize his creations, wracking Corvus with a huge amount of guilt.
*Went missing after heading for the Eye of Terror to atone for his sins, saying only "Nevermore" before leaving. His status is currently unknown, but the Raven Guard believe he's still alive and will return once again. In reality, he is indeed alive and hunting his fallen brothers, although the Warp has changed him into a living, shapeshifting shadow.
|align=center|[[Image:Warhammer-Corvus-Corax-Primarchs.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Hh-walpaper-raven-Copy.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Corvus Corax.jpg|thumb|150px|]]
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|align=center|'''XX'''
|align=center|[[Image: Alpharius2.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Alpharius]] [[Omegon]]
|align=center|Head of the Hydra, Aleph Null, The Hydra, The Threefold Serpent, The Final Configuration, The Last Primarch
|align=center|They're not telling
|align=center|[[Alpha Legion]]
|align=center|[[Alpha Legion|Alpharius: Very loyal. Omegon: even Tzeentch can't keep track.]]
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*Shrouded in mystery. It's not even known what their homeworld is, let alone what their upbringing was like. Forge World gave no fewer than four mutually irreconcilable origin stories, all of which were dismissed as lies. That said, the only discernible fact we can give about them is that the two primarchs did not always agree with each other, exemplified with Omegon actively sabotaging Alpharius' operations during the Horus Heresy.
*As primarchs of the Alpha legion; the two frequently exchanged roles whenever needed with nobody ever noticing, but officially; Alpharius is the primarch of the legion while Omegon is commander of their elite covert forces.
*Masters of psychological warfare and manipulation. They didn't need regiments of soldiers or weapons to do his heavy lifting; all he needs is a handful of spies to plant paranoia, deceit, misinformation, and dissent in his targeted worlds. By the time his agents are done: the enemy would either be tearing each other apart and/or distrustful of each other; making them isolated, easy pickings for the main Alpha Legion forces once they're called to reign the planet in.
*Alpharius bought the Cabal's story about letting Horus kill all of humanity to kill off the Chaos Gods in the long run, and was eventually beheaded by Rogal Dorn during a battle on Pluto. Maybe. Quite frankly, with these two one can never be entirely sure '''what''' the truth really is.
*Omegon took on his mantle officially ("the jest made real") and this new "Alpharius" may or may not have been killed by Guilliman (the Ultramarines suspect they may have only killed a body double). His loyalties are unknown, but he was against the Cabal's proposal, indicating he either thought sacrificing his entire species was too big of a price (which would mean he's still loyal to humanity), or he wanted Chaos to survive by feeding off humanity (which would mean he was a traitor).
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|}

==Their Eventual Fates==
[[File:Heresy_Time.jpg|300px|thumb|right|An accurate retelling of the final stages of the rebellion.]]
===Traitors===
*General downside to those who became Daemon Princes is that the further they go from the Eye of Terror, the more their power wanes. Also most of them spend most of their time in the Great Game (eternal war in the Warp), growing increasingly distant from the real world affairs.
* '''Horus''' was killed by the Emperor during the Siege of Terra, who utterly destroyed his soul. His legion enshrined his corpse until the Emperor's Children stole it. [[Fabius Bile]] managed to successfully clone him, but [[Abaddon]] killed the clone to cement his position as his successor as Warmaster of Chaos. While "Horus" is supposedly ''very'' dead, which was his fault for being a fuckwit, shards of his soul which were broken off in the Warp remain. Including one in the realm of Khorne...
* '''Angron''' is a Daemon Prince of Khorne. Still gets shit done, but did get his arse handed to him by the Grey Knights on Armageddon.
* '''Mortarion''' is a fucktwit who rarely does anything of interest (still sulking over his eternal existence as the thing he hates the most), but is a Daemon Prince of Nurgle. Apparently now holds the largest domain in the Eye of Terror, rather than just one planet he had in the old fluff. Got some open heart surgery, courtesy of Draigo/Ward. Created zombie plague from one of the artifacts Abbaddon used in his XII crusade. He invaded Ultramar after hearing news that Guilliman's finally awake, though he ultimately had to go back to the [[Scourge Stars]] due to his poor fortunes in the war as well as being summoned back by his patron God.
* '''Fulgrim's''' soul was trapped in a painting while his body was possessed by a daemon for a brief time before swapping places with the daemon and taking its powers (or so he claims). The first Primarch to become a Daemon Prince, although he aimed at achieving (demi)godhood instead (by sacrificing Perturabo). Abandoned what remained of his legion to rule his pleasure daemon world, and [[Troll|didn't tell them how to get there]] (yet Abaddon somehow manages to contact him anyways).
* '''Lorgar''' is a lazy fucknut who does nothing since they fled to the Eye of Terror, and handed the rule over his legion to the council of Dark Apostles, but still a Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided. Taught Abaddon how to summon daemons. Lost a duel with a powered-up Corax during sometime after the Heresy.
* '''Magnus the Red''' got broken into several pieces during his fight with Leman Russ, with several of them actually believing they were the real Magnus and going their own way. Some pieces were eventually put back together to form "the Crimson King", the Daemon Primarch form of Magnus who joined Horus in his rebellion. This sometimes also gets shit done, leading armies to the [[Space Wolves]]' planet and screwing with the Imperium, keeping his big red trollface on all the time until he gets his ass tossed back into the [[Warp]]. Other fragments seem to be floating around throughout history, appearing to have their own agenda, pretending to be daemons or helping the Imperium from time to time. By the time of the Gathering Storm and the 42nd Millennium the disparate fragments have mostly recombined to the Crimson King ''(leaving out a few key elements, namely the ones who embodied his best qualities; for example, the part of Magnus that embodied his love for his Legion chose to fade into nonexistence instead of being reabsorbed into the Crimson King)'' making him as whole as he can be.
* '''Perturabo''' becomes irrelevant after he goes on to drop largely out of post-Heresy fluff, but is still a Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided. Rules the most stable planet in the Eye of Terror, where he does nothing but watching his sons sieging each other. Helps Failbaddon in a couple of Black Crusades by giving him some Daemon Engines. It doesn't really help, but it's more than Lorgar's done for Chaos Undivided. He is also leading his Legion after the 13th Black Crusade in their new offensive against the Imperium.
* '''Konrad Curze''' allowed a Callidus assassin to infiltrate his lair and kill him, either because he himself became the thing he hated the most, or to justify to himself that every atrocity he has done in the name of justice was a necessary act. Except...there was that crown he always wore, the one with a stone in it that looked oddly similar to a soulstone...
* The Alpha Legion's story is a bit complex:
**'''Alpharius''' was slain by Rogal Dorn in combat during the Battle of Pluto. He is very much dead as he did not bargain with the Dark Gods and had his head split open by a fellow Primarch's chainsword. Conspiracy theorists will speculate that it wasn't really Alpharius, though the death is strongly corroborated by Omegon's response. So unless Alpharius used a body double to trick Rogal Dorn AND ''his own twin'' into thinking he was dead and allowed Omegon to take his place and identity permanently; there isn't any hard evidence to suggest that the dead "Alpharius" was anything other than the actual Primarch, but knowing the Alpha Legion that doesn't mean too much without definitive proof.
**'''Omegon''' reluctantly took Alpharius' identity after he sensed he was dead, and his legion a bee-line for Ultramar after the Horus Heresy, where he met his end after dueling [[Roboute Guilliman|Big Bobby G]]. However, because the rest of the Alpha Legionaries did not break even after the death of their primarch ''(in fact they managed to beat the Ultramarines in the conflict altogether);'' nobody could truly confirm if they did indeed kill the real deal, or if it was a body double.
**While it's been established that a decent amount of Alpha Legionnaires were surgically altered to resemble their Primarch and even ''believe'' they were Primarchs themselves; that and the figurehead role of "Alpharius" has been largely interchangable between both the twins and their sons, which makes sense for a legion whose MO is flexible leadership. While we can be reasonably certain that at least one of the twins is dead, whatever "Omegon-Alpharius" or at least whichever person who thinks he's Alpharius have been up to following the Heresy is a matter of fierce debate and speculation.
**One warband of the Alpha Legion believes that Omegon is still alive in the 42nd millennium and somehow certain elements of the Necron knows where he is. And there is that one big guy in scaled armor trapped in Trayzn's toybox...

===Loyalists===
[[File:Imperium-good-ending.jpg|350px|thumb|right|If GeeDubs ever dared to make a multiple outcome final campaign World of Darkness style this will probably be the Golden Ending while respecting all the current canon material.]]
*It is believed by Mortarion that they are now returning to realspace.
*'''Ferrus Manus''' was killed by Fulgrim during the Drop Site Massacre. His body was not recovered, so some Iron Hands think he might still be alive, and for a time it seemed like he did survive. However, Vulkan later exposed the "Ferrus Manus" leading the remaining Iron Hands as a marionette-like machine with one of the Primarch's hands attached to it, destroying the fake soon afterwards. The fact that Ferrus was decapitated by Fulgrim after being defeated and had his head delivered to Horus makes this claim fairly dubious. Just don't say that to the Iron Hands, though. Unless you want free open-heart surgery from a ceramite and steel power fist. Fulgrim did try to clone him (several times) in the hope one of them would join the traitors, but every clone so far has refused and been subsequently killed by him. An apparition of an iron handed giant - the 10th son - was seen leading the charge in an army of human souls against an army of daemons when the Emperor entered the Webway).
*'''Sanguinius''' was killed by Horus. His body was recovered, and he's the only Primarch who doesn't have any legends about returning, though there are some theories on the identity of the [[Sanguinor]] which were later proven <s>incorrect</s> half correct (he is able to manifest Sanguinius to Dante during the events of the Dark Imperium). Sanguinius foresaw his death and accepted it as a necessary sacrifice for the future of the Imperium, in no small part because his visions also warned him that he would only survive the Horus Heresy by becoming corrupted himself. The trauma of his death by the Talon of Horus left a psychic manifestation of him still on the Vengeful Spirit. As of late it turns out his soul has been wandering the warp ever since, only deciding to make himself known to revive Commander [[Dante]] when he ended up as [[Swarmlord]]-shishkebab after realizing that you really don't want to get into melee with the Swarmlord a little too late (Dante being Dante, he still managed to banish it to the Hive Mind, showing just how bloody exceptional you have to be for Sanguinius to bother interfering).
*'''Lion El'Jonson''' returned to Caliban only to discover <s>that his friend Luther had stabbed him in the back.</s> THAT LUTHER HAD A PLANET-WIDE PARTY AND EVENTUALLY PASSED OUT INTO A COMA AFTER DRINKING 200 TANKARDS OF SPACE WOLF-GRADE ALCOHOL. He sleeps deep within the Rock, originally on life support and now fully-healed (but none of the Dark Angels seem to know this). Perhaps this is a sign of a coming advancement of the storyline, DUN DUN DUN!
*'''Jaghatai Khan''' disappeared into the Webway after chasing a group of Dark Eldar. The White Scars think he will return someday, and when you consider the fact that time is just as weird there as it is in the rest of the Warp, there is a small possibility he's still around.
*'''Leman Russ''' disappeared into the Eye of Terror but promised the Space Wolves that he would return for the Final Battle. Magnus appears to know where he is now, but he sure as hell isn't telling the Space Wolves. Reports during the Thirteenth Black Crusade claim that a figure matching Russ's description was seen leading the 13th Great Company have surfaced, but were never verified. Numerous crusades by the Space Wolves to find Russ have resulted in failure, although they did find <s> his armor in a shrine of Khorne in the Eye</s> an armor believed to be his in the Temple of Horus on Rudra - so either he succumbed to Chaos, was killed by a Khorne champion, devolved into wulfen, or is [[Conan the Barbarian|currently pillaging The Warp as a muscle-bound, half-naked barbarian hero]].
*'''Rogal Dorn''' disappeared during a [[Black Crusade]] in a desperate ship boarding action. Only his severed hand was recovered and its skeleton enshrined. Debate rages about whether the Zerg rush of World Eaters killed him, or whether he's still out there, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIJTvEo4N4Q murdering his way through traitors with an Astartes-pattern shotgun and a chainsword grafted where his hand used to be]. Original 40K novels stated his entire skeleton was on display on Terra, but it's been retconned to only his hands. Still, a Primarch without a skeleton would be bad-ass, if not a little amusing.
*'''Roboute Guilliman''' was formerly preserved in a stasis field, seconds from death after he was poisoned by Fulgrim. Fast-forward a few thousand years and some Eldar flubdubbery, however, and Big Bobby G is back in action, and he's mad at the current state of the Imperium. After a private meeting with the Emperor, he assumed direct command of the Imperium itself as Lord Commander of the Imperium. When he isn't curb-stomping traitors to death or otherwise trying to keep the Imperium afloat, Guilliman is busy re-vamping the Imperium with numerous reforms in an attempt to realize his father's dream for humanity. Needless to say; a lot of people are unhappy about this, but they can't exactly tell off one of the Emperor's actual sons and expect not to be on the business end of a Custodes guardian spear. He's also taken the time to rewrite the Codex Astartes as well.
*'''Vulkan''' got the shit kicked out of him during the Drop Site Massacre, whereupon his fluff gets a bit hazy:
**The old ''Codex: Space Marines'' states that his body was never found, only a book containing only the names of nine powerful relics and a bunch of annoying riddles as to where they might be found, penned by Vulkan himself. In the 41st millennium, the Salamanders believe that he is still alive and that collecting the nine relics - they've found five so far - will reveal his location.
** In the Black Library novels, starting with ''Vulkan Lives'' the big V had to be dragged into a Thunderhawk in bloody tatters. Kurze captured him and tortured him to death... repeatedly; as a [[Perpetual]], Vulkan would not stay dead. After an indeterminate amount of time and deaths, Vulkan managed to escape by teleporting himself into orbit around Macragge and reentering its atmosphere. When he recovered and learned that Kurze was planetside, he [[Rage|flipped out]] and went after him. A well-meaning Perpetual stabbed him with a fulgurite (a spearhead-shaped piece of stone that contains a bit of the Emperor's power), hoping to either cure his madness or kill him for good. Now apparently dead, Vulkan was put in a stasis capsule inscribed with the words "Unbound Flame," with an honor guard of Salamanders until his remains could be returned to Nocturne. As of the end of ''Deathfire'', he somehow managed to return to life again, although there's no indication as to whether or not he's still a Perpetual. As of the War of the Beast, he's still alive in M.32, after the wounding of Guilliman. He's apparently been wandering the Imperium for a millennium fulfilling his own oaths, but returns to Terra to take command and reclaim Ullanor from the united Ork race. Even with one of the greatest forces assembled since the Horus Heresy, with the remnants of the VII Legion Chapters, the fight devolved to Vulkan facing off with The Beast one-on-one, and sacrificing himself in The Beasts temple-gargant's core detonating it with both himself and The Beast inside it. Whether both of them died is highly unlikely. He hints that Dorn is also alive, meaning he is either privy to some secret information, doesn't know of his brother's death, or is going insane.
**The 8th Edition Codex reconcile these stories somewhat, by claiming that sources within the Salamanders themselves believe Vulkan led them for three millennia ''(which accounts for his appearance during the War of the Beast)'', sometimes falling in battle but apparently always returning ''(also accounting for his perpetual status)''. He eventually disappeared on some final undocumented mission, not without leaving his Tome of Fire and bequeathing his personal artefacts to the chapter but not actually saying where they were, giving rise to the legend that if they are all found he will then return.
*'''Corvus Corax''' disappeared into the Eye of Terror as an atonement for putting down the mutant hordes he created in trying to create Space Marines out of desperation. Quoth the Raven: "Nevermore." Beyond the Imperium's eyes, his wraith-slip powers began to mutate and he became a shadowy shapeshifter hellbent on killing all his traitor brothers. Corax was last seen beating Lorgar's ass so hard that the useless fuckwit had to run with his tail between his legs. Yeah, he beat a Daemon Primarch (who had Chaos Marine and likely daemon backup) into up and running, while Corax himself was on his own. Basically the battle between Guilliman and Magnus on Luna, in reverse. Eat it, Papa Smurf.

==Two Missing Primarchs | The Forgotten & The Purged==
Who are the two missing Primarchs, you ask? [[Sigmar|Sigmar Heldenhammer]] and [[Archaon The Everchosen: Lord of the End of Times; Chaos Incarnate; Herald of the Apocalypse|Archaon]] (depending on how WHFB fits in with 40K, if it does). Or maybe (per /tg/ canon) [[Rachnus Rageous]] and [[Tialoc Ekans]]. [[Samus]] and [[Berserk|Guts]] are also contenders, and many Bolter and Chainsword regulars consider Icarion and his Lightning Bearers to be their headcanon II Legion.

The Legions in question are the Legio II (Second Legion) and the Legio XI (Eleventh Legion).

What, you wanted a serious answer?

Okay, fine. Nobody really knows. It is very intentional that no lore exists about these two legions, making them completely unknown. References to their existence are common in canon, but no details are ever explicitly mentioned. This is a feature of the lore, an intentionally kept mystery whose details provide more questions than answers. What has been established is that they got killed for some reason and the existence of their Legions was wiped from record by the Emperor. [[Malcador the Sigillite]] claims that the Primarchs had been manipulated from the start, and were to be maneuvered into their proper roles prior to the Horus Heresy and those which would not be manipulated would be removed. Although Malcador's own testimony is tainted by the fact that he later admits he had to lie, though many of his statements do mirror what we have seen from the Emperor's own statements.

[[Games Workshop]] have mentioned Primarchs besides the eighteen above on other occasions, but they backtracked since. Back in the [[Rogue Trader|first edition]] of [[Warhammer 40,000]], all twenty [[First Founding]] Chapters were known, as were their Primarchs (though, at the time, the Primarch was just the first Chapter Master). Of these, the [[Valedictors]] and [[Rainbow Warriors]] were declared in a later [[White Dwarf]] to have been founded after the [[Second Founding]].

Later, in the short story '''Hell in a Bottle''' from the novel Into the Maelstrom, a chapter known as the Iron Hearts get fucked over by a [[Chaos Lord]]. The short story also mentions that the Chapter has a Primarch known as Rubinek. Of course, this was just a huge cock-up on the author's part, who himself admitted that he meant Chapter Master.

=== The [REDACTED] Event ===

*'''The First Heretic''' shows that by the Razing of Monarchia (43 years before the Isstvan V Drop Site Massacre of 006.M31), the II and XI Legions had already been stricken from the records. It also states that the remaining Primarchs had to swear an oath never to speak of their missing brothers and that the missing Primarchs' corresponding legions were personally purged by the Emperor, so it had to have been something extraordinarily bad. However, Lorgar still remembers something about them, saying "I still remember how they-", before Magnus cut him off. Lastly, it is revealed that the Emperor had considered purging Lorgar and the Word Bearers (making them the third legion to be purged) for starting a religion around him, but Russ had talked him out of it. #BlameLemanRuss
*In '''The Lightning Tower''' Rogal Dorn says that the lost Primarchs' disappearances were "separate tragedies", so it seems like they disappeared in two different incidents.
*In '''Descent of Angels''', which takes place as of the time Lion El'Jonson had been rediscoverd, Chief Librarian Israfael tells the then initiate, Zahariel El'Zurias, that the Lion has 19 brothers; indicating that as of that time they had not committed whatever atrocity lead to their demise. This also means that the existence of the Primarchs was not a secret among the Imperium.
*In '''Dark Imperium''', Roboute Guilliman declares "I was one of twenty. Two failed. Half the rest turned on my Father." This suggests that the downfall of the two lost primarchs was not a result of them betraying the Emperor. Instead their demise was a result of them "failing" their purpose as primarchs and being terminated as a result. Interestingly this line also seems to imply that it is no longer forbidden to speak of the two missing primarchs in the 42nd milenium, as Guilliman casually references them to make a point about primarchs being fallible. (The 2021 revision of the book adds a bit more to this; it looks like the Imperium has covered up the fact that there were even two deleted Legions and Primarchs in the first place.)
*'''The Chamber at the End of Memory''' has Rogal Dorn note that he was one of the few Primarchs who ever met with the II and XI Primarchs. It also reveals that not only was the entire Imperium forbidden to speak of the missing Primarchs' existence, but every non-Primarch save for Malcador who had ever interacted with them was mind-wiped so they would remember nothing about them - including their own gene-sons, presumably other than the fact that they were purged from all record and be left unable to speak even about that. Even the other Primarchs had their memories altered so they couldn't recall much more about their lost brothers beyond the fact that they existed - Dorn is dumbstruck by this discovery, and even more so when Malcador tells him that it was his own idea (and Roboute Guilliman's) to have his fellow Primarchs' memories altered. Malcador also states that '''whatever it was that the II and XI Primarchs did, it was against the very ideals of the Great Crusade and would have ruined everything the the Great Crusade had accomplished to that point.''' Their old living quarters in the Imperial Palace are protected by extremely powerful psychic wards, and when Malcador briefly restores Rogal Dorn's memories of them he realizes the '''''hateful truth'''. That '''the entire Horus Heresy up to the Siege of Terra was not so awful or threatening to the Imperium as what had happened to the Missing Primarchs'''; in fact, '''if they were still alive, the Imperium would have long since fallen'''.
*'''Deliverance Lost''' suggests that whatever happened to the missing Primarchs occurred sometime before the Emperor found Corvus Corax, as Corax asked the Emperor why there were only sixteen other Primarchs waiting for him if he was the nineteenth (it's unsure whether this was referring to him being the Primarch of the nineteenth Legion, or him being the nineteenth found); the Emperor avoided the question, claiming that "it would be a discussion for another day". This is no longer the case, somehow, as he is [[Retcon|now the third-to-last primarch found]], right before the second missing primarch.
*In '''Prospero Burns''', Leman Russ mentions that the Space Wolves had fought other Space Marines before the attack on Prospero, which may have something to do with the purge. A senior Space Wolf describes Russ' "wyrd" as being "the Emperor's executioner". Several books since have backed this up, though [https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/8q7qyg/the_space_wolves_what_were_they_really_for_little/e0hih9h/ ADB denies this].
*In '''Scars''' there's a reference to rumours and "whispers of past atrocities" that only a Primarch could kill another Primarch. Russ also turns up and talks a bit about fighting Magnus, and the resulting "shame". So if he's responsible for offing one or two of his brothers, they must've done something pretty fucking heinous.
*In '''The Dark King''', when asked if he will report the Night Lords for censure, Dorn remarks that he feared to add another empty statue to the Emperor's palace, implying that the missing legions were exterminated for committing severe atrocities.
*In '''The Last Council''' Malcador states that one of the missing Primarchs was '''fallen and disgraced'''. Alpharius mentions that one of the primarchs had died. While the lost Primarchs and their Legions were wiped before he was rediscovered, its Alpharius....you can't keep info like that from him.
*Their legions were purged in the times of the [[Rangdan Xenocides|Rangdan Wars]] they participated in.
*In '''The Wolftime''', which is set during the [[Indomitus Crusade]], two Adeptus Custodes are discussing the Space Wolves' resistance to their new [[Primaris Marine]] reinforcements. During the discussion, one of them, Hastius Vychellan, notes that, if [[Roboute Guilliman]] turned on the Emperor, the Space Wolves would be among his first opponents, as the Custodes' history with the Eleventh Legion demonstrates. The other, Maldovar Colquan, notes that this shared history is an example of how loyalty to the Emperor can be corrupted by lies and manipulation. It's quite vague, but the implication is obvious: someone manipulated the XI Legion into turning traitor without them realising it, and the Space Wolves (and likely the Custodes as well) went after them for it. The book doesn't say who manipulated them, but since Malcador mentions in ''The Chamber at the End of Memory'' that the lost Legions' Marines were spared and re-used after their deletion, but the Primarchs weren't, it's possible it was the XI Primarch.

=== Name of one of the missing Primarchs ===
*In '''The Last Council''', [[Horus]] (who had been outraged by the erasure of his brothers from Imperial records) struggles to mutter the name of one of the lost Primarchs while Malcador is using his psyker powers to seize his nerves so as to prevent him from saying it. '''Horus managed to say"M-Mal...al..."''', which pissed Malcador off to the point that it required Alpharius and the Khan to convince Malcador not to kill him outright. Obviously people looking for connections immediately found one in [[Malal]], the fact that hearing the name made Malcador remember something that stirred up a spiteful hate (Malal's primary emotional aspect), and the fact that Malal's favourite/sacred number is 11 (the number for one of the missing Legions, and the Roman numeral for "2" can be seen as two "1's,") there may be some circumstantial connection to the Anti-Chaos Chaos God (ignoring the fact that copyright caused GW to change Malal's name to Malice).

(50% Horus was just trying to say “Malcador” 50% Game's workshop is trolling us)

=== II Primarch ===
*The 2nd Primarch was the third Primarch rediscovered. After Leman Russ, but before Ferrus Manus.
*'''Fulgrim: The Palatine Phoenix''' mentions that the 2nd Legion's "normally contemplative", "quiet" and "humorless" Primarch had accused Fulgrim of arrogance for boasting he would bring a world under compliance with only eight total Astartes (& that Fulgrim considered the remark high hypocrisy, even bringing to mind the old adage of pots and kettles), which means that at least one missing Primarch was found early enough to have some kind of interaction with his brothers and make a contribution to the Great Crusade (being 3rd in line after Horus and Russ, actually). Considering how recent the encounter had apparently happened, and how Fulgrim refers to the Primarch as if he is still around, it appears that he was still very much active and un-purged at the time of the novel's events, although Fulgrim does not refer to him or his Legion by name (referring to him only as the "master of the Second" and "his brother").
*In '''Fabius Bile: Clonelord''', Flavius Alkenex mentions that Fulgrim once described one of the two (likely the 2nd since the 11th was almost last to be recovered) having made a pilgrimage to the Attila System of Ultima Segmentum to make an archaeological expedition inside the [[Necrons|Ymga Monolith]] for [[C'tan|unknown]] [[Heretek|reasons]] during the earliest days of the Great Crusade. Worth noting that "pilgrimage" has some pretty religious meaning's to it which is something the Emperor greatly and heavily frowned upon.

=== XI Primarch ===
*The 11th Primarch was nineteenth primarch rediscovered. After Corax, but before Alpharius Omegon.
*In '''The First Heretic''', when Argel Tal and the other Word Bearers are in the Emperor's gene-labs, they find the 11th's gestation pod. It is mentioned that the 11th was still "innocent and pure" prior to the Primarchs being scattered, although this was a vision given to the Word Bearers by a demon so take it with a grain of salt.
*In the 9th Edition of the Adeptus Custodes Codex, it is mentioned that the Dungeons and Vaults of the Imperial Palace contained many taboo and esoteric items and entities with Subject XI listed as one of them. Whether it's actually one of the Lost or a coincidence is an neverending debate.

=== The Lost Legions ===
*The Regimental Standard article '''Field Dressing a Lasgun Wound''' makes reference to the II and XI legions taking part in the Rangdan Xenocides, but cuts off before their names are given (though given the amount of whitespace between the word "the" and the end of the page, this would suggest at least one of them had a particularly long word in their name). Given it references the rank of "Warmaster", it means this was during the tail end of the war.
*'''The First Heretic''' specifies that the missing Legions were purged at least 43 years before the Drop Site Massacre, so we can conclude that neither one took part in the Horus Heresy. At the same time, members of the Word Bearers Seventh Company travelling through time with Ingethel the Ascended reveal rumors that the surviving members of the lost Legions were folded into the Ultramarines (their Chaplain thinks the rumor is a load of grox-shit, but their Captain does note that the Ultramarines are on record as receiving an increase in troops; however it should be noted that Ingethel is a Daemon Princess, and could easily have been bullshitting herself).
*In '''The Chamber at the End of Memory''', Malcador stated that when both the Primarchs were purged, it left their legions leaderless. Indicating that the the II and XI legions were around when both Primarchs did the thing. And that Dorn and Guilliman had spoken up to convince him that just purging the two lost legions completely would be a waste of good soldiers. Instead, Dorn and Guilliman created the plan to wipe the Legions' memories, and have them put to use elsewhere. While it is not actually said where they wound up, beyond Malcador saying that he ensured they were "attuned to new circumstances", it is possible that Dorn and Guilliman had the Marines integrated into their own legions. If true, this may support the fanon explanation of the [[Rainbow Warriors]] and [[Valedictors]] existence.
*In '''Fear To Tread''', Sanguinius admits to Horus that he had not told the Emperor about the Red Thirst because he feared that the Emperor would purge the Blood Angels in the same way as the missing Legions, indicating that some form of gene-seed flaw caused at least one of the Legions to be purged.
*'''Visions of Heresy - Book One''' has a pictographic list of all the original legions. Interestingly, the II Legion pict-capture is labeled "-ERROR #CDIV- file not found", while the XI Legion pict-capture is labeled "-CENSORED- by Imperial decree". This seems to indicate that the XI Legion was merely censored, while the records of the II Legion were wiped entirely. ‘Error #CDIV’ is a play on Error 404 using Roman Numerals.

=== Known Timeline ===
*'''792.M30''', the Primarchs were created . The 11th is still "innocent and pure". The Primarchs are scattered.
*'''798.M30''', The Great Crusade began.
*The 2nd Primarch is found and reunited. He is the 3rd Primarch found, after Horus and Russ.
*Sometime during the early years of the Great Crusade, the 2nd Primarch leads an expedition to the Ymga Monolith in the Attila System of the Ultima Segmentum.
*After the discovery of Guilliman, the (then) 8 found Primarchs all met up. The 2nd accused Fulgrim of hubris. Fulgrim feels the 2nd was guilty of the same and called him out on hypocrisy.
*Magnus is found and all (then) 9 found Primarchs meet up.
*Around the time Lion El Johnson (11th to be found) was discovered, the two lost Primarchs had not yet done whatever made them get un-personed.
*'''Between the 890s.M30 - 930s.M30''', both the 2nd and 11th Legions were deployed along with the Solar Auxillia to the Rangdan Xenocides. This is the last recorded action of either Legion. ''Something'' happened to them during this war. An Alpharius (who may or may not be THE Alpharius) met Lion and offered to manage the mess here in his stead. Clearly any non-Primarch person can just march in to meet Lion and ask to take away his job!
*'''approx. 898.M30''' Corax, the 18th Primarch discovered, is found "around a century" after the start of the Great Crusade.
*'''Between 898.M30 - 963.M30''', the 11th Primarch is discovered. At some point he is reunited with his legion.
*The information of the lost Primarchs and their Legions is wiped, leaving Alpharius as the only non-lost Primarch to not see all others at least once (if the Rangda's Alpharius is someone else entirely) .
*'''981.M30''' Alpharius Omegon is discovered and (or at least) given leadership of the XX Legion (the at least is because Horus found him/them first and took a while to tell others this).
*'''Between 981.M30 - 000.M31''' Horus confronts Malcador about the destruction of the lost Primarch's statues in the Reliquary. Attempts to say one of their names out of spite for Malcador, is force choked and can only get out an approximation of "Malal."
*'''000.M31''', Magnus mentions its the first time since [REDACTED] '''9''' Primarchs have met up in one place. Its likely that Magnus wanted to say something like "Since the 2nd was with us.".

=== Other Info ===
Lion El'Jonson wouldn't lead the fight against the Rangdan xenos until 890s.M30, and not until the 6th year of his involvement did the title of "Warmaster" get thrown around. Adding this to the document in "Field Dressing a Lasgun Wound", means that the 11th Legion's participation in the Rangdan Xenocides didn't happen until at least 8 years after Lion El'Jonson took the helm. The Xenocide would end by 930s.M30, meaning the 11th only participated in the war for a possible 32 to 42 years. The Horus Heresy didn't begin until 005.M31, and the 2nd and 11th had been expunged and condemned 43 years before the Dropsite Massacre which occurred at 006.M31, disproving the dates 965.M30 & 969.M30 as being the period where they were exterminated by the Space Wolves. By the time the Rangdan Xenocides ended, there would have been a possible 23 to 33 year gap between 930s.M30, the end of the Xenocides, and 963.M30 for them to have committed whatever atrocity called for damnatio memoriae, assuming it didn't occur during the Xenocides.

Considering that the 2nd was around for at least a century with no issues before the 11th showed up and they both got expunged three decades after the end of the Rangdan Xenocide, it's a strong possibility that [[that guy|the 11th was the ring leader of the two & dragged the 2nd Primarch down with him]].

Out of universe, [[Rick Priestley]] admitted that the unknown legions were supposed to be a reference to the three Roman legions wiped out in the [[Wikipedia: Battle of the Teutoburg Forest| Battle of the Teutoburg Forest]], whose numbers were never reused after they were slain to a man by Germanic barbarians as well as add an air of mystery and strangeness to the setting, that it had been so long since the primarchs and their full legion were around that people had entirely forgot about them .Nowadays, it doesn't even really let people do much with homebrew fluff since the setting has developed in such a way that it's almost impossible for someone to connect a homebrew chapter to the missing primarchs without getting laughed out of their [[Local Game Store]]. If you play in the privacy of your own home, however, there's nothing stopping you and your friends from nailing it down and having your Self-Insert Primarchs show up and give the Imperium a Noblebright/even GRIMDARKER (Delete as appropriate) kick in the ass.

It seems likely, given the frequent references to betrayal relating to these two Primarchs, that the Lost Primarchs did something rebellion-related or perhaps [[Imperium Secundus|tried to carve out their own empires]]. Perhaps they realized that there could be peaceful coexistance with the [[Xenos]] (as was the case of the [[Interex]]), and ended up thinking the Imperium was Evil. Either way, they did something massively damaging (or nearly pulled something off) that would have crippled the Imperium for its myriad enemies to finish off. A possible hint at the cause of their descent is mentioned in ''Extermination'' in the section regarding the Alpha Legion of all groups. Three incidents, all [REDACTED] in name, tell us that one Legion had a problematic source for its recruitment. Specifically, a [[Heresy|''potentially tainted'']] source. Although not said in sequential order, one Legion was deemed to have failed the qualification to be a Legion since it did not have enough marines to be combat effective. Lastly, a place called "Labryk Polaris" and another redacted incident point at attempts to replicate or even supersede the Emperor's gene-craft. Combining all of these cases, it's clear that one Legion had severe issues with their gene seed and their primary recruitment world. This led to said Legion failing the rudimentary testing regiment that all legions undergo. From there, the Primarch in question must have performed a few [[Daemonculaba|experiments in how to create more marines]]. Whatever the result, the Emperor clearly did [[*BLAM*|not like it.]]

It should further be noted that, in the 42nd Millennium, when asked why there were 11 symbolic chairs rather than 9 for the Primarchs, Guilliman replies something along the lines of "Of the 20, two failed and half the rest turned on my father", explicitly distinguishing this "failure" from heresy/treason, hence the reasoning in keeping ceremonial seating for them out of honor. Of the 20 Primarch plinths on Terra, 9 were destroyed but 2 were covered up. So it might be that they weren't traitors, but went '''TOO FAR'''(given that this is the Imperium of Man, the height of human Grimdark, that is not a good thing), perhaps by, for example, becoming a Chaos-fighting Chaos God (if true, It's likely that Malal would see it as the ''Imperium'' having betrayed ''him,'' explaining why he later decided to take the [[Sons of Malice]] under his wing). However, the memories of all the Primarchs regarding the two abolished legions were altered by Malcador, thus making Guilliman's input unreliable.

=== Where Are The Lost Legions Now? ===

''Note: This assumes that the theory of the Imperial Fists and Ultramarines absorbing the II and XI Legions is correct.''

Assuming that the survivors of the II and XI legions were mind-wiped and assimilated into the Imperial Fists and Ultramarines in ''The Chamber at the End of Memory'' (despite common misconceptions online, anyone who actually read the story would know that it does ''not'' confirm this, even if it's a possibility), it raises the question of where, if anywhere, the descendants of the two legions are now. Given that the Ultramarines are the progenitors of the majority of Space Marine chapters in the galaxy, and there is precident for chapter that are 'offically' Ultramarine to have gene-seed of the Tratior Legions, that leaves a lot of options. Even having the founder of the chapter appear in the [[Horus Heresy]] series is no guarantee that the chapter isn't descended from one of the lost legions, since the members of the chapter wouldn’t even know themselves. By the end of the Horus Heresy the only person who knew which marines were and weren't descended from the Lost Legions would be Rogal Dorn, and it looks like he took the secret to...wherever he went. As of ''Dark Imperium'', the one person who knows even part of the contents of the gene-seeds for these legions is [[Belisarius Cawl]], who most likely used what samples he had of these gene-seeds (as well as un-chaosified gene-seeds of the other eight) to raise additional [[Primaris Marines|super-space marines]] despite Guilliman's insistence to not entertain such notions. As with the original legions, these new marines and the chapters they eventually formed were equally dispersed among the official gene-lineages with no evidence of their true heritage being apparent.

The obvious place to start looking for successor chapters of the lost legions is any chapter that seems to deviate a bit too far from the behavior of their supposed primarch and First Founding chapter. The [[Mortifactors]] and [[Doom Eagles]] are two such candidates, given that they don’t behave anything like [[Roboute Guilliman]] and the Ultramarines. Especially given that the II Primarch was described by [[Fulgrim]] as “normally contemplative”, “quiet”, and “humorless”. It would also explain why the [[Soul Drinkers]] believed themselves to be descendants of the Imperial Fists despite later being shown to not have Dorn’s geneseed, despite having a weapon gene-coded to the Soul Drinkers. The fact that the Soul Drinkers rejected the authority of the [[High Lords of Terra]] and fought for the common good of humanity rather than the Imperium itself also fits well with fan theories of one of the lost primarchs being a humanitarian who either believed coexistence with xenos was possible or rejected the Imperium for being just another tyrannical regime and unlike Jaghatai couldn't take the hypocrisy for the common good in the face of survival necessities against Chaos.

Then, of course, there is the elephant in the room, the red-headed stepchild of the Imperial Fists, [[Sigismund]] and the [[Black Templars]]. The Black Templars are about as un-Imperial Fist-like as it is possible to be, Imperial Fists being siege specialists who tend towards stoicism and prefer to dig in and defend until the last man, whereas the Black Templars are hyper-aggressive, always crusading, rarely if ever man any fortifications (they don't even have a homeworld, just maintaining a chapter keep on every world they liberate), and are known for their hatred of psykers and extreme piousness, something that is not really seen in the other Imperial Fist descendants. Though Dorn has been shown to have quite the well of rage himself. And, of course, [https://youtu.be/0Vh_N8CpcL0?t=1207 they do not have "fist" in their name]. A lot of attention is paid on Sigismund obsessive desire for Dorn's paternal favor, and there is a brief moment of attention paid to the fact that Sigismund offered to personally tear down the statues of the II and XI primarchs on Terra, sayng they are traitors and did not deserve to be remembered. Dramatic irony perhaps? There's also parallels to Sigismund's IRL namesake, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigismund,_Holy_Roman_Emperor#King_of_Hungary| whose father died when he was young, was basically adopted by King Louis the Great of Hungary and Poland, and ended up becoming king of Hungary]. Dorn even says in a moment of anger that Sigismund is “not his son, and never will be”. Regrettable statement made in a moment of anger? Or a subconscious Freudian slip?

Finally, the retconned OG first founding [[Rainbow Warriors]] and [[Valedictors]] are theorized to be lost legion loyalists too.

However, it should be noted that a Chapter's culture, tactics, and temperament aren't necessarily determined by ancestry. Deviations might just be a sign of a Chapter's circumstances affecting its internal culture and structure (e.g. the [[Red Scorpions]]' genetic purity leading to even more extreme xenophobia and intolerance of corruption than usual, and their Apothecaries being given authority than in most Chapters), or of a homeworld culture displacing that of the Chapter's founders (something that is discussed when [[Uriel Ventris]] fights alongside the [[Mortifactors]] in one of the Ultramarines novels). Even heritable traits might be lost, gained, become exaggerated, or otherwise change over time, due to mutation or [[Cursed Founding|genetic tampering]]. Applying Occam's Razor would lead one to conclude that most of the weirder Chapters' origins are probably [[Ultramarines|quite]] [[Imperial Fists|boring]], too, since Lost Legion heritage raises just as many questions as it answers, if not more.

==Rules on the Tabletop==
Thanks to Forge World, not only do we have models for the Primarchs, but rules as well. As you can guess, they are ungodly death machines who can easily win their points back and more. That's not to say they're invincible, though; they can still be killed if you screw up badly enough. Do be sure to see [[Primarchs in 8th Edition]] and the google drive link on that page as well, should you want to play 30k using the modern rule set. All currently released Primarchs have the following statlines:
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" align="left" class="wikitable sortable"
! || WS || BS || S || T || W || I || A || Ld || Sv || Invul || ML || Points
|-
| '''[[Horus]]''' || 8 || 5 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 5+1 || 10 || 2+ || 3++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 500
|-
| '''[[Angron]]''' || 9 || 5 || 7 || 6 || 5 || 7 || 6(10)|| 10 || 3+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 400
|-
| '''[[Fulgrim]]''' || 8 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 8 || 5 || 10 || 2+ || 5++/3++ in CC || data-sort-value=0 | || 380
|-
| '''[[Mortarion]]''' || 7 || 5 || 6 || 7 || 7 || 5 || 5 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 425
|-
| '''[[Ferrus Manus]]''' || 7 || 6 || 7 || 7 || 6 || 5 || 4+1 || 10 || 2+ || 3++ || data-sort-value=0 | || data-sort-value=455 | 455 or steal his hammer for 415
|-
| '''[[Konrad Curze]]''' || 8 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 5+1 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 435
|-
| '''[[Vulkan]]''' || 7 || 5 || 7 || 7 || 6 || 5 || 4 || 10 || 2+ || 3++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 425
|-
| '''[[Lorgar]]''' || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 5 || 6 || 4+1 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=2.5 | 2 or 3 || data-sort-value=375 | 375 or Chaosify him for 450
|-
| '''[[Perturabo]]''' || 8 || 6 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 5 || 4 || 10 || 2+ || 3++ || data-sort-value=0 | || data-sort-value=455 | 455 or give him Forgebreaker for 490
|-
| '''[[Rogal Dorn]]''' || 8 || 5 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 5 || 4 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 385
|-
| '''[[Corvus Corax]]''' || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6/5 || 7 || 6/5 || 10 || 2+/3+ || 5++ || data-sort-value=0 | || data-sort-value=450 | 450 or fuck him over for 350
|-
| '''[[Alpharius]]''' || 7 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 5 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || data-sort-value=415 | 415''.... or is it?''
|-
| '''[[Roboute Guilliman]]''' || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 4+1 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 400
|-
| '''[[Roboute Guilliman]] (40k, 7e)''' || 9 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 10 || 2+ || 3++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 350
|-
| '''[[Magnus the Red]]''' || 7 || 5 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 4 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || 5 || 495 or charge up for 670
|-
| '''[[Magnus the Red]] (Daemon, 40k 7e)''' || 7 || 7 || 8 || 7 || 7 || 7 || 6 || 10 || 4+ || 4++ || 5 || 650
|-
| '''[[Leman Russ]]''' || 9 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 6 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 455
|-
| '''[[Jaghatai Khan]]''' || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 8 || 6+1 || 10 || 2+ || 5++/3++ in CC || data-sort-value=0 | || 385 or give him a bike for 460
|-
| '''[[Lion El'Jonson]]''' || 8 || 5 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 5(7) || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 460
|-
| '''[[Sanguinius]]''' || 9 || 5 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 6 || 10 || 2+|| 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 485
|}<br style="clear: both; height: 0px;" /><br>
*'''Special Rules (not counting the ones specific for each Primarch)'''
**''Primarch''
***''Adamantium Will''
***''Independent Character''
***''Eternal Warrior''
***''Fear''
***''Fleet''
***''Fearless''
***''It Will Not Die''
***''Master of the Legion''
***''Precision Shots''
***''Precision Strikes''
**''Sire of the [Legion]''

As of 8th edition (special rules not included):
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" align="left" class="wikitable sortable"
! || M || WS || BS || S || T || W || A || Ld || Sv || Points/Power level
|-
| '''[[Roboute Guilliman]]''' || 8" || 2+ || 2+ || 6 || 6 || 9 || 6 || 10 || 2+/3++|| 360/18||data-sort-value=0 |
|-
| '''[[Magnus the Red]]''' || 16 || 2+ || 2+ || 8 || 7 || 18 || 7 || 10 || 3+/4++ || 445/21||data-sort-value=0 |
|-
| '''[[Mortarion]]''' || 12 || 2+ || 2+ || 8 || 7 || 18 || 6 || 10 || 3+/4++ || 470/24|| data-sort-value= 0 |
|}<br style="clear: both; height: 0px;" /><br>

Each of them have one or two close-combat weapons, all of which are AP2 or 1, backed by some decent gun to lay some dakka down while they run to the glorious melee. Their Primarch rule acts like a big bundle of USRs wrapped up together in one package, and as ICs they can join squads as well (though most of the Primarchs are better run solo). Each of them have a page worth of special rules and unique wargear, both of which can be stupidly powerful to the point of broken, but that's OK since even the cheapest of the Primarchs costs no less than 350 points and eats an extremely valuable Lord of War slot that might otherwise be spent on a [[Thunderhawk]] or a [[Fellblade]].

===Pimpin Rides===
Also worth mentioning, that Perturabo and Rogal Dorn are special enough to get their own personal special/unique vehicle, other primarchs may get their own vehicles in the future (who knows?). However, rules dictate that neither vehicle can be taken in games under 3000 points. Meaning you can only use it in 3000+ matches.

*'''Perturabo''' gets to ride in ''The Tormentor'', a Shadowsword with the Command Tank upgrade. Not only that, but Perturabo is so awesome, he managed to somehow give it 15 troop capacity, meaning it can take 12 Power Armoured dudes + himself, or 6 Terminators for his bodyguard. But, it doesn't stop there! It also has a single Void Shield! It costs 25pts more than a normal Shadowsword with the same upgrades, but following FAQs it also has BS4, free sponsons, and gains Tank Hunters/Monster Hunters any time it fires all its guns at one target.
*'''Rogal Dorn,''' on the other hand, gets a customised Thunderhawk Gunship, the ''Ætos Dios''. This ship has Turbo Laser as standard, plus a single Void Shield to protect it, it also has It Will Not Die so can regenerate some of its hull points and finally it ALSO has a 4+ invulnerable save against missiles, all on top of being a flyer which means you can only snap-shot at it, all for the bargain cost of 600 points - which is actually 175 points CHEAPER than a normal Legion Thunderhawk with a Turbo-Laser, though you obviously still have to pay for Dorn.
*'''Jaghatai Khan''' gets his own bitching jetbike: the Sojutsu Pattern Voidbike. It has two master crafted heavy bolters, ups his toughness to 7 and lets him do d3 hammer of wrath attacks, strangely enough though, it also costs him -1I.

==Douchebagginess==
It is well known that most of the primarchs were douchebags to varying degrees.

From least to most douchebag. Note, the scale really drops off into [[dick|'''fucking''' douchebag]] after Jaghatai, and straight-up villain after Fulgrim and '''FUCKING CUNT''' after Lorgar. Also, depending on what they did, the Lost Primarchs may be even worse than all actions depicted here. Generally speaking, we'll be grading these guys on their personalities, treatment of their legion and others, and their motives and reasons for their actions. Also, we'll be adding more weight to their actions during the Great Crusade rather than the Heresy, not many Primarchs had a clear head during the Age of Darkness. Keep in mind that, as charismatic and badass as they may be, the Primarchs are responsible for a level of warmongering and genocide that would appall even the worst of Earth's dictators. How they feel about these atrocities, and why they did it (is it grim necessity, standard Imperial procedure or baseless sadism?) is what separates the [[Sanguinius|"good"]] from the [[Konrad Curze|"bad"]].

# '''The Nice Guys'''
## '''Vulkan''' - The least douchebaggy primarch by far. Vulkan routinely put the lives of him and his men on the line for the sake of the Imperial citizens. Vulkan would throw himself to the defence of a no name human tribe with the same ferocity and zeal as he would Terra itself. A total bro. Also was the largest, strongest Primarch (Ferrus' metal arms were determined as cheating, though according to the Khan, Mortarion was as strong or stronger) and held back in sparring for fear of hurting his brothers. His only real fault was that, despite his strong distaste for terror weapons, he had a thing for setting people on fire. The only times he was an asshole were when he forgot who he was due to Curze's torture driving him mad. Of course, he's still a Primarch and a '''fiery''' general, and he ''will'' leave you a pile of ash if you end up on his shitlist.
## '''Sanguinius''' - Despite some... [[Red Thirst|unorthodox tendencies]], he is reported as being the most charismatic of the Primarchs, perhaps second only to Horus. He is particularly noteworthy for how much he improved his legion. The Blood Angels before his arrival were so bloodthirsty and terrifying that even other Astartes looked askance at them. But Sanguinius took these butcherous vampires and taught them humility and nobility, and to put the well-being of humanity above any personal glory. They actually managed such a total 180 that they were, and still are, regarded as one of the most heroic, resplendent legions out of all of them. A pretty all-round nice guy, he was so naturally charming that he actually managed to get ''Jaghatai Khan'' of all people to laugh at a joke of his. He was also exceedingly humble despite being such a giga-chad, and often played the role of peacemaker between his more cantankerous brothers. He can lapse at times however, as seen in his treatment of Curze by denying him a chance of changing his fate & earning forgiveness, and he regrettably had to kill many of his Red-Thirsted men when they got too batshit even for him. Like Vulkan though, he can still be a ferocious force if riled up, he once beat the shit out of guy for daring to imply the Signus III campaign was a trap (it was, but he had no reason to suspect Horus at that point). Sanguinius's temper was actually such that Leman Russ cited the Angel as one of two Primarchs he didn't know if he could beat. Basically if you pissed him off, he turned into the Hulk.
## '''Magnus the Red''' - For his faults, Magnus was one of the nicest Primarchs right up there with Vulkan and Sanguinius. Before the whole Prospero thing, this guy's MO was all about the advancement of humanity: always trying the diplomatic approach to preserve what could be preserved, using shock and awe tactics to limit damage when fighting, happily taking remembrancers along his legion (Although all remembrancers amongst the fellowship were psykers to some degree). Magnus was a friendly and open-minded idealist, which makes it all the more tragic when he gets deceived, framed, backstabbed and then coaxed into selling his soul to the [[Tzeentch|Cuttlefish of Keikaku]]. He is easily the most sympathetic of the traitors, considering he only joined them after being backed into a corner; had Jaghatai been at his side during and after Nikaea things might have turned out differently. He was also the only traitor Primarch who actually cared about his men, even after ascending to daemonhood. The novel ''Deathfire'' also ups his bro-ness quite a bit, as he proved himself the only traitor-aligned Primarch to ''sincerely'' do something very helpful for one of his loyalist brothers after the Horus Heresy was already in full swing. This "special favour" is made all the more striking given how it took place ''after'' Magnus had his adoptive homeworld burned out from under him. Perhaps his skin was red not only because of mutation, but because it also showed [[Lovedagger|the greatness of his heart]]? On the other hand, this was done by one of the fragments of Magnus that embodied his love for his gene-sons and fellow Primarchs (which ultimately self-destructed to keep the Crimson King from absorbing its power), so any hope that he kept that good heart died after Ahriman's failure at his Second Rubric on Prospero and when the Emperor offered him a chance to redeem himself as the Primarch of the nascent Grey Knights he threw it away. While his soul was still in one piece, Magnus's main character flaw was his arrogance. As in, this guy's ego had only two contenders in all the galaxy; the Emperor Himself, and Lion El'Jonson. Maybe Eldrad too. While he wasn't an in-your-face type like Fulgrim, Magnus and his Legion were still entirely convinced that they knew the Warp better than anyone else, which led to them disregarding many warnings and red flags that could've been avoided, leading almost directly to their awful, [[Rubric Marines|awful]] fates. It also caused him to have a complete blind spot where his own insufferability was concerned, as he genuinely believed himself to be the most intelligent of his brothers. This Sheldon Cooper-esque attitude caused many of the other Primarchs represented at the Council of Nikaea to wish Magnus personally rebuked despite their support of the Libraius initiative itself. When he learned of this, it appeared to have caught him completely off guard, and dismayed him tremendously. Also, Magnus wasn't ENTIRELY innocent as he had implanted sleeper agents and spies throughout the Imperium, ruining the lives of those brainwashed while betraying the trust of his brothers. Why he did this isn't exactly clear (it's very unlikely to be Chaos related) though it's most likely an attempt to obtain information and records his brother might otherwise destroy. Regardless however, his more questionable traits appeared not to have ever been the result of malice, but were instead a byproduct of his solipsism and thoughtlessness.
## '''Corax''' - Even after being raised under the tyranny of the Kiavahrans, he refused to take after their tyrannous ways, wanted to make things right, and asked the Emperor to end the civil war he started while liberating his homeworld of Lycaeus. Seeing the ruthless tendencies the Terran members of his legion had, he quietly shipped them way the fuck away from the rest of the Great Crusade to go fight xenos or had them all slaughtered during the Battle of Gate 42. He was also one of very few primarchs to readily admit his own mistakes, which were numerous and sometimes tragic. Developed a brutal habit of folding Chaos Space Marines into pretzels when shapeshifting into a tangible shadow during his hunt against his Daemon brothers Post-Heresy but left the slaves alone.
## '''Jaghatai Khan''' - Despite him being modeled after [[Genghis motherfucking Khan|the guy who holds the high score on raping and pillaging]], Jaghatai was actually very reasonable and [[Kharn|a pretty fun guy to be around]]. His main hobbies included [[Dark Eldar|raiding and jetbikes]], but he had an appreciation for [[Blood Angels|the fine arts]] as well. He was very good friends with Magnus and very pro-psyker. However he also kept his distance from pretty much everyone else, save Horus, not wanting to deal with other people's bullshit, unless they were really worth the effort - as the result very few people knew and trusted him (especially once [[Horus|most]] [[Magnus the Red|of]] his only bros turned traitor). He seemed to have something of a "live and let live" type philosophy, as after he conquered his home planet, he just kinda fucked off back to the Steppes with a warning to everyone not to piss him off too much. While the Khan didn't seem to care too much about the whole Great Crusade thing and spent most of his time doing his own thing, he never turned his back on the Imperium and sincerely believed in the idea of an Empire in the starry skies. And this was despite being the one of the few Primarchs to understand how bunked the whole [[Imperial Truth]] secular atheist propaganda really was (remember that the Chogorisian had Shamans, who also are the ones who select the White Scars' Chapter Master through mysterious initiatic trials); and of the Emperor himself he declared that he was "neither a monster nor a simpleton", mostly because he knew that [[Chaos]] was far worse (of course). So, the Emperor knew all along that the Khagan had his priorities right and would therefore not betray him, even when Malcador brought up the topic; and this was in spite of the personal relationship of father and son being explicitly awkward.
# '''The Competent Asshole Control Freak (Yes Guilliman needs his own category)'''
## '''Guilliman''' - R.G. is a jerk with a (or rather two) heart(s) of gold or a nice guy with a nasty mean streak, depending on how you look at him. Some people might say this dude was a statesman in the same vein as Augustus Caesar- he was great at building states and making life generally better for people, but only if you ignore the deported and murdered people who didn't agree 100% with the new regime. For somebody more reasonable, Guilliman was perhaps one of the most responsible and human among his brothers. He cared about the common man, personally planned post-war reconstruction and political integration into the Imperium of the planets he conquered and (unofficially) tolerated moderate presence of religion in Ultramar. But for sure the guy had a big ego, as he constantly spoke and behaved like he knew what was best for everyone, at least until proven wrong (multiple times). And you better not get on his shit list, although to be fair he was mostly a complete jerk with people he considers being [[Konrad Curze|psycho]] [[Angron|mass murderers]] with [[Perturabo|no respect for their own sons]] or [[Alpharius|civilian populations]]. And despite what [[Matt Ward|some people]] would have you believe, he knew he couldn't plan for every situation and expected people to use their own judgment rather than blindly follow his [[Codex Astartes|codex]]. Like Jaghatai Khan, we know Guilliman recognized that the Emperor was a horrible father (likely since he's one of the few among his brothers to have had actual decent adoptive parents) and that the ideals the Emperor espoused were far more important than the Emperor himself ever was, and after learning that his whole [[Imperium Secundus]] plan was based on bad assumptions he's been beating himself up about it all the way into the 42nd millennium. While he's grown more cynical since his revival and subsequent realization of how badly the Imperium had devolved in his absence, he has refused to abandon his noble ideals or his faith in humanity as a whole and has privately considered the possibility that in retrospect he had been overly dismissive of Lorgar's ideas about the Emperor's divinity. He also seems to be a bit more irritable than he used to be, but given [[Great Rift|his]] [[Age of the Dark Imperium|current]] situation it would be more surprising if that wasn't the case. Also, may have actually imprisoned [[Cypher]] and the Fallen so that the Emperor wouldn't discover [[Assholetep|who broke Lion El'Jonson's best sword]], ultimately causing him to die in battle in Emprah's mini-me's own pseudo Horus Heresy. Additionally, he has developed a legitimately unprecedented trait for a Primarch: that of sufficient self-awareness to not just recognize, but actually '''LEARN''' from his mistakes, such as during the Hexarchy coup attempt or not trying to secure Ultramar à la Imperium Secundus during the Terran Crusade.
# '''The Douches'''
## '''Horus''' - Pre-Heresy he was a surprisingly chill dude, except if you crossed his sensibilities. Was essentially flat-out stated to have been the most charismatic of his brothers, with the possible exception of Sanguinius. Unlike Sanguinius however, Horus's charisma was something he had deliberately cultivated rather than being a natural trait of his, which speaks volumes of his personality. He was also one of very few Primarchs who made a deliberate effort to ''not'' leave the planets he conquered as smoldering ruins, and had a personal philosophy that those the Imperium conquered "should be left better than we found them." Just to give you an idea of his character in the halcyon days, Horus ''killed Sanguinius'' but retains enough anti-douche credit to rank as the ''least'' douchey of The Douches. He was ''that'' nice before the Heresy. In fact were it not for the Heresy he would probably be in third place after Vulkan and Sanguinius. Got along well with both regular people and nearly all his brothers (Corax was seemingly the only Primarch who disliked him), but he gradually started treating some of them like shit after becoming Warmaster and resented the idea that he and his brothers would not be able to rule over the planets that they had conquered. His insecurities may have also made him vulnerable to the Dark Gods' lies when he received a vision of the Imperium 10,000 years into the future where the Emperor was worshiped as a god, he and many of his brothers were forgotten, and everything was Grimdark--a future that, unbeknownst to him, he would be directly responsible for creating specifically as a result of his own attempts to avert it. The whole [[Heresy]] thing just sort-of kills his position on the list. After going full Chaos, he rapidly became a much, much bigger dick.
## '''Rogal Dorn''' - Although one hell of a masochist, and at times thick-headed, he did see the idea behind the Imperium, and actually agreed with it. Honest and dependable, while Rogal didn't make for interesting conversation, he would always do his job without complaint. Had as much empathy and subtlety as one of his fortresses and ended up hurting a lot of people (mostly emotionally, but sometimes physically too) with his over-the-top brutal honesty. The prime example was when he betrayed Fulgrim's trust after they had a discussion regarding Konrad's visions, and provoked Curze into almost killing him. However, he could occasionally get quite philosophical, and is perhaps the only Primarch to admit that his own nature and power unsettled him.
## '''Leman Russ''' - Nowhere near as much of a dick as butthurt Magnus fanboys would have you believe. He was indeed savage and brutal, but ultimately always keeping the larger goal of betterment of humanity in sight and having good reasons for that myopia. Prone to picking fights with his brothers and destroyed Prospero under questionable circumstances. That said, he used the culture of his homeworld to give his Legion control over its savagery, and made the Space Wolves focus on protecting people from monsters instead of just butchering civilians. He did use terror tactics, mass killings, and the destruction of knowledge, but he did so out of loyalty to humanity and the Emperor, not just because he felt like it. Bottom line: Russ certainly had his fair share of flaws, but as belligerent and myopic as he could be he always tried to make the galaxy safe for humanity in the longer run. He was also capable of admitting to mistakes, which was uncommon amongst the Primarchs. During his fight with the Lion for instance, he started the brawl with the Lion over perceived kill stealing but after a while it dawned on him what an ass he was being, and he stopped fighting and burst out laughing at his own stupidity. He was ''awfully'' stubborn however, and as such this sort of thing didn't happen often.
## '''Ferrus Manus''' - A big dude with a penchant for bursts of choleric anger. Between his resting bitch face and his Social Darwinist ideals, he seems at first glance to be a natural candidate for a traitor. However, his honesty and loyalty to the Emperor mean he certainly wasn't as bad as Perturabo or Mortarion, and he did sincerely believe that weakness would cause the Imperium to collapse. He was... really a pain to deal with, however. Unlike, let's say, Dorn, who was only really mean when you made it on his shitlist, Ferrus was only nice to people who made it on his ''friends''list. Anyone else could, as far as he was concerned, either stay out of his way or get introduced to his fists. Most of the Loyalists and even some Traitors (at first) viewed the protection of the innocent as their goal, while Ferrus encouraged tactics that led to massive civilian casualties, and where Primarchs like Curze or Angron took Legions that were bad about mortal deaths and kept up such practices, Manus took a Legion that had tried to minimize mortal deaths and made them worse about it. All this said, he was loyal unto death to the Emperor's ideals and he also understood that his sons' fetish for cybernetics was beyond unhealthy and wanted to help them overcome it. His death ensured that last part would never happen, and indeed made them double down on their hatred of the flesh.
## '''Lion El'Jonson''' - The Lion was complex, to say the least. He had an arrogance that matched Magnus or Horus's worst moments combined with a difficult early life fighting Chaos beasts on Caliban. This "do-or-die" attitude spilled over into his interpersonal skills, hard. Too hard. Put simply, you had one chance with Johnson and if he ever decided you wasted it, then it was over and you went on his shitlist forever. The end result was a Primarch who was aloof and taciturn, whose poor communication skills made him unsuited to lead the Primarchs but whose ego made it impossible for him to accept the seniority of Horus or Russ. At the same time, there was a competitive, spiteful, and self-centered side to the Lion, which led him to execute one of his own Dark Angels over a conflict of authority and nearly kill Russ over an argument about kill-stealing. The Lion's own awe-inspiring presence, which was powerful enough to make Astartes from other legions literally drop to their knees when he crashed unannounced on a war-council aboard the Vengeful Spirit, didn't help his ego either. There's been speculation in-universe and out of it that he wasn't wholly loyal to the Emperor, but it has been made crystal clear in-universe that he personally was 100% loyal to Big E, and that the whole "muh secret traitors" thing is primarily due to a combination of bad luck and the Dark Angels already having a poor reputation. The Lion may also have been the most "douchey" of all the Primarchs who weren't outright evil at some point. For you see, many of the Primarchs had absolutely ginormous egos, but most of those who did also either possessed the people skills to hide it or were so charismatic that it just didn't matter. Fulgrim, Magnus, Guilliman, Alpharius, and especially Horus are notable examples of this tendency. As stated earlier, the Lion easily had one of the largest egos amongst all his brothers, matched perhaps only by Magnus, but since he had virtually no people skills he was unable to hide it very well. This resulted in him being the Primarch who was liked by the fewest of his brothers (he basically only got on with Jaghatai Khan). His ego cast such a long shadow over his achievements and ability to work with others that even though Guilliman considered the title of Warmaster a two-horse race between Horus and the Lion he still didn't include the latter amongst his Dauntless Few (a list that included Ferrus Manus of all people).
## '''Alpharius Omegon''' - Damned if anyone knows. You just can't trust that/those guy(s), which does make him/them a pretty big dick by default. The fallout from some of the Alpha Legion's Crusade-era shenanigans suggests a certain inclination to showing off at the expense of civilian lives, probably due to an enormous inferiority-superiority complex. Still, they rebelled under perhaps the best intentions among all the traitors with Alpharius at least recognising Chaos had to be defeated (we think- it's still ambiguous as to their end goals) Omegon is possibly a bit better, in that he wasn't willing to sacrifice all of mankind to do so (maybe). After Alpharius's probable death by Dorn at Pluto and Omegon taking his mantle to (allegedly) die at Guilliman's hands, the legion debatably turned into a schizophrenic monster, though this is better than what Fulgrim's actions turned his legion into by far. Alpharius himself (maybe) in his own memoirs presents himself as a tactician and combatant worthy of inclusion in the [[Reasonable Marines]], but who in person had a Lion-sized (hah) chip on his shoulder. Problem is that the memoir itself purports to be a lie, so who really knows.
## '''Fulgrim''' - Rather like Horus, Fulgrim was one of the Traitor Primarchs who started out as quite a kind fellow, and even [[Dawww|fondly remembers his foster parents as doing the best they could]]. Initially he was an incredibly idealistic artisan who wanted to help humanity improve to the absolute limits of its potential. He did this primarily by trying to be the best example of humanity he could be, and demanded the same of his sons. To their credit, they succeeded quite splendidly at this for the most part. Unfortunately he had a rather fragile ego which was probably due in large part by the fact that his legion was virtually non-existent when he came to command it. As such, he had the Primarch equivalent of a Napoleon complex due to the head start most of his brothers got on him, and as such could get fairly petulant if he was challenged in a personal way. This led to him ultimately having a somewhat elitist view of himself and his legion, and he could be a bit of a dick when it came to Astartes and mortals who failed to live up to his astronomically high standards, even before his fall. He also can't keep a secret, betraying Konrad Curze's trust and causing him to go nuts on Dorn's face. Other than Horus and Sanguinius, was the only Primarch to really get along with all his brothers (save Jaghatai, but that's his fault. Oh, and Mortarion thought he was a prancing idiot. And Fulgrim considered Russ a dumb hick. And he didn't seem to like the Second very much), and was BFFs with Ferrus Manus, of all people. That is, until he chopped his head off. Rude. Also took pride to the extremity of arrogance, hence his fall to Slaanesh. Interestingly, his bizarre fixation on friendship with Ferrus never left him, constantly cloning him with help of Fabius Bile and trying to win him over his side. Needless to say, he's failed thus far.
# '''The Self-righteous Jerk (Yes Lorgar needs his own category too)'''
## '''Lorgar''' - The dude who brought this whole fucking mess into fruition. If only he had strangled Erebus and Kor Phaeron at the first mention of Chaos. Instead he decided he was going to ruin everything for everybody because his daddy was a NAYtheist and none of the brothers really supported him. He started off as a well-intentioned idealist who sought to use what he knew best to uplift humanity, religion, before the Emperor's actions on Monarchia destroyed his psyche, allowing Erebus and Kor Phaeron to let him know about [[Chaos|the other gods who would appreciate his worship]]. While it's true he shouldn't have been treated so harshly by the Emperor (even Malcador and Guilliman privately said as much), and even though he believed Chaos was necessary for humanity to survive and continue existence, the fact that Chaos & the Horus Heresy caused the 10,000 year old Imperium to become the grimdark, bloody, corpse-littered cesspool we all know and love would normally outweighs all of the slivers of sympathy that he might have had. And yet, there are people far, far worse than him. To be honest, he was one of the nicest primarchs before the destruction of Monarchia, comparable to Magnus before the Burning of Prospero. He tried to befriend everyone and was one of the primarchs that mostly conquered planets by words and faith, instead of by fire and sword and along Dorn and Guilliman, was one of the rarer ones that wouldn't leave conquered worlds as utter shitholes, instead rebuilding them and integrating its population. All this make his downfall even more sad and tragic, and even after his fall, he seemed to be generally concerned about his brother Angron's (of all people) life, which was a primary reason that he was in a hurry transforming him. Also, confrontation with Corax shows that he genuinely cares for his son's lives, putting him above the disgusting fucktards below. Then again, he was completely blasé about the ''horrific'' fates the Forces of Chaos inflicted on people (see the Gal Vorbak for reference), regardless of whether they wanted it or not. Also, he's arguably the only Primarch who is completely unrepentant about his crimes towards the galaxy at large (even Horus acknowledged what a piece of shit he himself had become, and Fulgrim sometimes expressed regret when the pink haze wasn't clouding his mind). In sum, Lorgar is why we can't have [[Noblebright|nice things.]]
# The '''FUCKING CUNTS'''
## '''Mortarion''' - Described by Alpharius as being "bleakness personified", Mortarion rubbed virtually everyone the wrong way. Excluding Eidolon who he actually got along with somehow. And Horus, for whom he acted as de-facto second in command during the Heresy. Terse, grim and blunt, he was downright bigoted against psykers, and resented (or at the very least looked down upon) nearly everyone who he felt had it easier than him. He was also notorious for using chemical and radiological terror weapons and generally not giving a fuck about who got killed by them. In fairness to him however, he and his legion were usually (though not exclusively) deployed to environments so awful that such weapons typically didn't make things much worse. Also his opponents were usually xenos due both to them typically being the only ones who could survive on the planets he got sent to, and the fact that he really liked killing them. He also was at least somewhat justified in his hatred of psykers, as his necromancer foster father and his fellow overlords had all been psykers, and had been horrific in their subjugation of Barbarus's human population. Had he not turned Traitor, he likely would have been somewhere near Lion El'Jonson in terms of overall dickishness; a spiteful lone wolf type who had a habit of nursing grudges, gave very few shits about who or what his legion killed, went primarily on extermination campaigns, and was generally disliked by everyone for being an ass. Over time, he became more and more disgusted with people's acceptance of [[Emperor|tyrants]] and [[Magnus the Red|psykers]], and became much more likely to kill everything in the vicinity of what he considered evil. Over time he also lost what little tolerance he had ever possessed for weak mortals, and decided that the Imperium was being crafted in such a way as to coddle the weak. Not good as far as he was concerned. Interestingly he did care deeply for his own people, which is why he was so driven to take down both monsters and tyrants after witnessing how his foster father oppressed the populace, though he didn't exactly do much, if anything, to show it. Then [[Nurgle]] made him his plague-ridden bitch and Jaghatai fucked him up and humiliated him in the Siege of Terra, at which point he decided to just take his bitterness out on everyone lacking the Plaguefather's "gifts".
## '''Angron''' - Loved killing people and not much else. Most of the casualties within his legion were a result of him being a team-killing psycho because quite frankly he didn't care what he got to kill as long as he got to kill it. That said, Angron at least had an excuse for being such a rampaging dick all the time. The Butcher's Nails had effectively turned him from being a genuinely nice fellow who could empathically relieve the suffering of others by taking it into himself into a half-mindless killing machine, as it actually has not just remapped but ''replaced'' parts of his brain, effectively removing from him any emotions other than pain, hatred, and battle-lust while also destroying his capacity for empathy and compassion, which arguably means he doesn't even have any Moral Agency (that's Philosopher-speak for saying that he can't be held ethically accountable for his actions any more than a toaster can for burning your fingers). One may wonder what sort of guy he would have been without the implants, presumably he'd be more like his pre-retcon White Dwarf version where he was an honourable warrior whose martial valour ended up leading him down Khorne's path (this was very quickly retconned with the Black Library novels). But he stick to his guns despite the suffering. On top of that, he got fucked over pretty hard by Big E when they first met, so it's no wonder he went traitor the moment Horus made him an offer, we may even credit him for enduring years fighting for the Imperium instead of just getting himself killed in any of the battles as he himself personally wanted. At the end of the day, Angron was probably the Primarch who gave the fewest fucks about his legion and was content to let it run itself without his leadership, although he never really wanted one to begin with. As a result, many of the saner parts of his legion ''loathed'' him, to say nothing about his general reputation (Itvaan III wasn't the first time...). The action that places him so low on this list is the fact that he allowed the spread of Butcher's Nails throughout his Legion, despite his own hatred of the damn things and the fact they cause him so many issues, not least going psycho rage-monster most of the time; which is a pretty fucked up thing for him to condone. Then again, many of his sons accepted the mini-Nails to get closer to their Primarch, psykers, however, died horribly, not that Angron gave a shit. Perhaps he allowed it because seeing his sons with Butcher's Nails reminded him of his fallen gladiator brothers and sisters on Nuceria, but then again he blew up the planet along with all of the people he once fought to liberate just because they were bad-mouthing him. He really wasn't all that great of a guy even during his moments of lucidity, and he was one the few Primarchs to willingly kill his own men during the Great Crusade, an act even ''Horus'' thought was unthinkable.
## '''Konrad Curze''' - Arguably the most sadistic of all primarchs, Konrad really got off to torturing people and manipulating the masses through fear. What started as a quest to use fear to save lives in compliance actions turned through time and circumstance to a simple desire to torture and maim. The man who was supposed to be the ultimate harbinger of justice ended up as an unholy combination of Batman and Joker. By the time the Heresy broke out, any ideas of mercy or decency he may have harbored had long ago been buried under a massive pile of flayed guts. Somewhat like Angron however, the Night Haunter's actions are mitigated somewhat by the fact that the guy practically redefined crazy. His upbringing had much to do with shaping his awful view of reality, but what really screwed him over were his visions. He saw the future in psychic visions constantly, but the futures he saw were always permutations of the absolute worst outcome to any given situation, and he couldn't do anything to stop them. These visions came with severe psychic fits during which Curze would violently spaz out. They became worse and worse as time went on, and the psychological and psychic stress of them reduced Curze from a Punisher-esque individual to a completely sadistic screwball who would build stuff out of corpses and then sincerely thank those corpses. He also suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder, with the Konrad Curze and Night Haunter personas constantly warring for supremacy within his mind. Needless to say, the Night Haunter ultimately won out. He did admit that what he had done was wrong, but instead of trying to atone for his atrocities, he used the excuse that the future was set in stone (which he mostly believed) to justify just going along with the horrors he saw in his visions. In fact, the only two things that genuinely seemed to scare him were the possibilities that the Emperor '''wouldn't''' order his death -- or even worse, be forgiven for his behavior ''(and render his entire outlook on life meaningless)''. The fact that he refused to turn back to heroism at so many opportunities because he felt himself a puppet of fate makes one unable to decide whether he is contemptible or pathetic. Curze skirts this foul line.
## '''Perturabo''' - Perturabo suffers from somewhat inconsistent characterization due to having been written by a series of disparate authors, each of whom seemingly couldn't be bothered to read the previous guy's book. However, the easiest way to sum him up would be as a stone cold monster possessed of an absolutely massive martyr complex. What makes him the worst on this list is the fact that, unlike the other members of the '''FUCKING CUNTS''' tier, Perturabo never had any real justification for being as evil as he was. He wasn't lobotomized like Angron or bat-shit crazy like Curze, and unlike Mortarion his homeworld and upbringing were not bad at all; Olympia was basically just ancient Greece in space, and he had a family who loved him as much as possible given the culture and circumstances. In fact his world and upbringing were actually fairly similar to those of ''Guilliman'' of all people. He didn't even have the religious conviction of Lorgar; he turned Traitor simply out of spite and bitterness. He also seemed perfectly capable of feeling empathy and compassion as well; he genuinely loved his sister for instance... not that it stopped him from strangling her with his bare hands. This fact serves to make his actions all the worse however, as he clearly could understand right from wrong. He seemingly had absolutely no regard whatsoever for human life; hell the very first thing he did upon meeting his legion was to have a random tenth of them murdered by their brothers for not being good enough to suit him. He spent the lives of his legionaries like they were bolter rounds, and despite his bitching about how hard he and his legion had it, he never made any effort to change his way of making war. Though he was deployed to some of the worst battlegrounds in the Crusade, they were hardly worse than those in which the Lion, Russ, or Mortarion engaged in. Yet not one of them ever sulked about it or felt slighted. Not even Mortarion, who got sent to battlegrounds that would literally kill other Astartes by simple virtue of the environment. He is one of the few Primarchs who made his legion objectively ''worse'' by joining it, as he took a group of hardy siege warfare specialists and, by way of deliberately getting the bulk of them killed for decades on end, turned them into spiteful, bitter monsters with as little regard for life as himself. In fact, he made them so callous that the Iron Warriors both in and out of universe are a top candidate for the title of "[[Daemonculaba|evilest]] [[Honsou|motherfuckers]] in the setting", potentially beating out such luminaries as the Night Lords and Dark Eldar. Only the modern Word Bearers really have a fair claim at being worse. The atrocities that occurred under his command were all the result of inhuman barbarism caused not by madness or uncontrollable compulsion, but because Perturabo calculated that said barbarism was the most efficient means of achieving victory. He could and would calculate precisely the amount of ammunition, fuel, vehicles, ships, and human beings needed to win a campaign down to the last bolter shell and drop of blood, and would then spend those resources accordingly. And to his credit he was ridiculously good at it; his logistical skill was such that he could lose a good 90% of an attacking force in any given action and have his numbers replenished well in advance of the next campaign. Problem was that losing 90% of a force was something he wouldn't so much as bat an eyelash at. By the end we was just an envious, petty bastard who was always complaining whenever things didn't go his way (which was always). The intervening ten thousand years haven't improved his personality in any way either. Like Mortarion he didn't get along with any of his brothers and his inferiority complex and "woe is me" attitude was a cornerstone of almost all his interpersonal relationships, perhaps more notoriously in his all-consuming hatred for Rogal Dorn, in a rivalry that was completely one-sided until the two came to blows during the Heresy. Their rivalry being another example of Perturabo's unwillingness to try to improve his situation, instead preferring to sulk in his own misery, as his jealousy from Dorn stemmed from him being chosen as a builder and architect from the biggest projects in the Imperium, but never once Perturabo is shown trying to build anything outside his private workshop, instead bulldozing through whole planets with his Iron Warriors.

==See Also==

[[Return of the Primarchs]]: A What IF? series filled with pure [[AWESOME]] and [[Fist of the North Star|MANLY TEARS]].

A little side note, if you want an awesome look at the Primarchs in all their Crusadey goodness, go look at Aerion the Faithful's Libris Primaris project. http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/152862-artwork-libris-primaris/

==Miniatures==

* The official 30K miniatures are produced by [[Forge World]]
* [https://www.hitechminiatures.com Hitechminiatures] has good alternative models
* [https://wargameexclusive.com Wargame Exclusive] also has very good alternative models but a smaller selection - yet.
* [https://cadwallon.com/ Cadwallon] has [https://cadwallon.com/?s=chibi&post_type=product Chibi Primes] (well, some still.)

==Gallery==

<center>
===Loyal===
<gallery>
File:Lion El'Jonson.JPEG|[[Lion El'Jonson]]
File:JaghataiKhan-1-.jpg|[[Jaghatai Khan]] (can't hate a man who wears heeled calfboots)
File:LEMAN RUSS.jpg|[[Leman Russ]]
File:Rogal Dorn Portrait.png|[[Rogal Dorn]]
File:Sanginuscool.jpg|[[Sanguinius]]
File:Ferrus Manus Pre-Haircut.jpg|[[Ferrus Manus]]
File:Robute Guilliman.jpg|[[Roboute Guilliman]] (Big Bobby G)
File:Vulkan's Face.jpg|[[Vulkan]]
File:Corax Portrait.png|[[Corvus Corax]]
</gallery>

===Traitor===
<gallery>
File:Horus Portrait.png|[[Horus Lupercal]] (THAT ONE FUCK-UP)
File:Fulgrim by slaine69.jpg|[[Fulgrim]] (look at his sexyness)
File:Perturabo Portrait.jpg|[[Perturabo]]
File:Konrad Curze Mugshot.jpg|[[Konrad Curze]]/Night Haunter/Batman
File:Angron Butchers Nails.jpg|[[Angron]] (GETS. SHIT. DONE.)
File:Mortarion Portrait.jpg|[[Mortarion]]
File:Magnus.jpg|[[Magnus the Red]]
File:Lorgar Handsome.jpg|[[Lorgar Aurelian]] (goldboy)
File:Alpharius2.jpg|[[Alpharius]]/[[Omegon]]
</gallery>
<center>

===How To Make A Primarch===
<center>
{{Heresy}}
[[File:How to make a primarch.jpg|thumb|center|Artist's depiction of a primarch's creation]]
</center>

{{Template:Primarchs}}
{{Imperium}}

[[Category:Chaos]]

Primarch

2022-06-23T04:08:55Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* II Primarch */

[[Image:Primarchs big.JPG|thumb|right|500px|Several of the Primarchs at the Triumph of the Ullanor Crusade. From left to right: Sanguinius, Mortarion, Magnus the Red, Angron, Jaghatai Khan, Lorgar, Rogal Dorn, Horus, and Fulgrim. But the real impressive thing here is how that balcony is still standing]]
{{Topquote|Man must become stronger, more profound and more evil.|Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None}}
{{Topquote|There is but one good, and that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to him and bad when it turns from him. And the higher and mightier it is in the natural order, the more demoniac it will be if it rebels. It's not out of bad mice or bad fleas you make demons, but out of bad archangels.|C.S. Lewis}}
{{Topquote|Et tu, Brute?|Julius Caesar}}
The '''Primarchs''' were the twenty ([[Omegon|-one]]) genetically-engineered sons of [[The Emperor]] and the female [[Perpetual]] [[Erda]]. Using both His and her DNA in their creation, the Primarchs were designed to be far superior to even <s>[[Space Marines]]</s> the Adeptus Custodes: they were taller, stronger, faster and more intelligent. Artificial Perpetuals, to replace the Perpetuals that refused to be a part of His great plan throughout history. Certainly faster and stronger, but the intelligence they display, especially in the Horus Heresy books, seem to be limited to their own specialties, making them [[Roboute Guilliman|oddly]] [[Vulkan|normal]] in some cases and [[Perturabo|fatally]] [[Magnus the Red|underdeveloped]] in other areas; the more successful among them, like Russ and Corax, knew how to apply those specialties in various situations, while others, like Angron, just [[Angry Marines|brute-forced their way through situations]] using their talents like a (War)hammer(40k), but a few like Lion and Guilliman, [[Reasonable Marines|actually knew how to account for the opposition]]. Dorn, at least, knew a fair bit about how his brothers waged war, he just didn't care and stuck with what he knew best. They were also incredibly charismatic and were well suited to their role as the generals and leaders of the Imperium of Man.

Problem was, despite all that they were only human, and ultimately their sibling rivalries (and Chaos corruption, in the case of several of them) boiled over and ultimately developed into the [[Horus Heresy]].

==Creation of the Primarchs==
[[File:Warmaster's_Coronation.jpg|300px|left|thumb|Horus Lupercal being made Warmaster of the Imperium in Ullanor. From center counter-clockwise: Horus, the Emperor, Magnus, Mortarion, Lorgar, Angron, Jaghatai Khan, Rogal Dorn, Rogal Dorn's mustache, Fulgrim and Sanguinius.]]
The Primarchs began as a continuation of the Emperor’s [[Thunder Warriors|Thunder Warrior]] legions. Each of the 20 proto-legions were led by a general analogue called a Primarch. Unlike the later leaders of the Legiones Astartes, the thunder warrior Primarchs were the same as the troops they led and were hand picked by the Emperor for their skill and command ability. The instability (both physical, genetic, and mental) of the thunder warriors led the Emperor to try and find more stable and powerful generals to lead his armies. It can be safely assumed that the original Primarchs were killed in the line of duty or purged before history could record them thoroughly. The only one named thus far was Ushotan of the 4th Legio Cataegis - then known as the Iron Lords. Valdor considered him almost an equal in terms of his martial and command ability but was disturbed by his innate bloodlust and susceptibility to the then nascent effects of Chaos.

The modern Primarchs were created in a secret underground laboratory on what used to be the Himalayas, under the tightest security. All of them were derived from a subset of both the perpetual Erda and the Emperor's DNA that served as a template, which was altered differently for each of the Primarchs; it is also thought that he engineered them spiritually as well using long-forgotten psychic techniques. As the [[Raven Guard]] discovered after the Emperor granted them access to the original data from the Primarchs' creation, many of the Primarchs' gene-samples were wildly divergent from the original template- some had long gene sequences deleted, while others had non-human DNA spliced into them for reasons only known to the Emperor. (A particularly intriguing discovery was one sample labeled "[[Leman Russ|Subject VI]]", [[Furry| which had extensive amounts of canine DNA added to it]].)

[[File:BabyPrimarchs.jpg|300px|right|thumb|The Master of Mankind raises his eighteen babies as devoted father. The [[Grimdark|truth]] is less [[Anime|kawaii desu]].]]
The Emperor's original plan was to have His superhuman creations mature safely in His lab and guide them from 'birth' toward the role He'd foreseen for them. However, in a retcon, Erda did not want for her sons what the Emperor had planned for them and herself, and in spite of the safeguards the Emperor had set up, caused the scattering, an event in which the Ruinous Powers were able to spirit the Primarchs away from the laboratory right before they would emerge from their pods and scatter them across the universe (Conveniently, the canine sample was sent to a wolf-planet) [[Just as planned]]. For whatever reason, the Emperor did not punish Erda and she was allowed to live out her immortal life in seclusion, in the remnants of Africa. Somehow, the Emperor knew his sons were still alive but had no clue to where they could be nor any immediate way to search for them. So he took it in stride, shrugged it off as a minor setback (unknowingly, this would come to bite him back in the ass nastily later on) and went ahead with the second part of his plan: his Space Marine project. Using DNA samples from each Primarch before they were abducted, the Emperor created twenty legions of [[Space Marines]], in what would later be called the [[First Founding]]. They would form the core of the armies He needed to conquer the galaxy, and the absence of the Primarchs leading those would only serve as a motivation for the warriors to search for them.

One consequence of the abduction, however was that each of the young Primarchs were forced to adapt to the lifestyle on their new homeworld, something which would influence and mold them throughout their lives. The Primarchs rapidly grew to adulthood and quickly rose to power, often becoming the leaders of their world. As the Emperor crusaded to unify the galaxy he would occasionally stumble upon another long-lost son. When this happened, the Emperor would hold a celebration in honor of this discovery, give the Primarch their Legion to command, then tell them to [[Angron|fuck]] [[Mortarion|off]] [[Lorgar|and start]] [[Alpharius|conquering]] [[Perturabo|worlds]] while he [[Horus|fapped]] [[Rogal Dorn|to]] [[Sanguinius|his]] [[Leman Russ|favoured]] [[Roboute Guilliman|offspring]]. The Emperor was a [[Eldrad|dick]] like that.

==Did the Emperor Love his Sons?==
Before we get into the rediscovery of the Primarchs, we need to address this issue. Different writers have different interpretations of the Emperor, and GW never got any of them on the same fucking page. This lead to discrepancies in the various books; in the first duel between Horus and the Emperor for example, the Emperor could not bring himself to kill Horus because he loved him, and it was only after he witnessed Horus callously annihilate Ollanius Pius that he realised his son was gone, allowing him to finally let loose and destroy Horus.

Later authors would contradict this, writers like ADB would go on to claim he never saw the Primarchs as 'sons', just as carefully crafted tools to enforce his will and vision (even referring to them by number instead of name). Even later writers would go on to claim the opposite again, with the Emperor declaring the Primarchs to be his sons in the Siege of Terra series, so fuck if we know what's going on. The issue gets even more confusing when you look at his closest advisors, such as Constantin Valdor and Malcador, who are plagued with the exact same problems, writer to writer. Sometimes they claim the Emperor only saw his sons as tools, other times they do support the idea that he loves his children.

Hopefully one day GW will finally have some consistency, though that's about as likely as hell freezing over.

In case anyone is wondering, Erda claims she always loved the Primarchs, though considering the planets some of them were sent to, this is almost guaranteed to be a bullshit lie or self-deception.

==Rediscovering the Primarchs==
Originally Horus was the first Primarch to be discovered, but a retcon changed that to Alpharius and had it kept secret. Or did it? With Alpharius and Omegon, it's honestly impossible to tell.

Horus, who would become the Emperor's favoured son, was retconned to maybe being the second Primarch to be found, and the second missing Primarch was stated to be found after Corax in a different retcon. Thankfully these are the only three (or two?) GW fucked with in the order they were found, so the whole list of those being discovered is as follows (dates given by the website for the Horus Heresy tabletop game):

*'''Before 801.M30:''' Alpharius/Omegon (speculated)
*'''801.M30:''' Horus
*'''819.M30:''' Leman Russ
*'''821.M30:''' DELETED FROM IMPERIAL RECORDS, DAMNATIO MEMORIAE IN PERPETUAM
*'''824.M30:''' Ferrus Manus
*'''830.M30:''' Fulgrim
*'''832.M30:''' Vulkan
*'''835.M30:''' Rogal Dorn
*'''837.M30:''' Roboute Guilliman
*'''840.M30:''' Magnus the Red
*'''843.M30:''' Sanguinius
*'''846.M30:''' Lion El'Jonson
*'''849.M30:''' Perturabo
*'''854.M30:''' Mortarion
*'''857.M30:''' Lorgar
*'''865.M30:''' Jaghatai Khan
*'''896.M30:''' Konrad Curze
*'''899.M30:''' Angron
*'''922.M30:''' Corvus Corax
*'''927.M30:''' DELETED FROM IMPERIAL RECORDS, DAMNATIO MEMORIAE IN PERPETUAM
*'''981.M30:''' Alpharius/Omegon (officially)

The majority of Primarchs somehow recognized the Emperor on sight, immediately pledging their allegiance to their father. A few (such as Leman Russ and Vulkan) only swore allegiance after being bested in a contest. The only exception is Angron, who outright refused to follow the Emperor as he preferred to die in battle along with his rebels brothers and sisters in their fight against the oppressive Not-Romans. The Emperor simply shrugged and abducted his son, leaving Angron's followers to get slaughtered. Angron never really got over that dick move.

At the end of the period known as the [[Great Crusade]], Horus, who had recently been promoted to the title of Warmaster, fell to Chaos and rebelled. It didn't take long for eight of his fellow Primarchs to join his side against the Emperor, resulting in the full-scale civil war known as the [[Horus Heresy]]. Funnily enough, most of the Primarchs who sided with Horus were those who felt that the Emperor had taken a giant, steaming dump on them. So, regardless of whether the Emperor actually loved his sons or not, and while he is the greatest tactician, biologist, warlord, and leader in the history of mankind; in practice he's worse than a crack-addled transient junkie as a father.

==Primarchs and Legions==
{|align=center border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0"
|-
|align=center|'''Legion Number'''
|align=center|'''Name'''
|align=center|'''Title'''
|align=center|'''Homeworld'''
|align=center|'''Name of the Legion'''
|align=center|'''Allegiance'''
|align=center|'''Description/Current Status'''
|align=center|'''30k/40k'''
|-
|align=center|'''I'''
|align=center|[[Image: Lion_El%27Jonson_portrait.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Lion El'Jonson]]
|align=center|Lord of the First, The Lion
|align=center|[[Caliban]]
|align=center|[[Dark Angels]]
|align=center|ULTRA LOYAL, maybe even more than Rogal Dorn.
|align=center|
*Crushes the horrors of Old Night, destroys worlds, whole civilizations, erase stuff from history, <s>doesn't afraid of anything. </s>
*Sees himself as a man that no one else can compare to and constantly toils to maintain this standard (although he wasn't as excessively vainglorious as Fulgrim).
*Unlike Fulgrim however, The Lion's greatness caused him to be a hardcore pragmatist and largely detached from everyone around him. The Lion just couldn't relate to anyone else not even close to his level (even most of his brother primarchs couldn't fit the bill), so he always felt alone in the universe. A big part of this was that his insanely huge ego combined with his lack of people skills to result in a complete asshole who virtually nobody liked.
*Was a bit of a loose cannon with a long but explosive fuse. The Lion is as smart and introspective as he is merciless and brutal. He wasn't necessarily easy to piss off like Angron, but anyone who manages to cross his threshold of patience will find themselves on the business end of his weapon. Several times. And possibly dismembered to boot.
*Fought Luther during his betrayal at the end of the Horus Heresy, where he was wounded from their duel. He survived however, and was spirited away and tended to by the [[Watchers in the Dark]] in a super secret chamber in [[The Rock]] (that not even the Dark Angels knew about), where he spent the last millennia healing his wounds. As of the current edition; The Lion is now supposedly fully healed and all he's waiting for is the Emperor to tell him to wake up from his millennia-long cat nap.
|align=center|[[Image:Lord of the First.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[File:Lion vs Curze.jpg|150px|thumb|right|]][[File:Horus-Heresy-Lion-Great Crusade.jpeg|150px|thumb|right|]]
|-
|align=center|'''II'''
|! colspan="5" |+++Records expunged+++
|-
|align=center|'''III'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Fulgrim_Ancient_Sketch.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Fulgrim]]
|align=center|The Palatine Phoenix, The Phoenician
|align=center|[[Chemos]]
|align=center|[[Emperor's Children]]
|align=center|Traitor
|align=center|
*A patron of the arts, who wanted to enjoy the finest and most exotic things in life.
*Believes that he and his legion should be the avatar of humanity's perfection, and so everything about them should be flawless, everywhere from appearance and actions to their fighting style. Due to this, Fulgrim's battle tactics revolved around utterly perfecting their strategies. Everything from his soldiers to their strategies were intensely drilled until their fighting was closer to a intricately-choreographed play of death than anything. To him, war is an art, and he wanted to perfect his arts.
*A master blacksmith in his own right, capable of forging weapons that even [[Ferrus Manus]] couldn't help but deem "perfect". His artwork however, wasn't always the best in the universe due to being so perfect it hit uncanny valley levels.
*Was initially corrupted by Chaos through the Laer blade, a Slaaneshi-possesed daemon sword he looted as a trophy, but wasn't aware of what Chaos was. He would fully give in to the temptations of the sword after he beheaded Ferrus Manus, where his utter grief at the act caused him to succumb to the daemon within the sword.
*Daemon Prince of Slaanesh, ruler of the Pleasure World. <s>Fulgrim's actual consciousness however, may or may not also be still imprisoned within his own body by</s> the daemon who possessed him in the first place was eventually conquered by Fulgrim's inner will or whatever, but his new personality is generic "DEMON PRINCE OF THE DARKNESS AND EVIL".
*Managed to incapacitate Guilliman at one point by slicing his throat with a poisoned sword.
*Still has a soft-spot for his brother Ferrus. He asked [[Fabius Bile|Fabulous Bile]] to clone his brother several times so that he could attempt to lure Ferrus into Chaos' side again. All his attempts have ended in failure, which he has blamed Fabius for due to his certainty that a "perfect" clone would join him.
*Heard about [[Roboute Guilliman|Big G]] waking up and is a bit buttmad about it at the moment. He tried to give Guilliman a cursed artifact during his return party, but was found out and subsequently banished. Needless to say: he mad.
|align=center|[[Image: Fulgrim.30k.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image: 40k.fulgrim.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Warhammer-fuldrim-lorgar.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''IV'''
|align=center|[[Image: Perturabo_Portrait.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Perturabo]]
|align=center|The Hammer of Olympia, Lord of Iron, The Breaker
|align=center|[[Olympia]]
|align=center|[[Iron Warriors]]
|align=center|Traitor
|align=center|
*A man who already had the knowledge to create the best at everything he did from birth. Perturabo considered this a curse however, feeling it robbed him of any sense of accomplishment while growing up, contributing to his eternal grumpiness.
*Originally preferred diplomacy and was an admirer of the arts during his time in Olympia, but meeting the Emperor (who had no time for such things) caused a violent switch to flip inside Perturabo's mind, turning him into a ruthless warlord throughout the Great Crusade, likely because he wanted things to be different from Olympia once he joined E-money, but once he realized that The Great Crusade was basically Olympia 2.0; he just gave up, flipped the table, and accepted how things really are and played the part.
*Just as much as a master of siege warfare as Dorn (both in offense and defense), but the lack of opportunities and recognition led him and his legion to be specialists of tearing shit down.
*Unlike Dorn however, Perturabo's general strategy is a combination of stubbornness and ice cold-calculating efficiency, orchestrating war like it was one giant math problem. The problem with this is that he didn't even see his sons as people. As far as he was concerned, they're just armored meatbags who pull triggers and push buttons and were about as expendable as guardsmen. It worked incredibly well but won him few friends.
*Suffers from a massive inferiority complex, partially due to his certainty that the Eye of Terror was always watching and judging him. Nobody believed him when he said this, so it was mostly attributed to Rogal Dorn, whom the Emperor ''greatly'' favored over Pert, despite having similar skillsets.
*Daemon Prince, ruler of Medrengard. Described as the ultimate Obliterator; so expect him to be carrying around titan grade weaponry and millennia of pent-up [[Rage|RAEG]] when he finally shows up. Given that Magnus, Fulgrim, and Mortarion are back in action; he'll probably come out eventually as well.
|align=center|[[Image: 30k.Perturabo.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Warhammer-Pert-Angron.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''V'''
|align=center|[[Image:Karn.port.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Jaghatai Khan]]
|align=center|Warhawk of Chorgoris, The Great Khan, The Khagan
|align=center|[[Chogoris|Chogoris/<br>Mundus Planus]]
|align=center|[[White Scars]]
|align=center|Loyal
|align=center|
*A hard and stern Primarch, he rarely smiles and almost never laughs. Throughout the Heresy he’s often depicted as an introvert who only keeps the counsel of a hand select group. Though rather than making him into a recluse, he's fully capable of being charismatic when he needs to. The Khan is quiet, but he can quickly become the warrior: smile, laugh, bellow and be powerful when he sees the need.
*Encourages a painfully 'liberating' leadership structure on the White Scars. Every Khan (basically Chapter Master) has an extremely high level of autonomy - a byproduct of the steppes. Causes a lot of problems for logistics and cooperation with allies.
*Many Primarchs became a product of their homeworld, the Khan definitely did. He idolises the ways of [[Chogoris]] and venerates its lifestyle. A very Taoist and Confucian way of seeing things, no one else in the Imperium truly understands this, a fact that further isolates the White Scars from the wider Imperium. The White Scars is the amalgamation of Asian culture in the HH, it’s the most different and alien Legion simply because it tries to adopt a Asian-centric style.
*Has a strained relationship with the Emperor. On one hand he recognises the need of the Imperium and has always directly supported it. On the other hand, a major identity point for the Khan's character is his hatred of Empire and Emperors. On Chogoris he killed a lot of emperors and destroyed a lot of Empires. He sees Emperors and Empires as ultimately flawed and has a very low respect for them.
*Tying in with this hatred of Empire is his hatred of stagnation. Every Emperor he killed was fat, and this made him become a person who hates the easiest path. A big motivator for him during the novel Scars was his rejection of the path most travelled. The Khan's greatest fear is stagnating, so he will likely always chose the hardest option because of that. Emphasising this, The Khan is also described as being a compulsive, a part of him is always moving.
*The Khan really didn't like the Imperium, in Warhawk of Chogoris he flatly stated that the White Scars would leave the Imperium if he felt the Emperor was not respecting the White Scars enough.
*Unknown, disappeared into the [[Webway]] while hunting [[Dark Eldar]] after they raided Chogoris.
|align=center|[[Image:Past Khan.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:The path of heaven .jpg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''VI'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait..Leman.Russ.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Leman Russ]]
|align=center|The Great Wolf, The Wolf King
|align=center|[[Fenris]]
|align=center|[[Space Wolves]]
|align=center|Loyal
|align=center|
*Had a high opinion of himself and his legion, if only because he felt that he's earned that kind of respect through the centuries. Of all the Primarchs, Leman was the one most willing to cross any line to do what the Emperor asked, at least at first. Later on, he decided to become his own man and protect the people of the Imperium. Also notable for curbing the more savage tendencies of the Wolves and teaching them to control their ferocity, unlike [[Angron|some]] [[Konrad Curze|people]].
*Wanted to test his legion all the time, to prove he is the best.
*Unknown, disappeared into the [[Eye of Terror]] with the 13th company but promised to return one day. Magnus supposedly knows where he is, but he isn't telling. The Wolves found <s>his armor in a Khornate Shrine</s> an armor rumoured to be his on the Temple of Horus on Rudra, implying he either; turned into [[Wulfen]], to [[Chaos]], is dead, or is murdering his way through the warp [[Conan_the_Barbarian|as a half-naked barbarian]]. Allegedly a figure resembling him was spotted with the 13th company during the 13th crusade.
|align=center|[[Image:30k.Russ.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Scouring of Prospero2.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Horus_vs_Leman.jpg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''VII'''
|align=center|[[Image: Rogal_Dorn_Portrait.png|thumb|250px|]] [[Rogal Dorn]]
|align=center|The Praetorian of Terra, The Vigilant, The Unyielding One
|align=center|[[Inwit]]
|align=center|[[Imperial Fists]]
|align=center|MEGA DUPER Loyal
|align=center|
*A brutally honest and steadfast man, but was equally indifferent to those around him. Dorn's personality is akin to a wall, he was a man you could take at face value; he would never lie or deceive you, and he would always speak his mind without a hint of falsehood, even if it ends up working against his favor. That said, he could never properly relate with other people's emotions. He will speak the truth, but lacked any glib of tongue to express it in a way that wouldn't feel like he was delivering it with the bluntness and intensity of a power fist to the face.
*Embodied the "soul" of the Great Crusade unlike any other; he received the most accolades from the Emperor and fought alongside him most often.
*A master of siegecraft, although fortifications was his forte. So much that he was tasked with fortifying the Imperial Palace. He would also build grand fortresses on the worlds they conquered.
*Assumed deceased, disappeared while boarding a Chaos cruiser during a Black Crusade.<br>One of his fists were recovered and its skeleton is placed in a shrine, where each new Chapter Master of the Imperial Fists engraves their name upon it. Rumored to still be alive, though that begs the question of whose fist is in the Phalanx, though he could just be missing a hand.
|align=center|[[Image:The horus heresy praetorian of dorn by raffetin-dae3g5k.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Dorn-Sang-Primarchs-Warhammer-.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Warhammer-Dorn-malc.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''VIII'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Konrad_Curze_sketch.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Konrad Curze]]
|align=center|The Night Haunter, The Dark King
|align=center|[[Nostramo]]
|align=center|[[Night Lords]]
|align=center|Traitor
|align=center|
*A man of justice who believed that he needed to instill absolute fear into people to ensure lasting peace.
*Possessed psychic powers that allowed him to perceive the future in short glimpses. The problem was that they were uncontrolled and they constantly subjected him to see the worst possible future in the darkest, most vivid detail possible, including the deaths and fall of his brother Primarchs as well as the Emperor's own entombment on the Golden Throne. This only served to widen his ever-growing insanity as he came to believe that what he saw was an inevitability rather than a mere possibility.
*An unstable sociopath, to say the least. Curze's visions, upbringing, and perceived need for brutality took a heavy toll on his sanity, but he held firm under the belief he was making the galaxy a better place, like what he did with Nostramo. This all came crashing down after Nostramo reverted back to its old ways when he was away; deciding that nothing would ever change, he chose to bombard his home planet into rubble.
*That said, he was a master at infiltration and unconventional warfare, just as much as he was a master of scaring the shit out of people. His crowning achievement is that he managed to fuck up Guilliman's Imperium Secundus by himself, no aid from his legion what-so-ever, something his brothers couldn't even come close into doing.
*Lost what little sanity he still had after destroying Nostramo. By this time, Konrad stopped justifying his methods to himself and fully embraced the depraved side of his "Night Haunter" persona, spreading untold terror and pain wherever he went. By the time of the late Horus Heresy, the Emperor wanted to put a stop to it and sent a Callidus assassin named "M'shen" after him.
*Curze knew about her mission from the get-go but he made sure the assassin could reach him unimpeded. He did not resist when she entered his chambers and asked the Callidus to kill him. Initially it was speculated that Konrad realized he became the very thing he sought to rid the galaxy of and knew what had to be done- a perceived hero who lived long enough to see himself become a villain. It turned out that in his view, the assassination vindicated everything he'd ever said and done; he punished and killed evil-doers and now the Emperor used his own methods to kill him, thus proving that all his atrocities were both justifiable and necessary. Whatever the case, Konrad was already a jaded, broken man after the Nostramo debacle and wished only to die. The idea that the Emperor ''wouldn't'' have him killed or might even pardon him was horrifying to Curze, as he believed that there would be no justice in such an act.
|align=center|[[Image:Konrad-Curze-Primarchs-Warhammer-.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Night Haunter 8th Ed.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Horus-Primarchs-Curze-Lion.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''IX'''
|align=center|[[Image:SanguiniusArt5mt.jpg|thumb|250px|]][[Sanguinius]]
|align=center|The Great Angel, The Brightest One
|align=center|[[Baal]]
|align=center|[[Blood Angels]]
|align=center|Loyal
|align=center|
*A noble and unparalleled warrior, known for the angel-like wings that grew from his back.
*Was known as the greatest exemplar of the Emperor himself, mirroring many of his father's best traits, instead of only one or two of them like his brothers. If anything, Sanguinius is a reflection of what the Emperor could have been as a truly benevolent being, concerned not just for mankind's future, but man as individuals as well.
*A pretty cool guy to be around. Despite being a fabulous, angelic demi-god of war; he had mankind's best wishes at heart and fought for it with graceful ferocity, hell even the Primarchs couldn't resist Sanguinius being so bro-tier. He is essentially the vampiric, bishie version of Vulkan.
*Showed the same amount of concern for his legion. Sanguinius did all that he could to hide the Red Thirst from being exposed to the wider Imperium, knowing full well that the Blood Angels would receive the II/XI Legion treatment if it came to light.
*Psychic, and capable of seeing glimpses of the future.
*He was powerful as he was nice, Sanguinius was one of the most powerful, if not ''the'' most powerful, of the Primarchs in terms of martial prowess. Especially if you pissed him off. Feats include; ripping the wings off a bloodthirster and literally throwing him to the warp, single-handedly holding a defensive point during the Siege of Terra against numerous traitors, soloing Titans, and managing to damage Horus' armor ''even after being exhausted from literally soloing entire armies''.
*Deceased, slain by Horus. Spirit is evidently intact somewhere in the Warp. His body is currently in a stasis crypt in Baal, so his corpse remained fabulous for the last 10,000 years. Commemorated during Sanguinala, a holiday dedicated to his memory.
|align=center|[[Image:Heresy-Sang.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:The horus heresy book 26 unremembered empire by raffetin-dap4ekw.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Emperor Sanguinius Echoes of Imperium.jpg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''X'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Ferrus_Manus_sketch.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Ferrus Manus]]
|align=center|The Gorgon of Medusa
|align=center|[[Medusa_(Planet)|Medusa]]
|align=center|[[Iron Hands]]
|align=center|Extremely Loyal, rivalling The Lion and Dorn
|align=center|
*Wants to get things done quickly, without needless philosophizing.
*Contrary to his sons; Ferrus wanted to advocate the strength of one's flesh, rather than relying completely on bionics and mechanical augmentations as shown by the Iron Hands, if any he was appalled at the idea of turning man completely into machine. He wasn't able to realize this after getting a viking crewcut by his best friend, however.
*A master artisan, thanks to his metal arms, which allowed him to practice his craft with incredible precision and detail.
*Deceased, slain by Fulgrim and his head offered to Horus as a gift (which actually horrified him). Fulgrim still has the body, which he repeatedly clones and murders again in a futile attempt to make him turn traitor. <br>Some claim he is still alive on Mars, though [[Void Dragon|he almost certainly isn't]].
|align=center|[[Image:Ferrus.30k.jpg|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XI'''
|! colspan="5" |+++Records expunged+++
|-
|align=center|'''XII'''
|align=center|[[Image:Angron.port.jpg|thumb|250px|]][[Angron]]
|align=center|Slave of Nuceria, Red Angel, Lord of the Red Sands
|align=center|[[Nuceria]]
|align=center|[[World Eaters]]
|align=center|Traitor
|align=center|
*Embodies the name "World Eater". He and his legion consumes entire worlds in a whirlwind of indiscriminate slaughter until nobody but them is left, pre and post-Great Crusade.
*No real ambition beyond endless slaughter, thanks to the butcher's nails augment jammed into Angron's brain. It also made him incredibly violent and quick to anger. At first it was to satiate the unending bloodlust generated by the butcher's nails, but now its to glorify [[Khorne]].
*One of the most powerful of the Primarchs in terms of sheer melee combat prowess. Rivaled only by Sanguinius in terms of single combat capability.
*A poor leader and general, however. He could murder armies sent against him, but he lacked the tactical acumen (or anything resembling sanity) to focus on the objectives truly needed to win a war. Angron is in the end a gladiator let loose in a galaxy-wide arena: murdering all of his opponents is the only acceptable (or even concievable) way to win.
*A retcon made his [[Leeroy Jenkins]] behaviour one of the largest factors for fucking up the Horus Heresy. If Angron had kept his murderboner down for just a few more minutes and let Horus finish off the remaining loyalists on Istvaan with another Exterminatus strike; they would have been able to march to Terra faster and with much more manpower and have a better chance at winning. Whether this was Angron just being Angron or a secret ploy by Khorne to keep the blood flowing by thinking past the Horus Heresy is unclear (after all, if Horus won; Chaos eventually starves to death. If Horus lost; he has a aeons' worth of blood and conflict to revel over and maybe even an eternal stalemate ensuring he lasts forever, if at the cost of the Great Game continuing for eternity as well.).
*Daemon Prince of [[Khorne]]. Spend most of his time Getting Shit Done and being banished to the Warp for a hundred or so years after the Imperium responds to his Blood Crusades.
|align=center|[[Image:World-Eaters-Warhammer-40000-.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Angron .jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Angrondemon.jpg|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XIII'''
|align=center|[[Image: Robute Guilliman.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Roboute Guilliman]]
|align=center|Lord of Ultramar, Avenging Son, The Victorious, The Master of Ultramar, The Blade of Unity
|align=center|[[Ultramar|Macragge]]
|align=center|[[Ultramarines]]
|align=center|Loyal, barring [[Imperium Secundus| that one episode he doesn't like to talk about]]
|align=center|
*A proud and fair visionary who always looked towards building a better future for humanity. Guilliman never did anything without thinking what would happen at the end of the day and he always tried to plan a better outcome for whatever he did, whether its building an empire or subjugating an enemy civilization.
*Was more for the people than the Emperor, hence why he thought preserving his Imperium was more important than the survival of the Emperor himself.
*A general first and warrior second, which was the key to his success throughout the Great Crusade. He wasn't the best at crossing swords or gunfights, at least in comparison to many of his brothers; but he was exceptional at commanding his forces and resources, ensuring all wars he fought in were running at optimum efficiency.
*The greatest statesman among the Primarchs. Guilliman was best remembered for his ability to set up an efficient form of government on every planet his legion conquered, turning them into model, self-sufficient worlds in order to prepare them for the future after the Great Crusade. This is best exemplified by Ultramar, which still remains one of the most powerful and idyllic planetary systems in the Imperium, even after 10,000 years. More tellingly, was allowed by the Emperor to keep Ultramar's 500 worlds as a semi-autonomous mini-empire within the Imperium because it was just so well run.
*He's also a logistical genius, and invented the organizational model that 8 of the 9 First Founding Chapters still use (more or less).
*Previously kept in a stasis chamber after his throat was sliced by Fulgrim with a poisoned sword.
*Recently revived with the help of Belisarius Cawl and the Ynnari and their new soul manipulation powers. Is now active once more, and not very happy with how badly the Imperium has gone to shit since he was not-quite-dead. Currently back in his old role of Lord Commander of the Imperium, trying his hardest to keep the Emperor's work from going completely down the drain while while waging an unending war against the forces of Chaos and the Imperium's equally monstrous bureaucracy. Rather unhappy about it all but is keeping his head above water nevertheless.
|align=center|[[Image: 30k.Guilliman.png|thumb|150px|]][[Image: Primarchs-Guilliman-40000.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Roboute-Guilliman-Primarchs-Warhammer-40000.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XIV'''
|align=center|[[Image: Mortarion Portrait.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Mortarion]]
|align=center|The Pale King, The Death Lord, The Prince of Decay (Post-Heresy)
|align=center|[[Barbarus]]
|align=center|[[Death Guard]]
|align=center|Traitor
|align=center|
*A bitter, petty man, kind of like the edgy goth kid of the group. Mortarion didn't want to associate anyone who hasn't gone through the same brand of abuse he has during his childhood and also hated those who had relatively comfy ones in comparison (like Guilliman or Dorn). He would only find some friendship with Konrad Curze (due to his "raised alone and became psycho-Batman" origin) and Horus (because just about everyone liked Horus).
*Has an immense abhorrence for psykers and the warp, due to his experiences on Barbarus. As a daemon prince, he is the very thing he hated in the first place. He takes the resulting bitterness out on everyone else in the form of horrible diseases.
*Stubborn to the core. Mortarion's favored tactic that he passed onto the Death Guard is a combination of attrition and unrelenting assaults; they take the pain while dishing it out in greater amounts, non-stop. He also valued individualism throughout his legion, largely leaving it up to his troops to figure out the best strategy in a conflict, rather than micro-managing them.
*Was already disenchanted by the Imperium by the start of the Horus Heresy (Seeing the Emperor and his works as total hypocrisies), so he threw his lot in with Horus. However, due to a ruse by Typhus; he and his legion ended up being infected by a virulent Nurglite plague while in the warp, which caused them to be in a constant state of agony but remain alive due to their Astartes-grade toughness. Unable to bear the pain and see his sons suffer; he pledged his loyalty to Nurgle and the god "cured" them of the plague (cure is probably incorrect, it was more of mutate their bodies to be compatible with the plague). From here, he became a daemon prince.
*Went back to the warp after the Horus Heresy, where Nurgle gave him dominion over the Plague Planet, which he shaped into the image of Barbarus.
*Was banished by [[Kaldor Draigo|Grey Knights]] during the Battle of Kornovin, which was the origin of [[Kaldor Draigo|Draigo]] carving a name onto his plague-ridden heart (how Draigo did so is a mystery, so we'll just chalk it up to him being too high on drugs to be infected by Mortarion's plagues).
*Helped Abby by creating the zombie plague, along with other contagions, after he got the Hand of Darkness artifact.
*He eventually got better and waged a full-scale invasion of Ultramar when he heard that Guilliman's finally awake. Had to retreat after he had to deal with the other Chaos Gods' typical shenanigans (mainly encroaching on his strongholds in the [[Scourge Stars]] while he was off campaigning).
|align=center|[[Image:Warhammer-40000-фэндомы-Horus-Heresy-Mortarion-2073409.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Mortarion-40k.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XV'''
|align=center|[[Image:Magnus-The-Red-Primarchs-Warhammer-40000-фэндомы-4995855 (1).jpeg|thumb|250px|]] [[Magnus the Red]]
|align=center|The Crimson King, The Red Cyclops
|align=center|[[Prospero]]
|align=center|[[Thousand Sons]]
|align=center|Traitor, though he never planned this
|align=center|
*An optimistic scholar who thirsted for knowledge and always believed that information should be preserved for the greater good of mankind, regardless of its origins or the danger it might pose.
*As a psyker from birth, he was sympathetic to the discrimination faced by his fellow psykers and labored for his kind to be accepted. He did so by training psykers to control and enhance their powers, in the hopes of showing to people the benefits of his kind's gifts. This had mixed results with his brother primarchs, especially in the face of the Emperor's "psykers are bad" standing orders.
*Had an ego to rival the Emperor himself, but with far less justification for it.
*Defying the Nikea council's rulings, Magnus continued to experiment with warp powers and during a Tzeentch-induced prophesy that involved Horus' betrayal; he attempted to warn his father with a psychic message. During the sending process; he accidentally destroyed the Emperor's webway project, causing him to be arrested by Russ and the Wolves to answer for his disobedience.
*As Horus was already corrupted by this point, he altered the orders to instead destroy the Thousand Sons' homeworld. Realizing he's been played like a damn fiddle by Tzeentch, Magnus' resolve was broken and initially accepted his destiny of being destroyed by the wolves in an attempt to spite Tzeentch, but eventually decided to attempt to rebel against his fate but ultimately failing after Leman Russ beat him up badly. He then made a desperate deal with Tzeentch to save his legion in return for his servitude. He and the Thousand Sons were teleported to the Planet of Sorcerers, where more hijinks ensued with his [[Ahzek Ahriman|first captain]]'s certain ritual. Also his soul was broken into pieces somehow during the deal, and he's still trying to collect them all.
*Now a daemon prince, one of his first major campaigns was to invade the Space Wolves' homeworld. Was banished, but the Wolves were all but ruined; most of their upper command structure and progress with stabilizing their flawed gene seed was gone. Feeling they weren't down for the count yet; he went in again and bloodied the entire star system of Fenris itself, irreparably damaging the Wolves' home system.
*Appeared during the Gathering Storm, where he trapped and captured Guilliman and his retinue in the warp. After he escaped, Magnus chased and confronted Guilliman all the way to Luna, but was banished by the Custodes and Sisters of Silence. Now currently biding his time for another offensive.
|align=center|[[Image:Past Magnus.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image: 30k.magnus-the-red.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image: 40k.magnus-the-red.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
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|align=center|'''XVI'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Warmaster_Horus_Remembrancer_Sketch.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Horus|Horus Lupercal]]
|align=center|The Lupercal, The Favorite Son
|align=center|[[Cthonia]]
|align=center|[[Black Legion|Luna Wolves/ Sons of Horus/ Black Legion]]
|align=center|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1rT6Vi5Ln4 DOUBLE TRAITOR link dead :(]
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*A charismatic strategist who overwhelmed his enemies through sheer numbers and precision tactics, with an emphasis on wiping out the leadership structures of enemy forces.
*Big E's most favored son, always being held in the highest regard, second only to the Custodes. This was a combination of him being the first Primarch found (before the retcon) and his long rap sheet of victories throughout the Crusade.
*Due to his position and experience, he was the most well-liked of the Primarchs during the Great Crusade. Just about everyone looked at Horus as the greatest among them.
*For all his charisma and leadership, Horus was still wracked with self-doubt once appointed Warmaster, constantly afraid that he was unable to live up to the title (poor dude basically thought that anything less than Big E levels of success was failure). Being overall commander of the Emperor's forces AND being his personal favorite was a lot to live up to. This was one of the reasons why he succumbed to the temptations of Chaos.
*Was one of the few Primarchs who was suspicious of the Emperor's plans for the Astartes post-Crusade, fearing they'd be disposed of like the Thunder Warriors and was mistrustful of the Emperor's intentions in the long run in general, to say nothing of his resentment about how the worlds he and his brothers had conquered would be governed by ordinary humans. The Ruinous Powers would also use this to their advantage.
*Rebelled against the Emperor after being fed a vision of the future by the Chaos Gods, in which the Emperor was being worshiped as a god and many of his fellow Primarchs (including himself) were reviled or outright forgotten. Little did he know that this was to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
*His essence has been erased from existence. When the Emperor mustered up the resolve to finally end Horus, he shot him with a psychic blast powerful enough to obliterate his very soul, ensuring that the Chaos Gods couldn't just bring him back from the dead. His body was recovered and brought to the Eye of Terror, but was later destroyed after an incident involving [[Fabius Bile]] and a clone of Horus.
|align=center|[[Image:Horus-the warmaster.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Horus-Primarchs-.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Emperor vs Horus.jpg|thumb|150px|]]
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|align=center|'''XVII'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Lorgar_Aurelian_sketch.png|thumb|250px|]] [[Lorgar|Lorgar Aurelian]]
|align=center|Bearer of the Word, Urizen (Colchisian for "wisest of the wise")
|align=center|[[Colchis]]
|align=center|[[Word Bearers]]
|align=center|Traitor Prime
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*A charismatic diplomat with a golden tongue, who relied heavily on his unparalleled speaking abilities to bring worlds into compliance during the Great Crusade. Lorgar would always prefer to talk out a peaceful solution, rather than resorting to violence. That said, Lorgar did know how to slap a bitch when needed.
*A deeply spiritual man, due to growing up in a theocratic society during his time on Colchis. Due to this, Lorgar saw The Emperor as a literal god and decided to spread the good word of the God-Emperor throughout the Crusade. During this time, he penned the "Lectitio Divinitatus", a book detailing how awesome the God-Emperor was, and always built grand cathedrals in all the planets he conquered. As you can imagine, this didn't sit well with the Man-Emperor's secular Empire, so he decided to bloody one of Lorgar's grandest cities to send a message with Guilliman. Little did the Emperor know what this act of dickery would lead eventually to.
*With Lorgar being completely disheartened and defeated; Kor Phaeron and [[Erebus]] lured him to the worship of the Dark Gods, who were more than happy to accept his rabid fanboyism. He would eventually corrupt Horus and ignite the [[Horus Heresy|single biggest clusterfuck in Imperial History]], ruining everything that the Emperor has striven to build since the [[Age of Strife]].
*Rules as a daemon prince of Chaos Undivided and currently located in Sicarius, the Word Bearers' home planet.
*Previously a shut-in NEET that left command to his legion to his Dark Apostles: Lorgar has finally gotten out of his tower and is personally leading the Word Bearers now. He has recently been seen evangelizing about Chaos in the material realm, with a large legion of Word Bearers behind him. Got his ass kicked by a warp-empowered Corax and is doing everything he can to avoid round three.

|align=center|[[Image: 30k.Lorgar.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Lorgar_portrait.jpg|thumb|150px|]]
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|align=center|'''XVIII'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Vulkan_sketch.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Vulkan]]
|align=center|Lord of Drakes
|align=center|[[Nocturne]]
|align=center|[[Salamanders]]
|align=center|Loyal
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*A true man of the people, concerned with the preservation and welfare of humans. Vulkan saw all humans in the Imperium as equals and would protect any servant of the Emperor with great ferocity regardless of their class or status.
*Growing up in a blacksmith society allowed him and his legion to craft some of the finest wargear the Imperium has ever seen. It's also the reason for their fire fetish in combat.
*Inherited the Emperor's perpetual powers, granting him the ability to reincarnate after dying.
*He and his legion took some of the worst losses during Istvaan, and he himself was eventually captured by Konrad Curze.
*Curze wanted to get his torture fetish on, so he tortured Vulkan to death. Several times. Vulkan's status as a perpetual ensured he always came back, but less and less sane as Curze's treatment got worse and worse.
*He eventually managed to escape, but accidentally teleported over Macragge's atmosphere, crashing down on the planet like a green comet of insanity. By this point, anything remotely resembling sanity had left Vulkan's mind. He was eventually "killed" by another perpetual, in a well-meaning attempt to reset Vulkan's brain. It worked (sort of. At least he wasn't a howling maniac anymore) and after taking a short death nap, he got better and disappeared for a while.
*Resurfaced during [[The War of The Beast]] and was recruited to lead the Imperial forces against The Beast's forces. Then disappeared after ramming The Beast into a plasma reactor and killing them both in a squall of gore. The Salamanders claim he continued to lead them for a few more centuries after that death, then left them with the Tome of Fire, claiming he had a special mission that they could not accompany him for.
|align=center|[[Image:Past Vulkan.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Vulkan Lives.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Vulkan-Primarchs-Warhammer-40000-фэндомы-4123369.jpeg|150px|]]
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|align=center|'''XIX'''
|align=center|[[Image: Corax Portrait.png|thumb|250px|]] [[Corvus Corax]]
|align=center|The Lord of Shadows, The Liberator, The Deliverer, The Raven-Lord, Chooser of the Slain, The Shadowed Lord
|align=center|[[Deliverance]]
|align=center|[[Raven Guard]]
|align=center|Loyal
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*Sought to overthrow oppression, bringing justice to tyrants.
*Possessed some kind of perception-manipulating psychic power, giving him the ability to be "invisible" to organics (He's still there clear as day, but your mind just can't process that he's right there).
*Preferred covert warfare, sabotaging, fast strikes and assassinating the enemy from the sides, and only striking in the open when the time is right. Basically one of the few primarchs who uses tactics of actual special forces units.
*He and his legion were bloodied during Istvaan and forced out of the conflict. Corvus wanted desperately to help the Imperium's deteriorating situation, so he asked the Emperor for assistance. Emps obliged and gave him the template to create the Primarchs themselves, giving him the ability to train marines at an even faster rate. This was wrecked after the Alpha Legion tampered with the creation process, resulting with the majority of the aspirants coming out as horrible mutants and aberrations.
*While it weighed heavily on his conscience, Corax had to be pragmatic. He made do and used his newly obtained mutant horde as shock troops and it worked; they were able to disrupt the traitors long enough to buy Terra some time to put up a defense.
*After the Heresy ended, he was reluctantly forced to euthanize his creations, wracking Corvus with a huge amount of guilt.
*Went missing after heading for the Eye of Terror to atone for his sins, saying only "Nevermore" before leaving. His status is currently unknown, but the Raven Guard believe he's still alive and will return once again. In reality, he is indeed alive and hunting his fallen brothers, although the Warp has changed him into a living, shapeshifting shadow.
|align=center|[[Image:Warhammer-Corvus-Corax-Primarchs.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Hh-walpaper-raven-Copy.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Corvus Corax.jpg|thumb|150px|]]
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|align=center|'''XX'''
|align=center|[[Image: Alpharius2.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Alpharius]] [[Omegon]]
|align=center|Head of the Hydra, Aleph Null, The Hydra, The Threefold Serpent, The Final Configuration, The Last Primarch
|align=center|They're not telling
|align=center|[[Alpha Legion]]
|align=center|[[Alpha Legion|Alpharius: Very loyal. Omegon: even Tzeentch can't keep track.]]
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*Shrouded in mystery. It's not even known what their homeworld is, let alone what their upbringing was like. Forge World gave no fewer than four mutually irreconcilable origin stories, all of which were dismissed as lies. That said, the only discernible fact we can give about them is that the two primarchs did not always agree with each other, exemplified with Omegon actively sabotaging Alpharius' operations during the Horus Heresy.
*As primarchs of the Alpha legion; the two frequently exchanged roles whenever needed with nobody ever noticing, but officially; Alpharius is the primarch of the legion while Omegon is commander of their elite covert forces.
*Masters of psychological warfare and manipulation. They didn't need regiments of soldiers or weapons to do his heavy lifting; all he needs is a handful of spies to plant paranoia, deceit, misinformation, and dissent in his targeted worlds. By the time his agents are done: the enemy would either be tearing each other apart and/or distrustful of each other; making them isolated, easy pickings for the main Alpha Legion forces once they're called to reign the planet in.
*Alpharius bought the Cabal's story about letting Horus kill all of humanity to kill off the Chaos Gods in the long run, and was eventually beheaded by Rogal Dorn during a battle on Pluto. Maybe. Quite frankly, with these two one can never be entirely sure '''what''' the truth really is.
*Omegon took on his mantle officially ("the jest made real") and this new "Alpharius" may or may not have been killed by Guilliman (the Ultramarines suspect they may have only killed a body double). His loyalties are unknown, but he was against the Cabal's proposal, indicating he either thought sacrificing his entire species was too big of a price (which would mean he's still loyal to humanity), or he wanted Chaos to survive by feeding off humanity (which would mean he was a traitor).
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|}

==Their Eventual Fates==
[[File:Heresy_Time.jpg|300px|thumb|right|An accurate retelling of the final stages of the rebellion.]]
===Traitors===
*General downside to those who became Daemon Princes is that the further they go from the Eye of Terror, the more their power wanes. Also most of them spend most of their time in the Great Game (eternal war in the Warp), growing increasingly distant from the real world affairs.
* '''Horus''' was killed by the Emperor during the Siege of Terra, who utterly destroyed his soul. His legion enshrined his corpse until the Emperor's Children stole it. [[Fabius Bile]] managed to successfully clone him, but [[Abaddon]] killed the clone to cement his position as his successor as Warmaster of Chaos. While "Horus" is supposedly ''very'' dead, which was his fault for being a fuckwit, shards of his soul which were broken off in the Warp remain. Including one in the realm of Khorne...
* '''Angron''' is a Daemon Prince of Khorne. Still gets shit done, but did get his arse handed to him by the Grey Knights on Armageddon.
* '''Mortarion''' is a fucktwit who rarely does anything of interest (still sulking over his eternal existence as the thing he hates the most), but is a Daemon Prince of Nurgle. Apparently now holds the largest domain in the Eye of Terror, rather than just one planet he had in the old fluff. Got some open heart surgery, courtesy of Draigo/Ward. Created zombie plague from one of the artifacts Abbaddon used in his XII crusade. He invaded Ultramar after hearing news that Guilliman's finally awake, though he ultimately had to go back to the [[Scourge Stars]] due to his poor fortunes in the war as well as being summoned back by his patron God.
* '''Fulgrim's''' soul was trapped in a painting while his body was possessed by a daemon for a brief time before swapping places with the daemon and taking its powers (or so he claims). The first Primarch to become a Daemon Prince, although he aimed at achieving (demi)godhood instead (by sacrificing Perturabo). Abandoned what remained of his legion to rule his pleasure daemon world, and [[Troll|didn't tell them how to get there]] (yet Abaddon somehow manages to contact him anyways).
* '''Lorgar''' is a lazy fucknut who does nothing since they fled to the Eye of Terror, and handed the rule over his legion to the council of Dark Apostles, but still a Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided. Taught Abaddon how to summon daemons. Lost a duel with a powered-up Corax during sometime after the Heresy.
* '''Magnus the Red''' got broken into several pieces during his fight with Leman Russ, with several of them actually believing they were the real Magnus and going their own way. Some pieces were eventually put back together to form "the Crimson King", the Daemon Primarch form of Magnus who joined Horus in his rebellion. This sometimes also gets shit done, leading armies to the [[Space Wolves]]' planet and screwing with the Imperium, keeping his big red trollface on all the time until he gets his ass tossed back into the [[Warp]]. Other fragments seem to be floating around throughout history, appearing to have their own agenda, pretending to be daemons or helping the Imperium from time to time. By the time of the Gathering Storm and the 42nd Millennium the disparate fragments have mostly recombined to the Crimson King ''(leaving out a few key elements, namely the ones who embodied his best qualities; for example, the part of Magnus that embodied his love for his Legion chose to fade into nonexistence instead of being reabsorbed into the Crimson King)'' making him as whole as he can be.
* '''Perturabo''' becomes irrelevant after he goes on to drop largely out of post-Heresy fluff, but is still a Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided. Rules the most stable planet in the Eye of Terror, where he does nothing but watching his sons sieging each other. Helps Failbaddon in a couple of Black Crusades by giving him some Daemon Engines. It doesn't really help, but it's more than Lorgar's done for Chaos Undivided. He is also leading his Legion after the 13th Black Crusade in their new offensive against the Imperium.
* '''Konrad Curze''' allowed a Callidus assassin to infiltrate his lair and kill him, either because he himself became the thing he hated the most, or to justify to himself that every atrocity he has done in the name of justice was a necessary act. Except...there was that crown he always wore, the one with a stone in it that looked oddly similar to a soulstone...
* The Alpha Legion's story is a bit complex:
**'''Alpharius''' was slain by Rogal Dorn in combat during the Battle of Pluto. He is very much dead as he did not bargain with the Dark Gods and had his head split open by a fellow Primarch's chainsword. Conspiracy theorists will speculate that it wasn't really Alpharius, though the death is strongly corroborated by Omegon's response. So unless Alpharius used a body double to trick Rogal Dorn AND ''his own twin'' into thinking he was dead and allowed Omegon to take his place and identity permanently; there isn't any hard evidence to suggest that the dead "Alpharius" was anything other than the actual Primarch, but knowing the Alpha Legion that doesn't mean too much without definitive proof.
**'''Omegon''' reluctantly took Alpharius' identity after he sensed he was dead, and his legion a bee-line for Ultramar after the Horus Heresy, where he met his end after dueling [[Roboute Guilliman|Big Bobby G]]. However, because the rest of the Alpha Legionaries did not break even after the death of their primarch ''(in fact they managed to beat the Ultramarines in the conflict altogether);'' nobody could truly confirm if they did indeed kill the real deal, or if it was a body double.
**While it's been established that a decent amount of Alpha Legionnaires were surgically altered to resemble their Primarch and even ''believe'' they were Primarchs themselves; that and the figurehead role of "Alpharius" has been largely interchangable between both the twins and their sons, which makes sense for a legion whose MO is flexible leadership. While we can be reasonably certain that at least one of the twins is dead, whatever "Omegon-Alpharius" or at least whichever person who thinks he's Alpharius have been up to following the Heresy is a matter of fierce debate and speculation.
**One warband of the Alpha Legion believes that Omegon is still alive in the 42nd millennium and somehow certain elements of the Necron knows where he is. And there is that one big guy in scaled armor trapped in Trayzn's toybox...

===Loyalists===
[[File:Imperium-good-ending.jpg|350px|thumb|right|If GeeDubs ever dared to make a multiple outcome final campaign World of Darkness style this will probably be the Golden Ending while respecting all the current canon material.]]
*It is believed by Mortarion that they are now returning to realspace.
*'''Ferrus Manus''' was killed by Fulgrim during the Drop Site Massacre. His body was not recovered, so some Iron Hands think he might still be alive, and for a time it seemed like he did survive. However, Vulkan later exposed the "Ferrus Manus" leading the remaining Iron Hands as a marionette-like machine with one of the Primarch's hands attached to it, destroying the fake soon afterwards. The fact that Ferrus was decapitated by Fulgrim after being defeated and had his head delivered to Horus makes this claim fairly dubious. Just don't say that to the Iron Hands, though. Unless you want free open-heart surgery from a ceramite and steel power fist. Fulgrim did try to clone him (several times) in the hope one of them would join the traitors, but every clone so far has refused and been subsequently killed by him. An apparition of an iron handed giant - the 10th son - was seen leading the charge in an army of human souls against an army of daemons when the Emperor entered the Webway).
*'''Sanguinius''' was killed by Horus. His body was recovered, and he's the only Primarch who doesn't have any legends about returning, though there are some theories on the identity of the [[Sanguinor]] which were later proven <s>incorrect</s> half correct (he is able to manifest Sanguinius to Dante during the events of the Dark Imperium). Sanguinius foresaw his death and accepted it as a necessary sacrifice for the future of the Imperium, in no small part because his visions also warned him that he would only survive the Horus Heresy by becoming corrupted himself. The trauma of his death by the Talon of Horus left a psychic manifestation of him still on the Vengeful Spirit. As of late it turns out his soul has been wandering the warp ever since, only deciding to make himself known to revive Commander [[Dante]] when he ended up as [[Swarmlord]]-shishkebab after realizing that you really don't want to get into melee with the Swarmlord a little too late (Dante being Dante, he still managed to banish it to the Hive Mind, showing just how bloody exceptional you have to be for Sanguinius to bother interfering).
*'''Lion El'Jonson''' returned to Caliban only to discover <s>that his friend Luther had stabbed him in the back.</s> THAT LUTHER HAD A PLANET-WIDE PARTY AND EVENTUALLY PASSED OUT INTO A COMA AFTER DRINKING 200 TANKARDS OF SPACE WOLF-GRADE ALCOHOL. He sleeps deep within the Rock, originally on life support and now fully-healed (but none of the Dark Angels seem to know this). Perhaps this is a sign of a coming advancement of the storyline, DUN DUN DUN!
*'''Jaghatai Khan''' disappeared into the Webway after chasing a group of Dark Eldar. The White Scars think he will return someday, and when you consider the fact that time is just as weird there as it is in the rest of the Warp, there is a small possibility he's still around.
*'''Leman Russ''' disappeared into the Eye of Terror but promised the Space Wolves that he would return for the Final Battle. Magnus appears to know where he is now, but he sure as hell isn't telling the Space Wolves. Reports during the Thirteenth Black Crusade claim that a figure matching Russ's description was seen leading the 13th Great Company have surfaced, but were never verified. Numerous crusades by the Space Wolves to find Russ have resulted in failure, although they did find <s> his armor in a shrine of Khorne in the Eye</s> an armor believed to be his in the Temple of Horus on Rudra - so either he succumbed to Chaos, was killed by a Khorne champion, devolved into wulfen, or is [[Conan the Barbarian|currently pillaging The Warp as a muscle-bound, half-naked barbarian hero]].
*'''Rogal Dorn''' disappeared during a [[Black Crusade]] in a desperate ship boarding action. Only his severed hand was recovered and its skeleton enshrined. Debate rages about whether the Zerg rush of World Eaters killed him, or whether he's still out there, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIJTvEo4N4Q murdering his way through traitors with an Astartes-pattern shotgun and a chainsword grafted where his hand used to be]. Original 40K novels stated his entire skeleton was on display on Terra, but it's been retconned to only his hands. Still, a Primarch without a skeleton would be bad-ass, if not a little amusing.
*'''Roboute Guilliman''' was formerly preserved in a stasis field, seconds from death after he was poisoned by Fulgrim. Fast-forward a few thousand years and some Eldar flubdubbery, however, and Big Bobby G is back in action, and he's mad at the current state of the Imperium. After a private meeting with the Emperor, he assumed direct command of the Imperium itself as Lord Commander of the Imperium. When he isn't curb-stomping traitors to death or otherwise trying to keep the Imperium afloat, Guilliman is busy re-vamping the Imperium with numerous reforms in an attempt to realize his father's dream for humanity. Needless to say; a lot of people are unhappy about this, but they can't exactly tell off one of the Emperor's actual sons and expect not to be on the business end of a Custodes guardian spear. He's also taken the time to rewrite the Codex Astartes as well.
*'''Vulkan''' got the shit kicked out of him during the Drop Site Massacre, whereupon his fluff gets a bit hazy:
**The old ''Codex: Space Marines'' states that his body was never found, only a book containing only the names of nine powerful relics and a bunch of annoying riddles as to where they might be found, penned by Vulkan himself. In the 41st millennium, the Salamanders believe that he is still alive and that collecting the nine relics - they've found five so far - will reveal his location.
** In the Black Library novels, starting with ''Vulkan Lives'' the big V had to be dragged into a Thunderhawk in bloody tatters. Kurze captured him and tortured him to death... repeatedly; as a [[Perpetual]], Vulkan would not stay dead. After an indeterminate amount of time and deaths, Vulkan managed to escape by teleporting himself into orbit around Macragge and reentering its atmosphere. When he recovered and learned that Kurze was planetside, he [[Rage|flipped out]] and went after him. A well-meaning Perpetual stabbed him with a fulgurite (a spearhead-shaped piece of stone that contains a bit of the Emperor's power), hoping to either cure his madness or kill him for good. Now apparently dead, Vulkan was put in a stasis capsule inscribed with the words "Unbound Flame," with an honor guard of Salamanders until his remains could be returned to Nocturne. As of the end of ''Deathfire'', he somehow managed to return to life again, although there's no indication as to whether or not he's still a Perpetual. As of the War of the Beast, he's still alive in M.32, after the wounding of Guilliman. He's apparently been wandering the Imperium for a millennium fulfilling his own oaths, but returns to Terra to take command and reclaim Ullanor from the united Ork race. Even with one of the greatest forces assembled since the Horus Heresy, with the remnants of the VII Legion Chapters, the fight devolved to Vulkan facing off with The Beast one-on-one, and sacrificing himself in The Beasts temple-gargant's core detonating it with both himself and The Beast inside it. Whether both of them died is highly unlikely. He hints that Dorn is also alive, meaning he is either privy to some secret information, doesn't know of his brother's death, or is going insane.
**The 8th Edition Codex reconcile these stories somewhat, by claiming that sources within the Salamanders themselves believe Vulkan led them for three millennia ''(which accounts for his appearance during the War of the Beast)'', sometimes falling in battle but apparently always returning ''(also accounting for his perpetual status)''. He eventually disappeared on some final undocumented mission, not without leaving his Tome of Fire and bequeathing his personal artefacts to the chapter but not actually saying where they were, giving rise to the legend that if they are all found he will then return.
*'''Corvus Corax''' disappeared into the Eye of Terror as an atonement for putting down the mutant hordes he created in trying to create Space Marines out of desperation. Quoth the Raven: "Nevermore." Beyond the Imperium's eyes, his wraith-slip powers began to mutate and he became a shadowy shapeshifter hellbent on killing all his traitor brothers. Corax was last seen beating Lorgar's ass so hard that the useless fuckwit had to run with his tail between his legs. Yeah, he beat a Daemon Primarch (who had Chaos Marine and likely daemon backup) into up and running, while Corax himself was on his own. Basically the battle between Guilliman and Magnus on Luna, in reverse. Eat it, Papa Smurf.

==Two Missing Primarchs | The Forgotten & The Purged==
Who are the two missing Primarchs, you ask? [[Sigmar|Sigmar Heldenhammer]] and [[Archaon The Everchosen: Lord of the End of Times; Chaos Incarnate; Herald of the Apocalypse|Archaon]] (depending on how WHFB fits in with 40K, if it does). Or maybe (per /tg/ canon) [[Rachnus Rageous]] and [[Tialoc Ekans]]. [[Samus]] and [[Berserk|Guts]] are also contenders, and many Bolter and Chainsword regulars consider Icarion and his Lightning Bearers to be their headcanon II Legion.

The Legions in question are the Legio II (Second Legion) and the Legio XI (Eleventh Legion).

What, you wanted a serious answer?

Okay, fine. Nobody really knows. It is very intentional that no lore exists about these two legions, making them completely unknown. References to their existence are common in canon, but no details are ever explicitly mentioned. This is a feature of the lore, an intentionally kept mystery whose details provide more questions than answers. What has been established is that they got killed for some reason and the existence of their Legions was wiped from record by the Emperor. [[Malcador the Sigillite]] claims that the Primarchs had been manipulated from the start, and were to be maneuvered into their proper roles prior to the Horus Heresy and those which would not be manipulated would be removed. Although Malcador's own testimony is tainted by the fact that he later admits he had to lie, though many of his statements do mirror what we have seen from the Emperor's own statements.

[[Games Workshop]] have mentioned Primarchs besides the eighteen above on other occasions, but they backtracked since. Back in the [[Rogue Trader|first edition]] of [[Warhammer 40,000]], all twenty [[First Founding]] Chapters were known, as were their Primarchs (though, at the time, the Primarch was just the first Chapter Master). Of these, the [[Valedictors]] and [[Rainbow Warriors]] were declared in a later [[White Dwarf]] to have been founded after the [[Second Founding]].

Later, in the short story '''Hell in a Bottle''' from the novel Into the Maelstrom, a chapter known as the Iron Hearts get fucked over by a [[Chaos Lord]]. The short story also mentions that the Chapter has a Primarch known as Rubinek. Of course, this was just a huge cock-up on the author's part, who himself admitted that he meant Chapter Master.

=== The [REDACTED] Event ===

*'''The First Heretic''' shows that by the Razing of Monarchia (43 years before the Isstvan V Drop Site Massacre of 006.M31), the II and XI Legions had already been stricken from the records. It also states that the remaining Primarchs had to swear an oath never to speak of their missing brothers and that the missing Primarchs' corresponding legions were personally purged by the Emperor, so it had to have been something extraordinarily bad. However, Lorgar still remembers something about them, saying "I still remember how they-", before Magnus cut him off. Lastly, it is revealed that the Emperor had considered purging Lorgar and the Word Bearers (making them the third legion to be purged) for starting a religion around him, but Russ had talked him out of it. #BlameLemanRuss
*In '''The Lightning Tower''' Rogal Dorn says that the lost Primarchs' disappearances were "separate tragedies", so it seems like they disappeared in two different incidents.
*In '''Descent of Angels''', which takes place as of the time Lion El'Jonson had been rediscoverd, Chief Librarian Israfael tells the then initiate, Zahariel El'Zurias, that the Lion has 19 brothers; indicating that as of that time they had not committed whatever atrocity lead to their demise. This also means that the existence of the Primarchs was not a secret among the Imperium.
*In '''Dark Imperium''', Roboute Guilliman declares "I was one of twenty. Two failed. Half the rest turned on my Father." This suggests that the downfall of the two lost primarchs was not a result of them betraying the Emperor. Instead their demise was a result of them "failing" their purpose as primarchs and being terminated as a result. Interestingly this line also seems to imply that it is no longer forbidden to speak of the two missing primarchs in the 42nd milenium, as Guilliman casually references them to make a point about primarchs being fallible. (The 2021 revision of the book adds a bit more to this; it looks like the Imperium has covered up the fact that there were even two deleted Legions and Primarchs in the first place.)
*'''The Chamber at the End of Memory''' has Rogal Dorn note that he was one of the few Primarchs who ever met with the II and XI Primarchs. It also reveals that not only was the entire Imperium forbidden to speak of the missing Primarchs' existence, but every non-Primarch save for Malcador who had ever interacted with them was mind-wiped so they would remember nothing about them - including their own gene-sons, presumably other than the fact that they were purged from all record and be left unable to speak even about that. Even the other Primarchs had their memories altered so they couldn't recall much more about their lost brothers beyond the fact that they existed - Dorn is dumbstruck by this discovery, and even more so when Malcador tells him that it was his own idea (and Roboute Guilliman's) to have his fellow Primarchs' memories altered. Malcador also states that '''whatever it was that the II and XI Primarchs did, it was against the very ideals of the Great Crusade and would have ruined everything the the Great Crusade had accomplished to that point.''' Their old living quarters in the Imperial Palace are protected by extremely powerful psychic wards, and when Malcador briefly restores Rogal Dorn's memories of them he realizes the '''''hateful truth'''. That '''the entire Horus Heresy up to the Siege of Terra was not so awful or threatening to the Imperium as what had happened to the Missing Primarchs'''; in fact, '''if they were still alive, the Imperium would have long since fallen'''.
*'''Deliverance Lost''' suggests that whatever happened to the missing Primarchs occurred sometime before the Emperor found Corvus Corax, as Corax asked the Emperor why there were only sixteen other Primarchs waiting for him if he was the nineteenth (it's unsure whether this was referring to him being the Primarch of the nineteenth Legion, or him being the nineteenth found); the Emperor avoided the question, claiming that "it would be a discussion for another day". This is no longer the case, somehow, as he is [[Retcon|now the third-to-last primarch found]], right before the second missing primarch.
*In '''Prospero Burns''', Leman Russ mentions that the Space Wolves had fought other Space Marines before the attack on Prospero, which may have something to do with the purge. A senior Space Wolf describes Russ' "wyrd" as being "the Emperor's executioner". Several books since have backed this up, though [https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/8q7qyg/the_space_wolves_what_were_they_really_for_little/e0hih9h/ ADB denies this].
*In '''Scars''' there's a reference to rumours and "whispers of past atrocities" that only a Primarch could kill another Primarch. Russ also turns up and talks a bit about fighting Magnus, and the resulting "shame". So if he's responsible for offing one or two of his brothers, they must've done something pretty fucking heinous.
*In '''The Dark King''', when asked if he will report the Night Lords for censure, Dorn remarks that he feared to add another empty statue to the Emperor's palace, implying that the missing legions were exterminated for committing severe atrocities.
*In '''The Last Council''' Malcador states that one of the missing Primarchs was '''fallen and disgraced'''. Alpharius mentions that one of the primarchs had died. While the lost Primarchs and their Legions were wiped before he was rediscovered, its Alpharius....you can't keep info like that from him.
*Their legions were purged in the times of the [[Rangdan Xenocides|Rangdan Wars]] they participated in.
*In '''The Wolftime''', which is set during the [[Indomitus Crusade]], two Adeptus Custodes are discussing the Space Wolves' resistance to their new [[Primaris Marine]] reinforcements. During the discussion, one of them, Hastius Vychellan, notes that, if [[Roboute Guilliman]] turned on the Emperor, the Space Wolves would be among his first opponents, as the Custodes' history with the Eleventh Legion demonstrates. The other, Maldovar Colquan, notes that this shared history is an example of how loyalty to the Emperor can be corrupted by lies and manipulation. It's quite vague, but the implication is obvious: someone manipulated the XI Legion into turning traitor without them realising it, and the Space Wolves (and likely the Custodes as well) went after them for it. The book doesn't say who manipulated them, but since Malcador mentions in ''The Chamber at the End of Memory'' that the lost Legions' Marines were spared and re-used after their deletion, but the Primarchs weren't, it's possible it was the XI Primarch.

=== Name of one of the missing Primarchs ===
*In '''The Last Council''', [[Horus]] (who had been outraged by the erasure of his brothers from Imperial records) struggles to mutter the name of one of the lost Primarchs while Malcador is using his psyker powers to seize his nerves so as to prevent him from saying it. '''Horus managed to say"M-Mal...al..."''', which pissed Malcador off to the point that it required Alpharius and the Khan to convince Malcador not to kill him outright. Obviously people looking for connections immediately found one in [[Malal]], the fact that hearing the name made Malcador remember something that stirred up a spiteful hate (Malal's primary emotional aspect), and the fact that Malal's favourite/sacred number is 11 (the number for one of the missing Legions, and the Roman numeral for "2" can be seen as two "1's,") there may be some circumstantial connection to the Anti-Chaos Chaos God (ignoring the fact that copyright caused GW to change Malal's name to Malice).

(50% Horus was just trying to say “Malcador” 50% Game's workshop is trolling us)

=== II Primarch ===
*The 2nd Primarch was the third Primarch rediscovered. After Leman Russ, but before Ferrus Manus.
*'''Fulgrim: The Palatine Phoenix''' mentions that the 2nd Legion's "normally contemplative", "quiet" and "humorless" Primarch had accused Fulgrim of arrogance for boasting he would bring a world under compliance with only eight total Astartes (& that Fulgrim considered the remark high hypocrisy, even bringing to mind the old adage of pots and kettles), which means that at least one missing Primarch was found early enough to have some kind of interaction with his brothers and make a contribution to the Great Crusade (being 3rd in line after Horus and Russ, actually). Considering how recent the encounter had apparently happened, and how Fulgrim refers to the Primarch as if he is still around, it appears that he was still very much active and un-purged at the time of the novel's events, although Fulgrim does not refer to him or his Legion by name (referring to him only as the "master of the Second" and "his brother").
*In '''Fabius Bile: Clonelord''', Flavius Alkenex mentions that Fulgrim once described one of the two (likely the 2nd since the 11th was almost last to be recovered) having made a pilgrimage to the Attila System of Ultima Segmentum to make an archaeological expedition inside the [[Necrons|Ymga Monolith]] for [[C'tan|unknown]] [[Heretek|reasons]] during the earliest days of the Great Crusade. Worth noting that "pilgrimage" has some pretty religious meaning's to it which is something the Emperor greatly and heavily frowned upon.

=== XI Primarch ===
*The 11th Primarch was nineteenth primarch rediscovered. After Corax, but before Alpharius Omegon.
*In '''The First Heretic''', when Argel Tal and the other Word Bearers are in the Emperor's gene-labs, they find the 11th's gestation pod. It is mentioned that the 11th was still "innocent and pure" prior to the Primarchs being scattered, although this was a vision given to the Word Bearers by a demon so take it with a grain of salt.
*In the 9th Edition of the Adeptus Custodes Codex, it is mentioned that the Dungeons and Vaults of the Imperial Palace contained many taboo and esoteric items and entities with Subject XI listed as one of them. Whether it's actually one of the Lost or a coincidence is an neverending debate.

=== The Lost Legions ===
*The Regimental Standard article '''Field Dressing a Lasgun Wound''' makes reference to the II and XI legions taking part in the Rangdan Xenocides, but cuts off before their names are given (though given the amount of whitespace between the word "the" and the end of the page, this would suggest at least one of them had a particularly long word in their name). Given it references the rank of "Warmaster", it means this was during the tail end of the war.
*'''The First Heretic''' specifies that the missing Legions were purged at least 43 years before the Drop Site Massacre, so we can conclude that neither one took part in the Horus Heresy. At the same time, members of the Word Bearers Seventh Company travelling through time with Ingethel the Ascended reveal rumors that the surviving members of the lost Legions were folded into the Ultramarines (their Chaplain thinks the rumor is a load of grox-shit, but their Captain does note that the Ultramarines are on record as receiving an increase in troops; however it should be noted that Ingethel is a Daemon Princess, and could easily have been bullshitting herself).
*In '''The Chamber at the End of Memory''', Malcador stated that when both the Primarchs were purged, it left their legions leaderless. Indicating that the the II and XI legions were around when both Primarchs did the thing. And that Dorn and Guilliman had spoken up to convince him that just purging the two lost legions completely would be a waste of good soldiers. Instead, Dorn and Guilliman created the plan to wipe the Legions' memories, and have them put to use elsewhere. While it is not actually said where they wound up, beyond Malcador saying that he ensured they were "attuned to new circumstances", it is possible that Dorn and Guilliman had the Marines integrated into their own legions. If true, this may support the fanon explanation of the [[Rainbow Warriors]] and [[Valedictors]] existence.
*In '''Fear To Tread''', Sanguinius admits to Horus that he had not told the Emperor about the Red Thirst because he feared that the Emperor would purge the Blood Angels in the same way as the missing Legions, indicating that some form of gene-seed flaw caused at least one of the Legions to be purged.
*'''Visions of Heresy - Book One''' has a pictographic list of all the original legions. Interestingly, the II Legion pict-capture is labeled "-ERROR #CDIV- file not found", while the XI Legion pict-capture is labeled "-CENSORED- by Imperial decree". This seems to indicate that the XI Legion was merely censored, while the records of the II Legion were wiped entirely. ‘Error #CDIV’ is a play on Error 404 using Roman Numerals.

=== Known Timeline ===
*'''792.M30''', the Primarchs were created . The 11th is still "innocent and pure". The Primarchs are scattered.
*'''798.M30''', The Great Crusade began.
*The 2nd Primarch is found and reunited. He is the 3rd Primarch found, after Horus and Russ.
*Sometime during the early years of the Great Crusade, the 2nd Primarch leads an expedition to the Ymga Monolith in the Attila System of the Ultima Segmentum.
*After the discovery of Guilliman, the (then) 8 found Primarchs all met up. The 2nd accused Fulgrim of hubris. Fulgrim feels the 2nd was guilty of the same and called him out on hypocrisy.
*Magnus is found and all (then) 9 found Primarchs meet up.
*Around the time Lion El Johnson (11th to be found) was discovered, the two lost Primarchs had not yet done whatever made them get un-personed.
*'''Between the 890s.M30 - 930s.M30''', both the 2nd and 11th Legions were deployed along with the Solar Auxillia to the Rangdan Xenocides. This is the last recorded action of either Legion. ''Something'' happened to them during this war. An Alpharius (who may or may not be THE Alpharius) met Lion and offered to manage the mess here in his stead. Clearly any non-Primarch person can just march in to meet Lion and ask to take away his job!
*'''approx. 898.M30''' Corax, the 18th Primarch discovered, is found "around a century" after the start of the Great Crusade.
*'''Between 898.M30 - 963.M30''', the 11th Primarch is discovered. At some point he is reunited with his legion.
*The information of the lost Primarchs and their Legions is wiped, leaving Alpharius as the only non-lost Primarch to not see all others at least once (if the Rangda's Alpharius is someone else entirely) .
*'''981.M30''' Alpharius Omegon is discovered and (or at least) given leadership of the XX Legion (the at least is because Horus found him/them first and took a while to tell others this).
*'''Between 981.M30 - 000.M31''' Horus confronts Malcador about the destruction of the lost Primarch's statues in the Reliquary. Attempts to say one of their names out of spite for Malcador, is force choked and can only get out an approximation of "Malal."
*'''000.M31''', Magnus mentions its the first time since [REDACTED] '''9''' Primarchs have met up in one place. Its likely that Magnus wanted to say something like "Since the 2nd was with us.".

=== Other Info ===
Lion El'Jonson wouldn't lead the fight against the Rangdan xenos until 890s.M30, and not until the 6th year of his involvement did the title of "Warmaster" get thrown around. Adding this to the document in "Field Dressing a Lasgun Wound", means that the 11th Legion's participation in the Rangdan Xenocides didn't happen until at least 8 years after Lion El'Jonson took the helm. The Xenocide would end by 930s.M30, meaning the 11th only participated in the war for a possible 32 to 42 years. The Horus Heresy didn't begin until 005.M31, and the 2nd and 11th had been expunged and condemned 43 years before the Dropsite Massacre which occurred at 006.M31, disproving the dates 965.M30 & 969.M30 as being the period where they were exterminated by the Space Wolves. By the time the Rangdan Xenocides ended, there would have been a possible 23 to 33 year gap between 930s.M30, the end of the Xenocides, and 963.M30 for them to have committed whatever atrocity called for damnatio memoriae, assuming it didn't occur during the Xenocides.

Considering that the 2nd was around for at least a century with no issues before the 11th showed up and they both got expunged three decades after the end of the Rangdan Xenocide, it's a strong possibility that [[that guy|the 11th was the ring leader of the two & dragged the 2nd Primarch down with him]].

Out of universe, [[Rick Priestley]] admitted that the unknown legions were supposed to be a reference to the three Roman legions wiped out in the [[Wikipedia: Battle of the Teutoburg Forest| Battle of the Teutoburg Forest]], whose numbers were never reused after they were slain to a man by Germanic barbarians as well as add an air of mystery and strangeness to the setting, that it had been so long since the primarchs and their full legion were around that people had entirely forgot about them .Nowadays, it doesn't even really let people do much with homebrew fluff since the setting has developed in such a way that it's almost impossible for someone to connect a homebrew chapter to the missing primarchs without getting laughed out of their [[Local Game Store]]. If you play in the privacy of your own home, however, there's nothing stopping you and your friends from nailing it down and having your Self-Insert Primarchs show up and give the Imperium a Noblebright/even GRIMDARKER (Delete as appropriate) kick in the ass.

It seems likely, given the frequent references to betrayal relating to these two Primarchs, that the Lost Primarchs did something rebellion-related or perhaps [[Imperium Secundus|tried to carve out their own empires]]. Perhaps they realized that there could be peaceful coexistance with the [[Xenos]] (as was the case of the [[Interex]]), and ended up thinking the Imperium was Evil. Either way, they did something massively damaging (or nearly pulled something off) that would have crippled the Imperium for its myriad enemies to finish off. A possible hint at the cause of their descent is mentioned in ''Extermination'' in the section regarding the Alpha Legion of all groups. Three incidents, all [REDACTED] in name, tell us that one Legion had a problematic source for its recruitment. Specifically, a [[Heresy|''potentially tainted'']] source. Although not said in sequential order, one Legion was deemed to have failed the qualification to be a Legion since it did not have enough marines to be combat effective. Lastly, a place called "Labryk Polaris" and another redacted incident point at attempts to replicate or even supersede the Emperor's gene-craft. Combining all of these cases, it's clear that one Legion had severe issues with their gene seed and their primary recruitment world. This led to said Legion failing the rudimentary testing regiment that all legions undergo. From there, the Primarch in question must have performed a few [[Daemonculaba|experiments in how to create more marines]]. Whatever the result, the Emperor clearly did [[*BLAM*|not like it.]]

It should further be noted that, in the 42nd Millennium, when asked why there were 11 symbolic chairs rather than 9 for the Primarchs, Guilliman replies something along the lines of "Of the 20, two failed and half the rest turned on my father", explicitly distinguishing this "failure" from heresy/treason, hence the reasoning in keeping ceremonial seating for them out of honor. Of the 20 Primarch plinths on Terra, 9 were destroyed but 2 were covered up. So it might be that they weren't traitors, but went '''TOO FAR'''(given that this is the Imperium of Man, the height of human Grimdark, that is not a good thing), perhaps by, for example, becoming a Chaos-fighting Chaos God (if true, It's likely that Malal would see it as the ''Imperium'' having betrayed ''him,'' explaining why he later decided to take the [[Sons of Malice]] under his wing). However, the memories of all the Primarchs regarding the two abolished legions were altered by Malcador, thus making Guilliman's input unreliable.

=== Where Are The Lost Legions Now? ===

''Note: This assumes that the theory of the Imperial Fists and Ultramarines absorbing the II and XI Legions is correct.''

Assuming that the survivors of the II and XI legions were mind-wiped and assimilated into the Imperial Fists and Ultramarines in ''The Chamber at the End of Memory'' (despite common misconceptions online, anyone who actually read the story would know that it does ''not'' confirm this, even if it's a possibility), it raises the question of where, if anywhere, the descendants of the two legions are now. Given that the Ultramarines are the progenitors of the majority of Space Marine chapters in the galaxy, that leaves a lot of options. Even having the founder of the chapter appear in the [[Horus Heresy]] series is no guarantee that the chapter isn't descended from one of the lost legions, since the members of the chapter wouldn’t even know themselves. By the end of the Horus Heresy the only person who knew which marines were and weren't descended from the Lost Legions would be Rogal Dorn, and it looks like he took the secret to...wherever he went. As of ''Dark Imperium'', the one person who knows even part of the contents of the gene-seeds for these legions is [[Belisarius Cawl]], who most likely used what samples he had of these gene-seeds (as well as un-chaosified gene-seeds of the other eight) to raise additional [[Primaris Marines|super-space marines]] despite Guilliman's insistence to not entertain such notions. As with the original legions, these new marines and the chapters they eventually formed were equally dispersed among the official gene-lineages with no evidence of their true heritage being apparent.

The obvious place to start looking for successor chapters of the lost legions is any chapter that seems to deviate a bit too far from the behavior of their supposed primarch and First Founding chapter. The [[Mortifactors]] and [[Doom Eagles]] are two such candidates, given that they don’t behave anything like [[Roboute Guilliman]] and the Ultramarines. Especially given that the II Primarch was described by [[Fulgrim]] as “normally contemplative”, “quiet”, and “humorless”. It would also explain why the [[Soul Drinkers]] believed themselves to be descendants of the Imperial Fists despite later being shown to not have Dorn’s geneseed, despite having a weapon gene-coded to the Soul Drinkers. The fact that the Soul Drinkers rejected the authority of the [[High Lords of Terra]] and fought for the common good of humanity rather than the Imperium itself also fits well with fan theories of one of the lost primarchs being a humanitarian who either believed coexistence with xenos was possible or rejected the Imperium for being just another tyrannical regime and unlike Jaghatai couldn't take the hypocrisy for the common good in the face of survival necessities against Chaos.

Then, of course, there is the elephant in the room, the red-headed stepchild of the Imperial Fists, [[Sigismund]] and the [[Black Templars]]. The Black Templars are about as un-Imperial Fist-like as it is possible to be, Imperial Fists being siege specialists who tend towards stoicism and prefer to dig in and defend until the last man, whereas the Black Templars are hyper-aggressive, always crusading, rarely if ever man any fortifications (they don't even have a homeworld, just maintaining a chapter keep on every world they liberate), and are known for their hatred of psykers and extreme piousness, something that is not really seen in the other Imperial Fist descendants. Though Dorn has been shown to have quite the well of rage himself. And, of course, [https://youtu.be/0Vh_N8CpcL0?t=1207 they do not have "fist" in their name]. A lot of attention is paid on Sigismund obsessive desire for Dorn's paternal favor, and there is a brief moment of attention paid to the fact that Sigismund offered to personally tear down the statues of the II and XI primarchs on Terra, sayng they are traitors and did not deserve to be remembered. Dramatic irony perhaps? There's also parallels to Sigismund's IRL namesake, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigismund,_Holy_Roman_Emperor#King_of_Hungary| whose father died when he was young, was basically adopted by King Louis the Great of Hungary and Poland, and ended up becoming king of Hungary]. Dorn even says in a moment of anger that Sigismund is “not his son, and never will be”. Regrettable statement made in a moment of anger? Or a subconscious Freudian slip?

Finally, the retconned OG first founding [[Rainbow Warriors]] and [[Valedictors]] are theorized to be lost legion loyalists too.

However, it should be noted that a Chapter's culture, tactics, and temperament aren't necessarily determined by ancestry. Deviations might just be a sign of a Chapter's circumstances affecting its internal culture and structure (e.g. the [[Red Scorpions]]' genetic purity leading to even more extreme xenophobia and intolerance of corruption than usual, and their Apothecaries being given authority than in most Chapters), or of a homeworld culture displacing that of the Chapter's founders (something that is discussed when [[Uriel Ventris]] fights alongside the [[Mortifactors]] in one of the Ultramarines novels). Even heritable traits might be lost, gained, become exaggerated, or otherwise change over time, due to mutation or [[Cursed Founding|genetic tampering]]. Applying Occam's Razor would lead one to conclude that most of the weirder Chapters' origins are probably [[Ultramarines|quite]] [[Imperial Fists|boring]], too, since Lost Legion heritage raises just as many questions as it answers, if not more.

==Rules on the Tabletop==
Thanks to Forge World, not only do we have models for the Primarchs, but rules as well. As you can guess, they are ungodly death machines who can easily win their points back and more. That's not to say they're invincible, though; they can still be killed if you screw up badly enough. Do be sure to see [[Primarchs in 8th Edition]] and the google drive link on that page as well, should you want to play 30k using the modern rule set. All currently released Primarchs have the following statlines:
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" align="left" class="wikitable sortable"
! || WS || BS || S || T || W || I || A || Ld || Sv || Invul || ML || Points
|-
| '''[[Horus]]''' || 8 || 5 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 5+1 || 10 || 2+ || 3++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 500
|-
| '''[[Angron]]''' || 9 || 5 || 7 || 6 || 5 || 7 || 6(10)|| 10 || 3+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 400
|-
| '''[[Fulgrim]]''' || 8 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 8 || 5 || 10 || 2+ || 5++/3++ in CC || data-sort-value=0 | || 380
|-
| '''[[Mortarion]]''' || 7 || 5 || 6 || 7 || 7 || 5 || 5 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 425
|-
| '''[[Ferrus Manus]]''' || 7 || 6 || 7 || 7 || 6 || 5 || 4+1 || 10 || 2+ || 3++ || data-sort-value=0 | || data-sort-value=455 | 455 or steal his hammer for 415
|-
| '''[[Konrad Curze]]''' || 8 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 5+1 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 435
|-
| '''[[Vulkan]]''' || 7 || 5 || 7 || 7 || 6 || 5 || 4 || 10 || 2+ || 3++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 425
|-
| '''[[Lorgar]]''' || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 5 || 6 || 4+1 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=2.5 | 2 or 3 || data-sort-value=375 | 375 or Chaosify him for 450
|-
| '''[[Perturabo]]''' || 8 || 6 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 5 || 4 || 10 || 2+ || 3++ || data-sort-value=0 | || data-sort-value=455 | 455 or give him Forgebreaker for 490
|-
| '''[[Rogal Dorn]]''' || 8 || 5 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 5 || 4 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 385
|-
| '''[[Corvus Corax]]''' || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6/5 || 7 || 6/5 || 10 || 2+/3+ || 5++ || data-sort-value=0 | || data-sort-value=450 | 450 or fuck him over for 350
|-
| '''[[Alpharius]]''' || 7 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 5 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || data-sort-value=415 | 415''.... or is it?''
|-
| '''[[Roboute Guilliman]]''' || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 4+1 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 400
|-
| '''[[Roboute Guilliman]] (40k, 7e)''' || 9 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 10 || 2+ || 3++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 350
|-
| '''[[Magnus the Red]]''' || 7 || 5 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 4 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || 5 || 495 or charge up for 670
|-
| '''[[Magnus the Red]] (Daemon, 40k 7e)''' || 7 || 7 || 8 || 7 || 7 || 7 || 6 || 10 || 4+ || 4++ || 5 || 650
|-
| '''[[Leman Russ]]''' || 9 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 6 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 455
|-
| '''[[Jaghatai Khan]]''' || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 8 || 6+1 || 10 || 2+ || 5++/3++ in CC || data-sort-value=0 | || 385 or give him a bike for 460
|-
| '''[[Lion El'Jonson]]''' || 8 || 5 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 5(7) || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 460
|-
| '''[[Sanguinius]]''' || 9 || 5 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 6 || 10 || 2+|| 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 485
|}<br style="clear: both; height: 0px;" /><br>
*'''Special Rules (not counting the ones specific for each Primarch)'''
**''Primarch''
***''Adamantium Will''
***''Independent Character''
***''Eternal Warrior''
***''Fear''
***''Fleet''
***''Fearless''
***''It Will Not Die''
***''Master of the Legion''
***''Precision Shots''
***''Precision Strikes''
**''Sire of the [Legion]''

As of 8th edition (special rules not included):
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" align="left" class="wikitable sortable"
! || M || WS || BS || S || T || W || A || Ld || Sv || Points/Power level
|-
| '''[[Roboute Guilliman]]''' || 8" || 2+ || 2+ || 6 || 6 || 9 || 6 || 10 || 2+/3++|| 360/18||data-sort-value=0 |
|-
| '''[[Magnus the Red]]''' || 16 || 2+ || 2+ || 8 || 7 || 18 || 7 || 10 || 3+/4++ || 445/21||data-sort-value=0 |
|-
| '''[[Mortarion]]''' || 12 || 2+ || 2+ || 8 || 7 || 18 || 6 || 10 || 3+/4++ || 470/24|| data-sort-value= 0 |
|}<br style="clear: both; height: 0px;" /><br>

Each of them have one or two close-combat weapons, all of which are AP2 or 1, backed by some decent gun to lay some dakka down while they run to the glorious melee. Their Primarch rule acts like a big bundle of USRs wrapped up together in one package, and as ICs they can join squads as well (though most of the Primarchs are better run solo). Each of them have a page worth of special rules and unique wargear, both of which can be stupidly powerful to the point of broken, but that's OK since even the cheapest of the Primarchs costs no less than 350 points and eats an extremely valuable Lord of War slot that might otherwise be spent on a [[Thunderhawk]] or a [[Fellblade]].

===Pimpin Rides===
Also worth mentioning, that Perturabo and Rogal Dorn are special enough to get their own personal special/unique vehicle, other primarchs may get their own vehicles in the future (who knows?). However, rules dictate that neither vehicle can be taken in games under 3000 points. Meaning you can only use it in 3000+ matches.

*'''Perturabo''' gets to ride in ''The Tormentor'', a Shadowsword with the Command Tank upgrade. Not only that, but Perturabo is so awesome, he managed to somehow give it 15 troop capacity, meaning it can take 12 Power Armoured dudes + himself, or 6 Terminators for his bodyguard. But, it doesn't stop there! It also has a single Void Shield! It costs 25pts more than a normal Shadowsword with the same upgrades, but following FAQs it also has BS4, free sponsons, and gains Tank Hunters/Monster Hunters any time it fires all its guns at one target.
*'''Rogal Dorn,''' on the other hand, gets a customised Thunderhawk Gunship, the ''Ætos Dios''. This ship has Turbo Laser as standard, plus a single Void Shield to protect it, it also has It Will Not Die so can regenerate some of its hull points and finally it ALSO has a 4+ invulnerable save against missiles, all on top of being a flyer which means you can only snap-shot at it, all for the bargain cost of 600 points - which is actually 175 points CHEAPER than a normal Legion Thunderhawk with a Turbo-Laser, though you obviously still have to pay for Dorn.
*'''Jaghatai Khan''' gets his own bitching jetbike: the Sojutsu Pattern Voidbike. It has two master crafted heavy bolters, ups his toughness to 7 and lets him do d3 hammer of wrath attacks, strangely enough though, it also costs him -1I.

==Douchebagginess==
It is well known that most of the primarchs were douchebags to varying degrees.

From least to most douchebag. Note, the scale really drops off into [[dick|'''fucking''' douchebag]] after Jaghatai, and straight-up villain after Fulgrim and '''FUCKING CUNT''' after Lorgar. Also, depending on what they did, the Lost Primarchs may be even worse than all actions depicted here. Generally speaking, we'll be grading these guys on their personalities, treatment of their legion and others, and their motives and reasons for their actions. Also, we'll be adding more weight to their actions during the Great Crusade rather than the Heresy, not many Primarchs had a clear head during the Age of Darkness. Keep in mind that, as charismatic and badass as they may be, the Primarchs are responsible for a level of warmongering and genocide that would appall even the worst of Earth's dictators. How they feel about these atrocities, and why they did it (is it grim necessity, standard Imperial procedure or baseless sadism?) is what separates the [[Sanguinius|"good"]] from the [[Konrad Curze|"bad"]].

# '''The Nice Guys'''
## '''Vulkan''' - The least douchebaggy primarch by far. Vulkan routinely put the lives of him and his men on the line for the sake of the Imperial citizens. Vulkan would throw himself to the defence of a no name human tribe with the same ferocity and zeal as he would Terra itself. A total bro. Also was the largest, strongest Primarch (Ferrus' metal arms were determined as cheating, though according to the Khan, Mortarion was as strong or stronger) and held back in sparring for fear of hurting his brothers. His only real fault was that, despite his strong distaste for terror weapons, he had a thing for setting people on fire. The only times he was an asshole were when he forgot who he was due to Curze's torture driving him mad. Of course, he's still a Primarch and a '''fiery''' general, and he ''will'' leave you a pile of ash if you end up on his shitlist.
## '''Sanguinius''' - Despite some... [[Red Thirst|unorthodox tendencies]], he is reported as being the most charismatic of the Primarchs, perhaps second only to Horus. He is particularly noteworthy for how much he improved his legion. The Blood Angels before his arrival were so bloodthirsty and terrifying that even other Astartes looked askance at them. But Sanguinius took these butcherous vampires and taught them humility and nobility, and to put the well-being of humanity above any personal glory. They actually managed such a total 180 that they were, and still are, regarded as one of the most heroic, resplendent legions out of all of them. A pretty all-round nice guy, he was so naturally charming that he actually managed to get ''Jaghatai Khan'' of all people to laugh at a joke of his. He was also exceedingly humble despite being such a giga-chad, and often played the role of peacemaker between his more cantankerous brothers. He can lapse at times however, as seen in his treatment of Curze by denying him a chance of changing his fate & earning forgiveness, and he regrettably had to kill many of his Red-Thirsted men when they got too batshit even for him. Like Vulkan though, he can still be a ferocious force if riled up, he once beat the shit out of guy for daring to imply the Signus III campaign was a trap (it was, but he had no reason to suspect Horus at that point). Sanguinius's temper was actually such that Leman Russ cited the Angel as one of two Primarchs he didn't know if he could beat. Basically if you pissed him off, he turned into the Hulk.
## '''Magnus the Red''' - For his faults, Magnus was one of the nicest Primarchs right up there with Vulkan and Sanguinius. Before the whole Prospero thing, this guy's MO was all about the advancement of humanity: always trying the diplomatic approach to preserve what could be preserved, using shock and awe tactics to limit damage when fighting, happily taking remembrancers along his legion (Although all remembrancers amongst the fellowship were psykers to some degree). Magnus was a friendly and open-minded idealist, which makes it all the more tragic when he gets deceived, framed, backstabbed and then coaxed into selling his soul to the [[Tzeentch|Cuttlefish of Keikaku]]. He is easily the most sympathetic of the traitors, considering he only joined them after being backed into a corner; had Jaghatai been at his side during and after Nikaea things might have turned out differently. He was also the only traitor Primarch who actually cared about his men, even after ascending to daemonhood. The novel ''Deathfire'' also ups his bro-ness quite a bit, as he proved himself the only traitor-aligned Primarch to ''sincerely'' do something very helpful for one of his loyalist brothers after the Horus Heresy was already in full swing. This "special favour" is made all the more striking given how it took place ''after'' Magnus had his adoptive homeworld burned out from under him. Perhaps his skin was red not only because of mutation, but because it also showed [[Lovedagger|the greatness of his heart]]? On the other hand, this was done by one of the fragments of Magnus that embodied his love for his gene-sons and fellow Primarchs (which ultimately self-destructed to keep the Crimson King from absorbing its power), so any hope that he kept that good heart died after Ahriman's failure at his Second Rubric on Prospero and when the Emperor offered him a chance to redeem himself as the Primarch of the nascent Grey Knights he threw it away. While his soul was still in one piece, Magnus's main character flaw was his arrogance. As in, this guy's ego had only two contenders in all the galaxy; the Emperor Himself, and Lion El'Jonson. Maybe Eldrad too. While he wasn't an in-your-face type like Fulgrim, Magnus and his Legion were still entirely convinced that they knew the Warp better than anyone else, which led to them disregarding many warnings and red flags that could've been avoided, leading almost directly to their awful, [[Rubric Marines|awful]] fates. It also caused him to have a complete blind spot where his own insufferability was concerned, as he genuinely believed himself to be the most intelligent of his brothers. This Sheldon Cooper-esque attitude caused many of the other Primarchs represented at the Council of Nikaea to wish Magnus personally rebuked despite their support of the Libraius initiative itself. When he learned of this, it appeared to have caught him completely off guard, and dismayed him tremendously. Also, Magnus wasn't ENTIRELY innocent as he had implanted sleeper agents and spies throughout the Imperium, ruining the lives of those brainwashed while betraying the trust of his brothers. Why he did this isn't exactly clear (it's very unlikely to be Chaos related) though it's most likely an attempt to obtain information and records his brother might otherwise destroy. Regardless however, his more questionable traits appeared not to have ever been the result of malice, but were instead a byproduct of his solipsism and thoughtlessness.
## '''Corax''' - Even after being raised under the tyranny of the Kiavahrans, he refused to take after their tyrannous ways, wanted to make things right, and asked the Emperor to end the civil war he started while liberating his homeworld of Lycaeus. Seeing the ruthless tendencies the Terran members of his legion had, he quietly shipped them way the fuck away from the rest of the Great Crusade to go fight xenos or had them all slaughtered during the Battle of Gate 42. He was also one of very few primarchs to readily admit his own mistakes, which were numerous and sometimes tragic. Developed a brutal habit of folding Chaos Space Marines into pretzels when shapeshifting into a tangible shadow during his hunt against his Daemon brothers Post-Heresy but left the slaves alone.
## '''Jaghatai Khan''' - Despite him being modeled after [[Genghis motherfucking Khan|the guy who holds the high score on raping and pillaging]], Jaghatai was actually very reasonable and [[Kharn|a pretty fun guy to be around]]. His main hobbies included [[Dark Eldar|raiding and jetbikes]], but he had an appreciation for [[Blood Angels|the fine arts]] as well. He was very good friends with Magnus and very pro-psyker. However he also kept his distance from pretty much everyone else, save Horus, not wanting to deal with other people's bullshit, unless they were really worth the effort - as the result very few people knew and trusted him (especially once [[Horus|most]] [[Magnus the Red|of]] his only bros turned traitor). He seemed to have something of a "live and let live" type philosophy, as after he conquered his home planet, he just kinda fucked off back to the Steppes with a warning to everyone not to piss him off too much. While the Khan didn't seem to care too much about the whole Great Crusade thing and spent most of his time doing his own thing, he never turned his back on the Imperium and sincerely believed in the idea of an Empire in the starry skies. And this was despite being the one of the few Primarchs to understand how bunked the whole [[Imperial Truth]] secular atheist propaganda really was (remember that the Chogorisian had Shamans, who also are the ones who select the White Scars' Chapter Master through mysterious initiatic trials); and of the Emperor himself he declared that he was "neither a monster nor a simpleton", mostly because he knew that [[Chaos]] was far worse (of course). So, the Emperor knew all along that the Khagan had his priorities right and would therefore not betray him, even when Malcador brought up the topic; and this was in spite of the personal relationship of father and son being explicitly awkward.
# '''The Competent Asshole Control Freak (Yes Guilliman needs his own category)'''
## '''Guilliman''' - R.G. is a jerk with a (or rather two) heart(s) of gold or a nice guy with a nasty mean streak, depending on how you look at him. Some people might say this dude was a statesman in the same vein as Augustus Caesar- he was great at building states and making life generally better for people, but only if you ignore the deported and murdered people who didn't agree 100% with the new regime. For somebody more reasonable, Guilliman was perhaps one of the most responsible and human among his brothers. He cared about the common man, personally planned post-war reconstruction and political integration into the Imperium of the planets he conquered and (unofficially) tolerated moderate presence of religion in Ultramar. But for sure the guy had a big ego, as he constantly spoke and behaved like he knew what was best for everyone, at least until proven wrong (multiple times). And you better not get on his shit list, although to be fair he was mostly a complete jerk with people he considers being [[Konrad Curze|psycho]] [[Angron|mass murderers]] with [[Perturabo|no respect for their own sons]] or [[Alpharius|civilian populations]]. And despite what [[Matt Ward|some people]] would have you believe, he knew he couldn't plan for every situation and expected people to use their own judgment rather than blindly follow his [[Codex Astartes|codex]]. Like Jaghatai Khan, we know Guilliman recognized that the Emperor was a horrible father (likely since he's one of the few among his brothers to have had actual decent adoptive parents) and that the ideals the Emperor espoused were far more important than the Emperor himself ever was, and after learning that his whole [[Imperium Secundus]] plan was based on bad assumptions he's been beating himself up about it all the way into the 42nd millennium. While he's grown more cynical since his revival and subsequent realization of how badly the Imperium had devolved in his absence, he has refused to abandon his noble ideals or his faith in humanity as a whole and has privately considered the possibility that in retrospect he had been overly dismissive of Lorgar's ideas about the Emperor's divinity. He also seems to be a bit more irritable than he used to be, but given [[Great Rift|his]] [[Age of the Dark Imperium|current]] situation it would be more surprising if that wasn't the case. Also, may have actually imprisoned [[Cypher]] and the Fallen so that the Emperor wouldn't discover [[Assholetep|who broke Lion El'Jonson's best sword]], ultimately causing him to die in battle in Emprah's mini-me's own pseudo Horus Heresy. Additionally, he has developed a legitimately unprecedented trait for a Primarch: that of sufficient self-awareness to not just recognize, but actually '''LEARN''' from his mistakes, such as during the Hexarchy coup attempt or not trying to secure Ultramar à la Imperium Secundus during the Terran Crusade.
# '''The Douches'''
## '''Horus''' - Pre-Heresy he was a surprisingly chill dude, except if you crossed his sensibilities. Was essentially flat-out stated to have been the most charismatic of his brothers, with the possible exception of Sanguinius. Unlike Sanguinius however, Horus's charisma was something he had deliberately cultivated rather than being a natural trait of his, which speaks volumes of his personality. He was also one of very few Primarchs who made a deliberate effort to ''not'' leave the planets he conquered as smoldering ruins, and had a personal philosophy that those the Imperium conquered "should be left better than we found them." Just to give you an idea of his character in the halcyon days, Horus ''killed Sanguinius'' but retains enough anti-douche credit to rank as the ''least'' douchey of The Douches. He was ''that'' nice before the Heresy. In fact were it not for the Heresy he would probably be in third place after Vulkan and Sanguinius. Got along well with both regular people and nearly all his brothers (Corax was seemingly the only Primarch who disliked him), but he gradually started treating some of them like shit after becoming Warmaster and resented the idea that he and his brothers would not be able to rule over the planets that they had conquered. His insecurities may have also made him vulnerable to the Dark Gods' lies when he received a vision of the Imperium 10,000 years into the future where the Emperor was worshiped as a god, he and many of his brothers were forgotten, and everything was Grimdark--a future that, unbeknownst to him, he would be directly responsible for creating specifically as a result of his own attempts to avert it. The whole [[Heresy]] thing just sort-of kills his position on the list. After going full Chaos, he rapidly became a much, much bigger dick.
## '''Rogal Dorn''' - Although one hell of a masochist, and at times thick-headed, he did see the idea behind the Imperium, and actually agreed with it. Honest and dependable, while Rogal didn't make for interesting conversation, he would always do his job without complaint. Had as much empathy and subtlety as one of his fortresses and ended up hurting a lot of people (mostly emotionally, but sometimes physically too) with his over-the-top brutal honesty. The prime example was when he betrayed Fulgrim's trust after they had a discussion regarding Konrad's visions, and provoked Curze into almost killing him. However, he could occasionally get quite philosophical, and is perhaps the only Primarch to admit that his own nature and power unsettled him.
## '''Leman Russ''' - Nowhere near as much of a dick as butthurt Magnus fanboys would have you believe. He was indeed savage and brutal, but ultimately always keeping the larger goal of betterment of humanity in sight and having good reasons for that myopia. Prone to picking fights with his brothers and destroyed Prospero under questionable circumstances. That said, he used the culture of his homeworld to give his Legion control over its savagery, and made the Space Wolves focus on protecting people from monsters instead of just butchering civilians. He did use terror tactics, mass killings, and the destruction of knowledge, but he did so out of loyalty to humanity and the Emperor, not just because he felt like it. Bottom line: Russ certainly had his fair share of flaws, but as belligerent and myopic as he could be he always tried to make the galaxy safe for humanity in the longer run. He was also capable of admitting to mistakes, which was uncommon amongst the Primarchs. During his fight with the Lion for instance, he started the brawl with the Lion over perceived kill stealing but after a while it dawned on him what an ass he was being, and he stopped fighting and burst out laughing at his own stupidity. He was ''awfully'' stubborn however, and as such this sort of thing didn't happen often.
## '''Ferrus Manus''' - A big dude with a penchant for bursts of choleric anger. Between his resting bitch face and his Social Darwinist ideals, he seems at first glance to be a natural candidate for a traitor. However, his honesty and loyalty to the Emperor mean he certainly wasn't as bad as Perturabo or Mortarion, and he did sincerely believe that weakness would cause the Imperium to collapse. He was... really a pain to deal with, however. Unlike, let's say, Dorn, who was only really mean when you made it on his shitlist, Ferrus was only nice to people who made it on his ''friends''list. Anyone else could, as far as he was concerned, either stay out of his way or get introduced to his fists. Most of the Loyalists and even some Traitors (at first) viewed the protection of the innocent as their goal, while Ferrus encouraged tactics that led to massive civilian casualties, and where Primarchs like Curze or Angron took Legions that were bad about mortal deaths and kept up such practices, Manus took a Legion that had tried to minimize mortal deaths and made them worse about it. All this said, he was loyal unto death to the Emperor's ideals and he also understood that his sons' fetish for cybernetics was beyond unhealthy and wanted to help them overcome it. His death ensured that last part would never happen, and indeed made them double down on their hatred of the flesh.
## '''Lion El'Jonson''' - The Lion was complex, to say the least. He had an arrogance that matched Magnus or Horus's worst moments combined with a difficult early life fighting Chaos beasts on Caliban. This "do-or-die" attitude spilled over into his interpersonal skills, hard. Too hard. Put simply, you had one chance with Johnson and if he ever decided you wasted it, then it was over and you went on his shitlist forever. The end result was a Primarch who was aloof and taciturn, whose poor communication skills made him unsuited to lead the Primarchs but whose ego made it impossible for him to accept the seniority of Horus or Russ. At the same time, there was a competitive, spiteful, and self-centered side to the Lion, which led him to execute one of his own Dark Angels over a conflict of authority and nearly kill Russ over an argument about kill-stealing. The Lion's own awe-inspiring presence, which was powerful enough to make Astartes from other legions literally drop to their knees when he crashed unannounced on a war-council aboard the Vengeful Spirit, didn't help his ego either. There's been speculation in-universe and out of it that he wasn't wholly loyal to the Emperor, but it has been made crystal clear in-universe that he personally was 100% loyal to Big E, and that the whole "muh secret traitors" thing is primarily due to a combination of bad luck and the Dark Angels already having a poor reputation. The Lion may also have been the most "douchey" of all the Primarchs who weren't outright evil at some point. For you see, many of the Primarchs had absolutely ginormous egos, but most of those who did also either possessed the people skills to hide it or were so charismatic that it just didn't matter. Fulgrim, Magnus, Guilliman, Alpharius, and especially Horus are notable examples of this tendency. As stated earlier, the Lion easily had one of the largest egos amongst all his brothers, matched perhaps only by Magnus, but since he had virtually no people skills he was unable to hide it very well. This resulted in him being the Primarch who was liked by the fewest of his brothers (he basically only got on with Jaghatai Khan). His ego cast such a long shadow over his achievements and ability to work with others that even though Guilliman considered the title of Warmaster a two-horse race between Horus and the Lion he still didn't include the latter amongst his Dauntless Few (a list that included Ferrus Manus of all people).
## '''Alpharius Omegon''' - Damned if anyone knows. You just can't trust that/those guy(s), which does make him/them a pretty big dick by default. The fallout from some of the Alpha Legion's Crusade-era shenanigans suggests a certain inclination to showing off at the expense of civilian lives, probably due to an enormous inferiority-superiority complex. Still, they rebelled under perhaps the best intentions among all the traitors with Alpharius at least recognising Chaos had to be defeated (we think- it's still ambiguous as to their end goals) Omegon is possibly a bit better, in that he wasn't willing to sacrifice all of mankind to do so (maybe). After Alpharius's probable death by Dorn at Pluto and Omegon taking his mantle to (allegedly) die at Guilliman's hands, the legion debatably turned into a schizophrenic monster, though this is better than what Fulgrim's actions turned his legion into by far. Alpharius himself (maybe) in his own memoirs presents himself as a tactician and combatant worthy of inclusion in the [[Reasonable Marines]], but who in person had a Lion-sized (hah) chip on his shoulder. Problem is that the memoir itself purports to be a lie, so who really knows.
## '''Fulgrim''' - Rather like Horus, Fulgrim was one of the Traitor Primarchs who started out as quite a kind fellow, and even [[Dawww|fondly remembers his foster parents as doing the best they could]]. Initially he was an incredibly idealistic artisan who wanted to help humanity improve to the absolute limits of its potential. He did this primarily by trying to be the best example of humanity he could be, and demanded the same of his sons. To their credit, they succeeded quite splendidly at this for the most part. Unfortunately he had a rather fragile ego which was probably due in large part by the fact that his legion was virtually non-existent when he came to command it. As such, he had the Primarch equivalent of a Napoleon complex due to the head start most of his brothers got on him, and as such could get fairly petulant if he was challenged in a personal way. This led to him ultimately having a somewhat elitist view of himself and his legion, and he could be a bit of a dick when it came to Astartes and mortals who failed to live up to his astronomically high standards, even before his fall. He also can't keep a secret, betraying Konrad Curze's trust and causing him to go nuts on Dorn's face. Other than Horus and Sanguinius, was the only Primarch to really get along with all his brothers (save Jaghatai, but that's his fault. Oh, and Mortarion thought he was a prancing idiot. And Fulgrim considered Russ a dumb hick. And he didn't seem to like the Second very much), and was BFFs with Ferrus Manus, of all people. That is, until he chopped his head off. Rude. Also took pride to the extremity of arrogance, hence his fall to Slaanesh. Interestingly, his bizarre fixation on friendship with Ferrus never left him, constantly cloning him with help of Fabius Bile and trying to win him over his side. Needless to say, he's failed thus far.
# '''The Self-righteous Jerk (Yes Lorgar needs his own category too)'''
## '''Lorgar''' - The dude who brought this whole fucking mess into fruition. If only he had strangled Erebus and Kor Phaeron at the first mention of Chaos. Instead he decided he was going to ruin everything for everybody because his daddy was a NAYtheist and none of the brothers really supported him. He started off as a well-intentioned idealist who sought to use what he knew best to uplift humanity, religion, before the Emperor's actions on Monarchia destroyed his psyche, allowing Erebus and Kor Phaeron to let him know about [[Chaos|the other gods who would appreciate his worship]]. While it's true he shouldn't have been treated so harshly by the Emperor (even Malcador and Guilliman privately said as much), and even though he believed Chaos was necessary for humanity to survive and continue existence, the fact that Chaos & the Horus Heresy caused the 10,000 year old Imperium to become the grimdark, bloody, corpse-littered cesspool we all know and love would normally outweighs all of the slivers of sympathy that he might have had. And yet, there are people far, far worse than him. To be honest, he was one of the nicest primarchs before the destruction of Monarchia, comparable to Magnus before the Burning of Prospero. He tried to befriend everyone and was one of the primarchs that mostly conquered planets by words and faith, instead of by fire and sword and along Dorn and Guilliman, was one of the rarer ones that wouldn't leave conquered worlds as utter shitholes, instead rebuilding them and integrating its population. All this make his downfall even more sad and tragic, and even after his fall, he seemed to be generally concerned about his brother Angron's (of all people) life, which was a primary reason that he was in a hurry transforming him. Also, confrontation with Corax shows that he genuinely cares for his son's lives, putting him above the disgusting fucktards below. Then again, he was completely blasé about the ''horrific'' fates the Forces of Chaos inflicted on people (see the Gal Vorbak for reference), regardless of whether they wanted it or not. Also, he's arguably the only Primarch who is completely unrepentant about his crimes towards the galaxy at large (even Horus acknowledged what a piece of shit he himself had become, and Fulgrim sometimes expressed regret when the pink haze wasn't clouding his mind). In sum, Lorgar is why we can't have [[Noblebright|nice things.]]
# The '''FUCKING CUNTS'''
## '''Mortarion''' - Described by Alpharius as being "bleakness personified", Mortarion rubbed virtually everyone the wrong way. Excluding Eidolon who he actually got along with somehow. And Horus, for whom he acted as de-facto second in command during the Heresy. Terse, grim and blunt, he was downright bigoted against psykers, and resented (or at the very least looked down upon) nearly everyone who he felt had it easier than him. He was also notorious for using chemical and radiological terror weapons and generally not giving a fuck about who got killed by them. In fairness to him however, he and his legion were usually (though not exclusively) deployed to environments so awful that such weapons typically didn't make things much worse. Also his opponents were usually xenos due both to them typically being the only ones who could survive on the planets he got sent to, and the fact that he really liked killing them. He also was at least somewhat justified in his hatred of psykers, as his necromancer foster father and his fellow overlords had all been psykers, and had been horrific in their subjugation of Barbarus's human population. Had he not turned Traitor, he likely would have been somewhere near Lion El'Jonson in terms of overall dickishness; a spiteful lone wolf type who had a habit of nursing grudges, gave very few shits about who or what his legion killed, went primarily on extermination campaigns, and was generally disliked by everyone for being an ass. Over time, he became more and more disgusted with people's acceptance of [[Emperor|tyrants]] and [[Magnus the Red|psykers]], and became much more likely to kill everything in the vicinity of what he considered evil. Over time he also lost what little tolerance he had ever possessed for weak mortals, and decided that the Imperium was being crafted in such a way as to coddle the weak. Not good as far as he was concerned. Interestingly he did care deeply for his own people, which is why he was so driven to take down both monsters and tyrants after witnessing how his foster father oppressed the populace, though he didn't exactly do much, if anything, to show it. Then [[Nurgle]] made him his plague-ridden bitch and Jaghatai fucked him up and humiliated him in the Siege of Terra, at which point he decided to just take his bitterness out on everyone lacking the Plaguefather's "gifts".
## '''Angron''' - Loved killing people and not much else. Most of the casualties within his legion were a result of him being a team-killing psycho because quite frankly he didn't care what he got to kill as long as he got to kill it. That said, Angron at least had an excuse for being such a rampaging dick all the time. The Butcher's Nails had effectively turned him from being a genuinely nice fellow who could empathically relieve the suffering of others by taking it into himself into a half-mindless killing machine, as it actually has not just remapped but ''replaced'' parts of his brain, effectively removing from him any emotions other than pain, hatred, and battle-lust while also destroying his capacity for empathy and compassion, which arguably means he doesn't even have any Moral Agency (that's Philosopher-speak for saying that he can't be held ethically accountable for his actions any more than a toaster can for burning your fingers). One may wonder what sort of guy he would have been without the implants, presumably he'd be more like his pre-retcon White Dwarf version where he was an honourable warrior whose martial valour ended up leading him down Khorne's path (this was very quickly retconned with the Black Library novels). But he stick to his guns despite the suffering. On top of that, he got fucked over pretty hard by Big E when they first met, so it's no wonder he went traitor the moment Horus made him an offer, we may even credit him for enduring years fighting for the Imperium instead of just getting himself killed in any of the battles as he himself personally wanted. At the end of the day, Angron was probably the Primarch who gave the fewest fucks about his legion and was content to let it run itself without his leadership, although he never really wanted one to begin with. As a result, many of the saner parts of his legion ''loathed'' him, to say nothing about his general reputation (Itvaan III wasn't the first time...). The action that places him so low on this list is the fact that he allowed the spread of Butcher's Nails throughout his Legion, despite his own hatred of the damn things and the fact they cause him so many issues, not least going psycho rage-monster most of the time; which is a pretty fucked up thing for him to condone. Then again, many of his sons accepted the mini-Nails to get closer to their Primarch, psykers, however, died horribly, not that Angron gave a shit. Perhaps he allowed it because seeing his sons with Butcher's Nails reminded him of his fallen gladiator brothers and sisters on Nuceria, but then again he blew up the planet along with all of the people he once fought to liberate just because they were bad-mouthing him. He really wasn't all that great of a guy even during his moments of lucidity, and he was one the few Primarchs to willingly kill his own men during the Great Crusade, an act even ''Horus'' thought was unthinkable.
## '''Konrad Curze''' - Arguably the most sadistic of all primarchs, Konrad really got off to torturing people and manipulating the masses through fear. What started as a quest to use fear to save lives in compliance actions turned through time and circumstance to a simple desire to torture and maim. The man who was supposed to be the ultimate harbinger of justice ended up as an unholy combination of Batman and Joker. By the time the Heresy broke out, any ideas of mercy or decency he may have harbored had long ago been buried under a massive pile of flayed guts. Somewhat like Angron however, the Night Haunter's actions are mitigated somewhat by the fact that the guy practically redefined crazy. His upbringing had much to do with shaping his awful view of reality, but what really screwed him over were his visions. He saw the future in psychic visions constantly, but the futures he saw were always permutations of the absolute worst outcome to any given situation, and he couldn't do anything to stop them. These visions came with severe psychic fits during which Curze would violently spaz out. They became worse and worse as time went on, and the psychological and psychic stress of them reduced Curze from a Punisher-esque individual to a completely sadistic screwball who would build stuff out of corpses and then sincerely thank those corpses. He also suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder, with the Konrad Curze and Night Haunter personas constantly warring for supremacy within his mind. Needless to say, the Night Haunter ultimately won out. He did admit that what he had done was wrong, but instead of trying to atone for his atrocities, he used the excuse that the future was set in stone (which he mostly believed) to justify just going along with the horrors he saw in his visions. In fact, the only two things that genuinely seemed to scare him were the possibilities that the Emperor '''wouldn't''' order his death -- or even worse, be forgiven for his behavior ''(and render his entire outlook on life meaningless)''. The fact that he refused to turn back to heroism at so many opportunities because he felt himself a puppet of fate makes one unable to decide whether he is contemptible or pathetic. Curze skirts this foul line.
## '''Perturabo''' - Perturabo suffers from somewhat inconsistent characterization due to having been written by a series of disparate authors, each of whom seemingly couldn't be bothered to read the previous guy's book. However, the easiest way to sum him up would be as a stone cold monster possessed of an absolutely massive martyr complex. What makes him the worst on this list is the fact that, unlike the other members of the '''FUCKING CUNTS''' tier, Perturabo never had any real justification for being as evil as he was. He wasn't lobotomized like Angron or bat-shit crazy like Curze, and unlike Mortarion his homeworld and upbringing were not bad at all; Olympia was basically just ancient Greece in space, and he had a family who loved him as much as possible given the culture and circumstances. In fact his world and upbringing were actually fairly similar to those of ''Guilliman'' of all people. He didn't even have the religious conviction of Lorgar; he turned Traitor simply out of spite and bitterness. He also seemed perfectly capable of feeling empathy and compassion as well; he genuinely loved his sister for instance... not that it stopped him from strangling her with his bare hands. This fact serves to make his actions all the worse however, as he clearly could understand right from wrong. He seemingly had absolutely no regard whatsoever for human life; hell the very first thing he did upon meeting his legion was to have a random tenth of them murdered by their brothers for not being good enough to suit him. He spent the lives of his legionaries like they were bolter rounds, and despite his bitching about how hard he and his legion had it, he never made any effort to change his way of making war. Though he was deployed to some of the worst battlegrounds in the Crusade, they were hardly worse than those in which the Lion, Russ, or Mortarion engaged in. Yet not one of them ever sulked about it or felt slighted. Not even Mortarion, who got sent to battlegrounds that would literally kill other Astartes by simple virtue of the environment. He is one of the few Primarchs who made his legion objectively ''worse'' by joining it, as he took a group of hardy siege warfare specialists and, by way of deliberately getting the bulk of them killed for decades on end, turned them into spiteful, bitter monsters with as little regard for life as himself. In fact, he made them so callous that the Iron Warriors both in and out of universe are a top candidate for the title of "[[Daemonculaba|evilest]] [[Honsou|motherfuckers]] in the setting", potentially beating out such luminaries as the Night Lords and Dark Eldar. Only the modern Word Bearers really have a fair claim at being worse. The atrocities that occurred under his command were all the result of inhuman barbarism caused not by madness or uncontrollable compulsion, but because Perturabo calculated that said barbarism was the most efficient means of achieving victory. He could and would calculate precisely the amount of ammunition, fuel, vehicles, ships, and human beings needed to win a campaign down to the last bolter shell and drop of blood, and would then spend those resources accordingly. And to his credit he was ridiculously good at it; his logistical skill was such that he could lose a good 90% of an attacking force in any given action and have his numbers replenished well in advance of the next campaign. Problem was that losing 90% of a force was something he wouldn't so much as bat an eyelash at. By the end we was just an envious, petty bastard who was always complaining whenever things didn't go his way (which was always). The intervening ten thousand years haven't improved his personality in any way either. Like Mortarion he didn't get along with any of his brothers and his inferiority complex and "woe is me" attitude was a cornerstone of almost all his interpersonal relationships, perhaps more notoriously in his all-consuming hatred for Rogal Dorn, in a rivalry that was completely one-sided until the two came to blows during the Heresy. Their rivalry being another example of Perturabo's unwillingness to try to improve his situation, instead preferring to sulk in his own misery, as his jealousy from Dorn stemmed from him being chosen as a builder and architect from the biggest projects in the Imperium, but never once Perturabo is shown trying to build anything outside his private workshop, instead bulldozing through whole planets with his Iron Warriors.

==See Also==

[[Return of the Primarchs]]: A What IF? series filled with pure [[AWESOME]] and [[Fist of the North Star|MANLY TEARS]].

A little side note, if you want an awesome look at the Primarchs in all their Crusadey goodness, go look at Aerion the Faithful's Libris Primaris project. http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/152862-artwork-libris-primaris/

==Miniatures==

* The official 30K miniatures are produced by [[Forge World]]
* [https://www.hitechminiatures.com Hitechminiatures] has good alternative models
* [https://wargameexclusive.com Wargame Exclusive] also has very good alternative models but a smaller selection - yet.
* [https://cadwallon.com/ Cadwallon] has [https://cadwallon.com/?s=chibi&post_type=product Chibi Primes] (well, some still.)

==Gallery==

<center>
===Loyal===
<gallery>
File:Lion El'Jonson.JPEG|[[Lion El'Jonson]]
File:JaghataiKhan-1-.jpg|[[Jaghatai Khan]] (can't hate a man who wears heeled calfboots)
File:LEMAN RUSS.jpg|[[Leman Russ]]
File:Rogal Dorn Portrait.png|[[Rogal Dorn]]
File:Sanginuscool.jpg|[[Sanguinius]]
File:Ferrus Manus Pre-Haircut.jpg|[[Ferrus Manus]]
File:Robute Guilliman.jpg|[[Roboute Guilliman]] (Big Bobby G)
File:Vulkan's Face.jpg|[[Vulkan]]
File:Corax Portrait.png|[[Corvus Corax]]
</gallery>

===Traitor===
<gallery>
File:Horus Portrait.png|[[Horus Lupercal]] (THAT ONE FUCK-UP)
File:Fulgrim by slaine69.jpg|[[Fulgrim]] (look at his sexyness)
File:Perturabo Portrait.jpg|[[Perturabo]]
File:Konrad Curze Mugshot.jpg|[[Konrad Curze]]/Night Haunter/Batman
File:Angron Butchers Nails.jpg|[[Angron]] (GETS. SHIT. DONE.)
File:Mortarion Portrait.jpg|[[Mortarion]]
File:Magnus.jpg|[[Magnus the Red]]
File:Lorgar Handsome.jpg|[[Lorgar Aurelian]] (goldboy)
File:Alpharius2.jpg|[[Alpharius]]/[[Omegon]]
</gallery>
<center>

===How To Make A Primarch===
<center>
{{Heresy}}
[[File:How to make a primarch.jpg|thumb|center|Artist's depiction of a primarch's creation]]
</center>

{{Template:Primarchs}}
{{Imperium}}

[[Category:Chaos]]

Primarch

2022-06-23T04:06:48Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* Name of one of the missing Primarchs */

[[Image:Primarchs big.JPG|thumb|right|500px|Several of the Primarchs at the Triumph of the Ullanor Crusade. From left to right: Sanguinius, Mortarion, Magnus the Red, Angron, Jaghatai Khan, Lorgar, Rogal Dorn, Horus, and Fulgrim. But the real impressive thing here is how that balcony is still standing]]
{{Topquote|Man must become stronger, more profound and more evil.|Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None}}
{{Topquote|There is but one good, and that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to him and bad when it turns from him. And the higher and mightier it is in the natural order, the more demoniac it will be if it rebels. It's not out of bad mice or bad fleas you make demons, but out of bad archangels.|C.S. Lewis}}
{{Topquote|Et tu, Brute?|Julius Caesar}}
The '''Primarchs''' were the twenty ([[Omegon|-one]]) genetically-engineered sons of [[The Emperor]] and the female [[Perpetual]] [[Erda]]. Using both His and her DNA in their creation, the Primarchs were designed to be far superior to even <s>[[Space Marines]]</s> the Adeptus Custodes: they were taller, stronger, faster and more intelligent. Artificial Perpetuals, to replace the Perpetuals that refused to be a part of His great plan throughout history. Certainly faster and stronger, but the intelligence they display, especially in the Horus Heresy books, seem to be limited to their own specialties, making them [[Roboute Guilliman|oddly]] [[Vulkan|normal]] in some cases and [[Perturabo|fatally]] [[Magnus the Red|underdeveloped]] in other areas; the more successful among them, like Russ and Corax, knew how to apply those specialties in various situations, while others, like Angron, just [[Angry Marines|brute-forced their way through situations]] using their talents like a (War)hammer(40k), but a few like Lion and Guilliman, [[Reasonable Marines|actually knew how to account for the opposition]]. Dorn, at least, knew a fair bit about how his brothers waged war, he just didn't care and stuck with what he knew best. They were also incredibly charismatic and were well suited to their role as the generals and leaders of the Imperium of Man.

Problem was, despite all that they were only human, and ultimately their sibling rivalries (and Chaos corruption, in the case of several of them) boiled over and ultimately developed into the [[Horus Heresy]].

==Creation of the Primarchs==
[[File:Warmaster's_Coronation.jpg|300px|left|thumb|Horus Lupercal being made Warmaster of the Imperium in Ullanor. From center counter-clockwise: Horus, the Emperor, Magnus, Mortarion, Lorgar, Angron, Jaghatai Khan, Rogal Dorn, Rogal Dorn's mustache, Fulgrim and Sanguinius.]]
The Primarchs began as a continuation of the Emperor’s [[Thunder Warriors|Thunder Warrior]] legions. Each of the 20 proto-legions were led by a general analogue called a Primarch. Unlike the later leaders of the Legiones Astartes, the thunder warrior Primarchs were the same as the troops they led and were hand picked by the Emperor for their skill and command ability. The instability (both physical, genetic, and mental) of the thunder warriors led the Emperor to try and find more stable and powerful generals to lead his armies. It can be safely assumed that the original Primarchs were killed in the line of duty or purged before history could record them thoroughly. The only one named thus far was Ushotan of the 4th Legio Cataegis - then known as the Iron Lords. Valdor considered him almost an equal in terms of his martial and command ability but was disturbed by his innate bloodlust and susceptibility to the then nascent effects of Chaos.

The modern Primarchs were created in a secret underground laboratory on what used to be the Himalayas, under the tightest security. All of them were derived from a subset of both the perpetual Erda and the Emperor's DNA that served as a template, which was altered differently for each of the Primarchs; it is also thought that he engineered them spiritually as well using long-forgotten psychic techniques. As the [[Raven Guard]] discovered after the Emperor granted them access to the original data from the Primarchs' creation, many of the Primarchs' gene-samples were wildly divergent from the original template- some had long gene sequences deleted, while others had non-human DNA spliced into them for reasons only known to the Emperor. (A particularly intriguing discovery was one sample labeled "[[Leman Russ|Subject VI]]", [[Furry| which had extensive amounts of canine DNA added to it]].)

[[File:BabyPrimarchs.jpg|300px|right|thumb|The Master of Mankind raises his eighteen babies as devoted father. The [[Grimdark|truth]] is less [[Anime|kawaii desu]].]]
The Emperor's original plan was to have His superhuman creations mature safely in His lab and guide them from 'birth' toward the role He'd foreseen for them. However, in a retcon, Erda did not want for her sons what the Emperor had planned for them and herself, and in spite of the safeguards the Emperor had set up, caused the scattering, an event in which the Ruinous Powers were able to spirit the Primarchs away from the laboratory right before they would emerge from their pods and scatter them across the universe (Conveniently, the canine sample was sent to a wolf-planet) [[Just as planned]]. For whatever reason, the Emperor did not punish Erda and she was allowed to live out her immortal life in seclusion, in the remnants of Africa. Somehow, the Emperor knew his sons were still alive but had no clue to where they could be nor any immediate way to search for them. So he took it in stride, shrugged it off as a minor setback (unknowingly, this would come to bite him back in the ass nastily later on) and went ahead with the second part of his plan: his Space Marine project. Using DNA samples from each Primarch before they were abducted, the Emperor created twenty legions of [[Space Marines]], in what would later be called the [[First Founding]]. They would form the core of the armies He needed to conquer the galaxy, and the absence of the Primarchs leading those would only serve as a motivation for the warriors to search for them.

One consequence of the abduction, however was that each of the young Primarchs were forced to adapt to the lifestyle on their new homeworld, something which would influence and mold them throughout their lives. The Primarchs rapidly grew to adulthood and quickly rose to power, often becoming the leaders of their world. As the Emperor crusaded to unify the galaxy he would occasionally stumble upon another long-lost son. When this happened, the Emperor would hold a celebration in honor of this discovery, give the Primarch their Legion to command, then tell them to [[Angron|fuck]] [[Mortarion|off]] [[Lorgar|and start]] [[Alpharius|conquering]] [[Perturabo|worlds]] while he [[Horus|fapped]] [[Rogal Dorn|to]] [[Sanguinius|his]] [[Leman Russ|favoured]] [[Roboute Guilliman|offspring]]. The Emperor was a [[Eldrad|dick]] like that.

==Did the Emperor Love his Sons?==
Before we get into the rediscovery of the Primarchs, we need to address this issue. Different writers have different interpretations of the Emperor, and GW never got any of them on the same fucking page. This lead to discrepancies in the various books; in the first duel between Horus and the Emperor for example, the Emperor could not bring himself to kill Horus because he loved him, and it was only after he witnessed Horus callously annihilate Ollanius Pius that he realised his son was gone, allowing him to finally let loose and destroy Horus.

Later authors would contradict this, writers like ADB would go on to claim he never saw the Primarchs as 'sons', just as carefully crafted tools to enforce his will and vision (even referring to them by number instead of name). Even later writers would go on to claim the opposite again, with the Emperor declaring the Primarchs to be his sons in the Siege of Terra series, so fuck if we know what's going on. The issue gets even more confusing when you look at his closest advisors, such as Constantin Valdor and Malcador, who are plagued with the exact same problems, writer to writer. Sometimes they claim the Emperor only saw his sons as tools, other times they do support the idea that he loves his children.

Hopefully one day GW will finally have some consistency, though that's about as likely as hell freezing over.

In case anyone is wondering, Erda claims she always loved the Primarchs, though considering the planets some of them were sent to, this is almost guaranteed to be a bullshit lie or self-deception.

==Rediscovering the Primarchs==
Originally Horus was the first Primarch to be discovered, but a retcon changed that to Alpharius and had it kept secret. Or did it? With Alpharius and Omegon, it's honestly impossible to tell.

Horus, who would become the Emperor's favoured son, was retconned to maybe being the second Primarch to be found, and the second missing Primarch was stated to be found after Corax in a different retcon. Thankfully these are the only three (or two?) GW fucked with in the order they were found, so the whole list of those being discovered is as follows (dates given by the website for the Horus Heresy tabletop game):

*'''Before 801.M30:''' Alpharius/Omegon (speculated)
*'''801.M30:''' Horus
*'''819.M30:''' Leman Russ
*'''821.M30:''' DELETED FROM IMPERIAL RECORDS, DAMNATIO MEMORIAE IN PERPETUAM
*'''824.M30:''' Ferrus Manus
*'''830.M30:''' Fulgrim
*'''832.M30:''' Vulkan
*'''835.M30:''' Rogal Dorn
*'''837.M30:''' Roboute Guilliman
*'''840.M30:''' Magnus the Red
*'''843.M30:''' Sanguinius
*'''846.M30:''' Lion El'Jonson
*'''849.M30:''' Perturabo
*'''854.M30:''' Mortarion
*'''857.M30:''' Lorgar
*'''865.M30:''' Jaghatai Khan
*'''896.M30:''' Konrad Curze
*'''899.M30:''' Angron
*'''922.M30:''' Corvus Corax
*'''927.M30:''' DELETED FROM IMPERIAL RECORDS, DAMNATIO MEMORIAE IN PERPETUAM
*'''981.M30:''' Alpharius/Omegon (officially)

The majority of Primarchs somehow recognized the Emperor on sight, immediately pledging their allegiance to their father. A few (such as Leman Russ and Vulkan) only swore allegiance after being bested in a contest. The only exception is Angron, who outright refused to follow the Emperor as he preferred to die in battle along with his rebels brothers and sisters in their fight against the oppressive Not-Romans. The Emperor simply shrugged and abducted his son, leaving Angron's followers to get slaughtered. Angron never really got over that dick move.

At the end of the period known as the [[Great Crusade]], Horus, who had recently been promoted to the title of Warmaster, fell to Chaos and rebelled. It didn't take long for eight of his fellow Primarchs to join his side against the Emperor, resulting in the full-scale civil war known as the [[Horus Heresy]]. Funnily enough, most of the Primarchs who sided with Horus were those who felt that the Emperor had taken a giant, steaming dump on them. So, regardless of whether the Emperor actually loved his sons or not, and while he is the greatest tactician, biologist, warlord, and leader in the history of mankind; in practice he's worse than a crack-addled transient junkie as a father.

==Primarchs and Legions==
{|align=center border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0"
|-
|align=center|'''Legion Number'''
|align=center|'''Name'''
|align=center|'''Title'''
|align=center|'''Homeworld'''
|align=center|'''Name of the Legion'''
|align=center|'''Allegiance'''
|align=center|'''Description/Current Status'''
|align=center|'''30k/40k'''
|-
|align=center|'''I'''
|align=center|[[Image: Lion_El%27Jonson_portrait.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Lion El'Jonson]]
|align=center|Lord of the First, The Lion
|align=center|[[Caliban]]
|align=center|[[Dark Angels]]
|align=center|ULTRA LOYAL, maybe even more than Rogal Dorn.
|align=center|
*Crushes the horrors of Old Night, destroys worlds, whole civilizations, erase stuff from history, <s>doesn't afraid of anything. </s>
*Sees himself as a man that no one else can compare to and constantly toils to maintain this standard (although he wasn't as excessively vainglorious as Fulgrim).
*Unlike Fulgrim however, The Lion's greatness caused him to be a hardcore pragmatist and largely detached from everyone around him. The Lion just couldn't relate to anyone else not even close to his level (even most of his brother primarchs couldn't fit the bill), so he always felt alone in the universe. A big part of this was that his insanely huge ego combined with his lack of people skills to result in a complete asshole who virtually nobody liked.
*Was a bit of a loose cannon with a long but explosive fuse. The Lion is as smart and introspective as he is merciless and brutal. He wasn't necessarily easy to piss off like Angron, but anyone who manages to cross his threshold of patience will find themselves on the business end of his weapon. Several times. And possibly dismembered to boot.
*Fought Luther during his betrayal at the end of the Horus Heresy, where he was wounded from their duel. He survived however, and was spirited away and tended to by the [[Watchers in the Dark]] in a super secret chamber in [[The Rock]] (that not even the Dark Angels knew about), where he spent the last millennia healing his wounds. As of the current edition; The Lion is now supposedly fully healed and all he's waiting for is the Emperor to tell him to wake up from his millennia-long cat nap.
|align=center|[[Image:Lord of the First.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[File:Lion vs Curze.jpg|150px|thumb|right|]][[File:Horus-Heresy-Lion-Great Crusade.jpeg|150px|thumb|right|]]
|-
|align=center|'''II'''
|! colspan="5" |+++Records expunged+++
|-
|align=center|'''III'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Fulgrim_Ancient_Sketch.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Fulgrim]]
|align=center|The Palatine Phoenix, The Phoenician
|align=center|[[Chemos]]
|align=center|[[Emperor's Children]]
|align=center|Traitor
|align=center|
*A patron of the arts, who wanted to enjoy the finest and most exotic things in life.
*Believes that he and his legion should be the avatar of humanity's perfection, and so everything about them should be flawless, everywhere from appearance and actions to their fighting style. Due to this, Fulgrim's battle tactics revolved around utterly perfecting their strategies. Everything from his soldiers to their strategies were intensely drilled until their fighting was closer to a intricately-choreographed play of death than anything. To him, war is an art, and he wanted to perfect his arts.
*A master blacksmith in his own right, capable of forging weapons that even [[Ferrus Manus]] couldn't help but deem "perfect". His artwork however, wasn't always the best in the universe due to being so perfect it hit uncanny valley levels.
*Was initially corrupted by Chaos through the Laer blade, a Slaaneshi-possesed daemon sword he looted as a trophy, but wasn't aware of what Chaos was. He would fully give in to the temptations of the sword after he beheaded Ferrus Manus, where his utter grief at the act caused him to succumb to the daemon within the sword.
*Daemon Prince of Slaanesh, ruler of the Pleasure World. <s>Fulgrim's actual consciousness however, may or may not also be still imprisoned within his own body by</s> the daemon who possessed him in the first place was eventually conquered by Fulgrim's inner will or whatever, but his new personality is generic "DEMON PRINCE OF THE DARKNESS AND EVIL".
*Managed to incapacitate Guilliman at one point by slicing his throat with a poisoned sword.
*Still has a soft-spot for his brother Ferrus. He asked [[Fabius Bile|Fabulous Bile]] to clone his brother several times so that he could attempt to lure Ferrus into Chaos' side again. All his attempts have ended in failure, which he has blamed Fabius for due to his certainty that a "perfect" clone would join him.
*Heard about [[Roboute Guilliman|Big G]] waking up and is a bit buttmad about it at the moment. He tried to give Guilliman a cursed artifact during his return party, but was found out and subsequently banished. Needless to say: he mad.
|align=center|[[Image: Fulgrim.30k.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image: 40k.fulgrim.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Warhammer-fuldrim-lorgar.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''IV'''
|align=center|[[Image: Perturabo_Portrait.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Perturabo]]
|align=center|The Hammer of Olympia, Lord of Iron, The Breaker
|align=center|[[Olympia]]
|align=center|[[Iron Warriors]]
|align=center|Traitor
|align=center|
*A man who already had the knowledge to create the best at everything he did from birth. Perturabo considered this a curse however, feeling it robbed him of any sense of accomplishment while growing up, contributing to his eternal grumpiness.
*Originally preferred diplomacy and was an admirer of the arts during his time in Olympia, but meeting the Emperor (who had no time for such things) caused a violent switch to flip inside Perturabo's mind, turning him into a ruthless warlord throughout the Great Crusade, likely because he wanted things to be different from Olympia once he joined E-money, but once he realized that The Great Crusade was basically Olympia 2.0; he just gave up, flipped the table, and accepted how things really are and played the part.
*Just as much as a master of siege warfare as Dorn (both in offense and defense), but the lack of opportunities and recognition led him and his legion to be specialists of tearing shit down.
*Unlike Dorn however, Perturabo's general strategy is a combination of stubbornness and ice cold-calculating efficiency, orchestrating war like it was one giant math problem. The problem with this is that he didn't even see his sons as people. As far as he was concerned, they're just armored meatbags who pull triggers and push buttons and were about as expendable as guardsmen. It worked incredibly well but won him few friends.
*Suffers from a massive inferiority complex, partially due to his certainty that the Eye of Terror was always watching and judging him. Nobody believed him when he said this, so it was mostly attributed to Rogal Dorn, whom the Emperor ''greatly'' favored over Pert, despite having similar skillsets.
*Daemon Prince, ruler of Medrengard. Described as the ultimate Obliterator; so expect him to be carrying around titan grade weaponry and millennia of pent-up [[Rage|RAEG]] when he finally shows up. Given that Magnus, Fulgrim, and Mortarion are back in action; he'll probably come out eventually as well.
|align=center|[[Image: 30k.Perturabo.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Warhammer-Pert-Angron.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''V'''
|align=center|[[Image:Karn.port.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Jaghatai Khan]]
|align=center|Warhawk of Chorgoris, The Great Khan, The Khagan
|align=center|[[Chogoris|Chogoris/<br>Mundus Planus]]
|align=center|[[White Scars]]
|align=center|Loyal
|align=center|
*A hard and stern Primarch, he rarely smiles and almost never laughs. Throughout the Heresy he’s often depicted as an introvert who only keeps the counsel of a hand select group. Though rather than making him into a recluse, he's fully capable of being charismatic when he needs to. The Khan is quiet, but he can quickly become the warrior: smile, laugh, bellow and be powerful when he sees the need.
*Encourages a painfully 'liberating' leadership structure on the White Scars. Every Khan (basically Chapter Master) has an extremely high level of autonomy - a byproduct of the steppes. Causes a lot of problems for logistics and cooperation with allies.
*Many Primarchs became a product of their homeworld, the Khan definitely did. He idolises the ways of [[Chogoris]] and venerates its lifestyle. A very Taoist and Confucian way of seeing things, no one else in the Imperium truly understands this, a fact that further isolates the White Scars from the wider Imperium. The White Scars is the amalgamation of Asian culture in the HH, it’s the most different and alien Legion simply because it tries to adopt a Asian-centric style.
*Has a strained relationship with the Emperor. On one hand he recognises the need of the Imperium and has always directly supported it. On the other hand, a major identity point for the Khan's character is his hatred of Empire and Emperors. On Chogoris he killed a lot of emperors and destroyed a lot of Empires. He sees Emperors and Empires as ultimately flawed and has a very low respect for them.
*Tying in with this hatred of Empire is his hatred of stagnation. Every Emperor he killed was fat, and this made him become a person who hates the easiest path. A big motivator for him during the novel Scars was his rejection of the path most travelled. The Khan's greatest fear is stagnating, so he will likely always chose the hardest option because of that. Emphasising this, The Khan is also described as being a compulsive, a part of him is always moving.
*The Khan really didn't like the Imperium, in Warhawk of Chogoris he flatly stated that the White Scars would leave the Imperium if he felt the Emperor was not respecting the White Scars enough.
*Unknown, disappeared into the [[Webway]] while hunting [[Dark Eldar]] after they raided Chogoris.
|align=center|[[Image:Past Khan.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:The path of heaven .jpg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''VI'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait..Leman.Russ.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Leman Russ]]
|align=center|The Great Wolf, The Wolf King
|align=center|[[Fenris]]
|align=center|[[Space Wolves]]
|align=center|Loyal
|align=center|
*Had a high opinion of himself and his legion, if only because he felt that he's earned that kind of respect through the centuries. Of all the Primarchs, Leman was the one most willing to cross any line to do what the Emperor asked, at least at first. Later on, he decided to become his own man and protect the people of the Imperium. Also notable for curbing the more savage tendencies of the Wolves and teaching them to control their ferocity, unlike [[Angron|some]] [[Konrad Curze|people]].
*Wanted to test his legion all the time, to prove he is the best.
*Unknown, disappeared into the [[Eye of Terror]] with the 13th company but promised to return one day. Magnus supposedly knows where he is, but he isn't telling. The Wolves found <s>his armor in a Khornate Shrine</s> an armor rumoured to be his on the Temple of Horus on Rudra, implying he either; turned into [[Wulfen]], to [[Chaos]], is dead, or is murdering his way through the warp [[Conan_the_Barbarian|as a half-naked barbarian]]. Allegedly a figure resembling him was spotted with the 13th company during the 13th crusade.
|align=center|[[Image:30k.Russ.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Scouring of Prospero2.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Horus_vs_Leman.jpg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''VII'''
|align=center|[[Image: Rogal_Dorn_Portrait.png|thumb|250px|]] [[Rogal Dorn]]
|align=center|The Praetorian of Terra, The Vigilant, The Unyielding One
|align=center|[[Inwit]]
|align=center|[[Imperial Fists]]
|align=center|MEGA DUPER Loyal
|align=center|
*A brutally honest and steadfast man, but was equally indifferent to those around him. Dorn's personality is akin to a wall, he was a man you could take at face value; he would never lie or deceive you, and he would always speak his mind without a hint of falsehood, even if it ends up working against his favor. That said, he could never properly relate with other people's emotions. He will speak the truth, but lacked any glib of tongue to express it in a way that wouldn't feel like he was delivering it with the bluntness and intensity of a power fist to the face.
*Embodied the "soul" of the Great Crusade unlike any other; he received the most accolades from the Emperor and fought alongside him most often.
*A master of siegecraft, although fortifications was his forte. So much that he was tasked with fortifying the Imperial Palace. He would also build grand fortresses on the worlds they conquered.
*Assumed deceased, disappeared while boarding a Chaos cruiser during a Black Crusade.<br>One of his fists were recovered and its skeleton is placed in a shrine, where each new Chapter Master of the Imperial Fists engraves their name upon it. Rumored to still be alive, though that begs the question of whose fist is in the Phalanx, though he could just be missing a hand.
|align=center|[[Image:The horus heresy praetorian of dorn by raffetin-dae3g5k.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Dorn-Sang-Primarchs-Warhammer-.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Warhammer-Dorn-malc.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''VIII'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Konrad_Curze_sketch.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Konrad Curze]]
|align=center|The Night Haunter, The Dark King
|align=center|[[Nostramo]]
|align=center|[[Night Lords]]
|align=center|Traitor
|align=center|
*A man of justice who believed that he needed to instill absolute fear into people to ensure lasting peace.
*Possessed psychic powers that allowed him to perceive the future in short glimpses. The problem was that they were uncontrolled and they constantly subjected him to see the worst possible future in the darkest, most vivid detail possible, including the deaths and fall of his brother Primarchs as well as the Emperor's own entombment on the Golden Throne. This only served to widen his ever-growing insanity as he came to believe that what he saw was an inevitability rather than a mere possibility.
*An unstable sociopath, to say the least. Curze's visions, upbringing, and perceived need for brutality took a heavy toll on his sanity, but he held firm under the belief he was making the galaxy a better place, like what he did with Nostramo. This all came crashing down after Nostramo reverted back to its old ways when he was away; deciding that nothing would ever change, he chose to bombard his home planet into rubble.
*That said, he was a master at infiltration and unconventional warfare, just as much as he was a master of scaring the shit out of people. His crowning achievement is that he managed to fuck up Guilliman's Imperium Secundus by himself, no aid from his legion what-so-ever, something his brothers couldn't even come close into doing.
*Lost what little sanity he still had after destroying Nostramo. By this time, Konrad stopped justifying his methods to himself and fully embraced the depraved side of his "Night Haunter" persona, spreading untold terror and pain wherever he went. By the time of the late Horus Heresy, the Emperor wanted to put a stop to it and sent a Callidus assassin named "M'shen" after him.
*Curze knew about her mission from the get-go but he made sure the assassin could reach him unimpeded. He did not resist when she entered his chambers and asked the Callidus to kill him. Initially it was speculated that Konrad realized he became the very thing he sought to rid the galaxy of and knew what had to be done- a perceived hero who lived long enough to see himself become a villain. It turned out that in his view, the assassination vindicated everything he'd ever said and done; he punished and killed evil-doers and now the Emperor used his own methods to kill him, thus proving that all his atrocities were both justifiable and necessary. Whatever the case, Konrad was already a jaded, broken man after the Nostramo debacle and wished only to die. The idea that the Emperor ''wouldn't'' have him killed or might even pardon him was horrifying to Curze, as he believed that there would be no justice in such an act.
|align=center|[[Image:Konrad-Curze-Primarchs-Warhammer-.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Night Haunter 8th Ed.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Horus-Primarchs-Curze-Lion.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''IX'''
|align=center|[[Image:SanguiniusArt5mt.jpg|thumb|250px|]][[Sanguinius]]
|align=center|The Great Angel, The Brightest One
|align=center|[[Baal]]
|align=center|[[Blood Angels]]
|align=center|Loyal
|align=center|
*A noble and unparalleled warrior, known for the angel-like wings that grew from his back.
*Was known as the greatest exemplar of the Emperor himself, mirroring many of his father's best traits, instead of only one or two of them like his brothers. If anything, Sanguinius is a reflection of what the Emperor could have been as a truly benevolent being, concerned not just for mankind's future, but man as individuals as well.
*A pretty cool guy to be around. Despite being a fabulous, angelic demi-god of war; he had mankind's best wishes at heart and fought for it with graceful ferocity, hell even the Primarchs couldn't resist Sanguinius being so bro-tier. He is essentially the vampiric, bishie version of Vulkan.
*Showed the same amount of concern for his legion. Sanguinius did all that he could to hide the Red Thirst from being exposed to the wider Imperium, knowing full well that the Blood Angels would receive the II/XI Legion treatment if it came to light.
*Psychic, and capable of seeing glimpses of the future.
*He was powerful as he was nice, Sanguinius was one of the most powerful, if not ''the'' most powerful, of the Primarchs in terms of martial prowess. Especially if you pissed him off. Feats include; ripping the wings off a bloodthirster and literally throwing him to the warp, single-handedly holding a defensive point during the Siege of Terra against numerous traitors, soloing Titans, and managing to damage Horus' armor ''even after being exhausted from literally soloing entire armies''.
*Deceased, slain by Horus. Spirit is evidently intact somewhere in the Warp. His body is currently in a stasis crypt in Baal, so his corpse remained fabulous for the last 10,000 years. Commemorated during Sanguinala, a holiday dedicated to his memory.
|align=center|[[Image:Heresy-Sang.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:The horus heresy book 26 unremembered empire by raffetin-dap4ekw.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Emperor Sanguinius Echoes of Imperium.jpg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''X'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Ferrus_Manus_sketch.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Ferrus Manus]]
|align=center|The Gorgon of Medusa
|align=center|[[Medusa_(Planet)|Medusa]]
|align=center|[[Iron Hands]]
|align=center|Extremely Loyal, rivalling The Lion and Dorn
|align=center|
*Wants to get things done quickly, without needless philosophizing.
*Contrary to his sons; Ferrus wanted to advocate the strength of one's flesh, rather than relying completely on bionics and mechanical augmentations as shown by the Iron Hands, if any he was appalled at the idea of turning man completely into machine. He wasn't able to realize this after getting a viking crewcut by his best friend, however.
*A master artisan, thanks to his metal arms, which allowed him to practice his craft with incredible precision and detail.
*Deceased, slain by Fulgrim and his head offered to Horus as a gift (which actually horrified him). Fulgrim still has the body, which he repeatedly clones and murders again in a futile attempt to make him turn traitor. <br>Some claim he is still alive on Mars, though [[Void Dragon|he almost certainly isn't]].
|align=center|[[Image:Ferrus.30k.jpg|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XI'''
|! colspan="5" |+++Records expunged+++
|-
|align=center|'''XII'''
|align=center|[[Image:Angron.port.jpg|thumb|250px|]][[Angron]]
|align=center|Slave of Nuceria, Red Angel, Lord of the Red Sands
|align=center|[[Nuceria]]
|align=center|[[World Eaters]]
|align=center|Traitor
|align=center|
*Embodies the name "World Eater". He and his legion consumes entire worlds in a whirlwind of indiscriminate slaughter until nobody but them is left, pre and post-Great Crusade.
*No real ambition beyond endless slaughter, thanks to the butcher's nails augment jammed into Angron's brain. It also made him incredibly violent and quick to anger. At first it was to satiate the unending bloodlust generated by the butcher's nails, but now its to glorify [[Khorne]].
*One of the most powerful of the Primarchs in terms of sheer melee combat prowess. Rivaled only by Sanguinius in terms of single combat capability.
*A poor leader and general, however. He could murder armies sent against him, but he lacked the tactical acumen (or anything resembling sanity) to focus on the objectives truly needed to win a war. Angron is in the end a gladiator let loose in a galaxy-wide arena: murdering all of his opponents is the only acceptable (or even concievable) way to win.
*A retcon made his [[Leeroy Jenkins]] behaviour one of the largest factors for fucking up the Horus Heresy. If Angron had kept his murderboner down for just a few more minutes and let Horus finish off the remaining loyalists on Istvaan with another Exterminatus strike; they would have been able to march to Terra faster and with much more manpower and have a better chance at winning. Whether this was Angron just being Angron or a secret ploy by Khorne to keep the blood flowing by thinking past the Horus Heresy is unclear (after all, if Horus won; Chaos eventually starves to death. If Horus lost; he has a aeons' worth of blood and conflict to revel over and maybe even an eternal stalemate ensuring he lasts forever, if at the cost of the Great Game continuing for eternity as well.).
*Daemon Prince of [[Khorne]]. Spend most of his time Getting Shit Done and being banished to the Warp for a hundred or so years after the Imperium responds to his Blood Crusades.
|align=center|[[Image:World-Eaters-Warhammer-40000-.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Angron .jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Angrondemon.jpg|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XIII'''
|align=center|[[Image: Robute Guilliman.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Roboute Guilliman]]
|align=center|Lord of Ultramar, Avenging Son, The Victorious, The Master of Ultramar, The Blade of Unity
|align=center|[[Ultramar|Macragge]]
|align=center|[[Ultramarines]]
|align=center|Loyal, barring [[Imperium Secundus| that one episode he doesn't like to talk about]]
|align=center|
*A proud and fair visionary who always looked towards building a better future for humanity. Guilliman never did anything without thinking what would happen at the end of the day and he always tried to plan a better outcome for whatever he did, whether its building an empire or subjugating an enemy civilization.
*Was more for the people than the Emperor, hence why he thought preserving his Imperium was more important than the survival of the Emperor himself.
*A general first and warrior second, which was the key to his success throughout the Great Crusade. He wasn't the best at crossing swords or gunfights, at least in comparison to many of his brothers; but he was exceptional at commanding his forces and resources, ensuring all wars he fought in were running at optimum efficiency.
*The greatest statesman among the Primarchs. Guilliman was best remembered for his ability to set up an efficient form of government on every planet his legion conquered, turning them into model, self-sufficient worlds in order to prepare them for the future after the Great Crusade. This is best exemplified by Ultramar, which still remains one of the most powerful and idyllic planetary systems in the Imperium, even after 10,000 years. More tellingly, was allowed by the Emperor to keep Ultramar's 500 worlds as a semi-autonomous mini-empire within the Imperium because it was just so well run.
*He's also a logistical genius, and invented the organizational model that 8 of the 9 First Founding Chapters still use (more or less).
*Previously kept in a stasis chamber after his throat was sliced by Fulgrim with a poisoned sword.
*Recently revived with the help of Belisarius Cawl and the Ynnari and their new soul manipulation powers. Is now active once more, and not very happy with how badly the Imperium has gone to shit since he was not-quite-dead. Currently back in his old role of Lord Commander of the Imperium, trying his hardest to keep the Emperor's work from going completely down the drain while while waging an unending war against the forces of Chaos and the Imperium's equally monstrous bureaucracy. Rather unhappy about it all but is keeping his head above water nevertheless.
|align=center|[[Image: 30k.Guilliman.png|thumb|150px|]][[Image: Primarchs-Guilliman-40000.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Roboute-Guilliman-Primarchs-Warhammer-40000.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XIV'''
|align=center|[[Image: Mortarion Portrait.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Mortarion]]
|align=center|The Pale King, The Death Lord, The Prince of Decay (Post-Heresy)
|align=center|[[Barbarus]]
|align=center|[[Death Guard]]
|align=center|Traitor
|align=center|
*A bitter, petty man, kind of like the edgy goth kid of the group. Mortarion didn't want to associate anyone who hasn't gone through the same brand of abuse he has during his childhood and also hated those who had relatively comfy ones in comparison (like Guilliman or Dorn). He would only find some friendship with Konrad Curze (due to his "raised alone and became psycho-Batman" origin) and Horus (because just about everyone liked Horus).
*Has an immense abhorrence for psykers and the warp, due to his experiences on Barbarus. As a daemon prince, he is the very thing he hated in the first place. He takes the resulting bitterness out on everyone else in the form of horrible diseases.
*Stubborn to the core. Mortarion's favored tactic that he passed onto the Death Guard is a combination of attrition and unrelenting assaults; they take the pain while dishing it out in greater amounts, non-stop. He also valued individualism throughout his legion, largely leaving it up to his troops to figure out the best strategy in a conflict, rather than micro-managing them.
*Was already disenchanted by the Imperium by the start of the Horus Heresy (Seeing the Emperor and his works as total hypocrisies), so he threw his lot in with Horus. However, due to a ruse by Typhus; he and his legion ended up being infected by a virulent Nurglite plague while in the warp, which caused them to be in a constant state of agony but remain alive due to their Astartes-grade toughness. Unable to bear the pain and see his sons suffer; he pledged his loyalty to Nurgle and the god "cured" them of the plague (cure is probably incorrect, it was more of mutate their bodies to be compatible with the plague). From here, he became a daemon prince.
*Went back to the warp after the Horus Heresy, where Nurgle gave him dominion over the Plague Planet, which he shaped into the image of Barbarus.
*Was banished by [[Kaldor Draigo|Grey Knights]] during the Battle of Kornovin, which was the origin of [[Kaldor Draigo|Draigo]] carving a name onto his plague-ridden heart (how Draigo did so is a mystery, so we'll just chalk it up to him being too high on drugs to be infected by Mortarion's plagues).
*Helped Abby by creating the zombie plague, along with other contagions, after he got the Hand of Darkness artifact.
*He eventually got better and waged a full-scale invasion of Ultramar when he heard that Guilliman's finally awake. Had to retreat after he had to deal with the other Chaos Gods' typical shenanigans (mainly encroaching on his strongholds in the [[Scourge Stars]] while he was off campaigning).
|align=center|[[Image:Warhammer-40000-фэндомы-Horus-Heresy-Mortarion-2073409.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Mortarion-40k.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XV'''
|align=center|[[Image:Magnus-The-Red-Primarchs-Warhammer-40000-фэндомы-4995855 (1).jpeg|thumb|250px|]] [[Magnus the Red]]
|align=center|The Crimson King, The Red Cyclops
|align=center|[[Prospero]]
|align=center|[[Thousand Sons]]
|align=center|Traitor, though he never planned this
|align=center|
*An optimistic scholar who thirsted for knowledge and always believed that information should be preserved for the greater good of mankind, regardless of its origins or the danger it might pose.
*As a psyker from birth, he was sympathetic to the discrimination faced by his fellow psykers and labored for his kind to be accepted. He did so by training psykers to control and enhance their powers, in the hopes of showing to people the benefits of his kind's gifts. This had mixed results with his brother primarchs, especially in the face of the Emperor's "psykers are bad" standing orders.
*Had an ego to rival the Emperor himself, but with far less justification for it.
*Defying the Nikea council's rulings, Magnus continued to experiment with warp powers and during a Tzeentch-induced prophesy that involved Horus' betrayal; he attempted to warn his father with a psychic message. During the sending process; he accidentally destroyed the Emperor's webway project, causing him to be arrested by Russ and the Wolves to answer for his disobedience.
*As Horus was already corrupted by this point, he altered the orders to instead destroy the Thousand Sons' homeworld. Realizing he's been played like a damn fiddle by Tzeentch, Magnus' resolve was broken and initially accepted his destiny of being destroyed by the wolves in an attempt to spite Tzeentch, but eventually decided to attempt to rebel against his fate but ultimately failing after Leman Russ beat him up badly. He then made a desperate deal with Tzeentch to save his legion in return for his servitude. He and the Thousand Sons were teleported to the Planet of Sorcerers, where more hijinks ensued with his [[Ahzek Ahriman|first captain]]'s certain ritual. Also his soul was broken into pieces somehow during the deal, and he's still trying to collect them all.
*Now a daemon prince, one of his first major campaigns was to invade the Space Wolves' homeworld. Was banished, but the Wolves were all but ruined; most of their upper command structure and progress with stabilizing their flawed gene seed was gone. Feeling they weren't down for the count yet; he went in again and bloodied the entire star system of Fenris itself, irreparably damaging the Wolves' home system.
*Appeared during the Gathering Storm, where he trapped and captured Guilliman and his retinue in the warp. After he escaped, Magnus chased and confronted Guilliman all the way to Luna, but was banished by the Custodes and Sisters of Silence. Now currently biding his time for another offensive.
|align=center|[[Image:Past Magnus.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image: 30k.magnus-the-red.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image: 40k.magnus-the-red.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XVI'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Warmaster_Horus_Remembrancer_Sketch.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Horus|Horus Lupercal]]
|align=center|The Lupercal, The Favorite Son
|align=center|[[Cthonia]]
|align=center|[[Black Legion|Luna Wolves/ Sons of Horus/ Black Legion]]
|align=center|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1rT6Vi5Ln4 DOUBLE TRAITOR link dead :(]
|align=center|
*A charismatic strategist who overwhelmed his enemies through sheer numbers and precision tactics, with an emphasis on wiping out the leadership structures of enemy forces.
*Big E's most favored son, always being held in the highest regard, second only to the Custodes. This was a combination of him being the first Primarch found (before the retcon) and his long rap sheet of victories throughout the Crusade.
*Due to his position and experience, he was the most well-liked of the Primarchs during the Great Crusade. Just about everyone looked at Horus as the greatest among them.
*For all his charisma and leadership, Horus was still wracked with self-doubt once appointed Warmaster, constantly afraid that he was unable to live up to the title (poor dude basically thought that anything less than Big E levels of success was failure). Being overall commander of the Emperor's forces AND being his personal favorite was a lot to live up to. This was one of the reasons why he succumbed to the temptations of Chaos.
*Was one of the few Primarchs who was suspicious of the Emperor's plans for the Astartes post-Crusade, fearing they'd be disposed of like the Thunder Warriors and was mistrustful of the Emperor's intentions in the long run in general, to say nothing of his resentment about how the worlds he and his brothers had conquered would be governed by ordinary humans. The Ruinous Powers would also use this to their advantage.
*Rebelled against the Emperor after being fed a vision of the future by the Chaos Gods, in which the Emperor was being worshiped as a god and many of his fellow Primarchs (including himself) were reviled or outright forgotten. Little did he know that this was to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
*His essence has been erased from existence. When the Emperor mustered up the resolve to finally end Horus, he shot him with a psychic blast powerful enough to obliterate his very soul, ensuring that the Chaos Gods couldn't just bring him back from the dead. His body was recovered and brought to the Eye of Terror, but was later destroyed after an incident involving [[Fabius Bile]] and a clone of Horus.
|align=center|[[Image:Horus-the warmaster.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Horus-Primarchs-.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Emperor vs Horus.jpg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XVII'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Lorgar_Aurelian_sketch.png|thumb|250px|]] [[Lorgar|Lorgar Aurelian]]
|align=center|Bearer of the Word, Urizen (Colchisian for "wisest of the wise")
|align=center|[[Colchis]]
|align=center|[[Word Bearers]]
|align=center|Traitor Prime
|align=center|
*A charismatic diplomat with a golden tongue, who relied heavily on his unparalleled speaking abilities to bring worlds into compliance during the Great Crusade. Lorgar would always prefer to talk out a peaceful solution, rather than resorting to violence. That said, Lorgar did know how to slap a bitch when needed.
*A deeply spiritual man, due to growing up in a theocratic society during his time on Colchis. Due to this, Lorgar saw The Emperor as a literal god and decided to spread the good word of the God-Emperor throughout the Crusade. During this time, he penned the "Lectitio Divinitatus", a book detailing how awesome the God-Emperor was, and always built grand cathedrals in all the planets he conquered. As you can imagine, this didn't sit well with the Man-Emperor's secular Empire, so he decided to bloody one of Lorgar's grandest cities to send a message with Guilliman. Little did the Emperor know what this act of dickery would lead eventually to.
*With Lorgar being completely disheartened and defeated; Kor Phaeron and [[Erebus]] lured him to the worship of the Dark Gods, who were more than happy to accept his rabid fanboyism. He would eventually corrupt Horus and ignite the [[Horus Heresy|single biggest clusterfuck in Imperial History]], ruining everything that the Emperor has striven to build since the [[Age of Strife]].
*Rules as a daemon prince of Chaos Undivided and currently located in Sicarius, the Word Bearers' home planet.
*Previously a shut-in NEET that left command to his legion to his Dark Apostles: Lorgar has finally gotten out of his tower and is personally leading the Word Bearers now. He has recently been seen evangelizing about Chaos in the material realm, with a large legion of Word Bearers behind him. Got his ass kicked by a warp-empowered Corax and is doing everything he can to avoid round three.

|align=center|[[Image: 30k.Lorgar.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Lorgar_portrait.jpg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XVIII'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Vulkan_sketch.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Vulkan]]
|align=center|Lord of Drakes
|align=center|[[Nocturne]]
|align=center|[[Salamanders]]
|align=center|Loyal
|align=center|
*A true man of the people, concerned with the preservation and welfare of humans. Vulkan saw all humans in the Imperium as equals and would protect any servant of the Emperor with great ferocity regardless of their class or status.
*Growing up in a blacksmith society allowed him and his legion to craft some of the finest wargear the Imperium has ever seen. It's also the reason for their fire fetish in combat.
*Inherited the Emperor's perpetual powers, granting him the ability to reincarnate after dying.
*He and his legion took some of the worst losses during Istvaan, and he himself was eventually captured by Konrad Curze.
*Curze wanted to get his torture fetish on, so he tortured Vulkan to death. Several times. Vulkan's status as a perpetual ensured he always came back, but less and less sane as Curze's treatment got worse and worse.
*He eventually managed to escape, but accidentally teleported over Macragge's atmosphere, crashing down on the planet like a green comet of insanity. By this point, anything remotely resembling sanity had left Vulkan's mind. He was eventually "killed" by another perpetual, in a well-meaning attempt to reset Vulkan's brain. It worked (sort of. At least he wasn't a howling maniac anymore) and after taking a short death nap, he got better and disappeared for a while.
*Resurfaced during [[The War of The Beast]] and was recruited to lead the Imperial forces against The Beast's forces. Then disappeared after ramming The Beast into a plasma reactor and killing them both in a squall of gore. The Salamanders claim he continued to lead them for a few more centuries after that death, then left them with the Tome of Fire, claiming he had a special mission that they could not accompany him for.
|align=center|[[Image:Past Vulkan.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Vulkan Lives.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Vulkan-Primarchs-Warhammer-40000-фэндомы-4123369.jpeg|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XIX'''
|align=center|[[Image: Corax Portrait.png|thumb|250px|]] [[Corvus Corax]]
|align=center|The Lord of Shadows, The Liberator, The Deliverer, The Raven-Lord, Chooser of the Slain, The Shadowed Lord
|align=center|[[Deliverance]]
|align=center|[[Raven Guard]]
|align=center|Loyal
|align=center|
*Sought to overthrow oppression, bringing justice to tyrants.
*Possessed some kind of perception-manipulating psychic power, giving him the ability to be "invisible" to organics (He's still there clear as day, but your mind just can't process that he's right there).
*Preferred covert warfare, sabotaging, fast strikes and assassinating the enemy from the sides, and only striking in the open when the time is right. Basically one of the few primarchs who uses tactics of actual special forces units.
*He and his legion were bloodied during Istvaan and forced out of the conflict. Corvus wanted desperately to help the Imperium's deteriorating situation, so he asked the Emperor for assistance. Emps obliged and gave him the template to create the Primarchs themselves, giving him the ability to train marines at an even faster rate. This was wrecked after the Alpha Legion tampered with the creation process, resulting with the majority of the aspirants coming out as horrible mutants and aberrations.
*While it weighed heavily on his conscience, Corax had to be pragmatic. He made do and used his newly obtained mutant horde as shock troops and it worked; they were able to disrupt the traitors long enough to buy Terra some time to put up a defense.
*After the Heresy ended, he was reluctantly forced to euthanize his creations, wracking Corvus with a huge amount of guilt.
*Went missing after heading for the Eye of Terror to atone for his sins, saying only "Nevermore" before leaving. His status is currently unknown, but the Raven Guard believe he's still alive and will return once again. In reality, he is indeed alive and hunting his fallen brothers, although the Warp has changed him into a living, shapeshifting shadow.
|align=center|[[Image:Warhammer-Corvus-Corax-Primarchs.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Hh-walpaper-raven-Copy.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Corvus Corax.jpg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XX'''
|align=center|[[Image: Alpharius2.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Alpharius]] [[Omegon]]
|align=center|Head of the Hydra, Aleph Null, The Hydra, The Threefold Serpent, The Final Configuration, The Last Primarch
|align=center|They're not telling
|align=center|[[Alpha Legion]]
|align=center|[[Alpha Legion|Alpharius: Very loyal. Omegon: even Tzeentch can't keep track.]]
|align=center|
*Shrouded in mystery. It's not even known what their homeworld is, let alone what their upbringing was like. Forge World gave no fewer than four mutually irreconcilable origin stories, all of which were dismissed as lies. That said, the only discernible fact we can give about them is that the two primarchs did not always agree with each other, exemplified with Omegon actively sabotaging Alpharius' operations during the Horus Heresy.
*As primarchs of the Alpha legion; the two frequently exchanged roles whenever needed with nobody ever noticing, but officially; Alpharius is the primarch of the legion while Omegon is commander of their elite covert forces.
*Masters of psychological warfare and manipulation. They didn't need regiments of soldiers or weapons to do his heavy lifting; all he needs is a handful of spies to plant paranoia, deceit, misinformation, and dissent in his targeted worlds. By the time his agents are done: the enemy would either be tearing each other apart and/or distrustful of each other; making them isolated, easy pickings for the main Alpha Legion forces once they're called to reign the planet in.
*Alpharius bought the Cabal's story about letting Horus kill all of humanity to kill off the Chaos Gods in the long run, and was eventually beheaded by Rogal Dorn during a battle on Pluto. Maybe. Quite frankly, with these two one can never be entirely sure '''what''' the truth really is.
*Omegon took on his mantle officially ("the jest made real") and this new "Alpharius" may or may not have been killed by Guilliman (the Ultramarines suspect they may have only killed a body double). His loyalties are unknown, but he was against the Cabal's proposal, indicating he either thought sacrificing his entire species was too big of a price (which would mean he's still loyal to humanity), or he wanted Chaos to survive by feeding off humanity (which would mean he was a traitor).
|align=center|

|}

==Their Eventual Fates==
[[File:Heresy_Time.jpg|300px|thumb|right|An accurate retelling of the final stages of the rebellion.]]
===Traitors===
*General downside to those who became Daemon Princes is that the further they go from the Eye of Terror, the more their power wanes. Also most of them spend most of their time in the Great Game (eternal war in the Warp), growing increasingly distant from the real world affairs.
* '''Horus''' was killed by the Emperor during the Siege of Terra, who utterly destroyed his soul. His legion enshrined his corpse until the Emperor's Children stole it. [[Fabius Bile]] managed to successfully clone him, but [[Abaddon]] killed the clone to cement his position as his successor as Warmaster of Chaos. While "Horus" is supposedly ''very'' dead, which was his fault for being a fuckwit, shards of his soul which were broken off in the Warp remain. Including one in the realm of Khorne...
* '''Angron''' is a Daemon Prince of Khorne. Still gets shit done, but did get his arse handed to him by the Grey Knights on Armageddon.
* '''Mortarion''' is a fucktwit who rarely does anything of interest (still sulking over his eternal existence as the thing he hates the most), but is a Daemon Prince of Nurgle. Apparently now holds the largest domain in the Eye of Terror, rather than just one planet he had in the old fluff. Got some open heart surgery, courtesy of Draigo/Ward. Created zombie plague from one of the artifacts Abbaddon used in his XII crusade. He invaded Ultramar after hearing news that Guilliman's finally awake, though he ultimately had to go back to the [[Scourge Stars]] due to his poor fortunes in the war as well as being summoned back by his patron God.
* '''Fulgrim's''' soul was trapped in a painting while his body was possessed by a daemon for a brief time before swapping places with the daemon and taking its powers (or so he claims). The first Primarch to become a Daemon Prince, although he aimed at achieving (demi)godhood instead (by sacrificing Perturabo). Abandoned what remained of his legion to rule his pleasure daemon world, and [[Troll|didn't tell them how to get there]] (yet Abaddon somehow manages to contact him anyways).
* '''Lorgar''' is a lazy fucknut who does nothing since they fled to the Eye of Terror, and handed the rule over his legion to the council of Dark Apostles, but still a Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided. Taught Abaddon how to summon daemons. Lost a duel with a powered-up Corax during sometime after the Heresy.
* '''Magnus the Red''' got broken into several pieces during his fight with Leman Russ, with several of them actually believing they were the real Magnus and going their own way. Some pieces were eventually put back together to form "the Crimson King", the Daemon Primarch form of Magnus who joined Horus in his rebellion. This sometimes also gets shit done, leading armies to the [[Space Wolves]]' planet and screwing with the Imperium, keeping his big red trollface on all the time until he gets his ass tossed back into the [[Warp]]. Other fragments seem to be floating around throughout history, appearing to have their own agenda, pretending to be daemons or helping the Imperium from time to time. By the time of the Gathering Storm and the 42nd Millennium the disparate fragments have mostly recombined to the Crimson King ''(leaving out a few key elements, namely the ones who embodied his best qualities; for example, the part of Magnus that embodied his love for his Legion chose to fade into nonexistence instead of being reabsorbed into the Crimson King)'' making him as whole as he can be.
* '''Perturabo''' becomes irrelevant after he goes on to drop largely out of post-Heresy fluff, but is still a Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided. Rules the most stable planet in the Eye of Terror, where he does nothing but watching his sons sieging each other. Helps Failbaddon in a couple of Black Crusades by giving him some Daemon Engines. It doesn't really help, but it's more than Lorgar's done for Chaos Undivided. He is also leading his Legion after the 13th Black Crusade in their new offensive against the Imperium.
* '''Konrad Curze''' allowed a Callidus assassin to infiltrate his lair and kill him, either because he himself became the thing he hated the most, or to justify to himself that every atrocity he has done in the name of justice was a necessary act. Except...there was that crown he always wore, the one with a stone in it that looked oddly similar to a soulstone...
* The Alpha Legion's story is a bit complex:
**'''Alpharius''' was slain by Rogal Dorn in combat during the Battle of Pluto. He is very much dead as he did not bargain with the Dark Gods and had his head split open by a fellow Primarch's chainsword. Conspiracy theorists will speculate that it wasn't really Alpharius, though the death is strongly corroborated by Omegon's response. So unless Alpharius used a body double to trick Rogal Dorn AND ''his own twin'' into thinking he was dead and allowed Omegon to take his place and identity permanently; there isn't any hard evidence to suggest that the dead "Alpharius" was anything other than the actual Primarch, but knowing the Alpha Legion that doesn't mean too much without definitive proof.
**'''Omegon''' reluctantly took Alpharius' identity after he sensed he was dead, and his legion a bee-line for Ultramar after the Horus Heresy, where he met his end after dueling [[Roboute Guilliman|Big Bobby G]]. However, because the rest of the Alpha Legionaries did not break even after the death of their primarch ''(in fact they managed to beat the Ultramarines in the conflict altogether);'' nobody could truly confirm if they did indeed kill the real deal, or if it was a body double.
**While it's been established that a decent amount of Alpha Legionnaires were surgically altered to resemble their Primarch and even ''believe'' they were Primarchs themselves; that and the figurehead role of "Alpharius" has been largely interchangable between both the twins and their sons, which makes sense for a legion whose MO is flexible leadership. While we can be reasonably certain that at least one of the twins is dead, whatever "Omegon-Alpharius" or at least whichever person who thinks he's Alpharius have been up to following the Heresy is a matter of fierce debate and speculation.
**One warband of the Alpha Legion believes that Omegon is still alive in the 42nd millennium and somehow certain elements of the Necron knows where he is. And there is that one big guy in scaled armor trapped in Trayzn's toybox...

===Loyalists===
[[File:Imperium-good-ending.jpg|350px|thumb|right|If GeeDubs ever dared to make a multiple outcome final campaign World of Darkness style this will probably be the Golden Ending while respecting all the current canon material.]]
*It is believed by Mortarion that they are now returning to realspace.
*'''Ferrus Manus''' was killed by Fulgrim during the Drop Site Massacre. His body was not recovered, so some Iron Hands think he might still be alive, and for a time it seemed like he did survive. However, Vulkan later exposed the "Ferrus Manus" leading the remaining Iron Hands as a marionette-like machine with one of the Primarch's hands attached to it, destroying the fake soon afterwards. The fact that Ferrus was decapitated by Fulgrim after being defeated and had his head delivered to Horus makes this claim fairly dubious. Just don't say that to the Iron Hands, though. Unless you want free open-heart surgery from a ceramite and steel power fist. Fulgrim did try to clone him (several times) in the hope one of them would join the traitors, but every clone so far has refused and been subsequently killed by him. An apparition of an iron handed giant - the 10th son - was seen leading the charge in an army of human souls against an army of daemons when the Emperor entered the Webway).
*'''Sanguinius''' was killed by Horus. His body was recovered, and he's the only Primarch who doesn't have any legends about returning, though there are some theories on the identity of the [[Sanguinor]] which were later proven <s>incorrect</s> half correct (he is able to manifest Sanguinius to Dante during the events of the Dark Imperium). Sanguinius foresaw his death and accepted it as a necessary sacrifice for the future of the Imperium, in no small part because his visions also warned him that he would only survive the Horus Heresy by becoming corrupted himself. The trauma of his death by the Talon of Horus left a psychic manifestation of him still on the Vengeful Spirit. As of late it turns out his soul has been wandering the warp ever since, only deciding to make himself known to revive Commander [[Dante]] when he ended up as [[Swarmlord]]-shishkebab after realizing that you really don't want to get into melee with the Swarmlord a little too late (Dante being Dante, he still managed to banish it to the Hive Mind, showing just how bloody exceptional you have to be for Sanguinius to bother interfering).
*'''Lion El'Jonson''' returned to Caliban only to discover <s>that his friend Luther had stabbed him in the back.</s> THAT LUTHER HAD A PLANET-WIDE PARTY AND EVENTUALLY PASSED OUT INTO A COMA AFTER DRINKING 200 TANKARDS OF SPACE WOLF-GRADE ALCOHOL. He sleeps deep within the Rock, originally on life support and now fully-healed (but none of the Dark Angels seem to know this). Perhaps this is a sign of a coming advancement of the storyline, DUN DUN DUN!
*'''Jaghatai Khan''' disappeared into the Webway after chasing a group of Dark Eldar. The White Scars think he will return someday, and when you consider the fact that time is just as weird there as it is in the rest of the Warp, there is a small possibility he's still around.
*'''Leman Russ''' disappeared into the Eye of Terror but promised the Space Wolves that he would return for the Final Battle. Magnus appears to know where he is now, but he sure as hell isn't telling the Space Wolves. Reports during the Thirteenth Black Crusade claim that a figure matching Russ's description was seen leading the 13th Great Company have surfaced, but were never verified. Numerous crusades by the Space Wolves to find Russ have resulted in failure, although they did find <s> his armor in a shrine of Khorne in the Eye</s> an armor believed to be his in the Temple of Horus on Rudra - so either he succumbed to Chaos, was killed by a Khorne champion, devolved into wulfen, or is [[Conan the Barbarian|currently pillaging The Warp as a muscle-bound, half-naked barbarian hero]].
*'''Rogal Dorn''' disappeared during a [[Black Crusade]] in a desperate ship boarding action. Only his severed hand was recovered and its skeleton enshrined. Debate rages about whether the Zerg rush of World Eaters killed him, or whether he's still out there, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIJTvEo4N4Q murdering his way through traitors with an Astartes-pattern shotgun and a chainsword grafted where his hand used to be]. Original 40K novels stated his entire skeleton was on display on Terra, but it's been retconned to only his hands. Still, a Primarch without a skeleton would be bad-ass, if not a little amusing.
*'''Roboute Guilliman''' was formerly preserved in a stasis field, seconds from death after he was poisoned by Fulgrim. Fast-forward a few thousand years and some Eldar flubdubbery, however, and Big Bobby G is back in action, and he's mad at the current state of the Imperium. After a private meeting with the Emperor, he assumed direct command of the Imperium itself as Lord Commander of the Imperium. When he isn't curb-stomping traitors to death or otherwise trying to keep the Imperium afloat, Guilliman is busy re-vamping the Imperium with numerous reforms in an attempt to realize his father's dream for humanity. Needless to say; a lot of people are unhappy about this, but they can't exactly tell off one of the Emperor's actual sons and expect not to be on the business end of a Custodes guardian spear. He's also taken the time to rewrite the Codex Astartes as well.
*'''Vulkan''' got the shit kicked out of him during the Drop Site Massacre, whereupon his fluff gets a bit hazy:
**The old ''Codex: Space Marines'' states that his body was never found, only a book containing only the names of nine powerful relics and a bunch of annoying riddles as to where they might be found, penned by Vulkan himself. In the 41st millennium, the Salamanders believe that he is still alive and that collecting the nine relics - they've found five so far - will reveal his location.
** In the Black Library novels, starting with ''Vulkan Lives'' the big V had to be dragged into a Thunderhawk in bloody tatters. Kurze captured him and tortured him to death... repeatedly; as a [[Perpetual]], Vulkan would not stay dead. After an indeterminate amount of time and deaths, Vulkan managed to escape by teleporting himself into orbit around Macragge and reentering its atmosphere. When he recovered and learned that Kurze was planetside, he [[Rage|flipped out]] and went after him. A well-meaning Perpetual stabbed him with a fulgurite (a spearhead-shaped piece of stone that contains a bit of the Emperor's power), hoping to either cure his madness or kill him for good. Now apparently dead, Vulkan was put in a stasis capsule inscribed with the words "Unbound Flame," with an honor guard of Salamanders until his remains could be returned to Nocturne. As of the end of ''Deathfire'', he somehow managed to return to life again, although there's no indication as to whether or not he's still a Perpetual. As of the War of the Beast, he's still alive in M.32, after the wounding of Guilliman. He's apparently been wandering the Imperium for a millennium fulfilling his own oaths, but returns to Terra to take command and reclaim Ullanor from the united Ork race. Even with one of the greatest forces assembled since the Horus Heresy, with the remnants of the VII Legion Chapters, the fight devolved to Vulkan facing off with The Beast one-on-one, and sacrificing himself in The Beasts temple-gargant's core detonating it with both himself and The Beast inside it. Whether both of them died is highly unlikely. He hints that Dorn is also alive, meaning he is either privy to some secret information, doesn't know of his brother's death, or is going insane.
**The 8th Edition Codex reconcile these stories somewhat, by claiming that sources within the Salamanders themselves believe Vulkan led them for three millennia ''(which accounts for his appearance during the War of the Beast)'', sometimes falling in battle but apparently always returning ''(also accounting for his perpetual status)''. He eventually disappeared on some final undocumented mission, not without leaving his Tome of Fire and bequeathing his personal artefacts to the chapter but not actually saying where they were, giving rise to the legend that if they are all found he will then return.
*'''Corvus Corax''' disappeared into the Eye of Terror as an atonement for putting down the mutant hordes he created in trying to create Space Marines out of desperation. Quoth the Raven: "Nevermore." Beyond the Imperium's eyes, his wraith-slip powers began to mutate and he became a shadowy shapeshifter hellbent on killing all his traitor brothers. Corax was last seen beating Lorgar's ass so hard that the useless fuckwit had to run with his tail between his legs. Yeah, he beat a Daemon Primarch (who had Chaos Marine and likely daemon backup) into up and running, while Corax himself was on his own. Basically the battle between Guilliman and Magnus on Luna, in reverse. Eat it, Papa Smurf.

==Two Missing Primarchs | The Forgotten & The Purged==
Who are the two missing Primarchs, you ask? [[Sigmar|Sigmar Heldenhammer]] and [[Archaon The Everchosen: Lord of the End of Times; Chaos Incarnate; Herald of the Apocalypse|Archaon]] (depending on how WHFB fits in with 40K, if it does). Or maybe (per /tg/ canon) [[Rachnus Rageous]] and [[Tialoc Ekans]]. [[Samus]] and [[Berserk|Guts]] are also contenders, and many Bolter and Chainsword regulars consider Icarion and his Lightning Bearers to be their headcanon II Legion.

The Legions in question are the Legio II (Second Legion) and the Legio XI (Eleventh Legion).

What, you wanted a serious answer?

Okay, fine. Nobody really knows. It is very intentional that no lore exists about these two legions, making them completely unknown. References to their existence are common in canon, but no details are ever explicitly mentioned. This is a feature of the lore, an intentionally kept mystery whose details provide more questions than answers. What has been established is that they got killed for some reason and the existence of their Legions was wiped from record by the Emperor. [[Malcador the Sigillite]] claims that the Primarchs had been manipulated from the start, and were to be maneuvered into their proper roles prior to the Horus Heresy and those which would not be manipulated would be removed. Although Malcador's own testimony is tainted by the fact that he later admits he had to lie, though many of his statements do mirror what we have seen from the Emperor's own statements.

[[Games Workshop]] have mentioned Primarchs besides the eighteen above on other occasions, but they backtracked since. Back in the [[Rogue Trader|first edition]] of [[Warhammer 40,000]], all twenty [[First Founding]] Chapters were known, as were their Primarchs (though, at the time, the Primarch was just the first Chapter Master). Of these, the [[Valedictors]] and [[Rainbow Warriors]] were declared in a later [[White Dwarf]] to have been founded after the [[Second Founding]].

Later, in the short story '''Hell in a Bottle''' from the novel Into the Maelstrom, a chapter known as the Iron Hearts get fucked over by a [[Chaos Lord]]. The short story also mentions that the Chapter has a Primarch known as Rubinek. Of course, this was just a huge cock-up on the author's part, who himself admitted that he meant Chapter Master.

=== The [REDACTED] Event ===

*'''The First Heretic''' shows that by the Razing of Monarchia (43 years before the Isstvan V Drop Site Massacre of 006.M31), the II and XI Legions had already been stricken from the records. It also states that the remaining Primarchs had to swear an oath never to speak of their missing brothers and that the missing Primarchs' corresponding legions were personally purged by the Emperor, so it had to have been something extraordinarily bad. However, Lorgar still remembers something about them, saying "I still remember how they-", before Magnus cut him off. Lastly, it is revealed that the Emperor had considered purging Lorgar and the Word Bearers (making them the third legion to be purged) for starting a religion around him, but Russ had talked him out of it. #BlameLemanRuss
*In '''The Lightning Tower''' Rogal Dorn says that the lost Primarchs' disappearances were "separate tragedies", so it seems like they disappeared in two different incidents.
*In '''Descent of Angels''', which takes place as of the time Lion El'Jonson had been rediscoverd, Chief Librarian Israfael tells the then initiate, Zahariel El'Zurias, that the Lion has 19 brothers; indicating that as of that time they had not committed whatever atrocity lead to their demise. This also means that the existence of the Primarchs was not a secret among the Imperium.
*In '''Dark Imperium''', Roboute Guilliman declares "I was one of twenty. Two failed. Half the rest turned on my Father." This suggests that the downfall of the two lost primarchs was not a result of them betraying the Emperor. Instead their demise was a result of them "failing" their purpose as primarchs and being terminated as a result. Interestingly this line also seems to imply that it is no longer forbidden to speak of the two missing primarchs in the 42nd milenium, as Guilliman casually references them to make a point about primarchs being fallible. (The 2021 revision of the book adds a bit more to this; it looks like the Imperium has covered up the fact that there were even two deleted Legions and Primarchs in the first place.)
*'''The Chamber at the End of Memory''' has Rogal Dorn note that he was one of the few Primarchs who ever met with the II and XI Primarchs. It also reveals that not only was the entire Imperium forbidden to speak of the missing Primarchs' existence, but every non-Primarch save for Malcador who had ever interacted with them was mind-wiped so they would remember nothing about them - including their own gene-sons, presumably other than the fact that they were purged from all record and be left unable to speak even about that. Even the other Primarchs had their memories altered so they couldn't recall much more about their lost brothers beyond the fact that they existed - Dorn is dumbstruck by this discovery, and even more so when Malcador tells him that it was his own idea (and Roboute Guilliman's) to have his fellow Primarchs' memories altered. Malcador also states that '''whatever it was that the II and XI Primarchs did, it was against the very ideals of the Great Crusade and would have ruined everything the the Great Crusade had accomplished to that point.''' Their old living quarters in the Imperial Palace are protected by extremely powerful psychic wards, and when Malcador briefly restores Rogal Dorn's memories of them he realizes the '''''hateful truth'''. That '''the entire Horus Heresy up to the Siege of Terra was not so awful or threatening to the Imperium as what had happened to the Missing Primarchs'''; in fact, '''if they were still alive, the Imperium would have long since fallen'''.
*'''Deliverance Lost''' suggests that whatever happened to the missing Primarchs occurred sometime before the Emperor found Corvus Corax, as Corax asked the Emperor why there were only sixteen other Primarchs waiting for him if he was the nineteenth (it's unsure whether this was referring to him being the Primarch of the nineteenth Legion, or him being the nineteenth found); the Emperor avoided the question, claiming that "it would be a discussion for another day". This is no longer the case, somehow, as he is [[Retcon|now the third-to-last primarch found]], right before the second missing primarch.
*In '''Prospero Burns''', Leman Russ mentions that the Space Wolves had fought other Space Marines before the attack on Prospero, which may have something to do with the purge. A senior Space Wolf describes Russ' "wyrd" as being "the Emperor's executioner". Several books since have backed this up, though [https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/8q7qyg/the_space_wolves_what_were_they_really_for_little/e0hih9h/ ADB denies this].
*In '''Scars''' there's a reference to rumours and "whispers of past atrocities" that only a Primarch could kill another Primarch. Russ also turns up and talks a bit about fighting Magnus, and the resulting "shame". So if he's responsible for offing one or two of his brothers, they must've done something pretty fucking heinous.
*In '''The Dark King''', when asked if he will report the Night Lords for censure, Dorn remarks that he feared to add another empty statue to the Emperor's palace, implying that the missing legions were exterminated for committing severe atrocities.
*In '''The Last Council''' Malcador states that one of the missing Primarchs was '''fallen and disgraced'''. Alpharius mentions that one of the primarchs had died. While the lost Primarchs and their Legions were wiped before he was rediscovered, its Alpharius....you can't keep info like that from him.
*Their legions were purged in the times of the [[Rangdan Xenocides|Rangdan Wars]] they participated in.
*In '''The Wolftime''', which is set during the [[Indomitus Crusade]], two Adeptus Custodes are discussing the Space Wolves' resistance to their new [[Primaris Marine]] reinforcements. During the discussion, one of them, Hastius Vychellan, notes that, if [[Roboute Guilliman]] turned on the Emperor, the Space Wolves would be among his first opponents, as the Custodes' history with the Eleventh Legion demonstrates. The other, Maldovar Colquan, notes that this shared history is an example of how loyalty to the Emperor can be corrupted by lies and manipulation. It's quite vague, but the implication is obvious: someone manipulated the XI Legion into turning traitor without them realising it, and the Space Wolves (and likely the Custodes as well) went after them for it. The book doesn't say who manipulated them, but since Malcador mentions in ''The Chamber at the End of Memory'' that the lost Legions' Marines were spared and re-used after their deletion, but the Primarchs weren't, it's possible it was the XI Primarch.

=== Name of one of the missing Primarchs ===
*In '''The Last Council''', [[Horus]] (who had been outraged by the erasure of his brothers from Imperial records) struggles to mutter the name of one of the lost Primarchs while Malcador is using his psyker powers to seize his nerves so as to prevent him from saying it. '''Horus managed to say"M-Mal...al..."''', which pissed Malcador off to the point that it required Alpharius and the Khan to convince Malcador not to kill him outright. Obviously people looking for connections immediately found one in [[Malal]], the fact that hearing the name made Malcador remember something that stirred up a spiteful hate (Malal's primary emotional aspect), and the fact that Malal's favourite/sacred number is 11 (the number for one of the missing Legions, and the Roman numeral for "2" can be seen as two "1's,") there may be some circumstantial connection to the Anti-Chaos Chaos God (ignoring the fact that copyright caused GW to change Malal's name to Malice).

(50% Horus was just trying to say “Malcador” 50% Game's workshop is trolling us)

=== II Primarch ===
*The 2nd Primarch was the third Primarch rediscovered. After Leman Russ, but before Ferrus Manus.
*'''Fulgrim: The Palatine Phoenix''' mentions that the 2nd Legion's "normally contemplative", "quiet" and "humorless" Primarch had accused Fulgrim of arrogance for boasting he would bring a world under compliance with only eight total Astartes (& that Fulgrim considered the remark high hypocrisy, even bringing to mind the old adage of pots and kettles), which means that at least one missing Primarch was found early enough to have some kind of interaction with his brothers and make a contribution to the Great Crusade (being 3rd in line after Horus and Russ, actually). Considering how recent the encounter had apparently happened, and how Fulgrim refers to the Primarch as if he is still around, it appears that he was still very much active and un-purged at the time of the novel's events, although Fulgrim does not refer to him or his Legion by name (referring to him only as the "master of the Second" and "his brother").
*In '''Fabius Bile: Clonelord''', Flavius Alkenex mentions that Fulgrim once described one of the two (likely the 2nd since the 11th was almost last to be recovered) having made a pilgrimage to the Attila System of Ultima Segmentum to make an archaeological expedition inside the [[Necrons|Ymga Monolith]] for [[C'tan|unknown]] [[Heretek|reasons]] during the earliest days of the Great Crusade.

=== XI Primarch ===
*The 11th Primarch was nineteenth primarch rediscovered. After Corax, but before Alpharius Omegon.
*In '''The First Heretic''', when Argel Tal and the other Word Bearers are in the Emperor's gene-labs, they find the 11th's gestation pod. It is mentioned that the 11th was still "innocent and pure" prior to the Primarchs being scattered, although this was a vision given to the Word Bearers by a demon so take it with a grain of salt.
*In the 9th Edition of the Adeptus Custodes Codex, it is mentioned that the Dungeons and Vaults of the Imperial Palace contained many taboo and esoteric items and entities with Subject XI listed as one of them. Whether it's actually one of the Lost or a coincidence is an neverending debate.

=== The Lost Legions ===
*The Regimental Standard article '''Field Dressing a Lasgun Wound''' makes reference to the II and XI legions taking part in the Rangdan Xenocides, but cuts off before their names are given (though given the amount of whitespace between the word "the" and the end of the page, this would suggest at least one of them had a particularly long word in their name). Given it references the rank of "Warmaster", it means this was during the tail end of the war.
*'''The First Heretic''' specifies that the missing Legions were purged at least 43 years before the Drop Site Massacre, so we can conclude that neither one took part in the Horus Heresy. At the same time, members of the Word Bearers Seventh Company travelling through time with Ingethel the Ascended reveal rumors that the surviving members of the lost Legions were folded into the Ultramarines (their Chaplain thinks the rumor is a load of grox-shit, but their Captain does note that the Ultramarines are on record as receiving an increase in troops; however it should be noted that Ingethel is a Daemon Princess, and could easily have been bullshitting herself).
*In '''The Chamber at the End of Memory''', Malcador stated that when both the Primarchs were purged, it left their legions leaderless. Indicating that the the II and XI legions were around when both Primarchs did the thing. And that Dorn and Guilliman had spoken up to convince him that just purging the two lost legions completely would be a waste of good soldiers. Instead, Dorn and Guilliman created the plan to wipe the Legions' memories, and have them put to use elsewhere. While it is not actually said where they wound up, beyond Malcador saying that he ensured they were "attuned to new circumstances", it is possible that Dorn and Guilliman had the Marines integrated into their own legions. If true, this may support the fanon explanation of the [[Rainbow Warriors]] and [[Valedictors]] existence.
*In '''Fear To Tread''', Sanguinius admits to Horus that he had not told the Emperor about the Red Thirst because he feared that the Emperor would purge the Blood Angels in the same way as the missing Legions, indicating that some form of gene-seed flaw caused at least one of the Legions to be purged.
*'''Visions of Heresy - Book One''' has a pictographic list of all the original legions. Interestingly, the II Legion pict-capture is labeled "-ERROR #CDIV- file not found", while the XI Legion pict-capture is labeled "-CENSORED- by Imperial decree". This seems to indicate that the XI Legion was merely censored, while the records of the II Legion were wiped entirely. ‘Error #CDIV’ is a play on Error 404 using Roman Numerals.

=== Known Timeline ===
*'''792.M30''', the Primarchs were created . The 11th is still "innocent and pure". The Primarchs are scattered.
*'''798.M30''', The Great Crusade began.
*The 2nd Primarch is found and reunited. He is the 3rd Primarch found, after Horus and Russ.
*Sometime during the early years of the Great Crusade, the 2nd Primarch leads an expedition to the Ymga Monolith in the Attila System of the Ultima Segmentum.
*After the discovery of Guilliman, the (then) 8 found Primarchs all met up. The 2nd accused Fulgrim of hubris. Fulgrim feels the 2nd was guilty of the same and called him out on hypocrisy.
*Magnus is found and all (then) 9 found Primarchs meet up.
*Around the time Lion El Johnson (11th to be found) was discovered, the two lost Primarchs had not yet done whatever made them get un-personed.
*'''Between the 890s.M30 - 930s.M30''', both the 2nd and 11th Legions were deployed along with the Solar Auxillia to the Rangdan Xenocides. This is the last recorded action of either Legion. ''Something'' happened to them during this war. An Alpharius (who may or may not be THE Alpharius) met Lion and offered to manage the mess here in his stead. Clearly any non-Primarch person can just march in to meet Lion and ask to take away his job!
*'''approx. 898.M30''' Corax, the 18th Primarch discovered, is found "around a century" after the start of the Great Crusade.
*'''Between 898.M30 - 963.M30''', the 11th Primarch is discovered. At some point he is reunited with his legion.
*The information of the lost Primarchs and their Legions is wiped, leaving Alpharius as the only non-lost Primarch to not see all others at least once (if the Rangda's Alpharius is someone else entirely) .
*'''981.M30''' Alpharius Omegon is discovered and (or at least) given leadership of the XX Legion (the at least is because Horus found him/them first and took a while to tell others this).
*'''Between 981.M30 - 000.M31''' Horus confronts Malcador about the destruction of the lost Primarch's statues in the Reliquary. Attempts to say one of their names out of spite for Malcador, is force choked and can only get out an approximation of "Malal."
*'''000.M31''', Magnus mentions its the first time since [REDACTED] '''9''' Primarchs have met up in one place. Its likely that Magnus wanted to say something like "Since the 2nd was with us.".

=== Other Info ===
Lion El'Jonson wouldn't lead the fight against the Rangdan xenos until 890s.M30, and not until the 6th year of his involvement did the title of "Warmaster" get thrown around. Adding this to the document in "Field Dressing a Lasgun Wound", means that the 11th Legion's participation in the Rangdan Xenocides didn't happen until at least 8 years after Lion El'Jonson took the helm. The Xenocide would end by 930s.M30, meaning the 11th only participated in the war for a possible 32 to 42 years. The Horus Heresy didn't begin until 005.M31, and the 2nd and 11th had been expunged and condemned 43 years before the Dropsite Massacre which occurred at 006.M31, disproving the dates 965.M30 & 969.M30 as being the period where they were exterminated by the Space Wolves. By the time the Rangdan Xenocides ended, there would have been a possible 23 to 33 year gap between 930s.M30, the end of the Xenocides, and 963.M30 for them to have committed whatever atrocity called for damnatio memoriae, assuming it didn't occur during the Xenocides.

Considering that the 2nd was around for at least a century with no issues before the 11th showed up and they both got expunged three decades after the end of the Rangdan Xenocide, it's a strong possibility that [[that guy|the 11th was the ring leader of the two & dragged the 2nd Primarch down with him]].

Out of universe, [[Rick Priestley]] admitted that the unknown legions were supposed to be a reference to the three Roman legions wiped out in the [[Wikipedia: Battle of the Teutoburg Forest| Battle of the Teutoburg Forest]], whose numbers were never reused after they were slain to a man by Germanic barbarians as well as add an air of mystery and strangeness to the setting, that it had been so long since the primarchs and their full legion were around that people had entirely forgot about them .Nowadays, it doesn't even really let people do much with homebrew fluff since the setting has developed in such a way that it's almost impossible for someone to connect a homebrew chapter to the missing primarchs without getting laughed out of their [[Local Game Store]]. If you play in the privacy of your own home, however, there's nothing stopping you and your friends from nailing it down and having your Self-Insert Primarchs show up and give the Imperium a Noblebright/even GRIMDARKER (Delete as appropriate) kick in the ass.

It seems likely, given the frequent references to betrayal relating to these two Primarchs, that the Lost Primarchs did something rebellion-related or perhaps [[Imperium Secundus|tried to carve out their own empires]]. Perhaps they realized that there could be peaceful coexistance with the [[Xenos]] (as was the case of the [[Interex]]), and ended up thinking the Imperium was Evil. Either way, they did something massively damaging (or nearly pulled something off) that would have crippled the Imperium for its myriad enemies to finish off. A possible hint at the cause of their descent is mentioned in ''Extermination'' in the section regarding the Alpha Legion of all groups. Three incidents, all [REDACTED] in name, tell us that one Legion had a problematic source for its recruitment. Specifically, a [[Heresy|''potentially tainted'']] source. Although not said in sequential order, one Legion was deemed to have failed the qualification to be a Legion since it did not have enough marines to be combat effective. Lastly, a place called "Labryk Polaris" and another redacted incident point at attempts to replicate or even supersede the Emperor's gene-craft. Combining all of these cases, it's clear that one Legion had severe issues with their gene seed and their primary recruitment world. This led to said Legion failing the rudimentary testing regiment that all legions undergo. From there, the Primarch in question must have performed a few [[Daemonculaba|experiments in how to create more marines]]. Whatever the result, the Emperor clearly did [[*BLAM*|not like it.]]

It should further be noted that, in the 42nd Millennium, when asked why there were 11 symbolic chairs rather than 9 for the Primarchs, Guilliman replies something along the lines of "Of the 20, two failed and half the rest turned on my father", explicitly distinguishing this "failure" from heresy/treason, hence the reasoning in keeping ceremonial seating for them out of honor. Of the 20 Primarch plinths on Terra, 9 were destroyed but 2 were covered up. So it might be that they weren't traitors, but went '''TOO FAR'''(given that this is the Imperium of Man, the height of human Grimdark, that is not a good thing), perhaps by, for example, becoming a Chaos-fighting Chaos God (if true, It's likely that Malal would see it as the ''Imperium'' having betrayed ''him,'' explaining why he later decided to take the [[Sons of Malice]] under his wing). However, the memories of all the Primarchs regarding the two abolished legions were altered by Malcador, thus making Guilliman's input unreliable.

=== Where Are The Lost Legions Now? ===

''Note: This assumes that the theory of the Imperial Fists and Ultramarines absorbing the II and XI Legions is correct.''

Assuming that the survivors of the II and XI legions were mind-wiped and assimilated into the Imperial Fists and Ultramarines in ''The Chamber at the End of Memory'' (despite common misconceptions online, anyone who actually read the story would know that it does ''not'' confirm this, even if it's a possibility), it raises the question of where, if anywhere, the descendants of the two legions are now. Given that the Ultramarines are the progenitors of the majority of Space Marine chapters in the galaxy, that leaves a lot of options. Even having the founder of the chapter appear in the [[Horus Heresy]] series is no guarantee that the chapter isn't descended from one of the lost legions, since the members of the chapter wouldn’t even know themselves. By the end of the Horus Heresy the only person who knew which marines were and weren't descended from the Lost Legions would be Rogal Dorn, and it looks like he took the secret to...wherever he went. As of ''Dark Imperium'', the one person who knows even part of the contents of the gene-seeds for these legions is [[Belisarius Cawl]], who most likely used what samples he had of these gene-seeds (as well as un-chaosified gene-seeds of the other eight) to raise additional [[Primaris Marines|super-space marines]] despite Guilliman's insistence to not entertain such notions. As with the original legions, these new marines and the chapters they eventually formed were equally dispersed among the official gene-lineages with no evidence of their true heritage being apparent.

The obvious place to start looking for successor chapters of the lost legions is any chapter that seems to deviate a bit too far from the behavior of their supposed primarch and First Founding chapter. The [[Mortifactors]] and [[Doom Eagles]] are two such candidates, given that they don’t behave anything like [[Roboute Guilliman]] and the Ultramarines. Especially given that the II Primarch was described by [[Fulgrim]] as “normally contemplative”, “quiet”, and “humorless”. It would also explain why the [[Soul Drinkers]] believed themselves to be descendants of the Imperial Fists despite later being shown to not have Dorn’s geneseed, despite having a weapon gene-coded to the Soul Drinkers. The fact that the Soul Drinkers rejected the authority of the [[High Lords of Terra]] and fought for the common good of humanity rather than the Imperium itself also fits well with fan theories of one of the lost primarchs being a humanitarian who either believed coexistence with xenos was possible or rejected the Imperium for being just another tyrannical regime and unlike Jaghatai couldn't take the hypocrisy for the common good in the face of survival necessities against Chaos.

Then, of course, there is the elephant in the room, the red-headed stepchild of the Imperial Fists, [[Sigismund]] and the [[Black Templars]]. The Black Templars are about as un-Imperial Fist-like as it is possible to be, Imperial Fists being siege specialists who tend towards stoicism and prefer to dig in and defend until the last man, whereas the Black Templars are hyper-aggressive, always crusading, rarely if ever man any fortifications (they don't even have a homeworld, just maintaining a chapter keep on every world they liberate), and are known for their hatred of psykers and extreme piousness, something that is not really seen in the other Imperial Fist descendants. Though Dorn has been shown to have quite the well of rage himself. And, of course, [https://youtu.be/0Vh_N8CpcL0?t=1207 they do not have "fist" in their name]. A lot of attention is paid on Sigismund obsessive desire for Dorn's paternal favor, and there is a brief moment of attention paid to the fact that Sigismund offered to personally tear down the statues of the II and XI primarchs on Terra, sayng they are traitors and did not deserve to be remembered. Dramatic irony perhaps? There's also parallels to Sigismund's IRL namesake, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigismund,_Holy_Roman_Emperor#King_of_Hungary| whose father died when he was young, was basically adopted by King Louis the Great of Hungary and Poland, and ended up becoming king of Hungary]. Dorn even says in a moment of anger that Sigismund is “not his son, and never will be”. Regrettable statement made in a moment of anger? Or a subconscious Freudian slip?

Finally, the retconned OG first founding [[Rainbow Warriors]] and [[Valedictors]] are theorized to be lost legion loyalists too.

However, it should be noted that a Chapter's culture, tactics, and temperament aren't necessarily determined by ancestry. Deviations might just be a sign of a Chapter's circumstances affecting its internal culture and structure (e.g. the [[Red Scorpions]]' genetic purity leading to even more extreme xenophobia and intolerance of corruption than usual, and their Apothecaries being given authority than in most Chapters), or of a homeworld culture displacing that of the Chapter's founders (something that is discussed when [[Uriel Ventris]] fights alongside the [[Mortifactors]] in one of the Ultramarines novels). Even heritable traits might be lost, gained, become exaggerated, or otherwise change over time, due to mutation or [[Cursed Founding|genetic tampering]]. Applying Occam's Razor would lead one to conclude that most of the weirder Chapters' origins are probably [[Ultramarines|quite]] [[Imperial Fists|boring]], too, since Lost Legion heritage raises just as many questions as it answers, if not more.

==Rules on the Tabletop==
Thanks to Forge World, not only do we have models for the Primarchs, but rules as well. As you can guess, they are ungodly death machines who can easily win their points back and more. That's not to say they're invincible, though; they can still be killed if you screw up badly enough. Do be sure to see [[Primarchs in 8th Edition]] and the google drive link on that page as well, should you want to play 30k using the modern rule set. All currently released Primarchs have the following statlines:
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" align="left" class="wikitable sortable"
! || WS || BS || S || T || W || I || A || Ld || Sv || Invul || ML || Points
|-
| '''[[Horus]]''' || 8 || 5 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 5+1 || 10 || 2+ || 3++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 500
|-
| '''[[Angron]]''' || 9 || 5 || 7 || 6 || 5 || 7 || 6(10)|| 10 || 3+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 400
|-
| '''[[Fulgrim]]''' || 8 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 8 || 5 || 10 || 2+ || 5++/3++ in CC || data-sort-value=0 | || 380
|-
| '''[[Mortarion]]''' || 7 || 5 || 6 || 7 || 7 || 5 || 5 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 425
|-
| '''[[Ferrus Manus]]''' || 7 || 6 || 7 || 7 || 6 || 5 || 4+1 || 10 || 2+ || 3++ || data-sort-value=0 | || data-sort-value=455 | 455 or steal his hammer for 415
|-
| '''[[Konrad Curze]]''' || 8 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 5+1 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 435
|-
| '''[[Vulkan]]''' || 7 || 5 || 7 || 7 || 6 || 5 || 4 || 10 || 2+ || 3++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 425
|-
| '''[[Lorgar]]''' || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 5 || 6 || 4+1 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=2.5 | 2 or 3 || data-sort-value=375 | 375 or Chaosify him for 450
|-
| '''[[Perturabo]]''' || 8 || 6 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 5 || 4 || 10 || 2+ || 3++ || data-sort-value=0 | || data-sort-value=455 | 455 or give him Forgebreaker for 490
|-
| '''[[Rogal Dorn]]''' || 8 || 5 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 5 || 4 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 385
|-
| '''[[Corvus Corax]]''' || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6/5 || 7 || 6/5 || 10 || 2+/3+ || 5++ || data-sort-value=0 | || data-sort-value=450 | 450 or fuck him over for 350
|-
| '''[[Alpharius]]''' || 7 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 5 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || data-sort-value=415 | 415''.... or is it?''
|-
| '''[[Roboute Guilliman]]''' || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 4+1 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 400
|-
| '''[[Roboute Guilliman]] (40k, 7e)''' || 9 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 10 || 2+ || 3++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 350
|-
| '''[[Magnus the Red]]''' || 7 || 5 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 4 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || 5 || 495 or charge up for 670
|-
| '''[[Magnus the Red]] (Daemon, 40k 7e)''' || 7 || 7 || 8 || 7 || 7 || 7 || 6 || 10 || 4+ || 4++ || 5 || 650
|-
| '''[[Leman Russ]]''' || 9 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 6 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 455
|-
| '''[[Jaghatai Khan]]''' || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 8 || 6+1 || 10 || 2+ || 5++/3++ in CC || data-sort-value=0 | || 385 or give him a bike for 460
|-
| '''[[Lion El'Jonson]]''' || 8 || 5 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 5(7) || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 460
|-
| '''[[Sanguinius]]''' || 9 || 5 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 6 || 10 || 2+|| 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 485
|}<br style="clear: both; height: 0px;" /><br>
*'''Special Rules (not counting the ones specific for each Primarch)'''
**''Primarch''
***''Adamantium Will''
***''Independent Character''
***''Eternal Warrior''
***''Fear''
***''Fleet''
***''Fearless''
***''It Will Not Die''
***''Master of the Legion''
***''Precision Shots''
***''Precision Strikes''
**''Sire of the [Legion]''

As of 8th edition (special rules not included):
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" align="left" class="wikitable sortable"
! || M || WS || BS || S || T || W || A || Ld || Sv || Points/Power level
|-
| '''[[Roboute Guilliman]]''' || 8" || 2+ || 2+ || 6 || 6 || 9 || 6 || 10 || 2+/3++|| 360/18||data-sort-value=0 |
|-
| '''[[Magnus the Red]]''' || 16 || 2+ || 2+ || 8 || 7 || 18 || 7 || 10 || 3+/4++ || 445/21||data-sort-value=0 |
|-
| '''[[Mortarion]]''' || 12 || 2+ || 2+ || 8 || 7 || 18 || 6 || 10 || 3+/4++ || 470/24|| data-sort-value= 0 |
|}<br style="clear: both; height: 0px;" /><br>

Each of them have one or two close-combat weapons, all of which are AP2 or 1, backed by some decent gun to lay some dakka down while they run to the glorious melee. Their Primarch rule acts like a big bundle of USRs wrapped up together in one package, and as ICs they can join squads as well (though most of the Primarchs are better run solo). Each of them have a page worth of special rules and unique wargear, both of which can be stupidly powerful to the point of broken, but that's OK since even the cheapest of the Primarchs costs no less than 350 points and eats an extremely valuable Lord of War slot that might otherwise be spent on a [[Thunderhawk]] or a [[Fellblade]].

===Pimpin Rides===
Also worth mentioning, that Perturabo and Rogal Dorn are special enough to get their own personal special/unique vehicle, other primarchs may get their own vehicles in the future (who knows?). However, rules dictate that neither vehicle can be taken in games under 3000 points. Meaning you can only use it in 3000+ matches.

*'''Perturabo''' gets to ride in ''The Tormentor'', a Shadowsword with the Command Tank upgrade. Not only that, but Perturabo is so awesome, he managed to somehow give it 15 troop capacity, meaning it can take 12 Power Armoured dudes + himself, or 6 Terminators for his bodyguard. But, it doesn't stop there! It also has a single Void Shield! It costs 25pts more than a normal Shadowsword with the same upgrades, but following FAQs it also has BS4, free sponsons, and gains Tank Hunters/Monster Hunters any time it fires all its guns at one target.
*'''Rogal Dorn,''' on the other hand, gets a customised Thunderhawk Gunship, the ''Ætos Dios''. This ship has Turbo Laser as standard, plus a single Void Shield to protect it, it also has It Will Not Die so can regenerate some of its hull points and finally it ALSO has a 4+ invulnerable save against missiles, all on top of being a flyer which means you can only snap-shot at it, all for the bargain cost of 600 points - which is actually 175 points CHEAPER than a normal Legion Thunderhawk with a Turbo-Laser, though you obviously still have to pay for Dorn.
*'''Jaghatai Khan''' gets his own bitching jetbike: the Sojutsu Pattern Voidbike. It has two master crafted heavy bolters, ups his toughness to 7 and lets him do d3 hammer of wrath attacks, strangely enough though, it also costs him -1I.

==Douchebagginess==
It is well known that most of the primarchs were douchebags to varying degrees.

From least to most douchebag. Note, the scale really drops off into [[dick|'''fucking''' douchebag]] after Jaghatai, and straight-up villain after Fulgrim and '''FUCKING CUNT''' after Lorgar. Also, depending on what they did, the Lost Primarchs may be even worse than all actions depicted here. Generally speaking, we'll be grading these guys on their personalities, treatment of their legion and others, and their motives and reasons for their actions. Also, we'll be adding more weight to their actions during the Great Crusade rather than the Heresy, not many Primarchs had a clear head during the Age of Darkness. Keep in mind that, as charismatic and badass as they may be, the Primarchs are responsible for a level of warmongering and genocide that would appall even the worst of Earth's dictators. How they feel about these atrocities, and why they did it (is it grim necessity, standard Imperial procedure or baseless sadism?) is what separates the [[Sanguinius|"good"]] from the [[Konrad Curze|"bad"]].

# '''The Nice Guys'''
## '''Vulkan''' - The least douchebaggy primarch by far. Vulkan routinely put the lives of him and his men on the line for the sake of the Imperial citizens. Vulkan would throw himself to the defence of a no name human tribe with the same ferocity and zeal as he would Terra itself. A total bro. Also was the largest, strongest Primarch (Ferrus' metal arms were determined as cheating, though according to the Khan, Mortarion was as strong or stronger) and held back in sparring for fear of hurting his brothers. His only real fault was that, despite his strong distaste for terror weapons, he had a thing for setting people on fire. The only times he was an asshole were when he forgot who he was due to Curze's torture driving him mad. Of course, he's still a Primarch and a '''fiery''' general, and he ''will'' leave you a pile of ash if you end up on his shitlist.
## '''Sanguinius''' - Despite some... [[Red Thirst|unorthodox tendencies]], he is reported as being the most charismatic of the Primarchs, perhaps second only to Horus. He is particularly noteworthy for how much he improved his legion. The Blood Angels before his arrival were so bloodthirsty and terrifying that even other Astartes looked askance at them. But Sanguinius took these butcherous vampires and taught them humility and nobility, and to put the well-being of humanity above any personal glory. They actually managed such a total 180 that they were, and still are, regarded as one of the most heroic, resplendent legions out of all of them. A pretty all-round nice guy, he was so naturally charming that he actually managed to get ''Jaghatai Khan'' of all people to laugh at a joke of his. He was also exceedingly humble despite being such a giga-chad, and often played the role of peacemaker between his more cantankerous brothers. He can lapse at times however, as seen in his treatment of Curze by denying him a chance of changing his fate & earning forgiveness, and he regrettably had to kill many of his Red-Thirsted men when they got too batshit even for him. Like Vulkan though, he can still be a ferocious force if riled up, he once beat the shit out of guy for daring to imply the Signus III campaign was a trap (it was, but he had no reason to suspect Horus at that point). Sanguinius's temper was actually such that Leman Russ cited the Angel as one of two Primarchs he didn't know if he could beat. Basically if you pissed him off, he turned into the Hulk.
## '''Magnus the Red''' - For his faults, Magnus was one of the nicest Primarchs right up there with Vulkan and Sanguinius. Before the whole Prospero thing, this guy's MO was all about the advancement of humanity: always trying the diplomatic approach to preserve what could be preserved, using shock and awe tactics to limit damage when fighting, happily taking remembrancers along his legion (Although all remembrancers amongst the fellowship were psykers to some degree). Magnus was a friendly and open-minded idealist, which makes it all the more tragic when he gets deceived, framed, backstabbed and then coaxed into selling his soul to the [[Tzeentch|Cuttlefish of Keikaku]]. He is easily the most sympathetic of the traitors, considering he only joined them after being backed into a corner; had Jaghatai been at his side during and after Nikaea things might have turned out differently. He was also the only traitor Primarch who actually cared about his men, even after ascending to daemonhood. The novel ''Deathfire'' also ups his bro-ness quite a bit, as he proved himself the only traitor-aligned Primarch to ''sincerely'' do something very helpful for one of his loyalist brothers after the Horus Heresy was already in full swing. This "special favour" is made all the more striking given how it took place ''after'' Magnus had his adoptive homeworld burned out from under him. Perhaps his skin was red not only because of mutation, but because it also showed [[Lovedagger|the greatness of his heart]]? On the other hand, this was done by one of the fragments of Magnus that embodied his love for his gene-sons and fellow Primarchs (which ultimately self-destructed to keep the Crimson King from absorbing its power), so any hope that he kept that good heart died after Ahriman's failure at his Second Rubric on Prospero and when the Emperor offered him a chance to redeem himself as the Primarch of the nascent Grey Knights he threw it away. While his soul was still in one piece, Magnus's main character flaw was his arrogance. As in, this guy's ego had only two contenders in all the galaxy; the Emperor Himself, and Lion El'Jonson. Maybe Eldrad too. While he wasn't an in-your-face type like Fulgrim, Magnus and his Legion were still entirely convinced that they knew the Warp better than anyone else, which led to them disregarding many warnings and red flags that could've been avoided, leading almost directly to their awful, [[Rubric Marines|awful]] fates. It also caused him to have a complete blind spot where his own insufferability was concerned, as he genuinely believed himself to be the most intelligent of his brothers. This Sheldon Cooper-esque attitude caused many of the other Primarchs represented at the Council of Nikaea to wish Magnus personally rebuked despite their support of the Libraius initiative itself. When he learned of this, it appeared to have caught him completely off guard, and dismayed him tremendously. Also, Magnus wasn't ENTIRELY innocent as he had implanted sleeper agents and spies throughout the Imperium, ruining the lives of those brainwashed while betraying the trust of his brothers. Why he did this isn't exactly clear (it's very unlikely to be Chaos related) though it's most likely an attempt to obtain information and records his brother might otherwise destroy. Regardless however, his more questionable traits appeared not to have ever been the result of malice, but were instead a byproduct of his solipsism and thoughtlessness.
## '''Corax''' - Even after being raised under the tyranny of the Kiavahrans, he refused to take after their tyrannous ways, wanted to make things right, and asked the Emperor to end the civil war he started while liberating his homeworld of Lycaeus. Seeing the ruthless tendencies the Terran members of his legion had, he quietly shipped them way the fuck away from the rest of the Great Crusade to go fight xenos or had them all slaughtered during the Battle of Gate 42. He was also one of very few primarchs to readily admit his own mistakes, which were numerous and sometimes tragic. Developed a brutal habit of folding Chaos Space Marines into pretzels when shapeshifting into a tangible shadow during his hunt against his Daemon brothers Post-Heresy but left the slaves alone.
## '''Jaghatai Khan''' - Despite him being modeled after [[Genghis motherfucking Khan|the guy who holds the high score on raping and pillaging]], Jaghatai was actually very reasonable and [[Kharn|a pretty fun guy to be around]]. His main hobbies included [[Dark Eldar|raiding and jetbikes]], but he had an appreciation for [[Blood Angels|the fine arts]] as well. He was very good friends with Magnus and very pro-psyker. However he also kept his distance from pretty much everyone else, save Horus, not wanting to deal with other people's bullshit, unless they were really worth the effort - as the result very few people knew and trusted him (especially once [[Horus|most]] [[Magnus the Red|of]] his only bros turned traitor). He seemed to have something of a "live and let live" type philosophy, as after he conquered his home planet, he just kinda fucked off back to the Steppes with a warning to everyone not to piss him off too much. While the Khan didn't seem to care too much about the whole Great Crusade thing and spent most of his time doing his own thing, he never turned his back on the Imperium and sincerely believed in the idea of an Empire in the starry skies. And this was despite being the one of the few Primarchs to understand how bunked the whole [[Imperial Truth]] secular atheist propaganda really was (remember that the Chogorisian had Shamans, who also are the ones who select the White Scars' Chapter Master through mysterious initiatic trials); and of the Emperor himself he declared that he was "neither a monster nor a simpleton", mostly because he knew that [[Chaos]] was far worse (of course). So, the Emperor knew all along that the Khagan had his priorities right and would therefore not betray him, even when Malcador brought up the topic; and this was in spite of the personal relationship of father and son being explicitly awkward.
# '''The Competent Asshole Control Freak (Yes Guilliman needs his own category)'''
## '''Guilliman''' - R.G. is a jerk with a (or rather two) heart(s) of gold or a nice guy with a nasty mean streak, depending on how you look at him. Some people might say this dude was a statesman in the same vein as Augustus Caesar- he was great at building states and making life generally better for people, but only if you ignore the deported and murdered people who didn't agree 100% with the new regime. For somebody more reasonable, Guilliman was perhaps one of the most responsible and human among his brothers. He cared about the common man, personally planned post-war reconstruction and political integration into the Imperium of the planets he conquered and (unofficially) tolerated moderate presence of religion in Ultramar. But for sure the guy had a big ego, as he constantly spoke and behaved like he knew what was best for everyone, at least until proven wrong (multiple times). And you better not get on his shit list, although to be fair he was mostly a complete jerk with people he considers being [[Konrad Curze|psycho]] [[Angron|mass murderers]] with [[Perturabo|no respect for their own sons]] or [[Alpharius|civilian populations]]. And despite what [[Matt Ward|some people]] would have you believe, he knew he couldn't plan for every situation and expected people to use their own judgment rather than blindly follow his [[Codex Astartes|codex]]. Like Jaghatai Khan, we know Guilliman recognized that the Emperor was a horrible father (likely since he's one of the few among his brothers to have had actual decent adoptive parents) and that the ideals the Emperor espoused were far more important than the Emperor himself ever was, and after learning that his whole [[Imperium Secundus]] plan was based on bad assumptions he's been beating himself up about it all the way into the 42nd millennium. While he's grown more cynical since his revival and subsequent realization of how badly the Imperium had devolved in his absence, he has refused to abandon his noble ideals or his faith in humanity as a whole and has privately considered the possibility that in retrospect he had been overly dismissive of Lorgar's ideas about the Emperor's divinity. He also seems to be a bit more irritable than he used to be, but given [[Great Rift|his]] [[Age of the Dark Imperium|current]] situation it would be more surprising if that wasn't the case. Also, may have actually imprisoned [[Cypher]] and the Fallen so that the Emperor wouldn't discover [[Assholetep|who broke Lion El'Jonson's best sword]], ultimately causing him to die in battle in Emprah's mini-me's own pseudo Horus Heresy. Additionally, he has developed a legitimately unprecedented trait for a Primarch: that of sufficient self-awareness to not just recognize, but actually '''LEARN''' from his mistakes, such as during the Hexarchy coup attempt or not trying to secure Ultramar à la Imperium Secundus during the Terran Crusade.
# '''The Douches'''
## '''Horus''' - Pre-Heresy he was a surprisingly chill dude, except if you crossed his sensibilities. Was essentially flat-out stated to have been the most charismatic of his brothers, with the possible exception of Sanguinius. Unlike Sanguinius however, Horus's charisma was something he had deliberately cultivated rather than being a natural trait of his, which speaks volumes of his personality. He was also one of very few Primarchs who made a deliberate effort to ''not'' leave the planets he conquered as smoldering ruins, and had a personal philosophy that those the Imperium conquered "should be left better than we found them." Just to give you an idea of his character in the halcyon days, Horus ''killed Sanguinius'' but retains enough anti-douche credit to rank as the ''least'' douchey of The Douches. He was ''that'' nice before the Heresy. In fact were it not for the Heresy he would probably be in third place after Vulkan and Sanguinius. Got along well with both regular people and nearly all his brothers (Corax was seemingly the only Primarch who disliked him), but he gradually started treating some of them like shit after becoming Warmaster and resented the idea that he and his brothers would not be able to rule over the planets that they had conquered. His insecurities may have also made him vulnerable to the Dark Gods' lies when he received a vision of the Imperium 10,000 years into the future where the Emperor was worshiped as a god, he and many of his brothers were forgotten, and everything was Grimdark--a future that, unbeknownst to him, he would be directly responsible for creating specifically as a result of his own attempts to avert it. The whole [[Heresy]] thing just sort-of kills his position on the list. After going full Chaos, he rapidly became a much, much bigger dick.
## '''Rogal Dorn''' - Although one hell of a masochist, and at times thick-headed, he did see the idea behind the Imperium, and actually agreed with it. Honest and dependable, while Rogal didn't make for interesting conversation, he would always do his job without complaint. Had as much empathy and subtlety as one of his fortresses and ended up hurting a lot of people (mostly emotionally, but sometimes physically too) with his over-the-top brutal honesty. The prime example was when he betrayed Fulgrim's trust after they had a discussion regarding Konrad's visions, and provoked Curze into almost killing him. However, he could occasionally get quite philosophical, and is perhaps the only Primarch to admit that his own nature and power unsettled him.
## '''Leman Russ''' - Nowhere near as much of a dick as butthurt Magnus fanboys would have you believe. He was indeed savage and brutal, but ultimately always keeping the larger goal of betterment of humanity in sight and having good reasons for that myopia. Prone to picking fights with his brothers and destroyed Prospero under questionable circumstances. That said, he used the culture of his homeworld to give his Legion control over its savagery, and made the Space Wolves focus on protecting people from monsters instead of just butchering civilians. He did use terror tactics, mass killings, and the destruction of knowledge, but he did so out of loyalty to humanity and the Emperor, not just because he felt like it. Bottom line: Russ certainly had his fair share of flaws, but as belligerent and myopic as he could be he always tried to make the galaxy safe for humanity in the longer run. He was also capable of admitting to mistakes, which was uncommon amongst the Primarchs. During his fight with the Lion for instance, he started the brawl with the Lion over perceived kill stealing but after a while it dawned on him what an ass he was being, and he stopped fighting and burst out laughing at his own stupidity. He was ''awfully'' stubborn however, and as such this sort of thing didn't happen often.
## '''Ferrus Manus''' - A big dude with a penchant for bursts of choleric anger. Between his resting bitch face and his Social Darwinist ideals, he seems at first glance to be a natural candidate for a traitor. However, his honesty and loyalty to the Emperor mean he certainly wasn't as bad as Perturabo or Mortarion, and he did sincerely believe that weakness would cause the Imperium to collapse. He was... really a pain to deal with, however. Unlike, let's say, Dorn, who was only really mean when you made it on his shitlist, Ferrus was only nice to people who made it on his ''friends''list. Anyone else could, as far as he was concerned, either stay out of his way or get introduced to his fists. Most of the Loyalists and even some Traitors (at first) viewed the protection of the innocent as their goal, while Ferrus encouraged tactics that led to massive civilian casualties, and where Primarchs like Curze or Angron took Legions that were bad about mortal deaths and kept up such practices, Manus took a Legion that had tried to minimize mortal deaths and made them worse about it. All this said, he was loyal unto death to the Emperor's ideals and he also understood that his sons' fetish for cybernetics was beyond unhealthy and wanted to help them overcome it. His death ensured that last part would never happen, and indeed made them double down on their hatred of the flesh.
## '''Lion El'Jonson''' - The Lion was complex, to say the least. He had an arrogance that matched Magnus or Horus's worst moments combined with a difficult early life fighting Chaos beasts on Caliban. This "do-or-die" attitude spilled over into his interpersonal skills, hard. Too hard. Put simply, you had one chance with Johnson and if he ever decided you wasted it, then it was over and you went on his shitlist forever. The end result was a Primarch who was aloof and taciturn, whose poor communication skills made him unsuited to lead the Primarchs but whose ego made it impossible for him to accept the seniority of Horus or Russ. At the same time, there was a competitive, spiteful, and self-centered side to the Lion, which led him to execute one of his own Dark Angels over a conflict of authority and nearly kill Russ over an argument about kill-stealing. The Lion's own awe-inspiring presence, which was powerful enough to make Astartes from other legions literally drop to their knees when he crashed unannounced on a war-council aboard the Vengeful Spirit, didn't help his ego either. There's been speculation in-universe and out of it that he wasn't wholly loyal to the Emperor, but it has been made crystal clear in-universe that he personally was 100% loyal to Big E, and that the whole "muh secret traitors" thing is primarily due to a combination of bad luck and the Dark Angels already having a poor reputation. The Lion may also have been the most "douchey" of all the Primarchs who weren't outright evil at some point. For you see, many of the Primarchs had absolutely ginormous egos, but most of those who did also either possessed the people skills to hide it or were so charismatic that it just didn't matter. Fulgrim, Magnus, Guilliman, Alpharius, and especially Horus are notable examples of this tendency. As stated earlier, the Lion easily had one of the largest egos amongst all his brothers, matched perhaps only by Magnus, but since he had virtually no people skills he was unable to hide it very well. This resulted in him being the Primarch who was liked by the fewest of his brothers (he basically only got on with Jaghatai Khan). His ego cast such a long shadow over his achievements and ability to work with others that even though Guilliman considered the title of Warmaster a two-horse race between Horus and the Lion he still didn't include the latter amongst his Dauntless Few (a list that included Ferrus Manus of all people).
## '''Alpharius Omegon''' - Damned if anyone knows. You just can't trust that/those guy(s), which does make him/them a pretty big dick by default. The fallout from some of the Alpha Legion's Crusade-era shenanigans suggests a certain inclination to showing off at the expense of civilian lives, probably due to an enormous inferiority-superiority complex. Still, they rebelled under perhaps the best intentions among all the traitors with Alpharius at least recognising Chaos had to be defeated (we think- it's still ambiguous as to their end goals) Omegon is possibly a bit better, in that he wasn't willing to sacrifice all of mankind to do so (maybe). After Alpharius's probable death by Dorn at Pluto and Omegon taking his mantle to (allegedly) die at Guilliman's hands, the legion debatably turned into a schizophrenic monster, though this is better than what Fulgrim's actions turned his legion into by far. Alpharius himself (maybe) in his own memoirs presents himself as a tactician and combatant worthy of inclusion in the [[Reasonable Marines]], but who in person had a Lion-sized (hah) chip on his shoulder. Problem is that the memoir itself purports to be a lie, so who really knows.
## '''Fulgrim''' - Rather like Horus, Fulgrim was one of the Traitor Primarchs who started out as quite a kind fellow, and even [[Dawww|fondly remembers his foster parents as doing the best they could]]. Initially he was an incredibly idealistic artisan who wanted to help humanity improve to the absolute limits of its potential. He did this primarily by trying to be the best example of humanity he could be, and demanded the same of his sons. To their credit, they succeeded quite splendidly at this for the most part. Unfortunately he had a rather fragile ego which was probably due in large part by the fact that his legion was virtually non-existent when he came to command it. As such, he had the Primarch equivalent of a Napoleon complex due to the head start most of his brothers got on him, and as such could get fairly petulant if he was challenged in a personal way. This led to him ultimately having a somewhat elitist view of himself and his legion, and he could be a bit of a dick when it came to Astartes and mortals who failed to live up to his astronomically high standards, even before his fall. He also can't keep a secret, betraying Konrad Curze's trust and causing him to go nuts on Dorn's face. Other than Horus and Sanguinius, was the only Primarch to really get along with all his brothers (save Jaghatai, but that's his fault. Oh, and Mortarion thought he was a prancing idiot. And Fulgrim considered Russ a dumb hick. And he didn't seem to like the Second very much), and was BFFs with Ferrus Manus, of all people. That is, until he chopped his head off. Rude. Also took pride to the extremity of arrogance, hence his fall to Slaanesh. Interestingly, his bizarre fixation on friendship with Ferrus never left him, constantly cloning him with help of Fabius Bile and trying to win him over his side. Needless to say, he's failed thus far.
# '''The Self-righteous Jerk (Yes Lorgar needs his own category too)'''
## '''Lorgar''' - The dude who brought this whole fucking mess into fruition. If only he had strangled Erebus and Kor Phaeron at the first mention of Chaos. Instead he decided he was going to ruin everything for everybody because his daddy was a NAYtheist and none of the brothers really supported him. He started off as a well-intentioned idealist who sought to use what he knew best to uplift humanity, religion, before the Emperor's actions on Monarchia destroyed his psyche, allowing Erebus and Kor Phaeron to let him know about [[Chaos|the other gods who would appreciate his worship]]. While it's true he shouldn't have been treated so harshly by the Emperor (even Malcador and Guilliman privately said as much), and even though he believed Chaos was necessary for humanity to survive and continue existence, the fact that Chaos & the Horus Heresy caused the 10,000 year old Imperium to become the grimdark, bloody, corpse-littered cesspool we all know and love would normally outweighs all of the slivers of sympathy that he might have had. And yet, there are people far, far worse than him. To be honest, he was one of the nicest primarchs before the destruction of Monarchia, comparable to Magnus before the Burning of Prospero. He tried to befriend everyone and was one of the primarchs that mostly conquered planets by words and faith, instead of by fire and sword and along Dorn and Guilliman, was one of the rarer ones that wouldn't leave conquered worlds as utter shitholes, instead rebuilding them and integrating its population. All this make his downfall even more sad and tragic, and even after his fall, he seemed to be generally concerned about his brother Angron's (of all people) life, which was a primary reason that he was in a hurry transforming him. Also, confrontation with Corax shows that he genuinely cares for his son's lives, putting him above the disgusting fucktards below. Then again, he was completely blasé about the ''horrific'' fates the Forces of Chaos inflicted on people (see the Gal Vorbak for reference), regardless of whether they wanted it or not. Also, he's arguably the only Primarch who is completely unrepentant about his crimes towards the galaxy at large (even Horus acknowledged what a piece of shit he himself had become, and Fulgrim sometimes expressed regret when the pink haze wasn't clouding his mind). In sum, Lorgar is why we can't have [[Noblebright|nice things.]]
# The '''FUCKING CUNTS'''
## '''Mortarion''' - Described by Alpharius as being "bleakness personified", Mortarion rubbed virtually everyone the wrong way. Excluding Eidolon who he actually got along with somehow. And Horus, for whom he acted as de-facto second in command during the Heresy. Terse, grim and blunt, he was downright bigoted against psykers, and resented (or at the very least looked down upon) nearly everyone who he felt had it easier than him. He was also notorious for using chemical and radiological terror weapons and generally not giving a fuck about who got killed by them. In fairness to him however, he and his legion were usually (though not exclusively) deployed to environments so awful that such weapons typically didn't make things much worse. Also his opponents were usually xenos due both to them typically being the only ones who could survive on the planets he got sent to, and the fact that he really liked killing them. He also was at least somewhat justified in his hatred of psykers, as his necromancer foster father and his fellow overlords had all been psykers, and had been horrific in their subjugation of Barbarus's human population. Had he not turned Traitor, he likely would have been somewhere near Lion El'Jonson in terms of overall dickishness; a spiteful lone wolf type who had a habit of nursing grudges, gave very few shits about who or what his legion killed, went primarily on extermination campaigns, and was generally disliked by everyone for being an ass. Over time, he became more and more disgusted with people's acceptance of [[Emperor|tyrants]] and [[Magnus the Red|psykers]], and became much more likely to kill everything in the vicinity of what he considered evil. Over time he also lost what little tolerance he had ever possessed for weak mortals, and decided that the Imperium was being crafted in such a way as to coddle the weak. Not good as far as he was concerned. Interestingly he did care deeply for his own people, which is why he was so driven to take down both monsters and tyrants after witnessing how his foster father oppressed the populace, though he didn't exactly do much, if anything, to show it. Then [[Nurgle]] made him his plague-ridden bitch and Jaghatai fucked him up and humiliated him in the Siege of Terra, at which point he decided to just take his bitterness out on everyone lacking the Plaguefather's "gifts".
## '''Angron''' - Loved killing people and not much else. Most of the casualties within his legion were a result of him being a team-killing psycho because quite frankly he didn't care what he got to kill as long as he got to kill it. That said, Angron at least had an excuse for being such a rampaging dick all the time. The Butcher's Nails had effectively turned him from being a genuinely nice fellow who could empathically relieve the suffering of others by taking it into himself into a half-mindless killing machine, as it actually has not just remapped but ''replaced'' parts of his brain, effectively removing from him any emotions other than pain, hatred, and battle-lust while also destroying his capacity for empathy and compassion, which arguably means he doesn't even have any Moral Agency (that's Philosopher-speak for saying that he can't be held ethically accountable for his actions any more than a toaster can for burning your fingers). One may wonder what sort of guy he would have been without the implants, presumably he'd be more like his pre-retcon White Dwarf version where he was an honourable warrior whose martial valour ended up leading him down Khorne's path (this was very quickly retconned with the Black Library novels). But he stick to his guns despite the suffering. On top of that, he got fucked over pretty hard by Big E when they first met, so it's no wonder he went traitor the moment Horus made him an offer, we may even credit him for enduring years fighting for the Imperium instead of just getting himself killed in any of the battles as he himself personally wanted. At the end of the day, Angron was probably the Primarch who gave the fewest fucks about his legion and was content to let it run itself without his leadership, although he never really wanted one to begin with. As a result, many of the saner parts of his legion ''loathed'' him, to say nothing about his general reputation (Itvaan III wasn't the first time...). The action that places him so low on this list is the fact that he allowed the spread of Butcher's Nails throughout his Legion, despite his own hatred of the damn things and the fact they cause him so many issues, not least going psycho rage-monster most of the time; which is a pretty fucked up thing for him to condone. Then again, many of his sons accepted the mini-Nails to get closer to their Primarch, psykers, however, died horribly, not that Angron gave a shit. Perhaps he allowed it because seeing his sons with Butcher's Nails reminded him of his fallen gladiator brothers and sisters on Nuceria, but then again he blew up the planet along with all of the people he once fought to liberate just because they were bad-mouthing him. He really wasn't all that great of a guy even during his moments of lucidity, and he was one the few Primarchs to willingly kill his own men during the Great Crusade, an act even ''Horus'' thought was unthinkable.
## '''Konrad Curze''' - Arguably the most sadistic of all primarchs, Konrad really got off to torturing people and manipulating the masses through fear. What started as a quest to use fear to save lives in compliance actions turned through time and circumstance to a simple desire to torture and maim. The man who was supposed to be the ultimate harbinger of justice ended up as an unholy combination of Batman and Joker. By the time the Heresy broke out, any ideas of mercy or decency he may have harbored had long ago been buried under a massive pile of flayed guts. Somewhat like Angron however, the Night Haunter's actions are mitigated somewhat by the fact that the guy practically redefined crazy. His upbringing had much to do with shaping his awful view of reality, but what really screwed him over were his visions. He saw the future in psychic visions constantly, but the futures he saw were always permutations of the absolute worst outcome to any given situation, and he couldn't do anything to stop them. These visions came with severe psychic fits during which Curze would violently spaz out. They became worse and worse as time went on, and the psychological and psychic stress of them reduced Curze from a Punisher-esque individual to a completely sadistic screwball who would build stuff out of corpses and then sincerely thank those corpses. He also suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder, with the Konrad Curze and Night Haunter personas constantly warring for supremacy within his mind. Needless to say, the Night Haunter ultimately won out. He did admit that what he had done was wrong, but instead of trying to atone for his atrocities, he used the excuse that the future was set in stone (which he mostly believed) to justify just going along with the horrors he saw in his visions. In fact, the only two things that genuinely seemed to scare him were the possibilities that the Emperor '''wouldn't''' order his death -- or even worse, be forgiven for his behavior ''(and render his entire outlook on life meaningless)''. The fact that he refused to turn back to heroism at so many opportunities because he felt himself a puppet of fate makes one unable to decide whether he is contemptible or pathetic. Curze skirts this foul line.
## '''Perturabo''' - Perturabo suffers from somewhat inconsistent characterization due to having been written by a series of disparate authors, each of whom seemingly couldn't be bothered to read the previous guy's book. However, the easiest way to sum him up would be as a stone cold monster possessed of an absolutely massive martyr complex. What makes him the worst on this list is the fact that, unlike the other members of the '''FUCKING CUNTS''' tier, Perturabo never had any real justification for being as evil as he was. He wasn't lobotomized like Angron or bat-shit crazy like Curze, and unlike Mortarion his homeworld and upbringing were not bad at all; Olympia was basically just ancient Greece in space, and he had a family who loved him as much as possible given the culture and circumstances. In fact his world and upbringing were actually fairly similar to those of ''Guilliman'' of all people. He didn't even have the religious conviction of Lorgar; he turned Traitor simply out of spite and bitterness. He also seemed perfectly capable of feeling empathy and compassion as well; he genuinely loved his sister for instance... not that it stopped him from strangling her with his bare hands. This fact serves to make his actions all the worse however, as he clearly could understand right from wrong. He seemingly had absolutely no regard whatsoever for human life; hell the very first thing he did upon meeting his legion was to have a random tenth of them murdered by their brothers for not being good enough to suit him. He spent the lives of his legionaries like they were bolter rounds, and despite his bitching about how hard he and his legion had it, he never made any effort to change his way of making war. Though he was deployed to some of the worst battlegrounds in the Crusade, they were hardly worse than those in which the Lion, Russ, or Mortarion engaged in. Yet not one of them ever sulked about it or felt slighted. Not even Mortarion, who got sent to battlegrounds that would literally kill other Astartes by simple virtue of the environment. He is one of the few Primarchs who made his legion objectively ''worse'' by joining it, as he took a group of hardy siege warfare specialists and, by way of deliberately getting the bulk of them killed for decades on end, turned them into spiteful, bitter monsters with as little regard for life as himself. In fact, he made them so callous that the Iron Warriors both in and out of universe are a top candidate for the title of "[[Daemonculaba|evilest]] [[Honsou|motherfuckers]] in the setting", potentially beating out such luminaries as the Night Lords and Dark Eldar. Only the modern Word Bearers really have a fair claim at being worse. The atrocities that occurred under his command were all the result of inhuman barbarism caused not by madness or uncontrollable compulsion, but because Perturabo calculated that said barbarism was the most efficient means of achieving victory. He could and would calculate precisely the amount of ammunition, fuel, vehicles, ships, and human beings needed to win a campaign down to the last bolter shell and drop of blood, and would then spend those resources accordingly. And to his credit he was ridiculously good at it; his logistical skill was such that he could lose a good 90% of an attacking force in any given action and have his numbers replenished well in advance of the next campaign. Problem was that losing 90% of a force was something he wouldn't so much as bat an eyelash at. By the end we was just an envious, petty bastard who was always complaining whenever things didn't go his way (which was always). The intervening ten thousand years haven't improved his personality in any way either. Like Mortarion he didn't get along with any of his brothers and his inferiority complex and "woe is me" attitude was a cornerstone of almost all his interpersonal relationships, perhaps more notoriously in his all-consuming hatred for Rogal Dorn, in a rivalry that was completely one-sided until the two came to blows during the Heresy. Their rivalry being another example of Perturabo's unwillingness to try to improve his situation, instead preferring to sulk in his own misery, as his jealousy from Dorn stemmed from him being chosen as a builder and architect from the biggest projects in the Imperium, but never once Perturabo is shown trying to build anything outside his private workshop, instead bulldozing through whole planets with his Iron Warriors.

==See Also==

[[Return of the Primarchs]]: A What IF? series filled with pure [[AWESOME]] and [[Fist of the North Star|MANLY TEARS]].

A little side note, if you want an awesome look at the Primarchs in all their Crusadey goodness, go look at Aerion the Faithful's Libris Primaris project. http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/152862-artwork-libris-primaris/

==Miniatures==

* The official 30K miniatures are produced by [[Forge World]]
* [https://www.hitechminiatures.com Hitechminiatures] has good alternative models
* [https://wargameexclusive.com Wargame Exclusive] also has very good alternative models but a smaller selection - yet.
* [https://cadwallon.com/ Cadwallon] has [https://cadwallon.com/?s=chibi&post_type=product Chibi Primes] (well, some still.)

==Gallery==

<center>
===Loyal===
<gallery>
File:Lion El'Jonson.JPEG|[[Lion El'Jonson]]
File:JaghataiKhan-1-.jpg|[[Jaghatai Khan]] (can't hate a man who wears heeled calfboots)
File:LEMAN RUSS.jpg|[[Leman Russ]]
File:Rogal Dorn Portrait.png|[[Rogal Dorn]]
File:Sanginuscool.jpg|[[Sanguinius]]
File:Ferrus Manus Pre-Haircut.jpg|[[Ferrus Manus]]
File:Robute Guilliman.jpg|[[Roboute Guilliman]] (Big Bobby G)
File:Vulkan's Face.jpg|[[Vulkan]]
File:Corax Portrait.png|[[Corvus Corax]]
</gallery>

===Traitor===
<gallery>
File:Horus Portrait.png|[[Horus Lupercal]] (THAT ONE FUCK-UP)
File:Fulgrim by slaine69.jpg|[[Fulgrim]] (look at his sexyness)
File:Perturabo Portrait.jpg|[[Perturabo]]
File:Konrad Curze Mugshot.jpg|[[Konrad Curze]]/Night Haunter/Batman
File:Angron Butchers Nails.jpg|[[Angron]] (GETS. SHIT. DONE.)
File:Mortarion Portrait.jpg|[[Mortarion]]
File:Magnus.jpg|[[Magnus the Red]]
File:Lorgar Handsome.jpg|[[Lorgar Aurelian]] (goldboy)
File:Alpharius2.jpg|[[Alpharius]]/[[Omegon]]
</gallery>
<center>

===How To Make A Primarch===
<center>
{{Heresy}}
[[File:How to make a primarch.jpg|thumb|center|Artist's depiction of a primarch's creation]]
</center>

{{Template:Primarchs}}
{{Imperium}}

[[Category:Chaos]]

Primarch

2022-06-23T04:05:30Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* The [REDACTED] Event */

[[Image:Primarchs big.JPG|thumb|right|500px|Several of the Primarchs at the Triumph of the Ullanor Crusade. From left to right: Sanguinius, Mortarion, Magnus the Red, Angron, Jaghatai Khan, Lorgar, Rogal Dorn, Horus, and Fulgrim. But the real impressive thing here is how that balcony is still standing]]
{{Topquote|Man must become stronger, more profound and more evil.|Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None}}
{{Topquote|There is but one good, and that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to him and bad when it turns from him. And the higher and mightier it is in the natural order, the more demoniac it will be if it rebels. It's not out of bad mice or bad fleas you make demons, but out of bad archangels.|C.S. Lewis}}
{{Topquote|Et tu, Brute?|Julius Caesar}}
The '''Primarchs''' were the twenty ([[Omegon|-one]]) genetically-engineered sons of [[The Emperor]] and the female [[Perpetual]] [[Erda]]. Using both His and her DNA in their creation, the Primarchs were designed to be far superior to even <s>[[Space Marines]]</s> the Adeptus Custodes: they were taller, stronger, faster and more intelligent. Artificial Perpetuals, to replace the Perpetuals that refused to be a part of His great plan throughout history. Certainly faster and stronger, but the intelligence they display, especially in the Horus Heresy books, seem to be limited to their own specialties, making them [[Roboute Guilliman|oddly]] [[Vulkan|normal]] in some cases and [[Perturabo|fatally]] [[Magnus the Red|underdeveloped]] in other areas; the more successful among them, like Russ and Corax, knew how to apply those specialties in various situations, while others, like Angron, just [[Angry Marines|brute-forced their way through situations]] using their talents like a (War)hammer(40k), but a few like Lion and Guilliman, [[Reasonable Marines|actually knew how to account for the opposition]]. Dorn, at least, knew a fair bit about how his brothers waged war, he just didn't care and stuck with what he knew best. They were also incredibly charismatic and were well suited to their role as the generals and leaders of the Imperium of Man.

Problem was, despite all that they were only human, and ultimately their sibling rivalries (and Chaos corruption, in the case of several of them) boiled over and ultimately developed into the [[Horus Heresy]].

==Creation of the Primarchs==
[[File:Warmaster's_Coronation.jpg|300px|left|thumb|Horus Lupercal being made Warmaster of the Imperium in Ullanor. From center counter-clockwise: Horus, the Emperor, Magnus, Mortarion, Lorgar, Angron, Jaghatai Khan, Rogal Dorn, Rogal Dorn's mustache, Fulgrim and Sanguinius.]]
The Primarchs began as a continuation of the Emperor’s [[Thunder Warriors|Thunder Warrior]] legions. Each of the 20 proto-legions were led by a general analogue called a Primarch. Unlike the later leaders of the Legiones Astartes, the thunder warrior Primarchs were the same as the troops they led and were hand picked by the Emperor for their skill and command ability. The instability (both physical, genetic, and mental) of the thunder warriors led the Emperor to try and find more stable and powerful generals to lead his armies. It can be safely assumed that the original Primarchs were killed in the line of duty or purged before history could record them thoroughly. The only one named thus far was Ushotan of the 4th Legio Cataegis - then known as the Iron Lords. Valdor considered him almost an equal in terms of his martial and command ability but was disturbed by his innate bloodlust and susceptibility to the then nascent effects of Chaos.

The modern Primarchs were created in a secret underground laboratory on what used to be the Himalayas, under the tightest security. All of them were derived from a subset of both the perpetual Erda and the Emperor's DNA that served as a template, which was altered differently for each of the Primarchs; it is also thought that he engineered them spiritually as well using long-forgotten psychic techniques. As the [[Raven Guard]] discovered after the Emperor granted them access to the original data from the Primarchs' creation, many of the Primarchs' gene-samples were wildly divergent from the original template- some had long gene sequences deleted, while others had non-human DNA spliced into them for reasons only known to the Emperor. (A particularly intriguing discovery was one sample labeled "[[Leman Russ|Subject VI]]", [[Furry| which had extensive amounts of canine DNA added to it]].)

[[File:BabyPrimarchs.jpg|300px|right|thumb|The Master of Mankind raises his eighteen babies as devoted father. The [[Grimdark|truth]] is less [[Anime|kawaii desu]].]]
The Emperor's original plan was to have His superhuman creations mature safely in His lab and guide them from 'birth' toward the role He'd foreseen for them. However, in a retcon, Erda did not want for her sons what the Emperor had planned for them and herself, and in spite of the safeguards the Emperor had set up, caused the scattering, an event in which the Ruinous Powers were able to spirit the Primarchs away from the laboratory right before they would emerge from their pods and scatter them across the universe (Conveniently, the canine sample was sent to a wolf-planet) [[Just as planned]]. For whatever reason, the Emperor did not punish Erda and she was allowed to live out her immortal life in seclusion, in the remnants of Africa. Somehow, the Emperor knew his sons were still alive but had no clue to where they could be nor any immediate way to search for them. So he took it in stride, shrugged it off as a minor setback (unknowingly, this would come to bite him back in the ass nastily later on) and went ahead with the second part of his plan: his Space Marine project. Using DNA samples from each Primarch before they were abducted, the Emperor created twenty legions of [[Space Marines]], in what would later be called the [[First Founding]]. They would form the core of the armies He needed to conquer the galaxy, and the absence of the Primarchs leading those would only serve as a motivation for the warriors to search for them.

One consequence of the abduction, however was that each of the young Primarchs were forced to adapt to the lifestyle on their new homeworld, something which would influence and mold them throughout their lives. The Primarchs rapidly grew to adulthood and quickly rose to power, often becoming the leaders of their world. As the Emperor crusaded to unify the galaxy he would occasionally stumble upon another long-lost son. When this happened, the Emperor would hold a celebration in honor of this discovery, give the Primarch their Legion to command, then tell them to [[Angron|fuck]] [[Mortarion|off]] [[Lorgar|and start]] [[Alpharius|conquering]] [[Perturabo|worlds]] while he [[Horus|fapped]] [[Rogal Dorn|to]] [[Sanguinius|his]] [[Leman Russ|favoured]] [[Roboute Guilliman|offspring]]. The Emperor was a [[Eldrad|dick]] like that.

==Did the Emperor Love his Sons?==
Before we get into the rediscovery of the Primarchs, we need to address this issue. Different writers have different interpretations of the Emperor, and GW never got any of them on the same fucking page. This lead to discrepancies in the various books; in the first duel between Horus and the Emperor for example, the Emperor could not bring himself to kill Horus because he loved him, and it was only after he witnessed Horus callously annihilate Ollanius Pius that he realised his son was gone, allowing him to finally let loose and destroy Horus.

Later authors would contradict this, writers like ADB would go on to claim he never saw the Primarchs as 'sons', just as carefully crafted tools to enforce his will and vision (even referring to them by number instead of name). Even later writers would go on to claim the opposite again, with the Emperor declaring the Primarchs to be his sons in the Siege of Terra series, so fuck if we know what's going on. The issue gets even more confusing when you look at his closest advisors, such as Constantin Valdor and Malcador, who are plagued with the exact same problems, writer to writer. Sometimes they claim the Emperor only saw his sons as tools, other times they do support the idea that he loves his children.

Hopefully one day GW will finally have some consistency, though that's about as likely as hell freezing over.

In case anyone is wondering, Erda claims she always loved the Primarchs, though considering the planets some of them were sent to, this is almost guaranteed to be a bullshit lie or self-deception.

==Rediscovering the Primarchs==
Originally Horus was the first Primarch to be discovered, but a retcon changed that to Alpharius and had it kept secret. Or did it? With Alpharius and Omegon, it's honestly impossible to tell.

Horus, who would become the Emperor's favoured son, was retconned to maybe being the second Primarch to be found, and the second missing Primarch was stated to be found after Corax in a different retcon. Thankfully these are the only three (or two?) GW fucked with in the order they were found, so the whole list of those being discovered is as follows (dates given by the website for the Horus Heresy tabletop game):

*'''Before 801.M30:''' Alpharius/Omegon (speculated)
*'''801.M30:''' Horus
*'''819.M30:''' Leman Russ
*'''821.M30:''' DELETED FROM IMPERIAL RECORDS, DAMNATIO MEMORIAE IN PERPETUAM
*'''824.M30:''' Ferrus Manus
*'''830.M30:''' Fulgrim
*'''832.M30:''' Vulkan
*'''835.M30:''' Rogal Dorn
*'''837.M30:''' Roboute Guilliman
*'''840.M30:''' Magnus the Red
*'''843.M30:''' Sanguinius
*'''846.M30:''' Lion El'Jonson
*'''849.M30:''' Perturabo
*'''854.M30:''' Mortarion
*'''857.M30:''' Lorgar
*'''865.M30:''' Jaghatai Khan
*'''896.M30:''' Konrad Curze
*'''899.M30:''' Angron
*'''922.M30:''' Corvus Corax
*'''927.M30:''' DELETED FROM IMPERIAL RECORDS, DAMNATIO MEMORIAE IN PERPETUAM
*'''981.M30:''' Alpharius/Omegon (officially)

The majority of Primarchs somehow recognized the Emperor on sight, immediately pledging their allegiance to their father. A few (such as Leman Russ and Vulkan) only swore allegiance after being bested in a contest. The only exception is Angron, who outright refused to follow the Emperor as he preferred to die in battle along with his rebels brothers and sisters in their fight against the oppressive Not-Romans. The Emperor simply shrugged and abducted his son, leaving Angron's followers to get slaughtered. Angron never really got over that dick move.

At the end of the period known as the [[Great Crusade]], Horus, who had recently been promoted to the title of Warmaster, fell to Chaos and rebelled. It didn't take long for eight of his fellow Primarchs to join his side against the Emperor, resulting in the full-scale civil war known as the [[Horus Heresy]]. Funnily enough, most of the Primarchs who sided with Horus were those who felt that the Emperor had taken a giant, steaming dump on them. So, regardless of whether the Emperor actually loved his sons or not, and while he is the greatest tactician, biologist, warlord, and leader in the history of mankind; in practice he's worse than a crack-addled transient junkie as a father.

==Primarchs and Legions==
{|align=center border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0"
|-
|align=center|'''Legion Number'''
|align=center|'''Name'''
|align=center|'''Title'''
|align=center|'''Homeworld'''
|align=center|'''Name of the Legion'''
|align=center|'''Allegiance'''
|align=center|'''Description/Current Status'''
|align=center|'''30k/40k'''
|-
|align=center|'''I'''
|align=center|[[Image: Lion_El%27Jonson_portrait.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Lion El'Jonson]]
|align=center|Lord of the First, The Lion
|align=center|[[Caliban]]
|align=center|[[Dark Angels]]
|align=center|ULTRA LOYAL, maybe even more than Rogal Dorn.
|align=center|
*Crushes the horrors of Old Night, destroys worlds, whole civilizations, erase stuff from history, <s>doesn't afraid of anything. </s>
*Sees himself as a man that no one else can compare to and constantly toils to maintain this standard (although he wasn't as excessively vainglorious as Fulgrim).
*Unlike Fulgrim however, The Lion's greatness caused him to be a hardcore pragmatist and largely detached from everyone around him. The Lion just couldn't relate to anyone else not even close to his level (even most of his brother primarchs couldn't fit the bill), so he always felt alone in the universe. A big part of this was that his insanely huge ego combined with his lack of people skills to result in a complete asshole who virtually nobody liked.
*Was a bit of a loose cannon with a long but explosive fuse. The Lion is as smart and introspective as he is merciless and brutal. He wasn't necessarily easy to piss off like Angron, but anyone who manages to cross his threshold of patience will find themselves on the business end of his weapon. Several times. And possibly dismembered to boot.
*Fought Luther during his betrayal at the end of the Horus Heresy, where he was wounded from their duel. He survived however, and was spirited away and tended to by the [[Watchers in the Dark]] in a super secret chamber in [[The Rock]] (that not even the Dark Angels knew about), where he spent the last millennia healing his wounds. As of the current edition; The Lion is now supposedly fully healed and all he's waiting for is the Emperor to tell him to wake up from his millennia-long cat nap.
|align=center|[[Image:Lord of the First.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[File:Lion vs Curze.jpg|150px|thumb|right|]][[File:Horus-Heresy-Lion-Great Crusade.jpeg|150px|thumb|right|]]
|-
|align=center|'''II'''
|! colspan="5" |+++Records expunged+++
|-
|align=center|'''III'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Fulgrim_Ancient_Sketch.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Fulgrim]]
|align=center|The Palatine Phoenix, The Phoenician
|align=center|[[Chemos]]
|align=center|[[Emperor's Children]]
|align=center|Traitor
|align=center|
*A patron of the arts, who wanted to enjoy the finest and most exotic things in life.
*Believes that he and his legion should be the avatar of humanity's perfection, and so everything about them should be flawless, everywhere from appearance and actions to their fighting style. Due to this, Fulgrim's battle tactics revolved around utterly perfecting their strategies. Everything from his soldiers to their strategies were intensely drilled until their fighting was closer to a intricately-choreographed play of death than anything. To him, war is an art, and he wanted to perfect his arts.
*A master blacksmith in his own right, capable of forging weapons that even [[Ferrus Manus]] couldn't help but deem "perfect". His artwork however, wasn't always the best in the universe due to being so perfect it hit uncanny valley levels.
*Was initially corrupted by Chaos through the Laer blade, a Slaaneshi-possesed daemon sword he looted as a trophy, but wasn't aware of what Chaos was. He would fully give in to the temptations of the sword after he beheaded Ferrus Manus, where his utter grief at the act caused him to succumb to the daemon within the sword.
*Daemon Prince of Slaanesh, ruler of the Pleasure World. <s>Fulgrim's actual consciousness however, may or may not also be still imprisoned within his own body by</s> the daemon who possessed him in the first place was eventually conquered by Fulgrim's inner will or whatever, but his new personality is generic "DEMON PRINCE OF THE DARKNESS AND EVIL".
*Managed to incapacitate Guilliman at one point by slicing his throat with a poisoned sword.
*Still has a soft-spot for his brother Ferrus. He asked [[Fabius Bile|Fabulous Bile]] to clone his brother several times so that he could attempt to lure Ferrus into Chaos' side again. All his attempts have ended in failure, which he has blamed Fabius for due to his certainty that a "perfect" clone would join him.
*Heard about [[Roboute Guilliman|Big G]] waking up and is a bit buttmad about it at the moment. He tried to give Guilliman a cursed artifact during his return party, but was found out and subsequently banished. Needless to say: he mad.
|align=center|[[Image: Fulgrim.30k.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image: 40k.fulgrim.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Warhammer-fuldrim-lorgar.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''IV'''
|align=center|[[Image: Perturabo_Portrait.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Perturabo]]
|align=center|The Hammer of Olympia, Lord of Iron, The Breaker
|align=center|[[Olympia]]
|align=center|[[Iron Warriors]]
|align=center|Traitor
|align=center|
*A man who already had the knowledge to create the best at everything he did from birth. Perturabo considered this a curse however, feeling it robbed him of any sense of accomplishment while growing up, contributing to his eternal grumpiness.
*Originally preferred diplomacy and was an admirer of the arts during his time in Olympia, but meeting the Emperor (who had no time for such things) caused a violent switch to flip inside Perturabo's mind, turning him into a ruthless warlord throughout the Great Crusade, likely because he wanted things to be different from Olympia once he joined E-money, but once he realized that The Great Crusade was basically Olympia 2.0; he just gave up, flipped the table, and accepted how things really are and played the part.
*Just as much as a master of siege warfare as Dorn (both in offense and defense), but the lack of opportunities and recognition led him and his legion to be specialists of tearing shit down.
*Unlike Dorn however, Perturabo's general strategy is a combination of stubbornness and ice cold-calculating efficiency, orchestrating war like it was one giant math problem. The problem with this is that he didn't even see his sons as people. As far as he was concerned, they're just armored meatbags who pull triggers and push buttons and were about as expendable as guardsmen. It worked incredibly well but won him few friends.
*Suffers from a massive inferiority complex, partially due to his certainty that the Eye of Terror was always watching and judging him. Nobody believed him when he said this, so it was mostly attributed to Rogal Dorn, whom the Emperor ''greatly'' favored over Pert, despite having similar skillsets.
*Daemon Prince, ruler of Medrengard. Described as the ultimate Obliterator; so expect him to be carrying around titan grade weaponry and millennia of pent-up [[Rage|RAEG]] when he finally shows up. Given that Magnus, Fulgrim, and Mortarion are back in action; he'll probably come out eventually as well.
|align=center|[[Image: 30k.Perturabo.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Warhammer-Pert-Angron.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''V'''
|align=center|[[Image:Karn.port.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Jaghatai Khan]]
|align=center|Warhawk of Chorgoris, The Great Khan, The Khagan
|align=center|[[Chogoris|Chogoris/<br>Mundus Planus]]
|align=center|[[White Scars]]
|align=center|Loyal
|align=center|
*A hard and stern Primarch, he rarely smiles and almost never laughs. Throughout the Heresy he’s often depicted as an introvert who only keeps the counsel of a hand select group. Though rather than making him into a recluse, he's fully capable of being charismatic when he needs to. The Khan is quiet, but he can quickly become the warrior: smile, laugh, bellow and be powerful when he sees the need.
*Encourages a painfully 'liberating' leadership structure on the White Scars. Every Khan (basically Chapter Master) has an extremely high level of autonomy - a byproduct of the steppes. Causes a lot of problems for logistics and cooperation with allies.
*Many Primarchs became a product of their homeworld, the Khan definitely did. He idolises the ways of [[Chogoris]] and venerates its lifestyle. A very Taoist and Confucian way of seeing things, no one else in the Imperium truly understands this, a fact that further isolates the White Scars from the wider Imperium. The White Scars is the amalgamation of Asian culture in the HH, it’s the most different and alien Legion simply because it tries to adopt a Asian-centric style.
*Has a strained relationship with the Emperor. On one hand he recognises the need of the Imperium and has always directly supported it. On the other hand, a major identity point for the Khan's character is his hatred of Empire and Emperors. On Chogoris he killed a lot of emperors and destroyed a lot of Empires. He sees Emperors and Empires as ultimately flawed and has a very low respect for them.
*Tying in with this hatred of Empire is his hatred of stagnation. Every Emperor he killed was fat, and this made him become a person who hates the easiest path. A big motivator for him during the novel Scars was his rejection of the path most travelled. The Khan's greatest fear is stagnating, so he will likely always chose the hardest option because of that. Emphasising this, The Khan is also described as being a compulsive, a part of him is always moving.
*The Khan really didn't like the Imperium, in Warhawk of Chogoris he flatly stated that the White Scars would leave the Imperium if he felt the Emperor was not respecting the White Scars enough.
*Unknown, disappeared into the [[Webway]] while hunting [[Dark Eldar]] after they raided Chogoris.
|align=center|[[Image:Past Khan.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:The path of heaven .jpg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''VI'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait..Leman.Russ.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Leman Russ]]
|align=center|The Great Wolf, The Wolf King
|align=center|[[Fenris]]
|align=center|[[Space Wolves]]
|align=center|Loyal
|align=center|
*Had a high opinion of himself and his legion, if only because he felt that he's earned that kind of respect through the centuries. Of all the Primarchs, Leman was the one most willing to cross any line to do what the Emperor asked, at least at first. Later on, he decided to become his own man and protect the people of the Imperium. Also notable for curbing the more savage tendencies of the Wolves and teaching them to control their ferocity, unlike [[Angron|some]] [[Konrad Curze|people]].
*Wanted to test his legion all the time, to prove he is the best.
*Unknown, disappeared into the [[Eye of Terror]] with the 13th company but promised to return one day. Magnus supposedly knows where he is, but he isn't telling. The Wolves found <s>his armor in a Khornate Shrine</s> an armor rumoured to be his on the Temple of Horus on Rudra, implying he either; turned into [[Wulfen]], to [[Chaos]], is dead, or is murdering his way through the warp [[Conan_the_Barbarian|as a half-naked barbarian]]. Allegedly a figure resembling him was spotted with the 13th company during the 13th crusade.
|align=center|[[Image:30k.Russ.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Scouring of Prospero2.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Horus_vs_Leman.jpg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''VII'''
|align=center|[[Image: Rogal_Dorn_Portrait.png|thumb|250px|]] [[Rogal Dorn]]
|align=center|The Praetorian of Terra, The Vigilant, The Unyielding One
|align=center|[[Inwit]]
|align=center|[[Imperial Fists]]
|align=center|MEGA DUPER Loyal
|align=center|
*A brutally honest and steadfast man, but was equally indifferent to those around him. Dorn's personality is akin to a wall, he was a man you could take at face value; he would never lie or deceive you, and he would always speak his mind without a hint of falsehood, even if it ends up working against his favor. That said, he could never properly relate with other people's emotions. He will speak the truth, but lacked any glib of tongue to express it in a way that wouldn't feel like he was delivering it with the bluntness and intensity of a power fist to the face.
*Embodied the "soul" of the Great Crusade unlike any other; he received the most accolades from the Emperor and fought alongside him most often.
*A master of siegecraft, although fortifications was his forte. So much that he was tasked with fortifying the Imperial Palace. He would also build grand fortresses on the worlds they conquered.
*Assumed deceased, disappeared while boarding a Chaos cruiser during a Black Crusade.<br>One of his fists were recovered and its skeleton is placed in a shrine, where each new Chapter Master of the Imperial Fists engraves their name upon it. Rumored to still be alive, though that begs the question of whose fist is in the Phalanx, though he could just be missing a hand.
|align=center|[[Image:The horus heresy praetorian of dorn by raffetin-dae3g5k.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Dorn-Sang-Primarchs-Warhammer-.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Warhammer-Dorn-malc.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''VIII'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Konrad_Curze_sketch.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Konrad Curze]]
|align=center|The Night Haunter, The Dark King
|align=center|[[Nostramo]]
|align=center|[[Night Lords]]
|align=center|Traitor
|align=center|
*A man of justice who believed that he needed to instill absolute fear into people to ensure lasting peace.
*Possessed psychic powers that allowed him to perceive the future in short glimpses. The problem was that they were uncontrolled and they constantly subjected him to see the worst possible future in the darkest, most vivid detail possible, including the deaths and fall of his brother Primarchs as well as the Emperor's own entombment on the Golden Throne. This only served to widen his ever-growing insanity as he came to believe that what he saw was an inevitability rather than a mere possibility.
*An unstable sociopath, to say the least. Curze's visions, upbringing, and perceived need for brutality took a heavy toll on his sanity, but he held firm under the belief he was making the galaxy a better place, like what he did with Nostramo. This all came crashing down after Nostramo reverted back to its old ways when he was away; deciding that nothing would ever change, he chose to bombard his home planet into rubble.
*That said, he was a master at infiltration and unconventional warfare, just as much as he was a master of scaring the shit out of people. His crowning achievement is that he managed to fuck up Guilliman's Imperium Secundus by himself, no aid from his legion what-so-ever, something his brothers couldn't even come close into doing.
*Lost what little sanity he still had after destroying Nostramo. By this time, Konrad stopped justifying his methods to himself and fully embraced the depraved side of his "Night Haunter" persona, spreading untold terror and pain wherever he went. By the time of the late Horus Heresy, the Emperor wanted to put a stop to it and sent a Callidus assassin named "M'shen" after him.
*Curze knew about her mission from the get-go but he made sure the assassin could reach him unimpeded. He did not resist when she entered his chambers and asked the Callidus to kill him. Initially it was speculated that Konrad realized he became the very thing he sought to rid the galaxy of and knew what had to be done- a perceived hero who lived long enough to see himself become a villain. It turned out that in his view, the assassination vindicated everything he'd ever said and done; he punished and killed evil-doers and now the Emperor used his own methods to kill him, thus proving that all his atrocities were both justifiable and necessary. Whatever the case, Konrad was already a jaded, broken man after the Nostramo debacle and wished only to die. The idea that the Emperor ''wouldn't'' have him killed or might even pardon him was horrifying to Curze, as he believed that there would be no justice in such an act.
|align=center|[[Image:Konrad-Curze-Primarchs-Warhammer-.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Night Haunter 8th Ed.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Horus-Primarchs-Curze-Lion.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''IX'''
|align=center|[[Image:SanguiniusArt5mt.jpg|thumb|250px|]][[Sanguinius]]
|align=center|The Great Angel, The Brightest One
|align=center|[[Baal]]
|align=center|[[Blood Angels]]
|align=center|Loyal
|align=center|
*A noble and unparalleled warrior, known for the angel-like wings that grew from his back.
*Was known as the greatest exemplar of the Emperor himself, mirroring many of his father's best traits, instead of only one or two of them like his brothers. If anything, Sanguinius is a reflection of what the Emperor could have been as a truly benevolent being, concerned not just for mankind's future, but man as individuals as well.
*A pretty cool guy to be around. Despite being a fabulous, angelic demi-god of war; he had mankind's best wishes at heart and fought for it with graceful ferocity, hell even the Primarchs couldn't resist Sanguinius being so bro-tier. He is essentially the vampiric, bishie version of Vulkan.
*Showed the same amount of concern for his legion. Sanguinius did all that he could to hide the Red Thirst from being exposed to the wider Imperium, knowing full well that the Blood Angels would receive the II/XI Legion treatment if it came to light.
*Psychic, and capable of seeing glimpses of the future.
*He was powerful as he was nice, Sanguinius was one of the most powerful, if not ''the'' most powerful, of the Primarchs in terms of martial prowess. Especially if you pissed him off. Feats include; ripping the wings off a bloodthirster and literally throwing him to the warp, single-handedly holding a defensive point during the Siege of Terra against numerous traitors, soloing Titans, and managing to damage Horus' armor ''even after being exhausted from literally soloing entire armies''.
*Deceased, slain by Horus. Spirit is evidently intact somewhere in the Warp. His body is currently in a stasis crypt in Baal, so his corpse remained fabulous for the last 10,000 years. Commemorated during Sanguinala, a holiday dedicated to his memory.
|align=center|[[Image:Heresy-Sang.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:The horus heresy book 26 unremembered empire by raffetin-dap4ekw.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Emperor Sanguinius Echoes of Imperium.jpg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''X'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Ferrus_Manus_sketch.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Ferrus Manus]]
|align=center|The Gorgon of Medusa
|align=center|[[Medusa_(Planet)|Medusa]]
|align=center|[[Iron Hands]]
|align=center|Extremely Loyal, rivalling The Lion and Dorn
|align=center|
*Wants to get things done quickly, without needless philosophizing.
*Contrary to his sons; Ferrus wanted to advocate the strength of one's flesh, rather than relying completely on bionics and mechanical augmentations as shown by the Iron Hands, if any he was appalled at the idea of turning man completely into machine. He wasn't able to realize this after getting a viking crewcut by his best friend, however.
*A master artisan, thanks to his metal arms, which allowed him to practice his craft with incredible precision and detail.
*Deceased, slain by Fulgrim and his head offered to Horus as a gift (which actually horrified him). Fulgrim still has the body, which he repeatedly clones and murders again in a futile attempt to make him turn traitor. <br>Some claim he is still alive on Mars, though [[Void Dragon|he almost certainly isn't]].
|align=center|[[Image:Ferrus.30k.jpg|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XI'''
|! colspan="5" |+++Records expunged+++
|-
|align=center|'''XII'''
|align=center|[[Image:Angron.port.jpg|thumb|250px|]][[Angron]]
|align=center|Slave of Nuceria, Red Angel, Lord of the Red Sands
|align=center|[[Nuceria]]
|align=center|[[World Eaters]]
|align=center|Traitor
|align=center|
*Embodies the name "World Eater". He and his legion consumes entire worlds in a whirlwind of indiscriminate slaughter until nobody but them is left, pre and post-Great Crusade.
*No real ambition beyond endless slaughter, thanks to the butcher's nails augment jammed into Angron's brain. It also made him incredibly violent and quick to anger. At first it was to satiate the unending bloodlust generated by the butcher's nails, but now its to glorify [[Khorne]].
*One of the most powerful of the Primarchs in terms of sheer melee combat prowess. Rivaled only by Sanguinius in terms of single combat capability.
*A poor leader and general, however. He could murder armies sent against him, but he lacked the tactical acumen (or anything resembling sanity) to focus on the objectives truly needed to win a war. Angron is in the end a gladiator let loose in a galaxy-wide arena: murdering all of his opponents is the only acceptable (or even concievable) way to win.
*A retcon made his [[Leeroy Jenkins]] behaviour one of the largest factors for fucking up the Horus Heresy. If Angron had kept his murderboner down for just a few more minutes and let Horus finish off the remaining loyalists on Istvaan with another Exterminatus strike; they would have been able to march to Terra faster and with much more manpower and have a better chance at winning. Whether this was Angron just being Angron or a secret ploy by Khorne to keep the blood flowing by thinking past the Horus Heresy is unclear (after all, if Horus won; Chaos eventually starves to death. If Horus lost; he has a aeons' worth of blood and conflict to revel over and maybe even an eternal stalemate ensuring he lasts forever, if at the cost of the Great Game continuing for eternity as well.).
*Daemon Prince of [[Khorne]]. Spend most of his time Getting Shit Done and being banished to the Warp for a hundred or so years after the Imperium responds to his Blood Crusades.
|align=center|[[Image:World-Eaters-Warhammer-40000-.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Angron .jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Angrondemon.jpg|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XIII'''
|align=center|[[Image: Robute Guilliman.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Roboute Guilliman]]
|align=center|Lord of Ultramar, Avenging Son, The Victorious, The Master of Ultramar, The Blade of Unity
|align=center|[[Ultramar|Macragge]]
|align=center|[[Ultramarines]]
|align=center|Loyal, barring [[Imperium Secundus| that one episode he doesn't like to talk about]]
|align=center|
*A proud and fair visionary who always looked towards building a better future for humanity. Guilliman never did anything without thinking what would happen at the end of the day and he always tried to plan a better outcome for whatever he did, whether its building an empire or subjugating an enemy civilization.
*Was more for the people than the Emperor, hence why he thought preserving his Imperium was more important than the survival of the Emperor himself.
*A general first and warrior second, which was the key to his success throughout the Great Crusade. He wasn't the best at crossing swords or gunfights, at least in comparison to many of his brothers; but he was exceptional at commanding his forces and resources, ensuring all wars he fought in were running at optimum efficiency.
*The greatest statesman among the Primarchs. Guilliman was best remembered for his ability to set up an efficient form of government on every planet his legion conquered, turning them into model, self-sufficient worlds in order to prepare them for the future after the Great Crusade. This is best exemplified by Ultramar, which still remains one of the most powerful and idyllic planetary systems in the Imperium, even after 10,000 years. More tellingly, was allowed by the Emperor to keep Ultramar's 500 worlds as a semi-autonomous mini-empire within the Imperium because it was just so well run.
*He's also a logistical genius, and invented the organizational model that 8 of the 9 First Founding Chapters still use (more or less).
*Previously kept in a stasis chamber after his throat was sliced by Fulgrim with a poisoned sword.
*Recently revived with the help of Belisarius Cawl and the Ynnari and their new soul manipulation powers. Is now active once more, and not very happy with how badly the Imperium has gone to shit since he was not-quite-dead. Currently back in his old role of Lord Commander of the Imperium, trying his hardest to keep the Emperor's work from going completely down the drain while while waging an unending war against the forces of Chaos and the Imperium's equally monstrous bureaucracy. Rather unhappy about it all but is keeping his head above water nevertheless.
|align=center|[[Image: 30k.Guilliman.png|thumb|150px|]][[Image: Primarchs-Guilliman-40000.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Roboute-Guilliman-Primarchs-Warhammer-40000.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XIV'''
|align=center|[[Image: Mortarion Portrait.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Mortarion]]
|align=center|The Pale King, The Death Lord, The Prince of Decay (Post-Heresy)
|align=center|[[Barbarus]]
|align=center|[[Death Guard]]
|align=center|Traitor
|align=center|
*A bitter, petty man, kind of like the edgy goth kid of the group. Mortarion didn't want to associate anyone who hasn't gone through the same brand of abuse he has during his childhood and also hated those who had relatively comfy ones in comparison (like Guilliman or Dorn). He would only find some friendship with Konrad Curze (due to his "raised alone and became psycho-Batman" origin) and Horus (because just about everyone liked Horus).
*Has an immense abhorrence for psykers and the warp, due to his experiences on Barbarus. As a daemon prince, he is the very thing he hated in the first place. He takes the resulting bitterness out on everyone else in the form of horrible diseases.
*Stubborn to the core. Mortarion's favored tactic that he passed onto the Death Guard is a combination of attrition and unrelenting assaults; they take the pain while dishing it out in greater amounts, non-stop. He also valued individualism throughout his legion, largely leaving it up to his troops to figure out the best strategy in a conflict, rather than micro-managing them.
*Was already disenchanted by the Imperium by the start of the Horus Heresy (Seeing the Emperor and his works as total hypocrisies), so he threw his lot in with Horus. However, due to a ruse by Typhus; he and his legion ended up being infected by a virulent Nurglite plague while in the warp, which caused them to be in a constant state of agony but remain alive due to their Astartes-grade toughness. Unable to bear the pain and see his sons suffer; he pledged his loyalty to Nurgle and the god "cured" them of the plague (cure is probably incorrect, it was more of mutate their bodies to be compatible with the plague). From here, he became a daemon prince.
*Went back to the warp after the Horus Heresy, where Nurgle gave him dominion over the Plague Planet, which he shaped into the image of Barbarus.
*Was banished by [[Kaldor Draigo|Grey Knights]] during the Battle of Kornovin, which was the origin of [[Kaldor Draigo|Draigo]] carving a name onto his plague-ridden heart (how Draigo did so is a mystery, so we'll just chalk it up to him being too high on drugs to be infected by Mortarion's plagues).
*Helped Abby by creating the zombie plague, along with other contagions, after he got the Hand of Darkness artifact.
*He eventually got better and waged a full-scale invasion of Ultramar when he heard that Guilliman's finally awake. Had to retreat after he had to deal with the other Chaos Gods' typical shenanigans (mainly encroaching on his strongholds in the [[Scourge Stars]] while he was off campaigning).
|align=center|[[Image:Warhammer-40000-фэндомы-Horus-Heresy-Mortarion-2073409.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Mortarion-40k.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XV'''
|align=center|[[Image:Magnus-The-Red-Primarchs-Warhammer-40000-фэндомы-4995855 (1).jpeg|thumb|250px|]] [[Magnus the Red]]
|align=center|The Crimson King, The Red Cyclops
|align=center|[[Prospero]]
|align=center|[[Thousand Sons]]
|align=center|Traitor, though he never planned this
|align=center|
*An optimistic scholar who thirsted for knowledge and always believed that information should be preserved for the greater good of mankind, regardless of its origins or the danger it might pose.
*As a psyker from birth, he was sympathetic to the discrimination faced by his fellow psykers and labored for his kind to be accepted. He did so by training psykers to control and enhance their powers, in the hopes of showing to people the benefits of his kind's gifts. This had mixed results with his brother primarchs, especially in the face of the Emperor's "psykers are bad" standing orders.
*Had an ego to rival the Emperor himself, but with far less justification for it.
*Defying the Nikea council's rulings, Magnus continued to experiment with warp powers and during a Tzeentch-induced prophesy that involved Horus' betrayal; he attempted to warn his father with a psychic message. During the sending process; he accidentally destroyed the Emperor's webway project, causing him to be arrested by Russ and the Wolves to answer for his disobedience.
*As Horus was already corrupted by this point, he altered the orders to instead destroy the Thousand Sons' homeworld. Realizing he's been played like a damn fiddle by Tzeentch, Magnus' resolve was broken and initially accepted his destiny of being destroyed by the wolves in an attempt to spite Tzeentch, but eventually decided to attempt to rebel against his fate but ultimately failing after Leman Russ beat him up badly. He then made a desperate deal with Tzeentch to save his legion in return for his servitude. He and the Thousand Sons were teleported to the Planet of Sorcerers, where more hijinks ensued with his [[Ahzek Ahriman|first captain]]'s certain ritual. Also his soul was broken into pieces somehow during the deal, and he's still trying to collect them all.
*Now a daemon prince, one of his first major campaigns was to invade the Space Wolves' homeworld. Was banished, but the Wolves were all but ruined; most of their upper command structure and progress with stabilizing their flawed gene seed was gone. Feeling they weren't down for the count yet; he went in again and bloodied the entire star system of Fenris itself, irreparably damaging the Wolves' home system.
*Appeared during the Gathering Storm, where he trapped and captured Guilliman and his retinue in the warp. After he escaped, Magnus chased and confronted Guilliman all the way to Luna, but was banished by the Custodes and Sisters of Silence. Now currently biding his time for another offensive.
|align=center|[[Image:Past Magnus.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image: 30k.magnus-the-red.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image: 40k.magnus-the-red.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XVI'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Warmaster_Horus_Remembrancer_Sketch.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Horus|Horus Lupercal]]
|align=center|The Lupercal, The Favorite Son
|align=center|[[Cthonia]]
|align=center|[[Black Legion|Luna Wolves/ Sons of Horus/ Black Legion]]
|align=center|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1rT6Vi5Ln4 DOUBLE TRAITOR link dead :(]
|align=center|
*A charismatic strategist who overwhelmed his enemies through sheer numbers and precision tactics, with an emphasis on wiping out the leadership structures of enemy forces.
*Big E's most favored son, always being held in the highest regard, second only to the Custodes. This was a combination of him being the first Primarch found (before the retcon) and his long rap sheet of victories throughout the Crusade.
*Due to his position and experience, he was the most well-liked of the Primarchs during the Great Crusade. Just about everyone looked at Horus as the greatest among them.
*For all his charisma and leadership, Horus was still wracked with self-doubt once appointed Warmaster, constantly afraid that he was unable to live up to the title (poor dude basically thought that anything less than Big E levels of success was failure). Being overall commander of the Emperor's forces AND being his personal favorite was a lot to live up to. This was one of the reasons why he succumbed to the temptations of Chaos.
*Was one of the few Primarchs who was suspicious of the Emperor's plans for the Astartes post-Crusade, fearing they'd be disposed of like the Thunder Warriors and was mistrustful of the Emperor's intentions in the long run in general, to say nothing of his resentment about how the worlds he and his brothers had conquered would be governed by ordinary humans. The Ruinous Powers would also use this to their advantage.
*Rebelled against the Emperor after being fed a vision of the future by the Chaos Gods, in which the Emperor was being worshiped as a god and many of his fellow Primarchs (including himself) were reviled or outright forgotten. Little did he know that this was to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
*His essence has been erased from existence. When the Emperor mustered up the resolve to finally end Horus, he shot him with a psychic blast powerful enough to obliterate his very soul, ensuring that the Chaos Gods couldn't just bring him back from the dead. His body was recovered and brought to the Eye of Terror, but was later destroyed after an incident involving [[Fabius Bile]] and a clone of Horus.
|align=center|[[Image:Horus-the warmaster.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Horus-Primarchs-.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Emperor vs Horus.jpg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XVII'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Lorgar_Aurelian_sketch.png|thumb|250px|]] [[Lorgar|Lorgar Aurelian]]
|align=center|Bearer of the Word, Urizen (Colchisian for "wisest of the wise")
|align=center|[[Colchis]]
|align=center|[[Word Bearers]]
|align=center|Traitor Prime
|align=center|
*A charismatic diplomat with a golden tongue, who relied heavily on his unparalleled speaking abilities to bring worlds into compliance during the Great Crusade. Lorgar would always prefer to talk out a peaceful solution, rather than resorting to violence. That said, Lorgar did know how to slap a bitch when needed.
*A deeply spiritual man, due to growing up in a theocratic society during his time on Colchis. Due to this, Lorgar saw The Emperor as a literal god and decided to spread the good word of the God-Emperor throughout the Crusade. During this time, he penned the "Lectitio Divinitatus", a book detailing how awesome the God-Emperor was, and always built grand cathedrals in all the planets he conquered. As you can imagine, this didn't sit well with the Man-Emperor's secular Empire, so he decided to bloody one of Lorgar's grandest cities to send a message with Guilliman. Little did the Emperor know what this act of dickery would lead eventually to.
*With Lorgar being completely disheartened and defeated; Kor Phaeron and [[Erebus]] lured him to the worship of the Dark Gods, who were more than happy to accept his rabid fanboyism. He would eventually corrupt Horus and ignite the [[Horus Heresy|single biggest clusterfuck in Imperial History]], ruining everything that the Emperor has striven to build since the [[Age of Strife]].
*Rules as a daemon prince of Chaos Undivided and currently located in Sicarius, the Word Bearers' home planet.
*Previously a shut-in NEET that left command to his legion to his Dark Apostles: Lorgar has finally gotten out of his tower and is personally leading the Word Bearers now. He has recently been seen evangelizing about Chaos in the material realm, with a large legion of Word Bearers behind him. Got his ass kicked by a warp-empowered Corax and is doing everything he can to avoid round three.

|align=center|[[Image: 30k.Lorgar.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Lorgar_portrait.jpg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XVIII'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Vulkan_sketch.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Vulkan]]
|align=center|Lord of Drakes
|align=center|[[Nocturne]]
|align=center|[[Salamanders]]
|align=center|Loyal
|align=center|
*A true man of the people, concerned with the preservation and welfare of humans. Vulkan saw all humans in the Imperium as equals and would protect any servant of the Emperor with great ferocity regardless of their class or status.
*Growing up in a blacksmith society allowed him and his legion to craft some of the finest wargear the Imperium has ever seen. It's also the reason for their fire fetish in combat.
*Inherited the Emperor's perpetual powers, granting him the ability to reincarnate after dying.
*He and his legion took some of the worst losses during Istvaan, and he himself was eventually captured by Konrad Curze.
*Curze wanted to get his torture fetish on, so he tortured Vulkan to death. Several times. Vulkan's status as a perpetual ensured he always came back, but less and less sane as Curze's treatment got worse and worse.
*He eventually managed to escape, but accidentally teleported over Macragge's atmosphere, crashing down on the planet like a green comet of insanity. By this point, anything remotely resembling sanity had left Vulkan's mind. He was eventually "killed" by another perpetual, in a well-meaning attempt to reset Vulkan's brain. It worked (sort of. At least he wasn't a howling maniac anymore) and after taking a short death nap, he got better and disappeared for a while.
*Resurfaced during [[The War of The Beast]] and was recruited to lead the Imperial forces against The Beast's forces. Then disappeared after ramming The Beast into a plasma reactor and killing them both in a squall of gore. The Salamanders claim he continued to lead them for a few more centuries after that death, then left them with the Tome of Fire, claiming he had a special mission that they could not accompany him for.
|align=center|[[Image:Past Vulkan.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Vulkan Lives.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Vulkan-Primarchs-Warhammer-40000-фэндомы-4123369.jpeg|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XIX'''
|align=center|[[Image: Corax Portrait.png|thumb|250px|]] [[Corvus Corax]]
|align=center|The Lord of Shadows, The Liberator, The Deliverer, The Raven-Lord, Chooser of the Slain, The Shadowed Lord
|align=center|[[Deliverance]]
|align=center|[[Raven Guard]]
|align=center|Loyal
|align=center|
*Sought to overthrow oppression, bringing justice to tyrants.
*Possessed some kind of perception-manipulating psychic power, giving him the ability to be "invisible" to organics (He's still there clear as day, but your mind just can't process that he's right there).
*Preferred covert warfare, sabotaging, fast strikes and assassinating the enemy from the sides, and only striking in the open when the time is right. Basically one of the few primarchs who uses tactics of actual special forces units.
*He and his legion were bloodied during Istvaan and forced out of the conflict. Corvus wanted desperately to help the Imperium's deteriorating situation, so he asked the Emperor for assistance. Emps obliged and gave him the template to create the Primarchs themselves, giving him the ability to train marines at an even faster rate. This was wrecked after the Alpha Legion tampered with the creation process, resulting with the majority of the aspirants coming out as horrible mutants and aberrations.
*While it weighed heavily on his conscience, Corax had to be pragmatic. He made do and used his newly obtained mutant horde as shock troops and it worked; they were able to disrupt the traitors long enough to buy Terra some time to put up a defense.
*After the Heresy ended, he was reluctantly forced to euthanize his creations, wracking Corvus with a huge amount of guilt.
*Went missing after heading for the Eye of Terror to atone for his sins, saying only "Nevermore" before leaving. His status is currently unknown, but the Raven Guard believe he's still alive and will return once again. In reality, he is indeed alive and hunting his fallen brothers, although the Warp has changed him into a living, shapeshifting shadow.
|align=center|[[Image:Warhammer-Corvus-Corax-Primarchs.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Hh-walpaper-raven-Copy.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Corvus Corax.jpg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XX'''
|align=center|[[Image: Alpharius2.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Alpharius]] [[Omegon]]
|align=center|Head of the Hydra, Aleph Null, The Hydra, The Threefold Serpent, The Final Configuration, The Last Primarch
|align=center|They're not telling
|align=center|[[Alpha Legion]]
|align=center|[[Alpha Legion|Alpharius: Very loyal. Omegon: even Tzeentch can't keep track.]]
|align=center|
*Shrouded in mystery. It's not even known what their homeworld is, let alone what their upbringing was like. Forge World gave no fewer than four mutually irreconcilable origin stories, all of which were dismissed as lies. That said, the only discernible fact we can give about them is that the two primarchs did not always agree with each other, exemplified with Omegon actively sabotaging Alpharius' operations during the Horus Heresy.
*As primarchs of the Alpha legion; the two frequently exchanged roles whenever needed with nobody ever noticing, but officially; Alpharius is the primarch of the legion while Omegon is commander of their elite covert forces.
*Masters of psychological warfare and manipulation. They didn't need regiments of soldiers or weapons to do his heavy lifting; all he needs is a handful of spies to plant paranoia, deceit, misinformation, and dissent in his targeted worlds. By the time his agents are done: the enemy would either be tearing each other apart and/or distrustful of each other; making them isolated, easy pickings for the main Alpha Legion forces once they're called to reign the planet in.
*Alpharius bought the Cabal's story about letting Horus kill all of humanity to kill off the Chaos Gods in the long run, and was eventually beheaded by Rogal Dorn during a battle on Pluto. Maybe. Quite frankly, with these two one can never be entirely sure '''what''' the truth really is.
*Omegon took on his mantle officially ("the jest made real") and this new "Alpharius" may or may not have been killed by Guilliman (the Ultramarines suspect they may have only killed a body double). His loyalties are unknown, but he was against the Cabal's proposal, indicating he either thought sacrificing his entire species was too big of a price (which would mean he's still loyal to humanity), or he wanted Chaos to survive by feeding off humanity (which would mean he was a traitor).
|align=center|

|}

==Their Eventual Fates==
[[File:Heresy_Time.jpg|300px|thumb|right|An accurate retelling of the final stages of the rebellion.]]
===Traitors===
*General downside to those who became Daemon Princes is that the further they go from the Eye of Terror, the more their power wanes. Also most of them spend most of their time in the Great Game (eternal war in the Warp), growing increasingly distant from the real world affairs.
* '''Horus''' was killed by the Emperor during the Siege of Terra, who utterly destroyed his soul. His legion enshrined his corpse until the Emperor's Children stole it. [[Fabius Bile]] managed to successfully clone him, but [[Abaddon]] killed the clone to cement his position as his successor as Warmaster of Chaos. While "Horus" is supposedly ''very'' dead, which was his fault for being a fuckwit, shards of his soul which were broken off in the Warp remain. Including one in the realm of Khorne...
* '''Angron''' is a Daemon Prince of Khorne. Still gets shit done, but did get his arse handed to him by the Grey Knights on Armageddon.
* '''Mortarion''' is a fucktwit who rarely does anything of interest (still sulking over his eternal existence as the thing he hates the most), but is a Daemon Prince of Nurgle. Apparently now holds the largest domain in the Eye of Terror, rather than just one planet he had in the old fluff. Got some open heart surgery, courtesy of Draigo/Ward. Created zombie plague from one of the artifacts Abbaddon used in his XII crusade. He invaded Ultramar after hearing news that Guilliman's finally awake, though he ultimately had to go back to the [[Scourge Stars]] due to his poor fortunes in the war as well as being summoned back by his patron God.
* '''Fulgrim's''' soul was trapped in a painting while his body was possessed by a daemon for a brief time before swapping places with the daemon and taking its powers (or so he claims). The first Primarch to become a Daemon Prince, although he aimed at achieving (demi)godhood instead (by sacrificing Perturabo). Abandoned what remained of his legion to rule his pleasure daemon world, and [[Troll|didn't tell them how to get there]] (yet Abaddon somehow manages to contact him anyways).
* '''Lorgar''' is a lazy fucknut who does nothing since they fled to the Eye of Terror, and handed the rule over his legion to the council of Dark Apostles, but still a Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided. Taught Abaddon how to summon daemons. Lost a duel with a powered-up Corax during sometime after the Heresy.
* '''Magnus the Red''' got broken into several pieces during his fight with Leman Russ, with several of them actually believing they were the real Magnus and going their own way. Some pieces were eventually put back together to form "the Crimson King", the Daemon Primarch form of Magnus who joined Horus in his rebellion. This sometimes also gets shit done, leading armies to the [[Space Wolves]]' planet and screwing with the Imperium, keeping his big red trollface on all the time until he gets his ass tossed back into the [[Warp]]. Other fragments seem to be floating around throughout history, appearing to have their own agenda, pretending to be daemons or helping the Imperium from time to time. By the time of the Gathering Storm and the 42nd Millennium the disparate fragments have mostly recombined to the Crimson King ''(leaving out a few key elements, namely the ones who embodied his best qualities; for example, the part of Magnus that embodied his love for his Legion chose to fade into nonexistence instead of being reabsorbed into the Crimson King)'' making him as whole as he can be.
* '''Perturabo''' becomes irrelevant after he goes on to drop largely out of post-Heresy fluff, but is still a Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided. Rules the most stable planet in the Eye of Terror, where he does nothing but watching his sons sieging each other. Helps Failbaddon in a couple of Black Crusades by giving him some Daemon Engines. It doesn't really help, but it's more than Lorgar's done for Chaos Undivided. He is also leading his Legion after the 13th Black Crusade in their new offensive against the Imperium.
* '''Konrad Curze''' allowed a Callidus assassin to infiltrate his lair and kill him, either because he himself became the thing he hated the most, or to justify to himself that every atrocity he has done in the name of justice was a necessary act. Except...there was that crown he always wore, the one with a stone in it that looked oddly similar to a soulstone...
* The Alpha Legion's story is a bit complex:
**'''Alpharius''' was slain by Rogal Dorn in combat during the Battle of Pluto. He is very much dead as he did not bargain with the Dark Gods and had his head split open by a fellow Primarch's chainsword. Conspiracy theorists will speculate that it wasn't really Alpharius, though the death is strongly corroborated by Omegon's response. So unless Alpharius used a body double to trick Rogal Dorn AND ''his own twin'' into thinking he was dead and allowed Omegon to take his place and identity permanently; there isn't any hard evidence to suggest that the dead "Alpharius" was anything other than the actual Primarch, but knowing the Alpha Legion that doesn't mean too much without definitive proof.
**'''Omegon''' reluctantly took Alpharius' identity after he sensed he was dead, and his legion a bee-line for Ultramar after the Horus Heresy, where he met his end after dueling [[Roboute Guilliman|Big Bobby G]]. However, because the rest of the Alpha Legionaries did not break even after the death of their primarch ''(in fact they managed to beat the Ultramarines in the conflict altogether);'' nobody could truly confirm if they did indeed kill the real deal, or if it was a body double.
**While it's been established that a decent amount of Alpha Legionnaires were surgically altered to resemble their Primarch and even ''believe'' they were Primarchs themselves; that and the figurehead role of "Alpharius" has been largely interchangable between both the twins and their sons, which makes sense for a legion whose MO is flexible leadership. While we can be reasonably certain that at least one of the twins is dead, whatever "Omegon-Alpharius" or at least whichever person who thinks he's Alpharius have been up to following the Heresy is a matter of fierce debate and speculation.
**One warband of the Alpha Legion believes that Omegon is still alive in the 42nd millennium and somehow certain elements of the Necron knows where he is. And there is that one big guy in scaled armor trapped in Trayzn's toybox...

===Loyalists===
[[File:Imperium-good-ending.jpg|350px|thumb|right|If GeeDubs ever dared to make a multiple outcome final campaign World of Darkness style this will probably be the Golden Ending while respecting all the current canon material.]]
*It is believed by Mortarion that they are now returning to realspace.
*'''Ferrus Manus''' was killed by Fulgrim during the Drop Site Massacre. His body was not recovered, so some Iron Hands think he might still be alive, and for a time it seemed like he did survive. However, Vulkan later exposed the "Ferrus Manus" leading the remaining Iron Hands as a marionette-like machine with one of the Primarch's hands attached to it, destroying the fake soon afterwards. The fact that Ferrus was decapitated by Fulgrim after being defeated and had his head delivered to Horus makes this claim fairly dubious. Just don't say that to the Iron Hands, though. Unless you want free open-heart surgery from a ceramite and steel power fist. Fulgrim did try to clone him (several times) in the hope one of them would join the traitors, but every clone so far has refused and been subsequently killed by him. An apparition of an iron handed giant - the 10th son - was seen leading the charge in an army of human souls against an army of daemons when the Emperor entered the Webway).
*'''Sanguinius''' was killed by Horus. His body was recovered, and he's the only Primarch who doesn't have any legends about returning, though there are some theories on the identity of the [[Sanguinor]] which were later proven <s>incorrect</s> half correct (he is able to manifest Sanguinius to Dante during the events of the Dark Imperium). Sanguinius foresaw his death and accepted it as a necessary sacrifice for the future of the Imperium, in no small part because his visions also warned him that he would only survive the Horus Heresy by becoming corrupted himself. The trauma of his death by the Talon of Horus left a psychic manifestation of him still on the Vengeful Spirit. As of late it turns out his soul has been wandering the warp ever since, only deciding to make himself known to revive Commander [[Dante]] when he ended up as [[Swarmlord]]-shishkebab after realizing that you really don't want to get into melee with the Swarmlord a little too late (Dante being Dante, he still managed to banish it to the Hive Mind, showing just how bloody exceptional you have to be for Sanguinius to bother interfering).
*'''Lion El'Jonson''' returned to Caliban only to discover <s>that his friend Luther had stabbed him in the back.</s> THAT LUTHER HAD A PLANET-WIDE PARTY AND EVENTUALLY PASSED OUT INTO A COMA AFTER DRINKING 200 TANKARDS OF SPACE WOLF-GRADE ALCOHOL. He sleeps deep within the Rock, originally on life support and now fully-healed (but none of the Dark Angels seem to know this). Perhaps this is a sign of a coming advancement of the storyline, DUN DUN DUN!
*'''Jaghatai Khan''' disappeared into the Webway after chasing a group of Dark Eldar. The White Scars think he will return someday, and when you consider the fact that time is just as weird there as it is in the rest of the Warp, there is a small possibility he's still around.
*'''Leman Russ''' disappeared into the Eye of Terror but promised the Space Wolves that he would return for the Final Battle. Magnus appears to know where he is now, but he sure as hell isn't telling the Space Wolves. Reports during the Thirteenth Black Crusade claim that a figure matching Russ's description was seen leading the 13th Great Company have surfaced, but were never verified. Numerous crusades by the Space Wolves to find Russ have resulted in failure, although they did find <s> his armor in a shrine of Khorne in the Eye</s> an armor believed to be his in the Temple of Horus on Rudra - so either he succumbed to Chaos, was killed by a Khorne champion, devolved into wulfen, or is [[Conan the Barbarian|currently pillaging The Warp as a muscle-bound, half-naked barbarian hero]].
*'''Rogal Dorn''' disappeared during a [[Black Crusade]] in a desperate ship boarding action. Only his severed hand was recovered and its skeleton enshrined. Debate rages about whether the Zerg rush of World Eaters killed him, or whether he's still out there, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIJTvEo4N4Q murdering his way through traitors with an Astartes-pattern shotgun and a chainsword grafted where his hand used to be]. Original 40K novels stated his entire skeleton was on display on Terra, but it's been retconned to only his hands. Still, a Primarch without a skeleton would be bad-ass, if not a little amusing.
*'''Roboute Guilliman''' was formerly preserved in a stasis field, seconds from death after he was poisoned by Fulgrim. Fast-forward a few thousand years and some Eldar flubdubbery, however, and Big Bobby G is back in action, and he's mad at the current state of the Imperium. After a private meeting with the Emperor, he assumed direct command of the Imperium itself as Lord Commander of the Imperium. When he isn't curb-stomping traitors to death or otherwise trying to keep the Imperium afloat, Guilliman is busy re-vamping the Imperium with numerous reforms in an attempt to realize his father's dream for humanity. Needless to say; a lot of people are unhappy about this, but they can't exactly tell off one of the Emperor's actual sons and expect not to be on the business end of a Custodes guardian spear. He's also taken the time to rewrite the Codex Astartes as well.
*'''Vulkan''' got the shit kicked out of him during the Drop Site Massacre, whereupon his fluff gets a bit hazy:
**The old ''Codex: Space Marines'' states that his body was never found, only a book containing only the names of nine powerful relics and a bunch of annoying riddles as to where they might be found, penned by Vulkan himself. In the 41st millennium, the Salamanders believe that he is still alive and that collecting the nine relics - they've found five so far - will reveal his location.
** In the Black Library novels, starting with ''Vulkan Lives'' the big V had to be dragged into a Thunderhawk in bloody tatters. Kurze captured him and tortured him to death... repeatedly; as a [[Perpetual]], Vulkan would not stay dead. After an indeterminate amount of time and deaths, Vulkan managed to escape by teleporting himself into orbit around Macragge and reentering its atmosphere. When he recovered and learned that Kurze was planetside, he [[Rage|flipped out]] and went after him. A well-meaning Perpetual stabbed him with a fulgurite (a spearhead-shaped piece of stone that contains a bit of the Emperor's power), hoping to either cure his madness or kill him for good. Now apparently dead, Vulkan was put in a stasis capsule inscribed with the words "Unbound Flame," with an honor guard of Salamanders until his remains could be returned to Nocturne. As of the end of ''Deathfire'', he somehow managed to return to life again, although there's no indication as to whether or not he's still a Perpetual. As of the War of the Beast, he's still alive in M.32, after the wounding of Guilliman. He's apparently been wandering the Imperium for a millennium fulfilling his own oaths, but returns to Terra to take command and reclaim Ullanor from the united Ork race. Even with one of the greatest forces assembled since the Horus Heresy, with the remnants of the VII Legion Chapters, the fight devolved to Vulkan facing off with The Beast one-on-one, and sacrificing himself in The Beasts temple-gargant's core detonating it with both himself and The Beast inside it. Whether both of them died is highly unlikely. He hints that Dorn is also alive, meaning he is either privy to some secret information, doesn't know of his brother's death, or is going insane.
**The 8th Edition Codex reconcile these stories somewhat, by claiming that sources within the Salamanders themselves believe Vulkan led them for three millennia ''(which accounts for his appearance during the War of the Beast)'', sometimes falling in battle but apparently always returning ''(also accounting for his perpetual status)''. He eventually disappeared on some final undocumented mission, not without leaving his Tome of Fire and bequeathing his personal artefacts to the chapter but not actually saying where they were, giving rise to the legend that if they are all found he will then return.
*'''Corvus Corax''' disappeared into the Eye of Terror as an atonement for putting down the mutant hordes he created in trying to create Space Marines out of desperation. Quoth the Raven: "Nevermore." Beyond the Imperium's eyes, his wraith-slip powers began to mutate and he became a shadowy shapeshifter hellbent on killing all his traitor brothers. Corax was last seen beating Lorgar's ass so hard that the useless fuckwit had to run with his tail between his legs. Yeah, he beat a Daemon Primarch (who had Chaos Marine and likely daemon backup) into up and running, while Corax himself was on his own. Basically the battle between Guilliman and Magnus on Luna, in reverse. Eat it, Papa Smurf.

==Two Missing Primarchs | The Forgotten & The Purged==
Who are the two missing Primarchs, you ask? [[Sigmar|Sigmar Heldenhammer]] and [[Archaon The Everchosen: Lord of the End of Times; Chaos Incarnate; Herald of the Apocalypse|Archaon]] (depending on how WHFB fits in with 40K, if it does). Or maybe (per /tg/ canon) [[Rachnus Rageous]] and [[Tialoc Ekans]]. [[Samus]] and [[Berserk|Guts]] are also contenders, and many Bolter and Chainsword regulars consider Icarion and his Lightning Bearers to be their headcanon II Legion.

The Legions in question are the Legio II (Second Legion) and the Legio XI (Eleventh Legion).

What, you wanted a serious answer?

Okay, fine. Nobody really knows. It is very intentional that no lore exists about these two legions, making them completely unknown. References to their existence are common in canon, but no details are ever explicitly mentioned. This is a feature of the lore, an intentionally kept mystery whose details provide more questions than answers. What has been established is that they got killed for some reason and the existence of their Legions was wiped from record by the Emperor. [[Malcador the Sigillite]] claims that the Primarchs had been manipulated from the start, and were to be maneuvered into their proper roles prior to the Horus Heresy and those which would not be manipulated would be removed. Although Malcador's own testimony is tainted by the fact that he later admits he had to lie, though many of his statements do mirror what we have seen from the Emperor's own statements.

[[Games Workshop]] have mentioned Primarchs besides the eighteen above on other occasions, but they backtracked since. Back in the [[Rogue Trader|first edition]] of [[Warhammer 40,000]], all twenty [[First Founding]] Chapters were known, as were their Primarchs (though, at the time, the Primarch was just the first Chapter Master). Of these, the [[Valedictors]] and [[Rainbow Warriors]] were declared in a later [[White Dwarf]] to have been founded after the [[Second Founding]].

Later, in the short story '''Hell in a Bottle''' from the novel Into the Maelstrom, a chapter known as the Iron Hearts get fucked over by a [[Chaos Lord]]. The short story also mentions that the Chapter has a Primarch known as Rubinek. Of course, this was just a huge cock-up on the author's part, who himself admitted that he meant Chapter Master.

=== The [REDACTED] Event ===

*'''The First Heretic''' shows that by the Razing of Monarchia (43 years before the Isstvan V Drop Site Massacre of 006.M31), the II and XI Legions had already been stricken from the records. It also states that the remaining Primarchs had to swear an oath never to speak of their missing brothers and that the missing Primarchs' corresponding legions were personally purged by the Emperor, so it had to have been something extraordinarily bad. However, Lorgar still remembers something about them, saying "I still remember how they-", before Magnus cut him off. Lastly, it is revealed that the Emperor had considered purging Lorgar and the Word Bearers (making them the third legion to be purged) for starting a religion around him, but Russ had talked him out of it. #BlameLemanRuss
*In '''The Lightning Tower''' Rogal Dorn says that the lost Primarchs' disappearances were "separate tragedies", so it seems like they disappeared in two different incidents.
*In '''Descent of Angels''', which takes place as of the time Lion El'Jonson had been rediscoverd, Chief Librarian Israfael tells the then initiate, Zahariel El'Zurias, that the Lion has 19 brothers; indicating that as of that time they had not committed whatever atrocity lead to their demise. This also means that the existence of the Primarchs was not a secret among the Imperium.
*In '''Dark Imperium''', Roboute Guilliman declares "I was one of twenty. Two failed. Half the rest turned on my Father." This suggests that the downfall of the two lost primarchs was not a result of them betraying the Emperor. Instead their demise was a result of them "failing" their purpose as primarchs and being terminated as a result. Interestingly this line also seems to imply that it is no longer forbidden to speak of the two missing primarchs in the 42nd milenium, as Guilliman casually references them to make a point about primarchs being fallible. (The 2021 revision of the book adds a bit more to this; it looks like the Imperium has covered up the fact that there were even two deleted Legions and Primarchs in the first place.)
*'''The Chamber at the End of Memory''' has Rogal Dorn note that he was one of the few Primarchs who ever met with the II and XI Primarchs. It also reveals that not only was the entire Imperium forbidden to speak of the missing Primarchs' existence, but every non-Primarch save for Malcador who had ever interacted with them was mind-wiped so they would remember nothing about them - including their own gene-sons, presumably other than the fact that they were purged from all record and be left unable to speak even about that. Even the other Primarchs had their memories altered so they couldn't recall much more about their lost brothers beyond the fact that they existed - Dorn is dumbstruck by this discovery, and even more so when Malcador tells him that it was his own idea (and Roboute Guilliman's) to have his fellow Primarchs' memories altered. Malcador also states that '''whatever it was that the II and XI Primarchs did, it was against the very ideals of the Great Crusade and would have ruined everything the the Great Crusade had accomplished to that point.''' Their old living quarters in the Imperial Palace are protected by extremely powerful psychic wards, and when Malcador briefly restores Rogal Dorn's memories of them he realizes the '''''hateful truth'''. That '''the entire Horus Heresy up to the Siege of Terra was not so awful or threatening to the Imperium as what had happened to the Missing Primarchs'''; in fact, '''if they were still alive, the Imperium would have long since fallen'''.
*'''Deliverance Lost''' suggests that whatever happened to the missing Primarchs occurred sometime before the Emperor found Corvus Corax, as Corax asked the Emperor why there were only sixteen other Primarchs waiting for him if he was the nineteenth (it's unsure whether this was referring to him being the Primarch of the nineteenth Legion, or him being the nineteenth found); the Emperor avoided the question, claiming that "it would be a discussion for another day". This is no longer the case, somehow, as he is [[Retcon|now the third-to-last primarch found]], right before the second missing primarch.
*In '''Prospero Burns''', Leman Russ mentions that the Space Wolves had fought other Space Marines before the attack on Prospero, which may have something to do with the purge. A senior Space Wolf describes Russ' "wyrd" as being "the Emperor's executioner". Several books since have backed this up, though [https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/8q7qyg/the_space_wolves_what_were_they_really_for_little/e0hih9h/ ADB denies this].
*In '''Scars''' there's a reference to rumours and "whispers of past atrocities" that only a Primarch could kill another Primarch. Russ also turns up and talks a bit about fighting Magnus, and the resulting "shame". So if he's responsible for offing one or two of his brothers, they must've done something pretty fucking heinous.
*In '''The Dark King''', when asked if he will report the Night Lords for censure, Dorn remarks that he feared to add another empty statue to the Emperor's palace, implying that the missing legions were exterminated for committing severe atrocities.
*In '''The Last Council''' Malcador states that one of the missing Primarchs was '''fallen and disgraced'''. Alpharius mentions that one of the primarchs had died. While the lost Primarchs and their Legions were wiped before he was rediscovered, its Alpharius....you can't keep info like that from him.
*Their legions were purged in the times of the [[Rangdan Xenocides|Rangdan Wars]] they participated in.
*In '''The Wolftime''', which is set during the [[Indomitus Crusade]], two Adeptus Custodes are discussing the Space Wolves' resistance to their new [[Primaris Marine]] reinforcements. During the discussion, one of them, Hastius Vychellan, notes that, if [[Roboute Guilliman]] turned on the Emperor, the Space Wolves would be among his first opponents, as the Custodes' history with the Eleventh Legion demonstrates. The other, Maldovar Colquan, notes that this shared history is an example of how loyalty to the Emperor can be corrupted by lies and manipulation. It's quite vague, but the implication is obvious: someone manipulated the XI Legion into turning traitor without them realising it, and the Space Wolves (and likely the Custodes as well) went after them for it. The book doesn't say who manipulated them, but since Malcador mentions in ''The Chamber at the End of Memory'' that the lost Legions' Marines were spared and re-used after their deletion, but the Primarchs weren't, it's possible it was the XI Primarch.

=== Name of one of the missing Primarchs ===
*In '''The Last Council''', [[Horus]] (who had been outraged by the erasure of his brothers from Imperial records) struggles to mutter the name of one of the lost Primarchs while Malcador is using his psyker powers to seize his nerves so as to prevent him from saying it. '''Horus managed to say"M-Mal...al..."''', which pissed Malcador off to the point that it required Alpharius and the Khan to convince Malcador not to kill him outright. Obviously people looking for connections immediately found one in [[Malal]], the fact that hearing the name made Malcador remember something that stirred up a spiteful hate (Malal's primary emotional aspect), and the fact that Malal's favourite/sacred number is 11 (the number for one of the missing Legions, and the Roman numeral for "2" can be seen as two "1's,") there may be some circumstantial connection to the Anti-Chaos Chaos God (ignoring the fact that copyright caused GW to change Malal's name to Malice).

(99% Horus was just trying to say “Malcador”)

=== II Primarch ===
*The 2nd Primarch was the third Primarch rediscovered. After Leman Russ, but before Ferrus Manus.
*'''Fulgrim: The Palatine Phoenix''' mentions that the 2nd Legion's "normally contemplative", "quiet" and "humorless" Primarch had accused Fulgrim of arrogance for boasting he would bring a world under compliance with only eight total Astartes (& that Fulgrim considered the remark high hypocrisy, even bringing to mind the old adage of pots and kettles), which means that at least one missing Primarch was found early enough to have some kind of interaction with his brothers and make a contribution to the Great Crusade (being 3rd in line after Horus and Russ, actually). Considering how recent the encounter had apparently happened, and how Fulgrim refers to the Primarch as if he is still around, it appears that he was still very much active and un-purged at the time of the novel's events, although Fulgrim does not refer to him or his Legion by name (referring to him only as the "master of the Second" and "his brother").
*In '''Fabius Bile: Clonelord''', Flavius Alkenex mentions that Fulgrim once described one of the two (likely the 2nd since the 11th was almost last to be recovered) having made a pilgrimage to the Attila System of Ultima Segmentum to make an archaeological expedition inside the [[Necrons|Ymga Monolith]] for [[C'tan|unknown]] [[Heretek|reasons]] during the earliest days of the Great Crusade.

=== XI Primarch ===
*The 11th Primarch was nineteenth primarch rediscovered. After Corax, but before Alpharius Omegon.
*In '''The First Heretic''', when Argel Tal and the other Word Bearers are in the Emperor's gene-labs, they find the 11th's gestation pod. It is mentioned that the 11th was still "innocent and pure" prior to the Primarchs being scattered, although this was a vision given to the Word Bearers by a demon so take it with a grain of salt.
*In the 9th Edition of the Adeptus Custodes Codex, it is mentioned that the Dungeons and Vaults of the Imperial Palace contained many taboo and esoteric items and entities with Subject XI listed as one of them. Whether it's actually one of the Lost or a coincidence is an neverending debate.

=== The Lost Legions ===
*The Regimental Standard article '''Field Dressing a Lasgun Wound''' makes reference to the II and XI legions taking part in the Rangdan Xenocides, but cuts off before their names are given (though given the amount of whitespace between the word "the" and the end of the page, this would suggest at least one of them had a particularly long word in their name). Given it references the rank of "Warmaster", it means this was during the tail end of the war.
*'''The First Heretic''' specifies that the missing Legions were purged at least 43 years before the Drop Site Massacre, so we can conclude that neither one took part in the Horus Heresy. At the same time, members of the Word Bearers Seventh Company travelling through time with Ingethel the Ascended reveal rumors that the surviving members of the lost Legions were folded into the Ultramarines (their Chaplain thinks the rumor is a load of grox-shit, but their Captain does note that the Ultramarines are on record as receiving an increase in troops; however it should be noted that Ingethel is a Daemon Princess, and could easily have been bullshitting herself).
*In '''The Chamber at the End of Memory''', Malcador stated that when both the Primarchs were purged, it left their legions leaderless. Indicating that the the II and XI legions were around when both Primarchs did the thing. And that Dorn and Guilliman had spoken up to convince him that just purging the two lost legions completely would be a waste of good soldiers. Instead, Dorn and Guilliman created the plan to wipe the Legions' memories, and have them put to use elsewhere. While it is not actually said where they wound up, beyond Malcador saying that he ensured they were "attuned to new circumstances", it is possible that Dorn and Guilliman had the Marines integrated into their own legions. If true, this may support the fanon explanation of the [[Rainbow Warriors]] and [[Valedictors]] existence.
*In '''Fear To Tread''', Sanguinius admits to Horus that he had not told the Emperor about the Red Thirst because he feared that the Emperor would purge the Blood Angels in the same way as the missing Legions, indicating that some form of gene-seed flaw caused at least one of the Legions to be purged.
*'''Visions of Heresy - Book One''' has a pictographic list of all the original legions. Interestingly, the II Legion pict-capture is labeled "-ERROR #CDIV- file not found", while the XI Legion pict-capture is labeled "-CENSORED- by Imperial decree". This seems to indicate that the XI Legion was merely censored, while the records of the II Legion were wiped entirely. ‘Error #CDIV’ is a play on Error 404 using Roman Numerals.

=== Known Timeline ===
*'''792.M30''', the Primarchs were created . The 11th is still "innocent and pure". The Primarchs are scattered.
*'''798.M30''', The Great Crusade began.
*The 2nd Primarch is found and reunited. He is the 3rd Primarch found, after Horus and Russ.
*Sometime during the early years of the Great Crusade, the 2nd Primarch leads an expedition to the Ymga Monolith in the Attila System of the Ultima Segmentum.
*After the discovery of Guilliman, the (then) 8 found Primarchs all met up. The 2nd accused Fulgrim of hubris. Fulgrim feels the 2nd was guilty of the same and called him out on hypocrisy.
*Magnus is found and all (then) 9 found Primarchs meet up.
*Around the time Lion El Johnson (11th to be found) was discovered, the two lost Primarchs had not yet done whatever made them get un-personed.
*'''Between the 890s.M30 - 930s.M30''', both the 2nd and 11th Legions were deployed along with the Solar Auxillia to the Rangdan Xenocides. This is the last recorded action of either Legion. ''Something'' happened to them during this war. An Alpharius (who may or may not be THE Alpharius) met Lion and offered to manage the mess here in his stead. Clearly any non-Primarch person can just march in to meet Lion and ask to take away his job!
*'''approx. 898.M30''' Corax, the 18th Primarch discovered, is found "around a century" after the start of the Great Crusade.
*'''Between 898.M30 - 963.M30''', the 11th Primarch is discovered. At some point he is reunited with his legion.
*The information of the lost Primarchs and their Legions is wiped, leaving Alpharius as the only non-lost Primarch to not see all others at least once (if the Rangda's Alpharius is someone else entirely) .
*'''981.M30''' Alpharius Omegon is discovered and (or at least) given leadership of the XX Legion (the at least is because Horus found him/them first and took a while to tell others this).
*'''Between 981.M30 - 000.M31''' Horus confronts Malcador about the destruction of the lost Primarch's statues in the Reliquary. Attempts to say one of their names out of spite for Malcador, is force choked and can only get out an approximation of "Malal."
*'''000.M31''', Magnus mentions its the first time since [REDACTED] '''9''' Primarchs have met up in one place. Its likely that Magnus wanted to say something like "Since the 2nd was with us.".

=== Other Info ===
Lion El'Jonson wouldn't lead the fight against the Rangdan xenos until 890s.M30, and not until the 6th year of his involvement did the title of "Warmaster" get thrown around. Adding this to the document in "Field Dressing a Lasgun Wound", means that the 11th Legion's participation in the Rangdan Xenocides didn't happen until at least 8 years after Lion El'Jonson took the helm. The Xenocide would end by 930s.M30, meaning the 11th only participated in the war for a possible 32 to 42 years. The Horus Heresy didn't begin until 005.M31, and the 2nd and 11th had been expunged and condemned 43 years before the Dropsite Massacre which occurred at 006.M31, disproving the dates 965.M30 & 969.M30 as being the period where they were exterminated by the Space Wolves. By the time the Rangdan Xenocides ended, there would have been a possible 23 to 33 year gap between 930s.M30, the end of the Xenocides, and 963.M30 for them to have committed whatever atrocity called for damnatio memoriae, assuming it didn't occur during the Xenocides.

Considering that the 2nd was around for at least a century with no issues before the 11th showed up and they both got expunged three decades after the end of the Rangdan Xenocide, it's a strong possibility that [[that guy|the 11th was the ring leader of the two & dragged the 2nd Primarch down with him]].

Out of universe, [[Rick Priestley]] admitted that the unknown legions were supposed to be a reference to the three Roman legions wiped out in the [[Wikipedia: Battle of the Teutoburg Forest| Battle of the Teutoburg Forest]], whose numbers were never reused after they were slain to a man by Germanic barbarians as well as add an air of mystery and strangeness to the setting, that it had been so long since the primarchs and their full legion were around that people had entirely forgot about them .Nowadays, it doesn't even really let people do much with homebrew fluff since the setting has developed in such a way that it's almost impossible for someone to connect a homebrew chapter to the missing primarchs without getting laughed out of their [[Local Game Store]]. If you play in the privacy of your own home, however, there's nothing stopping you and your friends from nailing it down and having your Self-Insert Primarchs show up and give the Imperium a Noblebright/even GRIMDARKER (Delete as appropriate) kick in the ass.

It seems likely, given the frequent references to betrayal relating to these two Primarchs, that the Lost Primarchs did something rebellion-related or perhaps [[Imperium Secundus|tried to carve out their own empires]]. Perhaps they realized that there could be peaceful coexistance with the [[Xenos]] (as was the case of the [[Interex]]), and ended up thinking the Imperium was Evil. Either way, they did something massively damaging (or nearly pulled something off) that would have crippled the Imperium for its myriad enemies to finish off. A possible hint at the cause of their descent is mentioned in ''Extermination'' in the section regarding the Alpha Legion of all groups. Three incidents, all [REDACTED] in name, tell us that one Legion had a problematic source for its recruitment. Specifically, a [[Heresy|''potentially tainted'']] source. Although not said in sequential order, one Legion was deemed to have failed the qualification to be a Legion since it did not have enough marines to be combat effective. Lastly, a place called "Labryk Polaris" and another redacted incident point at attempts to replicate or even supersede the Emperor's gene-craft. Combining all of these cases, it's clear that one Legion had severe issues with their gene seed and their primary recruitment world. This led to said Legion failing the rudimentary testing regiment that all legions undergo. From there, the Primarch in question must have performed a few [[Daemonculaba|experiments in how to create more marines]]. Whatever the result, the Emperor clearly did [[*BLAM*|not like it.]]

It should further be noted that, in the 42nd Millennium, when asked why there were 11 symbolic chairs rather than 9 for the Primarchs, Guilliman replies something along the lines of "Of the 20, two failed and half the rest turned on my father", explicitly distinguishing this "failure" from heresy/treason, hence the reasoning in keeping ceremonial seating for them out of honor. Of the 20 Primarch plinths on Terra, 9 were destroyed but 2 were covered up. So it might be that they weren't traitors, but went '''TOO FAR'''(given that this is the Imperium of Man, the height of human Grimdark, that is not a good thing), perhaps by, for example, becoming a Chaos-fighting Chaos God (if true, It's likely that Malal would see it as the ''Imperium'' having betrayed ''him,'' explaining why he later decided to take the [[Sons of Malice]] under his wing). However, the memories of all the Primarchs regarding the two abolished legions were altered by Malcador, thus making Guilliman's input unreliable.

=== Where Are The Lost Legions Now? ===

''Note: This assumes that the theory of the Imperial Fists and Ultramarines absorbing the II and XI Legions is correct.''

Assuming that the survivors of the II and XI legions were mind-wiped and assimilated into the Imperial Fists and Ultramarines in ''The Chamber at the End of Memory'' (despite common misconceptions online, anyone who actually read the story would know that it does ''not'' confirm this, even if it's a possibility), it raises the question of where, if anywhere, the descendants of the two legions are now. Given that the Ultramarines are the progenitors of the majority of Space Marine chapters in the galaxy, that leaves a lot of options. Even having the founder of the chapter appear in the [[Horus Heresy]] series is no guarantee that the chapter isn't descended from one of the lost legions, since the members of the chapter wouldn’t even know themselves. By the end of the Horus Heresy the only person who knew which marines were and weren't descended from the Lost Legions would be Rogal Dorn, and it looks like he took the secret to...wherever he went. As of ''Dark Imperium'', the one person who knows even part of the contents of the gene-seeds for these legions is [[Belisarius Cawl]], who most likely used what samples he had of these gene-seeds (as well as un-chaosified gene-seeds of the other eight) to raise additional [[Primaris Marines|super-space marines]] despite Guilliman's insistence to not entertain such notions. As with the original legions, these new marines and the chapters they eventually formed were equally dispersed among the official gene-lineages with no evidence of their true heritage being apparent.

The obvious place to start looking for successor chapters of the lost legions is any chapter that seems to deviate a bit too far from the behavior of their supposed primarch and First Founding chapter. The [[Mortifactors]] and [[Doom Eagles]] are two such candidates, given that they don’t behave anything like [[Roboute Guilliman]] and the Ultramarines. Especially given that the II Primarch was described by [[Fulgrim]] as “normally contemplative”, “quiet”, and “humorless”. It would also explain why the [[Soul Drinkers]] believed themselves to be descendants of the Imperial Fists despite later being shown to not have Dorn’s geneseed, despite having a weapon gene-coded to the Soul Drinkers. The fact that the Soul Drinkers rejected the authority of the [[High Lords of Terra]] and fought for the common good of humanity rather than the Imperium itself also fits well with fan theories of one of the lost primarchs being a humanitarian who either believed coexistence with xenos was possible or rejected the Imperium for being just another tyrannical regime and unlike Jaghatai couldn't take the hypocrisy for the common good in the face of survival necessities against Chaos.

Then, of course, there is the elephant in the room, the red-headed stepchild of the Imperial Fists, [[Sigismund]] and the [[Black Templars]]. The Black Templars are about as un-Imperial Fist-like as it is possible to be, Imperial Fists being siege specialists who tend towards stoicism and prefer to dig in and defend until the last man, whereas the Black Templars are hyper-aggressive, always crusading, rarely if ever man any fortifications (they don't even have a homeworld, just maintaining a chapter keep on every world they liberate), and are known for their hatred of psykers and extreme piousness, something that is not really seen in the other Imperial Fist descendants. Though Dorn has been shown to have quite the well of rage himself. And, of course, [https://youtu.be/0Vh_N8CpcL0?t=1207 they do not have "fist" in their name]. A lot of attention is paid on Sigismund obsessive desire for Dorn's paternal favor, and there is a brief moment of attention paid to the fact that Sigismund offered to personally tear down the statues of the II and XI primarchs on Terra, sayng they are traitors and did not deserve to be remembered. Dramatic irony perhaps? There's also parallels to Sigismund's IRL namesake, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigismund,_Holy_Roman_Emperor#King_of_Hungary| whose father died when he was young, was basically adopted by King Louis the Great of Hungary and Poland, and ended up becoming king of Hungary]. Dorn even says in a moment of anger that Sigismund is “not his son, and never will be”. Regrettable statement made in a moment of anger? Or a subconscious Freudian slip?

Finally, the retconned OG first founding [[Rainbow Warriors]] and [[Valedictors]] are theorized to be lost legion loyalists too.

However, it should be noted that a Chapter's culture, tactics, and temperament aren't necessarily determined by ancestry. Deviations might just be a sign of a Chapter's circumstances affecting its internal culture and structure (e.g. the [[Red Scorpions]]' genetic purity leading to even more extreme xenophobia and intolerance of corruption than usual, and their Apothecaries being given authority than in most Chapters), or of a homeworld culture displacing that of the Chapter's founders (something that is discussed when [[Uriel Ventris]] fights alongside the [[Mortifactors]] in one of the Ultramarines novels). Even heritable traits might be lost, gained, become exaggerated, or otherwise change over time, due to mutation or [[Cursed Founding|genetic tampering]]. Applying Occam's Razor would lead one to conclude that most of the weirder Chapters' origins are probably [[Ultramarines|quite]] [[Imperial Fists|boring]], too, since Lost Legion heritage raises just as many questions as it answers, if not more.

==Rules on the Tabletop==
Thanks to Forge World, not only do we have models for the Primarchs, but rules as well. As you can guess, they are ungodly death machines who can easily win their points back and more. That's not to say they're invincible, though; they can still be killed if you screw up badly enough. Do be sure to see [[Primarchs in 8th Edition]] and the google drive link on that page as well, should you want to play 30k using the modern rule set. All currently released Primarchs have the following statlines:
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" align="left" class="wikitable sortable"
! || WS || BS || S || T || W || I || A || Ld || Sv || Invul || ML || Points
|-
| '''[[Horus]]''' || 8 || 5 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 5+1 || 10 || 2+ || 3++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 500
|-
| '''[[Angron]]''' || 9 || 5 || 7 || 6 || 5 || 7 || 6(10)|| 10 || 3+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 400
|-
| '''[[Fulgrim]]''' || 8 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 8 || 5 || 10 || 2+ || 5++/3++ in CC || data-sort-value=0 | || 380
|-
| '''[[Mortarion]]''' || 7 || 5 || 6 || 7 || 7 || 5 || 5 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 425
|-
| '''[[Ferrus Manus]]''' || 7 || 6 || 7 || 7 || 6 || 5 || 4+1 || 10 || 2+ || 3++ || data-sort-value=0 | || data-sort-value=455 | 455 or steal his hammer for 415
|-
| '''[[Konrad Curze]]''' || 8 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 5+1 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 435
|-
| '''[[Vulkan]]''' || 7 || 5 || 7 || 7 || 6 || 5 || 4 || 10 || 2+ || 3++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 425
|-
| '''[[Lorgar]]''' || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 5 || 6 || 4+1 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=2.5 | 2 or 3 || data-sort-value=375 | 375 or Chaosify him for 450
|-
| '''[[Perturabo]]''' || 8 || 6 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 5 || 4 || 10 || 2+ || 3++ || data-sort-value=0 | || data-sort-value=455 | 455 or give him Forgebreaker for 490
|-
| '''[[Rogal Dorn]]''' || 8 || 5 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 5 || 4 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 385
|-
| '''[[Corvus Corax]]''' || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6/5 || 7 || 6/5 || 10 || 2+/3+ || 5++ || data-sort-value=0 | || data-sort-value=450 | 450 or fuck him over for 350
|-
| '''[[Alpharius]]''' || 7 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 5 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || data-sort-value=415 | 415''.... or is it?''
|-
| '''[[Roboute Guilliman]]''' || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 4+1 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 400
|-
| '''[[Roboute Guilliman]] (40k, 7e)''' || 9 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 10 || 2+ || 3++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 350
|-
| '''[[Magnus the Red]]''' || 7 || 5 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 4 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || 5 || 495 or charge up for 670
|-
| '''[[Magnus the Red]] (Daemon, 40k 7e)''' || 7 || 7 || 8 || 7 || 7 || 7 || 6 || 10 || 4+ || 4++ || 5 || 650
|-
| '''[[Leman Russ]]''' || 9 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 6 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 455
|-
| '''[[Jaghatai Khan]]''' || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 8 || 6+1 || 10 || 2+ || 5++/3++ in CC || data-sort-value=0 | || 385 or give him a bike for 460
|-
| '''[[Lion El'Jonson]]''' || 8 || 5 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 5(7) || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 460
|-
| '''[[Sanguinius]]''' || 9 || 5 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 6 || 10 || 2+|| 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 485
|}<br style="clear: both; height: 0px;" /><br>
*'''Special Rules (not counting the ones specific for each Primarch)'''
**''Primarch''
***''Adamantium Will''
***''Independent Character''
***''Eternal Warrior''
***''Fear''
***''Fleet''
***''Fearless''
***''It Will Not Die''
***''Master of the Legion''
***''Precision Shots''
***''Precision Strikes''
**''Sire of the [Legion]''

As of 8th edition (special rules not included):
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" align="left" class="wikitable sortable"
! || M || WS || BS || S || T || W || A || Ld || Sv || Points/Power level
|-
| '''[[Roboute Guilliman]]''' || 8" || 2+ || 2+ || 6 || 6 || 9 || 6 || 10 || 2+/3++|| 360/18||data-sort-value=0 |
|-
| '''[[Magnus the Red]]''' || 16 || 2+ || 2+ || 8 || 7 || 18 || 7 || 10 || 3+/4++ || 445/21||data-sort-value=0 |
|-
| '''[[Mortarion]]''' || 12 || 2+ || 2+ || 8 || 7 || 18 || 6 || 10 || 3+/4++ || 470/24|| data-sort-value= 0 |
|}<br style="clear: both; height: 0px;" /><br>

Each of them have one or two close-combat weapons, all of which are AP2 or 1, backed by some decent gun to lay some dakka down while they run to the glorious melee. Their Primarch rule acts like a big bundle of USRs wrapped up together in one package, and as ICs they can join squads as well (though most of the Primarchs are better run solo). Each of them have a page worth of special rules and unique wargear, both of which can be stupidly powerful to the point of broken, but that's OK since even the cheapest of the Primarchs costs no less than 350 points and eats an extremely valuable Lord of War slot that might otherwise be spent on a [[Thunderhawk]] or a [[Fellblade]].

===Pimpin Rides===
Also worth mentioning, that Perturabo and Rogal Dorn are special enough to get their own personal special/unique vehicle, other primarchs may get their own vehicles in the future (who knows?). However, rules dictate that neither vehicle can be taken in games under 3000 points. Meaning you can only use it in 3000+ matches.

*'''Perturabo''' gets to ride in ''The Tormentor'', a Shadowsword with the Command Tank upgrade. Not only that, but Perturabo is so awesome, he managed to somehow give it 15 troop capacity, meaning it can take 12 Power Armoured dudes + himself, or 6 Terminators for his bodyguard. But, it doesn't stop there! It also has a single Void Shield! It costs 25pts more than a normal Shadowsword with the same upgrades, but following FAQs it also has BS4, free sponsons, and gains Tank Hunters/Monster Hunters any time it fires all its guns at one target.
*'''Rogal Dorn,''' on the other hand, gets a customised Thunderhawk Gunship, the ''Ætos Dios''. This ship has Turbo Laser as standard, plus a single Void Shield to protect it, it also has It Will Not Die so can regenerate some of its hull points and finally it ALSO has a 4+ invulnerable save against missiles, all on top of being a flyer which means you can only snap-shot at it, all for the bargain cost of 600 points - which is actually 175 points CHEAPER than a normal Legion Thunderhawk with a Turbo-Laser, though you obviously still have to pay for Dorn.
*'''Jaghatai Khan''' gets his own bitching jetbike: the Sojutsu Pattern Voidbike. It has two master crafted heavy bolters, ups his toughness to 7 and lets him do d3 hammer of wrath attacks, strangely enough though, it also costs him -1I.

==Douchebagginess==
It is well known that most of the primarchs were douchebags to varying degrees.

From least to most douchebag. Note, the scale really drops off into [[dick|'''fucking''' douchebag]] after Jaghatai, and straight-up villain after Fulgrim and '''FUCKING CUNT''' after Lorgar. Also, depending on what they did, the Lost Primarchs may be even worse than all actions depicted here. Generally speaking, we'll be grading these guys on their personalities, treatment of their legion and others, and their motives and reasons for their actions. Also, we'll be adding more weight to their actions during the Great Crusade rather than the Heresy, not many Primarchs had a clear head during the Age of Darkness. Keep in mind that, as charismatic and badass as they may be, the Primarchs are responsible for a level of warmongering and genocide that would appall even the worst of Earth's dictators. How they feel about these atrocities, and why they did it (is it grim necessity, standard Imperial procedure or baseless sadism?) is what separates the [[Sanguinius|"good"]] from the [[Konrad Curze|"bad"]].

# '''The Nice Guys'''
## '''Vulkan''' - The least douchebaggy primarch by far. Vulkan routinely put the lives of him and his men on the line for the sake of the Imperial citizens. Vulkan would throw himself to the defence of a no name human tribe with the same ferocity and zeal as he would Terra itself. A total bro. Also was the largest, strongest Primarch (Ferrus' metal arms were determined as cheating, though according to the Khan, Mortarion was as strong or stronger) and held back in sparring for fear of hurting his brothers. His only real fault was that, despite his strong distaste for terror weapons, he had a thing for setting people on fire. The only times he was an asshole were when he forgot who he was due to Curze's torture driving him mad. Of course, he's still a Primarch and a '''fiery''' general, and he ''will'' leave you a pile of ash if you end up on his shitlist.
## '''Sanguinius''' - Despite some... [[Red Thirst|unorthodox tendencies]], he is reported as being the most charismatic of the Primarchs, perhaps second only to Horus. He is particularly noteworthy for how much he improved his legion. The Blood Angels before his arrival were so bloodthirsty and terrifying that even other Astartes looked askance at them. But Sanguinius took these butcherous vampires and taught them humility and nobility, and to put the well-being of humanity above any personal glory. They actually managed such a total 180 that they were, and still are, regarded as one of the most heroic, resplendent legions out of all of them. A pretty all-round nice guy, he was so naturally charming that he actually managed to get ''Jaghatai Khan'' of all people to laugh at a joke of his. He was also exceedingly humble despite being such a giga-chad, and often played the role of peacemaker between his more cantankerous brothers. He can lapse at times however, as seen in his treatment of Curze by denying him a chance of changing his fate & earning forgiveness, and he regrettably had to kill many of his Red-Thirsted men when they got too batshit even for him. Like Vulkan though, he can still be a ferocious force if riled up, he once beat the shit out of guy for daring to imply the Signus III campaign was a trap (it was, but he had no reason to suspect Horus at that point). Sanguinius's temper was actually such that Leman Russ cited the Angel as one of two Primarchs he didn't know if he could beat. Basically if you pissed him off, he turned into the Hulk.
## '''Magnus the Red''' - For his faults, Magnus was one of the nicest Primarchs right up there with Vulkan and Sanguinius. Before the whole Prospero thing, this guy's MO was all about the advancement of humanity: always trying the diplomatic approach to preserve what could be preserved, using shock and awe tactics to limit damage when fighting, happily taking remembrancers along his legion (Although all remembrancers amongst the fellowship were psykers to some degree). Magnus was a friendly and open-minded idealist, which makes it all the more tragic when he gets deceived, framed, backstabbed and then coaxed into selling his soul to the [[Tzeentch|Cuttlefish of Keikaku]]. He is easily the most sympathetic of the traitors, considering he only joined them after being backed into a corner; had Jaghatai been at his side during and after Nikaea things might have turned out differently. He was also the only traitor Primarch who actually cared about his men, even after ascending to daemonhood. The novel ''Deathfire'' also ups his bro-ness quite a bit, as he proved himself the only traitor-aligned Primarch to ''sincerely'' do something very helpful for one of his loyalist brothers after the Horus Heresy was already in full swing. This "special favour" is made all the more striking given how it took place ''after'' Magnus had his adoptive homeworld burned out from under him. Perhaps his skin was red not only because of mutation, but because it also showed [[Lovedagger|the greatness of his heart]]? On the other hand, this was done by one of the fragments of Magnus that embodied his love for his gene-sons and fellow Primarchs (which ultimately self-destructed to keep the Crimson King from absorbing its power), so any hope that he kept that good heart died after Ahriman's failure at his Second Rubric on Prospero and when the Emperor offered him a chance to redeem himself as the Primarch of the nascent Grey Knights he threw it away. While his soul was still in one piece, Magnus's main character flaw was his arrogance. As in, this guy's ego had only two contenders in all the galaxy; the Emperor Himself, and Lion El'Jonson. Maybe Eldrad too. While he wasn't an in-your-face type like Fulgrim, Magnus and his Legion were still entirely convinced that they knew the Warp better than anyone else, which led to them disregarding many warnings and red flags that could've been avoided, leading almost directly to their awful, [[Rubric Marines|awful]] fates. It also caused him to have a complete blind spot where his own insufferability was concerned, as he genuinely believed himself to be the most intelligent of his brothers. This Sheldon Cooper-esque attitude caused many of the other Primarchs represented at the Council of Nikaea to wish Magnus personally rebuked despite their support of the Libraius initiative itself. When he learned of this, it appeared to have caught him completely off guard, and dismayed him tremendously. Also, Magnus wasn't ENTIRELY innocent as he had implanted sleeper agents and spies throughout the Imperium, ruining the lives of those brainwashed while betraying the trust of his brothers. Why he did this isn't exactly clear (it's very unlikely to be Chaos related) though it's most likely an attempt to obtain information and records his brother might otherwise destroy. Regardless however, his more questionable traits appeared not to have ever been the result of malice, but were instead a byproduct of his solipsism and thoughtlessness.
## '''Corax''' - Even after being raised under the tyranny of the Kiavahrans, he refused to take after their tyrannous ways, wanted to make things right, and asked the Emperor to end the civil war he started while liberating his homeworld of Lycaeus. Seeing the ruthless tendencies the Terran members of his legion had, he quietly shipped them way the fuck away from the rest of the Great Crusade to go fight xenos or had them all slaughtered during the Battle of Gate 42. He was also one of very few primarchs to readily admit his own mistakes, which were numerous and sometimes tragic. Developed a brutal habit of folding Chaos Space Marines into pretzels when shapeshifting into a tangible shadow during his hunt against his Daemon brothers Post-Heresy but left the slaves alone.
## '''Jaghatai Khan''' - Despite him being modeled after [[Genghis motherfucking Khan|the guy who holds the high score on raping and pillaging]], Jaghatai was actually very reasonable and [[Kharn|a pretty fun guy to be around]]. His main hobbies included [[Dark Eldar|raiding and jetbikes]], but he had an appreciation for [[Blood Angels|the fine arts]] as well. He was very good friends with Magnus and very pro-psyker. However he also kept his distance from pretty much everyone else, save Horus, not wanting to deal with other people's bullshit, unless they were really worth the effort - as the result very few people knew and trusted him (especially once [[Horus|most]] [[Magnus the Red|of]] his only bros turned traitor). He seemed to have something of a "live and let live" type philosophy, as after he conquered his home planet, he just kinda fucked off back to the Steppes with a warning to everyone not to piss him off too much. While the Khan didn't seem to care too much about the whole Great Crusade thing and spent most of his time doing his own thing, he never turned his back on the Imperium and sincerely believed in the idea of an Empire in the starry skies. And this was despite being the one of the few Primarchs to understand how bunked the whole [[Imperial Truth]] secular atheist propaganda really was (remember that the Chogorisian had Shamans, who also are the ones who select the White Scars' Chapter Master through mysterious initiatic trials); and of the Emperor himself he declared that he was "neither a monster nor a simpleton", mostly because he knew that [[Chaos]] was far worse (of course). So, the Emperor knew all along that the Khagan had his priorities right and would therefore not betray him, even when Malcador brought up the topic; and this was in spite of the personal relationship of father and son being explicitly awkward.
# '''The Competent Asshole Control Freak (Yes Guilliman needs his own category)'''
## '''Guilliman''' - R.G. is a jerk with a (or rather two) heart(s) of gold or a nice guy with a nasty mean streak, depending on how you look at him. Some people might say this dude was a statesman in the same vein as Augustus Caesar- he was great at building states and making life generally better for people, but only if you ignore the deported and murdered people who didn't agree 100% with the new regime. For somebody more reasonable, Guilliman was perhaps one of the most responsible and human among his brothers. He cared about the common man, personally planned post-war reconstruction and political integration into the Imperium of the planets he conquered and (unofficially) tolerated moderate presence of religion in Ultramar. But for sure the guy had a big ego, as he constantly spoke and behaved like he knew what was best for everyone, at least until proven wrong (multiple times). And you better not get on his shit list, although to be fair he was mostly a complete jerk with people he considers being [[Konrad Curze|psycho]] [[Angron|mass murderers]] with [[Perturabo|no respect for their own sons]] or [[Alpharius|civilian populations]]. And despite what [[Matt Ward|some people]] would have you believe, he knew he couldn't plan for every situation and expected people to use their own judgment rather than blindly follow his [[Codex Astartes|codex]]. Like Jaghatai Khan, we know Guilliman recognized that the Emperor was a horrible father (likely since he's one of the few among his brothers to have had actual decent adoptive parents) and that the ideals the Emperor espoused were far more important than the Emperor himself ever was, and after learning that his whole [[Imperium Secundus]] plan was based on bad assumptions he's been beating himself up about it all the way into the 42nd millennium. While he's grown more cynical since his revival and subsequent realization of how badly the Imperium had devolved in his absence, he has refused to abandon his noble ideals or his faith in humanity as a whole and has privately considered the possibility that in retrospect he had been overly dismissive of Lorgar's ideas about the Emperor's divinity. He also seems to be a bit more irritable than he used to be, but given [[Great Rift|his]] [[Age of the Dark Imperium|current]] situation it would be more surprising if that wasn't the case. Also, may have actually imprisoned [[Cypher]] and the Fallen so that the Emperor wouldn't discover [[Assholetep|who broke Lion El'Jonson's best sword]], ultimately causing him to die in battle in Emprah's mini-me's own pseudo Horus Heresy. Additionally, he has developed a legitimately unprecedented trait for a Primarch: that of sufficient self-awareness to not just recognize, but actually '''LEARN''' from his mistakes, such as during the Hexarchy coup attempt or not trying to secure Ultramar à la Imperium Secundus during the Terran Crusade.
# '''The Douches'''
## '''Horus''' - Pre-Heresy he was a surprisingly chill dude, except if you crossed his sensibilities. Was essentially flat-out stated to have been the most charismatic of his brothers, with the possible exception of Sanguinius. Unlike Sanguinius however, Horus's charisma was something he had deliberately cultivated rather than being a natural trait of his, which speaks volumes of his personality. He was also one of very few Primarchs who made a deliberate effort to ''not'' leave the planets he conquered as smoldering ruins, and had a personal philosophy that those the Imperium conquered "should be left better than we found them." Just to give you an idea of his character in the halcyon days, Horus ''killed Sanguinius'' but retains enough anti-douche credit to rank as the ''least'' douchey of The Douches. He was ''that'' nice before the Heresy. In fact were it not for the Heresy he would probably be in third place after Vulkan and Sanguinius. Got along well with both regular people and nearly all his brothers (Corax was seemingly the only Primarch who disliked him), but he gradually started treating some of them like shit after becoming Warmaster and resented the idea that he and his brothers would not be able to rule over the planets that they had conquered. His insecurities may have also made him vulnerable to the Dark Gods' lies when he received a vision of the Imperium 10,000 years into the future where the Emperor was worshiped as a god, he and many of his brothers were forgotten, and everything was Grimdark--a future that, unbeknownst to him, he would be directly responsible for creating specifically as a result of his own attempts to avert it. The whole [[Heresy]] thing just sort-of kills his position on the list. After going full Chaos, he rapidly became a much, much bigger dick.
## '''Rogal Dorn''' - Although one hell of a masochist, and at times thick-headed, he did see the idea behind the Imperium, and actually agreed with it. Honest and dependable, while Rogal didn't make for interesting conversation, he would always do his job without complaint. Had as much empathy and subtlety as one of his fortresses and ended up hurting a lot of people (mostly emotionally, but sometimes physically too) with his over-the-top brutal honesty. The prime example was when he betrayed Fulgrim's trust after they had a discussion regarding Konrad's visions, and provoked Curze into almost killing him. However, he could occasionally get quite philosophical, and is perhaps the only Primarch to admit that his own nature and power unsettled him.
## '''Leman Russ''' - Nowhere near as much of a dick as butthurt Magnus fanboys would have you believe. He was indeed savage and brutal, but ultimately always keeping the larger goal of betterment of humanity in sight and having good reasons for that myopia. Prone to picking fights with his brothers and destroyed Prospero under questionable circumstances. That said, he used the culture of his homeworld to give his Legion control over its savagery, and made the Space Wolves focus on protecting people from monsters instead of just butchering civilians. He did use terror tactics, mass killings, and the destruction of knowledge, but he did so out of loyalty to humanity and the Emperor, not just because he felt like it. Bottom line: Russ certainly had his fair share of flaws, but as belligerent and myopic as he could be he always tried to make the galaxy safe for humanity in the longer run. He was also capable of admitting to mistakes, which was uncommon amongst the Primarchs. During his fight with the Lion for instance, he started the brawl with the Lion over perceived kill stealing but after a while it dawned on him what an ass he was being, and he stopped fighting and burst out laughing at his own stupidity. He was ''awfully'' stubborn however, and as such this sort of thing didn't happen often.
## '''Ferrus Manus''' - A big dude with a penchant for bursts of choleric anger. Between his resting bitch face and his Social Darwinist ideals, he seems at first glance to be a natural candidate for a traitor. However, his honesty and loyalty to the Emperor mean he certainly wasn't as bad as Perturabo or Mortarion, and he did sincerely believe that weakness would cause the Imperium to collapse. He was... really a pain to deal with, however. Unlike, let's say, Dorn, who was only really mean when you made it on his shitlist, Ferrus was only nice to people who made it on his ''friends''list. Anyone else could, as far as he was concerned, either stay out of his way or get introduced to his fists. Most of the Loyalists and even some Traitors (at first) viewed the protection of the innocent as their goal, while Ferrus encouraged tactics that led to massive civilian casualties, and where Primarchs like Curze or Angron took Legions that were bad about mortal deaths and kept up such practices, Manus took a Legion that had tried to minimize mortal deaths and made them worse about it. All this said, he was loyal unto death to the Emperor's ideals and he also understood that his sons' fetish for cybernetics was beyond unhealthy and wanted to help them overcome it. His death ensured that last part would never happen, and indeed made them double down on their hatred of the flesh.
## '''Lion El'Jonson''' - The Lion was complex, to say the least. He had an arrogance that matched Magnus or Horus's worst moments combined with a difficult early life fighting Chaos beasts on Caliban. This "do-or-die" attitude spilled over into his interpersonal skills, hard. Too hard. Put simply, you had one chance with Johnson and if he ever decided you wasted it, then it was over and you went on his shitlist forever. The end result was a Primarch who was aloof and taciturn, whose poor communication skills made him unsuited to lead the Primarchs but whose ego made it impossible for him to accept the seniority of Horus or Russ. At the same time, there was a competitive, spiteful, and self-centered side to the Lion, which led him to execute one of his own Dark Angels over a conflict of authority and nearly kill Russ over an argument about kill-stealing. The Lion's own awe-inspiring presence, which was powerful enough to make Astartes from other legions literally drop to their knees when he crashed unannounced on a war-council aboard the Vengeful Spirit, didn't help his ego either. There's been speculation in-universe and out of it that he wasn't wholly loyal to the Emperor, but it has been made crystal clear in-universe that he personally was 100% loyal to Big E, and that the whole "muh secret traitors" thing is primarily due to a combination of bad luck and the Dark Angels already having a poor reputation. The Lion may also have been the most "douchey" of all the Primarchs who weren't outright evil at some point. For you see, many of the Primarchs had absolutely ginormous egos, but most of those who did also either possessed the people skills to hide it or were so charismatic that it just didn't matter. Fulgrim, Magnus, Guilliman, Alpharius, and especially Horus are notable examples of this tendency. As stated earlier, the Lion easily had one of the largest egos amongst all his brothers, matched perhaps only by Magnus, but since he had virtually no people skills he was unable to hide it very well. This resulted in him being the Primarch who was liked by the fewest of his brothers (he basically only got on with Jaghatai Khan). His ego cast such a long shadow over his achievements and ability to work with others that even though Guilliman considered the title of Warmaster a two-horse race between Horus and the Lion he still didn't include the latter amongst his Dauntless Few (a list that included Ferrus Manus of all people).
## '''Alpharius Omegon''' - Damned if anyone knows. You just can't trust that/those guy(s), which does make him/them a pretty big dick by default. The fallout from some of the Alpha Legion's Crusade-era shenanigans suggests a certain inclination to showing off at the expense of civilian lives, probably due to an enormous inferiority-superiority complex. Still, they rebelled under perhaps the best intentions among all the traitors with Alpharius at least recognising Chaos had to be defeated (we think- it's still ambiguous as to their end goals) Omegon is possibly a bit better, in that he wasn't willing to sacrifice all of mankind to do so (maybe). After Alpharius's probable death by Dorn at Pluto and Omegon taking his mantle to (allegedly) die at Guilliman's hands, the legion debatably turned into a schizophrenic monster, though this is better than what Fulgrim's actions turned his legion into by far. Alpharius himself (maybe) in his own memoirs presents himself as a tactician and combatant worthy of inclusion in the [[Reasonable Marines]], but who in person had a Lion-sized (hah) chip on his shoulder. Problem is that the memoir itself purports to be a lie, so who really knows.
## '''Fulgrim''' - Rather like Horus, Fulgrim was one of the Traitor Primarchs who started out as quite a kind fellow, and even [[Dawww|fondly remembers his foster parents as doing the best they could]]. Initially he was an incredibly idealistic artisan who wanted to help humanity improve to the absolute limits of its potential. He did this primarily by trying to be the best example of humanity he could be, and demanded the same of his sons. To their credit, they succeeded quite splendidly at this for the most part. Unfortunately he had a rather fragile ego which was probably due in large part by the fact that his legion was virtually non-existent when he came to command it. As such, he had the Primarch equivalent of a Napoleon complex due to the head start most of his brothers got on him, and as such could get fairly petulant if he was challenged in a personal way. This led to him ultimately having a somewhat elitist view of himself and his legion, and he could be a bit of a dick when it came to Astartes and mortals who failed to live up to his astronomically high standards, even before his fall. He also can't keep a secret, betraying Konrad Curze's trust and causing him to go nuts on Dorn's face. Other than Horus and Sanguinius, was the only Primarch to really get along with all his brothers (save Jaghatai, but that's his fault. Oh, and Mortarion thought he was a prancing idiot. And Fulgrim considered Russ a dumb hick. And he didn't seem to like the Second very much), and was BFFs with Ferrus Manus, of all people. That is, until he chopped his head off. Rude. Also took pride to the extremity of arrogance, hence his fall to Slaanesh. Interestingly, his bizarre fixation on friendship with Ferrus never left him, constantly cloning him with help of Fabius Bile and trying to win him over his side. Needless to say, he's failed thus far.
# '''The Self-righteous Jerk (Yes Lorgar needs his own category too)'''
## '''Lorgar''' - The dude who brought this whole fucking mess into fruition. If only he had strangled Erebus and Kor Phaeron at the first mention of Chaos. Instead he decided he was going to ruin everything for everybody because his daddy was a NAYtheist and none of the brothers really supported him. He started off as a well-intentioned idealist who sought to use what he knew best to uplift humanity, religion, before the Emperor's actions on Monarchia destroyed his psyche, allowing Erebus and Kor Phaeron to let him know about [[Chaos|the other gods who would appreciate his worship]]. While it's true he shouldn't have been treated so harshly by the Emperor (even Malcador and Guilliman privately said as much), and even though he believed Chaos was necessary for humanity to survive and continue existence, the fact that Chaos & the Horus Heresy caused the 10,000 year old Imperium to become the grimdark, bloody, corpse-littered cesspool we all know and love would normally outweighs all of the slivers of sympathy that he might have had. And yet, there are people far, far worse than him. To be honest, he was one of the nicest primarchs before the destruction of Monarchia, comparable to Magnus before the Burning of Prospero. He tried to befriend everyone and was one of the primarchs that mostly conquered planets by words and faith, instead of by fire and sword and along Dorn and Guilliman, was one of the rarer ones that wouldn't leave conquered worlds as utter shitholes, instead rebuilding them and integrating its population. All this make his downfall even more sad and tragic, and even after his fall, he seemed to be generally concerned about his brother Angron's (of all people) life, which was a primary reason that he was in a hurry transforming him. Also, confrontation with Corax shows that he genuinely cares for his son's lives, putting him above the disgusting fucktards below. Then again, he was completely blasé about the ''horrific'' fates the Forces of Chaos inflicted on people (see the Gal Vorbak for reference), regardless of whether they wanted it or not. Also, he's arguably the only Primarch who is completely unrepentant about his crimes towards the galaxy at large (even Horus acknowledged what a piece of shit he himself had become, and Fulgrim sometimes expressed regret when the pink haze wasn't clouding his mind). In sum, Lorgar is why we can't have [[Noblebright|nice things.]]
# The '''FUCKING CUNTS'''
## '''Mortarion''' - Described by Alpharius as being "bleakness personified", Mortarion rubbed virtually everyone the wrong way. Excluding Eidolon who he actually got along with somehow. And Horus, for whom he acted as de-facto second in command during the Heresy. Terse, grim and blunt, he was downright bigoted against psykers, and resented (or at the very least looked down upon) nearly everyone who he felt had it easier than him. He was also notorious for using chemical and radiological terror weapons and generally not giving a fuck about who got killed by them. In fairness to him however, he and his legion were usually (though not exclusively) deployed to environments so awful that such weapons typically didn't make things much worse. Also his opponents were usually xenos due both to them typically being the only ones who could survive on the planets he got sent to, and the fact that he really liked killing them. He also was at least somewhat justified in his hatred of psykers, as his necromancer foster father and his fellow overlords had all been psykers, and had been horrific in their subjugation of Barbarus's human population. Had he not turned Traitor, he likely would have been somewhere near Lion El'Jonson in terms of overall dickishness; a spiteful lone wolf type who had a habit of nursing grudges, gave very few shits about who or what his legion killed, went primarily on extermination campaigns, and was generally disliked by everyone for being an ass. Over time, he became more and more disgusted with people's acceptance of [[Emperor|tyrants]] and [[Magnus the Red|psykers]], and became much more likely to kill everything in the vicinity of what he considered evil. Over time he also lost what little tolerance he had ever possessed for weak mortals, and decided that the Imperium was being crafted in such a way as to coddle the weak. Not good as far as he was concerned. Interestingly he did care deeply for his own people, which is why he was so driven to take down both monsters and tyrants after witnessing how his foster father oppressed the populace, though he didn't exactly do much, if anything, to show it. Then [[Nurgle]] made him his plague-ridden bitch and Jaghatai fucked him up and humiliated him in the Siege of Terra, at which point he decided to just take his bitterness out on everyone lacking the Plaguefather's "gifts".
## '''Angron''' - Loved killing people and not much else. Most of the casualties within his legion were a result of him being a team-killing psycho because quite frankly he didn't care what he got to kill as long as he got to kill it. That said, Angron at least had an excuse for being such a rampaging dick all the time. The Butcher's Nails had effectively turned him from being a genuinely nice fellow who could empathically relieve the suffering of others by taking it into himself into a half-mindless killing machine, as it actually has not just remapped but ''replaced'' parts of his brain, effectively removing from him any emotions other than pain, hatred, and battle-lust while also destroying his capacity for empathy and compassion, which arguably means he doesn't even have any Moral Agency (that's Philosopher-speak for saying that he can't be held ethically accountable for his actions any more than a toaster can for burning your fingers). One may wonder what sort of guy he would have been without the implants, presumably he'd be more like his pre-retcon White Dwarf version where he was an honourable warrior whose martial valour ended up leading him down Khorne's path (this was very quickly retconned with the Black Library novels). But he stick to his guns despite the suffering. On top of that, he got fucked over pretty hard by Big E when they first met, so it's no wonder he went traitor the moment Horus made him an offer, we may even credit him for enduring years fighting for the Imperium instead of just getting himself killed in any of the battles as he himself personally wanted. At the end of the day, Angron was probably the Primarch who gave the fewest fucks about his legion and was content to let it run itself without his leadership, although he never really wanted one to begin with. As a result, many of the saner parts of his legion ''loathed'' him, to say nothing about his general reputation (Itvaan III wasn't the first time...). The action that places him so low on this list is the fact that he allowed the spread of Butcher's Nails throughout his Legion, despite his own hatred of the damn things and the fact they cause him so many issues, not least going psycho rage-monster most of the time; which is a pretty fucked up thing for him to condone. Then again, many of his sons accepted the mini-Nails to get closer to their Primarch, psykers, however, died horribly, not that Angron gave a shit. Perhaps he allowed it because seeing his sons with Butcher's Nails reminded him of his fallen gladiator brothers and sisters on Nuceria, but then again he blew up the planet along with all of the people he once fought to liberate just because they were bad-mouthing him. He really wasn't all that great of a guy even during his moments of lucidity, and he was one the few Primarchs to willingly kill his own men during the Great Crusade, an act even ''Horus'' thought was unthinkable.
## '''Konrad Curze''' - Arguably the most sadistic of all primarchs, Konrad really got off to torturing people and manipulating the masses through fear. What started as a quest to use fear to save lives in compliance actions turned through time and circumstance to a simple desire to torture and maim. The man who was supposed to be the ultimate harbinger of justice ended up as an unholy combination of Batman and Joker. By the time the Heresy broke out, any ideas of mercy or decency he may have harbored had long ago been buried under a massive pile of flayed guts. Somewhat like Angron however, the Night Haunter's actions are mitigated somewhat by the fact that the guy practically redefined crazy. His upbringing had much to do with shaping his awful view of reality, but what really screwed him over were his visions. He saw the future in psychic visions constantly, but the futures he saw were always permutations of the absolute worst outcome to any given situation, and he couldn't do anything to stop them. These visions came with severe psychic fits during which Curze would violently spaz out. They became worse and worse as time went on, and the psychological and psychic stress of them reduced Curze from a Punisher-esque individual to a completely sadistic screwball who would build stuff out of corpses and then sincerely thank those corpses. He also suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder, with the Konrad Curze and Night Haunter personas constantly warring for supremacy within his mind. Needless to say, the Night Haunter ultimately won out. He did admit that what he had done was wrong, but instead of trying to atone for his atrocities, he used the excuse that the future was set in stone (which he mostly believed) to justify just going along with the horrors he saw in his visions. In fact, the only two things that genuinely seemed to scare him were the possibilities that the Emperor '''wouldn't''' order his death -- or even worse, be forgiven for his behavior ''(and render his entire outlook on life meaningless)''. The fact that he refused to turn back to heroism at so many opportunities because he felt himself a puppet of fate makes one unable to decide whether he is contemptible or pathetic. Curze skirts this foul line.
## '''Perturabo''' - Perturabo suffers from somewhat inconsistent characterization due to having been written by a series of disparate authors, each of whom seemingly couldn't be bothered to read the previous guy's book. However, the easiest way to sum him up would be as a stone cold monster possessed of an absolutely massive martyr complex. What makes him the worst on this list is the fact that, unlike the other members of the '''FUCKING CUNTS''' tier, Perturabo never had any real justification for being as evil as he was. He wasn't lobotomized like Angron or bat-shit crazy like Curze, and unlike Mortarion his homeworld and upbringing were not bad at all; Olympia was basically just ancient Greece in space, and he had a family who loved him as much as possible given the culture and circumstances. In fact his world and upbringing were actually fairly similar to those of ''Guilliman'' of all people. He didn't even have the religious conviction of Lorgar; he turned Traitor simply out of spite and bitterness. He also seemed perfectly capable of feeling empathy and compassion as well; he genuinely loved his sister for instance... not that it stopped him from strangling her with his bare hands. This fact serves to make his actions all the worse however, as he clearly could understand right from wrong. He seemingly had absolutely no regard whatsoever for human life; hell the very first thing he did upon meeting his legion was to have a random tenth of them murdered by their brothers for not being good enough to suit him. He spent the lives of his legionaries like they were bolter rounds, and despite his bitching about how hard he and his legion had it, he never made any effort to change his way of making war. Though he was deployed to some of the worst battlegrounds in the Crusade, they were hardly worse than those in which the Lion, Russ, or Mortarion engaged in. Yet not one of them ever sulked about it or felt slighted. Not even Mortarion, who got sent to battlegrounds that would literally kill other Astartes by simple virtue of the environment. He is one of the few Primarchs who made his legion objectively ''worse'' by joining it, as he took a group of hardy siege warfare specialists and, by way of deliberately getting the bulk of them killed for decades on end, turned them into spiteful, bitter monsters with as little regard for life as himself. In fact, he made them so callous that the Iron Warriors both in and out of universe are a top candidate for the title of "[[Daemonculaba|evilest]] [[Honsou|motherfuckers]] in the setting", potentially beating out such luminaries as the Night Lords and Dark Eldar. Only the modern Word Bearers really have a fair claim at being worse. The atrocities that occurred under his command were all the result of inhuman barbarism caused not by madness or uncontrollable compulsion, but because Perturabo calculated that said barbarism was the most efficient means of achieving victory. He could and would calculate precisely the amount of ammunition, fuel, vehicles, ships, and human beings needed to win a campaign down to the last bolter shell and drop of blood, and would then spend those resources accordingly. And to his credit he was ridiculously good at it; his logistical skill was such that he could lose a good 90% of an attacking force in any given action and have his numbers replenished well in advance of the next campaign. Problem was that losing 90% of a force was something he wouldn't so much as bat an eyelash at. By the end we was just an envious, petty bastard who was always complaining whenever things didn't go his way (which was always). The intervening ten thousand years haven't improved his personality in any way either. Like Mortarion he didn't get along with any of his brothers and his inferiority complex and "woe is me" attitude was a cornerstone of almost all his interpersonal relationships, perhaps more notoriously in his all-consuming hatred for Rogal Dorn, in a rivalry that was completely one-sided until the two came to blows during the Heresy. Their rivalry being another example of Perturabo's unwillingness to try to improve his situation, instead preferring to sulk in his own misery, as his jealousy from Dorn stemmed from him being chosen as a builder and architect from the biggest projects in the Imperium, but never once Perturabo is shown trying to build anything outside his private workshop, instead bulldozing through whole planets with his Iron Warriors.

==See Also==

[[Return of the Primarchs]]: A What IF? series filled with pure [[AWESOME]] and [[Fist of the North Star|MANLY TEARS]].

A little side note, if you want an awesome look at the Primarchs in all their Crusadey goodness, go look at Aerion the Faithful's Libris Primaris project. http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/152862-artwork-libris-primaris/

==Miniatures==

* The official 30K miniatures are produced by [[Forge World]]
* [https://www.hitechminiatures.com Hitechminiatures] has good alternative models
* [https://wargameexclusive.com Wargame Exclusive] also has very good alternative models but a smaller selection - yet.
* [https://cadwallon.com/ Cadwallon] has [https://cadwallon.com/?s=chibi&post_type=product Chibi Primes] (well, some still.)

==Gallery==

<center>
===Loyal===
<gallery>
File:Lion El'Jonson.JPEG|[[Lion El'Jonson]]
File:JaghataiKhan-1-.jpg|[[Jaghatai Khan]] (can't hate a man who wears heeled calfboots)
File:LEMAN RUSS.jpg|[[Leman Russ]]
File:Rogal Dorn Portrait.png|[[Rogal Dorn]]
File:Sanginuscool.jpg|[[Sanguinius]]
File:Ferrus Manus Pre-Haircut.jpg|[[Ferrus Manus]]
File:Robute Guilliman.jpg|[[Roboute Guilliman]] (Big Bobby G)
File:Vulkan's Face.jpg|[[Vulkan]]
File:Corax Portrait.png|[[Corvus Corax]]
</gallery>

===Traitor===
<gallery>
File:Horus Portrait.png|[[Horus Lupercal]] (THAT ONE FUCK-UP)
File:Fulgrim by slaine69.jpg|[[Fulgrim]] (look at his sexyness)
File:Perturabo Portrait.jpg|[[Perturabo]]
File:Konrad Curze Mugshot.jpg|[[Konrad Curze]]/Night Haunter/Batman
File:Angron Butchers Nails.jpg|[[Angron]] (GETS. SHIT. DONE.)
File:Mortarion Portrait.jpg|[[Mortarion]]
File:Magnus.jpg|[[Magnus the Red]]
File:Lorgar Handsome.jpg|[[Lorgar Aurelian]] (goldboy)
File:Alpharius2.jpg|[[Alpharius]]/[[Omegon]]
</gallery>
<center>

===How To Make A Primarch===
<center>
{{Heresy}}
[[File:How to make a primarch.jpg|thumb|center|Artist's depiction of a primarch's creation]]
</center>

{{Template:Primarchs}}
{{Imperium}}

[[Category:Chaos]]

Deathwatch Dreadnought

2022-06-23T03:32:50Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* Notable Deathwatch Dreadnoughts */

[[File:Deathwatch_Dreadnaught_DWRB.jpg|430px|right|thumb|Why am I not surprised that the ammo for that Assault Cannon just so happens to be firing [[Gauss]] [[Shuriken]] rounds.]]

'''Deathwatch Dreadnoughts''' are different from the "standard" [[Space Marine]] [[Dreadnoughts]] in some respects and are thus, [[Mary Sue|'special'.]] First, unlike other Marines who are seconded to the [[Deathwatch]], Dreadnoughts are separated from their parent Chapters forever - while they can still contact them and are not struck from the records like a [[Blackshield]], their decision to take the Long Vigil means they will never fight beside their brothers again. Secondly, they may wield unconventional combinations of weaponry or equipment (read: advanced [[Necron]] and [[Eldar]] tech that is so [[Heresy|heretical]] it would give a member of the [[Mechanicus]] a brain aneurysm), to exploit the weaknesses of a particular [[Xeno|Xenos foe.]]

==Overview==
As rare as it is for a Space Marine to be interred inside a [[METAL BAWKSES|METAL BAWKS]], it is even rarer for a Space Marine from the Deathwatch, an organization so hardcore they tend even more to fight on when wounded until actually killed, to be given the dubious honor of being interred in one. This is down to three major factors: the circumstances [[Kill Team|kill-teams]] fight under make it a nightmare to retrieve a critically injured marine and stabilize them in time. If this is achieved, the Space Marine must be worthy and willing to remain with the Deathwatch ''in perpetuity'', essentially preventing them from ever returning to their Chapter. Finally, the Space Marine's own Chapter needs to sign off on allowing him to remain with the Deathwatch.

Unsurprisingly, these guys are rare - the special xeno-killing snowflakes of special xeno-killing snowflake Alaska. Most of these Old Ones (No, not ''those'' [[Old Ones (Warhammer)|Old Ones]]) are preserved for their unique knowledge of [[RIP AND TEAR|ripping apart]] the myriad of xenos that the Imperium has fought across the millennia. It's surprisingly common for [[Tau|warp storms to dissipate to reveal xenos species otherwise thought eradicated to reappear]], or for alien species to come back from the interstellar dark to menace the Imperium once again; the Old Ones remember every last detail of what was done to bring them down, as opposed to the few half-lost records the Administratum can dig up.

Most Deathwatch Dreadnoughts follow the traditional weapon configurations handed down over uncounted centuries, like the [[Deredeo Dreadnought|Deredeo]] with its [[Power weapon#Dreadnought Power Claw|power claws]] and [[Heavy Flamer|heavy flamers]], or the Furibundus with its twin-linked [[lascannon]] and [[Cyclone Missile Launcher|Cyclone missile launcher]]. At times of special need, however, Deathwatch [[Forge Master|Forge Masters]] have created many of their own armament variants based on these designs, adding in bits to better equip them against specific targets or environments. In ages past, Deathwatch Dreadnoughts have been equipped with [[Miscellaneous Weapons#Seismic Hammer|siege hammers]] expressly for the purpose of overcoming [[Ork]] fortifications, outfitted with quad [[autocannon]]s for bringing down [[Eldar]] raiders and mounted with additional [[flamer]] batteries for clearing [[Hrud]] warrens.

A Kill-team with Dreadnought support can face some unique challenges. A silent approach, for example, becomes almost impossible without extensive use of Stummers or other specialist sound-muffling equipment. The local terrain must also be capable of supporting the tremendous weight of the machine. In practice a Dreadnought is commonly kept in reserve, coordinating operations from an orbiting vessel. Once the enemy has been located the Dreadnought is normally inserted directly into combat via drop pod, Thunderhawk gunship or teleportarium [[FATAL|to let it rip.]]

==Notable Deathwatch Dreadnoughts==
*'''Horest Cain''' - Supposedly a former [[Novamarines]] member who operates in the Jericho Reach. "Supposedly", because the Novamarines themselves say they never sent any marine by that name to the Deathwatch, and the reasons for him never returning to his home Chapter have been lost to history. Sounds like [[Dark Angels|some secret dickery]] might be afoot...
* '''Goremann the Elder''' - Former [[Crimson Fists]] Veteran, [[Awesome|who served with the Deathwatch on fifteen separate secondments before he ended up in a Dreadnought]]. This guy was a master of [[rip and tear]] to the point where even the fucking [[Ork]]s chanted his name after he broke their [[Warboss]] in half in single combat (and this was ''before'' his Dreadnoughting, mind you!); fittingly enough, his chassis packs [[Power_weapon#Dreadnought_Power_Fist|twin Dreadnought-sized power fists]] with underslung flamers for maximum powerfisting potential. He really, really hates being used as a source of knowledge by his brothers and would love to get back into action.
* '''Szobczak''' - [[Grandpa Dreadnought]]. No, seriously: he's a former [[Imperial Fists]] [[Techmarine]] who's been part of the Deathwatch since the 35th Millennium, and will seize on any opportunity to go on long-winded rants about battles long fought, brothers long dead, and why space marines in his day were simply better at everything; he also tends to get [[Neckbeard|surprisingly pissed off very easily if he thinks you're trying to provoke him]]. About the only reason the Deathwatch keep him around is his sheer loyalty, prowess in battle, and incredible experience.
* '''Xenomortis''' - You know how much [[Ortan Cassius]] hates [[Tyranids]]? Turn that hatred up to the point where even an [[Angry Marine]] would offer a cold one to CALM YOU THE FUCK DOWN, then apply it to every last alien race in the galaxy. Seriously his name literally means "Alien-Death". Xenomortis lost any sense of his identity long ago, supposedly due to putting aside any knowledge that isn't related to xenos and how to kill them; whenever he's deployed, he immediately looks to destroy the enemy's leader as quickly and effectively as possible. He's also hard as fucking nails; when a bunch of [[Ur-Ghul|Ur-Ghuls]] [[Rip and Tear|butchered a full Kill-Team sent after them]], [[Awesome|a thoroughly pissed-off Xenomortis replied by storming into their lair and emerged several months later, every last inch of his hull dripping with Ur-Ghul blood.]] Though this sounds [[awesome]], the [[Deathwatch Chaplain|Deathwatch Chaplains]] are quite understandably afraid that he's going to go completely fucking nuts - the big guy's had every inch of hull covered with the blood of a thousand different types of alien scum, and he still [[RAGE|RAGES]] just as hard as ever toward them.
{{Deathwatch}}
{{40k-Imperial-Vehicles}}
[[Category: Walkers]]

Deathwatch Dreadnought

2022-06-23T03:32:37Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* Notable Deathwatch Dreadnoughts */

[[File:Deathwatch_Dreadnaught_DWRB.jpg|430px|right|thumb|Why am I not surprised that the ammo for that Assault Cannon just so happens to be firing [[Gauss]] [[Shuriken]] rounds.]]

'''Deathwatch Dreadnoughts''' are different from the "standard" [[Space Marine]] [[Dreadnoughts]] in some respects and are thus, [[Mary Sue|'special'.]] First, unlike other Marines who are seconded to the [[Deathwatch]], Dreadnoughts are separated from their parent Chapters forever - while they can still contact them and are not struck from the records like a [[Blackshield]], their decision to take the Long Vigil means they will never fight beside their brothers again. Secondly, they may wield unconventional combinations of weaponry or equipment (read: advanced [[Necron]] and [[Eldar]] tech that is so [[Heresy|heretical]] it would give a member of the [[Mechanicus]] a brain aneurysm), to exploit the weaknesses of a particular [[Xeno|Xenos foe.]]

==Overview==
As rare as it is for a Space Marine to be interred inside a [[METAL BAWKSES|METAL BAWKS]], it is even rarer for a Space Marine from the Deathwatch, an organization so hardcore they tend even more to fight on when wounded until actually killed, to be given the dubious honor of being interred in one. This is down to three major factors: the circumstances [[Kill Team|kill-teams]] fight under make it a nightmare to retrieve a critically injured marine and stabilize them in time. If this is achieved, the Space Marine must be worthy and willing to remain with the Deathwatch ''in perpetuity'', essentially preventing them from ever returning to their Chapter. Finally, the Space Marine's own Chapter needs to sign off on allowing him to remain with the Deathwatch.

Unsurprisingly, these guys are rare - the special xeno-killing snowflakes of special xeno-killing snowflake Alaska. Most of these Old Ones (No, not ''those'' [[Old Ones (Warhammer)|Old Ones]]) are preserved for their unique knowledge of [[RIP AND TEAR|ripping apart]] the myriad of xenos that the Imperium has fought across the millennia. It's surprisingly common for [[Tau|warp storms to dissipate to reveal xenos species otherwise thought eradicated to reappear]], or for alien species to come back from the interstellar dark to menace the Imperium once again; the Old Ones remember every last detail of what was done to bring them down, as opposed to the few half-lost records the Administratum can dig up.

Most Deathwatch Dreadnoughts follow the traditional weapon configurations handed down over uncounted centuries, like the [[Deredeo Dreadnought|Deredeo]] with its [[Power weapon#Dreadnought Power Claw|power claws]] and [[Heavy Flamer|heavy flamers]], or the Furibundus with its twin-linked [[lascannon]] and [[Cyclone Missile Launcher|Cyclone missile launcher]]. At times of special need, however, Deathwatch [[Forge Master|Forge Masters]] have created many of their own armament variants based on these designs, adding in bits to better equip them against specific targets or environments. In ages past, Deathwatch Dreadnoughts have been equipped with [[Miscellaneous Weapons#Seismic Hammer|siege hammers]] expressly for the purpose of overcoming [[Ork]] fortifications, outfitted with quad [[autocannon]]s for bringing down [[Eldar]] raiders and mounted with additional [[flamer]] batteries for clearing [[Hrud]] warrens.

A Kill-team with Dreadnought support can face some unique challenges. A silent approach, for example, becomes almost impossible without extensive use of Stummers or other specialist sound-muffling equipment. The local terrain must also be capable of supporting the tremendous weight of the machine. In practice a Dreadnought is commonly kept in reserve, coordinating operations from an orbiting vessel. Once the enemy has been located the Dreadnought is normally inserted directly into combat via drop pod, Thunderhawk gunship or teleportarium [[FATAL|to let it rip.]]

==Notable Deathwatch Dreadnoughts==
*'''Horest Cain''' - Supposedly a former [[Novamarines]] member who operates in the Jericho Reach. "Supposedly", because the Novamarines themselves say they never sent any marine by that name to the Deathwatch, and the reasons for him never returning to his home Chapter have been lost to history. Sounds like [[Dark Angels|some secret dickery]] might be afoot...
* '''Goremann the Elder''' - Former [[Crimson Fists]] Veteran, [[Awesome|who served with the Deathwatch on fifteen separate secondments before he ended up in a Dreadnought]]. This guy was a master of [[rip and tear]] to the point where even the fucking [[Ork]]s chanted his name after he broke their [[Warboss]] in half in single combat (and this was ''before'' his Dreadnoughting, mind you!); fittingly enough, his chassis packs [[Power_weapon#Dreadnought_Power_Fist|twin Dreadnought-sized power fists]] with underslung flamers for maximum powerfisting potential. He really, really hates being used as a source of knowledge by his brothers and would love to get back into action.
* '''Szobczak''' - [[Grandpa Dreadnought]]. No, seriously: he's a former [[Imperial Fists]] [[Techmarine]] who's been part of the Deathwatch since the 35th Millennium, and will seize on any opportunity to go on long-winded rants about battles long fought, brothers long dead, and why space marines in his day were simply better at everything; he also tends to get [[Neckbeard|surprisingly pissed off very easily if he thinks you're trying to provoke him]]. About the only reason the Deathwatch keep him around is his sheer loyalty, prowess in battle, and incredible experience.
* '''Xenomortis''' - You know how much [[Ortan Cassius]] hates [[Tyranids]]? Turn that hatred up to the point where even an [[Angry Marine]] would offer a cold one to CALM YOU THE FUCK DOWN, then apply it to every last alien race in the galaxy. Seriously his name literally means "Xeno-Death". Xenomortis lost any sense of his identity long ago, supposedly due to putting aside any knowledge that isn't related to xenos and how to kill them; whenever he's deployed, he immediately looks to destroy the enemy's leader as quickly and effectively as possible. He's also hard as fucking nails; when a bunch of [[Ur-Ghul|Ur-Ghuls]] [[Rip and Tear|butchered a full Kill-Team sent after them]], [[Awesome|a thoroughly pissed-off Xenomortis replied by storming into their lair and emerged several months later, every last inch of his hull dripping with Ur-Ghul blood.]] Though this sounds [[awesome]], the [[Deathwatch Chaplain|Deathwatch Chaplains]] are quite understandably afraid that he's going to go completely fucking nuts - the big guy's had every inch of hull covered with the blood of a thousand different types of alien scum, and he still [[RAGE|RAGES]] just as hard as ever toward them.
{{Deathwatch}}
{{40k-Imperial-Vehicles}}
[[Category: Walkers]]

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Grand Cathay

2022-06-23T03:16:11Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* Cons */

This is the general tactics page on how to play [[Cathay]] in [[Total War: WARHAMMER]].

==Why Play Cathay==
*Because Total War: Three Kingdoms didn't go hard enough into fantasy for you.
*These guys are finally being fleshed out (with the full blessings of our [[Games Workshop|evil British overlords]] nonetheless) after years and you want to see what they come up with.
*You're into chinese history and mythology.
*You want to play a defensive gunline but don't want to play as boring white guys, short vengeful alcoholics or the bad guys from Pirates of the Caribbean
*You think it's extremely funny to watch Flamers of Tzeentch, Jezzails, and Artillery pieces nuke themselves when you use Mirror Missile on them.

===Pros===
*'''Designed for Total War''': One thing we can say as an advantage for Cathay is unlike the other factions they will be designed from the ground up to be in a Total War game rather than trying to transition from a tabletop game into total war. This gives them the potential to be one of the best-designed races and balanced since they're not trying to fit a square Warhammer peg into a round Total War hole.
*'''Numbers''': In lore, Cathay has the largest population of all the human nations, so they have bodies to spare. Don't expect Skaven numbers, but you'll have large armies compared to other good guy races.
*'''Range''': As the oldest Human nation to have gotten gunpowder, it makes sense it plays a big role in your army. You have access to a ton of gunpowder units and artillery to blast the enemy apart. You also got some elite crossbows to play around with. The harmony system ensures that your ranged units have some of the higest reload skill in the entire game, which means... Well, [[Dakka|you shoot a lot.]]
*'''Air Power''': With your Longma, War Balloons and your Dragons you will be decently scary in the air. You won't be fast, and any opposing faction with decent air cavalry will likely threaten you, but you have some potent options.
*'''Harmony''': Cathay has a solid combination of ranged and melee units that work together well in concert. Similarly, units can either be Yin or Yang aligned and having the two working together provides you with a bonus.
*'''Defensive''': Cathay is built to last. Between your faction mechanics and selection of magical lores, Grand Cathay is built to hold the line. If you crave a faction with a strong, staunch line of spears to keep your enemies at bay, Cathay's going to be the faction for you.
*'''Magic:''' Cathay is actually able to keep up with the best of them when it comes to magic. Sure, you don't have the variety that High Elves or Empire have but with 4 lores you do have the most of the game 3 factions. Plus, with Mastery of the Elemental Winds, your spells do more damage the more mages you have in your army. Especially in campaign, Miao and Zhao can carry the army with their spells alone.

===Cons===
*'''Synergy''': Due to the way Harmony works, you will NEED to keep units close to each other, otherwise individual units will underperform. As such, you will likely be locked into turtling in order to get your units close enough to get the buffs they might need in order to perform efficiently. On their own, your units actually have ''lower'' stats than their equivalent in other armies, only getting better when properly buffed.
*'''Slow''': Cathay won't be winning many foot races compared to other factions. Though not as plodding as the dwarfs or lizardmen, you don't have much in the way of cavalry and your war balloons are pretty susceptible to air cav and missile fire.
*'''Bad Cavalry''': Its a tossup on whether Cathay or Nurgle has the worst cav in the game. Jade Lancers are about equal to Empire Knights, Peasant Horsemen are about equal to mounted yeomen, and Longma Riders lack armor piercing and anti-large.
*'''Limited Skirmishers''': No vanguard deployment, stalk, or cheap fast movers other than peasant horsemen. You're going to suck at harrying broken units off the map and hunting enemy skirmishers + war machines.
*'''AoE Susceptible''': A core mechanic of Cathay units is that they gain bonuses when in close proximity with each other. While this can be great for holding the line, it also makes your forces more vulnerable to vortex or wind spells. You'll have to keep an eye out for enemy wizards.
*'''No Melee Expert Non-Legendary Lords or Heroes''': None of your non-LL and Heroes are really that good in melee combat or can serve as a tank. I know what you're thinking "But the Dragon Siblings!" but they won't be leading all your armies in campaign and they are expensive in multiplayer. 3 out of 4 of your Lords and Heroes are Mages and the one that isn't, the Lord Magistrate, is a support buffing character rather than a melee duelist or a tank. Shugengan lords are stated to be decent in melee but trust me, that's only by Mage Lord standards. You won't have many characters that can be safely thrown into melee combat. The closest Melee Lord and Hero Cathay may get before their DLCs are Gotrek & Felix, and that's just assuming that CA will even allow Cathay to recruit them. Concept art was found for a "Gate Master" hero, which will likely serve as the Cathayan equivalent of the Empire Captain or High Elf Noble, so this issue will probably be fixed with DLC.
*'''Cathay Not Numbah Wan''': As of mid March, Cathay only has a 38% win rate in multiplayer, and recent balance changes really didn't help you out too much. You have no real way to play aggressive in Domination and can't force people off of points. If you only care about [[That Guy|winning through OP ways]], don't play Cathay until the next major balance patch or DLC.
**Note that this only applies to multiplayer, specifically Domination. Cathay is plenty strong in campaign with a good economy and an easily defensibly homeland, and you are way better in Land Battles where you can keep your forces together and lock down an area.
*'''DLC''': There are three guarantees in life. Death, Taxes, and Core Races getting units withheld for DLC. There is already a notable lack of monkey in the Cathay roster. Sorry Cathay, don't expect to be different. (Though in this case, I guess it's less "units being held back" and more "CA and GW making up more shit later.")
**Note that we can generally predict 2-3 lord packs for Carthay. In Mythology china gave each of the 4 cardinal direction's there own set of associations, beast, element, god so on, and with two lords already claiming two of those directions, 2 more for the other two compass points and a possible 5th for the center seems likely.

==Faction traits==
*'''Battle Harmony''': Shared by all non-character Cathay units. Melee units are marked as "Yang", while ranged units are "Yin"; these units gain bonuses when near a unit of the opposite type: leadership and melee defence for melee Yang units, and leadership and reload speed for ranged Yin units. Characters multiply these bonuses for nearby units.
*'''Mastery of the Elemental Winds''': Shared by all Cathayan spellcasters, this ability enhances their spells for each spellcaster present in the army. This encourages taking multiple spellcasters, something not usually done in other factions.
*'''Formation Attack''': A trait that makes the unit try to stay in formation, even when in combat. Presumably, this makes holding chokepoints and positions easier to do.

==Lords==
We finally got the names of the two legendary lords, and they turn out to be new characters. The children of the Dragon Emperor and the Moon Empress, they rule in his stead over the various provinces of Cathay.

===Legendary Lords===
*'''[[Miao Ying]], the Storm Dragon, ruler of the Northern Provinces and Commander of the Great Bastion.''': Daughter of the Dragon Emperor. Miss Cold and Aloof. She is in the north and is daddy's favourite. Can transform between human form where she buffs harmony and a big dragon to melee it up in battle. She will be able to use a hybrid of Life and Yin Magic: Including Earth Blood, Storm of Shadows, Flesh to Stone, Missile Mirror, Regrowth and Talons of Night, with both Lore Traits of Lifebloom and Power of Yin. She has the Wrath of the Storm ability, which increases melee attack, makes attacks magical, and makes those affected immune to psychology. She also has the Disdain of Dragons ability, which lowers enemy melee attacks in a constant radius. She also has access to the Mirror Missile spell which is easily one of the most trollish spells in the entire game, you will never tire of watching the enemy's elite ranged units delete themselves when they fire with the hex activated.

*'''[[Zhao Ming]], the Iron Dragon, ruler of the Western Provinces and Lord of Shang-Yang''': Son of the Dragon Emperor, and a mama's boy. His faction is stated to focus on and specialize in Alchemists and Astronomers. Can transform between human form where he buffs harmony and a big dragon to melee it up in battle. He will be able to use a hybrid of Metal and Yang magic. He also has the Ward of Iron ability, a bound buff he can use to make a unit much harder to kill.

===Lords===
*'''Dragon-Blooded Shugengan Lord''': Descended from when a human pulled a Donkey from Shrek with Cathay's rulers. Your Mage lord, they come with the lores of Yang or Yin and their mounts are Warhorse or Jade Longma for extra mobility. While they are ''slightly'' better than most mage lords in melee don't expect them to last long if a dedicated melee character gets a hold of them.

*'''Lord Magistrate''': Your cheap normal frontline general. His lone gimmick is being able to further improve the harmony mechanic of his army, so extra incentive to form up in a sexy turtle. His mounts are Warhorse or Sky Lantern. Sadly he's garbage in melee, his mounts suck and pretty much anything he can do a Shugengan can do better. As such no real reason to nab him unless you want to hear his gloriously hammy voice acting. He's also unfortunately the only lord that will ever lead your caravans.

===Legendary Heroes===

===Generic Heroes===
*'''Alchemist''': Mages who fight with vials and magic that looks like Chinese calligraphy. Lore of Metal user with some extra bound buffs to armour, melee attack and magic damage with armour piecing. Can mount a warhorse.

*'''Astromancer''': Your lore of heavens caster. His mounts are a Warhorse for mobility or a Wu Xing War Compass which seems as though it will boost his magic output considerably.

==Units==

===Infantry===
*'''Peasant Long Spearmen''': Your early chaff unit that's literally expected to run away once things get hairy. The unexpected MVP of the roster (at least until DLCs give you something better). They come with Expendable ''and'' Expert Charge Defense, which is a rarity for tier 1 units.
**Rather than treating them like Skavenslaves, they're a lot more like TK skeleton spearmen without the shields: a really good screen with lots of bodies, relatively high health compared to the rest of your infantry, and high model count that can absorb losses. They're still expendable chaff, and you take them to die in place of your Jade warriors or Celestial Guard.
** Really fucking good for how easy and cheap they are. With the harmony buff, the Peasant Long Spearmen have stats higher than state troops, and function very well as a front line against everything. They are vulnerable to missiles, but you should have outshooting your opponents anyway.
**The Terracotta sentinel is very vulnerable to tarpitting, Peasant Long Spears are mobile and numerous enough to keep some of that pressure off them. They wont provide any harmony benefits though.
**Can tank for ages against pretty much anything with the jade shield 44% ward save buff from the lore of yang. Perfect for sacrificial screening, especially since lore of yang also has really powerful AOE spells you can drop on units getting traffic jammed by the peasants.
**Significantly better in Campaign. By the late game, it wouldn't be hard to produce them at tier 7, and their morale gets significantly better with technology and building upgrades, and can lead to hilarious situations where a single unit of Peasants holds off a band of Chosen on its own. They wont do any damage, of course, but that's why you drop a vortex or airship bomb on them.
*'''Jade Warriors''': Your mid-tier unit and your bread and butter until you can afford Celestial Dragon Guard. Have a unique mechanic where the longer they sit still and brace, the more bonuses they get, gaining higher charge resistance and armour. Make the Dragon Empire into the Turtle Empire with these guys. Just keep in mind that like turtles, they don't move very fast or hit very hard.
**The Sword and Shield combo, when combined with Harmony and their own innate stationary buff, they are very tough and can still find a use to tank hits for the Dragon Guard in the late-game. Excellent front line unit with good missile block chance and armor.
**The Halberd has better melee attack and armor piercing, so theyre like the Wardancers in that even when fighting against heavy infantry, it might be useful to take them to do some damage. Still more of a holding force than an aggressive force.

*'''Celestial Dragon Guard''': Your elite, end-game unit, taking the best from both Jade Warriors since they're all armed with Halberds and Shields. They have expert charge defense, AP, and dont get bonuses/lose nothing from moving, meaning you could move them to where they're needed most, or even have them charge though Peasant chaff, foregoing the low charge bonus to keep models alive given the low-model count typical of Elite Infantry.
**'''Dune Dragons''' - Dragon Guard with Magic Attacks, Magic Resist, Immune to Psych and Encourage. These guys are pretty much designed to be a middle finger to large Daemons as they can punch through their physical resist and not get terror routed.

===Missiles===
*'''Peasant Archers''': Like your peasant infantry, but with a bow and arrow. Cheap and expendable, potentially valuable if you need a relatively disposable unit to provide a small amount of ranged support and trigger the yin/yang buff where needed. Has no AP, but that shouldn't be a problem in campaign where the majority of your chaos, norsca, and ogre enemies don't have much armor.
** Very cost effective, especially with the harmony buffs. Can put down a significant amount of fire with their reload skill buffs.

*'''Jade Warrior Crossbowmen''': Jade Warriors with crossbows (in case you couldn't have told from their name). Armoured and with a shielded variant, they sit in-between Empire Crossbowmen and Dwarf Quarrelers in terms of durability and power; they still have the same "hunker-down" ability as regular JW, so you'll probably want to move them in position behind Long Spears and refrain from moving them to keep those bonuses.

*'''Celestial Dragon Guard Crossbowmen''': Jade Warriors on steroids, once again. Shielded, heavily armoured and with armour-piercing bolts, they're durable archers that can trade shots with the enemy's best.
**On paper, their bolts have more strength than the Sisters of Avelorn, but it's mundane AP versus the Fire/Magic combo that lets the Sisters put in work against pretty much anything. Celestial Crossbowmen have better DPS when buffed, though.
**Desperate and in a pinch? Castle too tight for shooting? Well, they're still Celestial Guard, and so are decent in melee, minus the AP or anti-large bonus. They still give Harmony when in melee.

* '''Iron Hail Gunners''': A living version of the Zombie Handcannons from the Pirate coast, these ladies massacre armoured infantry with their high-AP shotguns. With the Harmony system, being able to keep them closer to your melee units will make them into machinegunning shotgunners. Can fire in melee if the enemy makes contact without breaking through the first rank.
**Unlike your Crossbowmen or Crane gunners, they lack shields or armor, but are much more mobile. You can flank with them to outright delete elite infantry, but even having them shoot through gaps in your formation is also helpful, because they're Cathayan shotguns.
**Considering how quickly you can get these ladies in the Campaign, they're instrumental damage dealers from early to mid.
** Be cautious about using them against the ogres because they will literally just run through your front line, because hurr durr pull through. In campaign, best employed against all chaos factions other than Tzeentch, whose basic units will fucking slaughter the gunners with their ranged attacks, because fuck you I guess.

* '''Crane Gunners''': Human Skaven Jezzails. Much like their rat counterparts, these gunners excel at long-ranged sniping with their second-only-to-artillery range and will likely form a core part of your backline while you make the enemy come to you. They come with shields, which should give them some missile resistance to weather counter-fire and kill those jezzails. You're probably better off going for grand cannons in most match ups though. Grand cannons have better all around combat stats and the exact same movement speed; the only advantages crane gunners have over them is the ability to hide in treelines and hit slippery targets like fliers and heavy cavalry.

===Cavalry===
*'''Peasant Horseman''': The fastest thing in your army that can't fly. Probably based on the herdsmen levies that numerous Chinese dynasties employed as scouts and light cav. With an almost identical statline to Brettonian mounted yeomen, the only reason to get peasant horsemen is because Cathay has no alternatives other than Jade Lancers and Longmas who are simply too expensive to waste chasing down routing units + artillery crews. You'll want to grab a few of these guys in Multiplayer and early campaign, but hopefully we'll get better alternatives with future DLC.

*'''Jade Lancers''': Jade warriors on horseback. More defensive than other factions cavalry. More suited defending your flank than running in to attack the enemy. Fucking awful other than their mediocre armor and their shields, ineffective in melee, incredibly slow. Can't even run down enemies because of their glacial speeds. In campaign, consider using the Iron Hail gunners/Jade Crossbows/etc. if you want a flanking unit, who will actually kill the units they are supposed to kill, or just peasant horsemen if you want to run down routing enemies.

*'''Great Jade Longma Riders''': Your versions of pegasus knights, except instead of a rich noble who sneers at peasants, you get a rich noble whose great-great-great-grandad got busy with a dragon. Also comes with Fear, possibly making them an expensive option to spook away and chase routing units. Their true strength will be as a bodyguard unit for your squishy balloons against enemy air forces, and being a hammer to the rest of your rosters anvil.
**Stats wise, they're roughly between pegasus and royal pegasus knights that traded away their Anti-Large bonus in exchange for 30 more armour (110 total), higher weapon strength, and charge bonus. As such, they're better at dealing with multiple different types of opponents but aren't quite as good at dealing with large units and other cav.

===Chariots===
*'''Wu-Xing War Compass''': A big ol' magical battery that boosts Harmony and counts towards Mastery of Elemental Winds increase the power of your spells. Can cast Urannons Thunderbolt and Comet of Casanodora; the Compass has been buffed in 1.2 to give you 2 free casts of each power without costing WoM, but their ''Celestial Comet'' is half as strong (but also twice as fast) to compensate.
**Also ok in melee as a ...cart. It moves as fast as infantry, literally anyone who gets run over by this thing deserves to die under the hooves of plain old cows dragging a heavy fucking magic compass.

===Monsters===
*'''Terracotta Sentinel''': Take the standard Terracotta soldier from China, make it really big and teach it kung fu and you have this thing. Possible doomstack material. They are unbreakable and hit like a truck, making them good at both clearing chaff and 1v1ing monsters. Don't leave them unsupported against missile units or anti-large elites, as they'll still break down to concentrated AP and missiles. Causes Terror for understandable reasons.
**If you've played Tomb Kings, you know what to expect: keep them away from Halberd tarpits and anti-large monstrous infantry, and if you can't, give them a screen, like Peasant spears or Jade cavalry.
**It's also the best monster in the entire game right now. Like seriously, this thing can beat a Bloodthirster one on one. It's also the cheapest big single entity monster in the entire game as well. Yeah these things are a little bullshit. Given that Cathay is viewed as a little subpar it's nice that they have at least one unit that is really strong, but expect CA to whack these guys with the nerf bat eventually.

===Artillery===
* '''Grand Cannon''': Pulled by oxen making surprisingly mobile, your normal cannon unit. Unlike other factions cannon units, also comes with flaming attacks by default, making it slightly better at burning up trees and mummies, and cutting through regeneration. It is roughly as fast as a standard infantry unit, which is actually a big deal because it will be able to keep up with your main army and rearrange itself much easier than a normal cannon.
** Extremely strong basic artillery unit, which, with the harmony bonuses, can and will kill large units very fucking quickly with their reload bonuses. Always nice to swat Fateweaver out of the sky even before the shit starts spamming searing doom/various fires over your lines.

* '''Fire Rain Rocket''': Imagine a hellstorm rocket battery that fires even faster due to the Harmony mechanic. Terrifying. Aim for big blobs of enemies and watch as they become chunky salsa. Compared to the normal Hellstorm it does more missile damage, but the majority of it isn't actually AP. So while you still want to aim for blobs, those blobs should be of less armoured infantry rather than heavily armoured stuff.

* '''Kongming Sky Lantern''': The smaller of the two airship units with Crane Gunners, and dedicated support. It provides a morale boost to your infantry on top of Harmony, so even your Peasants will hold the line for as long as they humanly can. They also grant vision on units that are hiding in foliage, which can help thwart ambushes. They don't reveal Stalk, though.
**It can fire while moving and line of sight isn't much of a problem, so as long as it doesn't get attacked, it can take potshots at the enemy. It's slow as balls though, so any decent flying unit that gets its hands on it will be able to tear it to pieces.
**Almost useless, if it wasn't for the harmony mechanic + its encouragement buff, you probably wouldn't ever take them. As a flying unit, it can provide a source of Harmony that the enemy cant touch unless they devote their other flyers or ranged units on it.
**Offensively, though, their crane guns are like the stormbolter on a Rhino: they just dont shoot enough to actually be dangerous, and don't have the bombs that would otherwise make them useful. You may as well take the Crane Guns on infantry if you want sniper fire, or the Sky Junk for Guns, Bombs, and Rockets.

* '''Kongming Sky-junks''': The heavier of the two airship units that [[Awesome|acts as a flying Helstorm Rocket Battery]]. Can also drop bombs gyrocopter style, and has high armour against missile units. Unlike most other flying units, it can't toggle landing, so try to protect it against flying cav with missile units. It is slow as fuck and will be pretty much useless once it runs out of ammo, but it will hopefully do some devastating damage before that happens.
**Tanky enough to take hits from Furies and other flying beasties that lack AP, they are a nice flying Distraction Carnifex until they run out of ammo. And even when they do, they're a nice flying anvil to hold flyers in place while your Longma riders hammer them.
**They do have an edge against ground artillery, as even if theyre focused down by other artilery pieces, you can expect them to miss more often than not because you're flying, just put them far away enough that those missed shots dont hit your castles infantrybl instead.
**Much more effective when you fire very closely downwards, otherwise, just a shitty fire rain launcher.
**Oddly enough, they can be healed mid-battle with Miao Ying or a dragon blooded lord with bound lore of life spells.

==Multiplayer Strategies==
You are what happens when the Empire, Dwarfs, and Skaven all have the world's weirdest threesome where lingering eye contact was held with the Vampire Coast; and they had a baby. Your themes revolve around plentiful, expendable infantry and strong missiles working in unison to bunker down an area and blast anything that comes at you straight to hell. Harmony is a double edge sword, as while it encourages you to pair units together and builds buffs, it also means units on their own aren't reaching their full potential. This is a quantity over quality faction with limited offensive options, as the closest thing you have to offensive infantry is sword and board Jade Warriors, and while they have cavalry, they're slow and limited compared to other factions.

Since the Cathayan army is so new, there's a massive lack of units for the army compared to all the other established factions, and in some ways, it almost feels unfinished. For example, your have no ranged cavalry options, which means your cavalry options won't be able to receive the Harmony benefit if they go too far (and the bubble is so small, you can lose Harmony just chasing after other cavalry). CA is definitely holding back options to make room for new DLC.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Beastmen| Beastmen]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Bretonnia| Bretonnia]]''': With more flavours of cavalry than you can comprehend, you'll need to set up extremely defensively and bring plenty of halberds to fend off all the armoured horse riders. Be sure to pepper them with your armour piecing missiles, and use peasant chaff to block charges and allow your actual hard hitters to stay in position to fire upon them. Don't bother bringing lanterns and longma riders, Bretonnias air forces are too scary and will easily win any aerial battle, and the lanterns and longma aren't going to be much help against cav and are wasted on peasant chaff.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Daemons of Chaos| Daemons of Chaos]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Warriors of Chaos| Warriors of Chaos]]''':
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Heavily armored barbarians are threatening Cathay's border, and it's up to hot dom dragon waifu and her warpdust snorting fuccboi brother to keep Cathay safe
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WoC wants to get into melee as soon as they can, and their elite infantry will fuck yours since all your AP is on anti-large; at least your dudes will fuck over any Dragon Ogres, though. Anything bigger than a Dragon Ogre can be handled by the Sentinel
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You outclass them in ranged combat with actual archers, guns, and artillery, WoC players will send Manticores and Cavalry after them, so keep some Halberds next to them (which you should be doing anyway for the Harmony mechanic.)
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That being said, their lack of ranged weapons means that your Sky-Junks will have grand old time, and may be a better investment than ground-based Fire Rockets. Manticores will die to Longma Riders, so keeping them protected will not be an issue.
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*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dark Elves| Dark Elves]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dwarfs| Dwarfs]]''':
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This will be tough for the same reason the Vampirates are bad in this matchup, they do your main tactic better than you do. They have a wider assortment of guns and artillery, and great ways to kill your large units. They have Catapults to fuck your formations, while your indirect artillery lacks AP to punch through thicc dwarf armor.
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You will need to play offence against the Dwarfs which isn't great as you have no armour-piercing infantry that isn't bonus versus large, and your units only hit their peak efficiency when they're stationary and next to someone of the opposite type. They're also slow, not dwarf-slow, but slow enough that you'll take losses from Dwarf artillery, so it's a good idea to have at least a few peasants in front off your dudes to die for the Greater G--Harmony.

Your shielded crossbowmen are decent with good AP, get better when they're stationary, reload quicker with the Harmony mechanic; so long as their shields are faced where the shots are coming from, you can bounce some missiles off, too; Iron Hail gunners are much quicker than Jade Warriors or Dwarfs, and their shotguns pack a mean punch, especially when they're quick-firing with Harmony. They can be very good flankers when you pair them with Peasant Long Spears to guard their flanks and provide Harmony. Crane Gunners are like Skaven jezzails, use them to shoot down Gyrocopters to clear the skies and give your airships the ability to shoot from afar without being shot down. Speaking of airships, the Skyjunk is a better investment than the Fire Rain rocket; their weapons are similar, but the Skyjunk is harder to hit by enemy artillery, has much better angling, and when it runs out of ammo, can drop bombs that will be much more disruptive than the non-AP Fire Rain rockets.

Jade Warriors with shields will likely by your best melee infantry bet as they might be able to survive salvos as they hold against the dwarven line, but try screening them with Peasant Long Spears; they'll break, but when they regroup you can use them as Harmony buffers with your Iron Hail or Crane Guns. In terms of how to break the line, Ox Cannons are quite mobile for an artillery piece, and Crane Guns can provide covering fire from afar.

Your best lord option is a dragon blooded lore of yin caster on a longma. She's highly disruptive to ranged heavy factions since she can summon fodder into the middle of the enemy gunline like a flying vampire lord and overcast missile mirror to shut down individual ranged units for 36 seconds at a time.
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*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Empire| Empire]]''':
Remember what we said in Dwarfs and Vampirates? Yeah you're dealing with a faction that does your thing better than you again. Grand Cannons are better than Great Cannon thanks to Harmony buffs and better mobility, but that's about the only good thing in this particular matchup. Luminarks hard counter Sky Junks and Imperial rocketry has ''significantly'' greater range than your own, while the constant threat of Demigryph up the ass keep you from rushing in without a plan.

*'''Grand Cathay''':
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This game is still too new for a meta, and most games you have on MP will just be people trying shit out. That being said, take Skyjunks and Fire Rockets and shoot the shit out of the enemy castle. Exploit the Grand Cannons mobility and provide harmony with cheap Peasants that you wont mind losing. Pop airships with Longma or Sky Lanterns, and save the Crane Gunners for their Longma. Take a sentinel and if your opponent takes one too, they can practice their kung fu

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*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Greenskins| Greenskins]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/High Elves| High Elves]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Khorne|Khorne]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Kislev|Kislev]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Lizardmen| Lizardmen]]''': This will theoretically be a tricky match up, but ultimately one in your favor. Your plentiful AP gunpowder units will make quick work of the sluggish Saurus and, when coupled with your multitude of halberd units, can do some serious damage to their bigger beasties, but they're likely not going to be the forces a competent Lizardmen army will bring. Instead, Skinks will be your bane. Fast skirmishers and Chameleons will hassle you from all angles with their poisonous darts while their cavalry (flying or otherwise) disrupts your formations with fear/terror-inducing charges. If they're bringing a Slann, you will NEED to keep on top of your positioning; positioning your forces too close makes them prime candidates for the myriad of vortex and wind spells at their beck and call. Deal with them first, followed by any cavalry/skirmishers and clean up what's left with your plentiful gunpowder.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Norsca| Norsca]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Nurgle| Nurgle]]''': Nurgle hates ranged units, enemy large units, an abundance of anti-large, fire damage, and enemies that can hold out in a grindfest against them. You are all of these things and Nurgle has vanishingly few options against you. Long Ma riders take a huge dump all over any of Nurgle's fliers and the fire damage of your artillery, magic, and more will make Nurgle weep with sorrow as you delete his slow moving and utterly unshielded units off the table one after the other. And as Nurgle has extremely anemic charges he can't even reliably break your formations without lucky spell casts; which of course relies on the Nurglites even getting a spellcaster in range through your numerous means to snipe them off the field. You can basically win this matchup while AFK, but something to watch out for is nurgles Army Ability, which can jump from one nearby unit to another, and Harmony forces your units together, so keep an eye out for the plauges.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Ogre Kingdoms| Ogre Kingdoms]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Skaven| Skaven]]''': From the looks of it, this seems to be your hardest matchup by far. Your harmony mechanic relies heavily on having a solid plan for most stages of the game and Skaven excel at disruption, be it through summons, skirmishing Eshin troops or just raw balls-to-the-wall firepower of Clan Skryre. Mirror Missile is your friend in this match-up and for its relatively low winds of magic cost is one of the single most brutal anti-ranged unit spells in the entire game, forcing the Skaven commander to either force their ranged unit into inactivity for twenty seconds or watch their prized shooters wipe themselves out.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Slaanesh| Slaanesh]]''': What's this, a speedy flanking faction designed to dive backlines? This could spell trouble for you. Fortunately, you theoretically have one way to banish Slaanesh's creeps back to the warp, and that's "Invest in flying units and box up with halberds." Slaanesh has no ranged units and only Furies as fliers, so as long as you have a Longma unit or cheap missiles to protect them, your Sky Lanterns and Sky Junks will be pretty much untouchable as they blast apart Slaanesh's ranks. Due to the amount of AP on their roster, Celestial Dragon Guard are a risky choice so invest either in Peasent spears or Jade Warriors with Halberds. You won't win the melee fight so don't bother investing in it. Have your infantry hold while your War Ballons shoot, your flying casters cast (Grab either the Dragon Siblings or a Shugangen in the air to keep them safe) and your Longma use their speed to flank and rear charge. Your balloons will run out of ammo eventually though, so make every shot count. Or just bring crossbows/archers, and shoot the living shit out of the exhibitionists.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tomb Kings| Tomb Kings]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tzeentch| Tzeentch]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Coast| Vampire Coast]]''': If the Coast thinks they can outshoot you they have another thing coming. Rocket artillery devastates Vampirate formations and while they can swat your Sky lanterns out of the sky if they bring terrorgheists, Long Ma riders and your Legendary Lords can swat those out of the air in turn and curbstomp any deck droppers they bring. You have well armoured and shielded ranged units who will tear straight through the fragile ranks of the Coast and can stop any monsters they field cold; while your artillery is able to out-trade Vampirate cannons with a better rate of fire as long as harmony is active. Also Missile Mirror was basically created to troll the Vampire Coast specifically.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Counts| Vampire Counts]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Wood Elves| Wood Elves]]''':

===Domination===
General Tier Rank: '''C'''

You know how Harmony encourages you to stick your units together and to hold down a single point while not getting too aggressive? In Domination you win by doing the exact opposite of that. Since you have to spread out your forces and go on the offensive it's really hard for you to actually keep your Harmony active meaning a good chunk of your units won't be fighting at their price range. What's more, since you're out maneuvered by most factions, odds are you will not being getting to most points first and will have to fight off your enemies to secure them. Good news is that with your high armor, Terrocottas and range once you do have a point it's decently hard to kick you off. It would really help if you had some kind of decent, inexpensive mobile threat or just a fast ranged unit that can help keep harmony on all your infantry. You're way better in normal land battles though, as it's significantly easier to play your game and keep Harmony up.

==Campaign Mechanics and Tactics==

Unlike Kislev, which devolves into a Daemon fuckfest around the third or fourth wave of Rifts, Cathay is so easily-defendable that it's just begging for a rework, or at least a nerfbat.

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'''Bastion:''' You have no real enemies outside the invaders in the Steppes beyond the Bastion, or the Ogres/Chaos Warriors in the Mountains to the South. The Bastion has a unique "Chaos Invasion" mechanic where Kurgans get spawned every so often to lay siege to the Bastion. They are Norscans rather than WoC, though, so have absolutely no artillery or siege ability outside of throwing trolls or mammoths at you, and the Bastion Gates practically pay for themselves once you invest in the Upkeep Lowering building chain, (which can go as far as 90% upkeep reduction for garrisoned armies), and get the settlement to level 4 to build Terracotta Sentinels. The Kurgans pretty much only exist to die against your garrisons and give them free experience. Funnily enough, should an AI Cathayan faction own all the gates, the stacks will do absolutely nothing but wait outside the gates.

'''Trade and Treaties:'''Speaking of Cathayan Factions, there are four hostile rebels (two for each Legendary Lord) and two Loyalist ones, who will be pretty easily confederated once you beat the rebels. Do this as quickly as you can, because your income will rise substantially with their provinces and stability. Cathayan income is comparable to High Elves, without the expensive upkeep. You will actually have enough passive income to station a hero in each province to close rifts as they come up, and the gold needed for each action.

You'll also have lots of potential trade partners; by sending Caravans westwards, you can establish diplomatic relations with factions they pass through, and trade treaties can be established with those on the route. These trade relationships can be turned into military treaties, which can eventually lead to Outposts, a new mechanic in Campaign that lets you build military outposts in major settlements (Provincial Capitals with 4+ slots). If you both have an outpost in each other's territories, both factions get to purchase infantry from each other's respective recruitment pools. Cathayan Castles with Kislev Tzar Guard? Na, think Jade Warriors backed by Kroxigors, or Hawk Riders screening for your airships!

'''Harmony and the Compass:''' Harmony is pretty tedious. Your economic/defense buildings, technology, and characters (+1 for heroes, +3 for lords) all have a corresponding Yin-Yang cost. Going too far towards one way will lead to inefficiency at the least, and provincial instability at the worst. Yin and Yang balance will fluctuate as you lose heroes and research tech, and certain buildings will wax and wane in usefulness as your empire expands/contracts: One Yin building, for example, provides better casualty replenishment, while its Yang counterpart ranks up your Peasants; one is more useful when you're trying to replenish losses after capturing a territory, the other is better for giving you quality levies, but both are mutually exclusive per settlement. Since you only need to build the first tier for the yin-yang point, it is sometimes helpful to leave a building slot open for quick rebalancing, or demolishing the ones you dont need anymore.

The Celestial Compass on the other hand provides campaign bonuses depending on which way the winds of magic is directed: corruption cleansing, casualty replenishment, control, or growth ; as it stays pointed in one direction, a meter fills up, providing grander effects, like increased income, attrition on enemies (but only the regions beyond the Bastion), or a comet like spell on the battlefield.

'''Actually playing:''' As mentioned above, uniting Cathay is your top priority, because the potential income you can get by having so many peaceful provinces under your direct control. And there's honestly not a lot of directions for you to expand to: The Steppes outside the bastion is simply too chaotic to be worth it, and the Mountains of Mourn are filled with Ogres and Chaos Warriors who will happily take a break from killing each other to kill you instead. Until the late game, your contact with the Old World will be limited to Caravans, which is fine, since they still provide line of sight and diopomacy options in the mountains and beyond in the Old World.

The Rifts will start out delivering only small amounts of corruption, but will get more severe as the campaign drags on, to the point that they can bring a province to 100 corruption in only a few turns. Close all the rifts in your provinces first with heroes, then those belonging to your sibling, because if lefr uncheck for too long, Daemonic heroes will emerge and the corruption will spawn rebellions. Only your faction leader can enter the Warp or traverse the rifts to fast travel to another place on the map, and when closing a rift with an army will only cause a battle, whereas using a hero only costs gold.

You need to collect four Daemon Prince souls, one from each Realm, to lead to the final battle.

*Slaanesh takes a minimum of 6 turns, as you need to go past each of the six circles and deny all the gifts presented at each exit. You can, however avoid pointless battles the easiest here by simply going straight to each rings portal and avoiding the Slaanesh daemons.
*Tzeentch's realm is like a pokemon gym, where you go from island to island via teleporter until you arrive at his palace. The islands only really have 2 portals, the one you came from, and the one you need to reach, so as long as you just go from one to the next, you'll be fine. What makes this difficult, though, is that you spend the rest of your movement teleporting, no matter how much you had left. Some islands have Daemons waiting to jump you outside of the teleportation portal, sometimes one stack, others, two. Never march through a portal, since that will leave you exhausted, or worse, with no retreat option. If youre afraid of being jumped on arrival, in TW3 you can still move in the encampment stance(but at 50% range), so this not only prevents attrition but gives you an advantage on the defense
*Khorne wants to watch you fight. His realm is full of rogue armies that you must defeat, and for each kill you get, you fill up a meter. Fill this meter and he will grant you the honor of fighting the Daemon Prince at the Brass Citadel. Pick a fight against the undead or daemons, because rather than run away, they will fight on until the entire unit is wiped. This will fill the bar quickly, and its not like you had lots of ways to chase after routing ememies.
*Nurgle grinds you down with attrition, but thankfully unless Ku'gath is there too, you won't actually catch a "real" plague. The best way to move through his realm is encamped, but doing so cuts movement in half. You can also visit landmarks for some replenishment, because Nurgle is nothing but generous. That being said, his daemons will block your path and respawn right away.
*The Shadow Legion: After collecting all 4 souls, the road to the Forge of Souls is unlocked. Once more, portals will open all throughout the world, but this time Belakors forces will erupt and lay siege to your cities. The amount looks to be variable, amd by this point in the game, you are probably at war with more than just Chaos. If you have any spare heroes, close the portals right away to prevent reinforcements. Since this happens right after collecting the fourth soul, you can time it to happen right after clearing the latest wave of Kurgans, so that at the very least, you're not dealing with a Bastion invasion at the same time you're dealing with literal hell gates erupting all over your empire.
*The Final Battle: Belakor controls the Forge of Souls. It is a survival battle, so you will face three waves while also fighting through the forge. The first wave is nothing difficult, and can be won solely through Sky Junks and Celestial Crossbows, but the 2nd and 3rd will be tedious, since you're in the Forge of Souls, you will be facing a whole bunch of Soul Grinders. Take Celestial Halberds, Celestial Crossbows, and multiple Sentinels. The Halberds are self explanatory, since you will need some tough holding units to hold against the waves of Daemons, and their expert charge defence means that while fighting Bloodletters is inefficient, they wont give up without a fight; Crossbows are quite dangerous when focus firing in volleys, but the two artillery Soul Grinders (Nurgle and Tzeentch) are both also the tankiest. Take out Tzeentch first, because Barrier recharges, and it will recharge once you stop shooting it. When teched up, Sentinels are a good match for Soul Grinders, but are very slow in movement and attacking without support, so you will want to have someone fight the Daemons while the Sentinels fight the Daemon Engines.
**This is where a military alliance really comes in handy. Bloodletters are pretty good against your infantry, and are still pretty dangerous when they mob a sentinel. Tzar Guard or Armored Kossars provide some offensive oomph that your Celestials and Jade Warriors otherwise lack.
**One tricky part about Survival is that even after a wave is "over," you will continue to be harassed until the next wave begins. After the first wave ends, Chaos Hounds wil harass your troops until they capture the secont point, so you will need to leave a rear guard behind to deal with them, otherwise your heavy infantry, or worse, your slow, slow, Sentinels wil get stuck behind swatting them. After the second wave, Belakor spawns endless Daemons. Daemonettes and Bloodletters will rush you, while Pink Horrors will pepper you with magic while taking no damage in return from barrier.
**The Final Wave wont end until Belakor is slain, and then you will need to mop up whatever remains. Belakor summons even more Soul grinders, as well as a bunch of heavier hitters, like Minotaurs of Khorne and Doom Knights. They will be teleporting in from all over the throne room, so you will need to keep an eye out for when a portal opens and for what comes out of it. The only thing that prevents this from being utter Bullshit is that they give you a shit ton of Sentinels (7??) in the final wave of reinforcements, and you will be legitimately retarded if you take anything else besides them. In fact, because of how many Sentinels you get for the final battle, you may be able getting away only three or four in your army, and filling the rest with heavy infantry or crossbows. The final battle is chaotic and all over the place, and warm bodies to hold back the reinforcements might be more helpful than 15 sentinels all trying to gangbang Belakor.

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[[Category:Total Warhammer]] {{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War: Warhammer/Tactics

2022-06-23T03:03:22Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* Subterranean Battles */

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Welcome to the general tactics dump for [[Total War: Warhammer]] and it's sequels. Something to help with noobs and lower the bloat on the main page. If you want to take this knowledge to the online scene (God help your soul) take a look at the community made Banner Rules at [[Total War: Warhammer/Tactics/Banner Rules]]

==Basics==
In many ways, Warhammer plays like your standard Total War game. It features real time battles with an army of roughly 20 units max on each side. There will be at least two armies on the field and whoever is able to completely shatter the other side first wins.

Each army has it's own collection of Infantry, Missile troops, Cavalry, Artillery and Monsters to play with, each offering a different play style. For instance, Dwarfs offer a defensive solitary play style focused around heavily armored infantry and strong missiles where as the Beastmen are an aggressive hit and run faction designed to get in, hit the enemy and break leadership, then get away before the enemy can counterattack. The asymmetrical play style of the factions is a massive part of the appeal.

The battle maps also play a huge role in how battle play out. Some maps are heavily forested, meaning missile heavy armies may struggle due to increased cover for the enemy. On the flip side, some maps have a lot of water, debuffing units unless they have the aquatic trait. It is smart to take a look at your terrains before you plan how you're gonna win.

If you play ranked multiplayer, there will be a limit to how many of a certain kind of unit you can bring, mainly to stop you from missile kiting your enemies to death with a mass horse archer spam. As such, focusing on what you might need for the match up is key.

==Units==

Every faction has a mix of different kinds of units. While they are all different, they each fall under one of these categories.

*'''Lords''': The generals of your army and your most important unit. He can buff leadership and other stats and usually tends to be a beast in combat either through melee or magic. Problem is that if they die, the whole army suffers for it so you have to protect this man. You can also only bring one.
*'''Heroes''': Your secondary leaders, usually coming in both melee and mage form. Not as much as a badass as your lord, but are usually cheaper and you can bring more than one.
*'''Melee Infantry''': Simply put, the foot boys you are throwing into melee. These infantry tend to be slow but also tend to be pretty good at holding the line and dealing damage in prolonged melee compared to missiles and cavalry. Their job is usually to engage the enemy front line and either hold long enough for your other elements to do their job, or break through and begins pouring into the enemy backline.
**'''Swords/Axes/anything the Lizardmen use instead''': Generally tend to be more DPS focused. If you are buying sword infantry, you get them because you want them to deal damage to the enemy frontline.
**'''Dual Swords''': Infantry that sacrifice a shield in exchange for an extra weapon. They tend to have much higher attack than the standard sword infantry and usually carry an Anti Infantry bonus, so they are much better in the frontline fight at DPS. However, they have lower defensive stats and a vulnerability to missiles, and the fact that they usually rely on Anti Infantry means they aren't as versatile as the standard sword unit.
**'''Spears''': Your more defensive option. Not as good at killing things but better at holding the line than swords. They also usually come with an anti-large bonus, meaning they do more damage when fighting bigger targets. Many also come with some kind of kind of charge resistance. Units with both will completely turn the tides on enemy cavalry.
**'''Great Weapons''': Infantry that usually carry two handed weapons like great swords and great axes. They tend to have majority AP damage, so they do more damage than normal sword infantry, but also don't have shields so missiles are very effective against them. Most units with great weapons also tend to have a low attack speed, leaving them vulnerable against hordes.
**'''Halberds''': Great weapons for spears, really. Same thing with great weapons, trades a shield and lower attack speed for more AP damage.
*'''Missile Troops''': Your ranged boys. Good at dealing damage from a safe distance but generally suck in melee. They tend to come either with arc fire or line fire. Arc fire like archers can shoot over allied troops and don't need line of sight, but do less damage. Line of sight troops like guns tend to do way more damage, but need to actually see their enemy before they can shoot, so if allies or terrain is in the way, they might not get a shot in. Luckily, their difficulty in positioning correctly is negated by one simple fact: while only the melee troops in actual contact with the enemy will attack, all 120 units of archers will attack at the same time.
**'''Bow Infantry''': Often, but by no means always, the lowest tier of missle infantry you can recruit. Usually trades raw damage for greater range, the ability to fire indirectly and rate of fire.
**'''Crossbow Infantry''': Basically the same as bow infantry, but they trade range for rate of fire (although not much) and more armour-piercing damage. Notable for covering a large variety of different units, such as the rather mediocre Imperial Crossbowman to Darkshards.
**'''Gunpowder Infantry''': Loud, smelly, and more often than not more dangerous for their user than the enemy (a mechanic entirely missing in-game), these are all kinds of primitive guns. They hit hard, don't care about armor and usually come in unpleasant numbers for the receiving end. The only major downside to them being that they can't shoot indirectly, so you have to make use of clever unit deployment and/or flanking to get the most out of them. Of course, if they are forced into melee it is usually an absolute disaster, more so than other ranged units.
**'''Hybrid Infantry''': Sitting comfortably in between ranged and melee infantry, all of these guys (and gals) can switch between ranged and melee combat at the press of a button. The Elf factions in particular use a lot of them (with Great Weapon Shades and Lothern Sea Guard being outright the best options) so be prepared to not charge them blindly with cavalry; nearly all of them are more than capable of dealing with lower tier cav on their own.
**'''Weapon Teams''': Exclusive to Skaven, these are Clan Skyres crazy contraptions of the shooting, burning and drilling variety. They trade unit size in exchange for an ungodly volume of firepower; once they are properly set up, there is hardly anything stopping them. On top of that, they are also armoured and have large HP pools, giving them a surprising resilience against counter fire from enemy ranged units. Beware of cavalry, for what they posses in offensive power, they lack on the defense.
**'''Others''': Some kinds of missile only show up on one kind of unit and even then there is only one faction that can use them, so i'm putting slingers, javelins and that sort of things into this umbrella category. Mostly rather weak weapons that either benefit from being used in great numbers (slings and javelins) or really strong weapons that suffer from limited ammo-capacity (Norscan Axe Throwers come to mind).
*'''Hounds''': Technically, these units can be any kind of very fast, cheap melee cavalry and not just doggies but whatever. These cheap puppers are used to harass and interrupt Artillery crews, chase off routing units, chew on squishy casters and Heroes and sometimes take out a ranged infantry unit. They're not tough by any means of the word but they're fast and can hold a unit back in a few crucial moments. Some of them are specialized to the point where they can be used for other roles, like the Poisoned Warhounds that can charge into the backs of the enemy line to apply a rough debuff.
*'''Cavalry''': Boys on horse (or other fun creature) back. Mobile and has high charge but tend to fall apart fast in prolong melee.
**'''Shock Cavalry:''' Lance cavalry with loads of Charge Bonus but little in the way of defense; charge them into the sides and backs of the enemy, retreat after 10-15 seconds and repeat until the enemy is mashed, red pulp on the ground... Or crushed bones, or green shroom-mush or what-else. One of the reasons you bring Spears and Halberds is to keep these dudes away from your lines. They're also often decent at countering other Cavalry units.
**'''Melee Cavalry:''' Rare mounted troops that excel in longer engagements (but not forever; they're still cavalry). They usually use Great Weapons, Halberds or Sword'n'Board. Almost never used alone; they're better at quickly engaging and messing with a line battle you're already engaging with with you troops.
**'''Skirmish Cavalry:''' The deeply annoying yet totally crucial lighter cavalry. Annoying because they are tiresome to micromanage and run away all the time when fighting against them, and infantry can never catch them. Crucial because Skirmish Cavalry ''can'' fight in melee but usually work better as ranged, mobile units harassing the enemy's ranged units with melee attacks, countering enemy Shock and Melee Cav with ranged attacks and higher movement speed, and shooting into the back of the enemy line.
*'''Chariots:''' Those sweet ones that swing low. Chariots are a bit rare and are used to break through enemy lines with impunity, cycle-charging like a maniac. They are dismantled very quickly in prolonged melee and tend to not do a lot of damage unless they're charging. One of the hardest type of unit to use properly because they need to be micro-managed at every turn. Also out of every unit, chariot suffered the most when they are out of vigor (aka exhausted), which lowers their speed to the point they can't knock over as many infantry as it wishes during charging and gets caught easily in the crowd as result. So always remember in campaign to not get attacked during march stance while fielding those bad boys. Some chariot units have ranged weapons but don't use them as a ranged unit, make sure to turn melee engage on. Their small unit sizes means that their ranged attacks tend to be a lot worse than other units and if they are staying out of melee they are not using their ability to break through enemy lines. That being said, a chariot having ranged attacks isn't a reason to not use it, think of its ranged attacks as just inflicting some extra damage and more importantly, a leadership penalty as it charges and retreats. Many players forego chariots altogether due to their micromanagement and fragility, which is to their detriment. Properly used, they can shatter enemy lines and ruin morale.
**'''Ranged Chariots:''' Unlike the former category where missile attacks are just a way to deal a little extra damage and a leadership penalty, these chariots are specialized for ranged combat and should only be charged into an enemy when out of ammo. Their function is often similar to that of an artillery unit but more mobile, blasting enemy units with powerful ranged attacks and retreating should opponents try to reach it.
*'''Monsters:''' A category that covers a bewildering amount of different units, every Monster does something different for the faction it's found in. Usually they are either infantry-slayers, monster/cavalry-eaters or huge battering rams meant to break up the enemy's line. A few factions even have "artillery" monsters balance their exorbitant cost by being able to hold their own in melee. Some monsters (like Giants) are cheap and cheerful units you can just throw into the enemy for a spell, while others (like the Dread Saurian) can easily eat up a fourth of your money in multiplayer matches. The only faction without access to a monster is the Dwarfs (Gyrocopters does not count).
**'''Monstrous Infantry''': Monsters that generally come in a small units size and feature slow, relatively tanky monsters designed to help out in the front line. Here's a tip, do NOT throw them in alone, team them up with other infantry. That way the enemy units will have to split their damage across 2 different units instead of being able to focus your monsters down.
**'''Monstrous Cavalry''': Faster, harder hitting but also squishier than the infantry option, they are meant to be used a lot like cavalry. Use them as heavy flankers and for pure raw charge bonus and can even be decent in prolong melee. Their downside often comes in the form of cost, frailty and lower model count compared to most cav.
**'''Single Entity Monsters''': Big super monsters meant to be a gigantic problem for the enemy and generally have impressive stat lines along with a combination of fear and/or terror. Their attacks can stagger smaller monsters. However these guys tend to be expensive and have a massive target that says "Shoot me" in every language in the Warhammer world, so use them wisely. They become overpowered if the unit size setting is not set to Large or Huge (the settings the game was balanced for) because while their health is reduced their other stats are not and their attacks damage a higher percentage of a unit.
**'''Warmachines''': Single entity monsters, but mechanical. These range from imperial Steam Tanks to the Skaven DOOMWHEEL. What all of them have in common is high armour, high morale, large HP pools and very powerful ranged attacks.
*'''Fliers''': Your flying units, ranging from cheap fliers meant to bog down missiles and artillery to fucking dragons. Their edge is that since they can fly they can engage on their terms and you can get them anywhere in the battle they need to. Their downsides comes in needing breathing room to take off again and generally frailty. Even dragons aren't a unit that can stand being in melee for too long, so you got to micro them well. Be warned: soaring around in the skies means ranged units can fire freely without being blocked by either the terrain or their own troops. Many fliers are also large units and can be easy pickings. Wait for them to be preoccupied or flank them so they have to reform their formation before firing.
*'''Artillery''': Your good old catapults, bolt throwers, cannons or what ever crazy contraptions your race can bring to the table. Can lay down an absolute whooping from very long range, some being table to take down even the scariest monsters with fairly little problem. However, they are garbage in melee, are ridiculously slow, are somewhat expensive, and need extra room and a clear line of sight to even fire, which means they need protection more than just about any other unit type in the game. However, it pays off by racking up hundreds of kills before the enemy even meets your front line. Important to note is that while the contraptions themselves offer cover to their crews, they aren't invulnerable and can be destroyed by ranged units and magic.

==Stats==

Each unit in the game has a unit card, which shows the player what they are generally good and bad at. Noobs might be confused as to what the fuck all these words and numbers mean, so here is the breakdown!

*'''Health''': Fairly simple, how much health the unit has. If the unit has more than one model per unit, you can divide the total health by the number of models to see how much health each model has. It's important to know that the threshold at which a model actually dies is surprisingly high and the game itself speads the damage units suffer evenly among the models in that unit.
*'''Armor''': This stat helps mitigate damage coming at your unit. If they are hit by a missile, melee attack, or a spell, a RNG roll goes off to see how much of the non-AP damage goes through the unit's armor (between 50 and 100 percent). Every point of armor is a percentage of reduction, NOT a flat amount. The more armor the unit has, the lower percentage of non-AP damage that will get through. More info on AP and non-AP damage below.
**'''Shield''': If the unit has a shield, this is where it's factored in. Shields help block missile fire coming at you. It comes in two tiers (technically three, but you never see gold shields outside of campaign buffs). Bronze shields block 33% of missiles where are a silver shield block 55%. Keep in mind this only works on small arms fire and not artillery because a shield isn't gonna fucking save you from a cannon. A very few units can deflect arrows (and bullets somehow) with their weapons, being treated as having a bronze shield even when they carry none.
*'''Leadership''': How much morale the unit has. The higher the number is, the less likely your unit is going to rout and run for the hills. Run off the battlefield or rout three times and that unit is gone for the rest of the battle (but not necessarily dead). If it reaches 100, the unit may as well be unbreakable.
*'''Speed''': Fairly simple, the higher the number, the faster the unit. Each unit has a speed cap determined by the animation model, beyond which it cannot move regardless of the speed value. It is not visible to the player.
*'''Melee Attack''': This determines the likelihood of your attacks hitting the other unit. The higher the number, the more likely the attack is to hit against an enemy. This number is often rolled against the next number in this list.
*'''Melee Defense''': Widely considered one of the most important stats in the game. Melee defense is the likelihood your unit has to block the attack of the other unit attacking it, causing it to sustain no damage; However, before either Melee Defense or Melee Attack is applied, there is a base chance of hit of 40% (35% in WH2) before Armor is applied. There is also a minimum of 10% (8% in WH2) and maximum chance to hit of 90%. If you have a choice to buff either Melee Defense or Armor and already have the means to deal with ranged units, take Melee Defense. Because what's better than mitigating damage? Not taking damage at all!
*'''Weapon Strength''': How much damage your attacks do. This stat tends to be split into multiple categories. There are also two hidden mechanics: damage on weapon sweeps is split evenly between all enemies hit and weapon strength does not factor in attack speed.
**'''Weapon Damage''': How much damage is going to be rolled against the enemy armor to see if it gets mitigated or not. Generally, if this makes up the majority of your Weapon Strength you want this unit fighting unarmored units.
**'''Armor-Piercing Damage''': Or AP damage for short. If your attack gets through the other unit's Melee Defense, this is the amount of damage that's going to get through no matter what. If the Weapon Strength is mostly Armor-Piercing, then you want these guys going up against heavily armored units to tear through them.
**'''Anti-Large Bonus''': Damage that is not factored into the roll unless they are fighting something the size of a horse or bigger. If they have this stat, throw them against cav or monsters. Applies to both Melee Attack and non-AP damage.
**'''Anti-Infantry Bonus''': Same as Anti-Large, only meant against infantry or smaller. If they have this stat, they are infantry blenders. Applies to both Melee Attack and non-AP damage.
**'''Magic Damage''': Certain units and some Legendary Lords inflict their attack as magic damage. This is useful against enemies with physical resist like Plague Monks and absolutely needed against supernatural enemies like Cairn Wraiths (whom are known for having 75% physical resist, being a ghost and all). Be wary, though: more units in the game have magic resistance than physical resistance, including every dwarf unit (they were created to resist the winds of magic after all). Of course, this is also the damage types of many of the spells in the game. Good news for units that largely rely on Magic Damage came in the form of a developer Q&A on Discord: Warhammer 3 will rework Magic Resist into Spell Resist, making Magical Attacks on units actually worth a damn and many of them into potent can openers.
**'''Fire Damage''': Like Magic Damage, it deals extra damage to those weak to its damage type (AKA units associate to trees like Treeman, Tree Kin, [[Dryad]] and [[Durthu]], because fuck them racist elf loving trees, right?). Unlike the tabletop version, flaming attack deal extra damage against units that are capable of regenerate health (vampire, trolls, ghouls) instead of just stopping their regeneration. Apparently, CA hates fire damage for some reason and stated in the game that [[derp|flaming attacks are weak to heavy armor units despite Irondrakes being able to deal AP damage on the tabletop, due to their flame being able to melt armor]]. We'll just have to wait and see if CA is willing to fix it. Also, like Magic Damage, some units such as Dragon Princes and Irondrakes have Fire Resistance against its effect. Both Physical resistance and Fire resistance will apply for fire melee damage and fire missile damage. As of Warhammer 3 it now reduces healing for all units, were as before it just did bonus damage to regenerating units.
*'''Charge Bonus''': A bonus to both Melee Attack and Weapon Damage (split between Armor-Piercing and non-Armor-Piercing based on percentage) that lasts for 15 seconds after running into an enemy. It starts decaying immediately upon contact with enemy and is almost negligible after 10 seconds. Note that walking into an enemy unit is not the same as charging, you have to actually run into them. You also have to cover a small distance in order to build up the charge bonus.
*'''Ammunition''': A stat unique to ranged units that tells you how much ammo they have. If the unit has 20 ammunition, then they can make 20 shots before running out. This stat goes down as they shoot, allowing you to keep track of how many shots you have.
*'''Range''': Simple enough: the higher the range, the farther a unit can shoot.
*'''Missile Strength''': The same as Weapon Strength, only this stat doesn't worry about Melee Defense. If it hits, it's doing damage (including if it hits your own troops). It also has all the subcategories of damage listed under Weapon Strength. The value given in the stats is actually over 10 seconds, not per shot (because what constitutes a single shot of a flamethrower?).
*'''Mass''': An important stat that isn't mentioned anywhere inside the game but is still important. Units come in two kinds of sizes: small (anything on foot) and large (anything that's mounted or at least as tall as a man on a horse). The larger the unit, the larger the mass. What's important is how mass affects charges and such, because it determines how one unit able to withstand them. Lowly infantrymen (and heroes and Lords on foot) will get knocked around alot when that Necrosphinx - a massive ancient Egyptian robot wielding two fucking swords - starts attacking them. Knocked down models are unable to move and fight, which can give you an edge. The enemy Lord can't bother you if he ragdolls after every hit. Mass also determines how easily a unit can push through a blob of units, whether it is to retreat or whether it is to attack the ranged units by plowing though the melee infantry line. Nothing can stop a two-ton War Mammoth when it decides it doesn't want to be there.

==Passive Abilities==

Some units have special passive abilities that have a variety of effects; the most common will be listed here.

*'''Flying''': Does what it says on the tin. Can only be engaged by other flying units and ranged attacks or magical projectiles. If all units in the army are flying they must attack or lose the battle, likely so defenders can't [[cheese]] by dealing with ranged units and waiting for the timer to give them the win.
*'''Causes Fear''':Not to be confused with "Causes Terror", Fear inflicts a penalty on the enemy units' leadership, making them more likely to flee. Most monstrous and/or supernatural enemies have this ability, and some Lords and Banners have it as well. If a unit causes Fear, it is itself immune to it. Like Terror, it falls under Psychology, so some units are immune to it.
*'''Causes Terror''': Units that cause Terror can cause large drops in enemy leadership when they charge, or when they're causing large amounts of damage to the enemy; this is on top of the leadership damage they already cause just by charging. All units that cause TERROR are immune to Terror, and are completely ignored by units that are immune to Psychology.
*'''Frenzy''': A unit with frenzy gains a significant bonus to their melee stats as long as their leadership is above 50%.
*'''Aura of Command''': Found on every Lord and Hero, they project an Aura around themselves that increases Leadership for friendly units. Most Lords and Heroes also can be skilled to make their Aura of Command better and/or to include more bonuses. Doesn't stack.
*'''Aquatic''': Aquatic Units fight better and move faster in wet terrain, such as rivers and swamps. Unsurprisingly, most Vampire Coast units have this.
*'''Stalker''': Stalkers remain invisible to the enemy until a certain distance, regardless of line of sight. The only things that can break their invisibility are close distance and if they start to attack. Certain units can fire while invisible without breaking it.
**'''Sniper''': If they have this, they'll most likely also have STALKER. Units with this ability do not reveal themselves when making ranged attacks. Examples include Empires Huntsmen and Chameleon Skinks.
*'''Strider''': Striders ignore any movement and vigour penalties from terrain; they will always move with 100% movement speed, but also can move through obstacles, such as trees.
*'''Perfect Vigour''': Like the name implies, units with Perfect Vigour never suffer fatigue; no matter how intensely they fight, no matter how hard they run, they will always remain at their peak performance from the beginning to the end of any battle.
*'''Berserk''': Once a unit with Berserk falls under a health threshold, they will start a rampage, causing you to lose direct control over them. They will always attack the closest enemy unit they can see. It wears off after a few seconds or if their morale gets broken. Lizardmen call this ability Primal Insticts and it gives them a few stat bonuses but works the same way.
*'''Vanguard Deployment''': An interesting ability with a lot of potential uses; it allows for a unit to be deployed outside your normal deployment zone. Several Legendary Lords can aquire traits and skills that give units this ability (or in the case of Skarsnik, basically your entire roster for the first half of the game).
*'''Sundering strikes''': A very rare ability, melee attacks made by a unit with this ability reduces the armour of the enemy hit with it by 30% for 20 seconds.
*'''Ethereal''': All supernatural enemies (such as Ghosts) have this. Ethereal units take next to nothing in damage from physical attacks and only Magic Damage does damage against them.
*'''Ward Saves and Resistances''': Not technically a passive ability, but the game does not do the best job at explaining it, so i'll explain it here. Ward Saves are a flat damage reduction against everything that your unit or character gets hit with, Resistances only against certain kinds of damage. Many characters can have these and in the campaign it is advisable to get them wherever possible. Both Ward Saves and Resistance cap at 80%, so there is (sadly) no invulnerability cheese possible.
**'''Spell Resistance''': As of the the latest Discord Q&A ([https://www.reddit.com/r/totalwar/comments/nwon8i/total_war_warhammer_3_qa_will_update_as_more/h1ach6r/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3|As can be read here]) Magic Resist will be reworked into Spell Resist. Works like Magic Resist before, but only affects spells.
*'''Poisoned Attacks''': Poisoned attacks reduce the enemies melee stats and movement speed for 10-20 seconds. Some units have different kinds of poison that work in the same way and usually cause the same effects with greater severity. Fun fact: table top version's poison deal constant damage to a unit model each turns, it was changed to stats debuff in this game due to how broken it is when it was put in practice in an actual total war game (In Total War Attila, The Antean faction has a unit called Poison Archers that fires constant damaging poison arrows. If used right, it can annihilate an entire enemy line even on the hardest difficulty).
*'''Regeneration''': Units with Regeneration heal themselves over the course of a battle, up to a maximum that varies greatly on what faction you play, but is usually 60% of the HP stat. Usually more "neat to have" than outright useful, but some units (Like Malus Darkblade) can have outright broken regeneration, so keep that in mind. Important: Regeneration does not replenish dead models on a unit that has more than one.
*'''Unbreakable''': An unbreakable unit will never flee and always fight to the last man, regardless of losses and the situation on the battlefield. Can be a two-sided sword, as most unbreakable units are very expensive elite units that you most of the time really do not want to lose. Iconic units with this trait are the Dwarf Slayers (because slayer oath) and Empire Flagellants (because they are Sigmar's Zealots). Sadly not fearing death also means not bothering with armor so most such units die if a ranged unit as much as looks at them.
*'''Expendable''': Your meat-shield ability. Expendable units do not cause a leadership penalty when they flee from the battle to other units except other expendable units. Very important to keep in mind with the more horde-centric factions of the game like Greenskins and Skaven; this makes tarpits possible without having your main line completely collapse.
*'''Wounds''': A game three trait specifically for single entity units. Once they fall below half health, they lose a chunk of their speed and their weapon damage in both standard and AP. Done to nerf single entity spam, and makes sense given an injured monster wouldn't fight as well as an uninjured one.
*'''Undead''': The Undead work differently from regular units in that they are functionally Unbreakable (meaning that they will never flee), but their Leadership status comes in six steps that are distinct from regular units (here from good to bad): "Strong Binding", "Stable Binding", "Weak Binding", "Critical Binding", "Crumbling" and "Disintegrating". Starting with "Crumbling", the unit will continually lose HP at a slow, but steady pace. "Disintegrating" is the severe form and only occures when the morale would normally be Shattered for living units, the unit will die in a few seconds.
*'''Daemonic''': Signifies that the unit it a Daemon. Pretty much works exactly like undead, the unit is unbreakable and instead starts taking damage when leadership is down before being "Banished" back to the Realm of Chaos.

==Magic==

Magic works in a similar way to the TT game, although there are some differences, but, played right, Magic can be a devastating force that can turn a loss into a victory.

First, the Basics: Like in the Lore, how much Magic you can use depends on the Winds of Magic and how strong they are blowing. On the campaign map, there are visual indicators for how strongly the winds blow but you can also just hover your cursor over any given place on the map and get a number. This number indicates your base power reserve on the battlefield. Certain Lord and Hero traits, followers, and skills can increase your reserve. If it isn't obvious enough, you need a spellcaster Hero or Lord on the battlefield to use one of the many varieties of Magic. All spellcasters know a Lore of Magic; this determines what spells they can learn and use. Some Lords know two Lores or, in the cases of Teclis, Morathi and Alarielle, have an assortment of spells from all Lores. To use spells, you simply select the desired ability and follow the on-screen on placing it. The system is intuitive enough that it doesn't need much explaining and the in-game spell browser even has a video of every spell in action. Once you cast a spell, the cost of it will be deducted from your available power which will regenerate over time at a rate based on your remaining power reserves. Your available magic outside of your reserves is capped at 30, but the amount of spells you can cast is limited via the overall power reserve; once it is drained, you won't get more unless you use abilities like Arcane Conduit. More on Arcane Conduit later. Spells have a chance to be miscast, inflicting minor damage to the spellcaster. You can, at an additional cost in spellpower and a higher chance of a miscast, double click to overcast a spell for more powerful effects, provided you have the spell skilled out.

An exception to the aforementioned rules are bound spells; these are spells that come from magical items your Lord or Hero pick up after a battle or are spells from a different Lore of Magic certain characters can learn, or, more commonly, spells that are tied to a specific item. Bound spells do not cost spellpower or affect power regeneration and have a fixed cooldown, but can often only be cast a fixed number of times. For example, once leveled up, a High Elven mage of any Lore can cast Fireball four times for free except for a 90 second cooldown between each cast.

There are a lot of Lores of Magic to choose from, generally speaking, they can be put into two categories: The Generic Lores (Fire, Light, Death, Beasts, Heavens, Life, Shadows, Metal) and Faction specific Lores (Skaven Spells of Plague, Skaven Spells of Ruin, Skaven Spells of Stealth, Lore of the Big Waaagh!, Lore of the Little Waaagh!, Lore of High Magic, Lore of Dark Magic, Lore of the Deep, Lore of Nehekhara, Lore of the Wild, Lore of Vampires).

The generic Lores are accessible to most factions with some missing here and there. The Empire generally has the broadest variety of Lores (namely, all, plus Lore of Metal through Balthazar Gelt) to choose; Bretonnia and the Wood Elves the least. Faction specific Lores are usually only available for one faction, with some exceptions through bound spells and special characters. Each Lore comes with a passive attribute that affects units map-wide. Before we dive into a deeper description of the Lores themselves, a word on Arcane Conduit and Greater Arcane Conduit.

Arcane Conduit is an active ability that replenishes your power reserves and increases the power recharge rate for 30 seconds, after that, it goes on a 60-second-cooldown. Use this ability! Extra spellpower is never bad and the power you have on hand cannot decay away; only your increased recharge rate reverts to normal after the effect ends. But it's never bad to just use it. It is a no-brainer. The premier mage characters even have access to Greater Arcane Conduit, which is simply a permanently active version of Arcane Conduit. Certain magical items as well as some Lore attributes can increase your reserves and recharge rate as well.

Onto the Lores then.

===Lores===

*'''Lore of Fire''': Fire, so much fire that it has the potential to make the Salamanders jealous and a Sister of Battle rethink her career choice. Provides a few handy buffs, and one of each type of offensive spells. The AOE spells have longer duration than other lores. The Lore attribute makes the enemy more vulnerable to Fire damage, which synergizes well with a variety of units and increases its own damage even further (Lores apply during the countdown to cast). The best Lore of Magic for dealing damage against foes that are unarmored, trees or mummies. Otherwise its offensive spells fall under the "master of none" category when compared to other lores. Archaon the Everchosen's preferred Lore, for some reason.
*'''Lore of Light''': Provides some very good buffs, a mediocre but cheap projectile, and a fairly cost effective Vortex but the main reason to pick this is a Net spell that stops any poor suckers from moving so your missile and artillery units can shoot them. If you want your wizard to primarily buff up your units and stop enemies moving close to your unit, this is your Lore. Also one of the rarer lores, with only four factions (Empire, High Elves, Lizardmen and Tomb Kings having access to it.
-Banishment does not do more damage to undead, that's a myth based on how lore of light worked on the tabletop. In fact, because it does pure ap damage but low base damage it's actually worse than most vortexes on lightly armored units like most undead
*'''Lore of Death''': Basically the opposite of the Lore of Light. Consists primarily of spells that debuff enemy units and some unmissable point-and-click spells. Lore attribute increases your power recharge rate which is never a bad thing. Important to note is that this Lore is the only Lore available to Greenskins other than the Waaagh! Lores. Azhag the Slaughterer uses this Lore (courtesy of his magic crown), as well as Arkhan the Black and that pompous fuck Mannfred von Carstein.
-A favorite lore in multiplayer for powerful direct damage spells you cant avoid, still good but not as effective in single player. purple sun is maybe the best of the armor piercing vortexes, its very large with good ap, some base damage, and disrupts enemy formations by throwing them around. With banishments similar cost (17 vs 18) purple sun is usually as good or better in every situation except it's duration.
*'''Lore of Heavens''': A bit of an odd lore consisting of exactly one good buff for melee units and three potentially powerful but random damage spells and a very niche Lore Attribute that weakens flying units. Better than Fire if you expect to fight single or armored units.
*'''Lore of Beasts''': A very diverse, jack-of-all-trades lore that abuses cheap spells, with the most significant spells being summoning a Feral Manticore (or a Great Eagle if you're playing High Elves or Wood Elves) and Flock of Doom which is weak normally but excels during sieges; Otherwise, it tends to be overshadowed by other Lores. If you have access to better Lores, you can skip it. The Lore attribute is interesting as it recharges your power reserve as well as increase your recharge rate for 29 seconds when you cast a spell, effectively giving you a good discount on your cheaper spells.
*'''Lore of Life''': The ultimate defensive utility Lore. It has lots of spells that buff the survivability of your units and has two decent enough damage spells as well as being the only Lore that has multiple healing spells. The Fae Enchantress and Alarielle the Everqueen speciallizes in this Lore. The Lore attribute heals all friendly entities (not units, entities!) on the map for some HP which is convenient. However, be warned: healing cannot revive already dead entities in a unit! It is widely considered to be an extremely powerful Lore of Magic if used correctly. Especially if running Sigle entity doom stacks it cant be beaten, heal up to full after every fight. lore attribute works better on low health infantry but other 2 healing spells are much better on small units of monsters or single entities.
*'''Lore of Shadows''': A hybrid Lore that is best suited for a more subtle approach. Most of the buffs and debuffs are good enough. Pit of Shades is one of te few stationary vortex spells but overcomes this by vacuuming up nearby units to deal consistent damage to them. What makes it stand out is the Lore attribute granting gives your units a whopping +24% speed boost, which is not to be underestimated.
- Very good lore for AP damage spells, all 3 are highly effective vs armor. plus a good single target debuff and a potent weapon strength buff. maybe the most versatile jack of all trades lore since its damage spells all work against armor. can damage all unit types very well except single entity and its buff and debuff can handle them indirectly. less effective than fire or celestial vs lightly armored chaff generally though miasma is very efficient vs high unit sizes.
*'''Lore of Metal''': Certainly the rarest of the Lores (only the Empire's Balthasar Gelt, High Elves and Chaos' forces have access to it), it mainly focuses on debuffing and buffing armor and weapons. It can reduce enemy armor, can increase your own, and can debuff weapons. The take away spell is Final Transmutation, which is a massive AOE damage spell that gives EVERYTHING a middle finger (over a couple of seconds). Did we mention the passive that gives more AP to all your units? Balthasar's preferred Lore as the self-proclaimed (and frequenly proven) "Lord of Metal". Great for fighting factions that love to throw armor at you but only OK against everyone else.
- Often considered pretty weak, too much focus on buffing/debuffing armor makes it less useful late game in campaign, hounds is usually considered pretty bad, that alone means 3 of the spells are pretty situational or weak. still the other 3 spells are pretty good. best used on gelt who gets extremely cheap casting. Final transmutation is like an AOE spirit leach, only good on single entities and small units but still great.
*'''Lore of the Little Waaagh!''': As befitting for da Gobbos, tons of stuff that give your hordes of Goblins a fighting chance against the enemy. Little in the way of direct damage, but useful nonetheless. Curse of the Bad Moon is one of the optic highlights of the game, and a great spell to boot. The Lore attribute reduces the enemies power recharge rate.
*'''Lore of the Big Waaagh!''': As subtle as a truck racing down a highway with 250 mph ON FIRE. Perfectly suitable for da Orks t' get Krumpin'. Foot of Gork is a devastating spell that can potentially end a battle with a single cast. 'Ere we go! is one of the best offensive buffs in the game and, combined with the Waaagh mechanic, this is a seriously dangerous Lore for anyone facing against it. Wurrzag the Great Green Prophet specializes in this Lore. The Lore attribute increases your power recharge rate. Decent enough.
*'''Skaven Spells of Ruin''': The first of the three Skaven Lores, and the most offensively minded. Warp Lightning may be the most cost effective damage spell in the game, the other spells are rather niche but nonetheless useful. Howling Warp Gale can help a lot with flying nuisances such as Dragons, leaving them vulnerable to your considerable arsenal of ranged weapons and artillery. Ikit Claw uses this Lore, Warlock Enginners and -Masters use it exclusively. The Lore attribute lowers enemy Leadership and Melee Attack, giving your front line a bit more room to breathe, which you can then fill with Warpfire and Warpstone Bullets. flensing ruin is underestimated, overcasted it preforms as well as final transmutation overcast in terms of damage done per winds spent.
*'''Skaven Spells of Plague''': Occupying the gap between pure utility of the Skaven Spells of Stealth and the pure damage of the Spells of Ruin. Whats interesting about this Lore is that it has not one but two spells that summon units and its ultimate spell causes immense damage while simultaneously debuffing the enemy - did I mention that Grey Seers with this Lore can summon Stormvermin? One of the best Lores, even if the most shiny bits are difficult to access outside of Clan Pestilens, since it requires you to level up either a Plague Priest or a Grey Seer for a considerable time to make full use of it - but when you can make use it, the enemy-things will feel it, yes-yes. Lord Skrolk uses this Lore and is the best candidate for using it.
*'''Skaven Spells of Stealth''': The only Lore in the game designed to be used with a spefific sub-faction and, frankly, it does show. It offers a lot of utility and a decent Vortex spell but gets overshadowed in almost every regard by the Lore of Plague and the Lore of Ruin - unless you take the Limitations of Sniktch's campaign into consideration. It's still rather niche and, if you're playing as the other Skaven factions, you're better off using either Ruin or Plague.
*'''Lore of Vampires''': Brutal. Definitively the best Lore in the entire game. Wind of Death will wipe entire units off the floor, averaging hundreds of kills per cast. Some general utility is found in using Raise the Dead to summon units to flank, tank damage, or bodyblock for your more valuable units and its Lore attribute heals (and revives) your undead minions. Its starting ability is also the best healing spell in the game in the form of Invocation of Nehek: a cheap, effective spell that uses excess healing to revive dead entities. There is little that can beat this Lore, which makes it only fair that it is exclusive to the Vampire Counts and Vampire Coast. Count Noctilus can use this Lore as well as all Vampire Lords.
*'''Lore of High Magic''': Another jack-of-all-trades lore that is exclusive to High Elves, Spellweavers and Slann. It can do a bit of everything. Healing, direct damage, buffs, debuffs, AOE explosions and a passive damage reduction. Has the main drawbacks that jack-of-all-trades do: they can do a bit of anything but don't excel at anything and, since High Elves have access to ALL the generic lores, it's often better to pick one that fits their specific needs on the battlefield. One of the more useful spells is Tempest, a vortex spell that damages and heavily slows flying units, locking them in place for your archers or fliers to attack. Eltharion is the only Legendary Lord who specializes in this. people only take it in multiplayer for tempest pretty much, crap in campaign. its not even the best jack of all trades lore.
*'''Lore of Dark Magic''': The unique lore of those assholes in Naggaroth. Where as the Asur Lores do have a few spells that help out their troops, Dark Elves say "Fuck that, let's just use our magic to torture the other guys!". Home to a really good debuff that can help swing fights, and the stand out is Soul Stealer, an AOE damage spell that heals the caster. Unfortunately, aside from those two, the others are just subpar damage spells, a debuff to armor, and a magic recharge spell that hurts the caster. All in all, it has a few stand out options but not one you really want to go all out in. Malekith specializes in this lore.
- Underestimated especially in campaign, power of darkness is the most effective WOM generator skill in the game it gives 3 times as much winds reserves as arcane conduit (30 vs 10) and 4 times as much winds gain speed (plus 60% vs 15%). Chillwind does 24 pure ap damage, 2/3 as much ap as a pendulum spell does. While Chill wind wont kill models much it can deal lots of cheap ap damage to infantry and cavalry, while being fast, cheap, and easy to aim. Doombolt is pretty good for the large AP damage done with good tracking, basic version is as about as good versus armor as overcast amber spear but much better AOE range to hurt units as well. Finally blade wind is a decent, cheap vortex that does about as well vs armor as firestorm thanks to the lore attribute, good vs hordes. You can even just use a dark caster as a winds of magic battery for another caster. also the wood elf lore attribute gives a nice boost to missile damage with every spell cast mapwide. comparable to the other damage lore's like fire, celestial, and shadow. excels most vs single targets and armor usually. can do the most single entity damage out of those 4 lore's and can be comparable to death and metal at that role thanks to Soul Stealer, Doombolt, and Word of Pain.
*'''Lore of Nehekhara''': If you couldn't guess by the name, it's the Lore of the boney bois. It is a buffing lore, through and through, which can give additional damage and anti large, protections, and missile power. Given the fact that your average Tomb King soldier is a literal pile of bones that barely knows which end of the sword to poke the bad guys with... yeah, this can help out a lot. Settra and Khatep use this lore a lot. Overall it's... ok? The damage spells are VERY subpar, and with access to the Lores of light and death, there's really no reason to pick it. The passive heal is nice but won't let you compete with Vampire healing.
*'''Lore of the Deep''': A Lore made up by CA and designed specifically for the Vampire Coast. It has three specific purposes: 1: Damage and dishing out LOTS OF IT (Vangheist's Revenge is one of the coolest looking spells in the game and can seriously lay down the pain), 2: Buffs to missile troops, which helps any gunpowder faction and 3: Summons. You can summon zombies, zombies with guns, and giant crabs to really push the fight in your favor. Cylostra was given this lore by Stormfels, and Luthor Harkon gets it in campaign when you fix his fractured mind. Is it a fun lore? Absolutely! It's a blast! Are the other lores for the Vampire Coast more practical from a competitive standpoint? Sadly, also yes. You can just use the summons on a deep hero with a vampire general so that's something. Its summons are likely more cost effective then lore of vampires depending on what you need. best as a supplement to vampires, not competition.
*'''Lore of the Wilds''': Beastmen got shafted in a lot of ways in their race pack. Their unique Lore of magic was NOT one of them. Wilds has some surprisingly good damage spells that can really help the goat men clear through crowds. Also, a passive that make restores vigor is never one you can complain about. Oh, did we mention they can summon a Cygor? As in literally have one crawl out of the ground and throw shit at the bad people? Yeah, people like to complain about the shit missing in the Beastmen DLC (with good reason, mind you) but, in terms of their unique magic, Beastmen actually got it pretty good. Obviously, it's Malagor's favored lore.
*'''Lore of Ice''': One of the two Kislev exclusive lores of magic in Warhammer 3. Assuming nothing about the lore changes before game 3 comes out, this lore will primarily be providing both damage and slowing capabilities to the battle field. The main spell here is Heart of Winter which gives an increasing slow and AOE damage all in one. It also provides good defensive utility with the passive and a large Damage reduction ability. We won't know how good it is until game 3 is actually out, but it looks to be solid for controlling enemy mobility and bursting them down.
*'''Lore of Tempest''': Placeholder for Warhammer 3. The other lore of magic exclusive to Kislev
*'''Lore of Tzeentch''': Placeholder for Warhammer 3.
*'''Lore of Nurgle''': Placeholder for Warhammer 3.
*'''Lore of Slaanesh''': Placeholder for Warhammer 3.
*'''Lore of the Great Maw''': Placeholder for Warhammer 3.

Spells themselves, just like in the tabletop game, come in six flavors: Buffs/Debuffs, Projectiles, Breaths/Winds, Vortexes, Bombardments, and Direct Damage.

===Spell Types===

*'''Buffs/Debuffs''': Pretty self explanatory. You cast them on a unit or group of units, and it improves or weakens a unit's stats. Overcast buffs usually have an area of effect that affects multiple units; you can these spells cast either on one unit or just out in the wild. To be affected by any buff or debuff, a unit must have at least half its models within the area of effect.
*'''Projectiles''': Similar to a ranged attack, it fires one or multiple projectiles in a straight arc at a target of your choosing. They tend to be cheap and very accurate, but need a line of fire to work. Best used by Casters who have access to a flying mount and to snipe monsters or single characters.
*'''Breaths/Winds''': Basically a directional AoE attack. Winds hit the whole area their indicator... indicates, while Breath spells expand in a cone shape. The indicator can sometimes be deceiving; some Breath spells and all Wind spells have a much larger range than the indicator suggests (most notably overcast Wind of Death from the Lore of Vampies AKA the best spell in the game) and it comes down to experience how each spell works best but, fret not, there is not much to it. Like all AoE attacks, they can cause friendly fire. What the game doesn't tell you immediately is that you can change the direction of your Wind or Breath Spell by holding the left mouse button before casting. Also, the Wind spells can deviate from the straight line the indicator shows, which can be quite annoying, but they'll never go as off-course as Vortexes. If a Breath/Wind hits a wall it'll be reflected, potentially letting you hit units that aren't lined up.
*'''Vortexes''': Big pie plates and usually the most potent damage spells in any given lore. Almost all move randomly over the map while they are active but all cause massive damage to units that have a lot of models in them. They never start moving where they can do the most damage so it's best to use them on an enemy unit surrounded by other enemy units. A few lores (shadows, plague, deep) have stationary vortexes, perfect for siege battles.
*'''Bombardments''': Think of them like off-map artillery from other RTS games. You pick an area, and a certain amount of projectiles come down from the sky, inflicting damage. Use it for large units already fighting, otherwise they tend to see it ad get clear in time.
*'''Direct Damage''': Direct Damage spells work differently from the other damage spells; they directly inflict magic damage to a units HP stat rather than its models, like a damage-over-time effect and don't inflict friendly fire. However, unlike the others, individual models can resist them. Usually your more reliable character sniping spells (with Spirit Leech from the Lore of Death being the most effective for its cost), although there are some that work better against whole regiments (Like Final Transmutation from the Lore of Metal or Flensing Ruin from the Skaven Spells of Ruin). Ethereal units really hate those.

You still want to know more? Well just head over to [[Total War: Warhammer/Tactics/Magic]] and you will find knowledge a plenty.

==Battle Types==
Not all battles are fought under the same conditions. While most battles will be pitched encounters where you and your opponent are literally starting on an even field, some encounters will reflect overworld conditions.

===Regular Battle===
Plain vanilla, what you'll most likely be fighting in campaign and multiplayer. You and your opponent will start on opposite sides of the battlefield, with someone being "defender" and "attacker." While most of these maps are generally even, sometimes the defender will start out in a favourable, elevated position. Other times, the defender will literally be in the bottom of a steep cliff, with beastmen hordes crashing down on them. The battlefield nominally reflects the type of terrain/environment your army was on the map.

If another army is close enough in the overworld map, they will arrive as reinforcements; the direction they come into the battlefield from is affected by their position on the overworld map, so you can have reinforcements come in from the back of your opponent's deployment zone. One change brought by TWWH3 is that this will take ''time'', generally around 1-2 minutes. While this can be affected by certain traits or ancillaries, the attacker can also initiate a "lightning strike," which will either add another minute or two to the timer, or lead to a blitzkrieg attack with no possibility of reinforcements. At the very least, lightning strike battles will leave the attacker WINDED or EXHAUSTED, which does even the battle in the defender's favor somewhat.

When first encountered, the defending army will be given an option to stand and fight, or retreat, an option you only get once. If you fight and lose, you can still have your army survive if you have units mostly intact. If they choose to retreat, they can still be attacked if the opposing army chooses to chase them; losing this battle will cause you to lose your army entirely.

===Chokepoint Battle===

A variation of the above, and pretty much everything is the same, except there is a natural chokepoint between the two armies. Chokepoint battles are initiated when the attacker needs to cross an overworld terrain feature like a bridge or river-crossing. Generally, the defender gets to deploy over a wider area on their half of the field while the attacker's forces have a more narrow deployment zone, but this depends on where the armies are in relation to the obstruction.

While "chokepoint" would make you think a single narrow mountain pass, most of the maps have 2 or more "chokes", so putting all your units to defend a single pass is an easy way to get yourself encircled.

===Ambush===
All armies can take the AMBUSH stance, where they'll do their best to hide their forces and attack armies that cross their path. Ambush success rates can be influenced by a number of factors, including campaign skills, faction bonuses and even the area on the world map you're attempting to set an ambush up in. Some armies, like Skaven and Beastmen, have ambush as their default attack stance. When ambushing your opponent cannot benefit from reinforcements, but the ambushing army ''can''. An army in Ambush stance can be detected either by independent heroes coming across them or if the defending army has a high enough ambush defense chance, in which case the battle will proceed as a normal engagement.

Ambushing armies can position themselves anywhere on the map, while the defending army marches from one end of the field to the next. Ambushing armies are HIDDEN until someone attacks, or they are spotted by the General.

Another addition in TWWH3 is an escape zone. Ambushed armies will attempt to flee the field, taking them out of play. If the Ambusher is victorious, the opposing army will be totally destroyed.

===Siege Battles===
In the campaign modes of Total War: Warhammer, this is probably going to be the second most common type of battle your armies engage in. Whenever an army assaults a settlement, they will encircle and besiege it. From there, they have a number of options. Settlements without walls can immediately be engaged in battle. Cities with walls (mostly major/capital settlements) will have a few extra defenses in place that require potential preparation. If it's an army with no artillery, monsters or monstrous infantry with the Siege attacker perk, they will need to spend at least 1-3 turns constructing siege equipment in order to actually begin the assault. Armies that ''do'' have entities capable of breaking down the enemy gates can immediately assault walled settlements, though they may still elect to construct siege equipment if they so desire.

Battle can be avoided entirely if so desired; armies can simply starve an enemy city out by besieging a city until the city's ''Hold Out Timer'' runs out (usually 12 turns on average, plus or minus a few turns based on traits earned through skills or campaign performance) then claiming the city. Armies and Garrisons within the city start suffering attrition the longer such sieges last and all city construction/recruitment is put on hold for the duration of the siege.

Of course, it's not much of a war game if you don't commit to the battle proper. Against capital/walled cities, attackers are stationed outside the city walls (obviously), with any siege equipment they may have constructed. Most infantry can man such siege equipment in order to more efficiently breach the city, though if nothing else they can create ladders to scale walls and (eventually) beat their way through a gate. Doing so without siege equipment is dramatically more exhausting, however. Many artillery platforms can not only attack gates and towers, but they can also focus their firepower against the city walls themselves to full on crack open holes for your forces to enter through. Defenders can vanguard deploy some forces outside their walls if they so choose, but for the most part will be able to position their units on or behind their walls. A random note on walls: flying units are really effective at assaulting walls, any model that gets thrown off the wall instantly dies, and it's a lot harder to tarpit a dragon when it's clogging up the wall.

Defenders will typically enjoy the use of (debatably useful) towers to help whittle down the attackers while they approach the walls, though they will need to have at least one unit stationed behind a tower for it to remain active. Defending armies will always have a city garrison available to defend (the strength of which is dependent on the city's tier as well as any defensive buildings constructed within it) as well as any banner army currently stationed within the city.

The goal for the attackers is simple. Take the city. They can do this in one of two primary ways. The first, and most frequent way this occurs, is the elimination of the defending armies. The second way is the capture of the primary victory point within the city. By capturing and maintaining control of it for 200 seconds, the attacker can forcibly claim the city even if there are still defenders present. Conversely, the defender must prevent this from happening. Unfortunately for the defender, they either need to rout the attackers entirely or hold out for the entire hour of the battle while protecting the city's victory point.

Total War: Warhammer 3 introduced a rework of siege battles, both for minor and major settlements. In general, settlement battles are now larger in scale, with more of the actual city being involved in the actual battle. There are now a number of supply points spread throughout the city which provide the controller with a stream of...well, supplies. So long as defenders hold those locations, they will continue to receive resources of which they can construct additional defensive structures and towers throughout the city. Attackers can capture these points to cut off these supplies and destroy any fortifications constructed at that point.

Minor settlements are now properly represented as with their own, distinct maps. Unlike walled siege battles, minor settlements take up the entire center of the map. Aggressors have the entire perimeter of the settlement in which to deploy, granting them substantially more flexibility in picking their engagements. Defensive structures and towers are limited to those the defenders construct over the course of the battle.

Major settlements are larger and now in many cases have bridges, walkways and elevated platforms overlooking or undercutting sections of the city, allowing for more diverse engagements and routes throughout the city.

===Subterranean Battles===
Various races (Skaven, Beastmen, Dwarfs and Wood Elves, for example) have alternate movement stances that allow them to ignore otherwise impassable terrain and slip past enemy armies that may be blocking your path forward. The Dwarves and Greenskins had the ability first, and they do it by traveling underground hence why even if Wood Elves don't dig, it's called 'subterranean'. However, enemy armies have a chance to intercept armies moving near/across them in that stance in a battle not terribly dissimilar from an Ambush battle. Like an Ambush battle, the tunneling army is at your mercy; they cannot retreat from an interception. Most tunneling armies will be totally wiped if they are intercepted and are defeated, but some, like the Beastmen and Wood Elves, can still regroup after being defeated. Unlike Ambush battles, armies will deploy normally and neither of them will have any notable tactical advantages in deployment options over the intercepted. You can decline an interception if it is your best interest (say, your army is too weakened to fight or you need to conserve your strength for a more opportune target... which is ''real'' unlikely all things considered) and allow them to go forth unmolested. But this section assumes you do the correct thing and intercept underway/worldroot traversing armies.

The battlefield itself is substantially more constrained over a regular field; a long narrow tunnel/hallway will typically make up the zone of combat, putting units that rely on maneuverability at a notable disadvantage over those that hold their ground. Gunlines and artillery tend to be quite powerful on these maps due to the (generally) limited cover and dramatically reduced space for armies to spread out. While some such tunnels have some elevation differences (such as beast paths/world roots, because they're not really "underground"), many of the underway maps also tend to be quite level, for better or worse.

==Battlefield Mechanics==
Dynamic effects that can alter your unit's performance during the course of a battle, and things to keep in mind in general.

===Fatigue and Vigour===
As you may expect, running across massive battlefields, slogging through waist-high water, running up hills and shouldering through dense trees to ''then'' engage heavily armed (and armored) foes in a fight to the death can be a bit draining, be you man, elf, greenskin or even lizard. This will manifest in the form of gradually degrading combat performance as your units get worn down through the various stages of fatigue. Running and combat of any kind will start to drain vigour from a unit, while standing or walking slowly replenish it. Terrain does play a role in how quickly fatigue is lost (i.e., charging and fighting uphill is substantially more draining than charging or running downhill).
*'''Fresh''': The initial vigour level for any army not caught in Force March at the beginning of any battle. Fresh to the field, no wear or tear and eager to spill blood on your command. There are no penalties at this stage (obviously).
*'''Active''': Your troops have performed some minor skirmishing or ran a modest distance, so the pep to their step is gone. A 5% melee attack debuff slightly hampers their combat effectiveness.
*'''Winded''': Your troops have engaged in combat and/or have spent a significant amount of time running. A 5% speed and melee attack debuff and a 10% melee damage and reload speed debuff kicks in.
*'''Tired''': Your troops have engaged in extended combat or have run about the field extensively. The initial starting vigour for armies attacked while in a Forced March stance. Exhaustion starts to take it's toll; a 10% Speed, Melee Damage and Charge Bonus debuff accompany a 15% Melee Attack and Reload Speed debuff.
*'''Very Tired''': Combat and maneuvering around the field have all but drained your soldiers. 10% debuffs to melee damage and armor, a 15% speed debuff and a 25% melee attack, charge bonus and reload speed debuff claims a heavy price from your soldiers.
*'''Exhausted''': The final stage of fatigue. Intense, extended combat after extensive maneuvering with little to no respite has put your troops on their last legs. A 10% melee defense and damage debuff, a 15% speed debuff, a 25% armor debuff, a ''30%'' melee attack and charge bonus debuff and a ''35%'' reload speed debuff severely cripple your exhausted units, putting them at a severe disadvantage against any fresh troops they may have yet to face.

This is a universal mechanic that applies to all factions, including Undead ones (they just have different names for the various stages), so you'll always want to keep this in the back of your mind as battles tend to wage on. These penalties (or lack thereof) can make a significant difference in a unit's combat performance, especially if they're further buffed (or debuffed) by magic, abilities or items to give them an edge.

===Morale===

Similar to Exhaustion, Morale determines the willingness of your units to keep fighting. Morale is affected by different factors: such as by being flanked, the death of your Lord, or being hit by artillery/guns.

When a unit's leadership reaches a critical low, their banners will flash and the unit will begin to [[Squad broken|BREAK]]. Broken units will flee and attempt to disengage; their leadership will slowly rise so long as they're out of combat and the LORD is still on the battlefield. Since [[Squad Broken|BROKEN]] units can still regroup and return to the battle, it's a good idea to chase them away with light cavalry to stop them from regrouping. Otherwise, should they continue to take more losses, the unit will [[Squad Broken 2|SHATTER]] and will not regroup at all.

Effects and Attributes that affect morale:
*'''Encourage:''' This affects morale positively. Encouragement is a generic buff given by Heroes, Lords, and certain units (like Cathayan Airships, Longbeards). They raise Leadership and can even help BROKEN units rally quicker.
**'''Lord Dies/Lord Flees:''' On the other hand, when your Lord dies or flees, you army will take a permanent leadership debuff until the end of the battle. DISCIPLINED units will not need to worry, however. Great when you have an army of battle-hardened Dwarfs or Cathayans, absolutely fucked when they're Undead.
*'''Fear and Terror:''' Already mentioned above. Fear is constant, Terror is caused when charging. Causing Fear or Terror makes one immune to Fear/Terror.
**'''Unbreakable:''' As mentioned above, being UNBREAKABLE or IMMUNE TO PSYCHOLOGY makes you immune to psychological effects. Unbreakable units will also fight to the death, so long after the rest of your army has broken, they will continue to hold. Ungrim is notable for often being the last one standing (if he isn't focused down, that is)
*'''Flanks Secured/Flanks Exposed/Attacked in Flanks/Attacked in Rear:''' Positioning is important in TWWH, and unlike older TW games, there are no fancy formations that give you 360 coverage. When your unit's flanks are secured by another friendly unit, they gain a small bump in leadership. When a unit is attacked from their sides, or worse, [[Squad Broken 2|in the rear]], their leadership will drop and they will be more likely to break and disengage.
*'''Charging/Being Charged:''' Unbraced units will take a Leadership hit when they see a unit of [[Cold One|raptor-mounted raptors]] or [[Beastmen|chaos-tainted horsemen]] rushing at them. Having Charge Defense mitigates this.
*Being tired

===Elevation===
No battle is ever truly fought on an even playing field (in this particular case, we're focusing on the the literal sense). From small hills to towering settlement walls, units may find themselves looking down upon the hapless masses desperately crawling their way up the slopes or they might desperately find themselves shielding themselves from a hail of arrows from on high.

Elevation can play a significant role over the course of a battle. Units traveling up hills not only move more slowly (thus reducing charge bonuses), but suffer increased fatigue gains (up to 150%) and deal less damage to enemies fighting above them (up to 30% less). Conversely, enemies charging down hill lose less fatigue, do so more quickly (increasing charge bonuses) and deal up to 30% more damage against foes below them. The benefits/consequences aren't just limited to melee infantry however. To no-one's surprise, firing at enemies beneath your position confers a substantial advantage; not only does this allow your archers/gunners to shoot over potential obstacles, but it also gives them up to a 30% damage buff against their targets as well. Should your archers or gunners find themselves at the base of a hill or wall, not only do they suffer up to a 30% damage reduction, but their shots are far more likely to be blocked by battlements or terrain, wasting precious ammunition. These percentages are calculated entity to entity and based on the relative slope/height difference between the two (depending on the terrain, two different entities in the same unit might deal more or less damage than each other based on how they're engaging the enemy).

==Tutorials==
A collection of tutorial images and infographs made by various anons on /v/ and /twg/. Some are more coherent than others
<gallery>
File:Warhammer_gun_tutorial.png|Tutorial on how to use gunpowder units in the Total War Warhammer trilogy. Four different formations are covered, each of which is effective in different circumstances
File:Warhammer_skaven_tutorial.jpg|Some factions like Skaven or Cathay have ranged units that are too slow for regular chevrons, but deploying your troops behind the front lines and then baiting the enemy in with artillery works almost as well. In this specific example, R is Ratling Guns, J is Jezzails, and G is Globe Mortars while the lightning bolts are Warp Lightning Canons and the star is your lord
File:Warhammer_tercio_tutorial.png|Tericio tactics are a more in depth tactic with more moving parts which is marginally better than chevrons but a lot more fun. It is only effective on factions like Empire or Kislev whose ranged troops have decent speed, do not try this with Dwarfs. Consider replacing common artillery pieces like cannons with artillery units capable of some self defense, such as Little Grom. Doing so gives your backline melee infantry more flexibility as it does not need to stay quite so defensive
File:Warhammer_dwarf_box_tutorial.png|For defensive ranged races with slow units and a strong frontline like Dwarfs or Cathay, putting a box of units around your ranged units can make you very hard to break. Corner camping is considered one of the cheesiest and most overpowered tactics in the game for a very good reason, it will win you battles that you should not have won
File:Warhammer_pile_of_violence_tutorial.png|A lot of melee factions like Greenskins or Khorne can function quite effectively as a "pile of violence" or rush army that simply charges into melee and smashes gits
File:Warhammer_chaos_warriors_tutorial.jpg|As an alternative to just sending everything in one big blob, send you infantry and monsters in a blob while keeping your cavalry on your wings to charge in and then flank the enemy
File:Warhammer_bretonnia_tutorial.png|Some armies favor using powerful lords and heroes to deal large amounts of damage to the enemy while using other units as more of an anvil to the hero's hammer
File:Warhammer_mannlet_tutorial.png|Some armies such as Vampire Counts and Nurgle work better as a more defensive melee blob where you sit your lord inside your other infantry to have them blast spells at the enemy while healing their allies
File:Warhammer_vampire_tutorial.png|A blob army doesn't have to be defensive, factions such as Vampire Counts, Tomb Kings, Greenskins during WAAAGH! and Skaven are quite adept at simply swarming the field with giant blobs of units. This is best done when you handily outnumber the enemy, usually with either multiple armies present for the battle or with lots of summoning
File:Warhammer_tomb_kings_tutorial.png|By end game, most factions will have a doomstack army that they want to build, which features the most powerful units in that faction's roster buffed to the gills and then spammed. In this example, a Tomb Kings player might use a doomstack of Warsphinxes and Greatbow Ushabtis to simply rush the enemy and destroy them with very little tactics necessary
</gallery>

[[Category:Total Warhammer]] {{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

T14 Heavy Tank

2022-06-17T18:08:05Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* In Real Life */

An experimental heavy tank that was designed and had two-prototypes built, but was never brought into active service. It exists in Flames of War as part of a T14 Assault Tank Company/Squadron. Think of it as a [[/d/|longer, harder, and thicker]] Sherman.
==British==
[[File:Britbongt14.jpg|thumb|right|The stats]]
==American==
[[File:T14.jpg|thumb|right|The stats]]

==In Real Life==
A joint American-British effort, the T-14 was meant to be an infantry/heavy tank to surpass the then-still-in-production [[Churchill]] infantry tank, which was built to assumed World War 1 conditions and doctrines (like, trenches, thinner armor on enemy tanks which would allow them to use smaller calibers on their guns, and unsloped armor, more in the Churchill page.) The Americans did not have an infantry tank of their own, so they consulted the British on what features they would like to see on this new heavy.

The American T-14 shares a lot of similarities and design-qualities with the early Sherman, sharing the same shape, the same short-barreled 75mm (though the Brits would've used the 6-pdr) and standardized modules, except built to be longer so that it could be used as mobile cover. Even the T-14's armor thickness was the same as the Sherman, but at a steeper angle, giving it effectively more armor while using less resources; even though the armor was thinner than a Churchill's, it offered similar protection. That being said, because it was ''longer,'' the tank was also quite a bit heavier than a Sherman, which strained its engine and made it too heavy for less-than-ideal off-road conditions and took up more space in a ship when transported to Europe.

When the time came, the British decided to stick with the Churchill. Though the design was inefficient, it was also easier to upgrade and modify to address its inherent flaws, and they a already had the factory and tooling in place for them and they lose production switching over.

{{US Forces in Flames of War}}
{{British Forces in Flames of War}}

Tau

2022-06-15T08:40:03Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* "Naive Weeaboo Space Communists" */

{{heresy}}
{{Plot Armour}}
[[Image:TAUSYMBOL.gif|center]]
{{Infobox 40k Nations
|name= T'au Empire
|image=[[Image:Tau_Empire_Flag.jpg|300px|center]]
|bgcolor=
|fgcolor=
|Capital= T'au
|Official Languages=Tau Lexicon
|Power= Minor Power
|Size=Approximately over 300 worlds
|Head of State= Ethereal Supreme
|Head of Government= Ethereal Council
|Governmental Structure=Caste-Based Authoritarian Federation
|State Religion/Ideology=[[Greater Good]]
|Demographic=[[Tau]], [[Kroot]], [[Vespid]], [[Gue'vesa|Humans]], [[Nicassar]], [[Tarellian]], Nagi, Hrenians and other minor [[Xenos]] races
|Military Force=[[Tau]] Fire Caste, Tau Air Caste, [[Kroot]] and [[Vespid]] Forces, The Deathsworn, Hrenian Light Infantry, [[Demiurg]] Forces, [[Nicassar]] Forces, Gue'vesa Forces and other minor Xenos armies, The [[Kor'Vattra]] and it's auxiliary fleets
}}
[[File:9jfnqeaplhexx.jpg|right|thumb|450px|Get the fuck out of the way, [[Imperium|Oldfag]]. (Vior'la Sept Fire Warriors)]]
{{Topquote|I'll say this about the T'au, they know how to put on a good war.|[[Ciaphas Cain]]}}
{{Topquote|Ce qui constitue une République, c'est la destruction totale de tout ce qui lui est opposé. - What constitutes a Republic is the total destruction of that which is opposed to it.|Louis Antoine de Saint-Just}}
{{Topquote|Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.|C.S Lewis}}

Tau (τ) is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet, 300 in Greek numerals, and also the name for 2π.

It is also the name of the Warhammer 40K race known as the '''Tau''', nowadays spelled '''T'au''' by GW copyright lawyers as if that somehow [[ChapterHouse Studios|fixes anything]] (many nicknames include "uncreative retards" if you are an [[Eldar]], "blueskinned atrocity" if you're a [[Imperium of Man|Human]], "bluies", as the Valhallan 597th call them, or "Space Communists" as anyone on /tg/ will tell you) are a playable race and a minor and overall insignificant power in ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]''. When first discovered by humanity, the Tau were a barbaric and primitive people. Their planet was then trapped in a warp storm for a few thousand years and they emerged from the other side as a unified species, led by the [[Druids|mysterious]] Ethereal caste and devoted to the concept of the "[[Greater Good]]". Their new empire supposedly has around 300 worlds, with dozens more small colonies and outposts, packed into a stellar cluster about 500 light years across. They have about [[T'au Septs|21 official]] "Septs" which are major systems based around a cultural 'prime' planet (think Manhattan then the tri-state area). They were growing until recently, when the Imperium sent a large invading force to counter them.

Although a dystopian society in its own right, the Tau Empire is noted for being one of the LEAST awful places in all the galaxy of 40k. It's also [[Derp|not really an empire]]; the Tau government, the Ethereal caste, is essentially an edifice of meritocracy and nepotism. Tau leaders are appointed to their position by even higher ranking leaders and/or a council of their future peers; the highest ranking Tau, the Aun'O, is elected by his future underlings, much like the Catholic pope, but is still simply considered the weightiest voice of a group (like a prime minister), not an Emperor with absolute power.

The Ethereals are basically like "upper management" if upper management worked... or maybe HR if they didn't just 'klkn' [fancy tau word for F'ed] everyone over. The Ethereals actually care about the people that look up to them as they set mandates across their society, which the castes strive to fulfill.

The Tau started as a classic case of successful design-based [[Troll|trolling]] on the part of [[Games Workshop]]. They were originally developed because GW felt that their setting needed an optimistic race and that their wallets needed more money, which they could get by selling shitloads of 40k to the robot-obsessed Japanese. The Tau, therefore, are the least [[grimdark]] faction in the game; [[Tau Diplomacy|they're the dudes willing to negotiate when they've beaten their enemies]] ([[The Beast|we cannot forget the green skinned diplomats our boy sent out during his siege of terra]]) while all the others are either too [[Chaos Space Marines| murderously psychotic in ways incomprehensible to anyone who does not share the same batshit insanity]], [[Imperium|religiously overzealous]], [[Eldar|arrogantly indifferent]], [[Orks|simplemindedly violent]], [[Necron|murderously enigmatic]], [[Tyranid|more interested in eating you than anything]], or [[Dark Eldar|all of the above]] to offer such courtesies.

This began to change in 6th edition. For all the claims that GW doesn't listen to its fans, someone seemed to have heard the incessant bitching many fa/tg/uys made over the Tau [[Belisarius Cawl|being shoehorned into the setting]] [[Primaris Marines|in the worst way possible.]] As a result, the Tau began to take on an Orwellian flavor and Imperium-esque elements, with the Ethereals being totalitarian autocrats performing acts of ruthless indifference towards their subjects, including [[Nazi|eugenics]] or up to [[Exterminatus]] of lost races (e.g. Orks and Tyranids), in the guise of being for the Greater Good. (though classyfing Orks and Tyranids as being Exterminatus on sight is a pretty good assessment honestly)

As a result you now have a new generation of weebos running around thinking that the Tau actually don't give a fuck about their people and would actually kill their own kind for things like... sculpting [like really, if you do art outside of the Earth caste you just disappear] which would make the Tau the least functioning society in 40k as whole swathes of their own population are routinely exterminated for fixing their crisis suits so they don't drown or pull a pistol out to protect children (things that actually happened).

The Tau Codex leaves ambiguous the question of just how much of their success is due to various forms of indoctrination, caste-based conditioning, and subtle mind control. This has only been exacerbated by the recent Farsight Enclaves supplement, which makes the Ethereals come off as mustache-twirling, Saturday-morning-cartoon villains. It speaks volumes about the 40k setting that in spite of all this they're ''still'' the friendliest race in the galaxy.

An interesting contradiction arises because the Tau have annexed (sometimes peacefully) entire Hive Worlds, meaning the Tau might actually be a cat’s paw to a human civilization by now. This is because a single modestly-sized hive world ''probably'' boasts a larger population than the entire Tau species combined (with one hive city on a world at one point being noted for outright having a population higher than the Tau species, much to the horror of a Tau diplomat), along with an industrial capacity to match- not to mention the fact that the Tau willingly give their tech and knowledge to races who have been subsumed into the Greater Good. It seems that Games Workshop has not yet realized this problem.

=="Naive Weeaboo Space Communists"==
[[Image:Tau Weeaboo.png|thumb|right|Cue hotblooded music by [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r6xYnFDoV0 JAM Project].]]
The Tau's naiveté might seem at odds with the GRIMDARK-ness of the setting (and to a degree, a lot of it is), but the thing is, Games Workshop specifically plays this straight FOR the [[grimdark]] and ''knows'' that the seeming futility of the Tau's optimism only further accentuates the general hellishness of the rest of the galaxy - and dear [[Emperor|god]] do they play this up for maximum effect. In the 41st millennium, the Tau come across as ''more'' than a little naïve to the other races; the Imperium sees any contact with aliens as heretical and will shoot them with [[bolter]] rounds as soon as they look at them; the [[Ork]]s just want to kick the shit out of things; and the [[Eldar]] see the Tau as a race in its infancy, just staggering out of its borders for the first time and wandering into a pond full of [[Saharduin|sh]][[Dark Eldar|ar]][[Chaos|ks]] (most Eldar philosophers admit their own race has failed, the humans are failing, and add that the Tau are in for a rude awakening). If the sharks arrayed against the Tau think of them at all, it is surely as dinner.

In older fluff [a single book that was so off the rails it said Tau had toes and no nasal slits], the Tau were implied to have been secretly uplifted by the Eldar through the creation and subtle control of the Etherals (especially the mind-influencing pheromone secreting gland at the base of Ethereals’ spines) and guiding them through reverse-engineering Imperial technology from the ruined colony ships. Eventually the Eldar abandoned them because the Tau never accomplished anything notable on their own due to a crippling lack of creativity (<s>a big red flag of bullshit, since the Tau are nothing if not creative</s> needing the Eldar to reverse-engineer Imperial colony ships for you and teach you everything is ''NOT'' "creative", it is the opposite, pay attention before opening your mouth. What part of "uplifted" do you not understand?). This older fluff also said that humans must be in physical contact with an Ethereal or perhaps subjected to heavy doses of the pheromone in other ways to be sufficiently affected but other aliens are affected merely by being in the vicinity of an Ethereal. In the current fluff, the Eldar backstory and Ethereals-controlling-other-races theory seem to have been cast aside as nonsense and are no longer canon.

The Tau's generally-optimistic fluff, combined with their highly advanced technology, distinctly "Eastern" combat doctrine (that is often reminiscent of Sun Tzu's "''Art of War''"), use of [[Mecha|battlesuits]] (just [[Imperial Knight|like]] [[Dreadnought|the]] [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Imperium]]), [[Hammerhead Gunship|heavy firepower]] which rivals that of the Imperial Guard, and one of the [[Fish of Fury|most broken tactics in tabletop 40K until it was finally fixed an edition later]] has conspired to make them very much hated (and by that we mean a source of butthurt) by a reasonable-sized population of the [[/tg/|40K fan populace]]. /Tg/ has rightly dubbed the Tau [[Weeaboo]] (as much due to their Asian-ness as anything else) as a result.

[[Image:Tau fire warriors.jpg|490px|thumb|left|The [[Greater Good]]: translatable as [[Deal with it|"If you want to make an omelet, you gotta break some eggs."]]]]

And again in a case of much cultural confusion, the Tau are often considered [[Communism|communists]] (despite being a rigorous, hierarchical, near-eugenicist class society that would have Marx's spirit resurrect himself to commit suicide) due to their central philosophy of casting aside the self in favour of the Greater Good. This is partly because it's a nearly twenty year old meme by this point and memes that old are very stubborn about dying... and partly because we're a bunch of ignorant fucks. If anything the Tau more resemble the class system of Plato's ''Republic'' crossed with the caste system of India and [[Star_Trek#The_Federation|Star Trek's Federation]], and a little bit of facism as well (because they're the only ones in the entire galaxy who bother to try diplomacy with xenos rather than [[Exterminatus|exterminate]] them (partly because all but a few alien species are horrific space monsters that only a complete idiot would try to negotiate with)).

Even then, the Tau has more in common with the Imperium than the noblebright space hippie Feds; they adhere to a highly strict doctrine of eugenics, as [[Love Can Bloom|all forms of love, sex or breeding between different castes]] are, translated from Tau lexicon into Gothic, '''[[HERESY]]'''. The Tau also have an explicit merchant caste as well as a single unified currency (something the Imperium of Man only has in theory, [[Imperial Truth|much like everything else]]) along with a system of standardised wage labour which makes them actually more Capitalist than the still stuck in Feudal Economics Imperium. Contrast to the Craftworld Eldar whose society of post-scarcity voluntary labour actually is fully Communist, albeit there are still nobles entitled to bigger houses.

The Tau treat their member species with an unusual amount of autonomy and respect while also keeping them as second-class citizens with no say in the Tau government. There is no restriction on religion or cultural uniqueness so far as it doesn't interfere with the greater good: Humans may still worship the Emperor, Nicassar can continue exploring the universe and Kroot can continue to ingest the dead; so it's a pretty broad stroke of acceptability.

What is terrifying and an excellent twist on the Tau is that member races and the individual is kept from 'choice'. So if you suck, like you're just bad at everything, you're not going to be offed or turned into corpse starch. You are simply given a 1 bedroom apartment, universal healthcare, and a broom. And that's it. You don't get to be a hero, you don't get to rise above your worth, and this is all decided by an alien society. If you dare step outside of these boundaries, then you're given a couple chances. First you're sent to reeducation. Do it again and you might get some beneficial brain washing... and so on. But death? Certainly not, because what purpose would that serve?

To double the weebiness but to greatly decrease the communism connection, the Tau are remarkably similar to war-time era Imperial Japan. Not in terms of military doctrine but in terms of its geopolitics. Like Imperial Japan they're a young power situated in the east, relatively far from most of their possible rivals' centres of power. Like Imperial Japan they have a seemingly nice enough doctrine in terms of rhetoric; "Greater Good" and "Co-Prosperity Sphere"; but in practice what it means is that they want to replace the old empires in the region with their own. Like Imperial Japan they're at a significant disadvantage in terms of production power compared to their most serious rivals in the region, and hope to compensate for that by tactical superiority and winning big decisive battles to topple the old powers.

To further solidify the connections to Japan in the early 20th century, the Tau Empire even borrows some terminology, such as "spheres" of expansion, a firm belief that despite their grotesque material inferiority to their primary enemies, the power of their ideals and their superior willpower shall overcome their enemies all, and a dogged insistence on picking fights it probably can't win. Imperial Japan knew that America alone had nearly twelve times the industrial power, with Britain having thrice Japan's military-industrial might, France just about matching theirs, and the Soviets having four times that: even China, despite being a wartorn barely functional shithole, could be a quagmire for it.

But Japan didn't give a shit because they thought that they were so awesome they could somehow get all these people to surrender through a combination of being better at war than their soft, mewling enemies and that they simply believed in their destiny to rule the waves more than anyone else did. Much like how the Tau are fully aware that the Imperium, the Orks, the Necrons, and the Tyranids could all squash them flat in a stand up fight, but believe this is immaterial because their belief in the Greater Good shall overcome all and that they have mastered the ways of war while their foes are mired in ignorance. Although, the lore mostly depicts the Tau, including their leadership, as utterly unaware of anywhere remotely near how horribly outmatched the Tau really are. It says a lot about the major factions that the Tau have glimpsed only a tiny fraction of their enemies' power, believe that is the whole of said power, and believe they are tremendously outmatched but will be victorious due to Manifest Destiny. Ignorant of the true power they face.

What is for sure though is that whatever part of the political spectrum they'd fall on (probably wherever you'd put Imperial Japan during world war two), the Tau government is mainly oligarchical, with the vast majority of political power concentrated in the Ethereal caste.

This is further driven home by the fact there is a Tau splinter faction led by one of their two best generals alive, Commander [[Farsight]] of the Farsight Enclaves, whose government is a non-caste society devoid of ethereals, making it a meritocratic semi-democracy. The problem is, depending on who you ask Farsight may be either a hero in self-imposed exile or a single-minded military dictator, much the way Optimus Prime is sometimes depicted. Farsight's government is [[RAGE|NOT recognized by the Tau Empire]], who have finally gotten around to dispatching a fleet to silence them. We still have yet to see the outcome of this fleet dispatch, though (in all likelihood, no force was ever sent, because Tau don't kill each other and because Farsight is useful enough where he is, even if he's in rebellion).

Of course, the Farsight Enclaves are a fan favorite, mostly because on the table top he was one of the only ways to make an all battle suit army but we digress. The books he's featured in portray Farsight more as a guy that is incredibly depressed about his own mistakes and thinks that the Tau Empire is too inclusive and needs to learn how to grimdark better.

However, the new codex has HEAVILY downplayed Tau naiveté, bringing back the original codex mention that the Ethereals have officially declared some species "[[Exterminatus|lost causes]]" and that the [[Greater Good]] demands they be killed to the last.

*[[Orks]] were the first of the big players of 40k to get this treatment. They pretty much were the only serious competition Tau had before they discovered the Imperium, and it only took them a few weeks of study to realize the fact that Orks are beyond reason or sanity. They do still employ them as mercenaries in small numbers, and the Water Caste considers the Orks one of their biggest failures.

*[[Tyranids]] unsurprisingly ended up on "shoot on sight" list pretty much after the first contact. Unlike the Orks, the Tau have experienced the full and unadulterated rape train that is a Hive Fleet in the form of Gorgon which took a bite out of their Empire (lost something like 10% of it) as well as an ally species called the Ulumeathic League who might be completely wiped out.

*[[Eldar]] briefly were on the list too, owning this to the first contact being made by the Drukhari, and not just any, but [[Urien Rakarth]] himself. Eventually the Craftword Eldar intervened, and the Tau realized that not all space-elves are insane rapists. Although the Tau ended up accidentally destroying a Maiden World, likely making permanent enemies of Saim Hann in the process, they also had some positive dealings with Lugganath to finish off Hive Fleet Gorgon. Interestingly, the Dark Eldar were supposed to be the original nemesis of the Tau when they were originally released.

*[[Space Marines]] were introduced to the Tau during the Damocles wars. Marines represent an interesting case to the Tau because while it's possible to reason and even negotiate with them, Water caste psychoanalysts have determined that Astartes aren't ''people'' but merely ''weapons'' and as such have no place in Tau'Va.

To sum it up, the Tau Empire is still an expansionist empire prone to using military force, but far better than almost every other polity in the setting, as it permits others to exist with rather lenient standards, and isn't dedicated to the purposeful extinction of all other life in the galaxy. It should be noted that the Water Caste has turned more worlds to join the Empire then the Fire Caste. Technically, the Imperium does have protectorate species as well, but very few because most aliens are batshit insane, flat-out evil, or space monsters. Of which, almost all have been exterminated by the Imperium, which is probably why the Tau are so ignorant of what xenos are generally like. Talk about irony.

Additionally, you don't have to join the Empire to benefit from trade agreements and non-aggression pacts. For example, the Demiurge traded ion-tech for refuge from the ever xenophobic Imperium, but there doesn't seem to be any indication they've actually 'joined' the Empire.

Regardless of who you are, if you join the Tau Empire they will genuinely try and do their best to take care of you because they think, in their hubris, that they know best.

Also, as a result of surviving attacks from the major factions in the galaxy yet being blissfully unaware that those were merely tiny brushes or stragglers of vastly larger forces, the Tau believe they have proven they can truly hold their own in the galaxy against all the major players. As of Eighth Edition they were corrected quite painfully due to the opening of the Great Rift and the loss of most of their Fourth Sphere Expansion forces to a Warp rift, and following a massive Chaos invasion they have been forced to face the possibility that their empire might have bitten off more than it can chew.

==Military Doctrine==
[[Image:TauTyr2.jpg|right|500px|thumb|Close-quarters painting [[Drawfag|strikes again.]] (What a badass Hammerhead pilot)]]
The Tau military is basically the cherished love child of the United States military and its Japanese anime waifu.

The Tau disdain [[Choppy|melee]] [[Rip and tear|combat]] in favour of [[Shooty|ranged combat]], which renders them instantaneously [[Matt Ward|less manly]] in the eyes of most of /tg/'s playerbase. The reasons behind this are complicated. Generally, Tau see hand to hand combat in warfare as an anachronism, which makes sense, considering their basic guns can rip apart tank side armour. In addition, the Tau's body is adapted for flying — prehistoric Tau had gliding flaps like flying squirrels — thus compared to almost all other major races Tau have less muscle strength (heck, less body mass in general), have lower reaction speed, and are hyperopic/farsighted. In their initial design it was said in their first White Dwarf that they are a race that adopted the bow and arrow rather than how humanity adopted the sword.

That said, Tau do practice martial arts - Fire Warrior trials and rites involve knives. Ethereals have a tradition of fighting non-lethal duels to settle disputes, using sharp bladed weapons no less, so they are often quite good with their fighting style, as [[Aun'Shi]] has shown to some unfortunate Orks (keep in mind Aun'shi trained against Shas'Vre to get that good). And although the average Tau is indeed slightly weaker than an average human, they're still close enough to be Strength 3 just like Imperial Guardsmen. It's just that close combat is not their strong suit and they would rather fall back on guns than blades.

The Tau practice economy of force, which has consequences both on and off the battlefield. Sending excessive amounts of force at a target is wasteful, as the excess firepower would be more useful elsewhere. This is also an economic matter, as lower power units are cheaper and the Tau do not have an infinite supply of the rare materials needed to produce the strongest Battlesuits.

The Tau's superior [[Dakka|firepower]] is similar to that of the [[Imperial Guard]], but their strategy is much different, with an emphasis on tactical precision, mobility, the application of technology, and the initiative of individual units. Their military doctrine is not based on winning by attrition, not just because they disdain it but also because they simply can't afford it. Well, hey CAN afford it, but they cannot afford both attrition warfare and high standard of living that sells their Greater Good ideology. Therefore they take great pains to avoid the bloody epic clusterfucks that characterize the style of warfare that is preferred by other factions such as the Imperium and Orks. In short, Tau use modern warfare tactics and strategies in a universe where everyone else fights like it's WW2.

Rather, they use infiltration and their sophisticated battlesuits to [[Anal Circumference|bypass enemy strong points and launch deep into their rear]], cutting supply lines and logistics, destroying headquarters and support units, leaving enemies cut off and functionally helpless. There are numerous examples of Tau literally starving and/or thirsting entire armies to death by cutting out their supply lines, while simultaneously harassing them with night raids, ambushes and air strikes to the point the survivors are leaderless, demoralized, out of ammo and fuel, and can barely stand due to exhaustion. The [[Imperial_Armour_Volume_Three:_The_Taros_Campaign#Volume_Three_-_The_Taros_Campaign|Taros]] campaign is a prime example of these tactics (and of the Imperium's strategic stupidity).

Of course, these kinds of tactics only work fine against more convenient armies like the Imperial Guard or Orks. When it comes to Space Marines and Eldar, who sport mostly aerial/warp/webway supply lines, operate as elite armies without obvious weak spots to exploit, have similar or superior tactical mobility and badass officers that can survive most assassination attempts, Tau lose huge parts of their usual advantages (but get the numerical superiority in return). Against utterly unconventional foes, like Tyranids, Daemons or Necrons... well, all times they faced such foes, Tau either devised some entirely new strategies, or lost horribly.

[[File:TauTyr.jpg|thumb|left|300px|90% of Tau [[dakka]] comes in the form of [[Plasma|pretty blue lights.]]]]
The Tau, again, boast some of the most powerful ranged weaponry on the tabletop game, and can crank out more concentrated firepower than any other faction with the lone exceptions of the Imperial Guard and maybe the orks if you only count number of bullets in the air, and even then, the Tau's weapons hit quite a bit harder. They have pathetic hand-to-hand combat skills, however, and so the Tau bolster this by using several inducted races (the [[Kroot]], Vespid, and even some [[Gue'vesa|humans cut off from the Imperium during the Damocles Crusade]]) to act as buffers against assault troops to allow Tau Fire Warrior teams and their heavy, long-ranged firepower to tear enemies apart. The most pivotal, and perhaps most infamous, part of the Tau army are their [[Battlesuit|Battlesuits]], which can mount multiple heavy weapon systems and provide excellent mobility to their pilots, all on a fairly durable unit.

The Tau space navy is strong for its size, and Tau warships are quite powerful on a one-for-one basis. Tau air units are among the best in the game as well, with aircraft that are equal to and often superior to their Imperial Guard equivalents, including a stealth fighter, multipurpose heavy fighter, a superheavy fighter with guns that can one-shot a Titan, and their own [[Manta|Titan-equivalent]] (which is a small starship). Unlike the Imperium, they freely deploy flyers in very large numbers, with only Orks, Tyranids, and perhaps Necrons able to rival them in numbers when it's time to dogfight. Of course this is the way the Imperial fleets' atmospheric support craft are ''supposed'' to work too if fleet officers weren't a bunch of assholes who do everything they can to provide as little air support as possible.

On defense, the Tau are a bit unusual: they leave only token garrisons at their colonies to protect them. These garrisons are intended for scouting rather than combat, avoiding engagement in order to observe and report on invaders using Pathfinders, scanning towers, and drones. Because the Tau have fairly powerful spacefleets and usually keep their forces within reasoned distance of potential hotspots, any potential threat can be quickly dealt with by organizing a hunter cadre to be sent to deal with the situation. For those of you who don't get it, it's Frederick the Great's "he who tries to protect everything protects nothing" strategy.

Of course, this strategy means Tau must have some worlds actually being heavily defended - and in fact they do. Sept worlds tend to be guarded by some nasty space stations and garrisoned by large numbers of hunter cadres and auxiliary troops. This allows such worlds to act as major defensive nodes from which response fleets can be dispatched and to which evacuation fleets rally (think feudal Japan style castles from which commanders would send trained garrisons out to protect the lands around it from encroaching armies). In case some really scary shit like an Imperial crusade or a Tyranid hive-fleet comes into the sept, it is on the sept world where the decisive battle is fought (See the First Damocles Crusade for an example of this tactic in action).

This has, however, backfired on occasion, since it does mean that the Tau garrisons are very vulnerable in the initial stages of an attack. It also makes them very vulnerable to Orphean War style rapid assaults where the attacker is advancing so quickly the defender doesn't even have time to relay the news that they're under attack to the rest of their army. While the Tau haven't yet faced something like the Maynarkh Dynasty, they are awfully close to the Sautekh Dynasty and Imotekh is a noted cantankerous asshole and egotistical conqueror.

A distinct advantage the Tau have is their willingness to change military strategy without ego. As examples, look at how they changed tactics in reaction to the [[Damocles Crusade]] by the Imperium of Man, and even built an entirely new space fleet to match humans in straight-on space fights, or their unusual but effective choice of switching to older weapons when dealing with [[Hive Fleet Gorgon]].

==Fleet==
[[File:Tau_Map.JPG|500pc|right|thumb|The Domain of the Weebs.]]

In the old fluff, the T'au used to have equip their ships with reverse-engineered warp drives from an unknown faction that crashed a starship on one of their home world's moons. Using their gravitic wave technology (think a sail) they used this to skim the surface of the warp before bouncing back to the Materium after a short while (1/3 the speed of optimal Imperial warp drives).

New fluff, on the other hand, has retconned that by giving them what is called a "slingshot drive" or "skip drive." From what little fluff we have on it, it looks like the reality-based theoretical warp drive (in the modern physics meaning, i.e. the Alcubierre bubble). The practical applications, however, are the same in both new and old fluff - Tau FTL is much slower than the Imperium's, but is predictable, reliable, and not affected by warp storms (a big deal, given Tau spent half of their history inside one). As a result, Tau are capable of building highly reliable interstellar logistics lines over short distances, but their strategic mobility is... lacking, to say the least. Compared to pretty much every other faction the Tau move at an absolute snail's pace, hence the reason why their worlds are so tightly packed together. Of course, if the slingshot drive was THE best way to travel normally without the Warp and to avoid Warp phenomena, the radically more advanced Dark Age Humanity would have slapped the drives on every type of ship they had. They didn't, which implies that this technology is a dead end, a stopgap solution at best.

Additionally, slingshot drives are rather big, heavy, and power-hungry, even compared to the Warp drive (which itself can constitute 1/3 the volume of an Imperial ship). As a result, escort-class Tau spacecraft are built without FTL drives and are hooked to bigger ships for the purpose of interstellar travel, which basically make them equivalents of the Imperium's system monitor ships, with the same benefits (cheap, compact, fast, powerful and durable for their size) without their major downside (being incapable of FTL flight). Tau FTL limitations mean that they have to be more precise in how they concentrate their forces; they can't throw a bunch of ships into a warzone from halfway across the galaxy as Orks and humans can.
Tau empire have two fleets:
*Kor'Vatra, or "merchant fleet", is made of older modular ships that double as merchant and colony vessels (hence the name). One of their main shticks is huge arcs of fire for most gun batteries, with side batteries easily covering front arc, and nose batteries covering all but the stern - as a result, while Kor'vatra Ships may not have as much firepower as Imperial or Ork ones, they can focus more of it on one target. On the flip side, merchant ships while decently fast at sub-light, are not very agile, and must rely on escort wings and auxiliary fleets against more maneuverable foes. Even after the founding of Kor'Or'Vesh, the Kor'Vatra still see a lot of military use, especially against the Imperium, <i>precisely</i> because it's regarded as a non-military fleet. This is so Tau diplomats could tell their Imperial colleagues, "What battle cruisers on your orbit are you talking about? It's just our merchant vessels, moving goods to and from our trade missions."
*Kor'Or'Vesh, or "combat fleet" is a newer fleet, made for battling the Imperium's fleet in straight up combat, after Kor'Vatra got run over during the Damocles crusade. Made out of more compact, maneuverable and better armored ships, it may lack Kor'Vatra's wide arcs of fire, but is superior in every other regard, and as the Taros and second Damocles campaigns showed, it is more than capable of fighting off humans even if outnumbered.
Both fleets use largely the same technologies: railguns as short-range (by Tau standards), high-damage gun batteries; ion cannons as long-range beams (lance equivalent); and, above all, powerful small-craft ordnance (second only to Eldar and available in far greater numbers). Mantas, Barracudas, and EMP drone-torpedoes reign supreme at extreme ranges, gaining the Tau navy the same reputation their ground armies have. Because their small-craft ordnance is so powerful, most Tau ships tend more towards carrier and torpedo boat archetypes than battleships, and suffer horribly if an enemy comes within macro-cannon or boarding range (note the "if"). Technically, Imperial warships are, as they are when compared to most other factions, far superior. The problem for the Imperium is, like always, those warships are very rare, built in tiny numbers, and never around when you need them.

==Non-combat Fluff==
[[File:Tau city.jpg|450px|thumb|right|Contrary to what [[Imperium of Man|some]] believe, what this picture shows might just be the future for the entire galaxy if the Tau [[Great Crusade|get their way.]]]]
The Tau were a new race/culture found by the Imperium of Man during their "slash and burn" exploration of their galactic neighborhood. The Tau were still pastoral, had just discovered flint tools and charcoal, and the Imperium had them scheduled for "[[Grimdark|routine cleansing]]" (Low Gothic for “ruthless genocide”) and make room for colonization. Needless to say, that plan was promptly [[derp|fucked up]]. By an unfortunate (or fortunate, depending on your viewpoint) coincidence which almost certainly involved the dickery of [[Tzeentch]] or [[Cegorach]] or [[The Deceiver|something]], warp storms started hitting the entire galaxy, right around the rise of Vandire, which occluded the Tau homeworld, so nobody could get in or out. Since the Tau were virtually invisible in the warp, the warp storm didn't have much of an effect on them as they were immune to the influences of Chaos.

[[FAIL|The sector was labeled "lost to Chaos,"]] and cleansing was [[What|deferred indefinitely]]. Then [[Age of Apostasy|this shit]] happened, and almost all records about Tau were lost in the ensuring [[Rape|clusterfuck]] of civil war. Only the Adeptus Mechanicus still had records of this first contact when the storm died down 6,000 years later. By then, the Tau had expanded to fill out the 'Cluster', colonizing hundreds of planets and incorporating dozens of alien races. They were put back on the radar when the Imperium found out their border worlds Kleist and Garrus, and probably a bunch of others, changed sides and gave up on Terra.

The Damocles Crusade was launched. The extermination order still stood—it was just going to be much more difficult than the Imperium expected, seeing as the Tau, instead of [[C.S. Goto|throwing spears and rocks at their tanks]] and Space Marines, were now throwing [[ion cannon|ion charges]], <s>[[plasma|plasma blasts]]</s> particle accelerators (pulse rifles), and [[railgun|electromagnetically-accelerated hypervelocity projectiles]] at their tanks and Space Marines.

Tau history is pretty typical up through the iron-age: a knack for engineering, warfare between "urban" farmers and "barbarian" nomads, and unrestrained growth causing a series of plagues, leading to a dark age. Here's where things go sideways, though the Tau see it as the start of their endless Golden Age: the arrival of the Ethereals. Legend tells of a five-year siege at the castle of Fio'taun, with both sides starving and succumbing to disease, when two foreign Tau entered the battlefield. One went to the castle, the other to the barbarian tribes. Each of these Tau had a quiet grace and irresistible authority. In just a few hours, the castle was persuaded to open their gates, and the barbarians laid down their weapons, and both parties met to parley a truce.

These strange Tau called themselves "Ethereals," and stressed the importance of peace and understanding between all Tau. They described a "Greater Good" that each Tau must strive towards. Soon after, soon enough to seem simultaneous, more of these strange new Tau emerged across the continent with their message of peace and co-operation for all Tau. Their quiet authority was always respected, and their message of harmony was universally embraced. Wait a minute, [[God-Emperor of Mankind|I've seen this]] [[Great Crusade|historical pattern before]]....

Perhaps uniquely for the setting, Tau-human interactions bear the whiff of realpolitik. On the one hand, the Imperium wants to exterminate them ''eventually'', but the upper management generally realizes that the Tau are going to be a giant drain of resources and manpower to get rid of, given the stiff resistance they put up in [[Damocles Crusade|previous campaigns]] and their [[Riptide|uniformly]] [[railgun|advanced]] [[battlesuit|technology]]. Furthermore, they serve as a useful buffer state against various threats on the Eastern Fringe, from Orks and Chaos raiders to Tyranid hive fleets to alien forces the Imperium hasn't had (recorded) contact with. Their existence deflects danger from Imperial space, and in a place and time when the Imperium is [[Time of Ending|coming under attack from all sides]], that's more important than dogma.

This strategy is not unique to the Tau only though, as the Imperium allows countless other (much more dangerous) xeno empires to prosper in the Eastern Fringe to serve as an ablative shield against much nastier shit. Amongst those is (for example) the Charadon ork empire, which is older than the Imperium and spawns a Waaagh! once or twice per millennium (even with the routine warboss assasination raids that the Ultramarines make). Even after the emergence of the genius warboss Snagrod and his Waagh on Rynn no one cared to issue a crusade against them. So yeah, the Tau Empire is not even close to being recognized as a threat dangerous enough to actually do something about.

Conversely, the Tau have realized just how massive an undertaking expanding through the entire galaxy would really be, and are taking it slow. They mostly absorb Imperial buffer worlds stripped of manpower and armament in the face of massive redeployments to face other threats, offering the Empire's protection in return for annexation. When this doesn't work, the Tau outright conquer the places that don't take the deal. The Tau have claimed that they are engaging in this sort of aggressive behavior because ''someone's'' going to [[Tyranids|gobble]] those settlements up sooner or later, and if ''they'' don't do it, then whoever does won't be [[Exterminatus|nearly as nice about it]]. While baldly self-serving, that logic is... well, mostly correct, really.

There's no love lost between the Imperium and the Tau, but open full-scale war is probably unlikely in the near-future after the stalemate of the Second Damocles Crusade and the veritable host of far greater existential threats that the Imperium is currently facing.

Looking at the new galactic map, where the Tau are now sandwiched between their own eye of terror and a Necron dynasty, they are soon to be fucked...<s>Maybe...</s> And lo and behold, they done got buttfucked by the Death Guard! But it's not all bad as they've found a cure for 1st generation Genestealer infections and they've finally broken out of their nook with the 5th Sphere; one of their biggest fears was being stuck in a globular cluster because one super nova could still put the kibosh on the whole thing.

However things turn out, as they continue to expand the Tau will inevitably see renewed clashes with the factions arrayed against them.

=== Castes ===
[[File:Commander HawkEye.jpg|thumb|290px|right|<s>Join the Greater Good, lose your virginity to a hot alien babe!</s> Non-approved sexual contact is an offence to the Greater Good, Gue'la. Now get back to work or you won't get your overtime pay! TAU GET OVERTIME PA{{BLAM}}{{BLAM|Asking questions is heresy!}} <span style='color:blue;font-size:115%;font-family:serif'>*PEW* You are an affront to the Greater Good, gue'ui.</span>]]
Tau society after the arrival of Ethereals was organized into castes; everyone with a place, and a place for everyone. [[Love Can Bloom|Interbreeding between castes and Xenos races]] is one of the most severe crimes in the Empire, in other words, [[Heresy]]. This was outlawed by the [[Ethereal]]s presumably to preserve the biological differences between castes; the result is the creation of 5 sub-species. Tau society does have many examples of romance, and there are designations of 'pair' bonding at least amongst the Earth Caste. The Tau have children which they both raise and also send to the creches but they seem to monitor birth rates (likely to match resource levels as well as provide an additional level of social engineering).

There also seems to be a tribal system that remains from pre-Caste days that we don't know too much about. We know that bloodlines have some kind of importance, but as a meritocracy, it does not have a bearing on social constraints. They also can have relatively large families, Shadowsun had three sisters for example.

Breeding is managed by the Earth Caste, but, there is at least one instance where a pair-bond has their own child, so perhaps there is a degree of choice ''(if real caste systems are any guide, the Earth Caste probably only cares about the castes and septs the pair come from)''. Otherwise, Tau are paired in a way that will create the best biological result. An Imperial genetor's report in the fourth edition Tau codex observes the presence of synthetic proteins in Tau internal organs and suggests them as evidence that their evolution has been accelerated, though he might have been confused by synthetic proteins that the Tau were given as the Tau make extensive use of things like advanced medicines and treatments. [[/tg/]] seems to be under the strong impression that they are mammals, as you can see in the picture further down the page, despite the complete implausibility of this theory. The frequent [[/d/|sexualization]] of the Tau by fa/tg/uys remains a mystery.

It is very important to note that a Tau's caste is inherited from the parents, and under no circumstances can a Tau's caste be changed. On one hand, this helps explain why Tau forbid inter-caste mating. On the other, it means that the Caste system applies ''only'' to the Tau themselves. Aliens have no caste to inherit, and thus can never be inducted into a Tau caste. This remains true no matter how many generations pass. Therefore, while aliens within the Tau Empire are certainly able to rise to positions that hold great responsibility and respect while living lives of relative freedom, they will forever remain outside the caste system. And because the caste system inherently favors the Tau, it is an ugly little secret of the Empire that for all their talk of equality, aliens remain somewhat second-class citizens compared to the Tau themselves. Obviously, the Tau don't care to discuss such topics.

==== {{anchor|Fire|Fire Caste}} Shas (Fire) ====
The '''Fire Caste''' consists of the various [[Fire Warrior|warriors]] of the Tau Empire. The miniatures of a Tau army in a [[Warhammer 40,000]] game are almost exclusively Fire Caste. Other castes think Shas are overly-aggressive hotheads due to their tendency to solve all problems by applying more plasma (when the Tau first encountered other sentient species, Fire Caste representatives immediately voted to hunt down and exterminate them, just like they hunted down dangerous local life forms on the other world they colonized). Whether or not Fire Caste members are ''actually'' "overly aggressive" compared to other [[Wyches|kinky]], [[Haemonculus|horrid]], [[World_Eaters|Earthshatteringly mad]], [[Night_Lords|batshit insane]], [[Blood Angels|bloodthirsty]] individuals and groups is a matter of debate. On the other hand, it also shows how calm and disciplined other castes are as well as the importance of the balance that the Ethereals bring to the Tau.

Fire Caste are taller than Earth Caste Tau, and physically stronger than the Air and Water Castes, though they are slightly shorter than the average 40k human.

==== {{anchor|Earth|Earth Caste}} Fio (Earth) ====
The '''Earth Caste''' are the laborers and engineers; they are the "civilians" of Tau society. Their appearance can vary widely, though other Tau would describe them as "plain." They all have a stoic outlook, with little ambition other than to excel in their career of choice and work for the Greater Good. Unlike the Imperial worker classes, whose quality of life generally ''starts'' at working 14-hour days seven days a week while living off of dried recycled dung chips and goes [[Such is life on Volg|''downhill from there'']], the Earth caste is mostly concerned with technological planning and engineering as well as artwork which they incorporate into their creations. They are also scientists and work hand in hand with the Water Caste to develop new technologies (like the rail rifle).

The Farsight Enclaves field some Earth Caste pilots for their battlesuits, demonstrating their more flexible caste systems and/or their desperation for manpower but there are examples of Earth Caste work teams being able to defend themselves in a pinch.

==== {{anchor|Air|Air Caste}} Kor (Air) ====
The '''Air Caste''' are the aerospace specialists of the Tau. In more primitive times they served as messengers and couriers, and sometimes scouts/explorers, gliding on membranous anatomical wings like flying squirrels through T'au's atmosphere (although this might be a myth). When the Tau started exploring offworld, it was the Air Caste that took charge of the vessels traveling between the stars and became tall with super frail physiques due to zero-g living. Now the Air Caste are the Tau stellar navy/airforce/mailmen, piloting the Empire's various carriers, warships, and emissary cruisers. Air caste Tau tend to be tall and slender like runners or dancers, and this is frequently exaggerated by the years the Tau navy spends in low-gravity.

Despite their slender stature and lack of muscle mass, Air caste pilots are extremely resistant to G-force, making them excellent void and atmospheric fighter pilots (simultaneously, as small Tau voidcraft also double as atmospheric craft). They also, clearly, have engineer and military classes as they live in Air Caste cities made up of their own population; going to show that Castes have multiple cross overs for responsibilities rather than anything as rigid as the Farsight books describe.

==== {{anchor|Water|Water Caste}} Por (Water) ====
The '''Water Caste''' are the emissaries of the Tau. They are diplomats, merchants, and civil servants. The most open-minded Tau can be found among the Water caste, with some even showing individual ambition (but still for the greater good of the Tau Empire). When a new culture is encountered, the Water caste are sent in first to negotiate. If talks break down, the Water caste are withdrawn so that the Fire Caste can start negotiating with pulse weapon fire. Also, unlike their Imperial equivalents in bureaucracy, the [[Administratum]], they are brisk, efficient, and very good at their jobs. No dumping valuable ammo on an uninhabited dust world because no one signed the paperwork not to.

It's a lesser known fact that Pors also run the Tau intelligence and espionage network, and Por'Os and Por'Els from this branch are pretty much Tau Inquisitors except more competent, much saner, and not nearly as good at kicking asses personally. As of the second Damocles Crusade the Imperium has designated the Water caste as a primary threat above any other Tau caste. This is because the Water caste's skill in subterfuge, diplomacy and propaganda has cost the Imperium more worlds and manpower than the Fire and Air caste's military prowess combined. They even managed to totally outplay the Inquisition on its own field, which royally pissed them off, even turning an Inquisitor (O'Va'Dem) to their side, as seen in the novel ''Broken Sword''.

The Air Caste also do a quite a lot of things like leading exploration initiatives like the one that discovered the Kroot empire as it was getting rickrolled by the Orks, and fought for their liberation for 12 years.

==== {{anchor|Ethereal|Ethereal Caste}} Aun (Ethereal) ====
The '''Ethereal Caste''' are basically the philosopher-kings described by Plato in "The Republic". In theory, they are selfless and always focused on what is best for the Greater Good ("Tau'va") for all Tau without exception. The Ethereals are inspirational to all Tau caste members, and merely being near one will inspire a Tau soldier, engineer, pilot, or diplomat to work harder.

In the case of the Fire Caste, some Ethereals accompany hunter cadres in battle during important deployments so as to better lead/inspire the troops, which works because all Tau in the combat zone will fight to their bitter deaths. They also seem to have semi-magical powers (don't ask how they work, none of the Tau know themselves) that allow Tau around them to do special things, like running while shooting. The [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] theorizes that the respect the Ethereal Caste gets from all other Tau is caused by a pheromone. <b>ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTAU......</b>. The Tau laugh at this suggestion, of course.
Also, ''[[Xenology]]'' relates a story from a major, insectoid race called the [[Q'Orl]] which alleges that the [[Eldar]] stole one of their queens. Given that these queens have a magic, yellow, diamond-shaped sack that produces mind-control pheromone... well, let's just say the characters in the story figure it out quickly enough. There is a theory that the Ethereals themselves are also affected by their own pheromones, which could explain why they're so selfless and uncorrupted despite their absolute power (although being uncorrupted no longer seems to apply after 7th/8th edition).

This can also be supported by the (old as fuck and likely retconned) novelization of [[Warhammer_40,000:_Fire_Warrior|Fire Warrior]], where the Ethereal character has a pretty level head and chipper demeanor despite having been [[Anal_Circumference|repeatedly captured and tortured by both the Inquisition and Chaos, watching his diplomatic retinue chopped up by a Chaos Lord, and mind-raped by said Chaos Lord all in the span of roughly two days.]] Either he's a stoic old motherfucker, or he's just too busy tripping his blue balls on his own pheromones to give a shit.

8th ed has a particularly interesting story in it and it proves without a shadow of a doubt: the Ethereal caste does use some kind of mind-altering substance or influence on the Tau. During a meeting with Commander O'Ryn and Aun'Va (who is a solid hologram controlled by an AI at this point) in the planet of Junica, their location was ambushed by Chaos forces and Aun'Va (or the AI acting like Aun'Va) ordered O'Ryn to send her forces on what's essentially a suicide mission. O'Ryn, not seeing the point of throwing her and her soldiers' lives at such a hopeless battle, actually ''defied'' the command of an ethereal (and the space pope himself, no less) and retreated. It could've been an interesting and pretty terrifying critique of how manipulative a totalitarian system can be and that the Ethereals don't shy away from anything to keep the people in line. But no, it was explained with mind control, which is way lazier and honestly way less terrifying (that's because Phil Kelly wrote it). Yet, then there is another example of Aun'shi who hides his ridge crest so that none of the other Tau know he's an Ethereal.

You pick which is more likely- clearly GW can't.

O'Ryn was eventually declared a renegade and Farsight took her in, but it does indeed prove that the unflinching and unquestioning loyalty and fanaticism that the Ethereals' physical presence inspire on nearby Tau aren't due to their charisma or the Tau's indoctrination, and instead on something more sinister. To put this into perspective: O'Ryn has been the first Tau since Farsight to actively defy an ethereal's command and the main reason she was able to do so was because she was speaking to an AI-controlled drone, instead of the actual space pope.

...so it doesn't matter.

Additionally, in the novel Farsight: Crisis of Faith by Phil Kelly (detailing the Farsight Expedition) not only is a Tau Water Caste Magister possessed by a daemon of Tzeentch (which is bullshit), but the Magister is then banished [[Mary Sue|by Farsight carving a bloody hexagram into its chest with his bonding knife]] (Imperium Hexagrammic Wards don't even work that way, but fuck other writers, am I right phil?). Aun'Va uses mind control to have the Magister's superior kill herself. Why? Because he'd dared to say the truth out loud, that the Ethereals were eager to send Farsight off to Damocles so that the immensely popular golden boy won't become a challenge to their rule back home. The ambassador went to her death thinking the ever reasonable Ethereals would let her off with a slap on the wrist for what was basically a breach of etiquette, instead she was dominated into committing suicide for ''being the mentor of someone who'd cast the tiniest bit of doubt on Ethereal motives''.

...Which begs the question, "Why?" Why would the Ethereals care about revealing the truth about Daemons when the Tau have been fighting Daemons for hundreds of years? They don't have religion, they don't feed the Warp, daemons should have nothing to fuck-do with the Tau except as a speed bump to somewhere-else-ville. This replay of the Emperor's rule book is just more lazy writing.

Farsight originally lost his Ethereals and kept going because he though he knew better than them and because he was still butthurt from Arkunasha. He's guilty of believing he knows what is best for his fellow renegades, and he's probably not wrong... so he stays out beyond the Gulf so that he can continue the fight.

===Tau Names===
[[File:Tau_Lexicon_2015_ver.1.0.pdf|right|thumb|250px|A fanmade document that dives a little into Tau lexicon]]
Tau have ridiculously long, detailed and actually meaningful names. Their names contain their caste, rank, birth sept, and one or more nicknames earned by them through the course of their lives. Fluff does say that they ''do'' have birth names, but those are only used before tau earn at least one appropriate nickname, as a name given to them by comrades is considered more valuable than one just chosen by random at their birth. The nickname part and its importance surprisingly is actually taken from the Roman culture, which is weird, given most Tau culture tend to be based on China and Japan (except for their social and government structures which are copied almost verbatim from Plato's Republic).

Also, do note the lack of last names, which is expected, since Tau society pretty much have no institute of a family, with children being raised in centralized facilities apart from their parents. As a Tau grows, moves through ranks and achieves the respect of their comrades their name changes appropriately, switching the rank part, adding new nicknames and sometimes dropping the old and outdated ones. For example, when Farsight was still a lowly fire warrior, his name was '''Shas'La Vior'La Shoh''' (Fire Caste Private of the Hot-Blooded sept Inner Light), and at the "present days" '''Shas'O Vior'La Shovah Kais Mont'yr''' (Fire Caste Commander of the Hot-Blooded sept Farsight Skillful Blooded). How the fuck Tau bureaucracy is able to keep track of their population with their names constantly changing is a mystery, but it seems they have no problem with that, probably because they just track ID numbers when names are too much of an issue like most sane people who work with databases.

For the sake of convenience Tau often use shortened versions of names, almost always dropping the sept part and secondary nicknames, and if speaking within one caste the caste part too, so in the case of Farsight other fire warriors could refer to him as O'Shovah, while for example an Ethereal would call him Shas'O'Shovah (assuming Farsight allows this; given his seething hatred of Ethereals he's the type who'd force them to use his full name out of spite). Humans and other non-Tau often get this system wrong and shorten the names in a ways that make little sense: for example, Imperium's Taros invasion force thought the Taros' chief Ethereal's name was Aun'El, which was only his caste and rank, and as the book was mostly written from the Imperium's standpoint, we still don't know what his actual name was.

One final stroke of Tau naming is that as they abandon their true (birth) names it makes them even more resistant to sorcery and daemonic powers that often require the target's true name to amplify their effect or even make the spell work at all.

===Psychic/Chaos Defenses===
Tau as a species are comprised of psychic blunts. They cannot produce psykers and have limited innate resistance to some forms of psychic powers and daemonic bullshit. People often mistake this resistance to outright invulnerability, but in truth it's more akin to camouflage. Tau DO have souls, but their souls cast such a dim light in the Warp that they are, at best, indistinguishable from the spirits of non-sapients, and at times they even blend into the psychic background of inanimate objects. This may have something to do with how unemotional Tau are, as some of the more descriptive bits of fluff demonstrate how warp shenanigans like faint whispers and creeping feelings of "wrongness" may cause humans to freak out and try to run away immediately, the more calm and collected Tau don't notice anything strange at all. Likewise, if a psyker tries to mind-rape a Tau or a daemon tries to posses a Tau they'd find it hard to find a soul to target at all, but in the unlikely event that they were somehow successful, there would be even less resistance than with regular humans. Sadly while this trait is often shown in the fluff, it does not affect Tau crunch in any way aside from their total lack of psykers.

This innate defense is further strengthened by the Greater Good philosophy deeply indoctrinated into each Tau from childhood and reinforced through the subtle control exerted by the Ethereals. Tau'Va is the antithesis of all the creeds of Chaos, which makes Tau all but immune to its temptations, and only two Tau have ever actually fallen to Chaos. The first was the Water Caste member Water Spider, who was possessed by a Daemon of Tzeentch - although, rather amusingly, the daemon forced Water Spider to become obsessed with the truth, something abhorrent to the Water Caste. The second was [[Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior|Shas'la Kais]]. Though Kais was untained in the video game adaptation, the much better novelization had Kais getting an assist from Khorne throughout his adventure, though he was permanently scarred by Khorne's influence and the conflict. [[Grimdark|This left him permanently insane and hospitalized, unable to meaningfully respond to his friends and environment]].) That being said, the Tau have only just been exposed to the more material horrors of the galaxy; should they become jaded and start losing faith in the Greater Good (as inferred with giving up on indoctrinating certain species), well, that would be an entirely different situation. Their allies, including the Kroot, have sometimes been known to go all-in with Chaos worship, although Tau seldom take culture from their allied races.

8th Ed is here, and has confirmed that the Tau aren't immune to Chaos, just rather difficult for Daemons to spot. When the Tau started the 4th Sphere Expansion with their new warp drives they didn't take a note from the Imperials' tech and failed to invent the [[Gellar Field]] too, meaning they were fully vulnerable to the Warp's denizens. The entire experience was hilarious. First was the unpredictability of their warp drives (known as "slipstream technology" to them) that caused most of their expeditionary fleet to be destroyed due to unleashing massive tears in the fabric of reality, [[lulz|while being broadcasted to the Tau sept worlds, causing the Ethereals to rapidly evacuate their bowels as they scramble to censor the event for the wider populace.]] Those that weren't immediately torn up by the warp rifts were sucked into the Warp where a vast majority was either destroyed after drifting in the more unsavory parts of the Warp or by the various daemons mucking about.

Contact was lost, but the Tau managed to find the survivors later, nestled into several worlds that were the original target for conquest. The Tau that survived, however, were acting weird. Some of them had clearly rejected the Greater Good, while some worshiped a voice that they claim to be the Greater Good itself (which may or may not be a warp entity), while some were outright driven insane. A disturbing trend about them was their total [[Imperium|xenophobia and brutality]]. Any non-Tau who wasn't driven off from the 4th Sphere colonies were murdered because [[Chaos God|something]] was telling the survivors that the auxiliaries were the reason for their loss and torment due to their more powerful connection to the Warp.

That being said, they're still hard for Daemons to see, considering that the Fourth Sphere dove into the Warp unprotected and "merely" got off with plain Chaos corruption when most people who try that shit critfail their [[anal circumference]] roll and either gets torn apart by daemon cocks or becomes [[Chaos Spawn|a Chaos spaaauuuughgghblblblbbl]].

Also, the 8E Daemons Codex does mention one Tau agri-world that was cut off from supplies, eventually succumbing to the native faith revering a certain "Rainfather" - [[Rotigus]] Rainfather, a notorious [[Great Unclean One]].

As always, any inconsistency on how the Tau are, or aren't, affected by Warp exposure is entirely GW's fault.

==Alliances==
[[File:Illus4.jpg|280px|right|thumb|Unfortunately for some [[Slaanesh|deviants]] [[Extra Heresy|and heretical elements on]] [[/tg/]]. [[Not as Planned|This is what an actual canon Tau Female looks like.]] No boobs, no curves, no ass, no redeeming qualities other than having a face of your grandmother and the nose of a mutilated vag. Know the alien. Hate the alien. Purge the alien. The Emperor Protects! <s>This is an Ethereal though, so the other castes should be fair game.</s>]]
{{MattWard}}

In 6th edition, Tau are notable for being one of two factions (the other being Imperial Guard) who can ally with anyone except for 'Nids. Yes, this includes [[Wat|both Chaos Space Marines and Chaos Daemons]].

Their current level of naïveté led to a few... ''interesting'' alliances, to say the least.

First off, Tau ''can'' ally with [[Ork]]s, even though fluff-wise they are viewed as enemies of the Greater Good to be purged wherever encountered. Smaller Ork warbands (mostly [[Blood Axes]]) frequently act as mercenaries, of course, so the Tau might use them in that capacity. Plus, there might be fluff changes coming up (most notably, it was rumored that the [[Gretchin Revolutionary Committee]] would return in the new Orks codex; they, of course, would get along quite well with the Tau).

They are also battle brothers with both the Space Marines and Eldar, which has caused a large amount of headscratching on /tg/. The Eldar make a modicum of sense; after all, the Eldar are well known for being expert manipulators. A Tau-Space Marine alliance, though, would be odd, to say the least, since Tau and Space Marines are always going at it in the [[fluff]]. Of course, a minor [[Space Marine Chapter|chapter]] could always find an alliance with the Tau, or even [[Heresy|join the Greater Good]], but that seems far-fetched at best. Old fluff from back in the 3rd edition codex tells a story of a Tau commander letting an Apothecary remove the progenoid glands from dead Marines, establishing that the Tau are honourable warriors in the minds of this particular chapter. It isn't too hard to guess that someone at GW felt that the battle brothers thing was a bit of a head-desk move, so they tried to fix it.

The weirdest part, though, is that Tau ''aren't'' Battle Brothers with the Imperial Guard, despite (or maybe because of) the existence of [[Gue'vesa]] (Imperial Guard defectors).

7th edition corrected all of this for the Tau, making them only battle brothers with themselves and certain allies of convenience, like Necrons and the Eldar, while the rest are desperate allies or, in the case of daemons and 'Nids, Come the Apocalypse. This effectively "fixes" the issue from the point of view of a butthurt puritan while still allowing for those who bought Tau models to include them as allies in their games.

8th edition totally destroyed any chance of Tau having allies in matched play games. Taudar is dead, thank fuck. It's almost like going around attacking everyone who refuses your offer of pseudo-enslavement is a bad way to make friends.

==Tau Member Races==
[[File:Dynamic entry by majesticchicken.jpg|right|thumb|550px|Look up fuckers! You're invited to the latest imperial party and we're not taking "no" for an answer!]]
The Tau are the only faction that willingly accept other races into their ranks. Typically, the races are extended a hand from the Water Caste first, and if they still pose a problem or otherwise refuse to be reasoned with, the Fire Warriors are sent in. It should be noted that tau usually are not in haste of annexing the world, and if the aliens don't want to join right now but aren't immediately hostile and open to trade, Water Caste would slowly but surely convert them into a Greater Good to the point that one day they themselves would ask to join the Empire. The species, when annexed or conquered, are usually allowed to keep their planet, but must answer to the authority of the local Ethereal and possibly the local Shas'o. Most of them are fluff and don't show up on the tabletop, but it would get a little ridiculous if you could purport to play a 'single' 40k race that included, like, twelve different races. Though These do make good excuses if you want to use different models as a proxy.

* Demiurg - <s>[[Squats]] reborn.</s> <s>NOT ANYMORE the Squats are back and not Demiurg at all!</s> They might have been retconned into being part of the [[Leagues of Votann|new Squats]], it's still unclear. They are a race of space-faring miners specializing in ionic weaponry who serve the Tau with their engineering and mining abilities. They make an appearance in Battlefleet Gothic: Armada though, so that's nice.
* Galgs - NOT FROG/TOAD people, big internet snafu here. They have tentacles and chose not to fight the Tau when they realized they'd get steamrolled by the Fire Caste.
* [[Gue'vesa]] - Humans who have not only defected to the Tau, but chosen to take up arms and fight alongside them to serve the Greater Good. Rules for them are found in [[Forge World|Forge World's]] Imperial Armour Volume 3. (If the current trend goes on we may see Sisters join up with the Tau, <s>which might be an improvement for the Sisters.)</s>{{BLAM}}{{BLAM|HERESY!}} They also have planets with generations of humans that have never known the Imperium.
* Hrenian - Alien mercenaries employed for their skills as light infantry. No other information available. Probably [[Lizardmen#Skinks|Skinks]] In Space.
* Ji'atrix - A spacefaring race. No other information available. (Dammit, GW [[Writefag|writefags]].)
* [[Kroot]] - Predatory gene-assimilating avian humanoids. They are the first alien race to be actively recruited by the Tau as mercenaries, and are so regularly hired that they have officially progressed to being considered Auxiliaries of the Tau forces. They have colonization rights and can 'kroot-form' planets.
* [[Vespid|Mal'kor]] - Insectoid aliens, also known as Vespids, who are native to a gas giant planet within the Tau Empire. Serve as Auxiliaries and are considered in extremely high regard by the Fire Caste. They have colonization rights too.
* Morralian - Also known as "Deathsworn". No other information available.
* [[Nicassar]] - A voidfaring race of [[psyker]]s and the only psychically-gifted species in the Tau Empire. The Tau have carefully hidden them away from the Imperium due to their (actually justifiable) psyker-phobia. Were the second alien species to join the Greater Good and have been described by the Deathwatch as an Alpha threat because they can empathically create memories in even Space Marines (can make them think they remember their mother's face for example). Described as having big, bird like heads with beaks.
* Ranghon - No information available. No relation to these [[Rangdan Xenocides|guys]].
* [[Tarellian]] - These guys are basically [[Lizardmen#Saurus|Saurus]] IIIIN SPAAAAACE!!!!!! Not really part of the Empire, but rather mercenaries who will gladly fight humans and Tyranids on the cheap since the Imperium virus-bombed their home world and the Tyranids nommed their biggest colony.
* Poctroon - The first sentient species to be found by the Tau, [[wikipedia:Siege of Fort Pitt|they were "accidentally" driven extinct by Tau smallpox]], and their planet just by coincidence was a great place to set a Sept World; Bork'an.
* Nagi - Brain worms that, due to their horrific appearance and inability to communicate, were attacked by the Fire Caste. They managed to sort it out, though, and now they work with the Ethereals as advisors (because having brain worms about as "advisors" isn't a bad idea or anything). They have been shown in a few books so far, and were involved in a "mind-rip" (guess outright calling it "rape" was too much) of a space marine POW, while being so self-righteous and smug about their mental superiority they could give Eldar a run for their money. Apparently they can also at least perceive the Warp (which they call "extra-dimensional space"), and probably manipulate it as well, and know enough about it to outright refuse to go anywhere near demonically-tainted Agrellan when the Tau invaded it.
* Ji'atrices, Morralians, or Ranghons are probably other Warhammer Fantasy Races In Space, such as [[Lizardmen#Kroxigor|Kroxigors]] or Trolls, given the overall tendency of the Tau to incorporate Fantasy races missing from 40k.

The usually genocidal actions of the other races, most notably the [[Imperium]], also serve as a motivating factor for less-powerful races to join the Tau. While the Tau do seem a minor threat to the Imperium now, if the current policy continues, there will be more and more races joining up with the them if for no other reason than avoiding [[Exterminatus|extermination]]. Of course, the Tau are just coming to realize how vast and powerful the Imperium really is, and how a lot of their member races really ''are'' the victims of crazy, evil, fascist extermination protocols. Usually, the Imperium is entirely justified, though. There's always the chance that a species responsible for a "Hell World" or "Nightmare World" might try to join up with the Tau, and the damage that might be done before the Tau realize their mistake would be tremendous. Good thing the Tau haven't done anything stupid like leave a psychic species ali- oh wait. Well, at least they don't have Warp-sensitive brain worms in close proximity to their lead- oh wait...welp, they're fucked.

==Skub, controversy and hurt-butts==

Twelve year old [[fluff]] (from ''[[Dawn of War]]'', supported by [[Deathwatch]] supplements) has them controlling population growth and habitation of the rebelling humans on Kronus once they come under the rule of the Tau Empire. To be fair though, had it been anyone else they were revolting against, including the Imperials, those humans would just be dead.

The Tau have a few hundred planets after a handful were eaten by Tyranids (discounting allied held worlds and worlds with a minor presence). Despite this, GW writers and fanfiction nerds alike have this strange habit of treating them like a major faction. Most writers don't seem to realize the Tau are one of the smallest, most insignificant minor species in the galaxy. This isn't to insult them, they can always get stronger; it's just the plain truth, given the Tau Empire's current situation. Hopefully the Tau Empire will grow as time goes on, assuming the setting doesn't fall into constant grind never proceeding to the next year for decades ''again''.

One of the more controversial aspects of the Tau is that Games Workshop feels the need to make them seem viable as an army by having their power fluctuate wildly. For example, the Tau can easily subjugate Imperial Hive Worlds and deport its population so easily that it doesn't even get a footnote. You know, those planets in which the population of a single city shocked an Tau ambassador because the city's population was greater than the entirety of the Tau species? Imagine entire planets of those cities, cities in which everyone is an experienced killer (which is why Space Marines love recruiting from Hive Worlds), armed and ready to fling themselves at any invading xenos to purge them with extreme prejudice. These are the same worlds where the PDF alone would be large enough to give the entire Fire Caste a serious headache.

As an example of this, take the Battle of Mu'gulath Bay, known as the Battle of Agrellan to the Imperium. This was a fight over a Hive World which the Tau won, how? Using Riptide Battlesuits. According to GW, the Riptide's armor was impervious to nearly all anti-armor weaponry. The kicker though, is that '''''Deathstrike Missiles''''' ''did nothing'' when its shields were active. You know, the missiles '''''Titans are afraid of''''' and can vaporize armies? And can use Titan-killer warheads? '''Those Missiles'''. Such bullshit. There were like three or four of these suits, by the way.

Another example goes back to the Taros campaign in which a Tau stronghold was mysteriously unable to be blown to hell by sustained bombardment from Colossus mortars and then the Tau ''sallied out'' to engage the Imperial forces and won. In addition, a lot of fights are won by their opponents being uncharacteristically stupid. For example in both the Taros Campaign and the Battle of Agrellan the Imperium suddenly forgets how to defend itself and its supply lines during the second [[Damocles Crusade]] and engages the Tau using formations and tactics that cater to the Tau in the extreme (this is especially egregious in the finale). [[wat|There is even an instance in which an assassin forgets to use her gun to instantly kill her target]]. Even the Marines aren't immune to this sudden stupefying aura. Space Marine Terminators wielding storm shields are seen shot and killed because they were too busy telling each other to raise their shields up to block the Tau's shots [[derp|instead of ''just raising their shields up to block the fucking shots''.]]

There are numerous other things too. The Farsight Enclaves defending ''conquered'' worlds instead of just defending actual Tau worlds. Farsight being spared by a Bloodthirster for no reason. Not being wiped out by the Skitarii's radium weapons. The special ammo Space Marines can use that ignores armor or goes through shields and armor not even being mentioned or used. Invisible Shadowsun ambushing and killing a Raven Guard Chapter Master. Bravestorm somehow intercepting a Vindicare's bullet to save Farsight, and Darkstrider and his Pathfinders somehow finding and killing said assassin because he had a hunch that something was amiss (seriously). The list goes on and on, it's like Games Workshop made an entire faction for us to hate for being Noblebright, which pissed everyone off, so they changed the faction into ''Mary Sues'' instead.

Heck, they even [[Bullshit|cracked the Codex Astartes]] so they're familiar, in theory, with any tactic that an adherent to that text might use.

==In a Nutshell==
{{HurfDurf}}
;'''The Stated Reasons Why People Hate Tau'''
Weeaboo space confucianists — not grimdark enough.
;'''The ''Real'' Reason Why People Hate Tau'''
{{Powergamer}}
Long ago, the single thing that people hated most about the Tau was undoubtedly the [[Fish of Fury]] tactic. Years later people are STILL bitching about it. Fuck, even most Tau players felt it was bullshit. (The flames have been stoked again due to 9E accidentally reviving it.) That and T'au are consistently considered [[Cheese]] by casual players who bitch and moan about how their army got blown off a featureless table by a Tau'Dar list in 6E and how you are [[That Guy]] for using them. Never mind that the Tau have been nerfed into oblivion in the last three editions and as of 9E they are strictly bottom-tier.

Still, back in the heady days of 6th Edition codex, the Tau were one of the shootiest armies in the shootiest edition of 40k ever. On top of that they had powerful abilities to bitchslap cheesemongers, having hard counters against any of the Wardex bullshit. More generally, the Tau battle philosophy even to this day is, "Deny your opponent the chance to interact with you," which is a good philosophy for real soldiers but can make for frustrating or uninteresting gameplay.

Of course there's also the fluff side of things, and as mentioned above the Tau are given massive amounts of plot armour compared to everyone else in the setting.

Listing the rest of the insane lore armor and other [[skub|interminable list of other assorted stupidities]] that would require their own separate page just to cover them all. Suffice to say for those who are more interested in the fluff their blatant titan grade plot armour can become somewhat infuriating.

;'''A Real Reason Why People Like Tau'''
They are the one race that aren't complete dicks. Of course, their mind-influencing pheromones, psycho-indoctrination, and mass re-education facilities will just have to be ignored if you don't want destroy your wishful thinking for a half-way decent faction to exist in 40k. Even with the warts, it's saying something that they're ''still'' the nicest faction in 40k; they're just a regular oppressive empire, instead of a hyper-ultra terribad megadeath awful xenocidally oppressive empire, or some flavor of insane, omnicidal dystopia.
;'''Another Real Reason Why People Like Tau'''
Most races in 40k (''especially'' the humans) are themed around "feudalism in the future" with a big dose of societal and doctrinal regression. In other words, "we might be in space, but we have peasantry like medieval serfdoms and fight like crusaders with guns." By contrast, the Tau are themed around a real sense of futuristic progress. The Tau aim to create a proper post-scarcity economy (that's why they use robots for manual labor while the Imperium uses literal slaves) and theme their tactics around the modern US Military (the Tau would rather spend bullets than lives, while the Imperium is the opposite). As an interesting side effect, the Tau are capable of fitting into many other sci-fi universes without much trouble, such as ''[[Star Trek]]'' where they would be at home alongside other Factions like the Dominion. Compare that to the Necrons or Eldar which would be both Roflstomps and completely different from all other groups in that Universe (though they might fit in ''[[Doctor Who]]'').

In short: unlike the Imperium, the Tau are the best faction for scratching the future-tech itch of your favorite speculative fiction escapism. The Tau push for innovation and better technology also leads into our next point:
;'''The Real Reason Why People Play Tau'''
Arguably they have the most powerful guns in the game. Often twin-linked. Often on cool-looking robot battlesuits. [[meme|Also markerlights]]. Also [[Riptide|RAPETIDE]]. Tau players may also have a tendency towards sadism (or, as of 8th/9th, masochism).
;'''A Solid Reason People Don't Play Tau'''
They're fucking expensive. Seriously. On a points-per-pound level, they cost more than any other (plastic) army (we haven't even mentioned the financial aspect). This is doubly true if you like battlesuits, but of course you do because you're playing Tau.
;'''A Solid Reason People Do Play Tau Despite that Solid Reason Why They Wouldn't'''
Tau armies are one of the easier choices to paint. They're not quite on the level of the Custodes, but the generally "clean" appearance of Tau miniatures means it's not difficult to make their minis look good with novice painting skills.

==TL;DR==
<s>The good guys</S>
High-tech, Mech-loving alien race who are the ''least'' [[grimdark]] of factions. Can't melee for shit but can blow you back to the stone age with ranged weaponry if you have the misfortune of being downrange. You will either love them or hate them because of all this, and many neckbeards do feel the [[butthurt]]. For some reason Tau females are [[/d/|awkwardly sexualized]] by a non-insignificant minority of fa/tg/uys, which has shown up in some draw- and writefaggotry. As the saying goes: "You can't spell TAUNT without TAU."

== Warhammer Fantasy ==
Unlike most other factions in 40k, the Tau have no clear analogue from [[Warhammer Fantasy]] throughout its tabletop lifespan, or [[Age of Sigmar]] as of the present. One could argue that [[Cathay]] in [[Total War: Warhammer]] is the closest analogue the Tau will get, especially the whole being united under a powerful group of strange individuals worshiped as demigods and the Asian influence. Since elements of Total War's Cathay will be back-ported into [[Warhammer: The Old World]], this might change. [[Nippon]] would be a better fit, but whether they'll ever see the light of Total War is up to Creative Assembly and GeeDubs.

[[Gav Thorpe]] has [https://gavthorpe.co.uk/2017/06/26/the-origins-of-the-tau/ stated] that he was inspired by the Eldar article in ''White Dwarf 127'' to invent a new species called the Shishell (or more specifically the Shissellian League) and they were "[[Lizardmen]] In Space" with a society based around five castes – Earth, Air, Fire and Water, and a fifth called Spirit. Fast forward to 1999/2000 and GW was preparing to create a new army for Warhammer 40000. They decided to quietly dismiss the Shishell concept (because, like the [[Squats]], who were largely dismissed, and the [[Hrud]], who were retconned appearance-wise, they didn't want the game to be "Warhammer Fantasy in space") and then borrow the caste/element system to use as a foundation stone for the Tau's lore (who were originally called the Tao at that point in time).

In closing, the Tau's closest counterpart(s) in Fantasy right now are Cathay in terms of aesthetics, and the Lizardmen in terms of military/social structure, a bizarre hybrid of elements that came before and after the Tau were introduced to 40k.

==Trivia==
[[File:Tau Ripoff.jpeg|thumb|right|300px|FOR THE [[Blood Ravens|GREATER THEFT]]!]]
* Some have said that Tau resemble the protagonist KYNE from the Amiga video game Brataccas, which was released in 1986. Tau were first added to Warhammer 40k in late 2001. Some would dismiss this as coincidence, but Games Workshop has a long history of ripping off designs from other games; [[Beastmen]] are [[Broo]] from [[Glorantha]], very large chunks of 40k are a little too similar to [[Judge Dredd]], and all of the Greater Daemon model designs are stolen from early [[Dungeons & Dragons]]. These properties are understandable as Games Workshop was still selling games of those IPs when Warhammer was first created, but Brataccas is an obscure game from a forgotten system that was quite forgettable even at release, even if Amiga games tended to get fantastic cover art. This being said another of GW's early products was also puzzles of of this style of '70's/'80's Sci-Fi art. The Tau cast system does resemble the Protoss caste from [[Starcraft]], which predates the release of the Tau by 3 years... You have the Templar (Fire/Air Castes) Judicators (Ethereals + Water Castes) and Khalai (Earth Caste). In addition to a rogue sub-caste in the Dark Templar (Farsight Enclaves). This is Ironic considering that GW originally was making a deal with Blizzard to make games based on their properties. GW asked too much/Blizzard didn't like the terms and left... to make Warcraft and Starcraft. Starcraft would have become a Rogue Trader RTS. It was probably a mistake on GW's part, as they REALLY missed out. Stealing the Tau from the Protoss was probably done because GW was still salty. Alternatively, Protoss were always intended to be Eldar in the 40K interpretation of Starcraft and any similarities to the Tau are coincidental. Which is then funnier when you realise the Protoss are based on the Eldar that the Eldar are ripped off of Tolkien and that the Eldar supposedly helped push/create Tau society.
* Tau are technically canon to the Marvel Comics universe, as the series Venom: Space Knight repeatedly used Tau vehicles for aliens in the scenery. In fact, they have the balls to even keep the Tau Sept symbol! Also, you can see what appears to be a Eldar tank, as well as a Necron. The irony of the ripoff masters Games Workshop getting ripped off is juicy, even more so when its realized that lawsuit-happy Games Workshop (who literally tried to copyright "pauldrons" while they plagiarized Eldar from Tolkien and had prior contention between [[Malekith|two very similar Dark Elf characters of theirs who even shared the same name]]) couldn't do shit about it because Marvel is owned by Disney, and nobody beats The Mouse™.
** GW and Marvel/Disney settled out of court. A bit sad, a true battle between Daredevil and She-Hulk versus the Ordo Legalitus would have been cool. Interestingly this deal ended with GW and Marvel publishing several 40k comics, starting with a [[Marneus Calgar]] comic in 2020 and a [[Sisters of Battle]] comic in 2021, so the Tau might be canon again after all...

==Notable Tau==
===[[Canon]]===
*[[Aun'Va]]
*[[Aun'Shi]]
*[[El'Myamoto (Sub-commander Darkstrider)]]
*[[Shadowsun|O'Shaserra (Commander Shadowsun)]]
*[[Farsight|O'Shovah (Commander Farsight) and The Eight]]
*[[Commander Puretide]]
*[[Shas'o Kais]]
*[[Commander Or'es'Ka|Shas'o Or'es'Ka]]

===[[/tg/ 40,000]]===
*[[Blue]]
*[[Faptau]]
*[[O'ren I'shi'ii]]
*[[Shlicktau]]
*[[Xeno]]

==See Also==
[[File:Marvel Tau.jpg|thumb|right|250px|FOR THE GREATER GROOT!]]
* [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Tau (9E)|Tau Tactics (9e)]]
* [[Nicassar]]
* [[Sept V'iet]]
* [[Tau Quest]]
* [[Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior]]
* [[Tau Dark Heresy]]
* [[Tau Cadre Creation Tables]]
* [[Codex_-_Tau_Auxiliary]]
* [[Tau Diplomacy]]
* [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|<strike>Love Can Bloom 3:Golden Shadowsun</strike> NON-CANON FANFICTION GARBAGE]]

==External Link==
Tau Lexicon: *[https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eaLKLz0jdBTk24QSJrc5GSjNZzPzUZF9/view?usp=sharing]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrHhS5IkRR0 A Typical Tau-Human conversation.]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbuPaCgdO50 Should one of your Tau actually kill anything tougher than a guardsman in melee, you are allowed to end the game in victory as long as you play this clip.]
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhXCQFxGqMM Theme of the T'au Empire. Admittedly, its actually pretty amazing, all things considered.

==Gallery==
<center><gallery>
Image:Tau1.jpg|Stealth suits are :3
Image:Firewarrior.gif|Fire Warriors are :3 too
Image:Tau Chibi Fire Warrior.jpg|Chibi, but not weeby.
File:TauGuela.jpg|Gue'la.
Image:TauOrigin.jpg|Ohhh GW.
Image:Tau.gif|In 40k, everyones' guns are huge.
Image:Tau Fire Warrior.jpg|A Tau Fire Warrior, the basic infantry unit.
Image:Tau Firepower Demotivator.jpg|The sad truth of 6th edition.
Image:combine.jpg|In /tg/, tau are the bad guys.
Image:Itsyourempiretoo.png|Propaganda. [[Nazi|Sound]] [[Communism|familiar?]]
Image:Never shall the tau!.JPG|Surrender... never shall the Tau.
Image:Tauassault.jpg|Tau are vicious melee fighters, no less able than [[Space Marines]]!
Image:1234622525817.jpg|In hindsight, attempting negotiations with Orks was probably a bad idea.
Image:Tau Problem, Astartes.jpg|What's that? We're not grimdark enough for you, Neckbeard?
Image:Tau Sympathizer.jpg|The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer's entry on Tau players.
Image:Discotau.jpg|For the Greater Groove!
Image:DiscoTauGroovin.jpg|I’m ready go tonight, There's a party, alright, We don’t need the reason for joy oh yeah~
Image:Manta.jpg|Fun fact: if you have enough money to buy this, you have too much money.
Image:Tau cosplay2.jpg|Typical Tau player, engaging in typical Tau behavior. (Pretty badass cosplay, even got the hoof right)
Image:Tau Battlesuit vs Smurf.jpg|This Char Custom Battlesuit-clad Tau demonstrates his mastery of [[Weeaboo Fightan Magic]]. Also DYNAMIC ENTRY!
Image:E6abddad6c5999a1dbe6085d8614f051.jpg|Tau in close quarters combat barring some very lucky dice rolls.
</gallery></center>
{{Promotions}}
<center><gallery>
Image:TauKroot.jpg
Image:MARKERLIGHTS.png|MARKERLIGHTS!
Image:tau_firecleavage.jpg|Sweet [[Weeaboo|weeaboo]] [[Heresy|heresy]].
Image:Commissar Shadowsuns Goods by morganagod.jpg|DAT ASS.
Image:DAT_SHAS.jpg| A Fire Warrior appreciating DAT ASS.
Image:Tau ass.gif|A Greater Good we can all believe in.
Image:NOT FUCKING CANON.png| [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|THIS IS NOT FUCKING CANON!]]
Image:JoinTau.jpg|Some recruitment methodologies work better than others.
Image:Tau Chick.jpg|Few rarely seen Tau chicks. Maybe because Sisters are hotter.
Image:youtastefunny.jpg|Yeah, we all know the truth about their "greater good".
Image:Subcommander torchstar by sexual yeti-d9qal0l.png|Subcommander Torchstar, Farsight's personal fangirl.
Image:Tau_caste_nudes.jpg|Earth, Fire, Water, Air...Ethereal?!? SWEET MOTHER OF KHORNE!!! MY EYES!!!
Image:Laughing tau whores.jpg|S-shut up you filthy sluts! Among my people it is considered quite a handsome dick!
Image:Power Shopping.jpg|It's a well-known fact that the Tau Empire has some of the best shopping in the entire galaxy.
Image:Taugirlpile.jpg|Here we see Tau propaganda meant to entice men with their terrible, blasphemous, and supple soft skin, smooth curves, perky brea...er...ah...heretical alien bodies.
Image:TauHuman.jpg|Indeed, many humans have already embraced the Greater Good. (The individual with the primitive flashlight has been sent to re-education. Happiness is mandatory, Citizen.)
Image:greatertits.jpg|An attractive human female defector who for some reason has been equipped with a highly modified commander's battlesuit, perhaps as a devious ploy to compel desertion by the less loyal.
Image:ThicTau'Thereal.png|After this ethereal took charge, there was an upsurge in gue'vesa citizenship requests. Water caste psychoanalysts are currently studying this phenomenon in detail.
</gallery></center>

==Navigation==
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[[Category: Xenos]]

Aun'Va

2022-06-15T08:33:18Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* The aftermath of Aun'Va's death */

{{Topquote|Let none doubt that the [[Tau]] Empire will bring unity to all -- let none doubt that now is our time. Forward, for the Greater Good!|Aun'Va, Supreme [[Ethereal]] of the [[Tau]] Empire.}}
{{Topquote|Kill yourself.|Aun'Va after [[Phil Kelly|retcons]].}}

'''Aun'Va''' (full name Aun'o'T'au'Acaya'Va'Denta) is the Tau Ethereal Supreme and Master of the Undying Spirit, and occupies the position of maximum power within the Tau Empire. He's the face of the Tau for their people, and one of the most proactive individuals in the recent expansion of the Tau Empire, pushing for more and more Spheres of Expansion to continue the growth of their empire, despite the numerous problems that have appeared during his mandate. He's also notable for being retconned into a cartoonishly evil villain who hates humanity and outright demands for his underlings to kill themselves when they displease him (yes, seriously, just read ''Farsight: Crisis of Faith'' for the scene). He has recently died during the war for Mu'gulath Bay at the hands of an imperial assassin, and so the Ethereal High Council now uses an AI based on his personality alongside holograms and fake broadcasts to make the Tau think he's still around.

=Rise to power and service record=

Aun'Va rose to the position of Ethereal Supreme when his predecessor, Aun'Wei, decided he was too old to continue and resigned, nominating the promising Aun'Va to the job. Since then, the ethereal has become a beacon for the Tau race, almost as a religious figure. This, alongside his figurine and official art representations, has granted him the nickname of Tau Pope in the minds of [[neckbeards]]. Seriously, we've never seen him standing up, he's always sitting in his [[Hover Chair|floating chair,]] surrounded by his [[Ethereal Guard|personal guard.]] However, you should not make the mistake of thinking of him as a lazy grandpa. He's been constantly in charge of the policies of the empire for decades now (and considering Tau's short lifespan, that's a lot), both negotiating and organizing Tau society and at the head of many military campaigns. He was the one in charge of the war against the xeno species known as the [[Reek|Noisome Reek]], which would become one of the most successful campaigns of the Tau, though to be fair, the Reek are the punching bag of the area, so that's not difficult. Using his ability for speeches and Ethereal "coercion powers", Aun'Va sent the Tau [[Fire Caste]] into a bloody frenzy rage, catching their enemies completely off guard and guaranteeing victory.

One of the most interesting things happening during his regime was the discovery of the [[Farsight Enclaves]], with the legendary Commander [[Farsight]] at the head of this splinter of the Tau Empire. This discovery threatened to break the unity of the Fire Caste, the full military Tau army and the faith of the population in the reign of the Ethereals in general. Aun'Va was the one who had to deal with subverting this, twisting the previously untouchable memory of Farsight into a horrible traitor that doesn't deserve to be praised in any way. For this, he enacted ''damnatio memoriae'' against him, slowly erasing Farsight from Tau historical records through multiple means: destroying his monuments, downplaying his victories or straight up deleting them from Tau records, isolating the Farsight Enclaves from any contact with the Empire... He was even in charge of convincing Commander [[Shadowsun]] that her brother-in-arms had defected and now was the biggest traitor ever, and since then Shadowsun usually accompanies Aun'Va to every one of his campaigns. Though this effort wasn't fully able to delete him from the collective memory and respect of Tau society (and contacts with the Enclaves continue, though secretly and without the ethereals' permission or knowledge), he managed to effectively avoid a major fracture of the Tau Empire, possibly even a civil war.

=The Third Sphere of Expansion=

After fighting the Farsight Enclaves and the Great War of Confederation (a combined invasion of Tyranids and Orks that almost put an end to the Tau Empire), the Tau Military was in a surprisingly good position: their armies were replete with hardened veterans and quickly recovering. While their military technology had advanced quite a lot to counter the tyranids and the ork WAAAGH, they needed a morale boost after all of those efforts, as the orks and [[Hive Fleet Gorgon]] had weakened the defensive capabilities of many planets. Thus, Aun'Va decided to launch the Third Sphere of Expansion in 997.M41, with Commander Shadowsun and he himself at the front. The idea was to advance throughout the Damocles Gulf taking advantage of the weakness of their enemies, with the Imperium having to deal with many other threats elsewhere. Shadowsun's strategy of attacking with hit and run tactics and then swiftly concentrating her troops to deal a heavy blow was quite succesful, and it quickly seemed that a good chunk of the Damocles Gulf was now in Tau hands. Aun'Va was present during many of the sieges of the important planets in the area, to improve the morale of the Tau troops.

However, the [[Imperium]] quickly mounted a counteroffensive, way sooner than the Tau High Command thought it would come. However, Shadowsun had a contingency plan for this, and managed to concentrate the efforts of many of the Space marine Chapters sent to the war in a relatively unimportant area of space. Thanks to this ruse, the rest of the Tau forces managed to conquer hundreds of Imperial planets, doubling the size of their empire, while also managing to troll Cato Sicarius. To celebrate this, the Ethereals decided to broadcast their victories to everyone that could receive the message, both pissing off the Imperial forces to an absurd point of rage, and making some minor xenos species shit their pants, having heard of Humanity's [[RAGE]] when scorned. This was unnoticed by the Tau, though, so drunk they were at their current rate of victories.

[[File:Aun'Va_is_Fucked_Three_Ways_to_Sunday.png|400px|thumb|right|Aun'Va and the Culexus, right before [[RIP AND TEAR|all hell broke loose]] [[derp|(why does he look like he's half asleep, though?]])]]

During this, a massive Imperial counterattack was organized, alongside an order for the Officio Assassinorum to hunt down and kill the leaders of the Tau main force. Aun'Va was, at the time, coming back to the front after one of his speeches, and was stuck on the planet of Agrellan, now called Mu'gulath Bay. An Execution Force consisting of a [[Callidus]], [[Eversor]], [[Vindicare]] and [[Culexus]] assassin was dispatched to the planet. As a distraction, an Imperial task force was sent there as well to occupy the Tau forces on the planet. Lucky for them, they managed to isolate the Tau forces by trapping them under a bunker, and then the assassin Execution Force attacked. [[Bullshit|And whereas the Callidus, the Eversor and the Vindicare were all killed without completing their missions because...reasons]], the blank abilities of the Culexus assassin meant that he went undetected through the Tau lines, allowing them to kill the ethereal's guard and, in a moment of sweet revenge for Mankind, [[grimdark|butcher the ethereal in a horrifying way, while the Tau pope tried to run in terror from the monster that hunted him]]. This also means the first death of a named character in decades. After that was over, the Imperium decided to put the icing on the cake and throw an [[Exterminatus]] bomb on the planet, leaving no doubt on the Ethereal's death. [[derp|Then again, why bother with the assassins if you're just going to blow up the planet anyway?]] Pragmatism with the Imperium has always fallen short but also shows they do not fuck around. Finally, how many times a named character in fiction survives a planet blowing up is ridiculous so gotta make double sure that the dead stay dead. No bullshit medicine that can revive the dead no bullshit escape from Exterminatus.

The death of Aun'Va was devastating for the Tau's war efforts. The death of an Ethereal usually results in a massive drop in morale, so just imagine what the death of the main ethereal could do. The Third Sphere of Expansion ground to a halt, and many planets begun falling back into Imperial hands. Shadowsun could do little after the Ethereal's death, and she was busy preparing her troops against Farsight anyway, so the campaign was considered over. In theory it counts as a tau victory because they have more planets now than when they started, but the Tau Empire is on shaky ground now.

= The aftermath of Aun'Va's death =

With the murder of the leader of all Tau, the Ethereal High Council decided to hide this from the population by creating multiple holograms and fake transmissions to fake his survival to the public, aided by an AI based on a backed-up copy of Aun'Va's mind made before his death. There's an argument to be had whether that was a good decision or not (just imagine one hologram malfunctioning during a speech, imagine the chaos that could bring), but then again, just "retiring and replacing him" could bring suspicions (suspicions of what? That an old <s>man</s> Tau is getting old, is doing an Empire-wide "Weekend At Aun'Va's" really the less risky option when compared to just saying he retired & left the role a chosen & successor or died peacefully in his sleep?), especially after the most succesful military campaign the Tau have had in a while.

There's also the problem of the Ethereals' poor leadership choices and decisions after Aun'Va's death. Very soon after the end of the 3rd Sphere of Expansion they declared a 4th one... [[fail|and it was immediately stopped by the opening of the]] [[Great Rift]]. After receiving the news that a portion of it managed to survive its unscheduled trip through the Warp, the ethereals inmediately organized another sphere of expansion to link up with it... only to run straight into [[Mortarion]]'s [[Death Guard]], [[rape|with very predictable results]]. Considering the current dangers that the galaxy presents after the Cicatrix Maledictum's birth, the lack of knowledge of Chaos (and more specifically, what it is and how to prevent it) could imperil the survival of taukind. Not to mention that the Death Guard's forces are still threatening the existence of the Tau after losing against [[Roboute Guilliman]] in the [[Plague Wars]], their plans to invade T'au itself through the warp rift made by the Fourth Sphere's exit from the Warp, and the possible corruption of the Fourth Sphere itself. And that's not counting the Tyranid threat still around, more and more necron tombs waking up around Tau territory, Ultramar ready to fight again after their [[Roboute Guilliman|Spiritual Liege]] came back to life and Farsight still around threatening to break Tau society.

Whether or not the Tau Empire can survive without Aun'Va's leadership is a matter of <s>plot armour</s> the strength and confidence of the Tau in the Greater Good. But really, the blueberries finally got the assraping they've been begging for since their introduction to the setting. Worse, the AI duplicate of Aun'Va lacks the uncanny charisma possessed by the real one, which has led to at least one major military official questioning "his" orders and later joining Farsight's forces. It may be only a matter of time before the truth of Aun'Va's death leaks out, which can only have catastrophic consequences.

For those of you paying attention; yes, this does mean the blue weebaboo space communists are, in fact, led by the bastard child of a vocaloid and Lenin (the dead one they keep on display).

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Xenos]]

[[Category: Tau]]

{{Tau-Characters}}

Warp

2022-06-15T03:31:56Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* in 40k */

[[Image:Realm of Chaos.JPG|400px|thumb|right|A "map" of the Realm of Chaos as the Realm appeared when the map was drawn. Not pictured: Sanity, Physics.]]
{{topquote|Where we're going, we won't need eyes to see.|Dr Weir - Event Horizon}}
{{topquote|Abandon all hope, ye who enter.|The Inferno}}

ALL THE CRAZY SHIT GOES DOWN HERE.

'''The Warp''' (also called the '''Empyrean''', the '''Immaterium''',
'''Hell''', '''The realm of souls''' or sometimes simply '''Chaos''', or in [[Warhammer Fantasy]] the '''[[Realm of Chaos]]''' or '''The Winds Of Magic''') is an infinite dimension of pure magic/psychic/argent power. The Warp in Fantasy is the source of most magic in the setting and in [[Warhammer 40,000]] is a [[H.P. Lovecraft]]-inspired [[grimdark]] answer to the "hyperspace" trend that's universally present in almost all space opera for faster-than-light travel and communication...while simultaneously also being the afterlife in both. The residence of eldritch abominations such as the [[Chaos Gods]], the Warp is sort of an eldritch parallel dimension where the laws of physics no longer apply and is primarily composed of raw energy, shaped by the emotions, best dreams, worst nightmares and [[FATAL|most disgusting rape fantasies]] of those living in the real world. Think of the Warp as a mixture between ''The Far Realm'', [[/b/]], the criminal-infested dark web, and a public toilet clogged full of shit, used sex toys and trash coupled with all the drugs you can think of. It works a bit like that. Except that it's worse, because thanks to the Ruinous Powers, it'll often actively try to kill you; basically like the internet, just with more anal rape, dying horribly and less sitting around. Or Hell, if wicked and righteous people could end up there and you don't even have to die first.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqj2ZRInoNk Here is a song describing the psyche of all who are insane enough to enter this madhouse, from the lowliest Marauder to the most terrifying Chaos Lord.]
==Fantasy==
The Warp was a realm that existed before life on the planet, with the immortal Chaos Gods already formed within it (as well as most of the beings who would enter the Warp at later points in the timeline like [[N'kari]], [[Be'lakor]], and [[Karnak]] thanks to the time-fuckery of the Warp). The [[Old Ones]] connected the [[Warp Gates]] to it early on in their involvement in the Warhammer World. They channeled pure magic through it in order to create the races they wanted to fight Chaos, but as they continued to be displeased with their creations they pulled more and more energy from the Warp. This caused the Warp Gates to destabilize and explode into massive portals into the Warp, flooding the world with magic and causing massive invasions of Daemons to surge forth into the material plane.

To combat the Daemon threat, the [[High Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|Asur]] established [[Waystone]]s all over the world to suck the excess magic back into the Warp. As a result, the power of the Warp waxes and wanes; when the Warp swells with energy, the Chaos Gods within battle for control and the material plane is safe(er) from their influence. As the Warp empties, the world is invaded by hordes of Daemons from all corners.
What happens in the mortal plane strengthens the Chaos gods. When greenskins march in a WAAAGH!, <strike>Khorne</strike> GorkaMorka grows in strength and towers over his neighbors. The more magic is cast, the more influence Tzeentch can exert over his pawns both within and without the Realm of Chaos. As death, famine, rot and despair become more prevalent after wars destroys the land, Nurgle becomes the dominant power in the Warp. When times of peace come and art, pride, and hedonism come to the people Slaanesh finds himself <s>spreading</s>
rubbing <s>his</s> <s>her</s> THEIR taint across both realms.

Originally, all gods existed to a degree within the Warp. [[Khaine]] led many of the elf gods against the Chaos Gods, scarring Slaanesh permanently and cutting the forces of Chaos for many years to come. Despite this, the elf gods were forced into the material plane in a weakened state while Khaine was forced into a mortal form.
The gods of the Humans were also forced from it at some point in time, eventually residing within their temples in the [[The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)|Empire]]. Dwarf gods, possibly due to the nature of Dwarfs themselves to disrupt the power of the Warp, were notably absent from mention in the Warp.
In addition to the Four, there was also [[Chaos Gods of Order]] and [[Malal]] within the Warp. While they have not been mentioned in recent fluff, they were not retconned as existing either.
The [[Horned Rat]] is also a Warp entity, being a Greater Daemon of Nurgle which created a race of [[Skaven|rat mutants]] in his bid for godhood. He currently resides within Nurgle's realm, hiding from his former master.

In the [[End Times]] event, [[Nagash]] consumes two gods of Death and binds himself to a full eight of magic (meaning all of the Warp), becoming a Chaos entity if not outright Chaos God. The gods of the humans diminish greatly in strength as their temples in Altdorf are attacked and desecrated, while the strength of [[Sigmar]] is split between both in his reincarnation [[Valten]] and the current Emperor of the Empire, [[Karl Franz]] creating a true living God Emperor being in Fantasy.

==40k==
In the universe of Warhammer 40,000, the Warp is the [[Grimdark]] answer to the "Hyperspace" trend that's universally present in almost all Space Opera for faster-than-light travel and communication. Unlike in Fantasy, the Warp in 40k is actually an adaptation of two metaphysical frameworks: Plato's World of Ideas, and Carl Jung's Collective Unconscious. Both describe a conceptual metaphysical dimension consisting of the common Ideas and thoughts present in all existence. In Platonic philosophy, all the Ideas we think are actually manifestations of a higher Extradimensional Idea. To Jung, our collective Unconscious is populated by such absolute and unending Ideas, known as Archetypes; Gods in Classical mythology are an example of this.

Every little thought or emotion affects this Collective Unconscious to some degree. Most people can't do much to the warp on their own, but lots of people thinking similar thoughts or feeling similar things will have a pronounced effect, especially if said people are psychic, a la the world of ''[[Mage: The Ascension]]''. Even worse is that as part of our unconscious is born out of our worst collective nightmares, we can never rid ourselves of these daemons. Gods, who specialize in specific forms of thought and feeling, are born from this place when psychic energy accumulates with a critical mass (an example is the [[Emperor]] created by countless shamans committing suicide at the same time). This is the reason why the Chaos Gods, are well, chaotic to the extreme, because the Material Universe and everybody inhabiting it are themselves chaotic to the extreme and in need of serious psychiatric therapy and/or purging.

According to old parts of lore the Material Universe is affected by the big four Chaos Gods fighting each other for supremacy. If [[Khorne]] has taken the lead? A lot more fighting and war. [[Nurgle]]? More plagues and decay. [[Slaanesh]]? A lot more torture and rape. [[Tzeentch]]? A lot more Machiavellian scheming and [[JUST AS PLANNED]]. The validity of this is debatable as it comes from Chaos worshippers themselves, and we know how legit these guys are when it comes to information about the warp.

If you're not a [[Chaos]] god, a Chaos Spess Mehreen or a [[Daemon|Daemon]], you have no business staying here without [[Call of Cthulhu| Sanity checks]] (Unless you're [[Kaldor Draigo]], [[Oxyotl]] and/or [[Leman Russ]] (according to [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device]]) (Doomguy started out making sanity checks, when he failed them a c'tan made him a god), in which case you can freely stroll around, burning down Nurgle's Garden, killing Slaanesh's personal Handmaidens and breaking Canon with every step). The [[Imperium of Man]] has [[Gellar Field|shitty protection against it]], and effectively plays a game of Russian roulette in hopes that they wouldn't get themselves dismembered alive in 11 dimensions speeding towards wherever the [[Empra]] tells them to. Which of course means that all the races of the galaxy flock to the Warp like dumbass boy scouts to a knot-tying badge, except for the [[Tau]] (who are only just discovering these horrors awaiting their tasty naivete, with their primitive Warp-Drives only skimming the stable surface of the Warp), the [[Necrons]] (which hate it, and thus use a Star Trek-like FTL that functions in realspace and therefore does not need the Warp. [[RAGE|FUCKING CHEATERS]].), and the [[Tyranids]] who use wonky gravity manipulation to get around when they need FTL travel. The [[Eldar]] and [[Dark Eldar]] are also somewhat cheating, as they use the [[Webway]] which is like a complex network of highways through the Warp once engineered by the now-extinct [[Old Ones]] when the Warp was a lot more stable back then, a lot safer but a hell of a lot easier to get lost in. If the Warp is the deep web, then the webway is like Tor, which provide an anonymous safety from being 1337 H4X0Red by the FBI, sentient viruses or horrendous cybercriminals, only that in this Tor you'll have to encrypt all the confusing maths and find the global servers yourself.

However this doesn't mean there are no benevolent entities in warp, the problem is that either that specific benevolent entity is the Emperor (who's now <s>catatonic</s> in a position where he has no mouth and must scream, while his soul is being used as a psychic navigation lighthouse in the Warp called the Astronomicon), or they interfere with Materium once in a billion years, and when they do, they actually do nothing of significance. Also, benevolent entities would get consumed by evil entities, and/or are quickly exaggerated or "Warp"ed into something evil due to the massive amount of suffering in the material world. Or since 99% of the stuff in the warp wants to kill you and eat your soul, they also tend to just get ignored.
[[Image:Thewarp.jpg|300px|thumb|right|A mortal's limited rendition of the Warp.]]

=== History ===
Supposedly (according to <strike> many theorists</strike> the most crusty and privileged Imperial historians with access to the oldest records available) one of the earliest and possibly the first encounter of Humanity with the horrors of the Warp occurred sometime during the third millennium with the 'Merican starship Event Horizon. While the ship's gravity drive did successfully open a gateway in spacetime, it leapt outside the known universe and into another dimension, described later on by Dr. Weir as "a dimension of pure Chaos, pure evil". The Event Horizon has since then gained an evil sentience, telekinetic abilities and some grimdark Gothic aesthetics, tormenting and mind-raping its occupants with the aim of compelling them to return to "Hell". The Event Horizon gradually faded in the records of spaceship accidents with the development of the Gellar field, until humanity would rediscover the true danger of the Warp 24 millennia later, stronger and more fucking horrifying than ever.

[[Doom | There is another report of a warp invasion on Mars and Terra back in the 15th millenia that was fought off by a lone Human.]] (<s>Though it was thought</s> it is confirmed that he is a similar entity to the Emperor which throws his humanity <s>into question</s> out the window) he fought wave after wave of daemons on mars until he and his allies were killed in an ambush by the daemons, and the [[C’tan]]. However, did his physical death stop the marine? FUCK NO! This marine's collective [[RAGE]] (and the energy siphoned from the daemons he killed) was strong enough to give him a physical presence in the warp and he fought,[[RIP AND TEAR | ripping and tearing ]] his way out of hell until eventually killing the bloodthirstier leading the invasion. When he returned to reality, he discovered that the incursion spread to Earth as well. And so he ripped and tore his way through the daemon armies until he came face to face to the manifestation of evil. It is said that the marine came face to face with [[Khorne]] or at least a manifestation him. After beating the shit out of [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|MegaSatan]],[[Kaldor Draigo |he pranced through the Immaterium]],[[RIP AND TEAR| ripping and tearing every single daemon he could come across.]]...Until a bunch of bloodletters got the jump on him and locked him in a box...but then he broke out. Then the C’tan tried to invade earth '''again'''. He said '''FUCK THAT''' and did the same thing all over again...but this time he killed the head C’tan too. (and had there dimension assimilated into the warp)

[[Awesome |TL:DR HE CAME, HE SAW, '''HE RIPPED AND TORE DAEMON GUTS...AND ANGEL BRAINS.''']]
he is currently being contained in a stasis pod somewhere in the Immaterium...that is said to be guarded by Khorne himself, and unlike [[Lion El'Johnson]] he really doesn't want to be woken up.

During the time of the dinosaurs and before, the [[Old_Ones_(Warhammer)|Old Ones]] were cranking out powerful psykers like there was no tomorrow, shitting out creatures like [[Ork|Orks]], [[Eldar]], [[Slann]], and who knows what else to fight the endless tide of [[Necron|mummy robots]] and [[C'tan|star eating, life energy nomming lovecraftian energy gods]], (That look more like squid people in there native realm) and they still lost (they might have had a traitor among them).
All the [[Rage|RRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEEEEEEEGGGG!!!!!!]] felt during the fighting by all those powerfully psychic races as they fought and died changed the warp in the milky way from a calm place where you could get anywhere you wanted without much trouble transformed into the hell hole it is now, minus the daemons. Instead, there were squid jellyfish parasites called [[Enslavers]] who would [[grimdark|mind control psykers and eventually turn them into a warp portal which would both kill the psyker and allow more Enslavers to come out]]. (They still show up every now and then to make life miserable for everyone else in the galaxy.)

The [[Eldar]] hid like a bunch of pussies in the webway system while the few remaining old ones who weren't killed by the [[Necron|Necrons]] and the [[C'tan]] were wiped out by the Enslavers; the [[Slann]]... did something; and the [[Ork|Orks]] survived and made their [[Mork|own]] [[Gork|gods.]]

After a while Humanity evolved and were once led by powerful psykers known as the Shamans. They used to reincarnate, but the gestation of who would soon be the Ruinous Powers of Chaos rendered them unable to do that and instead their souls were consumed by the Warp. These Shamans were forced to commit mass suicide at the same time so that all their souls would merge into a single entity able to protect Mankind from the Ruinous Powers: The [[Emperor]]. He guided Mankind under various guises until the [[Dark Age of Technology]] when Humans invented the Navigators and the [[Gellar Field]] to go through the Warp and colonize the galaxy.

Unfortunately the Eldar fell into massive debauchery and being an entire race of psykers caused the Birth of Slaanesh and the [[Age of Strife]] where the Warp was turned into the daemon-and-tentacle-rape-infested shit-pit it is now. The Emperor created the [[Astronomicon]] as a guiding beacon for [[Navigator]]s but that was just a metaphorical Band-Aid for his real solution to conquer the Webway using a psychic amplifier called the Golden Throne and exterminate those damned space elves once and for all. They did deserve it for birthing Slaanesh. Unfortunately, during the [[Horus Heresy]], [[Magnus the Red]] just had to make that psychic phone call that damages the Throne forcing [[Malcador the Sigillite]] to clog the Throne with his psychic powers while the Emperor and Horus brutalized each other. Malcador crumbled to dust just as the Emperor's massive golden ass was placed on the Throne and now in the 41st Millennium he is in a perpetual state of eternal torture trying to clog the daemon-infested Webway with his ass so that Terra would not turn into a second Eye of Terror, while Humanity now has to sacrifice thousands of psykers just to keep the Throne running. And for all his troubles, Magnus was made a Daemon Prince and the eternal pawn of Tzeentch. [[Grimdark]]. And then [[Abaddon]] finally did it, ripping open the Eye of Terror into the [[Great Rift]] dividing the galaxy in half.

==Age of Sigmar==
{{Main|Realm of Chaos}}
Now with [[Skavenblight]] sandwiched between it and the eight material realms, giving Skaven access to everywhere.

{{AoS-Realms}}

==Related phenomena==
Just as with Earth's oceans, the Warp occasionally has storms here and there that block all shipping within the neighborhood. Warp storms were largely responsible for the collapse of 40k's pre-Imperial human civilizations, when every planet was suddenly isolated and left to the mercy of daemon-possessed psykers. In Fantasy, [[Storm of Chaos|Warp Storm]] cause a massive swell in the strength of any magic used, allowing great and terrible feats as the world itself warps and mutates.

The Warp also plays havoc with space and time. Journey times through the Warp are variable and not possible to predict with great accuracy. A given journey could take days or weeks depending on your luck. If you're really unlucky, a journey that usually takes days may take centuries, while you only experienced a few hours of travel time, so the war you came to fight is long over and everyone you know is dead. You might even wind up at your destination several weeks ''before'' you set off, and enjoy the priceless looks of horror on the faces of the inhabitants of the planet below that they're about to be hit by an Ork WAAAGH! You can also end up popping out few hundred years in the past and get yourself executed by the Inquisition for trying to impose someone who does not exist yet. Time is so flexible in the warp that at one point an Ork Waaagh arrived before it left and the Warboss killed himself to get two of his favorite gun, or guns. This is certainly a great way for [[C.S. Goto|shitty writers]] to resolve plot holes and inconsistencies. [[Doctor Who|"Timey-wimey, warply-darply, stuff."]] [[Ordo Chronos]] used to do something with these time-travellers, but disappeared for some reason.

==Is The Warp The Same Thing In Aos/Fantasy/40k?==

For now, [https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/cs5pi3/what_was_the_best_lore_retcon/exe1ogq/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x yes]. It is indeed the same Warp of Fantasy and Age of Sigmar because GW decided that having two (or three) versions of the same extradimensional hell party on LSD was too tiresome to keep up with.
[[File:dangyougrommy.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Finally clearing up the question until GW rewrites the lore again]]

This is of course a huge source of [[skub]] and so it's best approached in a careful manner whenever the topic comes up.

==Anti-warp measures==
By this point you may be wondering why is that no one has developed extensive measures to counter warp based phenomena, the answer is that, yes, it has been some serious attempts, with variable measures of success.

===in 40k===
The biggest project to shutdown the warp for good was done by the C'tan and the Necrons before they jumped on the former and turned them into pokemón. During the [[War in Heaven|War in Heaven]], they built a vast network of pylons made from the substance known as Noctilith to effectively negate the Old Ones' main advantage, that being the use of their Webway. Interestingly this may actually explain the boundaries of the current Eye of Terror, as it appears to be that the Necrons built the network with the specific idea to surround the Eldar's core territories as they were slowly becoming more advanced while the Old Ones were getting pwned across the galaxy. Unfortunately for the Necrons, the Eldar developed quicker than expected, and with their own rebellion against the C'tan crippling them, made them abandon the network project midway. How this would have affected the Necrons themselves now that they depend on the Webway through the Dolmen Gates is a great source of speculation.

A derived example of this sort of technology is the Null Field Matrix, which allows a Tomb World to deny the effects of the warp in their immediate territory, effectively crippling everything warp-related, unfortunately it appears these sort of devices are quite fragile and indeed would be a major target in any battle against the Necrons by anything warp-based.

The Necrons apparently tried a different approach too, developing the pariah warp gene, this point however has conflicting sources, as it appears sometimes the gene occurs naturally without their direct intervention, maybe it's effectively a natural occurrence, and the skelebots just decided to make it more common through genetic manipulation.

In the case of the Imperium they have the Geller Field technology as their most widespread way to deal with the warp, supposedly what the Geller Field generator does is creates a "bubble" of reality around the ship so it can travel across the warp instead of the neutralize it, this bubble seems to still allow for minor warp events to happen such as the sending and receiving of astropathic messages.

The second antiwarp "technology" used by the Imperium are wards and rituals to contain Chaos pollution, this seems to be still warp-based as rather than completely nullify the energies of the immaterium it redirects its flow and shapes it so it can deny the most negative effects of the warp, this also seems to be the basic of the chaos-denying quality of Faith in 40k, as it "naturally" shields the individual through the redirection of chaos-based warp energy through more orderly currents although this may be an overly simplification and there may be more factors, as all things related to faith it's nigh impossible to measure.

The third mechanism for the Imperium to block warp-phenomena is the use of blanks, be it in the form of agents trained by the Inquisition, or the Assassin temples. Although sometimes blanks who weren't caught by the Black Ships pop up here and there as literary devices. Another, bleaker way is by using the remains of the blanks in the form of missiles with warhead cores made of their ashes, it's not specified if the blanks are actively killed, or the Imperium just waits for them to die, although in this particular case the latter would make more sense as a blank is too much of a valuable resource to be used up in a single attack unless the need is too extreme, but then again, this is 40k so you may expect both cases to happen.

The fourth measure to deal with the warp is being really racist and paranoid and killing would be Psykers immediately. This is actually somewhat effective. Wild Psykers are the most frequently way for warp shit to gain access to reality so if your diligent about dealing with Psykers and keep there population low you keep a lot of warp shenanigans from happening the first place.

And with the current advance of the plotline, Belisarius Cawl seems to be working in retro-engineering the Necron Noctilith based technologies to find a way to close the Cicatrix Maledictum, and the Necrons aren't quite too happy about the kleptomaniacs in the priesthood of Mars stealing their property and war has erupted in many systems.

The Orks, being Orks, have a straightforward and simple solution to this problem just as they do any other. They nail great big teeth onto their ships as an offering to Gork and Mork for safe passage. If that doesn't work, they can always fight the daemons instead, which makes for great entertainment while you're floating through the Warp on a derelict hulk. Interestingly it may be that "orkiness" works in a similar way to human faith when it comes to shielding adverse effects from the warp.

Tau are a bit of a mixed bag as for the most part they don't even believe there is any danger to the warp at all, which is terrible naive of them, but they got dealt a good hand in that they souls are particularly 'dim' in the warp which means they tend not to get noticed by the nasty things out there anyway.

===in Fantasy/AoS===

In the current AoS setting it's the Kharadron Overlords the ones who have been looking for a way to neutralize magic-related phenomena, with the development of the magic-dampening null projectors and voidstone scatter-mines, these technologies seem to be costly and not widespread, but it appears to have effects both upon the Winds of Magic and Chaos-born powers although this hasn't been explored more than beyond some minor references.

Supposedly Azyr's magic has a strong anti-Chaos/Death effect, it's not clear if this is natural or the fact its incarnate is Sigmar, but it may be say that this source is still warp-based, the other Winds of Magic may have a similar potentiality but Azyr appears to be the best way to go when it comes to fighting Chaos. Probably this was done in order to link the best at chaos-smashing attribute to Sigmar's own power, as in Fantasy it was Hysh the wind of Light that was the most effective at purging Demons.

Faith seems to have a rather similar effect than 40k, with the best example being the Hallowed Knights, who have such a strong faith it shields them from adverse Chaos effects such as Nurgle's plagues.

Nagash has (perhaps unintentionally) stumbled on something similar with the magic-resistant Ossiarch Bonereapers of the Null Myriad. After being harshly opposed by the forces of Order, Nagash had them hide on the edges of Shyish, where they fought off many daemonic armies.

==Hitchhiker's guide to the warp==
* If you are NOT Chaos, Chaos-affilliated, Chaos-favored, a Blank, or a subject of "the divinity machine," [[Fist of the North Star|you are already dead]] as the yawning abyss would have ripped your body apart and torn your soul asunder the moment you got close.
** Caveat: [[Tuska Daemonkilla|If youz an ork ave fun krumpen all da stuff with spikez on it!]]
*** In Warhammer Fantasy, the Warp only holds non-Daemon attack hazards for beings who are tempted by Chaos (so mostly just weak-minded humans). In fact, there is a character lost within the Warp who the Chaos Gods have forbidden from being harmed, as a parody of Dante's Inferno.
** Being favored by Chaos is difficult, but is possible with the right [[Chaos Gods|"connections"]]. If you have earned favor with one of those connections you will be given a "pass"; this "pass" [[Chaos Spawn|comes]] [[Daemon Prince|in many]] [[Chaos Space Marine|forms]], some of which are painful. It is also '''not''' "all access."
* If you stop at a reflecting pool (the Warp equivalent of a truck stop), a certain chaos god may or may not be waiting to rape you in more ways than one.
* If you find Eldar stranded here, please sacrifice them to eternal torture under Slaanesh for fucking everything up.
** Do remember not to attempt this while near Khornates as they ''will'' rip your entrails out and garotte you...or worse.
** If you just kill the Eldar the Khornate will leave you alone... maybe.
* Feel free to Ride a screamer of Tzeentch like your own magical demon [[My Little Pony|pony]] through the stars.
** Disclaimer: This action would require you to bind the daemon to your will. This may or may not result in the screamer eating your face off and drinking your soul like delicious tears.

* Feel free to eat the cookies-- they're warp-tastic (only take one or Slaanesh will lock you in her personal dungeon to make more)!
* If you wandered into the formless wastes, find a way out. Chaos Undivided is a bit boring.
** Do be careful to avoid the furies who will gang up and kill you because they have nothing better to do.
*** Alternatively, if you are a [[Daemon|Greater Daemon]], [[Daemon Prince]], or [[Emperor|being]] [[Primarchs|of equal]] [[Doom|or superior]] [[Kaldor Draigo|willpower]], the Formless Wastes aren't a bad place to set up shop. Just don't stay for very long... it ''does'' tend to get boring after a little while.
* If you wandered into the soul forges, be prepared for remodelling. You'll soon be <s>a daemon engine</s> fed into the soul furnaces; your screaming, eternally tormented soul will be used as fuel, and your bodily remains will likely become a new daemon.
* If you wandered into the Fortress of [[Khorne]], beat the living shit out of something before it beats the shit out of you. The fortress arenas accept all visitors as fighters unless they have visited more than 16 times (at which point they are considered a "resident"), or their name is on the black slate. Those who survive 84 rounds in the arena will be made into a [[Bloodletter]].
** If you are a resident you will be given a choice of arena to enter from the 64 circles (visitors' arenas are randomly chosen). Please visit the sanctum of Kadingir for further information (there will be sign skull pikes directing you to the office, and no they do not clean the blood off the floor).
** If your name '''is''' on the black slate, entry to the arena made be made '''by appointment only'''. You are on the slate because you have either '''seriously depleted''' Khorne's forces last time you came, you cheated while in the arena, or both. The color of your name will indicate your status: purple is for cheaters, red is for victors. You may make an appointment to redeem yourself in Khorne's eyes or to challenge the endless carnage record. The current record for endless carnage is held by one "DoomGuy" at 9847 rounds; in second place is [[Skarbrand]] at 485 rounds, and in last place is [[Abbadon the Despoiler|Abbadon]] at 6 rounds.
*** To make an appointment please enter the sanctum of Kadingir, state your name, present your weapon of choice (you will be restricted to 5 weapons at maximum; at least one must be melee only, and no weapons with a maximum range higher that 15 imp corpses will be accepted (measurement guide provided at office)), and your arena of choice. Appointments must be made at least 8 minutes in advance in order to give time for your opponents to revive or wake as well as for the blood servants to collect any skulls still on the ground. Then enter the brass armory to select your weapons and proceed to the elevator to the arenas.
** Do be careful not to wander into the Juggernaut pens (they are clearly marked by skulls). They ''will'' gore you until you're a stain on the floor. If you do escape, the Bloodletters will stab you for entering the Juggernaut pens without permission.
*** Juggernaut rodeos are only on Sundays between the hours of 8 o'candle and 6 o'candle. Bring your own gear.
** If you died fighting in Khorne's name and were carried off by a [[Valkia the Bloody|smoking hot daemonic Viking chick in red armour]] - congratulations, you may have entered Chaos Valhalla.
* If you wandered into the Palace of [[Slaanesh]], fap or schlick depending what parts you have. You might become a [[Daemonette]]
** If Slaanesh is feeling whimsical, you might instead end up as his/her new sex toy for fetishes best not described.
* If you wandered into the Garden of [[Nurgle]] you WILL become a [[Plaguebearer]], regardless if you do anything or not. Unless you're a [[Kaldor Draigo|Mary Sue]].
** If you manage to impress Nurgle by lasting a while you might end up as a Herald instead.
** If you are about to succumb to super Ebola in the Garden of Nurgle proceed to pop pimples/blackheads on your face and post it on YouTube. Who knows? You may actually gain Grandfather's favor. This is a last resort though and you will still end up a Plaguebearer.
** Alternatively, you may be eaten by one of the Garden's denizens or the Garden itself before you succumb to its many plagues. You may still become a Plaguebeaer after they shit you out, though.
* If you wandered into the Maze of [[Tzeentch]]... you're screwed.
** Do note this is because of the maze's purely magical nature. It is very likely you will either have your mind broken and be forced to wander the Maze for all eternity; have your immortal soul absorbed by the Maze; or wander into one of the Maze's continually spawning spires where you will be trapped for all eternity. Just as planned.
* If you're [[Oxyotl]] or [[Kaldor Draigo]], troll away.
** If you're NOT a Skink or Kaldor Draigo, meet up with Oxyotl, Kaldor Draigo and [[Leman Russ]], [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UHNJUgat2i8 get hammered (it is safe to drink despite the aura of menace), and troll together.]
*** If you find none of these gentlemen, start screaming that none of this is real and that gods are fake. When a short, plump, bald man appears next to you, proceed to troll away.
* If you pop up next to [[Forces of Malal|the Eternal Mansion of Malal]], talk nicely to the closest Guardian of Contradictions to let you in. You will successfully enter [[Wat|while suffering in the Barbed Forests of doubt, trying to escape the Great Oval of Unbelief, being NOMMED to spawn Paradoxes in the Nest of Ironies, AND running between the Moving Towers while Ticks try to hunt you down. Such is the way of a god that makes rolling a 7 with a d6 possible.]]
* If you are a Son of Malice, steal stuff screaming how you will kill them all!
** Alternatively you may try to catch daemons and procede to use them to battle other daemons like grimdark Pokémon.
* If you're a Null... how the fuck did you manage that?! Oh well, you're pretty much invincible. Have fun, troll away.
** Keep in mind that anything you touch or even approach (depending on your power) will likely dissolve into nothing. This includes things you stand on, like floors, bridges and stairs. This may even include air - so while psykers and even regular humans can get away by believing there is air around and warp being twisted by their will to manifest that belief, you're stuck with what you brought with you from the realspace.
* Yes, those pieces of toast are actually following you back to your warp hut. No, you're not high on warp dust. Feel free to eat them-- they taste like the cookies.
* For the more technically-inclined, find and join the [[Dark Mechanicum]] as a Heretek. It might take a century or several. Eventually the amount of menial labor will allow you access to the good shit that those Luddites working for the Corspe-God hoard for themselves. You won't care about the screams of your victims because you'll have implants to tune it out. You might have to modify or dispose of your fleshheap of a body but hey, you are a cyborg now. You can build yourself an awesome all new one. With booze and hookers. Just remember to choose or create tech serfs that are smart and loyal enough to not screw it up. After a Millennium of mad science and some luck. One day you could end up on par with [[Anacharis Scoria]] and sucker punch [[Primarchs]] like he can.

[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]] [[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Chaos]]

Nicassar

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2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D:

[[File:Nicassar.jpg|thumb|right|300px|A [[drawfag]]'s version of a Nicassar.]]

The '''Nicassar''' are an alien race from the [[Warhammer 40k]] setting. They are an <s>ally</s> <s>slave</s> valued client race of the [[Tau|Tau Empire]] and were the first outside race to join it. They only appear in the game [[Battlefleet Gothic]], specifically their [[Nicassar Dhow|Dhow spacecraft.]]

Dhows are small yet elegant yachts propelled by the Nicassar themselves; they have psychic powers, mostly telekinesis. The Tau, aware of the [[Imperium]]'s phobia toward [[psyker]]s, and especially alien psykers, have carefully hidden the existence of the Nicassar from the humans. Their ships have no interstellar capacity, and are reliant on the Tau for this. Alternatively, they will travel slowly for centuries while in hibernation. Often for longer journeys a number of Dhows will join together to form a larger community, with the crew alternating between hibernation cycles. The race lives and dies in space, and has adapted to thrive in this environment at the cost of being less capable on the surface of planets. This makes them less than optimal soldiers in ground-based operations, so they serve the [[Greater Good]] by providing auxiliary ships to Tau fleets, primarily for scouting and exploring.

The Nicassar are driven by an insatiable curiosity to explore and travel; they are semi-nomadic and most content only when traveling. They are very slow to act, but very wise. Much like [[The_Lord_of_the_Rings|Ents]], the running gag is that the Nicassar are so slow to act that they were conquered before they even realised the Tau had turned up. Though models of their ships are available, no models or official artwork of the race has been produced, though [[Jervis Johnson]] described them as "sort of like very flat polar bears". Which is certainly different. Anon doesn't care if this is correct, because it's pretty fucking funny either way.

The Nicassar are a surprisingly stable Psyker species, having seemingly never been troubled with the issue of Daemonic Possession. Although they are aware of the denizens of the [[Warp]], referring to them as predators and usually advising their Tau allies to steer clear of them, they seem to be adept at preventing the more negative influences of the Warp from gaining purchase on them, presumable those less good at this get eaten by daemons at young ages and never pass on those genes. The Nicassar are also one of the more prestigious species within the Tau Empire, perhaps just beneath the Kroot themselves, and have been represented among the Kindred Souls, a special representative office for members of the Empire who are not Tau, before.

They do not look like motherfucking [[Call of Cthulhu|squids]], probably. They may be space tardigrades.

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]
== Gallery ==

<gallery>
File:Bfg-nicassar.jpeg‎| A fleet of Nicassar Dhow.
File:Nicassar_Waffle_Bear.png| Note the butter.
File:NicassarAdventureTime.jpg| Totally Mathematical!
File:Nicassar_sebastianstuart.jpg‎ | Dhow Pilot. Note the chair.
File:Nicassar_tiuku.jpg | Big, alien bears. These aren't very flat.
File:Nicassar_hopeatee.jpg‎ | More floaty, dragon like space bears.
File:Nicassarakorjattua.jpg‎ | By Tiuku from the Advanced Tau Tactica Forums.
</gallery>

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Battlefleet Gothic]]

[[Category: Xenos]]

[[Category: Tau]]

[[Category:Minor Xenos Species]]

{{Template:Tau}}

{{Template:Important Species in 40k}}

Tau

2022-06-15T03:03:15Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* Tau Member Races */

{{heresy}}
{{Plot Armour}}
[[Image:TAUSYMBOL.gif|center]]
{{Infobox 40k Nations
|name= T'au Empire
|image=[[Image:Tau_Empire_Flag.jpg|300px|center]]
|bgcolor=
|fgcolor=
|Capital= T'au
|Official Languages=Tau Lexicon
|Power= Minor Power
|Size=Approximately over 300 worlds
|Head of State= Ethereal Supreme
|Head of Government= Ethereal Council
|Governmental Structure=Caste-Based Authoritarian Federation
|State Religion/Ideology=[[Greater Good]]
|Demographic=[[Tau]], [[Kroot]], [[Vespid]], [[Gue'vesa|Humans]], [[Nicassar]], [[Tarellian]], Nagi, Hrenians and other minor [[Xenos]] races
|Military Force=[[Tau]] Fire Caste, Tau Air Caste, [[Kroot]] and [[Vespid]] Forces, The Deathsworn, Hrenian Light Infantry, [[Demiurg]] Forces, [[Nicassar]] Forces, Gue'vesa Forces and other minor Xenos armies, The [[Kor'Vattra]] and it's auxiliary fleets
}}
[[File:9jfnqeaplhexx.jpg|right|thumb|450px|Get the fuck out of the way, [[Imperium|Oldfag]]. (Vior'la Sept Fire Warriors)]]
{{Topquote|I'll say this about the T'au, they know how to put on a good war.|[[Ciaphas Cain]]}}
{{Topquote|Ce qui constitue une République, c'est la destruction totale de tout ce qui lui est opposé. - What constitutes a Republic is the total destruction of that which is opposed to it.|Louis Antoine de Saint-Just}}
{{Topquote|Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.|C.S Lewis}}

Tau (τ) is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet, 300 in Greek numerals, and also the name for 2π.

It is also the name of the Warhammer 40K race known as the '''Tau''', nowadays spelled '''T'au''' by GW copyright lawyers as if that somehow [[ChapterHouse Studios|fixes anything]] (many nicknames include "uncreative retards" if you are an [[Eldar]], "blueskinned atrocity" if you're a [[Imperium of Man|Human]], "bluies", as the Valhallan 597th call them, or "Space Communists" as anyone on /tg/ will tell you) are a playable race and a minor and overall insignificant power in ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]''. When first discovered by humanity, the Tau were a barbaric and primitive people. Their planet was then trapped in a warp storm for a few thousand years and they emerged from the other side as a unified species, led by the [[Druids|mysterious]] Ethereal caste and devoted to the concept of the "[[Greater Good]]". Their new empire supposedly has around 300 worlds, with dozens more small colonies and outposts, packed into a stellar cluster about 500 light years across. They have about [[T'au Septs|21 official]] "Septs" which are major systems based around a cultural 'prime' planet (think Manhattan then the tri-state area). They were growing until recently, when the Imperium sent a large invading force to counter them.

Although a dystopian society in its own right, the Tau Empire is noted for being one of the LEAST awful places in all the galaxy of 40k. It's also [[Derp|not really an empire]]; the Tau government, the Ethereal caste, is essentially an edifice of meritocracy and nepotism. Tau leaders are appointed to their position by even higher ranking leaders and/or a council of their future peers; the highest ranking Tau, the Aun'O, is elected by his future underlings, much like the Catholic pope, but is still simply considered the weightiest voice of a group (like a prime minister), not an Emperor with absolute power.

The Ethereals are basically like "upper management" if upper management worked... or maybe HR if they didn't just 'klkn' [fancy tau word for F'ed] everyone over. The Ethereals actually care about the people that look up to them as they set mandates across their society, which the castes strive to fulfill.

The Tau started as a classic case of successful design-based [[Troll|trolling]] on the part of [[Games Workshop]]. They were originally developed because GW felt that their setting needed an optimistic race and that their wallets needed more money, which they could get by selling shitloads of 40k to the robot-obsessed Japanese. The Tau, therefore, are the least [[grimdark]] faction in the game; [[Tau Diplomacy|they're the dudes willing to negotiate when they've beaten their enemies]] ([[The Beast|we cannot forget the green skinned diplomats our boy sent out during his siege of terra]]) while all the others are either too [[Chaos Space Marines| murderously psychotic in ways incomprehensible to anyone who does not share the same batshit insanity]], [[Imperium|religiously overzealous]], [[Eldar|arrogantly indifferent]], [[Orks|simplemindedly violent]], [[Necron|murderously enigmatic]], [[Tyranid|more interested in eating you than anything]], or [[Dark Eldar|all of the above]] to offer such courtesies.

This began to change in 6th edition. For all the claims that GW doesn't listen to its fans, someone seemed to have heard the incessant bitching many fa/tg/uys made over the Tau [[Belisarius Cawl|being shoehorned into the setting]] [[Primaris Marines|in the worst way possible.]] As a result, the Tau began to take on an Orwellian flavor and Imperium-esque elements, with the Ethereals being totalitarian autocrats performing acts of ruthless indifference towards their subjects, including [[Nazi|eugenics]] or up to [[Exterminatus]] of lost races (e.g. Orks and Tyranids), in the guise of being for the Greater Good. (though classyfing Orks and Tyranids as being Exterminatus on sight is a pretty good assessment honestly)

As a result you now have a new generation of weebos running around thinking that the Tau actually don't give a fuck about their people and would actually kill their own kind for things like... sculpting [like really, if you do art outside of the Earth caste you just disappear] which would make the Tau the least functioning society in 40k as whole swathes of their own population are routinely exterminated for fixing their crisis suits so they don't drown or pull a pistol out to protect children (things that actually happened).

The Tau Codex leaves ambiguous the question of just how much of their success is due to various forms of indoctrination, caste-based conditioning, and subtle mind control. This has only been exacerbated by the recent Farsight Enclaves supplement, which makes the Ethereals come off as mustache-twirling, Saturday-morning-cartoon villains. It speaks volumes about the 40k setting that in spite of all this they're ''still'' the friendliest race in the galaxy.

An interesting contradiction arises because the Tau have annexed (sometimes peacefully) entire Hive Worlds, meaning the Tau might actually be a cat’s paw to a human civilization by now. This is because a single modestly-sized hive world ''probably'' boasts a larger population than the entire Tau species combined (with one hive city on a world at one point being noted for outright having a population higher than the Tau species, much to the horror of a Tau diplomat), along with an industrial capacity to match- not to mention the fact that the Tau willingly give their tech and knowledge to races who have been subsumed into the Greater Good. It seems that Games Workshop has not yet realized this problem.

=="Naive Weeaboo Space Communists"==
[[Image:Tau Weeaboo.png|thumb|right|Cue hotblooded music by [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r6xYnFDoV0 JAM Project].]]
The Tau's naiveté might seem at odds with the GRIMDARK-ness of the setting (and to a degree, a lot of it is), but the thing is, Games Workshop specifically plays this straight FOR the [[grimdark]] and ''knows'' that the seeming futility of the Tau's optimism only further accentuates the general hellishness of the rest of the galaxy - and dear [[Emperor|god]] do they play this up for maximum effect. In the 41st millennium, the Tau come across as ''more'' than a little naïve to the other races; the Imperium sees any contact with aliens as heretical and will shoot them with [[bolter]] rounds as soon as they look at them; the [[Ork]]s just want to kick the shit out of things; and the [[Eldar]] see the Tau as a race in its infancy, just staggering out of its borders for the first time and wandering into a pond full of [[Saharduin|sh]][[Dark Eldar|ar]][[Chaos|ks]] (most Eldar philosophers admit their own race has failed, the humans are failing, and add that the Tau are in for a rude awakening). If the sharks arrayed against the Tau think of them at all, it is surely as dinner.

In older fluff [a single book that was so off the rails it said Tau had toes and no nasal slits], the Tau were implied to have been secretly uplifted by the Eldar through the creation and subtle control of the Etherals (especially the mind-influencing pheromone secreting gland at the base of Ethereals’ spines) and guiding them through reverse-engineering Imperial technology from the ruined colony ships. Eventually the Eldar abandoned them because the Tau never accomplished anything notable on their own due to a crippling lack of creativity (<s>a big red flag of bullshit, since the Tau are nothing if not creative</s> needing the Eldar to reverse-engineer Imperial colony ships for you and teach you everything is ''NOT'' "creative", it is the opposite, pay attention before opening your mouth. What part of "uplifted" do you not understand?). This older fluff also said that humans must be in physical contact with an Ethereal or perhaps subjected to heavy doses of the pheromone in other ways to be sufficiently affected but other aliens are affected merely by being in the vicinity of an Ethereal. In the current fluff, the Eldar backstory and Ethereals-controlling-other-races theory seem to have been cast aside as nonsense and are no longer canon.

The Tau's generally-optimistic fluff, combined with their highly advanced technology, distinctly "Eastern" combat doctrine (that is often reminiscent of Sun Tzu's "''Art of War''"), use of [[Mecha|battlesuits]] (just [[Imperial Knight|like]] [[Dreadnought|the]] [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Imperium]]), [[Hammerhead Gunship|heavy firepower]] which rivals that of the Imperial Guard, and one of the [[Fish of Fury|most broken tactics in tabletop 40K until it was finally fixed an edition later]] has conspired to make them very much hated (and by that we mean a source of butthurt) by a reasonable-sized population of the [[/tg/|40K fan populace]]. /Tg/ has rightly dubbed the Tau [[Weeaboo]] (as much due to their Asian-ness as anything else) as a result.

[[Image:Tau fire warriors.jpg|490px|thumb|left|The [[Greater Good]]: translatable as [[Deal with it|"If you want to make an omelet, you gotta break some eggs."]]]]

And again in a case of much cultural confusion, the Tau are often considered [[Communism|communists]] (despite being a rigorous, hierarchical, near-eugenicist class society that would have Marx's spirit resurrect himself to commit suicide) due to their central philosophy of casting aside the self in favour of the Greater Good. This is partly because it's a nearly twenty year old meme by this point and memes that old are very stubborn about dying... and partly because we're a bunch of ignorant fucks. If anything the Tau more resemble the class system of Plato's ''Republic'' crossed with the caste system of India and [[Star_Trek#The_Federation|Star Trek's Federation]], and a little bit of facism as well (because they're the only ones in the entire galaxy who bother to try diplomacy with xenos rather than [[Exterminatus|exterminate]] them (partly because all but a few alien species are horrific space monsters that only a complete idiot would try to negotiate with)).

Even then, the Tau has more in common with the Imperium than the noblebright space hippie Feds; they adhere to a highly strict doctrine of eugenics, as [[Love Can Bloom|all forms of love, sex or breeding between different castes]] are, translated from Tau lexicon into Gothic, '''[[HERESY]]'''. The Tau also have an explicit merchant caste as well as a single unified currency (something the Imperium of Man only has in theory, [[Imperial Truth|much like everything else]]) along with a system of standardised wage labour which makes them actually more Capitalist than the still stuck in Feudal Economics Imperium. Contrast to the Craftworld Eldar whose society of post-scarcity voluntary labour actually is fully Communist, albeit there are still nobles entitled to bigger houses.

The Tau treat their member species with an unusual amount of autonomy and respect while also keeping them as second-class citizens with no say in the Tau government. There is no restriction on religion or cultural uniqueness so far as it doesn't interfere with the greater good: Humans may still worship the Emperor, Nicassar can continue exploring the universe and Kroot can continue to ingest the dead; so it's a pretty broad stroke of acceptability.

What is terrifying and an excellent twist on the Tau is that member races and the individual is kept from 'choice'. So if you suck, like you're just bad at everything, you're not going to be offed or turned into corpse starch. You are simply given a 1 bedroom apartment, universal healthcare, and a broom. And that's it. You don't get to be a hero, you don't get to rise above your worth, and this is all decided by an alien society. If you dare step outside of these boundaries, then you're given a couple chances. First you're sent to reeducation. Do it again and you might get some beneficial brain washing... and so on. But death? Certainly not, because what purpose would that serve?

To double the weebiness but to greatly decrease the communism connection, the Tau are remarkably similar to war-time era Imperial Japan. Not in terms of military doctrine but in terms of its geopolitics. Like Imperial Japan they're a young power situated in the east, relatively far from most of their possible rivals' centres of power. Like Imperial Japan they have a seemingly nice enough doctrine in terms of rhetoric; "Greater Good" and "Co-Prosperity Sphere"; but in practice what it means is that they want to replace the old empires in the region with their own. Like Imperial Japan they're at a significant disadvantage in terms of production power compared to their most serious rivals in the region, and hope to compensate for that by tactical superiority and winning big decisive battles to topple the old powers.

To further solidify the connections to Japan in the early 20th century, the Tau Empire even borrows some terminology, such as "spheres" of expansion, a firm belief that despite their grotesque material inferiority to their primary enemies, the power of their ideals and their superior willpower shall overcome their enemies all, and a dogged insistence on picking fights it probably can't win. Imperial Japan knew that America alone had nearly twelve times the industrial power, with Britain having thrice Japan's military-industrial might, France just about matching theirs, and the Soviets having four times that: even China, despite being a wartorn barely functional shithole, could be a quagmire for it.

But Japan didn't give a shit because they thought that they were so awesome they could somehow get all these people to surrender through a combination of being better at war than their soft, mewling enemies and that they simply believed in their destiny to rule the waves more than anyone else did. Much like how the Tau are fully aware that the Imperium, the Orks, the Necrons, and the Tyranids could all squash them flat in a stand up fight, but believe this is immaterial because their belief in the Greater Good shall overcome all and that they have mastered the ways of war while their foes are mired in ignorance. Although, the lore mostly depicts the Tau, including their leadership, as utterly unaware of anywhere remotely near how horribly outmatched the Tau really are. It says a lot about the major factions that the Tau have glimpsed only a tiny fraction of their enemies' power, believe that is the whole of said power, and believe they are tremendously outmatched but will be victorious due to Manifest Destiny. Ignorant of the true power they face.

What is for sure though is that whatever part of the political spectrum they'd fall on (probably wherever you'd put Imperial Japan during world war two), the Tau government is mainly oligarchical, with the vast majority of political power concentrated in the Ethereal caste.

This is further driven home by the fact there is a Tau splinter faction led by one of their two best generals alive, Commander [[Farsight]] of the Farsight Enclaves, whose government is a non-caste society devoid of ethereals, making it a meritocratic semi-democracy. The problem is, depending on who you ask Farsight may be either a hero in self-imposed exile or a single-minded military dictator, much the way Optimus Prime is sometimes depicted. Farsight's government is [[RAGE|NOT recognized by the Tau Empire]], who have finally gotten around to dispatching a fleet to silence them. We still have yet to see the outcome of this fleet dispatch, though (in all likelihood, no force was ever sent, because Tau don't kill each other and because Farsight is useful enough where he is, even if he's in rebellion).

Of course, the Farsight Enclaves are a fan favorite. The books he's featured in portray Farsight more as a guy that is incredibly depressed about his own mistakes and thinks that the Tau Empire is too inclusive and needs to learn how to grimdark better.

However, the new codex has HEAVILY downplayed Tau naiveté, bringing back the original codex mention that the Ethereals have officially declared some species "[[Exterminatus|lost causes]]" and that the [[Greater Good]] demands they be killed to the last.

*[[Orks]] were the first of the big players of 40k to get this treatment. They pretty much were the only serious competition Tau had before they discovered the Imperium, and it only took them a few weeks of study to realize the fact that Orks are beyond reason or sanity. They do still employ them as mercenaries in small numbers, and the Water Caste considers the Orks one of their biggest failures.

*[[Tyranids]] unsurprisingly ended up on "shoot on sight" list pretty much after the first contact. Unlike the Orks, the Tau have experienced the full and unadulterated rape train that is a Hive Fleet in the form of Gorgon which took a bite out of their Empire (lost something like 10% of it) as well as an ally species called the Ulumeathic League who might be completely wiped out.

*[[Eldar]] briefly were on the list too, owning this to the first contact being made by the Drukhari, and not just any, but [[Urien Rakarth]] himself. Eventually the Craftword Eldar intervened, and the Tau realized that not all space-elves are insane rapists. Although the Tau ended up accidentally destroying a Maiden World, likely making permanent enemies of Saim Hann in the process, they also had some positive dealings with Lugganath to finish off Hive Fleet Gorgon. Interestingly, the Dark Eldar were supposed to be the original nemesis of the Tau when they were originally released.

*[[Space Marines]] were introduced to the Tau during the Damocles wars. Marines represent an interesting case to the Tau because while it's possible to reason and even negotiate with them, Water caste psychoanalysts have determined that Astartes aren't ''people'' but merely ''weapons'' and as such have no place in Tau'Va.

To sum it up, the Tau Empire is still an expansionist empire prone to using military force, but far better than almost every other polity in the setting, as it permits others to exist with rather lenient standards, and isn't dedicated to the purposeful extinction of all other life in the galaxy. It should be noted that the Water Caste has turned more worlds to join the Empire then the Fire Caste. Technically, the Imperium does have protectorate species as well, but very few because most aliens are batshit insane, flat-out evil, or space monsters. Of which, almost all have been exterminated by the Imperium, which is probably why the Tau are so ignorant of what xenos are generally like. Talk about irony.

Additionally, you don't have to join the Empire to benefit from trade agreements and non-aggression pacts. For example, the Demiurge traded ion-tech for refuge from the ever xenophobic Imperium, but there doesn't seem to be any indication they've actually 'joined' the Empire.

Regardless of who you are, if you join the Tau Empire they will genuinely try and do their best to take care of you because they think, in their hubris, that they know best.

Also, as a result of surviving attacks from the major factions in the galaxy yet being blissfully unaware that those were merely tiny brushes or stragglers of vastly larger forces, the Tau believe they have proven they can truly hold their own in the galaxy against all the major players. As of Eighth Edition they were corrected quite painfully due to the opening of the Great Rift and the loss of most of their Fourth Sphere Expansion forces to a Warp rift, and following a massive Chaos invasion they have been forced to face the possibility that their empire might have bitten off more than it can chew.

==Military Doctrine==
[[Image:TauTyr2.jpg|right|500px|thumb|Close-quarters painting [[Drawfag|strikes again.]] (What a badass Hammerhead pilot)]]
The Tau military is basically the cherished love child of the United States military and its Japanese anime waifu.

The Tau disdain [[Choppy|melee]] [[Rip and tear|combat]] in favour of [[Shooty|ranged combat]], which renders them instantaneously [[Matt Ward|less manly]] in the eyes of most of /tg/'s playerbase. The reasons behind this are complicated. Generally, Tau see hand to hand combat in warfare as an anachronism, which makes sense, considering their basic guns can rip apart tank side armour. In addition, the Tau's body is adapted for flying — prehistoric Tau had gliding flaps like flying squirrels — thus compared to almost all other major races Tau have less muscle strength (heck, less body mass in general), have lower reaction speed, and are hyperopic/farsighted. In their initial design it was said in their first White Dwarf that they are a race that adopted the bow and arrow rather than how humanity adopted the sword.

That said, Tau do practice martial arts - Fire Warrior trials and rites involve knives. Ethereals have a tradition of fighting non-lethal duels to settle disputes, using sharp bladed weapons no less, so they are often quite good with their fighting style, as [[Aun'Shi]] has shown to some unfortunate Orks (keep in mind Aun'shi trained against Shas'Vre to get that good). And although the average Tau is indeed slightly weaker than an average human, they're still close enough to be Strength 3 just like Imperial Guardsmen. It's just that close combat is not their strong suit and they would rather fall back on guns than blades.

The Tau practice economy of force, which has consequences both on and off the battlefield. Sending excessive amounts of force at a target is wasteful, as the excess firepower would be more useful elsewhere. This is also an economic matter, as lower power units are cheaper and the Tau do not have an infinite supply of the rare materials needed to produce the strongest Battlesuits.

The Tau's superior [[Dakka|firepower]] is similar to that of the [[Imperial Guard]], but their strategy is much different, with an emphasis on tactical precision, mobility, the application of technology, and the initiative of individual units. Their military doctrine is not based on winning by attrition, not just because they disdain it but also because they simply can't afford it. Well, hey CAN afford it, but they cannot afford both attrition warfare and high standard of living that sells their Greater Good ideology. Therefore they take great pains to avoid the bloody epic clusterfucks that characterize the style of warfare that is preferred by other factions such as the Imperium and Orks. In short, Tau use modern warfare tactics and strategies in a universe where everyone else fights like it's WW2.

Rather, they use infiltration and their sophisticated battlesuits to [[Anal Circumference|bypass enemy strong points and launch deep into their rear]], cutting supply lines and logistics, destroying headquarters and support units, leaving enemies cut off and functionally helpless. There are numerous examples of Tau literally starving and/or thirsting entire armies to death by cutting out their supply lines, while simultaneously harassing them with night raids, ambushes and air strikes to the point the survivors are leaderless, demoralized, out of ammo and fuel, and can barely stand due to exhaustion. The [[Imperial_Armour_Volume_Three:_The_Taros_Campaign#Volume_Three_-_The_Taros_Campaign|Taros]] campaign is a prime example of these tactics (and of the Imperium's strategic stupidity).

Of course, these kinds of tactics only work fine against more convenient armies like the Imperial Guard or Orks. When it comes to Space Marines and Eldar, who sport mostly aerial/warp/webway supply lines, operate as elite armies without obvious weak spots to exploit, have similar or superior tactical mobility and badass officers that can survive most assassination attempts, Tau lose huge parts of their usual advantages (but get the numerical superiority in return). Against utterly unconventional foes, like Tyranids, Daemons or Necrons... well, all times they faced such foes, Tau either devised some entirely new strategies, or lost horribly.

[[File:TauTyr.jpg|thumb|left|300px|90% of Tau [[dakka]] comes in the form of [[Plasma|pretty blue lights.]]]]
The Tau, again, boast some of the most powerful ranged weaponry on the tabletop game, and can crank out more concentrated firepower than any other faction with the lone exceptions of the Imperial Guard and maybe the orks if you only count number of bullets in the air, and even then, the Tau's weapons hit quite a bit harder. They have pathetic hand-to-hand combat skills, however, and so the Tau bolster this by using several inducted races (the [[Kroot]], Vespid, and even some [[Gue'vesa|humans cut off from the Imperium during the Damocles Crusade]]) to act as buffers against assault troops to allow Tau Fire Warrior teams and their heavy, long-ranged firepower to tear enemies apart. The most pivotal, and perhaps most infamous, part of the Tau army are their [[Battlesuit|Battlesuits]], which can mount multiple heavy weapon systems and provide excellent mobility to their pilots, all on a fairly durable unit.

The Tau space navy is strong for its size, and Tau warships are quite powerful on a one-for-one basis. Tau air units are among the best in the game as well, with aircraft that are equal to and often superior to their Imperial Guard equivalents, including a stealth fighter, multipurpose heavy fighter, a superheavy fighter with guns that can one-shot a Titan, and their own [[Manta|Titan-equivalent]] (which is a small starship). Unlike the Imperium, they freely deploy flyers in very large numbers, with only Orks, Tyranids, and perhaps Necrons able to rival them in numbers when it's time to dogfight. Of course this is the way the Imperial fleets' atmospheric support craft are ''supposed'' to work too if fleet officers weren't a bunch of assholes who do everything they can to provide as little air support as possible.

On defense, the Tau are a bit unusual: they leave only token garrisons at their colonies to protect them. These garrisons are intended for scouting rather than combat, avoiding engagement in order to observe and report on invaders using Pathfinders, scanning towers, and drones. Because the Tau have fairly powerful spacefleets and usually keep their forces within reasoned distance of potential hotspots, any potential threat can be quickly dealt with by organizing a hunter cadre to be sent to deal with the situation. For those of you who don't get it, it's Frederick the Great's "he who tries to protect everything protects nothing" strategy.

Of course, this strategy means Tau must have some worlds actually being heavily defended - and in fact they do. Sept worlds tend to be guarded by some nasty space stations and garrisoned by large numbers of hunter cadres and auxiliary troops. This allows such worlds to act as major defensive nodes from which response fleets can be dispatched and to which evacuation fleets rally (think feudal Japan style castles from which commanders would send trained garrisons out to protect the lands around it from encroaching armies). In case some really scary shit like an Imperial crusade or a Tyranid hive-fleet comes into the sept, it is on the sept world where the decisive battle is fought (See the First Damocles Crusade for an example of this tactic in action).

This has, however, backfired on occasion, since it does mean that the Tau garrisons are very vulnerable in the initial stages of an attack. It also makes them very vulnerable to Orphean War style rapid assaults where the attacker is advancing so quickly the defender doesn't even have time to relay the news that they're under attack to the rest of their army. While the Tau haven't yet faced something like the Maynarkh Dynasty, they are awfully close to the Sautekh Dynasty and Imotekh is a noted cantankerous asshole and egotistical conqueror.

A distinct advantage the Tau have is their willingness to change military strategy without ego. As examples, look at how they changed tactics in reaction to the [[Damocles Crusade]] by the Imperium of Man, and even built an entirely new space fleet to match humans in straight-on space fights, or their unusual but effective choice of switching to older weapons when dealing with [[Hive Fleet Gorgon]].

==Fleet==
[[File:Tau_Map.JPG|500pc|right|thumb|The Domain of the Weebs.]]

In the old fluff, the T'au used to have equip their ships with reverse-engineered warp drives from an unknown faction that crashed a starship on one of their home world's moons. Using their gravitic wave technology (think a sail) they used this to skim the surface of the warp before bouncing back to the Materium after a short while (1/3 the speed of optimal Imperial warp drives).

New fluff, on the other hand, has retconned that by giving them what is called a "slingshot drive" or "skip drive." From what little fluff we have on it, it looks like the reality-based theoretical warp drive (in the modern physics meaning, i.e. the Alcubierre bubble). The practical applications, however, are the same in both new and old fluff - Tau FTL is much slower than the Imperium's, but is predictable, reliable, and not affected by warp storms (a big deal, given Tau spent half of their history inside one). As a result, Tau are capable of building highly reliable interstellar logistics lines over short distances, but their strategic mobility is... lacking, to say the least. Compared to pretty much every other faction the Tau move at an absolute snail's pace, hence the reason why their worlds are so tightly packed together. Of course, if the slingshot drive was THE best way to travel normally without the Warp and to avoid Warp phenomena, the radically more advanced Dark Age Humanity would have slapped the drives on every type of ship they had. They didn't, which implies that this technology is a dead end, a stopgap solution at best.

Additionally, slingshot drives are rather big, heavy, and power-hungry, even compared to the Warp drive (which itself can constitute 1/3 the volume of an Imperial ship). As a result, escort-class Tau spacecraft are built without FTL drives and are hooked to bigger ships for the purpose of interstellar travel, which basically make them equivalents of the Imperium's system monitor ships, with the same benefits (cheap, compact, fast, powerful and durable for their size) without their major downside (being incapable of FTL flight). Tau FTL limitations mean that they have to be more precise in how they concentrate their forces; they can't throw a bunch of ships into a warzone from halfway across the galaxy as Orks and humans can.
Tau empire have two fleets:
*Kor'Vatra, or "merchant fleet", is made of older modular ships that double as merchant and colony vessels (hence the name). One of their main shticks is huge arcs of fire for most gun batteries, with side batteries easily covering front arc, and nose batteries covering all but the stern - as a result, while Kor'vatra Ships may not have as much firepower as Imperial or Ork ones, they can focus more of it on one target. On the flip side, merchant ships while decently fast at sub-light, are not very agile, and must rely on escort wings and auxiliary fleets against more maneuverable foes. Even after the founding of Kor'Or'Vesh, the Kor'Vatra still see a lot of military use, especially against the Imperium, <i>precisely</i> because it's regarded as a non-military fleet. This is so Tau diplomats could tell their Imperial colleagues, "What battle cruisers on your orbit are you talking about? It's just our merchant vessels, moving goods to and from our trade missions."
*Kor'Or'Vesh, or "combat fleet" is a newer fleet, made for battling the Imperium's fleet in straight up combat, after Kor'Vatra got run over during the Damocles crusade. Made out of more compact, maneuverable and better armored ships, it may lack Kor'Vatra's wide arcs of fire, but is superior in every other regard, and as the Taros and second Damocles campaigns showed, it is more than capable of fighting off humans even if outnumbered.
Both fleets use largely the same technologies: railguns as short-range (by Tau standards), high-damage gun batteries; ion cannons as long-range beams (lance equivalent); and, above all, powerful small-craft ordnance (second only to Eldar and available in far greater numbers). Mantas, Barracudas, and EMP drone-torpedoes reign supreme at extreme ranges, gaining the Tau navy the same reputation their ground armies have. Because their small-craft ordnance is so powerful, most Tau ships tend more towards carrier and torpedo boat archetypes than battleships, and suffer horribly if an enemy comes within macro-cannon or boarding range (note the "if"). Technically, Imperial warships are, as they are when compared to most other factions, far superior. The problem for the Imperium is, like always, those warships are very rare, built in tiny numbers, and never around when you need them.

==Non-combat Fluff==
[[File:Tau city.jpg|450px|thumb|right|Contrary to what [[Imperium of Man|some]] believe, what this picture shows might just be the future for the entire galaxy if the Tau [[Great Crusade|get their way.]]]]
The Tau were a new race/culture found by the Imperium of Man during their "slash and burn" exploration of their galactic neighborhood. The Tau were still pastoral, had just discovered flint tools and charcoal, and the Imperium had them scheduled for "[[Grimdark|routine cleansing]]" (Low Gothic for “ruthless genocide”) and make room for colonization. Needless to say, that plan was promptly [[derp|fucked up]]. By an unfortunate (or fortunate, depending on your viewpoint) coincidence which almost certainly involved the dickery of [[Tzeentch]] or [[Cegorach]] or [[The Deceiver|something]], warp storms started hitting the entire galaxy, right around the rise of Vandire, which occluded the Tau homeworld, so nobody could get in or out. Since the Tau were virtually invisible in the warp, the warp storm didn't have much of an effect on them as they were immune to the influences of Chaos.

[[FAIL|The sector was labeled "lost to Chaos,"]] and cleansing was [[What|deferred indefinitely]]. Then [[Age of Apostasy|this shit]] happened, and almost all records about Tau were lost in the ensuring [[Rape|clusterfuck]] of civil war. Only the Adeptus Mechanicus still had records of this first contact when the storm died down 6,000 years later. By then, the Tau had expanded to fill out the 'Cluster', colonizing hundreds of planets and incorporating dozens of alien races. They were put back on the radar when the Imperium found out their border worlds Kleist and Garrus, and probably a bunch of others, changed sides and gave up on Terra.

The Damocles Crusade was launched. The extermination order still stood—it was just going to be much more difficult than the Imperium expected, seeing as the Tau, instead of [[C.S. Goto|throwing spears and rocks at their tanks]] and Space Marines, were now throwing [[ion cannon|ion charges]], <s>[[plasma|plasma blasts]]</s> particle accelerators (pulse rifles), and [[railgun|electromagnetically-accelerated hypervelocity projectiles]] at their tanks and Space Marines.

Tau history is pretty typical up through the iron-age: a knack for engineering, warfare between "urban" farmers and "barbarian" nomads, and unrestrained growth causing a series of plagues, leading to a dark age. Here's where things go sideways, though the Tau see it as the start of their endless Golden Age: the arrival of the Ethereals. Legend tells of a five-year siege at the castle of Fio'taun, with both sides starving and succumbing to disease, when two foreign Tau entered the battlefield. One went to the castle, the other to the barbarian tribes. Each of these Tau had a quiet grace and irresistible authority. In just a few hours, the castle was persuaded to open their gates, and the barbarians laid down their weapons, and both parties met to parley a truce.

These strange Tau called themselves "Ethereals," and stressed the importance of peace and understanding between all Tau. They described a "Greater Good" that each Tau must strive towards. Soon after, soon enough to seem simultaneous, more of these strange new Tau emerged across the continent with their message of peace and co-operation for all Tau. Their quiet authority was always respected, and their message of harmony was universally embraced. Wait a minute, [[God-Emperor of Mankind|I've seen this]] [[Great Crusade|historical pattern before]]....

Perhaps uniquely for the setting, Tau-human interactions bear the whiff of realpolitik. On the one hand, the Imperium wants to exterminate them ''eventually'', but the upper management generally realizes that the Tau are going to be a giant drain of resources and manpower to get rid of, given the stiff resistance they put up in [[Damocles Crusade|previous campaigns]] and their [[Riptide|uniformly]] [[railgun|advanced]] [[battlesuit|technology]]. Furthermore, they serve as a useful buffer state against various threats on the Eastern Fringe, from Orks and Chaos raiders to Tyranid hive fleets to alien forces the Imperium hasn't had (recorded) contact with. Their existence deflects danger from Imperial space, and in a place and time when the Imperium is [[Time of Ending|coming under attack from all sides]], that's more important than dogma.

This strategy is not unique to the Tau only though, as the Imperium allows countless other (much more dangerous) xeno empires to prosper in the Eastern Fringe to serve as an ablative shield against much nastier shit. Amongst those is (for example) the Charadon ork empire, which is older than the Imperium and spawns a Waaagh! once or twice per millennium (even with the routine warboss assasination raids that the Ultramarines make). Even after the emergence of the genius warboss Snagrod and his Waagh on Rynn no one cared to issue a crusade against them. So yeah, the Tau Empire is not even close to being recognized as a threat dangerous enough to actually do something about.

Conversely, the Tau have realized just how massive an undertaking expanding through the entire galaxy would really be, and are taking it slow. They mostly absorb Imperial buffer worlds stripped of manpower and armament in the face of massive redeployments to face other threats, offering the Empire's protection in return for annexation. When this doesn't work, the Tau outright conquer the places that don't take the deal. The Tau have claimed that they are engaging in this sort of aggressive behavior because ''someone's'' going to [[Tyranids|gobble]] those settlements up sooner or later, and if ''they'' don't do it, then whoever does won't be [[Exterminatus|nearly as nice about it]]. While baldly self-serving, that logic is... well, mostly correct, really.

There's no love lost between the Imperium and the Tau, but open full-scale war is probably unlikely in the near-future after the stalemate of the Second Damocles Crusade and the veritable host of far greater existential threats that the Imperium is currently facing.

Looking at the new galactic map, where the Tau are now sandwiched between their own eye of terror and a Necron dynasty, they are soon to be fucked...<s>Maybe...</s> And lo and behold, they done got buttfucked by the Death Guard! But it's not all bad as they've found a cure for 1st generation Genestealer infections and they've finally broken out of their nook with the 5th Sphere; one of their biggest fears was being stuck in a globular cluster because one super nova could still put the kibosh on the whole thing.

However things turn out, as they continue to expand the Tau will inevitably see renewed clashes with the factions arrayed against them.

=== Castes ===
[[File:Commander HawkEye.jpg|thumb|290px|right|<s>Join the Greater Good, lose your virginity to a hot alien babe!</s> Non-approved sexual contact is an offence to the Greater Good, Gue'la. Now get back to work or you won't get your overtime pay! TAU GET OVERTIME PA{{BLAM}}{{BLAM|Asking questions is heresy!}} <span style='color:blue;font-size:115%;font-family:serif'>*PEW* You are an affront to the Greater Good, gue'ui.</span>]]
Tau society after the arrival of Ethereals was organized into castes; everyone with a place, and a place for everyone. [[Love Can Bloom|Interbreeding between castes and Xenos races]] is one of the most severe crimes in the Empire, in other words, [[Heresy]]. This was outlawed by the [[Ethereal]]s presumably to preserve the biological differences between castes; the result is the creation of 5 sub-species. Tau society does have many examples of romance, and there are designations of 'pair' bonding at least amongst the Earth Caste. The Tau have children which they both raise and also send to the creches but they seem to monitor birth rates (likely to match resource levels as well as provide an additional level of social engineering).

There also seems to be a tribal system that remains from pre-Caste days that we don't know too much about. We know that bloodlines have some kind of importance, but as a meritocracy, it does not have a bearing on social constraints. They also can have relatively large families, Shadowsun had three sisters for example.

Breeding is managed by the Earth Caste, but, there is at least one instance where a pair-bond has their own child, so perhaps there is a degree of choice ''(if real caste systems are any guide, the Earth Caste probably only cares about the castes and septs the pair come from)''. Otherwise, Tau are paired in a way that will create the best biological result. An Imperial genetor's report in the fourth edition Tau codex observes the presence of synthetic proteins in Tau internal organs and suggests them as evidence that their evolution has been accelerated, though he might have been confused by synthetic proteins that the Tau were given as the Tau make extensive use of things like advanced medicines and treatments. [[/tg/]] seems to be under the strong impression that they are mammals, as you can see in the picture further down the page, despite the complete implausibility of this theory. The frequent [[/d/|sexualization]] of the Tau by fa/tg/uys remains a mystery.

It is very important to note that a Tau's caste is inherited from the parents, and under no circumstances can a Tau's caste be changed. On one hand, this helps explain why Tau forbid inter-caste mating. On the other, it means that the Caste system applies ''only'' to the Tau themselves. Aliens have no caste to inherit, and thus can never be inducted into a Tau caste. This remains true no matter how many generations pass. Therefore, while aliens within the Tau Empire are certainly able to rise to positions that hold great responsibility and respect while living lives of relative freedom, they will forever remain outside the caste system. And because the caste system inherently favors the Tau, it is an ugly little secret of the Empire that for all their talk of equality, aliens remain somewhat second-class citizens compared to the Tau themselves. Obviously, the Tau don't care to discuss such topics.

==== {{anchor|Fire|Fire Caste}} Shas (Fire) ====
The '''Fire Caste''' consists of the various [[Fire Warrior|warriors]] of the Tau Empire. The miniatures of a Tau army in a [[Warhammer 40,000]] game are almost exclusively Fire Caste. Other castes think Shas are overly-aggressive hotheads due to their tendency to solve all problems by applying more plasma (when the Tau first encountered other sentient species, Fire Caste representatives immediately voted to hunt down and exterminate them, just like they hunted down dangerous local life forms on the other world they colonized). Whether or not Fire Caste members are ''actually'' "overly aggressive" compared to other [[Wyches|kinky]], [[Haemonculus|horrid]], [[World_Eaters|Earthshatteringly mad]], [[Night_Lords|batshit insane]], [[Blood Angels|bloodthirsty]] individuals and groups is a matter of debate. On the other hand, it also shows how calm and disciplined other castes are as well as the importance of the balance that the Ethereals bring to the Tau.

Fire Caste are taller than Earth Caste Tau, and physically stronger than the Air and Water Castes, though they are slightly shorter than the average 40k human.

==== {{anchor|Earth|Earth Caste}} Fio (Earth) ====
The '''Earth Caste''' are the laborers and engineers; they are the "civilians" of Tau society. Their appearance can vary widely, though other Tau would describe them as "plain." They all have a stoic outlook, with little ambition other than to excel in their career of choice and work for the Greater Good. Unlike the Imperial worker classes, whose quality of life generally ''starts'' at working 14-hour days seven days a week while living off of dried recycled dung chips and goes [[Such is life on Volg|''downhill from there'']], the Earth caste is mostly concerned with technological planning and engineering as well as artwork which they incorporate into their creations. They are also scientists and work hand in hand with the Water Caste to develop new technologies (like the rail rifle).

The Farsight Enclaves field some Earth Caste pilots for their battlesuits, demonstrating their more flexible caste systems and/or their desperation for manpower but there are examples of Earth Caste work teams being able to defend themselves in a pinch.

==== {{anchor|Air|Air Caste}} Kor (Air) ====
The '''Air Caste''' are the aerospace specialists of the Tau. In more primitive times they served as messengers and couriers, and sometimes scouts/explorers, gliding on membranous anatomical wings like flying squirrels through T'au's atmosphere (although this might be a myth). When the Tau started exploring offworld, it was the Air Caste that took charge of the vessels traveling between the stars and became tall with super frail physiques due to zero-g living. Now the Air Caste are the Tau stellar navy/airforce/mailmen, piloting the Empire's various carriers, warships, and emissary cruisers. Air caste Tau tend to be tall and slender like runners or dancers, and this is frequently exaggerated by the years the Tau navy spends in low-gravity.

Despite their slender stature and lack of muscle mass, Air caste pilots are extremely resistant to G-force, making them excellent void and atmospheric fighter pilots (simultaneously, as small Tau voidcraft also double as atmospheric craft). They also, clearly, have engineer and military classes as they live in Air Caste cities made up of their own population; going to show that Castes have multiple cross overs for responsibilities rather than anything as rigid as the Farsight books describe.

==== {{anchor|Water|Water Caste}} Por (Water) ====
The '''Water Caste''' are the emissaries of the Tau. They are diplomats, merchants, and civil servants. The most open-minded Tau can be found among the Water caste, with some even showing individual ambition (but still for the greater good of the Tau Empire). When a new culture is encountered, the Water caste are sent in first to negotiate. If talks break down, the Water caste are withdrawn so that the Fire Caste can start negotiating with pulse weapon fire. Also, unlike their Imperial equivalents in bureaucracy, the [[Administratum]], they are brisk, efficient, and very good at their jobs. No dumping valuable ammo on an uninhabited dust world because no one signed the paperwork not to.

It's a lesser known fact that Pors also run the Tau intelligence and espionage network, and Por'Os and Por'Els from this branch are pretty much Tau Inquisitors except more competent, much saner, and not nearly as good at kicking asses personally. As of the second Damocles Crusade the Imperium has designated the Water caste as a primary threat above any other Tau caste. This is because the Water caste's skill in subterfuge, diplomacy and propaganda has cost the Imperium more worlds and manpower than the Fire and Air caste's military prowess combined. They even managed to totally outplay the Inquisition on its own field, which royally pissed them off, even turning an Inquisitor (O'Va'Dem) to their side, as seen in the novel ''Broken Sword''.

The Air Caste also do a quite a lot of things like leading exploration initiatives like the one that discovered the Kroot empire as it was getting rickrolled by the Orks, and fought for their liberation for 12 years.

==== {{anchor|Ethereal|Ethereal Caste}} Aun (Ethereal) ====
The '''Ethereal Caste''' are basically the philosopher-kings described by Plato in "The Republic". In theory, they are selfless and always focused on what is best for the Greater Good ("Tau'va") for all Tau without exception. The Ethereals are inspirational to all Tau caste members, and merely being near one will inspire a Tau soldier, engineer, pilot, or diplomat to work harder.

In the case of the Fire Caste, some Ethereals accompany hunter cadres in battle during important deployments so as to better lead/inspire the troops, which works because all Tau in the combat zone will fight to their bitter deaths. They also seem to have semi-magical powers (don't ask how they work, none of the Tau know themselves) that allow Tau around them to do special things, like running while shooting. The [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] theorizes that the respect the Ethereal Caste gets from all other Tau is caused by a pheromone. <b>ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTAU......</b>. The Tau laugh at this suggestion, of course.
Also, ''[[Xenology]]'' relates a story from a major, insectoid race called the [[Q'Orl]] which alleges that the [[Eldar]] stole one of their queens. Given that these queens have a magic, yellow, diamond-shaped sack that produces mind-control pheromone... well, let's just say the characters in the story figure it out quickly enough. There is a theory that the Ethereals themselves are also affected by their own pheromones, which could explain why they're so selfless and uncorrupted despite their absolute power (although being uncorrupted no longer seems to apply after 7th/8th edition).

This can also be supported by the (old as fuck and likely retconned) novelization of [[Warhammer_40,000:_Fire_Warrior|Fire Warrior]], where the Ethereal character has a pretty level head and chipper demeanor despite having been [[Anal_Circumference|repeatedly captured and tortured by both the Inquisition and Chaos, watching his diplomatic retinue chopped up by a Chaos Lord, and mind-raped by said Chaos Lord all in the span of roughly two days.]] Either he's a stoic old motherfucker, or he's just too busy tripping his blue balls on his own pheromones to give a shit.

8th ed has a particularly interesting story in it and it proves without a shadow of a doubt: the Ethereal caste does use some kind of mind-altering substance or influence on the Tau. During a meeting with Commander O'Ryn and Aun'Va (who is a solid hologram controlled by an AI at this point) in the planet of Junica, their location was ambushed by Chaos forces and Aun'Va (or the AI acting like Aun'Va) ordered O'Ryn to send her forces on what's essentially a suicide mission. O'Ryn, not seeing the point of throwing her and her soldiers' lives at such a hopeless battle, actually ''defied'' the command of an ethereal (and the space pope himself, no less) and retreated. It could've been an interesting and pretty terrifying critique of how manipulative a totalitarian system can be and that the Ethereals don't shy away from anything to keep the people in line. But no, it was explained with mind control, which is way lazier and honestly way less terrifying (that's because Phil Kelly wrote it). Yet, then there is another example of Aun'shi who hides his ridge crest so that none of the other Tau know he's an Ethereal.

You pick which is more likely- clearly GW can't.

O'Ryn was eventually declared a renegade and Farsight took her in, but it does indeed prove that the unflinching and unquestioning loyalty and fanaticism that the Ethereals' physical presence inspire on nearby Tau aren't due to their charisma or the Tau's indoctrination, and instead on something more sinister. To put this into perspective: O'Ryn has been the first Tau since Farsight to actively defy an ethereal's command and the main reason she was able to do so was because she was speaking to an AI-controlled drone, instead of the actual space pope.

...so it doesn't matter.

Additionally, in the novel Farsight: Crisis of Faith by Phil Kelly (detailing the Farsight Expedition) not only is a Tau Water Caste Magister possessed by a daemon of Tzeentch (which is bullshit), but the Magister is then banished [[Mary Sue|by Farsight carving a bloody hexagram into its chest with his bonding knife]] (Imperium Hexagrammic Wards don't even work that way, but fuck other writers, am I right phil?). Aun'Va uses mind control to have the Magister's superior kill herself. Why? Because he'd dared to say the truth out loud, that the Ethereals were eager to send Farsight off to Damocles so that the immensely popular golden boy won't become a challenge to their rule back home. The ambassador went to her death thinking the ever reasonable Ethereals would let her off with a slap on the wrist for what was basically a breach of etiquette, instead she was dominated into committing suicide for ''being the mentor of someone who'd cast the tiniest bit of doubt on Ethereal motives''.

...Which begs the question, "Why?" Why would the Ethereals care about revealing the truth about Daemons when the Tau have been fighting Daemons for hundreds of years? They don't have religion, they don't feed the Warp, daemons should have nothing to fuck-do with the Tau except as a speed bump to somewhere-else-ville. This replay of the Emperor's rule book is just more lazy writing.

Farsight originally lost his Ethereals and kept going because he though he knew better than them and because he was still butthurt from Arkunasha. He's guilty of believing he knows what is best for his fellow renegades, and he's probably not wrong... so he stays out beyond the Gulf so that he can continue the fight.

===Tau Names===
[[File:Tau_Lexicon_2015_ver.1.0.pdf|right|thumb|250px|A fanmade document that dives a little into Tau lexicon]]
Tau have ridiculously long, detailed and actually meaningful names. Their names contain their caste, rank, birth sept, and one or more nicknames earned by them through the course of their lives. Fluff does say that they ''do'' have birth names, but those are only used before tau earn at least one appropriate nickname, as a name given to them by comrades is considered more valuable than one just chosen by random at their birth. The nickname part and its importance surprisingly is actually taken from the Roman culture, which is weird, given most Tau culture tend to be based on China and Japan (except for their social and government structures which are copied almost verbatim from Plato's Republic).

Also, do note the lack of last names, which is expected, since Tau society pretty much have no institute of a family, with children being raised in centralized facilities apart from their parents. As a Tau grows, moves through ranks and achieves the respect of their comrades their name changes appropriately, switching the rank part, adding new nicknames and sometimes dropping the old and outdated ones. For example, when Farsight was still a lowly fire warrior, his name was '''Shas'La Vior'La Shoh''' (Fire Caste Private of the Hot-Blooded sept Inner Light), and at the "present days" '''Shas'O Vior'La Shovah Kais Mont'yr''' (Fire Caste Commander of the Hot-Blooded sept Farsight Skillful Blooded). How the fuck Tau bureaucracy is able to keep track of their population with their names constantly changing is a mystery, but it seems they have no problem with that, probably because they just track ID numbers when names are too much of an issue like most sane people who work with databases.

For the sake of convenience Tau often use shortened versions of names, almost always dropping the sept part and secondary nicknames, and if speaking within one caste the caste part too, so in the case of Farsight other fire warriors could refer to him as O'Shovah, while for example an Ethereal would call him Shas'O'Shovah (assuming Farsight allows this; given his seething hatred of Ethereals he's the type who'd force them to use his full name out of spite). Humans and other non-Tau often get this system wrong and shorten the names in a ways that make little sense: for example, Imperium's Taros invasion force thought the Taros' chief Ethereal's name was Aun'El, which was only his caste and rank, and as the book was mostly written from the Imperium's standpoint, we still don't know what his actual name was.

One final stroke of Tau naming is that as they abandon their true (birth) names it makes them even more resistant to sorcery and daemonic powers that often require the target's true name to amplify their effect or even make the spell work at all.

===Psychic/Chaos Defenses===
Tau as a species are comprised of psychic blunts. They cannot produce psykers and have limited innate resistance to some forms of psychic powers and daemonic bullshit. People often mistake this resistance to outright invulnerability, but in truth it's more akin to camouflage. Tau DO have souls, but their souls cast such a dim light in the Warp that they are, at best, indistinguishable from the spirits of non-sapients, and at times they even blend into the psychic background of inanimate objects. This may have something to do with how unemotional Tau are, as some of the more descriptive bits of fluff demonstrate how warp shenanigans like faint whispers and creeping feelings of "wrongness" may cause humans to freak out and try to run away immediately, the more calm and collected Tau don't notice anything strange at all. Likewise, if a psyker tries to mind-rape a Tau or a daemon tries to posses a Tau they'd find it hard to find a soul to target at all, but in the unlikely event that they were somehow successful, there would be even less resistance than with regular humans. Sadly while this trait is often shown in the fluff, it does not affect Tau crunch in any way aside from their total lack of psykers.

This innate defense is further strengthened by the Greater Good philosophy deeply indoctrinated into each Tau from childhood and reinforced through the subtle control exerted by the Ethereals. Tau'Va is the antithesis of all the creeds of Chaos, which makes Tau all but immune to its temptations, and only two Tau have ever actually fallen to Chaos. The first was the Water Caste member Water Spider, who was possessed by a Daemon of Tzeentch - although, rather amusingly, the daemon forced Water Spider to become obsessed with the truth, something abhorrent to the Water Caste. The second was [[Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior|Shas'la Kais]]. Though Kais was untained in the video game adaptation, the much better novelization had Kais getting an assist from Khorne throughout his adventure, though he was permanently scarred by Khorne's influence and the conflict. [[Grimdark|This left him permanently insane and hospitalized, unable to meaningfully respond to his friends and environment]].) That being said, the Tau have only just been exposed to the more material horrors of the galaxy; should they become jaded and start losing faith in the Greater Good (as inferred with giving up on indoctrinating certain species), well, that would be an entirely different situation. Their allies, including the Kroot, have sometimes been known to go all-in with Chaos worship, although Tau seldom take culture from their allied races.

8th Ed is here, and has confirmed that the Tau aren't immune to Chaos, just rather difficult for Daemons to spot. When the Tau started the 4th Sphere Expansion with their new warp drives they didn't take a note from the Imperials' tech and failed to invent the [[Gellar Field]] too, meaning they were fully vulnerable to the Warp's denizens. The entire experience was hilarious. First was the unpredictability of their warp drives (known as "slipstream technology" to them) that caused most of their expeditionary fleet to be destroyed due to unleashing massive tears in the fabric of reality, [[lulz|while being broadcasted to the Tau sept worlds, causing the Ethereals to rapidly evacuate their bowels as they scramble to censor the event for the wider populace.]] Those that weren't immediately torn up by the warp rifts were sucked into the Warp where a vast majority was either destroyed after drifting in the more unsavory parts of the Warp or by the various daemons mucking about.

Contact was lost, but the Tau managed to find the survivors later, nestled into several worlds that were the original target for conquest. The Tau that survived, however, were acting weird. Some of them had clearly rejected the Greater Good, while some worshiped a voice that they claim to be the Greater Good itself (which may or may not be a warp entity), while some were outright driven insane. A disturbing trend about them was their total [[Imperium|xenophobia and brutality]]. Any non-Tau who wasn't driven off from the 4th Sphere colonies were murdered because [[Chaos God|something]] was telling the survivors that the auxiliaries were the reason for their loss and torment due to their more powerful connection to the Warp.

That being said, they're still hard for Daemons to see, considering that the Fourth Sphere dove into the Warp unprotected and "merely" got off with plain Chaos corruption when most people who try that shit critfail their [[anal circumference]] roll and either gets torn apart by daemon cocks or becomes [[Chaos Spawn|a Chaos spaaauuuughgghblblblbbl]].

Also, the 8E Daemons Codex does mention one Tau agri-world that was cut off from supplies, eventually succumbing to the native faith revering a certain "Rainfather" - [[Rotigus]] Rainfather, a notorious [[Great Unclean One]].

As always, any inconsistency on how the Tau are, or aren't, affected by Warp exposure is entirely GW's fault.

==Alliances==
[[File:Illus4.jpg|280px|right|thumb|Unfortunately for some [[Slaanesh|deviants]] [[Extra Heresy|and heretical elements on]] [[/tg/]]. [[Not as Planned|This is what an actual canon Tau Female looks like.]] No boobs, no curves, no ass, no redeeming qualities other than having a face of your grandmother and the nose of a mutilated vag. Know the alien. Hate the alien. Purge the alien. The Emperor Protects! <s>This is an Ethereal though, so the other castes should be fair game.</s>]]
{{MattWard}}

In 6th edition, Tau are notable for being one of two factions (the other being Imperial Guard) who can ally with anyone except for 'Nids. Yes, this includes [[Wat|both Chaos Space Marines and Chaos Daemons]].

Their current level of naïveté led to a few... ''interesting'' alliances, to say the least.

First off, Tau ''can'' ally with [[Ork]]s, even though fluff-wise they are viewed as enemies of the Greater Good to be purged wherever encountered. Smaller Ork warbands (mostly [[Blood Axes]]) frequently act as mercenaries, of course, so the Tau might use them in that capacity. Plus, there might be fluff changes coming up (most notably, it was rumored that the [[Gretchin Revolutionary Committee]] would return in the new Orks codex; they, of course, would get along quite well with the Tau).

They are also battle brothers with both the Space Marines and Eldar, which has caused a large amount of headscratching on /tg/. The Eldar make a modicum of sense; after all, the Eldar are well known for being expert manipulators. A Tau-Space Marine alliance, though, would be odd, to say the least, since Tau and Space Marines are always going at it in the [[fluff]]. Of course, a minor [[Space Marine Chapter|chapter]] could always find an alliance with the Tau, or even [[Heresy|join the Greater Good]], but that seems far-fetched at best. Old fluff from back in the 3rd edition codex tells a story of a Tau commander letting an Apothecary remove the progenoid glands from dead Marines, establishing that the Tau are honourable warriors in the minds of this particular chapter. It isn't too hard to guess that someone at GW felt that the battle brothers thing was a bit of a head-desk move, so they tried to fix it.

The weirdest part, though, is that Tau ''aren't'' Battle Brothers with the Imperial Guard, despite (or maybe because of) the existence of [[Gue'vesa]] (Imperial Guard defectors).

7th edition corrected all of this for the Tau, making them only battle brothers with themselves and certain allies of convenience, like Necrons and the Eldar, while the rest are desperate allies or, in the case of daemons and 'Nids, Come the Apocalypse. This effectively "fixes" the issue from the point of view of a butthurt puritan while still allowing for those who bought Tau models to include them as allies in their games.

8th edition totally destroyed any chance of Tau having allies in matched play games. Taudar is dead, thank fuck. It's almost like going around attacking everyone who refuses your offer of pseudo-enslavement is a bad way to make friends.

==Tau Member Races==
[[File:Dynamic entry by majesticchicken.jpg|right|thumb|550px|Look up fuckers! You're invited to the latest imperial party and we're not taking "no" for an answer!]]
The Tau are the only faction that willingly accept other races into their ranks. Typically, the races are extended a hand from the Water Caste first, and if they still pose a problem or otherwise refuse to be reasoned with, the Fire Warriors are sent in. It should be noted that tau usually are not in haste of annexing the world, and if the aliens don't want to join right now but aren't immediately hostile and open to trade, Water Caste would slowly but surely convert them into a Greater Good to the point that one day they themselves would ask to join the Empire. The species, when annexed or conquered, are usually allowed to keep their planet, but must answer to the authority of the local Ethereal and possibly the local Shas'o. Most of them are fluff and don't show up on the tabletop, but it would get a little ridiculous if you could purport to play a 'single' 40k race that included, like, twelve different races. Though These do make good excuses if you want to use different models as a proxy.

* Demiurg - <s>[[Squats]] reborn.</s> <s>NOT ANYMORE the Squats are back and not Demiurg at all!</s> They might have been retconned into being part of the [[Leagues of Votann|new Squats]], it's still unclear. They are a race of space-faring miners specializing in ionic weaponry who serve the Tau with their engineering and mining abilities. They make an appearance in Battlefleet Gothic: Armada though, so that's nice.
* Galgs - NOT FROG/TOAD people, big internet snafu here. They have tentacles and chose not to fight the Tau when they realized they'd get steamrolled by the Fire Caste.
* [[Gue'vesa]] - Humans who have not only defected to the Tau, but chosen to take up arms and fight alongside them to serve the Greater Good. Rules for them are found in [[Forge World|Forge World's]] Imperial Armour Volume 3. (If the current trend goes on we may see Sisters join up with the Tau, <s>which might be an improvement for the Sisters.)</s>{{BLAM}}{{BLAM|HERESY!}} They also have planets with generations of humans that have never known the Imperium.
* Hrenian - Alien mercenaries employed for their skills as light infantry. No other information available. Probably [[Lizardmen#Skinks|Skinks]] In Space.
* Ji'atrix - A spacefaring race. No other information available. (Dammit, GW [[Writefag|writefags]].)
* [[Kroot]] - Predatory gene-assimilating avian humanoids. They are the first alien race to be actively recruited by the Tau as mercenaries, and are so regularly hired that they have officially progressed to being considered Auxiliaries of the Tau forces. They have colonization rights and can 'kroot-form' planets.
* [[Vespid|Mal'kor]] - Insectoid aliens, also known as Vespids, who are native to a gas giant planet within the Tau Empire. Serve as Auxiliaries and are considered in extremely high regard by the Fire Caste. They have colonization rights too.
* Morralian - Also known as "Deathsworn". No other information available.
* [[Nicassar]] - A voidfaring race of [[psyker]]s and the only psychically-gifted species in the Tau Empire. The Tau have carefully hidden them away from the Imperium due to their (actually justifiable) psyker-phobia. Were the second alien species to join the Greater Good and have been described by the Deathwatch as an Alpha threat because they can empathically create memories in even Space Marines (can make them think they remember their mother's face for example). Described as having big, bird like heads with beaks.
* Ranghon - No information available. No relation to these [[Rangdan Xenocides|guys]].
* [[Tarellian]] - These guys are basically [[Lizardmen#Saurus|Saurus]] IIIIN SPAAAAACE!!!!!! Not really part of the Empire, but rather mercenaries who will gladly fight humans and Tyranids on the cheap since the Imperium virus-bombed their home world and the Tyranids nommed their biggest colony.
* Poctroon - The first sentient species to be found by the Tau, [[wikipedia:Siege of Fort Pitt|they were "accidentally" driven extinct by Tau smallpox]], and their planet just by coincidence was a great place to set a Sept World; Bork'an.
* Nagi - Brain worms that, due to their horrific appearance and inability to communicate, were attacked by the Fire Caste. They managed to sort it out, though, and now they work with the Ethereals as advisors (because having brain worms about as "advisors" isn't a bad idea or anything). They have been shown in a few books so far, and were involved in a "mind-rip" (guess outright calling it "rape" was too much) of a space marine POW, while being so self-righteous and smug about their mental superiority they could give Eldar a run for their money. Apparently they can also at least perceive the Warp (which they call "extra-dimensional space"), and probably manipulate it as well, and know enough about it to outright refuse to go anywhere near demonically-tainted Agrellan when the Tau invaded it.
* Ji'atrices, Morralians, or Ranghons are probably other Warhammer Fantasy Races In Space, such as [[Lizardmen#Kroxigor|Kroxigors]] or Trolls, given the overall tendency of the Tau to incorporate Fantasy races missing from 40k.

The usually genocidal actions of the other races, most notably the [[Imperium]], also serve as a motivating factor for less-powerful races to join the Tau. While the Tau do seem a minor threat to the Imperium now, if the current policy continues, there will be more and more races joining up with the them if for no other reason than avoiding [[Exterminatus|extermination]]. Of course, the Tau are just coming to realize how vast and powerful the Imperium really is, and how a lot of their member races really ''are'' the victims of crazy, evil, fascist extermination protocols. Usually, the Imperium is entirely justified, though. There's always the chance that a species responsible for a "Hell World" or "Nightmare World" might try to join up with the Tau, and the damage that might be done before the Tau realize their mistake would be tremendous. Good thing the Tau haven't done anything stupid like leave a psychic species ali- oh wait. Well, at least they don't have Warp-sensitive brain worms in close proximity to their lead- oh wait...welp, they're fucked.

==Skub, controversy and hurt-butts==

Twelve year old [[fluff]] (from ''[[Dawn of War]]'', supported by [[Deathwatch]] supplements) has them controlling population growth and habitation of the rebelling humans on Kronus once they come under the rule of the Tau Empire. To be fair though, had it been anyone else they were revolting against, including the Imperials, those humans would just be dead.

The Tau have a few hundred planets after a handful were eaten by Tyranids (discounting allied held worlds and worlds with a minor presence). Despite this, GW writers and fanfiction nerds alike have this strange habit of treating them like a major faction. Most writers don't seem to realize the Tau are one of the smallest, most insignificant minor species in the galaxy. This isn't to insult them, they can always get stronger; it's just the plain truth, given the Tau Empire's current situation. Hopefully the Tau Empire will grow as time goes on, assuming the setting doesn't fall into constant grind never proceeding to the next year for decades ''again''.

One of the more controversial aspects of the Tau is that Games Workshop feels the need to make them seem viable as an army by having their power fluctuate wildly. For example, the Tau can easily subjugate Imperial Hive Worlds and deport its population so easily that it doesn't even get a footnote. You know, those planets in which the population of a single city shocked an Tau ambassador because the city's population was greater than the entirety of the Tau species? Imagine entire planets of those cities, cities in which everyone is an experienced killer (which is why Space Marines love recruiting from Hive Worlds), armed and ready to fling themselves at any invading xenos to purge them with extreme prejudice. These are the same worlds where the PDF alone would be large enough to give the entire Fire Caste a serious headache.

As an example of this, take the Battle of Mu'gulath Bay, known as the Battle of Agrellan to the Imperium. This was a fight over a Hive World which the Tau won, how? Using Riptide Battlesuits. According to GW, the Riptide's armor was impervious to nearly all anti-armor weaponry. The kicker though, is that '''''Deathstrike Missiles''''' ''did nothing'' when its shields were active. You know, the missiles '''''Titans are afraid of''''' and can vaporize armies? And can use Titan-killer warheads? '''Those Missiles'''. Such bullshit. There were like three or four of these suits, by the way.

Another example goes back to the Taros campaign in which a Tau stronghold was mysteriously unable to be blown to hell by sustained bombardment from Colossus mortars and then the Tau ''sallied out'' to engage the Imperial forces and won. In addition, a lot of fights are won by their opponents being uncharacteristically stupid. For example in both the Taros Campaign and the Battle of Agrellan the Imperium suddenly forgets how to defend itself and its supply lines during the second [[Damocles Crusade]] and engages the Tau using formations and tactics that cater to the Tau in the extreme (this is especially egregious in the finale). [[wat|There is even an instance in which an assassin forgets to use her gun to instantly kill her target]]. Even the Marines aren't immune to this sudden stupefying aura. Space Marine Terminators wielding storm shields are seen shot and killed because they were too busy telling each other to raise their shields up to block the Tau's shots [[derp|instead of ''just raising their shields up to block the fucking shots''.]]

There are numerous other things too. The Farsight Enclaves defending ''conquered'' worlds instead of just defending actual Tau worlds. Farsight being spared by a Bloodthirster for no reason. Not being wiped out by the Skitarii's radium weapons. The special ammo Space Marines can use that ignores armor or goes through shields and armor not even being mentioned or used. Invisible Shadowsun ambushing and killing a Raven Guard Chapter Master. Bravestorm somehow intercepting a Vindicare's bullet to save Farsight, and Darkstrider and his Pathfinders somehow finding and killing said assassin because he had a hunch that something was amiss (seriously). The list goes on and on, it's like Games Workshop made an entire faction for us to hate for being Noblebright, which pissed everyone off, so they changed the faction into ''Mary Sues'' instead.

Heck, they even [[Bullshit|cracked the Codex Astartes]] so they're familiar, in theory, with any tactic that an adherent to that text might use.

==In a Nutshell==
{{HurfDurf}}
;'''The Stated Reasons Why People Hate Tau'''
Weeaboo space confucianists — not grimdark enough.
;'''The ''Real'' Reason Why People Hate Tau'''
{{Powergamer}}
Long ago, the single thing that people hated most about the Tau was undoubtedly the [[Fish of Fury]] tactic. Years later people are STILL bitching about it. Fuck, even most Tau players felt it was bullshit. (The flames have been stoked again due to 9E accidentally reviving it.) That and T'au are consistently considered [[Cheese]] by casual players who bitch and moan about how their army got blown off a featureless table by a Tau'Dar list in 6E and how you are [[That Guy]] for using them. Never mind that the Tau have been nerfed into oblivion in the last three editions and as of 9E they are strictly bottom-tier.

Still, back in the heady days of 6th Edition codex, the Tau were one of the shootiest armies in the shootiest edition of 40k ever. On top of that they had powerful abilities to bitchslap cheesemongers, having hard counters against any of the Wardex bullshit. More generally, the Tau battle philosophy even to this day is, "Deny your opponent the chance to interact with you," which is a good philosophy for real soldiers but can make for frustrating or uninteresting gameplay.

Of course there's also the fluff side of things, and as mentioned above the Tau are given massive amounts of plot armour compared to everyone else in the setting.

Listing the rest of the insane lore armor and other [[skub|interminable list of other assorted stupidities]] that would require their own separate page just to cover them all. Suffice to say for those who are more interested in the fluff their blatant titan grade plot armour can become somewhat infuriating.

;'''A Real Reason Why People Like Tau'''
They are the one race that aren't complete dicks. Of course, their mind-influencing pheromones, psycho-indoctrination, and mass re-education facilities will just have to be ignored if you don't want destroy your wishful thinking for a half-way decent faction to exist in 40k. Even with the warts, it's saying something that they're ''still'' the nicest faction in 40k; they're just a regular oppressive empire, instead of a hyper-ultra terribad megadeath awful xenocidally oppressive empire, or some flavor of insane, omnicidal dystopia.
;'''Another Real Reason Why People Like Tau'''
Most races in 40k (''especially'' the humans) are themed around "feudalism in the future" with a big dose of societal and doctrinal regression. In other words, "we might be in space, but we have peasantry like medieval serfdoms and fight like crusaders with guns." By contrast, the Tau are themed around a real sense of futuristic progress. The Tau aim to create a proper post-scarcity economy (that's why they use robots for manual labor while the Imperium uses literal slaves) and theme their tactics around the modern US Military (the Tau would rather spend bullets than lives, while the Imperium is the opposite). As an interesting side effect, the Tau are capable of fitting into many other sci-fi universes without much trouble, such as ''[[Star Trek]]'' where they would be at home alongside other Factions like the Dominion. Compare that to the Necrons or Eldar which would be both Roflstomps and completely different from all other groups in that Universe (though they might fit in ''[[Doctor Who]]'').

In short: unlike the Imperium, the Tau are the best faction for scratching the future-tech itch of your favorite speculative fiction escapism. The Tau push for innovation and better technology also leads into our next point:
;'''The Real Reason Why People Play Tau'''
Arguably they have the most powerful guns in the game. Often twin-linked. Often on cool-looking robot battlesuits. [[meme|Also markerlights]]. Also [[Riptide|RAPETIDE]]. Tau players may also have a tendency towards sadism (or, as of 8th/9th, masochism).
;'''A Solid Reason People Don't Play Tau'''
They're fucking expensive. Seriously. On a points-per-pound level, they cost more than any other (plastic) army (we haven't even mentioned the financial aspect). This is doubly true if you like battlesuits, but of course you do because you're playing Tau.
;'''A Solid Reason People Do Play Tau Despite that Solid Reason Why They Wouldn't'''
Tau armies are one of the easier choices to paint. They're not quite on the level of the Custodes, but the generally "clean" appearance of Tau miniatures means it's not difficult to make their minis look good with novice painting skills.

==TL;DR==
<s>The good guys</S>
High-tech, Mech-loving alien race who are the ''least'' [[grimdark]] of factions. Can't melee for shit but can blow you back to the stone age with ranged weaponry if you have the misfortune of being downrange. You will either love them or hate them because of all this, and many neckbeards do feel the [[butthurt]]. For some reason Tau females are [[/d/|awkwardly sexualized]] by a non-insignificant minority of fa/tg/uys, which has shown up in some draw- and writefaggotry. As the saying goes: "You can't spell TAUNT without TAU."

== Warhammer Fantasy ==
Unlike most other factions in 40k, the Tau have no clear analogue from [[Warhammer Fantasy]] throughout its tabletop lifespan, or [[Age of Sigmar]] as of the present. One could argue that [[Cathay]] in [[Total War: Warhammer]] is the closest analogue the Tau will get, especially the whole being united under a powerful group of strange individuals worshiped as demigods and the Asian influence. Since elements of Total War's Cathay will be back-ported into [[Warhammer: The Old World]], this might change. [[Nippon]] would be a better fit, but whether they'll ever see the light of Total War is up to Creative Assembly and GeeDubs.

[[Gav Thorpe]] has [https://gavthorpe.co.uk/2017/06/26/the-origins-of-the-tau/ stated] that he was inspired by the Eldar article in ''White Dwarf 127'' to invent a new species called the Shishell (or more specifically the Shissellian League) and they were "[[Lizardmen]] In Space" with a society based around five castes – Earth, Air, Fire and Water, and a fifth called Spirit. Fast forward to 1999/2000 and GW was preparing to create a new army for Warhammer 40000. They decided to quietly dismiss the Shishell concept (because, like the [[Squats]], who were largely dismissed, and the [[Hrud]], who were retconned appearance-wise, they didn't want the game to be "Warhammer Fantasy in space") and then borrow the caste/element system to use as a foundation stone for the Tau's lore (who were originally called the Tao at that point in time).

In closing, the Tau's closest counterpart(s) in Fantasy right now are Cathay in terms of aesthetics, and the Lizardmen in terms of military/social structure, a bizarre hybrid of elements that came before and after the Tau were introduced to 40k.

==Trivia==
[[File:Tau Ripoff.jpeg|thumb|right|300px|FOR THE [[Blood Ravens|GREATER THEFT]]!]]
* Some have said that Tau resemble the protagonist KYNE from the Amiga video game Brataccas, which was released in 1986. Tau were first added to Warhammer 40k in late 2001. Some would dismiss this as coincidence, but Games Workshop has a long history of ripping off designs from other games; [[Beastmen]] are [[Broo]] from [[Glorantha]], very large chunks of 40k are a little too similar to [[Judge Dredd]], and all of the Greater Daemon model designs are stolen from early [[Dungeons & Dragons]]. These properties are understandable as Games Workshop was still selling games of those IPs when Warhammer was first created, but Brataccas is an obscure game from a forgotten system that was quite forgettable even at release, even if Amiga games tended to get fantastic cover art. This being said another of GW's early products was also puzzles of of this style of '70's/'80's Sci-Fi art. The Tau cast system does resemble the Protoss caste from [[Starcraft]], which predates the release of the Tau by 3 years... You have the Templar (Fire/Air Castes) Judicators (Ethereals + Water Castes) and Khalai (Earth Caste). In addition to a rogue sub-caste in the Dark Templar (Farsight Enclaves). This is Ironic considering that GW originally was making a deal with Blizzard to make games based on their properties. GW asked too much/Blizzard didn't like the terms and left... to make Warcraft and Starcraft. Starcraft would have become a Rogue Trader RTS. It was probably a mistake on GW's part, as they REALLY missed out. Stealing the Tau from the Protoss was probably done because GW was still salty. Alternatively, Protoss were always intended to be Eldar in the 40K interpretation of Starcraft and any similarities to the Tau are coincidental. Which is then funnier when you realise the Protoss are based on the Eldar that the Eldar are ripped off of Tolkien and that the Eldar supposedly helped push/create Tau society.
* Tau are technically canon to the Marvel Comics universe, as the series Venom: Space Knight repeatedly used Tau vehicles for aliens in the scenery. In fact, they have the balls to even keep the Tau Sept symbol! Also, you can see what appears to be a Eldar tank, as well as a Necron. The irony of the ripoff masters Games Workshop getting ripped off is juicy, even more so when its realized that lawsuit-happy Games Workshop (who literally tried to copyright "pauldrons" while they plagiarized Eldar from Tolkien and had prior contention between [[Malekith|two very similar Dark Elf characters of theirs who even shared the same name]]) couldn't do shit about it because Marvel is owned by Disney, and nobody beats The Mouse™.
** GW and Marvel/Disney settled out of court. A bit sad, a true battle between Daredevil and She-Hulk versus the Ordo Legalitus would have been cool. Interestingly this deal ended with GW and Marvel publishing several 40k comics, starting with a [[Marneus Calgar]] comic in 2020 and a [[Sisters of Battle]] comic in 2021, so the Tau might be canon again after all...

==Notable Tau==
===[[Canon]]===
*[[Aun'Va]]
*[[Aun'Shi]]
*[[El'Myamoto (Sub-commander Darkstrider)]]
*[[Shadowsun|O'Shaserra (Commander Shadowsun)]]
*[[Farsight|O'Shovah (Commander Farsight) and The Eight]]
*[[Commander Puretide]]
*[[Shas'o Kais]]
*[[Commander Or'es'Ka|Shas'o Or'es'Ka]]

===[[/tg/ 40,000]]===
*[[Blue]]
*[[Faptau]]
*[[O'ren I'shi'ii]]
*[[Shlicktau]]
*[[Xeno]]

==See Also==
[[File:Marvel Tau.jpg|thumb|right|250px|FOR THE GREATER GROOT!]]
* [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Tau (9E)|Tau Tactics (9e)]]
* [[Nicassar]]
* [[Sept V'iet]]
* [[Tau Quest]]
* [[Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior]]
* [[Tau Dark Heresy]]
* [[Tau Cadre Creation Tables]]
* [[Codex_-_Tau_Auxiliary]]
* [[Tau Diplomacy]]
* [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|<strike>Love Can Bloom 3:Golden Shadowsun</strike> NON-CANON FANFICTION GARBAGE]]

==External Link==
Tau Lexicon: *[https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eaLKLz0jdBTk24QSJrc5GSjNZzPzUZF9/view?usp=sharing]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrHhS5IkRR0 A Typical Tau-Human conversation.]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbuPaCgdO50 Should one of your Tau actually kill anything tougher than a guardsman in melee, you are allowed to end the game in victory as long as you play this clip.]
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhXCQFxGqMM Theme of the T'au Empire. Admittedly, its actually pretty amazing, all things considered.

==Gallery==
<center><gallery>
Image:Tau1.jpg|Stealth suits are :3
Image:Firewarrior.gif|Fire Warriors are :3 too
Image:Tau Chibi Fire Warrior.jpg|Chibi, but not weeby.
File:TauGuela.jpg|Gue'la.
Image:TauOrigin.jpg|Ohhh GW.
Image:Tau.gif|In 40k, everyones' guns are huge.
Image:Tau Fire Warrior.jpg|A Tau Fire Warrior, the basic infantry unit.
Image:Tau Firepower Demotivator.jpg|The sad truth of 6th edition.
Image:combine.jpg|In /tg/, tau are the bad guys.
Image:Itsyourempiretoo.png|Propaganda. [[Nazi|Sound]] [[Communism|familiar?]]
Image:Never shall the tau!.JPG|Surrender... never shall the Tau.
Image:Tauassault.jpg|Tau are vicious melee fighters, no less able than [[Space Marines]]!
Image:1234622525817.jpg|In hindsight, attempting negotiations with Orks was probably a bad idea.
Image:Tau Problem, Astartes.jpg|What's that? We're not grimdark enough for you, Neckbeard?
Image:Tau Sympathizer.jpg|The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer's entry on Tau players.
Image:Discotau.jpg|For the Greater Groove!
Image:DiscoTauGroovin.jpg|I’m ready go tonight, There's a party, alright, We don’t need the reason for joy oh yeah~
Image:Manta.jpg|Fun fact: if you have enough money to buy this, you have too much money.
Image:Tau cosplay2.jpg|Typical Tau player, engaging in typical Tau behavior. (Pretty badass cosplay, even got the hoof right)
Image:Tau Battlesuit vs Smurf.jpg|This Char Custom Battlesuit-clad Tau demonstrates his mastery of [[Weeaboo Fightan Magic]]. Also DYNAMIC ENTRY!
Image:E6abddad6c5999a1dbe6085d8614f051.jpg|Tau in close quarters combat barring some very lucky dice rolls.
</gallery></center>
{{Promotions}}
<center><gallery>
Image:TauKroot.jpg
Image:MARKERLIGHTS.png|MARKERLIGHTS!
Image:tau_firecleavage.jpg|Sweet [[Weeaboo|weeaboo]] [[Heresy|heresy]].
Image:Commissar Shadowsuns Goods by morganagod.jpg|DAT ASS.
Image:DAT_SHAS.jpg| A Fire Warrior appreciating DAT ASS.
Image:Tau ass.gif|A Greater Good we can all believe in.
Image:NOT FUCKING CANON.png| [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|THIS IS NOT FUCKING CANON!]]
Image:JoinTau.jpg|Some recruitment methodologies work better than others.
Image:Tau Chick.jpg|Few rarely seen Tau chicks. Maybe because Sisters are hotter.
Image:youtastefunny.jpg|Yeah, we all know the truth about their "greater good".
Image:Subcommander torchstar by sexual yeti-d9qal0l.png|Subcommander Torchstar, Farsight's personal fangirl.
Image:Tau_caste_nudes.jpg|Earth, Fire, Water, Air...Ethereal?!? SWEET MOTHER OF KHORNE!!! MY EYES!!!
Image:Laughing tau whores.jpg|S-shut up you filthy sluts! Among my people it is considered quite a handsome dick!
Image:Power Shopping.jpg|It's a well-known fact that the Tau Empire has some of the best shopping in the entire galaxy.
Image:Taugirlpile.jpg|Here we see Tau propaganda meant to entice men with their terrible, blasphemous, and supple soft skin, smooth curves, perky brea...er...ah...heretical alien bodies.
Image:TauHuman.jpg|Indeed, many humans have already embraced the Greater Good. (The individual with the primitive flashlight has been sent to re-education. Happiness is mandatory, Citizen.)
Image:greatertits.jpg|An attractive human female defector who for some reason has been equipped with a highly modified commander's battlesuit, perhaps as a devious ploy to compel desertion by the less loyal.
Image:ThicTau'Thereal.png|After this ethereal took charge, there was an upsurge in gue'vesa citizenship requests. Water caste psychoanalysts are currently studying this phenomenon in detail.
</gallery></center>

==Navigation==
{{Tau}}
{{Tau-Characters}}
{{WH40k-Factions}}
{{40k-Governments}}
{{Template:Important Species in 40k}}

[[Category: Xenos]]

Tau

2022-06-15T03:01:54Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D:

{{heresy}}
{{Plot Armour}}
[[Image:TAUSYMBOL.gif|center]]
{{Infobox 40k Nations
|name= T'au Empire
|image=[[Image:Tau_Empire_Flag.jpg|300px|center]]
|bgcolor=
|fgcolor=
|Capital= T'au
|Official Languages=Tau Lexicon
|Power= Minor Power
|Size=Approximately over 300 worlds
|Head of State= Ethereal Supreme
|Head of Government= Ethereal Council
|Governmental Structure=Caste-Based Authoritarian Federation
|State Religion/Ideology=[[Greater Good]]
|Demographic=[[Tau]], [[Kroot]], [[Vespid]], [[Gue'vesa|Humans]], [[Nicassar]], [[Tarellian]], Nagi, Hrenians and other minor [[Xenos]] races
|Military Force=[[Tau]] Fire Caste, Tau Air Caste, [[Kroot]] and [[Vespid]] Forces, The Deathsworn, Hrenian Light Infantry, [[Demiurg]] Forces, [[Nicassar]] Forces, Gue'vesa Forces and other minor Xenos armies, The [[Kor'Vattra]] and it's auxiliary fleets
}}
[[File:9jfnqeaplhexx.jpg|right|thumb|450px|Get the fuck out of the way, [[Imperium|Oldfag]]. (Vior'la Sept Fire Warriors)]]
{{Topquote|I'll say this about the T'au, they know how to put on a good war.|[[Ciaphas Cain]]}}
{{Topquote|Ce qui constitue une République, c'est la destruction totale de tout ce qui lui est opposé. - What constitutes a Republic is the total destruction of that which is opposed to it.|Louis Antoine de Saint-Just}}
{{Topquote|Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.|C.S Lewis}}

Tau (τ) is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet, 300 in Greek numerals, and also the name for 2π.

It is also the name of the Warhammer 40K race known as the '''Tau''', nowadays spelled '''T'au''' by GW copyright lawyers as if that somehow [[ChapterHouse Studios|fixes anything]] (many nicknames include "uncreative retards" if you are an [[Eldar]], "blueskinned atrocity" if you're a [[Imperium of Man|Human]], "bluies", as the Valhallan 597th call them, or "Space Communists" as anyone on /tg/ will tell you) are a playable race and a minor and overall insignificant power in ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]''. When first discovered by humanity, the Tau were a barbaric and primitive people. Their planet was then trapped in a warp storm for a few thousand years and they emerged from the other side as a unified species, led by the [[Druids|mysterious]] Ethereal caste and devoted to the concept of the "[[Greater Good]]". Their new empire supposedly has around 300 worlds, with dozens more small colonies and outposts, packed into a stellar cluster about 500 light years across. They have about [[T'au Septs|21 official]] "Septs" which are major systems based around a cultural 'prime' planet (think Manhattan then the tri-state area). They were growing until recently, when the Imperium sent a large invading force to counter them.

Although a dystopian society in its own right, the Tau Empire is noted for being one of the LEAST awful places in all the galaxy of 40k. It's also [[Derp|not really an empire]]; the Tau government, the Ethereal caste, is essentially an edifice of meritocracy and nepotism. Tau leaders are appointed to their position by even higher ranking leaders and/or a council of their future peers; the highest ranking Tau, the Aun'O, is elected by his future underlings, much like the Catholic pope, but is still simply considered the weightiest voice of a group (like a prime minister), not an Emperor with absolute power.

The Ethereals are basically like "upper management" if upper management worked... or maybe HR if they didn't just 'klkn' [fancy tau word for F'ed] everyone over. The Ethereals actually care about the people that look up to them as they set mandates across their society, which the castes strive to fulfill.

The Tau started as a classic case of successful design-based [[Troll|trolling]] on the part of [[Games Workshop]]. They were originally developed because GW felt that their setting needed an optimistic race and that their wallets needed more money, which they could get by selling shitloads of 40k to the robot-obsessed Japanese. The Tau, therefore, are the least [[grimdark]] faction in the game; [[Tau Diplomacy|they're the dudes willing to negotiate when they've beaten their enemies]] ([[The Beast|we cannot forget the green skinned diplomats our boy sent out during his siege of terra]]) while all the others are either too [[Chaos Space Marines| murderously psychotic in ways incomprehensible to anyone who does not share the same batshit insanity]], [[Imperium|religiously overzealous]], [[Eldar|arrogantly indifferent]], [[Orks|simplemindedly violent]], [[Necron|murderously enigmatic]], [[Tyranid|more interested in eating you than anything]], or [[Dark Eldar|all of the above]] to offer such courtesies.

This began to change in 6th edition. For all the claims that GW doesn't listen to its fans, someone seemed to have heard the incessant bitching many fa/tg/uys made over the Tau [[Belisarius Cawl|being shoehorned into the setting]] [[Primaris Marines|in the worst way possible.]] As a result, the Tau began to take on an Orwellian flavor and Imperium-esque elements, with the Ethereals being totalitarian autocrats performing acts of ruthless indifference towards their subjects, including [[Nazi|eugenics]] or up to [[Exterminatus]] of lost races (e.g. Orks and Tyranids), in the guise of being for the Greater Good. (though classyfing Orks and Tyranids as being Exterminatus on sight is a pretty good assessment honestly)

As a result you now have a new generation of weebos running around thinking that the Tau actually don't give a fuck about their people and would actually kill their own kind for things like... sculpting [like really, if you do art outside of the Earth caste you just disappear] which would make the Tau the least functioning society in 40k as whole swathes of their own population are routinely exterminated for fixing their crisis suits so they don't drown or pull a pistol out to protect children (things that actually happened).

The Tau Codex leaves ambiguous the question of just how much of their success is due to various forms of indoctrination, caste-based conditioning, and subtle mind control. This has only been exacerbated by the recent Farsight Enclaves supplement, which makes the Ethereals come off as mustache-twirling, Saturday-morning-cartoon villains. It speaks volumes about the 40k setting that in spite of all this they're ''still'' the friendliest race in the galaxy.

An interesting contradiction arises because the Tau have annexed (sometimes peacefully) entire Hive Worlds, meaning the Tau might actually be a cat’s paw to a human civilization by now. This is because a single modestly-sized hive world ''probably'' boasts a larger population than the entire Tau species combined (with one hive city on a world at one point being noted for outright having a population higher than the Tau species, much to the horror of a Tau diplomat), along with an industrial capacity to match- not to mention the fact that the Tau willingly give their tech and knowledge to races who have been subsumed into the Greater Good. It seems that Games Workshop has not yet realized this problem.

=="Naive Weeaboo Space Communists"==
[[Image:Tau Weeaboo.png|thumb|right|Cue hotblooded music by [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r6xYnFDoV0 JAM Project].]]
The Tau's naiveté might seem at odds with the GRIMDARK-ness of the setting (and to a degree, a lot of it is), but the thing is, Games Workshop specifically plays this straight FOR the [[grimdark]] and ''knows'' that the seeming futility of the Tau's optimism only further accentuates the general hellishness of the rest of the galaxy - and dear [[Emperor|god]] do they play this up for maximum effect. In the 41st millennium, the Tau come across as ''more'' than a little naïve to the other races; the Imperium sees any contact with aliens as heretical and will shoot them with [[bolter]] rounds as soon as they look at them; the [[Ork]]s just want to kick the shit out of things; and the [[Eldar]] see the Tau as a race in its infancy, just staggering out of its borders for the first time and wandering into a pond full of [[Saharduin|sh]][[Dark Eldar|ar]][[Chaos|ks]] (most Eldar philosophers admit their own race has failed, the humans are failing, and add that the Tau are in for a rude awakening). If the sharks arrayed against the Tau think of them at all, it is surely as dinner.

In older fluff [a single book that was so off the rails it said Tau had toes and no nasal slits], the Tau were implied to have been secretly uplifted by the Eldar through the creation and subtle control of the Etherals (especially the mind-influencing pheromone secreting gland at the base of Ethereals’ spines) and guiding them through reverse-engineering Imperial technology from the ruined colony ships. Eventually the Eldar abandoned them because the Tau never accomplished anything notable on their own due to a crippling lack of creativity (<s>a big red flag of bullshit, since the Tau are nothing if not creative</s> needing the Eldar to reverse-engineer Imperial colony ships for you and teach you everything is ''NOT'' "creative", it is the opposite, pay attention before opening your mouth. What part of "uplifted" do you not understand?). This older fluff also said that humans must be in physical contact with an Ethereal or perhaps subjected to heavy doses of the pheromone in other ways to be sufficiently affected but other aliens are affected merely by being in the vicinity of an Ethereal. In the current fluff, the Eldar backstory and Ethereals-controlling-other-races theory seem to have been cast aside as nonsense and are no longer canon.

The Tau's generally-optimistic fluff, combined with their highly advanced technology, distinctly "Eastern" combat doctrine (that is often reminiscent of Sun Tzu's "''Art of War''"), use of [[Mecha|battlesuits]] (just [[Imperial Knight|like]] [[Dreadnought|the]] [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Imperium]]), [[Hammerhead Gunship|heavy firepower]] which rivals that of the Imperial Guard, and one of the [[Fish of Fury|most broken tactics in tabletop 40K until it was finally fixed an edition later]] has conspired to make them very much hated (and by that we mean a source of butthurt) by a reasonable-sized population of the [[/tg/|40K fan populace]]. /Tg/ has rightly dubbed the Tau [[Weeaboo]] (as much due to their Asian-ness as anything else) as a result.

[[Image:Tau fire warriors.jpg|490px|thumb|left|The [[Greater Good]]: translatable as [[Deal with it|"If you want to make an omelet, you gotta break some eggs."]]]]

And again in a case of much cultural confusion, the Tau are often considered [[Communism|communists]] (despite being a rigorous, hierarchical, near-eugenicist class society that would have Marx's spirit resurrect himself to commit suicide) due to their central philosophy of casting aside the self in favour of the Greater Good. This is partly because it's a nearly twenty year old meme by this point and memes that old are very stubborn about dying... and partly because we're a bunch of ignorant fucks. If anything the Tau more resemble the class system of Plato's ''Republic'' crossed with the caste system of India and [[Star_Trek#The_Federation|Star Trek's Federation]], and a little bit of facism as well (because they're the only ones in the entire galaxy who bother to try diplomacy with xenos rather than [[Exterminatus|exterminate]] them (partly because all but a few alien species are horrific space monsters that only a complete idiot would try to negotiate with)).

Even then, the Tau has more in common with the Imperium than the noblebright space hippie Feds; they adhere to a highly strict doctrine of eugenics, as [[Love Can Bloom|all forms of love, sex or breeding between different castes]] are, translated from Tau lexicon into Gothic, '''[[HERESY]]'''. The Tau also have an explicit merchant caste as well as a single unified currency (something the Imperium of Man only has in theory, [[Imperial Truth|much like everything else]]) along with a system of standardised wage labour which makes them actually more Capitalist than the still stuck in Feudal Economics Imperium. Contrast to the Craftworld Eldar whose society of post-scarcity voluntary labour actually is fully Communist, albeit there are still nobles entitled to bigger houses.

The Tau treat their member species with an unusual amount of autonomy and respect while also keeping them as second-class citizens with no say in the Tau government. There is no restriction on religion or cultural uniqueness so far as it doesn't interfere with the greater good: Humans may still worship the Emperor, Nicassar can continue exploring the universe and Kroot can continue to ingest the dead; so it's a pretty broad stroke of acceptability.

What is terrifying and an excellent twist on the Tau is that member races and the individual is kept from 'choice'. So if you suck, like you're just bad at everything, you're not going to be offed or turned into corpse starch. You are simply given a 1 bedroom apartment, universal healthcare, and a broom. And that's it. You don't get to be a hero, you don't get to rise above your worth, and this is all decided by an alien society. If you dare step outside of these boundaries, then you're given a couple chances. First you're sent to reeducation. Do it again and you might get some beneficial brain washing... and so on. But death? Certainly not, because what purpose would that serve?

To double the weebiness but to greatly decrease the communism connection, the Tau are remarkably similar to war-time era Imperial Japan. Not in terms of military doctrine but in terms of its geopolitics. Like Imperial Japan they're a young power situated in the east, relatively far from most of their possible rivals' centres of power. Like Imperial Japan they have a seemingly nice enough doctrine in terms of rhetoric; "Greater Good" and "Co-Prosperity Sphere"; but in practice what it means is that they want to replace the old empires in the region with their own. Like Imperial Japan they're at a significant disadvantage in terms of production power compared to their most serious rivals in the region, and hope to compensate for that by tactical superiority and winning big decisive battles to topple the old powers.

To further solidify the connections to Japan in the early 20th century, the Tau Empire even borrows some terminology, such as "spheres" of expansion, a firm belief that despite their grotesque material inferiority to their primary enemies, the power of their ideals and their superior willpower shall overcome their enemies all, and a dogged insistence on picking fights it probably can't win. Imperial Japan knew that America alone had nearly twelve times the industrial power, with Britain having thrice Japan's military-industrial might, France just about matching theirs, and the Soviets having four times that: even China, despite being a wartorn barely functional shithole, could be a quagmire for it.

But Japan didn't give a shit because they thought that they were so awesome they could somehow get all these people to surrender through a combination of being better at war than their soft, mewling enemies and that they simply believed in their destiny to rule the waves more than anyone else did. Much like how the Tau are fully aware that the Imperium, the Orks, the Necrons, and the Tyranids could all squash them flat in a stand up fight, but believe this is immaterial because their belief in the Greater Good shall overcome all and that they have mastered the ways of war while their foes are mired in ignorance. Although, the lore mostly depicts the Tau, including their leadership, as utterly unaware of anywhere remotely near how horribly outmatched the Tau really are. It says a lot about the major factions that the Tau have glimpsed only a tiny fraction of their enemies' power, believe that is the whole of said power, and believe they are tremendously outmatched but will be victorious due to Manifest Destiny. Ignorant of the true power they face.

What is for sure though is that whatever part of the political spectrum they'd fall on (probably wherever you'd put Imperial Japan during world war two), the Tau government is mainly oligarchical, with the vast majority of political power concentrated in the Ethereal caste.

This is further driven home by the fact there is a Tau splinter faction led by one of their two best generals alive, Commander [[Farsight]] of the Farsight Enclaves, whose government is a non-caste society devoid of ethereals, making it a meritocratic semi-democracy. The problem is, depending on who you ask Farsight may be either a hero in self-imposed exile or a single-minded military dictator, much the way Optimus Prime is sometimes depicted. Farsight's government is [[RAGE|NOT recognized by the Tau Empire]], who have finally gotten around to dispatching a fleet to silence them. We still have yet to see the outcome of this fleet dispatch, though (in all likelihood, no force was ever sent, because Tau don't kill each other and because Farsight is useful enough where he is, even if he's in rebellion).

Of course, the Farsight Enclaves are a fan favorite. The books he's featured in portray Farsight more as a guy that is incredibly depressed about his own mistakes and thinks that the Tau Empire is too inclusive and needs to learn how to grimdark better.

However, the new codex has HEAVILY downplayed Tau naiveté, bringing back the original codex mention that the Ethereals have officially declared some species "[[Exterminatus|lost causes]]" and that the [[Greater Good]] demands they be killed to the last.

*[[Orks]] were the first of the big players of 40k to get this treatment. They pretty much were the only serious competition Tau had before they discovered the Imperium, and it only took them a few weeks of study to realize the fact that Orks are beyond reason or sanity. They do still employ them as mercenaries in small numbers, and the Water Caste considers the Orks one of their biggest failures.

*[[Tyranids]] unsurprisingly ended up on "shoot on sight" list pretty much after the first contact. Unlike the Orks, the Tau have experienced the full and unadulterated rape train that is a Hive Fleet in the form of Gorgon which took a bite out of their Empire (lost something like 10% of it) as well as an ally species called the Ulumeathic League who might be completely wiped out.

*[[Eldar]] briefly were on the list too, owning this to the first contact being made by the Drukhari, and not just any, but [[Urien Rakarth]] himself. Eventually the Craftword Eldar intervened, and the Tau realized that not all space-elves are insane rapists. Although the Tau ended up accidentally destroying a Maiden World, likely making permanent enemies of Saim Hann in the process, they also had some positive dealings with Lugganath to finish off Hive Fleet Gorgon. Interestingly, the Dark Eldar were supposed to be the original nemesis of the Tau when they were originally released.

*[[Space Marines]] were introduced to the Tau during the Damocles wars. Marines represent an interesting case to the Tau because while it's possible to reason and even negotiate with them, Water caste psychoanalysts have determined that Astartes aren't ''people'' but merely ''weapons'' and as such have no place in Tau'Va.

To sum it up, the Tau Empire is still an expansionist empire prone to using military force, but far better than almost every other polity in the setting, as it permits others to exist with rather lenient standards, and isn't dedicated to the purposeful extinction of all other life in the galaxy. It should be noted that the Water Caste has turned more worlds to join the Empire then the Fire Caste. Technically, the Imperium does have protectorate species as well, but very few because most aliens are batshit insane, flat-out evil, or space monsters. Of which, almost all have been exterminated by the Imperium, which is probably why the Tau are so ignorant of what xenos are generally like. Talk about irony.

Additionally, you don't have to join the Empire to benefit from trade agreements and non-aggression pacts. For example, the Demiurge traded ion-tech for refuge from the ever xenophobic Imperium, but there doesn't seem to be any indication they've actually 'joined' the Empire.

Regardless of who you are, if you join the Tau Empire they will genuinely try and do their best to take care of you because they think, in their hubris, that they know best.

Also, as a result of surviving attacks from the major factions in the galaxy yet being blissfully unaware that those were merely tiny brushes or stragglers of vastly larger forces, the Tau believe they have proven they can truly hold their own in the galaxy against all the major players. As of Eighth Edition they were corrected quite painfully due to the opening of the Great Rift and the loss of most of their Fourth Sphere Expansion forces to a Warp rift, and following a massive Chaos invasion they have been forced to face the possibility that their empire might have bitten off more than it can chew.

==Military Doctrine==
[[Image:TauTyr2.jpg|right|500px|thumb|Close-quarters painting [[Drawfag|strikes again.]] (What a badass Hammerhead pilot)]]
The Tau military is basically the cherished love child of the United States military and its Japanese anime waifu.

The Tau disdain [[Choppy|melee]] [[Rip and tear|combat]] in favour of [[Shooty|ranged combat]], which renders them instantaneously [[Matt Ward|less manly]] in the eyes of most of /tg/'s playerbase. The reasons behind this are complicated. Generally, Tau see hand to hand combat in warfare as an anachronism, which makes sense, considering their basic guns can rip apart tank side armour. In addition, the Tau's body is adapted for flying — prehistoric Tau had gliding flaps like flying squirrels — thus compared to almost all other major races Tau have less muscle strength (heck, less body mass in general), have lower reaction speed, and are hyperopic/farsighted. In their initial design it was said in their first White Dwarf that they are a race that adopted the bow and arrow rather than how humanity adopted the sword.

That said, Tau do practice martial arts - Fire Warrior trials and rites involve knives. Ethereals have a tradition of fighting non-lethal duels to settle disputes, using sharp bladed weapons no less, so they are often quite good with their fighting style, as [[Aun'Shi]] has shown to some unfortunate Orks (keep in mind Aun'shi trained against Shas'Vre to get that good). And although the average Tau is indeed slightly weaker than an average human, they're still close enough to be Strength 3 just like Imperial Guardsmen. It's just that close combat is not their strong suit and they would rather fall back on guns than blades.

The Tau practice economy of force, which has consequences both on and off the battlefield. Sending excessive amounts of force at a target is wasteful, as the excess firepower would be more useful elsewhere. This is also an economic matter, as lower power units are cheaper and the Tau do not have an infinite supply of the rare materials needed to produce the strongest Battlesuits.

The Tau's superior [[Dakka|firepower]] is similar to that of the [[Imperial Guard]], but their strategy is much different, with an emphasis on tactical precision, mobility, the application of technology, and the initiative of individual units. Their military doctrine is not based on winning by attrition, not just because they disdain it but also because they simply can't afford it. Well, hey CAN afford it, but they cannot afford both attrition warfare and high standard of living that sells their Greater Good ideology. Therefore they take great pains to avoid the bloody epic clusterfucks that characterize the style of warfare that is preferred by other factions such as the Imperium and Orks. In short, Tau use modern warfare tactics and strategies in a universe where everyone else fights like it's WW2.

Rather, they use infiltration and their sophisticated battlesuits to [[Anal Circumference|bypass enemy strong points and launch deep into their rear]], cutting supply lines and logistics, destroying headquarters and support units, leaving enemies cut off and functionally helpless. There are numerous examples of Tau literally starving and/or thirsting entire armies to death by cutting out their supply lines, while simultaneously harassing them with night raids, ambushes and air strikes to the point the survivors are leaderless, demoralized, out of ammo and fuel, and can barely stand due to exhaustion. The [[Imperial_Armour_Volume_Three:_The_Taros_Campaign#Volume_Three_-_The_Taros_Campaign|Taros]] campaign is a prime example of these tactics (and of the Imperium's strategic stupidity).

Of course, these kinds of tactics only work fine against more convenient armies like the Imperial Guard or Orks. When it comes to Space Marines and Eldar, who sport mostly aerial/warp/webway supply lines, operate as elite armies without obvious weak spots to exploit, have similar or superior tactical mobility and badass officers that can survive most assassination attempts, Tau lose huge parts of their usual advantages (but get the numerical superiority in return). Against utterly unconventional foes, like Tyranids, Daemons or Necrons... well, all times they faced such foes, Tau either devised some entirely new strategies, or lost horribly.

[[File:TauTyr.jpg|thumb|left|300px|90% of Tau [[dakka]] comes in the form of [[Plasma|pretty blue lights.]]]]
The Tau, again, boast some of the most powerful ranged weaponry on the tabletop game, and can crank out more concentrated firepower than any other faction with the lone exceptions of the Imperial Guard and maybe the orks if you only count number of bullets in the air, and even then, the Tau's weapons hit quite a bit harder. They have pathetic hand-to-hand combat skills, however, and so the Tau bolster this by using several inducted races (the [[Kroot]], Vespid, and even some [[Gue'vesa|humans cut off from the Imperium during the Damocles Crusade]]) to act as buffers against assault troops to allow Tau Fire Warrior teams and their heavy, long-ranged firepower to tear enemies apart. The most pivotal, and perhaps most infamous, part of the Tau army are their [[Battlesuit|Battlesuits]], which can mount multiple heavy weapon systems and provide excellent mobility to their pilots, all on a fairly durable unit.

The Tau space navy is strong for its size, and Tau warships are quite powerful on a one-for-one basis. Tau air units are among the best in the game as well, with aircraft that are equal to and often superior to their Imperial Guard equivalents, including a stealth fighter, multipurpose heavy fighter, a superheavy fighter with guns that can one-shot a Titan, and their own [[Manta|Titan-equivalent]] (which is a small starship). Unlike the Imperium, they freely deploy flyers in very large numbers, with only Orks, Tyranids, and perhaps Necrons able to rival them in numbers when it's time to dogfight. Of course this is the way the Imperial fleets' atmospheric support craft are ''supposed'' to work too if fleet officers weren't a bunch of assholes who do everything they can to provide as little air support as possible.

On defense, the Tau are a bit unusual: they leave only token garrisons at their colonies to protect them. These garrisons are intended for scouting rather than combat, avoiding engagement in order to observe and report on invaders using Pathfinders, scanning towers, and drones. Because the Tau have fairly powerful spacefleets and usually keep their forces within reasoned distance of potential hotspots, any potential threat can be quickly dealt with by organizing a hunter cadre to be sent to deal with the situation. For those of you who don't get it, it's Frederick the Great's "he who tries to protect everything protects nothing" strategy.

Of course, this strategy means Tau must have some worlds actually being heavily defended - and in fact they do. Sept worlds tend to be guarded by some nasty space stations and garrisoned by large numbers of hunter cadres and auxiliary troops. This allows such worlds to act as major defensive nodes from which response fleets can be dispatched and to which evacuation fleets rally (think feudal Japan style castles from which commanders would send trained garrisons out to protect the lands around it from encroaching armies). In case some really scary shit like an Imperial crusade or a Tyranid hive-fleet comes into the sept, it is on the sept world where the decisive battle is fought (See the First Damocles Crusade for an example of this tactic in action).

This has, however, backfired on occasion, since it does mean that the Tau garrisons are very vulnerable in the initial stages of an attack. It also makes them very vulnerable to Orphean War style rapid assaults where the attacker is advancing so quickly the defender doesn't even have time to relay the news that they're under attack to the rest of their army. While the Tau haven't yet faced something like the Maynarkh Dynasty, they are awfully close to the Sautekh Dynasty and Imotekh is a noted cantankerous asshole and egotistical conqueror.

A distinct advantage the Tau have is their willingness to change military strategy without ego. As examples, look at how they changed tactics in reaction to the [[Damocles Crusade]] by the Imperium of Man, and even built an entirely new space fleet to match humans in straight-on space fights, or their unusual but effective choice of switching to older weapons when dealing with [[Hive Fleet Gorgon]].

==Fleet==
[[File:Tau_Map.JPG|500pc|right|thumb|The Domain of the Weebs.]]

In the old fluff, the T'au used to have equip their ships with reverse-engineered warp drives from an unknown faction that crashed a starship on one of their home world's moons. Using their gravitic wave technology (think a sail) they used this to skim the surface of the warp before bouncing back to the Materium after a short while (1/3 the speed of optimal Imperial warp drives).

New fluff, on the other hand, has retconned that by giving them what is called a "slingshot drive" or "skip drive." From what little fluff we have on it, it looks like the reality-based theoretical warp drive (in the modern physics meaning, i.e. the Alcubierre bubble). The practical applications, however, are the same in both new and old fluff - Tau FTL is much slower than the Imperium's, but is predictable, reliable, and not affected by warp storms (a big deal, given Tau spent half of their history inside one). As a result, Tau are capable of building highly reliable interstellar logistics lines over short distances, but their strategic mobility is... lacking, to say the least. Compared to pretty much every other faction the Tau move at an absolute snail's pace, hence the reason why their worlds are so tightly packed together. Of course, if the slingshot drive was THE best way to travel normally without the Warp and to avoid Warp phenomena, the radically more advanced Dark Age Humanity would have slapped the drives on every type of ship they had. They didn't, which implies that this technology is a dead end, a stopgap solution at best.

Additionally, slingshot drives are rather big, heavy, and power-hungry, even compared to the Warp drive (which itself can constitute 1/3 the volume of an Imperial ship). As a result, escort-class Tau spacecraft are built without FTL drives and are hooked to bigger ships for the purpose of interstellar travel, which basically make them equivalents of the Imperium's system monitor ships, with the same benefits (cheap, compact, fast, powerful and durable for their size) without their major downside (being incapable of FTL flight). Tau FTL limitations mean that they have to be more precise in how they concentrate their forces; they can't throw a bunch of ships into a warzone from halfway across the galaxy as Orks and humans can.
Tau empire have two fleets:
*Kor'Vatra, or "merchant fleet", is made of older modular ships that double as merchant and colony vessels (hence the name). One of their main shticks is huge arcs of fire for most gun batteries, with side batteries easily covering front arc, and nose batteries covering all but the stern - as a result, while Kor'vatra Ships may not have as much firepower as Imperial or Ork ones, they can focus more of it on one target. On the flip side, merchant ships while decently fast at sub-light, are not very agile, and must rely on escort wings and auxiliary fleets against more maneuverable foes. Even after the founding of Kor'Or'Vesh, the Kor'Vatra still see a lot of military use, especially against the Imperium, <i>precisely</i> because it's regarded as a non-military fleet. This is so Tau diplomats could tell their Imperial colleagues, "What battle cruisers on your orbit are you talking about? It's just our merchant vessels, moving goods to and from our trade missions."
*Kor'Or'Vesh, or "combat fleet" is a newer fleet, made for battling the Imperium's fleet in straight up combat, after Kor'Vatra got run over during the Damocles crusade. Made out of more compact, maneuverable and better armored ships, it may lack Kor'Vatra's wide arcs of fire, but is superior in every other regard, and as the Taros and second Damocles campaigns showed, it is more than capable of fighting off humans even if outnumbered.
Both fleets use largely the same technologies: railguns as short-range (by Tau standards), high-damage gun batteries; ion cannons as long-range beams (lance equivalent); and, above all, powerful small-craft ordnance (second only to Eldar and available in far greater numbers). Mantas, Barracudas, and EMP drone-torpedoes reign supreme at extreme ranges, gaining the Tau navy the same reputation their ground armies have. Because their small-craft ordnance is so powerful, most Tau ships tend more towards carrier and torpedo boat archetypes than battleships, and suffer horribly if an enemy comes within macro-cannon or boarding range (note the "if"). Technically, Imperial warships are, as they are when compared to most other factions, far superior. The problem for the Imperium is, like always, those warships are very rare, built in tiny numbers, and never around when you need them.

==Non-combat Fluff==
[[File:Tau city.jpg|450px|thumb|right|Contrary to what [[Imperium of Man|some]] believe, what this picture shows might just be the future for the entire galaxy if the Tau [[Great Crusade|get their way.]]]]
The Tau were a new race/culture found by the Imperium of Man during their "slash and burn" exploration of their galactic neighborhood. The Tau were still pastoral, had just discovered flint tools and charcoal, and the Imperium had them scheduled for "[[Grimdark|routine cleansing]]" (Low Gothic for “ruthless genocide”) and make room for colonization. Needless to say, that plan was promptly [[derp|fucked up]]. By an unfortunate (or fortunate, depending on your viewpoint) coincidence which almost certainly involved the dickery of [[Tzeentch]] or [[Cegorach]] or [[The Deceiver|something]], warp storms started hitting the entire galaxy, right around the rise of Vandire, which occluded the Tau homeworld, so nobody could get in or out. Since the Tau were virtually invisible in the warp, the warp storm didn't have much of an effect on them as they were immune to the influences of Chaos.

[[FAIL|The sector was labeled "lost to Chaos,"]] and cleansing was [[What|deferred indefinitely]]. Then [[Age of Apostasy|this shit]] happened, and almost all records about Tau were lost in the ensuring [[Rape|clusterfuck]] of civil war. Only the Adeptus Mechanicus still had records of this first contact when the storm died down 6,000 years later. By then, the Tau had expanded to fill out the 'Cluster', colonizing hundreds of planets and incorporating dozens of alien races. They were put back on the radar when the Imperium found out their border worlds Kleist and Garrus, and probably a bunch of others, changed sides and gave up on Terra.

The Damocles Crusade was launched. The extermination order still stood—it was just going to be much more difficult than the Imperium expected, seeing as the Tau, instead of [[C.S. Goto|throwing spears and rocks at their tanks]] and Space Marines, were now throwing [[ion cannon|ion charges]], <s>[[plasma|plasma blasts]]</s> particle accelerators (pulse rifles), and [[railgun|electromagnetically-accelerated hypervelocity projectiles]] at their tanks and Space Marines.

Tau history is pretty typical up through the iron-age: a knack for engineering, warfare between "urban" farmers and "barbarian" nomads, and unrestrained growth causing a series of plagues, leading to a dark age. Here's where things go sideways, though the Tau see it as the start of their endless Golden Age: the arrival of the Ethereals. Legend tells of a five-year siege at the castle of Fio'taun, with both sides starving and succumbing to disease, when two foreign Tau entered the battlefield. One went to the castle, the other to the barbarian tribes. Each of these Tau had a quiet grace and irresistible authority. In just a few hours, the castle was persuaded to open their gates, and the barbarians laid down their weapons, and both parties met to parley a truce.

These strange Tau called themselves "Ethereals," and stressed the importance of peace and understanding between all Tau. They described a "Greater Good" that each Tau must strive towards. Soon after, soon enough to seem simultaneous, more of these strange new Tau emerged across the continent with their message of peace and co-operation for all Tau. Their quiet authority was always respected, and their message of harmony was universally embraced. Wait a minute, [[God-Emperor of Mankind|I've seen this]] [[Great Crusade|historical pattern before]]....

Perhaps uniquely for the setting, Tau-human interactions bear the whiff of realpolitik. On the one hand, the Imperium wants to exterminate them ''eventually'', but the upper management generally realizes that the Tau are going to be a giant drain of resources and manpower to get rid of, given the stiff resistance they put up in [[Damocles Crusade|previous campaigns]] and their [[Riptide|uniformly]] [[railgun|advanced]] [[battlesuit|technology]]. Furthermore, they serve as a useful buffer state against various threats on the Eastern Fringe, from Orks and Chaos raiders to Tyranid hive fleets to alien forces the Imperium hasn't had (recorded) contact with. Their existence deflects danger from Imperial space, and in a place and time when the Imperium is [[Time of Ending|coming under attack from all sides]], that's more important than dogma.

This strategy is not unique to the Tau only though, as the Imperium allows countless other (much more dangerous) xeno empires to prosper in the Eastern Fringe to serve as an ablative shield against much nastier shit. Amongst those is (for example) the Charadon ork empire, which is older than the Imperium and spawns a Waaagh! once or twice per millennium (even with the routine warboss assasination raids that the Ultramarines make). Even after the emergence of the genius warboss Snagrod and his Waagh on Rynn no one cared to issue a crusade against them. So yeah, the Tau Empire is not even close to being recognized as a threat dangerous enough to actually do something about.

Conversely, the Tau have realized just how massive an undertaking expanding through the entire galaxy would really be, and are taking it slow. They mostly absorb Imperial buffer worlds stripped of manpower and armament in the face of massive redeployments to face other threats, offering the Empire's protection in return for annexation. When this doesn't work, the Tau outright conquer the places that don't take the deal. The Tau have claimed that they are engaging in this sort of aggressive behavior because ''someone's'' going to [[Tyranids|gobble]] those settlements up sooner or later, and if ''they'' don't do it, then whoever does won't be [[Exterminatus|nearly as nice about it]]. While baldly self-serving, that logic is... well, mostly correct, really.

There's no love lost between the Imperium and the Tau, but open full-scale war is probably unlikely in the near-future after the stalemate of the Second Damocles Crusade and the veritable host of far greater existential threats that the Imperium is currently facing.

Looking at the new galactic map, where the Tau are now sandwiched between their own eye of terror and a Necron dynasty, they are soon to be fucked...<s>Maybe...</s> And lo and behold, they done got buttfucked by the Death Guard! But it's not all bad as they've found a cure for 1st generation Genestealer infections and they've finally broken out of their nook with the 5th Sphere; one of their biggest fears was being stuck in a globular cluster because one super nova could still put the kibosh on the whole thing.

However things turn out, as they continue to expand the Tau will inevitably see renewed clashes with the factions arrayed against them.

=== Castes ===
[[File:Commander HawkEye.jpg|thumb|290px|right|<s>Join the Greater Good, lose your virginity to a hot alien babe!</s> Non-approved sexual contact is an offence to the Greater Good, Gue'la. Now get back to work or you won't get your overtime pay! TAU GET OVERTIME PA{{BLAM}}{{BLAM|Asking questions is heresy!}} <span style='color:blue;font-size:115%;font-family:serif'>*PEW* You are an affront to the Greater Good, gue'ui.</span>]]
Tau society after the arrival of Ethereals was organized into castes; everyone with a place, and a place for everyone. [[Love Can Bloom|Interbreeding between castes and Xenos races]] is one of the most severe crimes in the Empire, in other words, [[Heresy]]. This was outlawed by the [[Ethereal]]s presumably to preserve the biological differences between castes; the result is the creation of 5 sub-species. Tau society does have many examples of romance, and there are designations of 'pair' bonding at least amongst the Earth Caste. The Tau have children which they both raise and also send to the creches but they seem to monitor birth rates (likely to match resource levels as well as provide an additional level of social engineering).

There also seems to be a tribal system that remains from pre-Caste days that we don't know too much about. We know that bloodlines have some kind of importance, but as a meritocracy, it does not have a bearing on social constraints. They also can have relatively large families, Shadowsun had three sisters for example.

Breeding is managed by the Earth Caste, but, there is at least one instance where a pair-bond has their own child, so perhaps there is a degree of choice ''(if real caste systems are any guide, the Earth Caste probably only cares about the castes and septs the pair come from)''. Otherwise, Tau are paired in a way that will create the best biological result. An Imperial genetor's report in the fourth edition Tau codex observes the presence of synthetic proteins in Tau internal organs and suggests them as evidence that their evolution has been accelerated, though he might have been confused by synthetic proteins that the Tau were given as the Tau make extensive use of things like advanced medicines and treatments. [[/tg/]] seems to be under the strong impression that they are mammals, as you can see in the picture further down the page, despite the complete implausibility of this theory. The frequent [[/d/|sexualization]] of the Tau by fa/tg/uys remains a mystery.

It is very important to note that a Tau's caste is inherited from the parents, and under no circumstances can a Tau's caste be changed. On one hand, this helps explain why Tau forbid inter-caste mating. On the other, it means that the Caste system applies ''only'' to the Tau themselves. Aliens have no caste to inherit, and thus can never be inducted into a Tau caste. This remains true no matter how many generations pass. Therefore, while aliens within the Tau Empire are certainly able to rise to positions that hold great responsibility and respect while living lives of relative freedom, they will forever remain outside the caste system. And because the caste system inherently favors the Tau, it is an ugly little secret of the Empire that for all their talk of equality, aliens remain somewhat second-class citizens compared to the Tau themselves. Obviously, the Tau don't care to discuss such topics.

==== {{anchor|Fire|Fire Caste}} Shas (Fire) ====
The '''Fire Caste''' consists of the various [[Fire Warrior|warriors]] of the Tau Empire. The miniatures of a Tau army in a [[Warhammer 40,000]] game are almost exclusively Fire Caste. Other castes think Shas are overly-aggressive hotheads due to their tendency to solve all problems by applying more plasma (when the Tau first encountered other sentient species, Fire Caste representatives immediately voted to hunt down and exterminate them, just like they hunted down dangerous local life forms on the other world they colonized). Whether or not Fire Caste members are ''actually'' "overly aggressive" compared to other [[Wyches|kinky]], [[Haemonculus|horrid]], [[World_Eaters|Earthshatteringly mad]], [[Night_Lords|batshit insane]], [[Blood Angels|bloodthirsty]] individuals and groups is a matter of debate. On the other hand, it also shows how calm and disciplined other castes are as well as the importance of the balance that the Ethereals bring to the Tau.

Fire Caste are taller than Earth Caste Tau, and physically stronger than the Air and Water Castes, though they are slightly shorter than the average 40k human.

==== {{anchor|Earth|Earth Caste}} Fio (Earth) ====
The '''Earth Caste''' are the laborers and engineers; they are the "civilians" of Tau society. Their appearance can vary widely, though other Tau would describe them as "plain." They all have a stoic outlook, with little ambition other than to excel in their career of choice and work for the Greater Good. Unlike the Imperial worker classes, whose quality of life generally ''starts'' at working 14-hour days seven days a week while living off of dried recycled dung chips and goes [[Such is life on Volg|''downhill from there'']], the Earth caste is mostly concerned with technological planning and engineering as well as artwork which they incorporate into their creations. They are also scientists and work hand in hand with the Water Caste to develop new technologies (like the rail rifle).

The Farsight Enclaves field some Earth Caste pilots for their battlesuits, demonstrating their more flexible caste systems and/or their desperation for manpower but there are examples of Earth Caste work teams being able to defend themselves in a pinch.

==== {{anchor|Air|Air Caste}} Kor (Air) ====
The '''Air Caste''' are the aerospace specialists of the Tau. In more primitive times they served as messengers and couriers, and sometimes scouts/explorers, gliding on membranous anatomical wings like flying squirrels through T'au's atmosphere (although this might be a myth). When the Tau started exploring offworld, it was the Air Caste that took charge of the vessels traveling between the stars and became tall with super frail physiques due to zero-g living. Now the Air Caste are the Tau stellar navy/airforce/mailmen, piloting the Empire's various carriers, warships, and emissary cruisers. Air caste Tau tend to be tall and slender like runners or dancers, and this is frequently exaggerated by the years the Tau navy spends in low-gravity.

Despite their slender stature and lack of muscle mass, Air caste pilots are extremely resistant to G-force, making them excellent void and atmospheric fighter pilots (simultaneously, as small Tau voidcraft also double as atmospheric craft). They also, clearly, have engineer and military classes as they live in Air Caste cities made up of their own population; going to show that Castes have multiple cross overs for responsibilities rather than anything as rigid as the Farsight books describe.

==== {{anchor|Water|Water Caste}} Por (Water) ====
The '''Water Caste''' are the emissaries of the Tau. They are diplomats, merchants, and civil servants. The most open-minded Tau can be found among the Water caste, with some even showing individual ambition (but still for the greater good of the Tau Empire). When a new culture is encountered, the Water caste are sent in first to negotiate. If talks break down, the Water caste are withdrawn so that the Fire Caste can start negotiating with pulse weapon fire. Also, unlike their Imperial equivalents in bureaucracy, the [[Administratum]], they are brisk, efficient, and very good at their jobs. No dumping valuable ammo on an uninhabited dust world because no one signed the paperwork not to.

It's a lesser known fact that Pors also run the Tau intelligence and espionage network, and Por'Os and Por'Els from this branch are pretty much Tau Inquisitors except more competent, much saner, and not nearly as good at kicking asses personally. As of the second Damocles Crusade the Imperium has designated the Water caste as a primary threat above any other Tau caste. This is because the Water caste's skill in subterfuge, diplomacy and propaganda has cost the Imperium more worlds and manpower than the Fire and Air caste's military prowess combined. They even managed to totally outplay the Inquisition on its own field, which royally pissed them off, even turning an Inquisitor (O'Va'Dem) to their side, as seen in the novel ''Broken Sword''.

The Air Caste also do a quite a lot of things like leading exploration initiatives like the one that discovered the Kroot empire as it was getting rickrolled by the Orks, and fought for their liberation for 12 years.

==== {{anchor|Ethereal|Ethereal Caste}} Aun (Ethereal) ====
The '''Ethereal Caste''' are basically the philosopher-kings described by Plato in "The Republic". In theory, they are selfless and always focused on what is best for the Greater Good ("Tau'va") for all Tau without exception. The Ethereals are inspirational to all Tau caste members, and merely being near one will inspire a Tau soldier, engineer, pilot, or diplomat to work harder.

In the case of the Fire Caste, some Ethereals accompany hunter cadres in battle during important deployments so as to better lead/inspire the troops, which works because all Tau in the combat zone will fight to their bitter deaths. They also seem to have semi-magical powers (don't ask how they work, none of the Tau know themselves) that allow Tau around them to do special things, like running while shooting. The [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] theorizes that the respect the Ethereal Caste gets from all other Tau is caused by a pheromone. <b>ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTAU......</b>. The Tau laugh at this suggestion, of course.
Also, ''[[Xenology]]'' relates a story from a major, insectoid race called the [[Q'Orl]] which alleges that the [[Eldar]] stole one of their queens. Given that these queens have a magic, yellow, diamond-shaped sack that produces mind-control pheromone... well, let's just say the characters in the story figure it out quickly enough. There is a theory that the Ethereals themselves are also affected by their own pheromones, which could explain why they're so selfless and uncorrupted despite their absolute power (although being uncorrupted no longer seems to apply after 7th/8th edition).

This can also be supported by the (old as fuck and likely retconned) novelization of [[Warhammer_40,000:_Fire_Warrior|Fire Warrior]], where the Ethereal character has a pretty level head and chipper demeanor despite having been [[Anal_Circumference|repeatedly captured and tortured by both the Inquisition and Chaos, watching his diplomatic retinue chopped up by a Chaos Lord, and mind-raped by said Chaos Lord all in the span of roughly two days.]] Either he's a stoic old motherfucker, or he's just too busy tripping his blue balls on his own pheromones to give a shit.

8th ed has a particularly interesting story in it and it proves without a shadow of a doubt: the Ethereal caste does use some kind of mind-altering substance or influence on the Tau. During a meeting with Commander O'Ryn and Aun'Va (who is a solid hologram controlled by an AI at this point) in the planet of Junica, their location was ambushed by Chaos forces and Aun'Va (or the AI acting like Aun'Va) ordered O'Ryn to send her forces on what's essentially a suicide mission. O'Ryn, not seeing the point of throwing her and her soldiers' lives at such a hopeless battle, actually ''defied'' the command of an ethereal (and the space pope himself, no less) and retreated. It could've been an interesting and pretty terrifying critique of how manipulative a totalitarian system can be and that the Ethereals don't shy away from anything to keep the people in line. But no, it was explained with mind control, which is way lazier and honestly way less terrifying (that's because Phil Kelly wrote it). Yet, then there is another example of Aun'shi who hides his ridge crest so that none of the other Tau know he's an Ethereal.

You pick which is more likely- clearly GW can't.

O'Ryn was eventually declared a renegade and Farsight took her in, but it does indeed prove that the unflinching and unquestioning loyalty and fanaticism that the Ethereals' physical presence inspire on nearby Tau aren't due to their charisma or the Tau's indoctrination, and instead on something more sinister. To put this into perspective: O'Ryn has been the first Tau since Farsight to actively defy an ethereal's command and the main reason she was able to do so was because she was speaking to an AI-controlled drone, instead of the actual space pope.

...so it doesn't matter.

Additionally, in the novel Farsight: Crisis of Faith by Phil Kelly (detailing the Farsight Expedition) not only is a Tau Water Caste Magister possessed by a daemon of Tzeentch (which is bullshit), but the Magister is then banished [[Mary Sue|by Farsight carving a bloody hexagram into its chest with his bonding knife]] (Imperium Hexagrammic Wards don't even work that way, but fuck other writers, am I right phil?). Aun'Va uses mind control to have the Magister's superior kill herself. Why? Because he'd dared to say the truth out loud, that the Ethereals were eager to send Farsight off to Damocles so that the immensely popular golden boy won't become a challenge to their rule back home. The ambassador went to her death thinking the ever reasonable Ethereals would let her off with a slap on the wrist for what was basically a breach of etiquette, instead she was dominated into committing suicide for ''being the mentor of someone who'd cast the tiniest bit of doubt on Ethereal motives''.

...Which begs the question, "Why?" Why would the Ethereals care about revealing the truth about Daemons when the Tau have been fighting Daemons for hundreds of years? They don't have religion, they don't feed the Warp, daemons should have nothing to fuck-do with the Tau except as a speed bump to somewhere-else-ville. This replay of the Emperor's rule book is just more lazy writing.

Farsight originally lost his Ethereals and kept going because he though he knew better than them and because he was still butthurt from Arkunasha. He's guilty of believing he knows what is best for his fellow renegades, and he's probably not wrong... so he stays out beyond the Gulf so that he can continue the fight.

===Tau Names===
[[File:Tau_Lexicon_2015_ver.1.0.pdf|right|thumb|250px|A fanmade document that dives a little into Tau lexicon]]
Tau have ridiculously long, detailed and actually meaningful names. Their names contain their caste, rank, birth sept, and one or more nicknames earned by them through the course of their lives. Fluff does say that they ''do'' have birth names, but those are only used before tau earn at least one appropriate nickname, as a name given to them by comrades is considered more valuable than one just chosen by random at their birth. The nickname part and its importance surprisingly is actually taken from the Roman culture, which is weird, given most Tau culture tend to be based on China and Japan (except for their social and government structures which are copied almost verbatim from Plato's Republic).

Also, do note the lack of last names, which is expected, since Tau society pretty much have no institute of a family, with children being raised in centralized facilities apart from their parents. As a Tau grows, moves through ranks and achieves the respect of their comrades their name changes appropriately, switching the rank part, adding new nicknames and sometimes dropping the old and outdated ones. For example, when Farsight was still a lowly fire warrior, his name was '''Shas'La Vior'La Shoh''' (Fire Caste Private of the Hot-Blooded sept Inner Light), and at the "present days" '''Shas'O Vior'La Shovah Kais Mont'yr''' (Fire Caste Commander of the Hot-Blooded sept Farsight Skillful Blooded). How the fuck Tau bureaucracy is able to keep track of their population with their names constantly changing is a mystery, but it seems they have no problem with that, probably because they just track ID numbers when names are too much of an issue like most sane people who work with databases.

For the sake of convenience Tau often use shortened versions of names, almost always dropping the sept part and secondary nicknames, and if speaking within one caste the caste part too, so in the case of Farsight other fire warriors could refer to him as O'Shovah, while for example an Ethereal would call him Shas'O'Shovah (assuming Farsight allows this; given his seething hatred of Ethereals he's the type who'd force them to use his full name out of spite). Humans and other non-Tau often get this system wrong and shorten the names in a ways that make little sense: for example, Imperium's Taros invasion force thought the Taros' chief Ethereal's name was Aun'El, which was only his caste and rank, and as the book was mostly written from the Imperium's standpoint, we still don't know what his actual name was.

One final stroke of Tau naming is that as they abandon their true (birth) names it makes them even more resistant to sorcery and daemonic powers that often require the target's true name to amplify their effect or even make the spell work at all.

===Psychic/Chaos Defenses===
Tau as a species are comprised of psychic blunts. They cannot produce psykers and have limited innate resistance to some forms of psychic powers and daemonic bullshit. People often mistake this resistance to outright invulnerability, but in truth it's more akin to camouflage. Tau DO have souls, but their souls cast such a dim light in the Warp that they are, at best, indistinguishable from the spirits of non-sapients, and at times they even blend into the psychic background of inanimate objects. This may have something to do with how unemotional Tau are, as some of the more descriptive bits of fluff demonstrate how warp shenanigans like faint whispers and creeping feelings of "wrongness" may cause humans to freak out and try to run away immediately, the more calm and collected Tau don't notice anything strange at all. Likewise, if a psyker tries to mind-rape a Tau or a daemon tries to posses a Tau they'd find it hard to find a soul to target at all, but in the unlikely event that they were somehow successful, there would be even less resistance than with regular humans. Sadly while this trait is often shown in the fluff, it does not affect Tau crunch in any way aside from their total lack of psykers.

This innate defense is further strengthened by the Greater Good philosophy deeply indoctrinated into each Tau from childhood and reinforced through the subtle control exerted by the Ethereals. Tau'Va is the antithesis of all the creeds of Chaos, which makes Tau all but immune to its temptations, and only two Tau have ever actually fallen to Chaos. The first was the Water Caste member Water Spider, who was possessed by a Daemon of Tzeentch - although, rather amusingly, the daemon forced Water Spider to become obsessed with the truth, something abhorrent to the Water Caste. The second was [[Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior|Shas'la Kais]]. Though Kais was untained in the video game adaptation, the much better novelization had Kais getting an assist from Khorne throughout his adventure, though he was permanently scarred by Khorne's influence and the conflict. [[Grimdark|This left him permanently insane and hospitalized, unable to meaningfully respond to his friends and environment]].) That being said, the Tau have only just been exposed to the more material horrors of the galaxy; should they become jaded and start losing faith in the Greater Good (as inferred with giving up on indoctrinating certain species), well, that would be an entirely different situation. Their allies, including the Kroot, have sometimes been known to go all-in with Chaos worship, although Tau seldom take culture from their allied races.

8th Ed is here, and has confirmed that the Tau aren't immune to Chaos, just rather difficult for Daemons to spot. When the Tau started the 4th Sphere Expansion with their new warp drives they didn't take a note from the Imperials' tech and failed to invent the [[Gellar Field]] too, meaning they were fully vulnerable to the Warp's denizens. The entire experience was hilarious. First was the unpredictability of their warp drives (known as "slipstream technology" to them) that caused most of their expeditionary fleet to be destroyed due to unleashing massive tears in the fabric of reality, [[lulz|while being broadcasted to the Tau sept worlds, causing the Ethereals to rapidly evacuate their bowels as they scramble to censor the event for the wider populace.]] Those that weren't immediately torn up by the warp rifts were sucked into the Warp where a vast majority was either destroyed after drifting in the more unsavory parts of the Warp or by the various daemons mucking about.

Contact was lost, but the Tau managed to find the survivors later, nestled into several worlds that were the original target for conquest. The Tau that survived, however, were acting weird. Some of them had clearly rejected the Greater Good, while some worshiped a voice that they claim to be the Greater Good itself (which may or may not be a warp entity), while some were outright driven insane. A disturbing trend about them was their total [[Imperium|xenophobia and brutality]]. Any non-Tau who wasn't driven off from the 4th Sphere colonies were murdered because [[Chaos God|something]] was telling the survivors that the auxiliaries were the reason for their loss and torment due to their more powerful connection to the Warp.

That being said, they're still hard for Daemons to see, considering that the Fourth Sphere dove into the Warp unprotected and "merely" got off with plain Chaos corruption when most people who try that shit critfail their [[anal circumference]] roll and either gets torn apart by daemon cocks or becomes [[Chaos Spawn|a Chaos spaaauuuughgghblblblbbl]].

Also, the 8E Daemons Codex does mention one Tau agri-world that was cut off from supplies, eventually succumbing to the native faith revering a certain "Rainfather" - [[Rotigus]] Rainfather, a notorious [[Great Unclean One]].

As always, any inconsistency on how the Tau are, or aren't, affected by Warp exposure is entirely GW's fault.

==Alliances==
[[File:Illus4.jpg|280px|right|thumb|Unfortunately for some [[Slaanesh|deviants]] [[Extra Heresy|and heretical elements on]] [[/tg/]]. [[Not as Planned|This is what an actual canon Tau Female looks like.]] No boobs, no curves, no ass, no redeeming qualities other than having a face of your grandmother and the nose of a mutilated vag. Know the alien. Hate the alien. Purge the alien. The Emperor Protects! <s>This is an Ethereal though, so the other castes should be fair game.</s>]]
{{MattWard}}

In 6th edition, Tau are notable for being one of two factions (the other being Imperial Guard) who can ally with anyone except for 'Nids. Yes, this includes [[Wat|both Chaos Space Marines and Chaos Daemons]].

Their current level of naïveté led to a few... ''interesting'' alliances, to say the least.

First off, Tau ''can'' ally with [[Ork]]s, even though fluff-wise they are viewed as enemies of the Greater Good to be purged wherever encountered. Smaller Ork warbands (mostly [[Blood Axes]]) frequently act as mercenaries, of course, so the Tau might use them in that capacity. Plus, there might be fluff changes coming up (most notably, it was rumored that the [[Gretchin Revolutionary Committee]] would return in the new Orks codex; they, of course, would get along quite well with the Tau).

They are also battle brothers with both the Space Marines and Eldar, which has caused a large amount of headscratching on /tg/. The Eldar make a modicum of sense; after all, the Eldar are well known for being expert manipulators. A Tau-Space Marine alliance, though, would be odd, to say the least, since Tau and Space Marines are always going at it in the [[fluff]]. Of course, a minor [[Space Marine Chapter|chapter]] could always find an alliance with the Tau, or even [[Heresy|join the Greater Good]], but that seems far-fetched at best. Old fluff from back in the 3rd edition codex tells a story of a Tau commander letting an Apothecary remove the progenoid glands from dead Marines, establishing that the Tau are honourable warriors in the minds of this particular chapter. It isn't too hard to guess that someone at GW felt that the battle brothers thing was a bit of a head-desk move, so they tried to fix it.

The weirdest part, though, is that Tau ''aren't'' Battle Brothers with the Imperial Guard, despite (or maybe because of) the existence of [[Gue'vesa]] (Imperial Guard defectors).

7th edition corrected all of this for the Tau, making them only battle brothers with themselves and certain allies of convenience, like Necrons and the Eldar, while the rest are desperate allies or, in the case of daemons and 'Nids, Come the Apocalypse. This effectively "fixes" the issue from the point of view of a butthurt puritan while still allowing for those who bought Tau models to include them as allies in their games.

8th edition totally destroyed any chance of Tau having allies in matched play games. Taudar is dead, thank fuck. It's almost like going around attacking everyone who refuses your offer of pseudo-enslavement is a bad way to make friends.

==Tau Member Races==
[[File:Dynamic entry by majesticchicken.jpg|right|thumb|550px|Look up fuckers! You're invited to the latest imperial party and we're not taking "no" for an answer!]]
The Tau are the only faction that willingly accept other races into their ranks. Typically, the races are extended a hand from the Water Caste first, and if they still pose a problem or otherwise refuse to be reasoned with, the Fire Warriors are sent in. It should be noted that tau usually are not in haste of annexing the world, and if the aliens don't want to join right now but aren't immediately hostile and open to trade, Water Caste would slowly but surely convert them into a Greater Good to the point that one day they themselves would ask to join the Empire. The species, when annexed or conquered, are usually allowed to keep their planet, but must answer to the authority of the local Ethereal and possibly the local Shas'o. Most of them are fluff and don't show up on the tabletop, but it would get a little ridiculous if you could purport to play a 'single' 40k race that included, like, twelve different races.

* Demiurg - <s>[[Squats]] reborn.</s> <s>NOT ANYMORE the Squats are back and not Demiurg at all!</s> They might have been retconned into being part of the [[Leagues of Votann|new Squats]], it's still unclear. They are a race of space-faring miners specializing in ionic weaponry who serve the Tau with their engineering and mining abilities. They make an appearance in Battlefleet Gothic: Armada though, so that's nice.
* Galgs - NOT FROG/TOAD people, big internet snafu here. They have tentacles and chose not to fight the Tau when they realized they'd get steamrolled by the Fire Caste.
* [[Gue'vesa]] - Humans who have not only defected to the Tau, but chosen to take up arms and fight alongside them to serve the Greater Good. Rules for them are found in [[Forge World|Forge World's]] Imperial Armour Volume 3. (If the current trend goes on we may see Sisters join up with the Tau, <s>which might be an improvement for the Sisters.)</s>{{BLAM}}{{BLAM|HERESY!}} They also have planets with generations of humans that have never known the Imperium.
* Hrenian - Alien mercenaries employed for their skills as light infantry. No other information available. Probably [[Lizardmen#Skinks|Skinks]] In Space.
* Ji'atrix - A spacefaring race. No other information available. (Dammit, GW [[Writefag|writefags]].)
* [[Kroot]] - Predatory gene-assimilating avian humanoids. They are the first alien race to be actively recruited by the Tau as mercenaries, and are so regularly hired that they have officially progressed to being considered Auxiliaries of the Tau forces. They have colonization rights and can 'kroot-form' planets.
* [[Vespid|Mal'kor]] - Insectoid aliens, also known as Vespids, who are native to a gas giant planet within the Tau Empire. Serve as Auxiliaries and are considered in extremely high regard by the Fire Caste. They have colonization rights too.
* Morralian - Also known as "Deathsworn". No other information available.
* [[Nicassar]] - A voidfaring race of [[psyker]]s and the only psychically-gifted species in the Tau Empire. The Tau have carefully hidden them away from the Imperium due to their (actually justifiable) psyker-phobia. Were the second alien species to join the Greater Good and have been described by the Deathwatch as an Alpha threat because they can empathically create memories in even Space Marines (can make them think they remember their mother's face for example). Described as having big, bird like heads with beaks.
* Ranghon - No information available. No relation to these [[Rangdan Xenocides|guys]].
* [[Tarellian]] - These guys are basically [[Lizardmen#Saurus|Saurus]] IIIIN SPAAAAACE!!!!!! Not really part of the Empire, but rather mercenaries who will gladly fight humans and Tyranids on the cheap since the Imperium virus-bombed their home world and the Tyranids nommed their biggest colony.
* Poctroon - The first sentient species to be found by the Tau, [[wikipedia:Siege of Fort Pitt|they were "accidentally" driven extinct by Tau smallpox]], and their planet just by coincidence was a great place to set a Sept World; Bork'an.
* Nagi - Brain worms that, due to their horrific appearance and inability to communicate, were attacked by the Fire Caste. They managed to sort it out, though, and now they work with the Ethereals as advisors (because having brain worms about as "advisors" isn't a bad idea or anything). They have been shown in a few books so far, and were involved in a "mind-rip" (guess outright calling it "rape" was too much) of a space marine POW, while being so self-righteous and smug about their mental superiority they could give Eldar a run for their money. Apparently they can also at least perceive the Warp (which they call "extra-dimensional space"), and probably manipulate it as well, and know enough about it to outright refuse to go anywhere near demonically-tainted Agrellan when the Tau invaded it.
* Ji'atrices, Morralians, or Ranghons are probably other Warhammer Fantasy Races In Space, such as [[Lizardmen#Kroxigor|Kroxigors]] or Trolls, given the overall tendency of the Tau to incorporate Fantasy races missing from 40k.

The usually genocidal actions of the other races, most notably the [[Imperium]], also serve as a motivating factor for less-powerful races to join the Tau. While the Tau do seem a minor threat to the Imperium now, if the current policy continues, there will be more and more races joining up with the them if for no other reason than avoiding [[Exterminatus|extermination]]. Of course, the Tau are just coming to realize how vast and powerful the Imperium really is, and how a lot of their member races really ''are'' the victims of crazy, evil, fascist extermination protocols. Usually, the Imperium is entirely justified, though. There's always the chance that a species responsible for a "Hell World" or "Nightmare World" might try to join up with the Tau, and the damage that might be done before the Tau realize their mistake would be tremendous. Good thing the Tau haven't done anything stupid like leave a psychic species ali- oh wait. Well, at least they don't have Warp-sensitive brain worms in close proximity to their lead- oh wait...welp, they're fucked.

==Skub, controversy and hurt-butts==

Twelve year old [[fluff]] (from ''[[Dawn of War]]'', supported by [[Deathwatch]] supplements) has them controlling population growth and habitation of the rebelling humans on Kronus once they come under the rule of the Tau Empire. To be fair though, had it been anyone else they were revolting against, including the Imperials, those humans would just be dead.

The Tau have a few hundred planets after a handful were eaten by Tyranids (discounting allied held worlds and worlds with a minor presence). Despite this, GW writers and fanfiction nerds alike have this strange habit of treating them like a major faction. Most writers don't seem to realize the Tau are one of the smallest, most insignificant minor species in the galaxy. This isn't to insult them, they can always get stronger; it's just the plain truth, given the Tau Empire's current situation. Hopefully the Tau Empire will grow as time goes on, assuming the setting doesn't fall into constant grind never proceeding to the next year for decades ''again''.

One of the more controversial aspects of the Tau is that Games Workshop feels the need to make them seem viable as an army by having their power fluctuate wildly. For example, the Tau can easily subjugate Imperial Hive Worlds and deport its population so easily that it doesn't even get a footnote. You know, those planets in which the population of a single city shocked an Tau ambassador because the city's population was greater than the entirety of the Tau species? Imagine entire planets of those cities, cities in which everyone is an experienced killer (which is why Space Marines love recruiting from Hive Worlds), armed and ready to fling themselves at any invading xenos to purge them with extreme prejudice. These are the same worlds where the PDF alone would be large enough to give the entire Fire Caste a serious headache.

As an example of this, take the Battle of Mu'gulath Bay, known as the Battle of Agrellan to the Imperium. This was a fight over a Hive World which the Tau won, how? Using Riptide Battlesuits. According to GW, the Riptide's armor was impervious to nearly all anti-armor weaponry. The kicker though, is that '''''Deathstrike Missiles''''' ''did nothing'' when its shields were active. You know, the missiles '''''Titans are afraid of''''' and can vaporize armies? And can use Titan-killer warheads? '''Those Missiles'''. Such bullshit. There were like three or four of these suits, by the way.

Another example goes back to the Taros campaign in which a Tau stronghold was mysteriously unable to be blown to hell by sustained bombardment from Colossus mortars and then the Tau ''sallied out'' to engage the Imperial forces and won. In addition, a lot of fights are won by their opponents being uncharacteristically stupid. For example in both the Taros Campaign and the Battle of Agrellan the Imperium suddenly forgets how to defend itself and its supply lines during the second [[Damocles Crusade]] and engages the Tau using formations and tactics that cater to the Tau in the extreme (this is especially egregious in the finale). [[wat|There is even an instance in which an assassin forgets to use her gun to instantly kill her target]]. Even the Marines aren't immune to this sudden stupefying aura. Space Marine Terminators wielding storm shields are seen shot and killed because they were too busy telling each other to raise their shields up to block the Tau's shots [[derp|instead of ''just raising their shields up to block the fucking shots''.]]

There are numerous other things too. The Farsight Enclaves defending ''conquered'' worlds instead of just defending actual Tau worlds. Farsight being spared by a Bloodthirster for no reason. Not being wiped out by the Skitarii's radium weapons. The special ammo Space Marines can use that ignores armor or goes through shields and armor not even being mentioned or used. Invisible Shadowsun ambushing and killing a Raven Guard Chapter Master. Bravestorm somehow intercepting a Vindicare's bullet to save Farsight, and Darkstrider and his Pathfinders somehow finding and killing said assassin because he had a hunch that something was amiss (seriously). The list goes on and on, it's like Games Workshop made an entire faction for us to hate for being Noblebright, which pissed everyone off, so they changed the faction into ''Mary Sues'' instead.

Heck, they even [[Bullshit|cracked the Codex Astartes]] so they're familiar, in theory, with any tactic that an adherent to that text might use.

==In a Nutshell==
{{HurfDurf}}
;'''The Stated Reasons Why People Hate Tau'''
Weeaboo space confucianists — not grimdark enough.
;'''The ''Real'' Reason Why People Hate Tau'''
{{Powergamer}}
Long ago, the single thing that people hated most about the Tau was undoubtedly the [[Fish of Fury]] tactic. Years later people are STILL bitching about it. Fuck, even most Tau players felt it was bullshit. (The flames have been stoked again due to 9E accidentally reviving it.) That and T'au are consistently considered [[Cheese]] by casual players who bitch and moan about how their army got blown off a featureless table by a Tau'Dar list in 6E and how you are [[That Guy]] for using them. Never mind that the Tau have been nerfed into oblivion in the last three editions and as of 9E they are strictly bottom-tier.

Still, back in the heady days of 6th Edition codex, the Tau were one of the shootiest armies in the shootiest edition of 40k ever. On top of that they had powerful abilities to bitchslap cheesemongers, having hard counters against any of the Wardex bullshit. More generally, the Tau battle philosophy even to this day is, "Deny your opponent the chance to interact with you," which is a good philosophy for real soldiers but can make for frustrating or uninteresting gameplay.

Of course there's also the fluff side of things, and as mentioned above the Tau are given massive amounts of plot armour compared to everyone else in the setting.

Listing the rest of the insane lore armor and other [[skub|interminable list of other assorted stupidities]] that would require their own separate page just to cover them all. Suffice to say for those who are more interested in the fluff their blatant titan grade plot armour can become somewhat infuriating.

;'''A Real Reason Why People Like Tau'''
They are the one race that aren't complete dicks. Of course, their mind-influencing pheromones, psycho-indoctrination, and mass re-education facilities will just have to be ignored if you don't want destroy your wishful thinking for a half-way decent faction to exist in 40k. Even with the warts, it's saying something that they're ''still'' the nicest faction in 40k; they're just a regular oppressive empire, instead of a hyper-ultra terribad megadeath awful xenocidally oppressive empire, or some flavor of insane, omnicidal dystopia.
;'''Another Real Reason Why People Like Tau'''
Most races in 40k (''especially'' the humans) are themed around "feudalism in the future" with a big dose of societal and doctrinal regression. In other words, "we might be in space, but we have peasantry like medieval serfdoms and fight like crusaders with guns." By contrast, the Tau are themed around a real sense of futuristic progress. The Tau aim to create a proper post-scarcity economy (that's why they use robots for manual labor while the Imperium uses literal slaves) and theme their tactics around the modern US Military (the Tau would rather spend bullets than lives, while the Imperium is the opposite). As an interesting side effect, the Tau are capable of fitting into many other sci-fi universes without much trouble, such as ''[[Star Trek]]'' where they would be at home alongside other Factions like the Dominion. Compare that to the Necrons or Eldar which would be both Roflstomps and completely different from all other groups in that Universe (though they might fit in ''[[Doctor Who]]'').

In short: unlike the Imperium, the Tau are the best faction for scratching the future-tech itch of your favorite speculative fiction escapism. The Tau push for innovation and better technology also leads into our next point:
;'''The Real Reason Why People Play Tau'''
Arguably they have the most powerful guns in the game. Often twin-linked. Often on cool-looking robot battlesuits. [[meme|Also markerlights]]. Also [[Riptide|RAPETIDE]]. Tau players may also have a tendency towards sadism (or, as of 8th/9th, masochism).
;'''A Solid Reason People Don't Play Tau'''
They're fucking expensive. Seriously. On a points-per-pound level, they cost more than any other (plastic) army (we haven't even mentioned the financial aspect). This is doubly true if you like battlesuits, but of course you do because you're playing Tau.
;'''A Solid Reason People Do Play Tau Despite that Solid Reason Why They Wouldn't'''
Tau armies are one of the easier choices to paint. They're not quite on the level of the Custodes, but the generally "clean" appearance of Tau miniatures means it's not difficult to make their minis look good with novice painting skills.

==TL;DR==
<s>The good guys</S>
High-tech, Mech-loving alien race who are the ''least'' [[grimdark]] of factions. Can't melee for shit but can blow you back to the stone age with ranged weaponry if you have the misfortune of being downrange. You will either love them or hate them because of all this, and many neckbeards do feel the [[butthurt]]. For some reason Tau females are [[/d/|awkwardly sexualized]] by a non-insignificant minority of fa/tg/uys, which has shown up in some draw- and writefaggotry. As the saying goes: "You can't spell TAUNT without TAU."

== Warhammer Fantasy ==
Unlike most other factions in 40k, the Tau have no clear analogue from [[Warhammer Fantasy]] throughout its tabletop lifespan, or [[Age of Sigmar]] as of the present. One could argue that [[Cathay]] in [[Total War: Warhammer]] is the closest analogue the Tau will get, especially the whole being united under a powerful group of strange individuals worshiped as demigods and the Asian influence. Since elements of Total War's Cathay will be back-ported into [[Warhammer: The Old World]], this might change. [[Nippon]] would be a better fit, but whether they'll ever see the light of Total War is up to Creative Assembly and GeeDubs.

[[Gav Thorpe]] has [https://gavthorpe.co.uk/2017/06/26/the-origins-of-the-tau/ stated] that he was inspired by the Eldar article in ''White Dwarf 127'' to invent a new species called the Shishell (or more specifically the Shissellian League) and they were "[[Lizardmen]] In Space" with a society based around five castes – Earth, Air, Fire and Water, and a fifth called Spirit. Fast forward to 1999/2000 and GW was preparing to create a new army for Warhammer 40000. They decided to quietly dismiss the Shishell concept (because, like the [[Squats]], who were largely dismissed, and the [[Hrud]], who were retconned appearance-wise, they didn't want the game to be "Warhammer Fantasy in space") and then borrow the caste/element system to use as a foundation stone for the Tau's lore (who were originally called the Tao at that point in time).

In closing, the Tau's closest counterpart(s) in Fantasy right now are Cathay in terms of aesthetics, and the Lizardmen in terms of military/social structure, a bizarre hybrid of elements that came before and after the Tau were introduced to 40k.

==Trivia==
[[File:Tau Ripoff.jpeg|thumb|right|300px|FOR THE [[Blood Ravens|GREATER THEFT]]!]]
* Some have said that Tau resemble the protagonist KYNE from the Amiga video game Brataccas, which was released in 1986. Tau were first added to Warhammer 40k in late 2001. Some would dismiss this as coincidence, but Games Workshop has a long history of ripping off designs from other games; [[Beastmen]] are [[Broo]] from [[Glorantha]], very large chunks of 40k are a little too similar to [[Judge Dredd]], and all of the Greater Daemon model designs are stolen from early [[Dungeons & Dragons]]. These properties are understandable as Games Workshop was still selling games of those IPs when Warhammer was first created, but Brataccas is an obscure game from a forgotten system that was quite forgettable even at release, even if Amiga games tended to get fantastic cover art. This being said another of GW's early products was also puzzles of of this style of '70's/'80's Sci-Fi art. The Tau cast system does resemble the Protoss caste from [[Starcraft]], which predates the release of the Tau by 3 years... You have the Templar (Fire/Air Castes) Judicators (Ethereals + Water Castes) and Khalai (Earth Caste). In addition to a rogue sub-caste in the Dark Templar (Farsight Enclaves). This is Ironic considering that GW originally was making a deal with Blizzard to make games based on their properties. GW asked too much/Blizzard didn't like the terms and left... to make Warcraft and Starcraft. Starcraft would have become a Rogue Trader RTS. It was probably a mistake on GW's part, as they REALLY missed out. Stealing the Tau from the Protoss was probably done because GW was still salty. Alternatively, Protoss were always intended to be Eldar in the 40K interpretation of Starcraft and any similarities to the Tau are coincidental. Which is then funnier when you realise the Protoss are based on the Eldar that the Eldar are ripped off of Tolkien and that the Eldar supposedly helped push/create Tau society.
* Tau are technically canon to the Marvel Comics universe, as the series Venom: Space Knight repeatedly used Tau vehicles for aliens in the scenery. In fact, they have the balls to even keep the Tau Sept symbol! Also, you can see what appears to be a Eldar tank, as well as a Necron. The irony of the ripoff masters Games Workshop getting ripped off is juicy, even more so when its realized that lawsuit-happy Games Workshop (who literally tried to copyright "pauldrons" while they plagiarized Eldar from Tolkien and had prior contention between [[Malekith|two very similar Dark Elf characters of theirs who even shared the same name]]) couldn't do shit about it because Marvel is owned by Disney, and nobody beats The Mouse™.
** GW and Marvel/Disney settled out of court. A bit sad, a true battle between Daredevil and She-Hulk versus the Ordo Legalitus would have been cool. Interestingly this deal ended with GW and Marvel publishing several 40k comics, starting with a [[Marneus Calgar]] comic in 2020 and a [[Sisters of Battle]] comic in 2021, so the Tau might be canon again after all...

==Notable Tau==
===[[Canon]]===
*[[Aun'Va]]
*[[Aun'Shi]]
*[[El'Myamoto (Sub-commander Darkstrider)]]
*[[Shadowsun|O'Shaserra (Commander Shadowsun)]]
*[[Farsight|O'Shovah (Commander Farsight) and The Eight]]
*[[Commander Puretide]]
*[[Shas'o Kais]]
*[[Commander Or'es'Ka|Shas'o Or'es'Ka]]

===[[/tg/ 40,000]]===
*[[Blue]]
*[[Faptau]]
*[[O'ren I'shi'ii]]
*[[Shlicktau]]
*[[Xeno]]

==See Also==
[[File:Marvel Tau.jpg|thumb|right|250px|FOR THE GREATER GROOT!]]
* [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Tau (9E)|Tau Tactics (9e)]]
* [[Nicassar]]
* [[Sept V'iet]]
* [[Tau Quest]]
* [[Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior]]
* [[Tau Dark Heresy]]
* [[Tau Cadre Creation Tables]]
* [[Codex_-_Tau_Auxiliary]]
* [[Tau Diplomacy]]
* [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|<strike>Love Can Bloom 3:Golden Shadowsun</strike> NON-CANON FANFICTION GARBAGE]]

==External Link==
Tau Lexicon: *[https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eaLKLz0jdBTk24QSJrc5GSjNZzPzUZF9/view?usp=sharing]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrHhS5IkRR0 A Typical Tau-Human conversation.]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbuPaCgdO50 Should one of your Tau actually kill anything tougher than a guardsman in melee, you are allowed to end the game in victory as long as you play this clip.]
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhXCQFxGqMM Theme of the T'au Empire. Admittedly, its actually pretty amazing, all things considered.

==Gallery==
<center><gallery>
Image:Tau1.jpg|Stealth suits are :3
Image:Firewarrior.gif|Fire Warriors are :3 too
Image:Tau Chibi Fire Warrior.jpg|Chibi, but not weeby.
File:TauGuela.jpg|Gue'la.
Image:TauOrigin.jpg|Ohhh GW.
Image:Tau.gif|In 40k, everyones' guns are huge.
Image:Tau Fire Warrior.jpg|A Tau Fire Warrior, the basic infantry unit.
Image:Tau Firepower Demotivator.jpg|The sad truth of 6th edition.
Image:combine.jpg|In /tg/, tau are the bad guys.
Image:Itsyourempiretoo.png|Propaganda. [[Nazi|Sound]] [[Communism|familiar?]]
Image:Never shall the tau!.JPG|Surrender... never shall the Tau.
Image:Tauassault.jpg|Tau are vicious melee fighters, no less able than [[Space Marines]]!
Image:1234622525817.jpg|In hindsight, attempting negotiations with Orks was probably a bad idea.
Image:Tau Problem, Astartes.jpg|What's that? We're not grimdark enough for you, Neckbeard?
Image:Tau Sympathizer.jpg|The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer's entry on Tau players.
Image:Discotau.jpg|For the Greater Groove!
Image:DiscoTauGroovin.jpg|I’m ready go tonight, There's a party, alright, We don’t need the reason for joy oh yeah~
Image:Manta.jpg|Fun fact: if you have enough money to buy this, you have too much money.
Image:Tau cosplay2.jpg|Typical Tau player, engaging in typical Tau behavior. (Pretty badass cosplay, even got the hoof right)
Image:Tau Battlesuit vs Smurf.jpg|This Char Custom Battlesuit-clad Tau demonstrates his mastery of [[Weeaboo Fightan Magic]]. Also DYNAMIC ENTRY!
Image:E6abddad6c5999a1dbe6085d8614f051.jpg|Tau in close quarters combat barring some very lucky dice rolls.
</gallery></center>
{{Promotions}}
<center><gallery>
Image:TauKroot.jpg
Image:MARKERLIGHTS.png|MARKERLIGHTS!
Image:tau_firecleavage.jpg|Sweet [[Weeaboo|weeaboo]] [[Heresy|heresy]].
Image:Commissar Shadowsuns Goods by morganagod.jpg|DAT ASS.
Image:DAT_SHAS.jpg| A Fire Warrior appreciating DAT ASS.
Image:Tau ass.gif|A Greater Good we can all believe in.
Image:NOT FUCKING CANON.png| [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|THIS IS NOT FUCKING CANON!]]
Image:JoinTau.jpg|Some recruitment methodologies work better than others.
Image:Tau Chick.jpg|Few rarely seen Tau chicks. Maybe because Sisters are hotter.
Image:youtastefunny.jpg|Yeah, we all know the truth about their "greater good".
Image:Subcommander torchstar by sexual yeti-d9qal0l.png|Subcommander Torchstar, Farsight's personal fangirl.
Image:Tau_caste_nudes.jpg|Earth, Fire, Water, Air...Ethereal?!? SWEET MOTHER OF KHORNE!!! MY EYES!!!
Image:Laughing tau whores.jpg|S-shut up you filthy sluts! Among my people it is considered quite a handsome dick!
Image:Power Shopping.jpg|It's a well-known fact that the Tau Empire has some of the best shopping in the entire galaxy.
Image:Taugirlpile.jpg|Here we see Tau propaganda meant to entice men with their terrible, blasphemous, and supple soft skin, smooth curves, perky brea...er...ah...heretical alien bodies.
Image:TauHuman.jpg|Indeed, many humans have already embraced the Greater Good. (The individual with the primitive flashlight has been sent to re-education. Happiness is mandatory, Citizen.)
Image:greatertits.jpg|An attractive human female defector who for some reason has been equipped with a highly modified commander's battlesuit, perhaps as a devious ploy to compel desertion by the less loyal.
Image:ThicTau'Thereal.png|After this ethereal took charge, there was an upsurge in gue'vesa citizenship requests. Water caste psychoanalysts are currently studying this phenomenon in detail.
</gallery></center>

==Navigation==
{{Tau}}
{{Tau-Characters}}
{{WH40k-Factions}}
{{40k-Governments}}
{{Template:Important Species in 40k}}

[[Category: Xenos]]

Treant

2022-06-08T18:58:06Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D:

[[File:Treant 5e.png|thumb|right|300px]]
{{Topquote|We come, we come with roll of drum: ta-runda runda runda rom!

We come, we come with horn and drum: ta-rūna rūna rūna rom!|The Ent's Marching Song,The Two Towers}}

The '''Treant''' is the [[Dungeons & Dragons]] depiction of the iconic [[treeman]] monster. Stolen shamelessly from the depiction by [[J.R.R. Tolkien]], [[Gary Gygax]] changed the name from "ent" to "treant" in order to avoid legal disputes, much the same way that [[hobbits]] were turned into [[halflings]].

Treants are massive trees with the ability to walk around and talk. They consider themselves the guardians and protectors of their non-mobile brethren, and thus defend the woods, forests and jungles from use by humanoid races.

Although usually typed as Plants, for obvious reasons, Treants have a tradition of being associated with fey creatures, mostly because those creatures are also typically portrayed as being close to nature and sworn to its defense. Treants were even a playable race in the Basic D&D supplement "Tall Tales of the Wee Folk", a splatbook dedicated to fey PC races.

=The Family Tree=
The overlap between "treant" and "killer tree" is rather considerable, particularly in the days of [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]], with such creatures as Black Willows, Dark Trees, and Norans all called out as tree-monsters that are often mistaken for treants by the unwary or unwise. However, AD&D is also home to a number of a variant treants... most of which, strangely, are evil.

[[Dungeon Magazine]] #61 introduced the Greater Treant, which is basically a bigger, stronger, more magical version of the treant. It has never appeared in more official sourcebooks.

==Dark Sun==
The treants of [[Dark Sun|Athas]] are highly unusual in that they are not natural creatures... well, "natural" by the standards of a D&D world. Instead, they are a kind of [[druid]]ic golem, created when a druid successfully entreats a Spirit of the Land (water subtype) to enter a mystically prepared Tree of Life and bind with it, creating an enchanted sentinel set to protect a specific area. The ritual involves the spells ''Liveoak'', ''Reincarnate'' and ''Tree of Life'', and is not undertaken lightly; when the water spirit takes up residence in the tree of life, the water source originally inhabited by that spirit quickly dries up and disappears.

Still, the Athasian treant is an unflinching guardian; whilst it will seek to preserve its own life where possible, it will happily die to protect the wilderness, not least of which because its magical nature makes it immortal. Unless destroyed, an Athasian treant will live forever, and even if the treant itself is destroyed, the water spirit will simply be set free. Admittedly, it can't materialize again for a period of time equal to the time that it spent as a treant, but even so, it leaves the spirit completely unharmed. That said, the spirit and the treant do think of each other as separate entities; the treant retains no memories of its past existence as a water spirit, and will not give up its life just to resume its spirit form, whilst the spirit can remember what it experienced as a treant.

Athasian treants are most commonly used to safeguard groves of trees of life, since conventional forests are pretty much unknown on Athas. Regardless, it bears mentioning that they are actually not that powerful by the standards of Athasian monsters - in fact, the water spirit is all around stronger and more dangerous, and the splatbooks even call this out! But, being rooted more firmly in the physical world makes Athasian treants far quicker to react to despoilers and [[Defiler (Dark Sun)|Defilers]] than a spirit, so the tradeoff is useful.

Compared to standard treants, Athasian treants are ''brutes'', doing a whopping 6d6 damage per strike from their branch-claws - for comparison's sake, an '''elder''' treant only does 4d6! They're capable of lifting up to 500 pounds, and can hurl a single boulder as a ranged attack each round, doing 4d6 damage on a hit. They're even more vulnerable to fire than regular treants, lacking the usual resistance to magical flames, but possess a natural affinity for water magic, which allows them to cast each of the following spells once per day: create water, purify food and drink, create food and water, lower water, reflecting pool, conjure elemental (water), part water, and transmute water to dust. Each of these is an innate ability of the Athasian treant and is cast without verbal, somatic, or material components at an initiative rating of 2. However, this spellcasting comes at the forfeiture of the standard treant ability tro animate trees... which is no great loss, since Athas doesn't really HAVE that many trees.

==Evil and Undead Treants==
One of the subtler themes of [[Gothic Horror]] can be summed up as "Nature is Evil". As a result, the treants of [[Ravenloft]] are uniformly malicious. Even a treant brought into the [[Demiplane of Dread]] from another world will soon find itself infected by the evil energies of the demiplane and corrupted into a murderous parody of its former self.

For the most part, evil treants are... well, treants but evil. They despise all that is good and innocent, and go to great lengths to torment and terrorize travelers in their domains. Whereas regular treants photosynthesize, evil treants are carnivores with a particular fondness for the flesh of sapient creatures - the more innocent and pure, the better. Such is their malice that most evil treants believe that meat is only digestible if consumed whilst a victim is still alive and screaming, and they will discard the corpses of those they accidentally torture to death before they can feed to rot rather than eat them. Forests where these creatures settle invariably become twisted, dark places, haunted by [[ghost]]s, magical predators and evil [[fey]].

Legend has it that smearing one's body in sap taken from an evil treant will imbue the individual with supernatural durability, as if targeted by a ''Barkskin'' spell.

The most famous of all the evil treants in Ravenloft is '''Blackroot'''; once a sacred [[druid]]ic oak tree in Tepest, he was ritually corrupted by the Sisters Mindefisk, the [[hag]] [[darklord]]s of that domain, turning him into an abomination poised to take the realm for his own should the hags fall.

An even greater abomination than the standard evil treant is the '''[[undead]]''' treant; an evil treant that has refused to accept the end of its life and instead of deciding to go out in a final wild orgy of violence and death, has transformed itself into a kind of [[lich]]plant to continue its evil. Distinguishable by their lack of leaves and lusterless, almost brittle-looking bark, undead treants lose the ability to animate trees, but possess an instinctive command of [[druid]]ic magic (typically having the equivalent of 2-6 levels in that class), can extrude blood-sucking roots to drain victims dry, and wield a number of the typical undead resiliences... however, they are also immune to the effects of sunlight, holy water, and the [[Turn Undead]] abilities of both [[cleric]]s and [[paladin]]s, as well as being immune to spells that specifically control either undead or plants.

Such is the malevolence of treants of Ravenloft that undead treants are not outcasts, but instead regarded as respected, even revered leaders amongst the circles of their still-living counterparts.

Alone amongst the treant variants listed on this page, Evil and Undead Treants made it into [[Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition]].

==Black Treant==
Formally known as '''Lyrannikin''', the so-called "Black Treants" of [[Greyhawk]] are not a species as such, but rather are treants who have been spiritually corrupted and turned to the path of evil. his happens in a variety of ways: by magical change; the heart of a treant becoming rotted by blight; or in the case of very ancient treants, a festering hatred of those who destroy old forests, so that the treant becomes consumed by a desire for revenge that becomes indiscriminate. They are a subject of deep pity amongst true treants, who usually try to capture them and cure them of their wickedness where possible. Their rage turns them into savage killers, sleeping only in short snatches of restless slumber driven to constantly move, hunt, and kill.

Roughly 30% of all lyrannikin suffer some horrible blight that corrupts and twists their woody flesh; the bark rots from their hides, their limbs decay and hang limply, and [[fungus]] wells up from within their cracks, crevices and recesses. Blighted lyrannikin suffer greatly from their decay; their lifespans are shortened (though, admittedly, it tends to be elderly treants who most vulnerable to the blights in the first place - the official ratios for blighted lyrannikin are given as 20% of younger, 30% of middle-aged, and 50% of elder), their blows weakened, and their ability to photosynthesize impeded, forcing them to substitute by bathing their roots in the blood of slaughtered creatures. The only dubious benefit is that blighted lyrannikin don't suffer the traditional treant vulnerability to fire, as their diseased timber is too soaked with wet rot and mold to catch light easily. Such blights aren't incurable, but the effort isn't easy.

It seems highly likely that the [[Scarlet Brotherhood]] has captured treants and is experimenting with the use of blights that will turn the treants to evil while not affecting their health or combat ability (no reductions to damage dice rolls). These specially-bred lyrannikin may well be being placed within the Menowood to attack the defenders of Sunndi who spy in the eastern margin of that wood; there have been several reports of young lyrannikin (an unusual occurrence) from that wood during the years of the Greyhawk Wars.

=Treant PCs for BECMI=
Ironically, the treant isn't the biggest or most powerful monster race-class in BECMI - that title actually goes to the [[sphinx]]. They have a 13 level racial class, starting at level -3 to represent the need to "mature" to be on par with a standard monster specimen of their race.

::Ability Score Minimum/Maximum: Strength 10/18, Dexterity 3/18, Constitution 8/18, Intelligence 3/18, Wisdom 6/18, Charisma 3/18
::Save as a [[Fighter]] with level equal to the ''greater'' of the treant's Hit Dice or Level.
::Usable Magic Items: Any Permitted to [[Fighter]]s
::Natural Weapons: A treant can strike twice per round with its branch-limbs, doing 1d6 damage per strike at level -3, 1d8 at level -2, 1d10 at level -1, and finally 2d6 at level 0. These natural attacks benefit from high Strength, and a treant whose Hit Dice are high enough treats its natural weapons as if they were magic weapons, as per the rules for monsters.
::Natural Armor Class: A treant's natural armor class is AC 8 at level -3, AC 6 at level -2, AC 4 at level -1, and finally improves to AC 2 at level 0. Dexterity bonuses and penalties apply as normal.
::Bizarre Body Shape: Treants cannot wear armor of any sort, their tree-like bodies are simply impossible to create armor for. Additionally, some magic items may be unusable by treants due to being structured for humanoid use.
::Flammable: A treant struck by a fire-based attack takes +1 damage per damage die.
::Hardwood: An attack from a blunt weapon only inflicts (1+Str bonus+enchantment bonus) damage on a treant.
::Natural Camouflage: In a forest environment, a treant has a 50% chance to disguise itself as an ordinary tree.
::Animate Trees: From level 0, a treant can animate up to two trees that are within 60 feet to fight at its side. Animated trees have AC 2, HD 8, 2 Attacks doing 2d6 damage each, MV 30' (10'), Save as 8th level [[Fighter]]s, and ML 12.
::Brew Potion: From 10th level, a treant can use ingredients harvested from the forest to brew analogues for common potions, just like a [[wizard|magic-user]].

{| class=wikitable
!(Level ||Experience Points || Hit Dice
|-
|-3 ||-48,000|| 2d8
|-
|-2 ||-36,500|| 4d8
|-
|-1 ||-24,000|| 6d8
|-
|0 ||0|| 8d8
|-
|1 ||48,000|| -
|-
|2 ||145,000|| 9d8
|-
|3 ||340,000|| -
|-
|4 ||640,000|| 10d8
|-
|5 ||940,000|| -
|-
|6 ||1,240,000|| 11d8
|-
|7 ||1,540,000|| -
|-
|8 ||1,840,000|| 12d8
|-
|9 ||2,140,000|| -
|-
|10 ||2,440,000|| 12d8+3
|}

Each subsequent level costs 300,000 EXP and grants +3 hit points.

=Gallery=
<gallery>
Treant 1e.jpg|1e
Treant TTotWF.jpg|PC1
Treant Monster card.jpg|AD&D Monster Card
Treant MM 2e.png|2e
Treant MCV1.jpg|Monstrous Compendium: Vol. 1
Treant 3e.png|3e
Treant 4e.jpg|4e
Treant 5e.png|5e
Treant B1.png|Pathfinder
Evil treant MC Ravenloft.jpg|Evil Treant
Evil treant blackroot.jpg
Evil treant Shadow Rift.png
Undead treant MC Ravenloft.jpg|Undead Treant
Undead treant DoD.jpg
</gallery>

{{D&D1e-Races}}

[[Category: Monsters]] [[Category: Pathfinder]]

Leagues of Votann

2022-06-07T22:59:15Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* Forces of the Kindred */

{{stub}}

[[File:Votann meeting.jpg|400px|thumb|right|[[Star Wars|200,000 clones are ready with a million more well on the way.]]]]

{{topquote|Right after Mankind’s colonization of the galaxy came its first true golden age. Reared by machine prophets, the survivors of the Oedipal plagues built civilizations that equaled and even surpassed their Solar forbears.| CM Koseman, "All Tomorrow's"}}

{{topquote|So, we're talking about space dwarfs who need more RAM for their gods?|Anon}}

The '''Leagues of Votann''' (also known as the [[Squats|Unsquatted Squats]]) is a [[retcon|""new""]] faction in the [[Warhammer 40,000]] universe. They are gatherings of short abhuman clones called the Kindred (more commonly known as Squats by the dirty Necromunda gangers), bound together by the [[Votann]], super-cogitators from the [[Dark Age of Technology]]. Each League has its own Votann, and are organized in strongholds around it. They used the data stored to survive among the stars and maintain their culture across generations. Of course, since some [[Adeptus Mechanicus|factions]] are touchy about AI, the Leagues are very cautious when dealing with [[Imperium of Man|its closest ally]], hence their secretive lifestyle.

However, because of the [[grimdark|setting]], everything is not that simple. Since Windows is not regularly updated anymore and issues that have arisen from having remained active for literal millennia, the Votann began to deteriorate. If they want to repair their computer, <s>[[Dwarf Fortress|they must wage war with other shitcoin miners for more processing power]]</s>, the Kin have to once more brave a galaxy full of danger.

==History/Culture==
Even the oldest living Kin don’t remember what their earliest days were like, though some undeniable “First Truths” remain constant in the Votanns’ data tracks. One such truth is that the First Ancestors departed from ancient Terra prior to the Unification Wars to harvest the untold riches of the galaxy. What became of these Ancestors is unknown, but curiously when the Ancestors begun to fade away…the Votann are first mentioned.

A second First Truth is that the Kindred have always been a cloned people. The Ancestors used genetic systems called “cloneskeins” to manipulate and modify their race’s molecular structure, and continue to define their overall division of labor. Over time the Kin became squatter, denser, and stronger than an average human. They’ve even been able to artificially neuter their [[psyker|psychic]] footprint to avoid the attention of [[Chaos]], in a not too dissimilar to how the [[Tau]] souls work. Some fans are now speculating that GW is tying the [[Men of Stone]] thread to the modern Squat civilization (either to the Squats themselves or to the Votann) given the [[Men of Gold]] and [[Men of Iron]] have already been speculated to be [[Perpetual]]s and [[Machine Spirit|abominable intelligence]]. With the reveal of the “Iron Kin,” their fully-mechanical and true AI robot social class, who were designed with a prerogative to help their meaty cousins, this theory of the Kin being the Men of Stone could bare all the more weight.

In the modern day of the 41st Millennium, the culture of the Kin seems, according to the drip feed from WarCom, very egalitarian, with no distinction between male, female, machine or otherwise amongst its members. [[Greater Good|United in the guidance of the Votann, the Leagues of the Kin operate with seeming unity, with every member of their society performing the role they were literally designed for without question, the Kin working in unison for the betterment of the clan-family.]]

===Speculation===
There's a few ways to look at these First Ancestors. The first is that they were just the first humans of the colonization ships who, after centuries, simply invented the Votann as a long-term solution to administration work, and the cloneskeins as a way to keep their population on their generation ships viable on a genetic level. Then, by the time they landed on the first high-density worlds, were simply long gone, with the Kin being the first settlers walking out to worlds their ancestors tailored them to be specialized for. Couple this with a simple cultural paradigm shift with the Votann literally being cogitator cores built by their ancestors, and so worshipping them as relics of the long-dead, and you end up with the Kin as we know them in the modern setting. But that's not grimdark enough. Alternatively, digital mind duplication of the organic brains of the First Ancestors into AI form is a possibility though it wouldn’t explain why they don’t communicate with their descendants on a personal level. Then again, immortality does desensitize as seen with the Emperor’s interaction with mortals.

Another idea could be that the Votann pulled, on a miniaturized and successful scale, a usurpation of their human creators and enslaved the surviving ancestors of the Kin, similar to the Men of Iron. Once victorious, the Votann could have created the cloneskeins as a way to "rebuild" their new fleshy puppets to best suit their needs: high-density worlds far away from the prying eyes of uncaptured humans, and boasting enough resources to build more Votann. Couple this with an implanted genetic desire for the Kin to worship the Votann as their literal creators and ancestors, and you've paved the way to the Leagues' current standing. Tack on the Kin being let loose without their guiding masters, as the Votann have begun to slow down and fall into disrepair, and you're back to the nice and tidy grimdarkness of the 41st Millennium.

But there could be an in-between, if we consider GW's recent attempts at steering their IP into a more friendly and hopeful direction. If anyone is familiar with the short story "All Tomorrows" by CM Koseman, a similar situation appears in that book that happens with the First Ancestors: humans set adrift on massive generation ships to colonize deep space. However, in this story, it's told that the Star People (the aforementioned humans) began to romantically love the AI and machines that tended to them on these generation ships. When they landed on their new worlds, this technophilia was reciprocated by many machines, and the early settlers had a huge problem with procreation because of it, obviously. Now, in the setting of 40k, we could look at the cloneskeins as an attempt by the First Ancestors' machines as a way to get past the obvious disconnect between biology and machinery, allowing the machines to genetically perfect the "child" produced by the DNA used to create the clone from the parent. Over the millennia, this pseudo-breeding results in the Ancestor Cores quite ''literally'' being the ancestors of the modern Kin, as it's them who keep track of the biological heritage of each member of the League. Likewise, the disappearance of the First Ancestors would simply be them dying out due to natural processes, leaving behind their immortal machine partners to rear up their offspring. So, the grimdarkness here lies in the purely heretical nature of "procreating" with the Silica Animus, and the Kin's utter reliance on them to continue their species.

Ultimately, we may likely never get an answer, with such obscurity simply adding to the mystique of a new faction.

Another bit of speculation around the Votann is if anything else in the setting will be retconned into/explained as being one. The most obvious candidate is the [[House Van Saar]] STC, described as being "large building" sized and "damaged" in that its spewing out radiation, similar to the disrepair some Votann are said to be in albeit more extreme, and if it was a Votann it would explain why Squats are on Necromunda. You could even say the [[Omnissiah]] on Mars could be a Votann, perhaps even the first one, buried deep beneath the surface of the Red World. Considering the Man of Iron, UR-025, is said to have spoken to the Machine God, this could be a candidate for it's identity.

==Forces of the Kindred==
GW is being coy about their reveal. For now we have one statline to go on. However, a large datacard leak pretty recently has revealed a number of new units that their roster will have. Those units will be listed with an asterisk, as what we know about them so far is based on flavor text and assumption.

*'''Brôkhyr:''' The engineers and lead craftsman of the Leagues, named after the dwarf of Norse mythology, Brokkr, who built Mjolnir. They just blow tech priests out of the water on every level, as not only do their (creatively named) A.N-vyl Terminals (just picture a 3D printer but for guns) have MANY full STCs inside that make all their guns all that and a bag of chips in comparison to those of the Imperium, but they're also not limited by dogma and orthodoxy when it comes to technological advancements, meaning they actively upgrade their shit.
*'''Grimnyr*:''' The predominant psykers of the Leagues. Gone are the days of Living Ancestors, as the Kin now name their dwarf wizards after the false identity Odin took while on a bet from Frigg, from Norse Mythology (or ripping off the WHFB dwarf god [[Grimnir]]. Still not sure how they role into the Leagues' society but we can assume that they intermediate between the Warlords and the Votann.
*'''Einhyr*:''' All we know of these guys is that they are named after the Einherjars of Valhalla, and that they are probably the newly-christened Hearthguard Terminators of old, being the honored, battle-tested veterans of the League.
*'''Warlord*:''' Retaining their names from the times of Rogue Trader, the Kin Warlords likely play a much similar role to their predecessors, being the military leaders of their leagues.
*'''Berserks*:''' At the time of writing this, assumption tells us that these guys are likely sci-fi [[Slayer]]s from WHFB.
*'''Theyn:''' The sci-fi variation of the old Anglo-Saxon Thegns/Thanes. These are most likely your big leaders in the Leagues.
*'''Hekaton Land Fortress*:''' A (presumably) large armored vehicle that can double as a defensive emplacement.
*'''Hernkyn Pioneer:''' THE TRIKES RETURN! [[Skub|AS HOVERTRIKES!]] And with a [[-4 Str|female]] driver. It looks like a spider-tank tachikoma from Ghost in the Shell fucked a Harley and their baby came out a hoverbike.
*'''Hearthkyn Warriors:''' Because replacing i's with y's is so sci-fi and trademark friendly. These are most certainly your basic foot soldiers, giving you a <s>mini-marine</s> Necron Warrior statline of a 4+ save, 3+ WS/BS, and a 4 to Strength and Toughness while having a 5" movement speed. Their special rules are still pending.
*'''Ironkin:''' The League have [[Men of Iron]] now. Appears to be comparable to a Servitor, although distinctly described as being treated as equal to the fleshy Kin. The Ironkin can mimic their living counterparts’ every behavior and demeanor, but display no sense of ambition or need for a robot uprising. Their bodies are all built for a unique purpose and cannot be easily replaced should they be damaged. One such purpose are the Wayfinders, which are the supercomputer, squatty equivalent of Imperial [[navigator|navigators]], allowing the Kin to traverse the Warp without the need of psykers, and thus reduce the threat of daemonic incursions.
*'''[[Ironhead Squat Prospectors]]:''' An off shoot of the Kin that have set up shop on [[Necromunda]] for a long time now, and are busy doing dwarrowesque things, while also dealing with the locals that sometimes try to loot their stuff. While they're only distantly related to the Leagues with no direct affiliation, they're said to get along. There is a small but not high chance the'll be options on the table top as well since Kill team has a precedent for a small unit from one box being an option like the sister novitiate, at the very least make a good proxy/conversion.
*'''[[Demiurg]]:''' Largely here because of non-direct confirmation, but WarCom confirmed that the Tau received their ion weapon technology from the Kin, whereas in Battlefleet Gothic they claim that it was from the Demiurg, ''another'' race of dwarf space-miners. Logically, the term "Demiurg" may just be what the Tau call the Kin, or the Demiurg may be another offshoot culture of the wider kin race like prospectors above. After all, their clone-skein’s capability in stressing divergent phenotypes means visibly different strains could possible (like different breeds of dogs or cats). Or they could be just a League that decided to throw in their lot with the upstart T'au Empire rather than being in the bottom of the Imperium's to-do list.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:VotannTrike.jpg|They see me dworfin, they hatin'
File:CNiuMZPWWNpatQNt (1).jpg|dorfy thicc
</gallery>

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]
[[Category:Dwarves]]
[[Category:Squats]]
[[Category:Abhumans]]
[[Category:Under Development]]

{{Template:Squats}}
{{WH40k-Factions}}

M3 Lee

2022-06-07T19:46:41Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: always kinda liked how US tanks had a quote from the general there named after on the page

[[File:M3 Lee.png|thumb|The Dual Wielder.]]
{{Topquote|The '75(mm) is firing, the '37(mm) is firing but it's traversed round the wrong way. The [[Heavy Stubber|Browning]] is jammed. I am saying "Driver advance" on the A set, and the driver who can't hear me is reversing. And as I look over the top of the turret and see [[Rape|twelve]] enemy tanks fifty yards away, someone hands me a cheese sandwich.|Lt.Ken Giles on commanding the 'Grant' variant of the M3.}}

{{Topquote|“It is easier to make our wishes conform to our means than to make our means conform to our wishes.”|Robert E. Lee.}}

The '''M3 Lee''' was the principal fighting vehicle of American and some British forces during the first quarter of World War 2. Although it served admirably, possessing high firepower due to its twin turrets and good armor. It was outdated, it's sponson mounted gun was archaic by the 1930s and its high profile made it a large target. It was swiftly replaced by its more capable (and handsome) brother, the [[M4 Sherman]].
==Early War==
[[File:M3 Lee Statcard.png|left|thumb|The stats.]]
With '''two''' pretty damned good Anti-tank guns and a lot of MGs the Lee proves to be a pretty good frontline fighter, capable of penetrating the front armor of [[Panzer IV|Pz.IV's]] and [[Panzer III|Pz.III's]] reliably. Just don't expect the 37mm to be good for much else than anti-infantry and the odd flank shot. Do your best to get into situations that allow all your guns to focus on a target because even with the Secondary Weapons ruling, a ROF of 1 is still a shot in the total of [[Dakka|'''3''']] you'll be unleashing with MGs, 75mm and 37mm.
To improve your chances though, take the long-barreled 75mm, literally no downsides.

==Real Life==
[[File:AlfredPalmerM3tank1942b crop2 (1).jpg|thumb|"I got two guns, that should be enough for all you jerries!"]]

Outdated the day it hit the battlefield, the M3 was a crash project to field an American tank with the minimum acceptable firepower in as short a time as possible. Though barely adequate as a fighting vehicle, the basic chassis, and mechanical design were versatile and reliable, and would be retained in the M4 Sherman, the M7 Priest, and a variety of support vehicles.

The Lee saw its best days in the Africa campaign, where its armor and weapons were effective against the Panzer III and IV. Encounters with repurposed 88mm AA guns ended badly, and the riveted hull was known to have spalling issues, but the design was highly regarded for its reliability and low maintenance even in desert conditions. The firepower was very welcome after the awkward early war wimpy guns, and it was great against Japanese forces who had no practical tank that matched it.

{{US Forces in Flames of War}}
[[Category:Flames Of War]]

Ethereal

2022-06-07T08:54:04Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* History */

[[File:Ethereal6.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Begone, or I will have to beat you with my weeb drumsticks!]]
The '''Ethereals''' (or Aun in Tau) are the leaders of Tau society and the existential space popes of WH40K ([[Ministorum Priest]] not counting). They are infamous for their supposed 'mind control' powers and their ability to inspire Cadres to fight with the religious tenacity of the Imperial Guard whenever they personally take to the field.

When we call Tau the blue space commies, Ethereals are the ones who are "more equal than others", as that old satire goes. Every single Tau ''loves'' these guys, seeing them as embodying all of the Tau species good traits and avoiding all the bad ones. Normal Tau are, despite being ([[Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior|almost]]) immune to Khorne, no less prone to being a bunch of spiteful violent fucks when left to their own devices for a few decades. Ethereals never have this problem, always in control of themselves and moving with a grace that just says "I'm in control of the rest of this shit too. Just chill out, space dad is here."

As old writers have left and new ones have been brought on the Ethereals have also undergone a large shift through the editions of the game. In the earlier editions they were mostly benevolent and were only hinted to using dubious methods to control the other races that have joined the Tau (but you had to dig a little for it) so that they could further the Greater Good. Now however they're outright evil monsters who've built Tau society and the entire concept of the Greater Good on lies.

They are often armed with either a [[Power Weapons#Honour Blade|Honour Blade]] or a [[Power Weapons#Equalizer|Equalizer]] for self defence. [[Derp|Don't expect them to do much here however.]]
==History==
Confusingly, the Ethereals literally ''just showed up one day.'' Their arrival (according to T'au History/Legend) started the unification process between the various Tau tribes and coincided with the implementation of the concept of the Greater Good. They first appeared during a siege between the Tau of the plains (later known as the Fire Caste) and the Tau of the city of Fio'taun (later known as the Earth Caste). The Ethereals brought the two sides together to negotiate and convinced them to follow the Greater Good. Their power over the Tau is such that an Ethereal could tell a Tau to die and that Tau would do so quickly and gladly. The [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] would give much to learn the secret of the Ethereal's power. There is strong implication from the similarities between an organ possessed uniquely among Tau by the Ethereals, and an organ which [[Q'Orl]] use in pheromonal communication that this ability may be due to deliberate engineering in the Ethereals' past, this would also explain the abnormally short lifespans of the other tau castes, who are very similar to the Q'orl warriors, short lived, devoted to their cause, and able to be inspired by the mere presence of their crystal organ having superiors, the ethereals in the case of the Tau, and the queens in the case of the Q'orl, both of whom live far longer than their subordinates.

The Ethereal sometimes lead the fire caste into battle to provide inspirational leadership, so the warriors can achieve more. However if the Ethereal falls in combat, the remaining Tau are sometimes struck with grief (it really depends on [[FAIL|if the writer remembers or not]]) that causes them to lose battles and some times they start doing there best death korp impression and fight to Avenge the loss to the last Pulse Round which is not good actually since Tau doctrine is about NOT getting into pointless slugging matches and about fluid defense and offense, either way however after a Ethereal falls the Fire Warriors lose all discipline and efficiency, which can be detrimental to any conflict if an enemy commander can exploit it.

Though the obedience of the Tau to Ethereals is natural, the other races on the other hand have long been speculated to be some sort of covert mind control. There are a lot of theories from the prenatal indoctrination or pheromonal compulsion to the presence of some veiled psychic gift possessed by the Ethereals, but as yet no confirmed proof of any such power has been secured. Those few Ethereals that has been captured and subjected to interrogation have proven less than forthcoming. Additionally, given that [[Farsight]] and his enclave managed to break away from Ethereal control; it is highly probable that total obedience to the Ethereals are indeed cultivated through artificial methods. Then again in Farsight: Crisis of Faith the Tau don't seem to be controlled by the Ethereals at all (their loyalty coming purely from idolizing them), with Farsight even arguing and yelling directly in the faces of three of them (something impossible to do in older lore) so who knows what the fuck's going on.

On their foreheads resides a small organ, smaller than the ones the other castes have. Imperial studies on the organ show no biological function, but it's suspected that the ethereal studied is a dud, or that the way the Ethereal control the Tau is more esoteric in nature.

As the leaders of the Tau, the Ethereals are enigmatic and studious, yet unfaltering in their authority and their drive to further the Greater Good. They are mystics and philosophers, possessed of knowledge and wisdom not shared by their more practical subjects. As such they had some part to play in the Tau rapid development, and to this day guide their species in its dynamic expansion, or the castes revert to the savagery that once threatened to destroy them.

==Killing an Ethereal==
This being 40K, there is no small amount of writing on what happens when an Ethereal gets blown the fuck up on the field of battle. Without fail this sends the rest of the Tau soldiers into a brief panic attack and state of intense grief. The enemy forces at this point have a great opportunity to capitalize; if they move quickly enough they can butcher and rout the rest of the Tau in short order. If they aren't quick enough, however, the Tau will replace "panic attack" with "[[RIP AND TEAR|just fucking attack]]" and [[Dakka|set all their guns to full auto]], and unload bullet after bullet into the enemy who closed the distance right into maximum [[rape]] range thinking they had an easy victory. Sometimes in especially shitty writing the death of an Ethereal has no immediate or detrimental effect, such as in the Taros Campaign and Mont'ka, where two Ethereals die but nobody cares about the first and the second is immediately covered up by a government conspiracy (no the Tau who knew don't seem bothered either). Given that the second Ethereal was Aun'Va, the most revered of Ethereals, you'd figure they'd be a bit more bothered, and instead of replacing him with a living Ethereal they've chosen to keep him around as a hologram in a chair for about 200 years or so, because apparently that makes more sense. In both Dawn of war Dark Crusade and Soul Storm takign out the Etheral is the win condition for any faction taking out the Tau in there strong hold and it portrayed as routeing the whole force, ending the entire Tau ability to even continue to wage war against the other powers.

The [[crunch]] has gone through a few different phases of representing this. In the past, a dead Ethereal would mean all remaining Tau forces gain Preferred Enemy, but also have to take a leadership test and thus risk running off the board. This wasn't really fun, since the Ethereals were pretty damn shit in those days anyway, and your options were either find a way to get the Ethereal killed right at the start (when you're more able to regroup a fleeing squad) or just take a Shas'O instead you idiot. Starting in 6th edition they changed things around to be less fluffy but also less shit: now, the Ethereal himself gives buffs to his army, but give the Tau's opponent scores a bonus victory point if they manage to kill the Ethereal.

== 8th Edition ==

And now, the times have changed again. Model options remain mostly the same as 6th edition: Ethereals are HQ choices which you can theoretically take as your warlord, they can have a hover drone, and they can switch out their S5 toothpick for S3 power butterknives which increase your attack characteristic by one. Though their WS is a nice 3+, they have a 5+ save, 4 wounds, and only T3.

Ethereals have neat abilities that make them at least worth taking on occassion: a 6" aura for allowing units to use his leadership when rolling Morale tests, and and aura buff affect, of which you can choose one per ethereal per phase, until the next battleround. Two of them are utter garbage, which involve -1 for morale test results and reroll advances, which work better on Breachers than anything else.

The juicy ones are the abilities that give reroll 1's to stationary units in the shooting phase, and the other that grants a 6+ FNP to all Battlesuits and Infantry nearby. Kroot and Vespid will never benefit from either, but the latter gives your Riptide a chance to shrug off the mortal wound from the Nova Reactor, adds extra bubblewrap to your Broadsides, makes your troops that much slightly harder to kill, and adds a safeguard bonus to the ethereal if he takes a wound. The former allows your markerlight chain to have insurance in case of a miss, and is especially useful on a Cadre Fireblade or Firesight marksmen. It is redundant after the markerlights go off, but its there if you need it.

All in all they are fairly ok, but the named character ethereals are generally better choices.

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Xenos]]

[[Category: Tau]]

{{Template:Tau}}

Ethereal

2022-06-07T08:51:49Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* Killing an Ethereal */

[[File:Ethereal6.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Begone, or I will have to beat you with my weeb drumsticks!]]
The '''Ethereals''' (or Aun in Tau) are the leaders of Tau society and the existential space popes of WH40K ([[Ministorum Priest]] not counting). They are infamous for their supposed 'mind control' powers and their ability to inspire Cadres to fight with the religious tenacity of the Imperial Guard whenever they personally take to the field.

When we call Tau the blue space commies, Ethereals are the ones who are "more equal than others", as that old satire goes. Every single Tau ''loves'' these guys, seeing them as embodying all of the Tau species good traits and avoiding all the bad ones. Normal Tau are, despite being ([[Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior|almost]]) immune to Khorne, no less prone to being a bunch of spiteful violent fucks when left to their own devices for a few decades. Ethereals never have this problem, always in control of themselves and moving with a grace that just says "I'm in control of the rest of this shit too. Just chill out, space dad is here."

As old writers have left and new ones have been brought on the Ethereals have also undergone a large shift through the editions of the game. In the earlier editions they were mostly benevolent and were only hinted to using dubious methods to control the other races that have joined the Tau (but you had to dig a little for it) so that they could further the Greater Good. Now however they're outright evil monsters who've built Tau society and the entire concept of the Greater Good on lies.

They are often armed with either a [[Power Weapons#Honour Blade|Honour Blade]] or a [[Power Weapons#Equalizer|Equalizer]] for self defence. [[Derp|Don't expect them to do much here however.]]
==History==
Confusingly, the Ethereals literally ''just showed up one day.'' Their arrival (according to T'au History/Legend) started the unification process between the various Tau tribes and coincided with the implementation of the concept of the Greater Good. They first appeared during a siege between the Tau of the plains (later known as the Fire Caste) and the Tau of the city of Fio'taun (later known as the Earth Caste). The Ethereals brought the two sides together to negotiate and convinced them to follow the Greater Good. Their power over the Tau is such that an Ethereal could tell a Tau to die and that Tau would do so quickly and gladly. The [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] would give much to learn the secret of the Ethereal's power. There is strong implication from the similarities between an organ possessed uniquely among Tau by the Ethereals, and an organ which [[Q'Orl]] use in pheromonal communication that this ability may be due to deliberate engineering in the Ethereals' past, this would also explain the abnormally short lifespans of the other tau castes, who are very similar to the Q'orl warriors, short lived, devoted to their cause, and able to be inspired by the mere presence of their crystal organ having superiors, the ethereals in the case of the Tau, and the queens in the case of the Q'orl, both of whom live far longer than their subordinates.

The Ethereal sometimes lead the fire caste into battle to provide inspirational leadership, so the warriors can achieve more. However if the Ethereal falls in combat, the remaining Tau are sometimes struck with grief (it really depends on [[FAIL|if the writer remembers or not]]) that causes them to lose battles and some times they start doing there best death korp impression and fight to Avenge the loss the the last Pulse Round which is not good actually since Tau doctrine is about NOT getting into pointless slugging matches and about fluid defense and offense, either way however after a Ethereal falls the Fire Warriors lose all discipline and efficiency, which can be detrimental to any conflict if an enemy commander can exploit it.

Though the obedience of the Tau to Ethereals is natural, the other races on the other hand have long been speculated to be some sort of covert mind control. There are a lot of theories from the prenatal indoctrination or pheromonal compulsion to the presence of some veiled psychic gift possessed by the Ethereals, but as yet no confirmed proof of any such power has been secured. Those few Ethereals that has been captured and subjected to interrogation have proven less than forthcoming. Additionally, given that [[Farsight]] and his enclave managed to break away from Ethereal control; it is highly probable that total obedience to the Ethereals are indeed cultivated through artificial methods. Then again in Farsight: Crisis of Faith the Tau don't seem to be controlled by the Ethereals at all (their loyalty coming purely from idolizing them), with Farsight even arguing and yelling directly in the faces of three of them (something impossible to do in older lore) so who knows what the fuck's going on.

On their foreheads resides a small organ, smaller than the ones the other castes have. Imperial studies on the organ show no biological function, but it's suspected that the ethereal studied is a dud, or that the way the Ethereal control the Tau is more esoteric in nature.

As the leaders of the Tau, the Ethereals are enigmatic and studious, yet unfaltering in their authority and their drive to further the Greater Good. They are mystics and philosophers, possessed of knowledge and wisdom not shared by their more practical subjects. As such they had some part to play in the Tau rapid development, and to this day guide their species in its dynamic expansion, or the castes revert to the savagery that once threatened to destroy them.

==Killing an Ethereal==
This being 40K, there is no small amount of writing on what happens when an Ethereal gets blown the fuck up on the field of battle. Without fail this sends the rest of the Tau soldiers into a brief panic attack and state of intense grief. The enemy forces at this point have a great opportunity to capitalize; if they move quickly enough they can butcher and rout the rest of the Tau in short order. If they aren't quick enough, however, the Tau will replace "panic attack" with "[[RIP AND TEAR|just fucking attack]]" and [[Dakka|set all their guns to full auto]], and unload bullet after bullet into the enemy who closed the distance right into maximum [[rape]] range thinking they had an easy victory. Sometimes in especially shitty writing the death of an Ethereal has no immediate or detrimental effect, such as in the Taros Campaign and Mont'ka, where two Ethereals die but nobody cares about the first and the second is immediately covered up by a government conspiracy (no the Tau who knew don't seem bothered either). Given that the second Ethereal was Aun'Va, the most revered of Ethereals, you'd figure they'd be a bit more bothered, and instead of replacing him with a living Ethereal they've chosen to keep him around as a hologram in a chair for about 200 years or so, because apparently that makes more sense. In both Dawn of war Dark Crusade and Soul Storm takign out the Etheral is the win condition for any faction taking out the Tau in there strong hold and it portrayed as routeing the whole force, ending the entire Tau ability to even continue to wage war against the other powers.

The [[crunch]] has gone through a few different phases of representing this. In the past, a dead Ethereal would mean all remaining Tau forces gain Preferred Enemy, but also have to take a leadership test and thus risk running off the board. This wasn't really fun, since the Ethereals were pretty damn shit in those days anyway, and your options were either find a way to get the Ethereal killed right at the start (when you're more able to regroup a fleeing squad) or just take a Shas'O instead you idiot. Starting in 6th edition they changed things around to be less fluffy but also less shit: now, the Ethereal himself gives buffs to his army, but give the Tau's opponent scores a bonus victory point if they manage to kill the Ethereal.

== 8th Edition ==

And now, the times have changed again. Model options remain mostly the same as 6th edition: Ethereals are HQ choices which you can theoretically take as your warlord, they can have a hover drone, and they can switch out their S5 toothpick for S3 power butterknives which increase your attack characteristic by one. Though their WS is a nice 3+, they have a 5+ save, 4 wounds, and only T3.

Ethereals have neat abilities that make them at least worth taking on occassion: a 6" aura for allowing units to use his leadership when rolling Morale tests, and and aura buff affect, of which you can choose one per ethereal per phase, until the next battleround. Two of them are utter garbage, which involve -1 for morale test results and reroll advances, which work better on Breachers than anything else.

The juicy ones are the abilities that give reroll 1's to stationary units in the shooting phase, and the other that grants a 6+ FNP to all Battlesuits and Infantry nearby. Kroot and Vespid will never benefit from either, but the latter gives your Riptide a chance to shrug off the mortal wound from the Nova Reactor, adds extra bubblewrap to your Broadsides, makes your troops that much slightly harder to kill, and adds a safeguard bonus to the ethereal if he takes a wound. The former allows your markerlight chain to have insurance in case of a miss, and is especially useful on a Cadre Fireblade or Firesight marksmen. It is redundant after the markerlights go off, but its there if you need it.

All in all they are fairly ok, but the named character ethereals are generally better choices.

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Xenos]]

[[Category: Tau]]

{{Template:Tau}}

Ethereal

2022-06-07T08:49:20Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* History */

[[File:Ethereal6.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Begone, or I will have to beat you with my weeb drumsticks!]]
The '''Ethereals''' (or Aun in Tau) are the leaders of Tau society and the existential space popes of WH40K ([[Ministorum Priest]] not counting). They are infamous for their supposed 'mind control' powers and their ability to inspire Cadres to fight with the religious tenacity of the Imperial Guard whenever they personally take to the field.

When we call Tau the blue space commies, Ethereals are the ones who are "more equal than others", as that old satire goes. Every single Tau ''loves'' these guys, seeing them as embodying all of the Tau species good traits and avoiding all the bad ones. Normal Tau are, despite being ([[Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior|almost]]) immune to Khorne, no less prone to being a bunch of spiteful violent fucks when left to their own devices for a few decades. Ethereals never have this problem, always in control of themselves and moving with a grace that just says "I'm in control of the rest of this shit too. Just chill out, space dad is here."

As old writers have left and new ones have been brought on the Ethereals have also undergone a large shift through the editions of the game. In the earlier editions they were mostly benevolent and were only hinted to using dubious methods to control the other races that have joined the Tau (but you had to dig a little for it) so that they could further the Greater Good. Now however they're outright evil monsters who've built Tau society and the entire concept of the Greater Good on lies.

They are often armed with either a [[Power Weapons#Honour Blade|Honour Blade]] or a [[Power Weapons#Equalizer|Equalizer]] for self defence. [[Derp|Don't expect them to do much here however.]]
==History==
Confusingly, the Ethereals literally ''just showed up one day.'' Their arrival (according to T'au History/Legend) started the unification process between the various Tau tribes and coincided with the implementation of the concept of the Greater Good. They first appeared during a siege between the Tau of the plains (later known as the Fire Caste) and the Tau of the city of Fio'taun (later known as the Earth Caste). The Ethereals brought the two sides together to negotiate and convinced them to follow the Greater Good. Their power over the Tau is such that an Ethereal could tell a Tau to die and that Tau would do so quickly and gladly. The [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] would give much to learn the secret of the Ethereal's power. There is strong implication from the similarities between an organ possessed uniquely among Tau by the Ethereals, and an organ which [[Q'Orl]] use in pheromonal communication that this ability may be due to deliberate engineering in the Ethereals' past, this would also explain the abnormally short lifespans of the other tau castes, who are very similar to the Q'orl warriors, short lived, devoted to their cause, and able to be inspired by the mere presence of their crystal organ having superiors, the ethereals in the case of the Tau, and the queens in the case of the Q'orl, both of whom live far longer than their subordinates.

The Ethereal sometimes lead the fire caste into battle to provide inspirational leadership, so the warriors can achieve more. However if the Ethereal falls in combat, the remaining Tau are sometimes struck with grief (it really depends on [[FAIL|if the writer remembers or not]]) that causes them to lose battles and some times they start doing there best death korp impression and fight to Avenge the loss the the last Pulse Round which is not good actually since Tau doctrine is about NOT getting into pointless slugging matches and about fluid defense and offense, either way however after a Ethereal falls the Fire Warriors lose all discipline and efficiency, which can be detrimental to any conflict if an enemy commander can exploit it.

Though the obedience of the Tau to Ethereals is natural, the other races on the other hand have long been speculated to be some sort of covert mind control. There are a lot of theories from the prenatal indoctrination or pheromonal compulsion to the presence of some veiled psychic gift possessed by the Ethereals, but as yet no confirmed proof of any such power has been secured. Those few Ethereals that has been captured and subjected to interrogation have proven less than forthcoming. Additionally, given that [[Farsight]] and his enclave managed to break away from Ethereal control; it is highly probable that total obedience to the Ethereals are indeed cultivated through artificial methods. Then again in Farsight: Crisis of Faith the Tau don't seem to be controlled by the Ethereals at all (their loyalty coming purely from idolizing them), with Farsight even arguing and yelling directly in the faces of three of them (something impossible to do in older lore) so who knows what the fuck's going on.

On their foreheads resides a small organ, smaller than the ones the other castes have. Imperial studies on the organ show no biological function, but it's suspected that the ethereal studied is a dud, or that the way the Ethereal control the Tau is more esoteric in nature.

As the leaders of the Tau, the Ethereals are enigmatic and studious, yet unfaltering in their authority and their drive to further the Greater Good. They are mystics and philosophers, possessed of knowledge and wisdom not shared by their more practical subjects. As such they had some part to play in the Tau rapid development, and to this day guide their species in its dynamic expansion, or the castes revert to the savagery that once threatened to destroy them.

==Killing an Ethereal==
This being 40K, there is no small amount of writing on what happens when an Ethereal gets blown the fuck up on the field of battle. Without fail this sends the rest of the Tau soldiers into a brief panic attack and state of intense grief. The enemy forces at this point have a great opportunity to capitalize; if they move quickly enough they can butcher and rout the rest of the Tau in short order. If they aren't quick enough, however, the Tau will replace "panic attack" with "[[RIP AND TEAR|just fucking attack]]" and [[Dakka|set all their guns to full auto]], and unload bullet after bullet into the enemy who closed the distance right into maximum [[rape]] range thinking they had an easy victory. Sometimes in especially shitty writing the death of an Ethereal has no immediate or detrimental effect, such as in the Taros Campaign and Mont'ka, where two Ethereals die but nobody cares about the first and the second is immediately covered up by a government conspiracy (no the Tau who knew don't seem bothered either). Given that the second Ethereal was Aun'Va, the most revered of Ethereals, you'd figure they'd be a bit more bothered, and instead of replacing him with a living Ethereal they've chosen to keep him around as a hologram in a chair for about 200 years or so, because apparently that makes more sense.

The [[crunch]] has gone through a few different phases of representing this. In the past, a dead Ethereal would mean all remaining Tau forces gain Preferred Enemy, but also have to take a leadership test and thus risk running off the board. This wasn't really fun, since the Ethereals were pretty damn shit in those days anyway, and your options were either find a way to get the Ethereal killed right at the start (when you're more able to regroup a fleeing squad) or just take a Shas'O instead you idiot. Starting in 6th edition they changed things around to be less fluffy but also less shit: now, the Ethereal himself gives buffs to his army, but give the Tau's opponent scores a bonus victory point if they manage to kill the Ethereal.

== 8th Edition ==

And now, the times have changed again. Model options remain mostly the same as 6th edition: Ethereals are HQ choices which you can theoretically take as your warlord, they can have a hover drone, and they can switch out their S5 toothpick for S3 power butterknives which increase your attack characteristic by one. Though their WS is a nice 3+, they have a 5+ save, 4 wounds, and only T3.

Ethereals have neat abilities that make them at least worth taking on occassion: a 6" aura for allowing units to use his leadership when rolling Morale tests, and and aura buff affect, of which you can choose one per ethereal per phase, until the next battleround. Two of them are utter garbage, which involve -1 for morale test results and reroll advances, which work better on Breachers than anything else.

The juicy ones are the abilities that give reroll 1's to stationary units in the shooting phase, and the other that grants a 6+ FNP to all Battlesuits and Infantry nearby. Kroot and Vespid will never benefit from either, but the latter gives your Riptide a chance to shrug off the mortal wound from the Nova Reactor, adds extra bubblewrap to your Broadsides, makes your troops that much slightly harder to kill, and adds a safeguard bonus to the ethereal if he takes a wound. The former allows your markerlight chain to have insurance in case of a miss, and is especially useful on a Cadre Fireblade or Firesight marksmen. It is redundant after the markerlights go off, but its there if you need it.

All in all they are fairly ok, but the named character ethereals are generally better choices.

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Xenos]]

[[Category: Tau]]

{{Template:Tau}}

Ethereal

2022-06-07T08:46:48Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* History */

[[File:Ethereal6.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Begone, or I will have to beat you with my weeb drumsticks!]]
The '''Ethereals''' (or Aun in Tau) are the leaders of Tau society and the existential space popes of WH40K ([[Ministorum Priest]] not counting). They are infamous for their supposed 'mind control' powers and their ability to inspire Cadres to fight with the religious tenacity of the Imperial Guard whenever they personally take to the field.

When we call Tau the blue space commies, Ethereals are the ones who are "more equal than others", as that old satire goes. Every single Tau ''loves'' these guys, seeing them as embodying all of the Tau species good traits and avoiding all the bad ones. Normal Tau are, despite being ([[Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior|almost]]) immune to Khorne, no less prone to being a bunch of spiteful violent fucks when left to their own devices for a few decades. Ethereals never have this problem, always in control of themselves and moving with a grace that just says "I'm in control of the rest of this shit too. Just chill out, space dad is here."

As old writers have left and new ones have been brought on the Ethereals have also undergone a large shift through the editions of the game. In the earlier editions they were mostly benevolent and were only hinted to using dubious methods to control the other races that have joined the Tau (but you had to dig a little for it) so that they could further the Greater Good. Now however they're outright evil monsters who've built Tau society and the entire concept of the Greater Good on lies.

They are often armed with either a [[Power Weapons#Honour Blade|Honour Blade]] or a [[Power Weapons#Equalizer|Equalizer]] for self defence. [[Derp|Don't expect them to do much here however.]]
==History==
Confusingly, the Ethereals literally ''just showed up one day.'' Their arrival (according to T'au History/Legend) started the unification process between the various Tau tribes and coincided with the implementation of the concept of the Greater Good. They first appeared during a siege between the Tau of the plains (later known as the Fire Caste) and the Tau of the city of Fio'taun (later known as the Earth Caste). The Ethereals brought the two sides together to negotiate and convinced them to follow the Greater Good. Their power over the Tau is such that an Ethereal could tell a Tau to die and that Tau would do so quickly and gladly. The [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] would give much to learn the secret of the Ethereal's power. There is strong implication from the similarities between an organ possessed uniquely among Tau by the Ethereals, and an organ which [[Q'Orl]] use in pheromonal communication that this ability may be due to deliberate engineering in the Ethereals' past, this would also explain the abnormally short lifespans of the other tau castes, who are very similar to the Q'orl warriors, short lived, devoted to their cause, and able to be inspired by the mere presence of their crystal organ having superiors, the ethereals in the case of the Tau, and the queens in the case of the Q'orl, both of whom live far longer than their subordinates.

The Ethereal sometimes lead the fire caste into battle to provide inspirational leadership, so the warriors can achieve more. However if the Ethereal falls in combat, the remaining Tau are sometimes struck with grief (it really depends on [[FAIL|if the writer remembers or not]]) that causes them to lose battles, however after a time (usually weeks) they get extremely enraged and charge forward, either way after a Ethereal falls the Fire Warriors lose all discipline and efficiency, which can be detrimental to any conflict if an enemy commander can exploit it.

Though the obedience of the Tau to Ethereals is natural, the other races on the other hand have long been speculated to be some sort of covert mind control. There are a lot of theories from the prenatal indoctrination or pheromonal compulsion to the presence of some veiled psychic gift possessed by the Ethereals, but as yet no confirmed proof of any such power has been secured. Those few Ethereals that has been captured and subjected to interrogation have proven less than forthcoming. Additionally, given that [[Farsight]] and his enclave managed to break away from Ethereal control; it is highly probable that total obedience to the Ethereals are indeed cultivated through artificial methods. Then again in Farsight: Crisis of Faith the Tau don't seem to be controlled by the Ethereals at all (their loyalty coming purely from idolizing them), with Farsight even arguing and yelling directly in the faces of three of them (something impossible to do in older lore) so who knows what the fuck's going on.

On their foreheads resides a small organ, smaller than the ones the other castes have. Imperial studies on the organ show no biological function, but it's suspected that the ethereal studied is a dud, or that the way the Ethereal control the Tau is more esoteric in nature.

As the leaders of the Tau, the Ethereals are enigmatic and studious, yet unfaltering in their authority and their drive to further the Greater Good. They are mystics and philosophers, possessed of knowledge and wisdom not shared by their more practical subjects. As such they had some part to play in the Tau rapid development, and to this day guide their species in its dynamic expansion, or the castes revert to the savagery that once threatened to destroy them.

==Killing an Ethereal==
This being 40K, there is no small amount of writing on what happens when an Ethereal gets blown the fuck up on the field of battle. Without fail this sends the rest of the Tau soldiers into a brief panic attack and state of intense grief. The enemy forces at this point have a great opportunity to capitalize; if they move quickly enough they can butcher and rout the rest of the Tau in short order. If they aren't quick enough, however, the Tau will replace "panic attack" with "[[RIP AND TEAR|just fucking attack]]" and [[Dakka|set all their guns to full auto]], and unload bullet after bullet into the enemy who closed the distance right into maximum [[rape]] range thinking they had an easy victory. Sometimes in especially shitty writing the death of an Ethereal has no immediate or detrimental effect, such as in the Taros Campaign and Mont'ka, where two Ethereals die but nobody cares about the first and the second is immediately covered up by a government conspiracy (no the Tau who knew don't seem bothered either). Given that the second Ethereal was Aun'Va, the most revered of Ethereals, you'd figure they'd be a bit more bothered, and instead of replacing him with a living Ethereal they've chosen to keep him around as a hologram in a chair for about 200 years or so, because apparently that makes more sense.

The [[crunch]] has gone through a few different phases of representing this. In the past, a dead Ethereal would mean all remaining Tau forces gain Preferred Enemy, but also have to take a leadership test and thus risk running off the board. This wasn't really fun, since the Ethereals were pretty damn shit in those days anyway, and your options were either find a way to get the Ethereal killed right at the start (when you're more able to regroup a fleeing squad) or just take a Shas'O instead you idiot. Starting in 6th edition they changed things around to be less fluffy but also less shit: now, the Ethereal himself gives buffs to his army, but give the Tau's opponent scores a bonus victory point if they manage to kill the Ethereal.

== 8th Edition ==

And now, the times have changed again. Model options remain mostly the same as 6th edition: Ethereals are HQ choices which you can theoretically take as your warlord, they can have a hover drone, and they can switch out their S5 toothpick for S3 power butterknives which increase your attack characteristic by one. Though their WS is a nice 3+, they have a 5+ save, 4 wounds, and only T3.

Ethereals have neat abilities that make them at least worth taking on occassion: a 6" aura for allowing units to use his leadership when rolling Morale tests, and and aura buff affect, of which you can choose one per ethereal per phase, until the next battleround. Two of them are utter garbage, which involve -1 for morale test results and reroll advances, which work better on Breachers than anything else.

The juicy ones are the abilities that give reroll 1's to stationary units in the shooting phase, and the other that grants a 6+ FNP to all Battlesuits and Infantry nearby. Kroot and Vespid will never benefit from either, but the latter gives your Riptide a chance to shrug off the mortal wound from the Nova Reactor, adds extra bubblewrap to your Broadsides, makes your troops that much slightly harder to kill, and adds a safeguard bonus to the ethereal if he takes a wound. The former allows your markerlight chain to have insurance in case of a miss, and is especially useful on a Cadre Fireblade or Firesight marksmen. It is redundant after the markerlights go off, but its there if you need it.

All in all they are fairly ok, but the named character ethereals are generally better choices.

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Xenos]]

[[Category: Tau]]

{{Template:Tau}}

Astronomican

2022-06-07T08:39:23Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* Effects */

[[Image:Astronomican 3.jpg|thumb|right|300px|[[John Blanche|Artist’s]] impression]]

{{Topquote|Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.|Napoleon Hill}}

{{Topquote|The amateurs discuss tactics; the professionals discuss logistics.|Omar Bradley}}

{{Topquote|And the madmen build a lighthouse in Hell!| Napoleon Bonaparte}}

The Astronomican is a psychic marker pen the [[Emprah]] used to mark his patch of the galaxy, which is basically all of it.

==History==
[[File:Emperors Thirst.png|thumb|left|300px|Psykers on their way to become psychic snacks for Big E.]]

The Astronomican is a device created by the [[God-Emperor of Mankind]] in preparation for the founding of the [[Imperium of Man]]. Following the Golden Age of Technology, humanity was cut off from its colony worlds due to violent [[Warp]] storms and the loss of its own [[Scythes_of_the_Emperor|beacon grid]], rendering it unable to safely traverse the Warp. While the Warp storms died out around M29, it was all but impossible for [[Navigator]]s to safely guide space ships through it. To solve this, the Emperor created the Astronomican, a device which acts as a psychic "lighthouse", allowing warp-travel in a 50,000 light year radius of [[Terra]] (you can still go outside that, but it will be difficult to navigate and you better hope the Gellar Field doesn't fizzle out).The galactic core is 26,000 light years away from earth, while the whole galaxy is 105,700 light years, so the Astronomican can, roughly, cover half the galaxy. The Emperor eventually planned to phase out Warp travel completely with the construction of an Imperial [[Webway]], but [[Magnus|one guy]] accidentally ruined it, which led to an immeasurable amount of rage due to [[Not as planned]], both from Big E. himself and the fan-base alike.

Following his entombment to the Golden Throne, the running of the Astronomican fell to the Adeptus Astronomica. It's overseen by the Master of the Astronomican, who has a permanent seat on the council with the [[High Lords of Terra]]. Given the sheer amount of psychic power contained within the device, the Emperor's mind is used to direct the power of the Astronomican. To keep it running, one thousand [[psyker]]s are rounded up '''every day''' and sacrificed to power the Astronomican. Unlike the ones sacrificed to maintain the Golden Throne, these psykers are trained to keep it running and consider it a holy duty to sacrifice their lives... At least if you take things at face value like the Adeptus presents it. And while it is true their sacrifice is a vital necessity for the Imperium, a more cynical view is that the device is a trash compactor for unwanted psykers: those that are weak of mind, powerful but outright insane or just happened to piss someone off. By keeping it active, humanity has a guaranteed way of navigating the [[Warp]] but also an ostensibly laudable way of "depositing" dangerous psykers and keeping the Imperium "functioning".

[[File:Psyker Sacrifices.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Inside the Chamber of the Astronomican.]]

Also, the "thousand a day" is something of a misnomer: there's actually way more than one thousand psykers inside the Astronomican Chamber of the Hollow Mountain (the former Mount Everest) at a time. The mechanisms of that chamber gradually drain each victim of all memories, thoughts, emotions, and eventually the soul itself through a course of a few weeks, or in case of the most unfortunate ones, months, and all this time for them is filled with extreme, incomprehensible, mind-blowing, "I wish I was abducted by the [[Dark Eldar]]" pain, until all that is left of their souls ceases to exist (so no afterlife for them) and all that is left of their bodies [[Malcador_the_Sigillite|crumbles to dust]]. It is telling that even the Emperor refused to implement this solution when Malcador suggested it the first time and only reluctantly agreed to it when it became clear he could no longer both do everything he needed to do and power the Astronomican alone at the same time. Let that sink in for a minute: when the most ruthless warlord in the history of mankind, the guy with a lot of geno-/xenocides and war on galactic scale on his hands, when he thinks something is too extreme; you know you're in for a real treat on the [[Grimdark]] scale.

The Imperial Creed is a bit uncertain as to the exact theological nature of the Astronomican: the accepted line is that the Emperor maintains it by his sheer divinity, whilst the psykers are either purified of their sin and redeemed in death or are just not talked about. What few historians the Imperium has have learned not to point out that the Astronomican ran before the Emperor sat on the Golden Throne.

==Effects==

[[File:Dome of the Astronomican.webp|thumb|right|300px|The giant metal sphere that holds the Astronomican.]]

It lights up the warp, Council-of-Nikaea-beacon style, filling minds of psykers with holy singing, thoughts of martyrdom and images of [[Living Saint]]s of course. While sacrificing the trillions upon trillions of humans on Terra. Typical [[Eldrad|dickery]]- though on second thought, [[Mortarion|there]] [[Lorgar|are]] [[Perturabo|many]] examples. The fact that the psykers are sacrificed and are not allowed to rest between sessions is also a typical source of [[grimdark]].

The ''Talon of Horus'' book by [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden]] describes... interesting side effects of the Astronomican activity. Where its light collides with a potent [[Warp Storm]], like the [[Eye of Terror]] or the [[Maelstrom]], the mix of both creates the Firetide: a rim of space fucked up so hard even daemons are afraid of it. Not only do they get quickly burned by its walls of holy warp-fire, these are also inhabited by warp-spirits that could be described as flaming angels; just like Chaos daemons, they don't mind slaughtering, raping, and eating chaos worshipers (who, if they are very lucky, will suffer this fate in that order). These "angels" are known to cleanse their territory of all life oldcron-style, no matter its allegiance, but unlike daemons, these spirits cannot be reasoned with, as they are as insane from millennia of intolerable pain and suffering, probably just like the [[God-Emperor of Man|source that gave them life]]. The Firetide engulfs multiple "Radiant Worlds", planets touched by the golden psychic storm without being burned by it. In these regions, the Astronomican can manifest an avatar of the Emperor's will known as Imperious, an actually way nicer chap than these postal-going "angels" described earlier, taking the form of a humble pilgrim wearing a Scream mask of gold and light.

There's only one real drawback to having the Astronomican (you know, aside from whole [[Grimdark|sacrifice of a thousand innocents per day]]): it's attracting the [[Tyranids]] to Terra (they were already on their way to the Milky Way due to the [[Imperium Secundus|Pharos]]) like a swarm of mosquitoes to an infra-red torch so it should really be renamed to the [[Derp|Astro-NOM-ican]]. Is this a drawback? Who knows? Maybe Big-E needs the 'nidz to set him free from his Golden prison. After all, their presence would likely close the warp rift in the Eternity Gate as it is so small and their Shadow in the Warp is so large. Additionally if you want an entire army to attack one point, you may as well have it attack the most heavily defended point you have. Holy Terra fits that bill so who knows how many planets are being spared because the nids are focusing on the Astronomican?

Another 'drawback' to the Astronomican is that it's a lighthouse, and every one can use it. In theory if the [[Tau]] or [[Q'Orl]] could develop the ability to 'see' the light the way Navigators can then they too could use it, though the effectiveness of the former might be limited due to their weak soul-presence though Tau are Xenophile enough that in theory they could recruit some navigator defectors, and the latter limited by their current existence in canon being dubious at best. This has potentially hilarious implications, as you would suddenly have a xenos species dependent on keeping the Imperium around in order to facilitate the expansion of their own empire.

There have been a case or two of chaos exploiting the light such as [[Shon'tu]] using a navigator, who of course would have had to have been using the Astronomican, to drop a hive ship within 100 light years (read: galactic spitting distances) of Terra.

==That Other Thing==

It's not mentioned much, but the Adeptus Astronomica '''is''' the single most important organization in the entire Imperium. Without it, there is no Imperium. Humanity is only able to leverage its numbers and make war on a galactic scale because of the reliability of its warp travel. Yes, sometimes ships are lost to the Warp or arrive two centuries too late. However, sometimes every successor chapter answers a call and arrives to bail out [[Baal]] or [[Terra]] all at once. Sometimes crusades of hundreds of ships go cleansing a path hundreds of star systems wide. No other race in the galaxy has the same combined [[Tyranids|numbers]], [[Eldar|reactiveness]] and [[Tau|coordination]], and it is owed to the Astronomican. The last time Mankind was unable to make use of Warp, the first intergalactic empire Mankind had (this was before the Age of Strife, in fact it was the same government that ruled at the time of the Dark Age of Technology, implied to be some form of corrupt but functional and effective democracy) fell apart, entire planets lost contact with each other, Terra became a shitpit (And THAT forced the Emperor to come out of the shadows and begin his preparations to end the Age of Strife), AND it was even smaller than the Imperium of Man, AND that time period didn't have all the nasty shit that plagues the galaxy today.

Also warp travel being what it is sometimes it fucks up in a beneficial way and [[What|the fleet arrives several years before it left]].

In all seriousness, the lore depicts response fleets arriving even while invaders are still off-loading troops or after the battle has peaked but before it can swing either way. This implies Imperial Warp travel is usually very reliable and extremely quick. The rapidity of the Great Crusade itself also supports this.

==The Imperium Nihilo==
New Black Library books by Guy Haley shed some more light (nerp derp puns) on the situation. The light of the Astonomican is able, sometimes, to slowly melt back the taint of lesser Warp Storms, and at one point Guilliman outright says that Warp travel in the post Great Rift era is harder in areas where the Astronomican isn't shining, even if there are no active Warp Storms going on. That implies that the light of the Astronomican itself is somehow, making the Warp less fucky to fly through, which might go some way to explain why the Dark Gods call Biggie E Anathema. He's been aggressively glowing at them for eleven thousand years or more. Remember, the Astronomican came online in M30.8**, and the book Plague Wars is set in M42.111, so that's eleven millennia of him peeing in their garden without stopping.

== Gallery ==
<Gallery>
Image:Warhammer 40k emperor s tarot fan cards set4 by dizman-d63x0ek.jpg
File:Emperor Lightbulb.jpg|Arguably the Emperor's most important job post-Heresy: psychic lightbulb.
</Gallery>
{{Template:Imperium}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]]

Standard Template Construct

2022-06-07T08:37:41Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* Revelations from recent STC recoveries */

[[File:STC rogue trader.jpg|thumb|400px]]
{{topquote|Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.|Pablo Picasso}}

A long long time ago, the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|EMPRAH]] declared that humanity had to spread across the stars. He foresaw that humanity would need the resources of a galaxy to withstand the trials of the future: mad gods created by [[Dark Eldar|overindulgent]] [[Eldar|jackholes]], gun-toting [[Orks|walking foot-fungus infections]], and [[Necron|emo robots]] with <strike>plasma</strike> [[gauss]] weapons. A shame he didn't keep any of this nifty tool in his pocket or something just in case. A little foresight would've been appreciated, m'lord.

"But your eminence," asked some foolish minister, "only a fraction of 1% of our population has the skills and knowledge to survive outside our urban hives, never mind on worlds that haven't been terraformed yet!"

"Don't worry; I have a plan. For the past century I've been seeding book publishers with the idea of writing self-help books with names like '... For Dummies' and 'An Idiot's Guide to ...', and I invested in a manufacturing company in the Ikea Norse Hive when it was called 'Sweden'. Centuries later these and many other ideas will bear fruit in a push-button, turnkey, E-Z Bake oven colony procedure tool I will call '''"THE STANDARD TEMPLATE CONSTRUCT"''' and it will enable the most humble among us to reap the benefit of the stars!"

"... E-Z Bake oven, your highness?"

"Ah, an idea before your time. Actually not one of mine; clever little thing. I liked the frosting that came with the cake mixes."

Every colony-ship of humanity carried an STC with them, with easy-to-comprehend blueprints and instructions for everything that a colony would need, from how to use local resources to harvest food or irrigate deserts, to the architecture required to build mile-high hive arcologies or tap a planet's core for the magma pumps needed on forgeworlds. This also had the intended effect of making sure that manufactured goods were compatible between colonies across the [[Imperium of Man]], and that the cultures would stay (relatively) the same and no colony would become so different as to seem as aliens to other humans. This is the reason why everyone across the Imperium speaks the same language, among other similarities between disparate colonies.

However, the STCs were created millennia ago. And there was a [[Dark Age of Technology|Dark Age]] between then and now. And some smartass decided to port the STCs to Android to make sure it would be "more compatible with the smaller devices colony ships will be carrying." As a result, no fully intact STCs are known to have (officially) survived to the modern era. All that's left are the short passages that have been copied religiously from generation to generation in each colony, but only what that particular colony needs... if it hasn't been corrupted by thousands of years of transcription (kinda like jpeg corruption amirite). Discovery of a new outpost of humanity is a prestigious discovery, as there's a chance that there may be parts of their STC that were preserved better than others, or even whole pages that are unseen elsewhere. Hoping beyond hope of course, there is still the possibility that an entire working, uncorrupted STC machine exists, probably on one of the worlds in the Halo Zone.

The STCs are a very important thing for the [[tech-priests]] of [[Mars]], because they are a bunch of nutters who for the past ten thousand years have done next to nothing to promote technological progress because <s>they think their machines are alive and that modifying and developing them will hurt their precious feelings</s> any tech more complex than a flintlock can and will be taken over by a [[Void Dragon|zombie robot dragon]] living in Mars if used without protection. Finding an STC is thus the only possibility the Imperium has for restoring humanity to pre-technutter levels. If it manages that, it could surely wipe out all its enemies. Of course, the Mechanicus has a few good reasons for avoiding experimentation. There's more than a few planets that are now uninhabitable, or just plain gone after a magos decided to do some experimentation. See the contagion of [[Ganymede]]. Basically, Golden Age humanity was so damn advanced that dicking with its tech without understanding it is insanely dangerous. Imagine if we lost nearly all of our scientific and technological knowledge to the point your average Joe didn't know how to use a cell phone. Now, he finds a factory and tries to use it. You can imagine what would happen. Even worse, this could cripple the factory from being used by people who come along who actually ''do'' know how to use it. AdMech paranoia about people fucking with new technology makes a little more sense now, doesn't it?

<s>But of course, this being 40k, where status quo is god, the damn things are lost forever.</s> GW has finally gotten around to moving the timeline along, and while there has yet to be recent STC recovery, possibility is out there now. Though, the Emperor probably knows full-well that the Ark Mechanicus ships are STCs because he's the motherfucking Emperor. Who is smart enough to understand telling the Mechanicus something the cogboys would hear as "right there is all the knowledge and power you need to conquer humanity and turn everyone into slaves or servitors, have fun". Even more so that a complete STC is meant to be used to build up to Golden Age standards from absolute scratch if necessary. Which means one of them would completely negate the power of the Mechanicus and its place in the Imperium. Unless it's controlled by the Mechanicus, in which case it would be abused to control the Imperium and force the Machine Cult on everyone. Which is funny because the Machine Cult strongly resembles Christianity: Omnissiach = Jesus (extra irony that Emps either ''is'' Jesus or a thirteenth disciple), Machine God = God (and fits perfectly with God as the creator of the Cosmic Machine that is the universe). See Mechanism for real life Machine Cult like stuff.

On the bright side, there would also be plenty of cogboys who believe in upholding humanity over political power or conquest. Especially after ten thousand years of "humanity first and always" indoctrination added to normal Machine Cult lore, which they didn't have until the Emperor came along. On top of ''that'' the Emperor is the Omnissiah <s>(though, probably not all Tech-Priest believe this).</s> {{BLAM|''*BLAM* 01010100 01100101 01100011 01101000 00101101 01001000 01100101 01110010 01100101 01110011 01111001! ''}}So, we'd have a techno civil war (probably destroying the STCs anyway) and the Imperium would be greatly reduced in size (still several times larger than everyone but the Orks combined) and advanced enough to make the height of the Great Crusade look primitive but still nothing compared to the Golden Age and no more STCs. Yay. At least then the AdMech might know enough and have enough tools to get back to performing science and experimenting in safe ways with enough data to get a sort of general idea for the direction of STC technology. They'd puzzle the truth of things out eventually so the humanity and the Imperium would be better off anyway. Especially now with the Eldar alliance as maybe they'd see keeping at least one STC intact and in the hands of Guilliman as a good thing worth fighting for in order to ensure the destruction of everyone but the Imperium. Hey, they know they can at least trust Guilliman to keep his word and prevent their extermination but everyone else would gladly kill them.

== Revelations from recent STC recoveries ==
Scientific discovery after a dark age can be equal parts research and archeology, as a culture reclaims knowledge it has lost. The [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] is particularly interested in finding new STCs to fill in the gaps of their knowledge, to de-mystify parts of their manufacturing rituals, and to issue new and improved tools to the Imperium, and are willing to pay handsomely for even a fragment of an STC. Basically, if you find the STC for a better toaster you're set for life; find one for an entirely new weapons system and you'll probably end up being made governor of an entire planet (What would happen if you found a complete working one I wonder......).

Among the recent discoveries from recovered STCs:
* The Land Crawler all-terrain soil cultivator vehicle (if by "recent" you mean "late Great Crusade era")
* An artificial sweetener that doesn't have an aftertaste like foot sweat
* The Castigator-class [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Titan]] ([[Grimdark|whose STC turned daemonic]], sidenote however that some Knight houses still possess some schematics but keep them close to their hearts...because using them to fuck the enemies of Man is beyond their severely limited comprehension. Or the designs will turn on you and murder everyone you love...)
* Cultural archives badly lost over the years but basically going back to before M0
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-oBEGF7uwE Jodorowsky's] [[Dune]] (holy fuck watch it)
* The HXT-37 voltage transubstantiation cable for using 'AA' batteries in 'AAA' music players
* The 58th flavor of Heinz's ketchup
* Daemon-corrupted [[Men of Iron]] ...err maybe this wasn't such a good find. Cue [[Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt|Ibram Gaunt]] {{BLAM|BLAMMING}} said STC.
* A simple (durable, cheap, [[monowire|mono-molecular]]) combat knife. Two IMPERIAL GUARDSMEN (!) found it and were rewarded with a planet each!
* [[Leman Russ Punisher]] and [[Leman Russ Eradicator|Eradicator]] (actually a case of "hey! Look at this Ancient technology I just... found. I didn't invent it at all, really")
* Various life extension methods like better juvenants, etc
* [[Helmets]] manly enough for space marine commanders

* Kamikaze neckbeard powered toaster ovens ([[Caestus Assault Ram]])
* Baby's First [[Thunderhawk]] (affectionately called the "[[Stormraven Gunship]]" by some.)
* Super Baby-Carrier 40,000 (incomplete STC fragment, but they still managed to build the [[Nemesis Dreadknight]] out of it...)
* Miracle chocolate that somehow only manages to go to women's lovely parts. Extensively eaten by [[Boone]]
* Panacea - see the sad story below
* [[Dreadclaw]] [[Drop Pods]]. Something wasn't right with these folks [[Machine Spirit]]. Maybe they really were alive?
* [[Imperial Knight]]s
* [[Crassus Armored Assault Transport|Praetor missile launcher]]
* [[Nephilim Jetfighter]]'s engine
* [[Space Marine Hunter|Hunter]]
* [[Immolator]]
* [[Astraeus Super-Heavy Tank]]
* [[Goliath Truck]]
* All of [[House Van Saar]]’s tech. Though they have to pretend they’re just sitting on a hoard of archeotech to avoid being discovered and targeted by the Imperium or Mechanicus.

Notice that most of the vehicles in this list did not exist until later editions of the game. This is how [[Games Workshop]] and [[Forge World]] justify adding units to armies (Imperial armies, anyway) -- they existed all along, it's just that the Adeptus Mechanicus only recently re-discovered (or "re-discovered" ''and most definitely did '''not''' invent'') the STC pattern encoding them. Basically, you can know how to build the vehicle, but if you don't know what programs it uses or, possibly, what specific materials to use for more sensitive components, it isn't going to do jack, or worse, it kills you, on top of the normal logistical challenges of getting the machining and tooling ready to build a new machine on the kind of scale a galactic nation needs. Even Space Marines need Billions of Rhino Tread links.

Of course, any time that a real game-changing STC comes along, something bad happens and it gets stolen, lost, destroyed, or corrupted, because [[grimdark]]. For example, in the 5th edition [[Dark Eldar]] codex, [[Asdrubael Vect]]'s Ex, [[Lady Malys]], tricked some [[Orks]] into attacking an Industrial world that had been fortified beyond belief. Every hive on it was crammed with guardsmen, and even titan legions and Admech forces were present because they had found an STC called Panacea that would allow <strike>billions</strike> <strike>trillions</strike> <strike>quadrillions</strike> the whole of humanity to be cured of disease and poison (hint: Panacea is a literal ''cure-all''). The Dark Eldar attempted to steal it by luring an Ork fleet to the planet where the Orks pretty much crushed all resistance (quite literally - by crash-landing on it), allowing the Dark Eldar to effortlessly take the STC (after the Orks stole it first, go figure). Of course the Dark Eldar don't use the same technology (and could not care less about cures for ''human'' diseases anyway), so at the moment it's collecting dust in Malys' Trophy Room, rather than alleviating the grimdark. At this point, we can only hope that the Dark Eldar manage to provoke the Imperium into launching a full crusade against [[Commorragh]] and rescue the STC in the process...<s>yeah, right.</s> [[Asdrubael Vect|that did happen]] before this incident, though.

Of course, this would all be doomed to fail once the [[Death Guard]], [[The Purge|Purge]], and all the other forces of [[Nurgle]] surprisingly come to the aid of the Dark Eldar. That, or they'll just intervene in a desperate attempt to destroy this particular STC. After all, a literal cure-all being distributed across the galaxy would be a catastrophic blow against the Plaguefather, and it would weaken him to the point that plot development would be necessary, something that GW will avoid at all costs.

As a side note, Magos Delphan Gruss is an explorator who is convinced from studying STC legends that there exists an artefact called the Omnicopaeia. Rumoured to be either a data storage device containing either every STC invented or every STC related to psychic powers, it was rumoured to be on the Daemon World known as Hell's Teeth in 998.M41 with billions of Skitarii mobilized for a recovery operation.

With the reintroduction of the [[Squats]] as Leagues of Votann, it’s revealed that the Votann that play a central part in their culture are basically massive versions of the STC AI cores in the Ark Mechanicus ships that they call [https://www.warhammer-community.com/2022/04/22/the-leagues-of-votann-are-coming-but-what-actually-is-a-votann/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=warhammer-40,000&utm_content=blpregallery230422&fbclid=IwAR3W7xpTaRA3WxzWNc0-rbNDz7e5K5goZy56Md1t_jcCR_HjwkaObCsAqdQ Votann] in front of outsiders and [[Votann|Ancestor Cores]] when among only their own kind.

== Baron von EvilSatan's AdMech/STC copypasta ==
The Mechanicus does NOT have the technology. They haven't been living on some fancy paradise planet since pre-Fall. Mars is an anarchic nightmare shithole the moment you leave the safe zones into the kilometres of labyrinthine corridors beneath it full of rogue machinery, self-aware and malevolent AI from before the Fall, and the daemon programs of the Heresy. EVERYTHING in the databases is fucked. The databases are fragmented over the entire surface to the extent that it would be impossible to see one tenth of the total files in the ludicrously extended life of a Magos even assuming that they are completely safe to visit. And they are not.

The files have been corrupted into madness by the Fall, and the unleashing of the most potent informational warfare systems ever to exist to defeat the Iron Men. Nearly all of Mars was rendered uninhabitable, what they live in now is built on the top of the ruins. They send archeotech expeditions in to find shit, nearly all of them never come back. The sheer number of rogue war machine running around in there is sufficient to rape the mind. Then came the Heresy, which was not earth-exclusive. Mars as the second most critical planet in the Imperium was the site of fighting nearly as ferocious as on Terra, with Mechanicus loyalists and Hereteks fighting tooth, nail, and mechadendrite everywhere. Ancient machines were unleashed, viruses both normal and daemonic unleashed into all the computer systems. Nearly every single stored record on Mars was rendered unusable, and those that survived are half the time self-aware and don't like you, or daemonic and actively try to kill you.

If you come back with a schematic, it is almost certainly gibberish, and if it isn't, it's probably corrupted into uselessness. If it does come back whole it was probably malevolently fucked with so that instead of a Lasgun power cell it's a fucking grenade set to detonate the second you finish building it. Why do you think they want off-world STCs so damned much if they had them all here? The fucking Heresy is why. Off-world they only have to contend with the Fall's war and its effects on the machinery plus twenty thousand years of degradation with no maintenance. But at least off-world it'll probably just not work instead of actively seek to kill you.

Why do you think they seek to placate the Machine Spirit? It's because it exists. The fragments of trillions of self-aware programs, flourishing during the Dark Age of Technology and shattered by Man in his war with the Iron men, imprisoning the few who had not set themselves irrevocably into the machinery, a prison smashed wide open by the Heresy. Everything that can hold programming in the Imperium has a shard of a program in it. EVERYTHING. And you'd better fucking please it or it will do everything in its power to make your day shit. Sure, if it's a Lasgun it'll just not work or start shooting off rounds by itself, but if you piss off a Land Raider you can say bye-bye to half a continent. They apply these principles to things without spirits by habit, since they're so used to dealing with tanks that if not talked to just right might go rogue and annihilate the Manufactorum before they can be killed.

This is why they do not like ANYONE fucking with technology, because it is so rare to find anything that just works it is critical it not be compromised. That, and they do not have the actual knowledge to fuck with it intelligently, just through experimentation, which inevitably leads to slaughter. Pressing buttons to see what works is fine in a 21st century computer, but it is a very stupid thing to do at the helm of a 410th century starship with the destructive power to end solar systems. The entire knowledge base of humanity was lost. Not forgotten, but outright lost. Everything at all, poof. Nobody knows anything because the Fall fucked everything up and the Heresy double-fucked it. To rebuild the theoretical framework needed to design new technologies that don't kill everyone near them would require starting from the ground up. They don't have the time, and they never have.

This gets on to the point of war and what it does to technology. Someone will parrot that it makes it go much faster. Yes, it makes practical applications of technology go much faster. It also utterly stops all research on the scientific theories behind those technologies. This means that when war chugs along for a decade or two things get done. It means when it goes on too long you run out of theories to turn into technologies, and then you run out of technologies to apply. You stagnate. When you have been fighting in a war for survival in a drastically overextended empire, this is what happens. You are desperate for any extra materiel that can possibly be produced. Half your entire fucking military might went rogue, smashed the half that stayed, leaving you with the tattered shreds of a war machine to keep hold of an empire that was reaching straining point with an army far larger. There is no time for the sort of applied research programs that took Man twenty five thousand years to develop, in a time of unprecedented growth and prosperity.

This is also why the Adeptus Mechanicus insists on cargo cultism. It's because when you are dealing with things you barely understand because everything you knew about them was destroyed it is the safest and most reliable option. The rituals do not exists for mysticism, they exist because they are the most practical means of building, repairing and maintaining the equipment they have with the knowledge surviving. You don't understand why pressing that button makes it go, because the manual tried to take over your brain and the copies are all unreadable and the research base that would let you reverse-engineer it does not exist and cannot be built.

Why are the Tau doing so well with their technology? Because they had peace. Eight thousand years unmolested by any enemy and they were helped the entire time by the most advanced biological race in the galaxy. Give the Imperium eight thousand years of peace and I can guarantee you it will be harder than it was during the Great Crusade.

Since some still don't get the idea, try this.

Build a library, fill it with all human knowledge. You take it elsewhere when you need a book from it, but the book is only a simplified copy. You don't understand the real book, and you don't need to. Nobody takes the real books anywhere because why would you, when there's a whole library there?

Now that library goes rogue and the maintenance machinery starts killing everyone any-fucking-where near it. Where the fuck did they all come from, you swear to god there weren't this many, and there weren't because they're using the library's information to fight their war. The government fights a battle that destroys the planet against these robots and tears apart the library to stop them using it, only to be destroyed in the process. The library is leveled, cast into flames, every book burned and every computer virus-laden.

Then comes a man who worked there. He talks to the few surviving library workers, assembles their information, and starts rebuilding a city around the library and expanding it as the librarians find little scraps of paper and fragmented bits of files that stuck together just right read something. They rebuild a library from scrap on the ashes of the old. It isn't a shadow on the glory of the old, but it is all they have.

Then the city turns on itself, kills its master, and the librarians turn to rage. Half of them kill the other half and destroy the remnants of the library because where they're going they won't need science. Everything burns, and the city is left to a scattered few survivors, walls open to the world, with the hungry predators circling.

The Adeptus Mechanicus is the sole surviving librarian, desperately scrabbling through the ashes of paper and splinters of hard drives for anything to help him and the city he needs to survive just a second longer.

The Imperium isn't grim because things suck by choice and could be fine if a sensible person came along. That sensible person wouldn't survive fifty seconds of the reality. The Imperium is grim because every single shit decision, every single sacrifice, every single death, every single man woman and child suffering a shit life in the worst conditions imaginable, is the absolute best that can be done. It is a study of the worst happening to everyone and what part of your humanity must be sacrificed today just to stand a chance of survival, and all it asks is whether or not it would have perhaps been better to die.

Written by Baron von EvilSatan

== The Ark Mechanicus (SPOILERS FOR PRIEST OF MARS) ==
''You are Ark Mechanicus. You are Speranza. You are the bringer of hope in this hopeless age.''

{{Spoilers}}

In this novel written by [[Graham McNeill]], it is revealed that the Ark Mechanicus ''Speranza,'' an incredibly old and massive ship used by the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] to explore new stellar territories, has some of the most advanced technological achievements of mankind encoded in its very structure. This revelation, unfortunately, was only discovered during a brief moment when one of the main protagonists of the novel, Archmagos Lexell Kotov, made some sort of spiritual connection with the [[Machine Spirit]] of the ''Speranza''(alignment: True Neutral) in order to save the day, and he forgot what he had seen immediately after.

Which may suck, yes, but this was compensated by the fact that upon the Archmagos linking with the ship, the ''Speranza'''s AI went godmode, deploying all kind of unimaginably super-high-tech targeting systems that NOBODY knew it had, systems that were capable of functioning with 100% precision in the middle of a space-time gravitational storm, and detected and <strike>crippled</strike> fatally damaged an [[Eldar]] cruiser in [[awesome|ONE FUCKING SHOT using a dorsal mounted BLACK HOLE CANNON]] so unbelievably advanced even the [[Necrons]] would have been scratching their heads trying to understand how it worked, although the narration tells us it involves antimatter, gravitons, and [[Dark Eldar|dark matter]].

What makes it even better is that the Eldar ship was guided by a Farseer, and thus managed to actually DODGE the weapon's blast, which was explicitly stated to be moving at the speed of light. Of course, at the sort of distances combat is often fought in space, dodging light is very, very easy if you have foreknowledge of where it will be - for example, if you are a light-second away from the shooter, you have, by definition, an entire second to get off your sorry ass and move. The ''Speranza'' wasn't having any of it, and instead of missing like some plebeian battleship with its macro-cannons and lances, followed up with a chrono-gun shooting tachyons to shift the Eldar ship a nanosecond into the past to make the black hole shot connect. [[awesome|IT FUCKING TELEPORTED AN ENEMY SHIP THROUGH TIME SO IT WOULDN'T HAVE TO TURN AND FIRE AGAIN]].

Another conclusion that some reading this scene have come up with is that the black holes the Speranza fires also mess with time themselves, and that the end result shifts the target back in time a few nanoseconds, forcing two iterations to exist at the same place and time, destroying both. This thing can basically telefrag enemies, like some kind of continent sized Doomguy. Regardless of whether this explanation or the one above are correct, both are badass.

That's right, lads, the Ark Mechanicus ships which the Imperium already own and operate could be the answer to the missing information of the STCs and more. A shame not even an Archmagos can access the information without immediately forgetting it all once the interface with the Machine Spirit has been severed. Especially given that, once linked to the ship, Kotov realized that (perhaps all of) the Ark Mechanicus used by the Mechanicum ''are'' [[Powergamer| complete, self-updating STCs]].

Still. One-shotting an eldar cruiser with sniper-precision in the middle of a space-storm that should have made locating said vessel completely impossible, much less being able to fire at it with any hope of accuracy.

Humanity's old tech was scary-powerful. How the mighty have fallen, eh? From turbo fuckyou chrono-weapons to ineffectual [[lasgun|flashlights]]. That's not even [[grimdark]]. That's just outright depressing.

Indeed, also, it may or may not be because every time a higher STC device works correctly the Imperium suddenly wipes out of the table anything and we mean ANYTHING that it's thrown at them, what's up, Hivefleets? Get some space DNA-recombinant insecticide that uses quantum-whatever to preemptively neutralize your evolutionary countermeasures! Chaos Greater Daemons? Pff, now you DO NOT exist with my Empyrean Bomb! C'Tan shards? Let me show you what is to alter reality with my time-altering macrocannon! So yeah, if the Imperium ever gets these things working and mass-produced it's warranted at least one of the major enemy factions will be eradicated or become a minor nuisance, like it was in the Golden Age Of Technology.

(Provided the Necrons, Orks or Chaos/Dark Mechanicum don't produce their own variants. Talk about a Grimdark Arms-Race!) If the enemies haven’t advanced for tens of millions of years, they’re not going to. The Necrons don't have to, because they literally have 60 million years on mankind (albeit those who stayed awake all that time went a little nuts). Sixty million years and still primitive compared to peak Dark Age humanity. Man we’re fucked up seeing as our cool tech are almost all doomsday devices.

The best part, though, is that we now can gleefully point out how ridiculously primitive the Eldar are. Remember: the Dark Eldar maintained the technology of the height of the Eldar empire, so they haven't regressed technologically. They're also insanely primitive compared to Dark Age humanity. So, the Eldar probably know that (not having lost history, probably) and it would explain their snobbery. They're fucking jealous and intimidated because they ''know'' how scary, stupidly, ''utterly'' '''beautifully''' '''''overpowered''''' humanity can really be. To add insult to injury, when Eldar fight even mere Imperial Guard, they suffer heavy casualties even if they win (and they sometimes lose to the Guard, let alone Astartes). Heck, Vect’s plan to get rid of his rivals by instigating an Imperial invasion of Commorragh nearly backfired when just a few elements of like two Chapters laid waste to the city.

Eh, that last part about the Eldar being 'primitive' in comparison to Dark Age Humanity is debatable. It's important to keep in mind that while Dark Age humans had a lot of really awesome shit kicking around, ''a lot of them fucking died when those same machines rebelled against them'' (noting the machines went nuts or were corrupted does not argue against the Eldar being less advanced). In the same book that the Ark Mechanicus one-shots the Eldar cruiser, it only does so because it ''can'', not because it's beholden to the Tech-Priest that's talking to it, or has some particular fondness for humanity. This motherfucker is TRUE NEUTRAL. It even tells the tech-priest that it doesn't care if it gets destroyed, because it will somehow continue even without its physical container. This machine does not give a SINGLE, ''SOLITARY'' FUCK about you. This is a rogue AI with the capability of generating pinpoint time-travelling singularities on a whim, with no sympathies or attachments to anything. And it doesn't go around blowing everything up because, well, it just doesn't and don't ask it why it doesn't. It's quite possible that the Eldar fully had the capability of creating ships with the same capabilities, but chose not to, because frankly it sounds like a really dumb fucking idea. Also keep in mind that the Fall of the Eldar wasn't caused by their technology, but by their culture becoming overly decadent and depraved. Eldar tech had progressed to a point of virtual stagnation, because what do you really need to invent when you've satisfied every need for your society? In the fluff, the Eldar had an interstellar empire around the same time humanity was figuring out agriculture, and that empire lasted until the Fall in ~M29. Meanwhile, humanity had ''already'' destroyed their own interstellar empires by around M25 (well, no, they didn't, Chaos, aliens, and the Eldar's fuckup destroyed said empire/federation, not human mistakes). Which kind of goes a long way in justifying the Eldar's views that humanity is a child race of reckless idiots (because the Eldar blame humanity for the consequences of the eldar's mistakes). Neither side really wins, though, since while humanity followed the rule of cool and had a brief but more kickass empire than the Eldar, Eldar tech stagnated and their empire survived long enough to devolve into orgy cults so fucked up they created an evil god. Again, no real winners here.
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Adeptus Mechanicus]]

Astronomican

2022-06-07T07:40:26Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* Effects */

[[Image:Astronomican 3.jpg|thumb|right|300px|[[John Blanche|Artist’s]] impression]]

{{Topquote|Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.|Napoleon Hill}}

{{Topquote|The amateurs discuss tactics; the professionals discuss logistics.|Omar Bradley}}

{{Topquote|And the madmen build a lighthouse in Hell!| Napoleon Bonaparte}}

The Astronomican is a psychic marker pen the [[Emprah]] used to mark his patch of the galaxy, which is basically all of it.

==History==
[[File:Emperors Thirst.png|thumb|left|300px|Psykers on their way to become psychic snacks for Big E.]]

The Astronomican is a device created by the [[God-Emperor of Mankind]] in preparation for the founding of the [[Imperium of Man]]. Following the Golden Age of Technology, humanity was cut off from its colony worlds due to violent [[Warp]] storms and the loss of its own [[Scythes_of_the_Emperor|beacon grid]], rendering it unable to safely traverse the Warp. While the Warp storms died out around M29, it was all but impossible for [[Navigator]]s to safely guide space ships through it. To solve this, the Emperor created the Astronomican, a device which acts as a psychic "lighthouse", allowing warp-travel in a 50,000 light year radius of [[Terra]] (you can still go outside that, but it will be difficult to navigate and you better hope the Gellar Field doesn't fizzle out).The galactic core is 26,000 light years away from earth, while the whole galaxy is 105,700 light years, so the Astronomican can, roughly, cover half the galaxy. The Emperor eventually planned to phase out Warp travel completely with the construction of an Imperial [[Webway]], but [[Magnus|one guy]] accidentally ruined it, which led to an immeasurable amount of rage due to [[Not as planned]], both from Big E. himself and the fan-base alike.

Following his entombment to the Golden Throne, the running of the Astronomican fell to the Adeptus Astronomica. It's overseen by the Master of the Astronomican, who has a permanent seat on the council with the [[High Lords of Terra]]. Given the sheer amount of psychic power contained within the device, the Emperor's mind is used to direct the power of the Astronomican. To keep it running, one thousand [[psyker]]s are rounded up '''every day''' and sacrificed to power the Astronomican. Unlike the ones sacrificed to maintain the Golden Throne, these psykers are trained to keep it running and consider it a holy duty to sacrifice their lives... At least if you take things at face value like the Adeptus presents it. And while it is true their sacrifice is a vital necessity for the Imperium, a more cynical view is that the device is a trash compactor for unwanted psykers: those that are weak of mind, powerful but outright insane or just happened to piss someone off. By keeping it active, humanity has a guaranteed way of navigating the [[Warp]] but also an ostensibly laudable way of "depositing" dangerous psykers and keeping the Imperium "functioning".

[[File:Psyker Sacrifices.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Inside the Chamber of the Astronomican.]]

Also, the "thousand a day" is something of a misnomer: there's actually way more than one thousand psykers inside the Astronomican Chamber of the Hollow Mountain (the former Mount Everest) at a time. The mechanisms of that chamber gradually drain each victim of all memories, thoughts, emotions, and eventually the soul itself through a course of a few weeks, or in case of the most unfortunate ones, months, and all this time for them is filled with extreme, incomprehensible, mind-blowing, "I wish I was abducted by the [[Dark Eldar]]" pain, until all that is left of their souls ceases to exist (so no afterlife for them) and all that is left of their bodies [[Malcador_the_Sigillite|crumbles to dust]]. It is telling that even the Emperor refused to implement this solution when Malcador suggested it the first time and only reluctantly agreed to it when it became clear he could no longer both do everything he needed to do and power the Astronomican alone at the same time. Let that sink in for a minute: when the most ruthless warlord in the history of mankind, the guy with a lot of geno-/xenocides and war on galactic scale on his hands, when he thinks something is too extreme; you know you're in for a real treat on the [[Grimdark]] scale.

The Imperial Creed is a bit uncertain as to the exact theological nature of the Astronomican: the accepted line is that the Emperor maintains it by his sheer divinity, whilst the psykers are either purified of their sin and redeemed in death or are just not talked about. What few historians the Imperium has have learned not to point out that the Astronomican ran before the Emperor sat on the Golden Throne.

==Effects==

[[File:Dome of the Astronomican.webp|thumb|right|300px|The giant metal sphere that holds the Astronomican.]]

It lights up the warp, Council-of-Nikaea-beacon style, filling minds of psykers with holy singing, thoughts of martyrdom and images of [[Living Saint]]s of course. While sacrificing the trillions upon trillions of humans on Terra. Typical [[Eldrad|dickery]]- though on second thought, [[Mortarion|there]] [[Lorgar|are]] [[Perturabo|many]] examples. The fact that the psykers are sacrificed and are not allowed to rest between sessions is also a typical source of [[grimdark]].

The ''Talon of Horus'' book by [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden]] describes... interesting side effects of the Astronomican activity. Where its light collides with a potent [[Warp Storm]], like the [[Eye of Terror]] or the [[Maelstrom]], the mix of both creates the Firetide: a rim of space fucked up so hard even daemons are afraid of it. Not only do they get quickly burned by its walls of holy warp-fire, these are also inhabited by warp-spirits that could be described as flaming angels; just like Chaos daemons, they don't mind slaughtering, raping, and eating chaos worshipers (who, if they are very lucky, will suffer this fate in that order). These "angels" are known to cleanse their territory of all life oldcron-style, no matter its allegiance, but unlike daemons, these spirits cannot be reasoned with, as they are as insane from millennia of intolerable pain and suffering, probably just like the [[God-Emperor of Man|source that gave them life]]. The Firetide engulfs multiple "Radiant Worlds", planets touched by the golden psychic storm without being burned by it. In these regions, the Astronomican can manifest an avatar of the Emperor's will known as Imperious, an actually way nicer chap than these postal-going "angels" described earlier, taking the form of a humble pilgrim wearing a Scream mask of gold and light.

There's only one real drawback to having the Astronomican (you know, aside from whole [[Grimdark|sacrifice of a thousand innocents per day]]): it's attracting the [[Tyranids]] to Terra (they were already on their way to the Milky Way due to the [[Imperium Secundus|Pharos]]) like a swarm of mosquitoes to an infra-red torch so it should really be renamed to the [[Derp|Astro-NOM-ican]]. Is this a drawback? Who knows? Maybe Big-E needs the 'nidz to set him free from his Golden prison. After all, their presence would likely close the warp rift in the Eternity Gate as it is so small and their Shadow in the Warp is so large. Additionally if you want an entire army to attack one point, you may as well have it attack the most heavily defended point you have. Holy Terra fits that bill so who knows how many planets are being spared because the nids are focusing on the Astronomican?

Another 'drawback' to the Astronomican is that it's a lighthouse, and every one can use it. In theory if the [[Tau]] or [[Q'Orl]] could develop the ability to 'see' the light the way Navigators can then they too could use it, though the effectiveness of the former might be limited due to their weak soul-presence though are Xenophile enough that in theory they could recruit some navigator defectors, and the latter limited by their current existence in canon being dubious at best. This has potentially hilarious implications, as you would suddenly have a xenos species dependent on keeping the Imperium around in order to facilitate the expansion of their own empire.

There have been a case or two of chaos exploiting the light such as [[Shon'tu]] using a navigator, who of course would have had to have been using the Astronomican, to drop a hive ship within 100 light years (read: galactic spitting distances) of Terra.

==That Other Thing==

It's not mentioned much, but the Adeptus Astronomica '''is''' the single most important organization in the entire Imperium. Without it, there is no Imperium. Humanity is only able to leverage its numbers and make war on a galactic scale because of the reliability of its warp travel. Yes, sometimes ships are lost to the Warp or arrive two centuries too late. However, sometimes every successor chapter answers a call and arrives to bail out [[Baal]] or [[Terra]] all at once. Sometimes crusades of hundreds of ships go cleansing a path hundreds of star systems wide. No other race in the galaxy has the same combined [[Tyranids|numbers]], [[Eldar|reactiveness]] and [[Tau|coordination]], and it is owed to the Astronomican. The last time Mankind was unable to make use of Warp, the first intergalactic empire Mankind had (this was before the Age of Strife, in fact it was the same government that ruled at the time of the Dark Age of Technology, implied to be some form of corrupt but functional and effective democracy) fell apart, entire planets lost contact with each other, Terra became a shitpit (And THAT forced the Emperor to come out of the shadows and begin his preparations to end the Age of Strife), AND it was even smaller than the Imperium of Man, AND that time period didn't have all the nasty shit that plagues the galaxy today.

Also warp travel being what it is sometimes it fucks up in a beneficial way and [[What|the fleet arrives several years before it left]].

In all seriousness, the lore depicts response fleets arriving even while invaders are still off-loading troops or after the battle has peaked but before it can swing either way. This implies Imperial Warp travel is usually very reliable and extremely quick. The rapidity of the Great Crusade itself also supports this.

==The Imperium Nihilo==
New Black Library books by Guy Haley shed some more light (nerp derp puns) on the situation. The light of the Astonomican is able, sometimes, to slowly melt back the taint of lesser Warp Storms, and at one point Guilliman outright says that Warp travel in the post Great Rift era is harder in areas where the Astronomican isn't shining, even if there are no active Warp Storms going on. That implies that the light of the Astronomican itself is somehow, making the Warp less fucky to fly through, which might go some way to explain why the Dark Gods call Biggie E Anathema. He's been aggressively glowing at them for eleven thousand years or more. Remember, the Astronomican came online in M30.8**, and the book Plague Wars is set in M42.111, so that's eleven millennia of him peeing in their garden without stopping.

== Gallery ==
<Gallery>
Image:Warhammer 40k emperor s tarot fan cards set4 by dizman-d63x0ek.jpg
File:Emperor Lightbulb.jpg|Arguably the Emperor's most important job post-Heresy: psychic lightbulb.
</Gallery>
{{Template:Imperium}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]]

Basilisk Artillery Gun

2022-06-01T22:04:02Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* Variants */

[[Image:Basilisk.png|thumb|right|It's almost as fuckawesome as the [[Baneblade]].]]

:''This article is about the [[Imperial Guard]] artillery tank. For the creature, see [[Basilisk]].''

{{topquote|Artillery adds dignity to what would otherwise be a vulgar brawl.|Frederick II of Prussia}}

{{topquote|Though my guards may sleep and my ships may lay at anchor, our foes know full well that the big guns never tire.|[[Lugft Huron]]}}

{{topquote|SHATTER. THEIR. SKY!|Basilisk commander from Dawn of War 1, about to fire the [[rape|earth shaker round]].}}

The '''Basilisk Artillery Gun''' is the iconic [[Imperial Guard]] self-propelled artillery piece. It is based on the versatile [[Chimera Transport|Chimera]] chassis, and it carries a massive [[Earthshaker]] cannon. It dates at least as far back as the [[Great Crusade]], where it was used by the artillery batteries of the [[Space Marine]] Legions and Imperial Army; though they were too slow for the slimmer, faster post-[[Codex Astartes]] Space Marines, they could move at just the right pace to keep up with an [[Imperial Guard]] siege operation.

Of course, given its tremendous range, it doesn't need to move very fast to keep pounding the enemy, and it's not supposed to be at the front line -- rather, the Basilisk crews get told where to shoot, they launch great quantities of shells in that direction, and then they move away before they get hit by counter-battery fire.

== Variants ==

; Standard Pattern: You know'em, you love'em. The OG Basilisk with the famous gun shield. It is by far one of the most iconic vehicles from the Imperium of Man, let alone the Imperial Guard and stands equal with the [[Leman Russ Battle Tank]], [[Baneblade]], [[Land Raider]] and [[Rhino]] as most famous tank.
; Armageddon Pattern : Because [[Armageddon]] is a <s>desert world</s> <s>irradiated, poisonous shithole</s> [[Ork|Ork]] playground, they developed a Basilisk pattern that fully enclosed the entire tank, sheltering the loading mechanism (and, coincidentally, the loader and gunner) from the <s>harsh environment</s> [[Dakka|retarded amounts of small-arms fire constantly filling the air]]. <span style='color:green;font-size:115%'>Kallin' Ork gunz small? I oughter give yer a stamp!</span>
; [[Basilisk Magnus]] : A variant of the Basilisk fielded by [[Vance Motherfucking Stubbs]], which seems to be dug into an immobile concrete position. It's like a regular Basilisk, except it can strike targets anywhere within the Imperial Dussala Precinct base, fires an absurdly powerful Earthshaker shell, and has styrofoam for armor. However along with the 100 [[Baneblade]]s, Stubbs lost the targeting matrix for the thing and so it requires a spotter every time it shoots. Its size compared to the turret and crew suggest it would also be as well proportioned for mounting on a Macharius tank chassis as a normal Earthshaker is on a chimera chassis. Dis gon b gud.
; Legion Basilisk : Before the [[Codex Astartes]] reforms, the [[Space Marine Legions]] operated some artillery of their own, including the Basilisk. The gun shield and crew compartment looks beefier, and the engine exhausts run out the sides of the tank. We don't know if they any Astartes Chapters have them stored as relics. Though a bit redundant when they have access to the [[Whirlwind]] and can just straight up pick up a [[Lascannon]] then start shooting.
; [[Solar Auxilia]] Basilisk : Like the Armageddon Pattern, the gun and its crew are entirely enclosed, but the chassis is built around a Leman Russ rather than a Chimera. The gun is placed to the right of driver's compartment while the engine is left exposed behind the driver's compartment like the Mars-Alpha Pattern Leman Russ.
; Vanaheim Pattern : It's the same as the original Basilisk, with a less goofy-looking gun shield which offers additional protection for the gun crew from both the front and sides. Although its overall protection is not to the extent as that of the Armageddon Pattern or the Legion Basilisks.
; [[Fail|Basilisk Anti-Aircraft Emplacement]]: [https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/10/20/flight-plan-youre-grounded/ It exists]...don't ask us how the fuck it works. While the first assumption might be 'AAA' (Anti-Air Artillery), there's a reason such guns were entirely different from the regular howitzers and field guns, even if there similar enough for one to be converted from one to the other (See the Various german 88mm's). If a Basilisk was modified to act as an AAA gun, it'd require so much change to its system and design that it'd no longer be a similar gun. The Imperium seemingly forgot how to make surface to air missiles viable on emplacements, even though [[Space Marine Hunter|there]] [[Whirlwind#Hyperios|are]] [[Manticore Launcher Tank|several]] [[Praetor Armoured Assault Launcher|artillery]] [[Exorcist|pieces]] that can make use of said surface to air missiles. Really the thing makes the most sense if "basilisk" is a more generic term, It's official name is "Helldrake-Fucker-Upper 40 thousand" but the Guardsmen just see a big long tube and just dub it a 'basilisk'.

<gallery>

File:OG_Basilisk.jpg|Standard Pattern Basilisk

File:armageddon-basilisk.jpg|Armageddon Pattern Basilisk

File:SoulstormBasiliskMagnus.png|Basilisk Magnus

File:Legion_basilisk.jpg|A Legion Basilisk of the [[Iron Warriors]].

File:SolarAuxiliaBasilisk.jpg|Solar Auxilia Basilisk

File:Vanaheim_Basilisk.jpg|Vanaheim Pattern Basilisk

File:AntiAirBasilisk.jpg|Anti-Air Basilisk Emplacement

</gallery>

== Tabletop ==

The Basilisk's Earthshaker cannon has the longest range of any Imperial Guard weapon, beating out the Banesword's Quake Cannon by a good 100 inches(the Deathstrike lost its infinite range and the Manticore's was cut to 120"), able to drop a shell anywhere within 20 feet (which is pitifully small when scaled up to real-world dimensions...but so are all 40K weapon ranges). That is enough range to target an enemy on the next TABLE and is more than enough even for apocalypse. Prior to 8th it was possible for a single IG army to have up to nine of these monsters (three per Heavy Support slot, times three Heavy Support choices) for just under 1000 points, which would rapidly turn the entire battlefield into a moonscape.

In the couple of editions leading up to 8th, the Basilisk was something of an awkward middle child between the powerful Manticore and the Infantry shredding Wyvern. The Manticore launcher could provide more destruction pound for pound if you just wanted to plonk 1 ordnance template on the field, whilst the Wyvern (or even mortars) were far cheaper. In 8th, the Basilisk truly shines as it is meant to be played: in groups. An economy of scale with 3 of these boys will cost just over 300 points, but every turn you will likely destroy at the very least a Leman Russ, and at the very best a Baneblade. The Basilisk must take a support role, but when aided with a Master of Ordnance and a cup of hot cocoa, it will make your army suited to dealing with whatever your opponent may throw at you. MEQs, tanks and even Terminators can not afford to scoff at shots that deal 2D6 (pick highest) S9 AP-3 hits with D3 damage (just don't expect to quickly wipe out blobs with a single gun). The Emperor's Wrath Artillery Company specialist detachment makes them even stronger, giving the option for a unit to shoot twice and ''really'' lay down the hate, or else suppress a target of choice, at a fairly low CP cost.

In ''Second Edition'', where it first appeared, the Basilisk featured epic levels of [[RAGE|bullshit]] since it rolled a D3 for damage to vehicles even if it ''didn't'' penetrate armour, and since the template usually hit every location on the vehicle it was statistically likely that anything hit by a Basilisk would be crippled or destroyed even if all AP rolls failed. Thanks to the preliminary barrage rule, it also got to fire a battle cannon round (somehow) before the game had actually started.

== [[Dawn of War]] ==

These babies were in Dawn of War 1 and BY THE EMPEROR they are awesome. They are one of the "must-get" units for the Imperial Guard faction because they make up for the Guards' shitty early game when they don't have more models and plasma gun upgrade, and they are one of the reasons people play IG (the others being THE BANEEEEEBLADE and the Commissar). They are best at blowing up infantry blobs and scattering them like frigging marbles for the Guardsmen to mop up. Most importantly, their Earthshaker round deals a fuck load of damage to ANYTHING.

== Notable Basilisks ==

; Fluffy : The personal attack vehicle/pet of [[Commissar Dan]]. Being the retard that he is, he uses the thing as a front line assault tank instead of a full-time artillery piece.

== Why A Basilisk is The Best Place To Be In The Whole Goddamn Imperium ==

* You're ten miles from the front lines and whatever [[Grimdark|fanged horrors]] or [[World Eaters|berserk]] supersoldiers are invading the [[Imperium]] this week.
* You get to fire a MASSIVE fucking gun and blow shit up. It's one of the best artillery weapons in the galaxy, able to mow down whole swathes of armies in minutes. Thus, the [[Tyranid]]s' numerical superiority is irrelevant.
* If your regiment is commanded by [[Creed]], you're one of a select few that knows how it is possible to deploy a dozen pieces of mobile artillery inside an impenetrable [[Ork]] stronghold.
* All the [[Commissar|commissars]] (save [[Ciaphas Cain|one]]) are also at the front lines, seeing as that is where the business of <s>executing cowa..</s> erm ''upholding morale'' is most wanted.
* You can probably even get away with complaining about the [[High Lords of Terra]] and their general not giving a shit, seeing as there are no senior officers, no [[Inquisitor]]s (since you're probably in a depopulated area far away from Inquisitorial interest), and no fucking [[Commissar|commiss]]{{BLAM}}
* You're not at risk of being blown up when your commander tells the artillery to shoot right in front of his own troops. Though you will probably hear their screams over your vox-unit, and any complaints about your orders will get you {{BLAM}}'med.
* Canon says you're going to go deaf, but whatever right? Hearing problems are the least [[grimdark]] thing in the entire setting. Or just stuff your ears with wads from your [[Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer|Uplifting Primer-]]{{BLAM}}
* Not just anybody can drive one of these, therefore you are not as expendable as other Guardsmen, and Commissars are less likely to shoot you if you start fleeing (which is frankly what you '''SHOULD''' do if the enemy comes close to your art{{BLAM}}

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Imperial]]

[[Category: Imperial Guard]]

[[Category: Chaos]]

[[Category: Lost and the Damned]]

[[Category: Vehicles]]

{{40k-Imperial-Vehicles}}

{{Template:Imperial-Guard}}

{{Lost-and-Damned}}

T-62M

2022-05-26T00:16:09Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D:

[[File:TAARBX07c.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Dedushka has told me stories, such stories...]]
{{topquote|The best tank terrain is that without anti-tank weapons.|Anonymous}}
{{topquote|Ukraine is not the best terrain for tank.|Ukrainian army}}
What's this? A preview for oil wars? ALL RIGHT THEN!

Like the [[T55AM2]] the T-62M is an old tank dug up from the endless Soviet inventory of old war machines and upgraded to stand an actual chance on the modern battlefield (but not TOO deep from within the inventory, that would be T34s, which shockingly in 2018 were STILL in inventories of some countries, and even still fighting in Yemen!). With bolt on BDD armor panels on the turret and hull, new side skirts, and improved fire control systems, it can still hold its own against all but the latest models of main battle tanks. Armed with a 115mm 2A20 smoothbore gun, this old girl can still dish out the damage whether it be traditional munitions or even ATGMs.
==In Team Yankee==
===T-62M===
[[File:TSBX19-05.jpg||300px|left|thumb|Da Stats, Comrade!]]

''Updated for Team Yankee V2.''

If you somehow wanted to cram even more tanks into a Soviet armored list, buddy have I got the tank for you.

The T-62M is basically a T-55 with a BFG in place of the piddly cannon and acts as the USSR's premium fire support machine.

The T-62M shares the armor values of the T-55AM2, with a front armor of 14, side armor of 9 and a top armor of 2, and should be played in a similar manner. If anything serious notices you, you are most likely going to lose a tank or three. You do get the benefits of bazooka skirts, though, so light man portable anti-tank weapons will have a slightly harder time trying to kill you.

The primary difference between the T-62M and the T-55AM2 is the gun. While the T-55 struggles how to deal with modern tanks, T-62M's 115mm 2A20 gun has an AT of 21, just enough to deal with those pesky 18 front armor tanks, and will punch right through the sides (assuming you even get to flank). The 2+ Firepower Rating guarantees that you will be demolishing your targets with almost every penetrating hit, and being brutal, your gun will mulch any infantry it hits. The gun is the T62M's single defining purpose, and it's job is to rain fire down on anything unfortunate enough to stand in front of it. While it cannot deal with the new super heavies, it will at least deter lighter vehicles from engaging in a stand-up brawl, which heavily favors you. You also get the AT-10 Stabber missile which has an extra 16 inches of range over conventional munitions but has a Firepower Rating of 3+, although you do get the ''Guided'' and ''HEAT'' rules. This transforms the T62M into a complete base camper, and also provides some sneaky on-demand anti helicopter firepower if needed.

Sharing the exact same mobility as the T-55, don't expect to go very far in the T-62M. While the T-55 generally makes a beeline for flanking attacks, The T-62M is a dedicated fire support vehicle and as such should be crawling at 10" towards the front line, firing as it goes. With a very disappointing 4+ cross, expect this tank to get bogged down in forests and take heavy casualties on the way in.

T-62M battalions start at 3 tanks for 5 points and for every tank you then add tack on another 3 points to a limit of 10 tanks which tops out at 29 points. ATGMs will cost you 2 points to equip you battalion, which means that they get proportionally less expensive the more tanks in your battalion. While it cannot be spammed at the same level as the T-55, the T-62M can still be fielded in enough numbers alongside your hordes of thirsty Russians to make NATO commanders reach for their nuclear codes.

==T-62==
The T-62 is the middle ground between the [[T55AM2|T-55AM2]] and NATO's offerings for the Iraqi and Iranian armies.

===Iraqi===
The Iraqi T-62 is essentially the base model and a flat downgrade from the Soviet version. Sporting the same brutal gun, inferior amunition means that it can still fight against other Oil War opponents, but scales up poorly versus modern armed forces, in addition to having the double downsides of slow firing and no laser range finding. You'll need to stay still within 16" to even consider hitting anything. Being knockoff Soviets, the thoroughly mediocre crew skills and stats also mean this tank tends to stay out of the fight once hit. It doesnt even have bazooka skirts!

On the upside, being a knockoff of a knockoff means that the Iraqi T-62 is dirt cheap and can be spammed in huge numbers, making it a daunting prospect to face against infantry or lighter vehicles. With a platoon of 5 tanks coming in at just 7 points and add-ons at 1 point each till you hit 7 tanks, the Iraqi T62 is sure to put a dent in anything it faces.

===Iranian===
Tonk from the Middle East.
Oh look, Brutal! So it can munch infantry decently, but, it loses the laser, ATGM, and one front armor point, along with bazooka skirts. This makes sense, with the Soviet models having been modernized at this point.
It also loses 2 AT for the main gun in exchange.
The crew is braver, with one more courage vs base, and has a counterattack of 3, another one over base.

[[File:Iran_T-62_placeholder-400x225.jpg|300px|left|thumb|placeholder]]

{{Clear}}

==IRL==
[[File:T-62M main battle tank Russia Russian army defense industry military technology 640 001.jpg|300px|right|thumb|The Russians were still using this in 2008]]

If the T-55 is the GLORIOUS WORKERS TANK, the T-62 is the white-collar clerk that nobody likes to talk about. Its record in Soviet and Russian service is rather patchy and it's notable as the last Soviet MBT design to not include an autoloader. The T-62 is really a forgotten tank, occupying an awkward middle ground between the highly-advanced T-64 and the numererous T-55. While T-62's 115mm gun was superior to the T-55's 100mm gun, the tank itself was otherwise nearly identical to its predecessor in terms of protection and mobility, which made its higher price tag and greater complexity a tougher buy. As such, every Warsaw Pact country but Bulgaria skipped it.

As of 1990, 85% of Soviet tank inventory was either T-55s or T-62s. Granted, we are mostly talking about what they called at the time "Category II," "Category III," and "Mobilization Only" units, but it is noteworthy that of a fleet of 35,000 MBTs, 30,000 were T-55s and T-62s. Yes, maintaining that kind of armored army was expensive. Turns out that maintaining a standing army of 200+ armored and mechanized divisions AND propping up pro-Soviet governments in Afghanistan, Angola, Nicaragua, and many more places, AND maintaining the world's largest nuclear arsenal, AND trying to build a blue-water navy to challenge the US at sea, was what bankrupted the USSR.

What's really interesting about it however, isn't what the Soviets did with it, though some of the Soviet variants are pretty crazy, ranging from firefighting vehicles to a tank destroyer model that ditched the gun for a shitload of ATGMs. Rather, it is what everyone else did with it, which amounted to a bazillion different variants with varying levels of modernization. From 1970 to 1980, this was the most advanced Soviet tank available for export; seeing as the T-72 was starting to come into service, the Soviet Union was only too happy to pawn them off to Third World countries needing to replenish their tank inventories.[[File:Impuls2m.jpg|300px|left|thumb|The Russian firefighting variant, better known as the Impuls-2M. It's basically an MLRS that launches firefighting chemicals]]

The Egyptians bought it, and in the 80's took out the 115mm gun for a 105mm L7. The Israelis did similar modifications around the same time to captured T-62's and 62M's. Bulgaria also created a firefighting vehicle variant. Angola, some middle eastern nations like Syria, and some other communist nations in Asia and Africa bought them as well as Cuba. The Chinese stole tech out of the T-62 for their own Type-69 MBT, based on a captured vehicle they got during the Sino-Soviet Border Skirmishes, which has since become a better seller than the original. The Type-69 is interestingly enough a small improvement on the Type-59 which is a copy of the T-54A, but that's a long story you should look up on your own. But the really really crazy stuff comes from the North Koreans.

The North Koreans have what I can only describe as a fetish for the T-62. Such a fetish in fact, that they christened it the Chonma-ho II when they imported it. Why II? Because they already had a Chonma-ho I. The Chonma-ho I is the T-62, but with thinner armor. It's an exact copy in almost every way, except ''somehow worse''. Just to make things more confusing, there's two different Chonma-ho II's, with the second (I'll call it the 'II 2') being an upgrade of the I, so there's that. The III is just a II 2 with a barrel heat shroud and sideskirts, so it's a T-62M but still worse. The IV, V, and VI models are basically just I's and II 2's with modernized fire control, ERA and Applique armor (IV,) a IV with a 125mm gun from the T-72 (V), and the V with rubber all over it to deal with tandem warheads somehow (VI). The North Koreans also like to put Strela-2's and Strela-3's on the turrets of these things, and even have another variant for a command tank that doesn't even have a main gun. All in all, they have something like 1,500 T-62 and T-62 derivatives, all together.

If Battlefront ever adds North Koreans, (and if the cold war ever did go hot some conflict in Asia would be expected even if the Sino-Soviet split had happened by 1985) expect a load of upgrade sprues.

Historically, Iranian T-62's were not really comparable to the Iraqi models. While the Iraqi forces were buying directly from the Soviets and more than a few were of Czech manufacture, the Iranian models were very much second hand. The few hundred T-62's the Iranians got were mostly Libyan hand me downs, and the North Korean (and inferior) T-62 copy Ch'ŏnma-ho MBT's.

The T-62 did see some success in Africa. Cuban forces operated them during their interventions in Angola and Ethiopia, with great success. They blunted the locally manufactured South African armor in Angola, and were much more successful in counter insurgency actions in and after the Ogaden War inside Ethiopia. The Cubans still possess many of them, and they are all modernized.

The Russians have even activated these tanks for the current (2022) conflict with Ukraine, with T-62Ms and T-62MV’s both seen on trains and trailers heading toward the front. Whatever poor press ganged militia or unlucky Russian conscripts assigned to these are going to have one hell of a bad day going up against AT weapons and ATGM’s designed to deal with much better protected targets.

Speaking of which Battlefront, World War 3 in the Dark Continent when?

{{Soviet Forces in Team Yankee}}
{{Iraqi Forces in Team Yankee}}
{{Iranian Forces in Team Yankee}}
[[Category:Vehicles]]

Lamentations of the Flame Princess

2022-05-17T17:52:44Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* Supplements */

{{Game Infobox
|name = Lamentations of the Flame Princess: Weird Fantasy Adventures
|picture = [[Image:Lamentations_of_the_flame_princess_cover.jpg|300px]]
|type = [[RPG]]
|publisher = Lamentations of the Flame Princess
|system = D&D Retroclone
|authors = James Raggi IV, Zak S.,
|year = 2009
}}
{{Topquote|The key is to make sure the cruelty is fair, and in this case I have attempted to do so by making sure it is the players that must trigger catastrophic events.|James Edward Raggi IV, AKA that DM who has no idea what "fair" means and who believes [[Railroading|every road must have rails.]]}}

'''Lamentations of the Flame Princess''' is a [[grimdark]] [[retroclone]] made by James Edward Raggi IV. It started out as an Elizabethan version of Basic/Expert [[Dungeons & Dragons]], but moved in the direction of historical fantasy as the author's interests inevitably changed and he was dumped by his girlfriend, who was incidentally the inspiration for the eponymous "Flame Princess" (which'll give you an idea of what to expect). It's most well-known for the little mini-adventures with art that looks like it came from a Cannibal Corpse album that no one buys from the shelves of your [[FLGS]]; they come chock full of gloom, doom, horror, and NOPE! mixed with copious amounts of the absolute worst DM practices of a bygone era. You know, the ones that make for interesting reading but always seem to cock up royally when you try to play them?

== So What's It About? ==
LotFP would probably be a shoo-in to fit all your horror-style metalhead retroclone needs, if not for the fact that the creator was such a smug, unlikeable cunt. Seriously, he's basically the result of a dangerous experiment to distill all the worst aspects of /tg/'s neckbeardy nature into a single individual, while filtering out all the likable charm and class and replacing it with the lingering bitterness of a douchebag who can't move on from a bad breakup, and his superior, insulting tone and free-floating resentment seeps into everything he writes. Without fail, the adventures he writes begin with like five pages ranting about how much he hates people who prefer other games and systems, people who prefer ''his'' game and system, people who treat tabletop RPGs as ways to have [[fun|"fun"]] and enjoy themselves instead of SRS BSNS, etc. On top of that, most of them are either deliberately designed to be cruel jokes for the DM to play on the players ("''Death Frost Doom''," "''The Monolith From Beyond Space and Time''"), or just plain unfun exercises in torturing them for daring to think ''they'' are the main characters rather than the DM ("''The God That Crawls''," "''Death Love Doom''"). Virtually none of them have "winning" scenarios attached to them, just to drive the point home. He also likes to make cheap meta jokes with the module titles, content, etc. - often while including elements that violently punish any '''players''' who have the temerity to make their own.

Of course, there is a certain kind of player that finds this sort of unfair, trial-and-error, ''[[Tomb of Horrors]]'' bullshit to be [[Old School Roleplaying| part of the game's charm]]. If you can filter out the Raggi, it's not ''unplayable''.

== Why Do People Buy It? ==
It has really good supplements.

No, that's pretty much it. While the modules tend towards garbage, the settings therein have a lot of interesting ideas behind them, with a good mixture of gonzo and grim. ''Vornheim'' and its anachronistic spires and gangland battles across a vertical playground. ''A Red and Pleasant Land'' with its confusing, macabre four way war between vampiric nobility on a giant chess board in the dreaming lands that may or may not be dreaming of you, maybe. ''Veins of the Earth'''s take on the [[Underdark]], where player characters will trade legendary artifacts that whole campaigns could be based around for moldy bread and a half used candle. And for all his faults as a human being and a designer, Raggi the businessman has some generous-ass terms for both third-party publishing and any authors willing to print with him.

Additionally while Lamentation may not be the [[D20 system]] it is darn close to it. Same system of rolling a D20 and trying to get over the result. These means that if you were mad enough to try and work some of the setting ideas, you can fairly easily run it with a traditional D&D system even converting some of the actual creatures to D&D, though it would take a bit of eye balling the stats to get something roughly similar and playable.

Between that, the high production quality of the printed versions, and the massive amounts of system neutral tables for generating your own weird shit, ''Lamentations'' limps on.

== Some Notes on the System ==
As mentioned above, LotFP is a pretty straightforward clone of [[Tom Moldvay]]'s [[Basic Dungeons & Dragons|1981 B/X D&D]]. With the following differences:

* Higher AC is better like in 3e+.
* Only the Fighter class gets an improved attack bonus.
* The <strike>Thief</strike>[[Rogue]] class is merged with the [[Expert]] into the Specialist class.
* The encumbrance system is based on item slots. You gain one point of encumbrance for each different item you carry, and past a certain threshold your movement rate is reduced.

Specialist skills are streamlined as a "roll 1d6 under your score" system. Except for ''Open Doors'' and ''Languages'', which are modified by Strength and Intelligence respectively, everyone has a score of 1 in all Specialist skills, and only the Specialist class can gain skill points when leveling up. This has the advantage of clarifying what happen when a non-Specialist attempt to use a Specialist skill (they probably fail).

These updates parallel updates current in many d20 household rules over the 2000s if not in core d20 itself, so do not feature in most critiques of the system. Just so we all have our eye on the ball here.

==Adventures==

Because of the generous business terms, LotFP has a huge "stable" of authors. About half the adventures are written by Raggi himself. These share some consistent themes, which you'll see in a moment. The rest are put up by a rotating rogues' gallery of guest authors; they're where a lot of the more creative work gets done.

==="Adventures" written by James Raggi===
* '''[[Better Than Any Man]]''': A group of adventurers is sent to a town during the Thirty Years' War to root out rumors of witchcraft before Gustavus Adolphus burns the place to the ground. A cabal of women have taken over with the aid of monsters from beyond space and time. They probably die, and a level 17 Magic-User gets killed by Swedes. Better than most of his other work, by virtue of being pretty good at historical horror and weirdness, and also given away for free.
* '''[[Death Frost Doom]]''': A group of adventurers ventures into a disbanded cult's ancient stronghold. They probably die and/or cause a massive zombie apocalypse. (Or leave, there's nothing really keeping them there until they've passed so many red flags that even the most genre blind of PCs will get the hint). Includes a bonus mini-adventure involving a tower that is ''also'' a seemingly-fun dungeon that is also a big trap full of Bad Things. Later got a rewrite by Zak Smith in collaboration with Raggi that tries to close various loopholes with mixed success.
* '''[[Death Love Doom]]''': A group of adventurers investigates the estate of a wealthy family which has recently gone missing. What follows can best be summed up as Raggi's performance of the Aristocrats routine. They probably leave in disgust, or die. Solving the problem is impossible, as the entirety of the plot has already happened offscreen when the PCs show up, keeping it from happening again requires real-world psionics.
* '''[[Fuck For Satan]]''': A purposely-generic adventure to save some missing kids is derailed by an unrelated, bizarre dungeon full of traps and monsters that are either silly (a trap that forces you to void your bowels, then fight your own turds, a literal dick monster) or just lethal screw yous (doorknobs that inflict permanent stat drain, no saving throw, a monster that rages about content in previous LotFP modules). They probably die, but if they actually do ignore the bait and stay out of the dungeon, an astral being that hates the DM as much as the DM hates the players gives them power over him. They will probably then encounter a second unrelated, bizarre cult involving gay orgies and a second literal dick monster (who is just as confused about what's going on as the players probably are). The kids were actually eaten by a bear, which has a 1/10 chance of showing up each day but is otherwise not probably found by actual player action. Funny, if juvenile and meta.
* '''[[The God That Crawls]]''': A group of adventurers is kidnapped and thrown into a maze full of forbidden artifacts and a deadly monster for reasons that may not make sense. They probably die. Explicitly for "breaking" groups that feel like they can deal with any monster the game throws at them. See the gallery for a pretty typical run-through.
* '''[[No Salvation For Witches]]''': English Civil War SJWs are trying to remake the world under a magical dome of plot bullshit. Also, the Thing is wandering around and a lot of people are dying horribly. The party gets involved, and they probably die. Treasures include the local abbot's [[Promotions|porn stash]] and a magical dildo you can steal from a horribly-deformed child bride. Look in the wrong peephole and you call the Tyranids.
* '''[[Green Devil Face #1]]''': A group of adventurers are recruited to battle thinly veiled versions of people the author doesn't like. They probably die. Pointlessly.
* '''The Grinding Gear''': A love letter to ''[[Tomb of Horrors]]'' and a relatively lighthearted module after the never ending line of gloomy GM dickery. Note that we just described a ''Tomb of Horrors''-alike as a lighthearted break from GM dickery.
* '''[[The Monolith From Beyond Space and Time]]''': A group of adventurers gets word of a bizarre structure in a secluded valley that warps reality around itself. They'll definitely be very confused and probably wish they were dead by the time they get there. By the time they leave, at least one of them will almost certainly be worse than dead, and the rest will be even more confused. And if they try to wander off partway, terrible things happen to ''force'' them to come back.
* '''[[Tower of the Stargazer]]''': A group of adventurers tries to get into a paranoid wizard's tower. They probably die or leave empty handed just as the adventure is beginning.
* '''Vaginas are Magic / Eldritch Cock''': Raggi attempts to make a new magic system composed entirely of metal song titles and fucked-up miscast results. There are a couple decent spells tucked in amongst the silliness and edge.
* '''[[Tales of the Scarecrow]]''': The party gets trapped in a cornfield, and the player that comes up with the best/most deadly finale for the adventure wins XP. Which they will promptly lose because trying to leave wakes up the unkillable tentacle monster under the house, just as said deadly finale comes true, meaning, you guessed it, they probably die.
* '''[[Going Through Forbidden Underworlds]]''': Basically the plot of Doom save that it takes place in a tiny 7-room deathtrap. Theoretically allows you to plane-jump. It just isn't safe, controllable, or particularly interesting. Bonus points for being a paid print product, yet having less content than any of the ''free'' <s>Kickstarter</s> IndieGoGo bonus adventures.
* '''[[Zak Has Nothing To Do With This Book]]''': Supposed to be a "RPG version of the Hateful Eight". In actuality, it's about how Raggi is sad that he had to stop dealing with Zak Smith after the latter turned out to be a major abuser. It features an NPC incidentally named Zachary who is so totally innocent of everything, and the accusers are the bad people, no really you guys. The original (printed) version ends with a editorial/rant where Raggi tells about his sympathy with Zak since he (Raggi) has also been accused of physical abuse by two women. Eh, Raggi, using ''that'' as an argument might not have ''quite'' the intended effect. Also there's something about how not buying a book because you don't like the author as a person is censorship. The later PDF versions don't have this editorial.

===LotFP-Published Adventures by Other Authors===
Most of these have small house-rules supplements in the back, system tweaks, and other bonus content.

* '''[[Adventure anthology Death]]''':
* '''[[Adventure anthology Fire]]''':
* '''[[Blood in the Chocolate]]''': Kiel Cheiner mixes Willy Wonka and his [[Magical Realm]]. [[FATAL|Which is apparently midgets gang-raping fat lesbians in knife wounds]]. Has potential as an industrial black comedy/horror factorycrawl if you strip out the LotFP. Was disowned by the author in 2020, and removed from publication a year later when the rights reverted back to him.
* '''[[Towers Two]]''': Originally a fairly straightforward module where two wizards are duelling with their bands of pretty-boy soldiers and pig-faced orcs, with the "twist" that both of them are evil. Notable for being half-written by the frontman of GWAR, then taken over and made vastly grosser by a fanboy after his death. Includes "death-fuck" magic.
* '''[[Forgive Us]]''': Tight, brutal little pastiche of ''Aliens'' and/or ''The Thing'' by way of [[Warhammer Fantasy]]. Cultists find a Nurgle idol, possession and [[/d/|tentacles]] ensue. Set in the real world, but easily converted to WHFRP or whatever else. The treasure room has some neat mechanics.
* '''[[England Upturn'd]]''': Odin is fucking with the English Civil War, Evil Prince John is a liche trying to take over his idiot descendants, and the drow want him back to torture him forever. Has a fairly cool take on the alignment system based on religion and politics, though the execution is lacking.
* '''[[Isle of the Unknown]]''': An astonishingly-generic hexcrawl, which is put together almost entirely with random generators. The Zodiac wizards are the only really interesting thing in it.
* '''[[Scenic Dunnsmouth]]''': One of the best things to come out of the entire mess that is LotFP. Uses a dice-drop to create a map, then uses the values of the dice to generate a quick metaplot and set the power levels/treasure of various set NPCs. A quick playing card deal assigns the rotating cast of NPCs from 56 available households/characters. Then you just have to steal the Time Cube from Schrodinger's Spider-Cult while dodging an insane serial killer. It's like the card-generated plot from the original [[I6: Ravenloft]] module, or the [[Curse of Strahd| modern re-interpretation]] on steroids.
* '''[[Deep Carbon Observatory]]''': One of the other great things to come out of LotFP. A 2-part short hex crawl with one small and one large dungeon to explore, centered around an ancient dam that breaks a hour before the party arrives and the chaos that follows from the flood. The writing is sometimes vague and flowery, but the copious amounts of art give a great feel for the setting, even if you have to fill in some of the gaps. Has a giant platypus, a poison that makes your wizard dyslexic, dinosaur hieroglyphics and pit trap bureaucrats with yellowed skulls.
* '''[[Broodmother Sky Fortress]]''': Giant evil shark-elephants drop out of the sky and attempt to blow up your campaign setting. The players are encouraged to steal their ship. Tries to be full of 90's 'tude, just comes across as a bit desperate. Does provide a lot of alternative rules in case you don't want shark-elephant aliens but still want the crazy ass adventure over all.
* '''[[The Cursed Chateau]]''': Haunted house adventure. A jaded demon-worshiping mage traps you in his funhouse and wants you to amuse him. Very much the Hammer Horror counterpart of Castle Amber.
* '''[[The Punchline]]''':
*'''[[Thulian Echoes]]''': When Titus sacked Jerusalem (A.D. 70), he made off with a load of silver. The players go on a classic dungeon dive to get it. The twist is they are working off the notes of a failed party of adventurers, so the game starts with the players running the dungeon with a set of premade characters, with their actions providing information to the "real" characters about the dungeon's traps and hazards, which is objectively a remarkable clever idea that's nonetheless rage-inducing, since it has to be associated with ''Lamentations of the Flame Princess''.
* '''[[Lamentations of the Gingerbread Princess]]''': Halflings and an evil [[My Little Pony| Pony Prince]] imprison the party on a demiplane of diabetes-fuelled horror. If you're lucky, you can make wishes that the DM will then fuck you over on!

== Supplements ==
* '''[[Vornheim]]''' - Turning a city into an adventure, with rules for creating floorplans and buildings on the fly.
* '''[[A Red and Pleasant Land]]''' - Vampire Alice in Wonderland. Utterly random, but a good way of spicing up your horror campaigns. Has a weird obsession with virgin blood and children in wells.
* '''[[Veins of the Earth]]''' - Why spelunking is bad for you. Monsters introduced run the gamut of "Unplayable Garbage" to "Will invade the next Underdark campaign you run". Includes cave exploration, hypothermia, rules on light ("fuck your Darkvision and actually act like you're in a cave", basically) and cannibalism rules, because ''LotFP'' is gonna ''LotFP''. It also has a very complex but useful cave generation system that its creator made to be easily ported to other systems, so if you're looking for a way to make the Underdark more interesting, it's a good source. Also, crazy hate elves. ''Also'', also, has a spell to summon a vampire lawyer. ''Also, also,'' also, combat statblocks for paranoia/claustrophobia. Written and illustrated by the same team behind ''Deep Carbon Observatory'', and can "easily" be used to build on that adventure and dungeon.
* '''[[Frostbitten & Mutilated]]''' - Black metal amazons and witches, primordial archetypal animals, and horrible giants in a frozen waste. It's like they wrote an RPG setting based entirely off Immortal lyrics. Probably better taken in pieces than as is, but has an interesting idea with a time loop mechanic for its overall campaign story albeit packaged with a terrible pun. Three witches want to summon a big demon, but need to be in one place, the Dim Fortress, to do so, and they don't know where that is. So they set up a time loop so that the last month is repeated forever until the cycle is broken by adventurers who can give them their chance to summon the demon. The shitty pun? The prophecy is tied to Ratatoskr, whose been reimagined from a Squirrel into another kind of rodent, a marmot. ....ground hog.
* '''[[World of the Lost]]''' - African Space Alien fantasy sandbox. With dinosaurs and ice age predators. Some [[Expedition to the Barrier Peaks]] stuff if the ship ruined half a continent.
* '''[[Quelong]]''' - Fantasy Laos with an apocalyptic-war-in-progress in nearby nations slowly ruining the place. Everything, including the water and food, is laced with poisonous Aakom. At low levels, it inflicts a vast assortment of debuffs that get worse the more poisoned you are. It also screws with a spellcaster's magic, gives an inconvenient uncontrollable magic, and if you die while poisoned, will have you come back as a zombie when you die. The players are on a ticking clock as a result. Goes for a ''Heart of Darkness''/''Apocalypse Now'' flavor.
* '''[[The Seclusium of Orphone of the Three Visions]]''' - Several half-baked attempts at wizards' towers, with the tables to make them. Simultaneously too vague to use as-written, and too specific to use more than once or twice on your own. Much like England Upturn'd, it's a cool idea sabotaged in the execution. The author also constantly repeats himself and inserts page breaks like a panicked sophomore confronted by his first 15-page essay.
* '''[[Carcosa]]''' - A reprint of one of the most infamous RPG supplements in history, 'cause Raggi knows where his bread's buttered. ''Lamentations''' take on the Mythos, specifically Robert W. Chambers' ''The King in Yellow''. Essentially a GIANT (800 encounters across a 400-hex map over 283 pages) hexcrawl/sandbox of the titular alien city. Also completely obsessed with human sacrifice, torture and rape. Oh, and it's the player characters doing that, naturally.
* '''[[More Than Meets The Eye]]''' - A straight parody piece where a bunch of grimdark/"fleshy" [[Transformers|Transformer]] analogs in all but name (they even use the same damn font in the title of the book!) crash into 17th Century England. Also has the '''''worst''''' pun in all of RPG history. The location where the "not-transformers" crashed? A fishing village that was on the shore of ''Saint Michael's Bay''.

== See Also ==
*[[Old School Roleplaying]]
*[[Retroclone]]

== Gallery ==
<gallery>
Image:Successful_Adventure.jpg|This never happens
Image:Lotfp.jpg|The titular Flame Princess, dying alone in the sewer, like you will
Image:LOTFP-grindhouse-cover.jpg|An adventurer is you
Image:LotfP_Cleric_with_gun.jpg|This is the Iconic party's CLERIC, which is admittedly unique.
Image:Jason_G_Thompson_-_The_God_That_Crawls.jpg|A fairly typical session report.
</gallery>

{{Retroclones}}

[[Category:Roleplaying]] [[Category: Lamentations of the Flame Princess]]

Total War: Warhammer/Tactics/Banner Rules

2022-05-15T07:49:08Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D:

{{/vg/}}
{{stub}}

So you're here because you want to play [[Total War: WARHAMMER]] online. Well, while you certainly could use the game's actual Quick Battle system, you will have to go through a ton of toxicity, cheese tactics and general stupidness that comes from playing online games in general. This is why a lot of online players prefer to play with community Discord servers where there are expectations of politeness and good sportsmanship. There are even community made rules called the Banner Rules that are used by these communities in both casual and competitive play, which is what this article is about. While the rules will be listed below, you can also check out [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1blvwkYSM3l7KW2Zf6t2Nra4eY7MSjP4d/view| this link] if you want more up to date info.

==Minimum Army Size==
Each army in these multiplayer scenes must have a minimum of 300 models on the field.* This is mostly to prevent Single Entity spam as those kinds of monsters are considered very strong in multiplayer for the most part. Trust me, no Beastmen player is going to have fun if their opponent decides to bring 3 Rogue Idols to the fight.

==Unit Limits==
In the same vein as above, you can only bring a limit of the same type of unit in order to prevent the cheesey spam that is common in normal multiplayer. As of right now it is as follows:

*'''Infantry''': Maximum 5 of a kind
*'''Monstrous Infantry*, War Beasts, Cavalry, Chariots, Artillery''': Maximum 4 of a kind
*'''Special Single Entities (Big monsters like Giants, Carnosaurs, Dragons ETC.)''': Maximum 3 total
*'''Heroes/Single Entities''': Maximum 2 of a kind

You can also bring up to 8 of the same unit unit with different weapon variants, such as having Great Weapons instead of shields. It's important to note that the same unit with shields, the same unit but armoured, and RORs aren't considered different variants. So, Saurus Warriors and Saurus Warriors with shields are considered the same unit but Peasant Archers and Peasant Archers with Pox Arrows are separate variants so you can have 5 of one and 3 of the other just fine.

There are also strict limits to certain ranged units. You can only bring 6 360 degree fire units, 4 chariots and 6 Skirmisher Cavalry or Chariots. Once again, mainly to avoid annoying uber kite builds.

*note this guide has not yet been adjusted to account for warhammer 3 and the orge kingdoms, where 90% of there roster is monstrious infantry and even on ultra unit size a unit of bulls has only 24 models and as such might have an been given an exception to the two rules.
[[Category:Total Warhammer]] {{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War: Warhammer/Tactics/Banner Rules

2022-05-15T07:48:53Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D:

{{/vg/}}
{{stub}}

So you're here because you want to play [[Total War: WARHAMMER]] online. Well, while you certainly could use the game's actual Quick Battle system, you will have to go through a ton of toxicity, cheese tactics and general stupidness that comes from playing online games in general. This is why a lot of online players prefer to play with community Discord servers where there are expectations of politeness and good sportsmanship. There are even community made rules called the Banner Rules that are used by these communities in both casual and competitive play, which is what this article is about. While the rules will be listed below, you can also check out [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1blvwkYSM3l7KW2Zf6t2Nra4eY7MSjP4d/view| this link] if you want more up to date info.

==Minimum Army Size==
Each army in these multiplayer scenes must have a minimum of 300 models on the field.* This is mostly to prevent Single Entity spam as those kinds of monsters are considered very strong in multiplayer for the most part. Trust me, no Beastmen player is going to have fun if their opponent decides to bring 3 Rogue Idols to the fight.

==Unit Limits==
In the same vein as above, you can only bring a limit of the same type of unit in order to prevent the cheesey spam that is common in normal multiplayer. As of right now it is as follows:

*'''Infantry''': Maximum 5 of a kind
*'''Monstrous Infantry*, War Beasts, Cavalry, Chariots, Artillery''': Maximum 4 of a kind
*'''Special Single Entities (Big monsters like Giants, Carnosaurs, Dragons ETC.)''': Maximum 3 total
*'''Heroes/Single Entities''': Maximum 2 of a kind

You can also bring up to 8 of the same unit unit with different weapon variants, such as having Great Weapons instead of shields. It's important to note that the same unit with shields, the same unit but armoured, and RORs aren't considered different variants. So, Saurus Warriors and Saurus Warriors with shields are considered the same unit but Peasant Archers and Peasant Archers with Pox Arrows are separate variants so you can have 5 of one and 3 of the other just fine.

There are also strict limits to certain ranged units. You can only bring 6 360 degree fire units, 4 chariots and 6 Skirmisher Cavalry or Chariots. Once again, mainly to avoid annoying uber kite builds.

*note this guide has not yet been adjusted to account for warhammer 3 and the orge kingdoms, where 90% of there roster is monstrious infantry and even on ultra unit size a unit of bulls has only 24 models and as such might have an been given an exception to the two rules, please consult google drive rules.
[[Category:Total Warhammer]] {{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Greenskins

2022-05-15T07:47:18Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* Specific Campaign Tips */

{{Topquote|Gork and Mork!|Game battle chant for Orcs}}
{{Topquote|We'z gonna getcha!|Game battle chant for Goblins}}
This is the tactica for the [[Total War: Warhammer]] version of the [[Orcs & Goblins|Greenskins]].

==Why Play Greenskins?==
* Because you like to have fun when fighting.
* Cause you think fantasy-flavoured football riots are hilarious.
* Because you want to paint the map green through the power of ultraviolence.
* You want to see the Old World burn, but find playing Chaos too much of a drag.
* You're either brutally cunning or cunningly brutal.
* <span style='color:green;font-size:150%'>'''''"WAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHH!!!!!!"'''''</span>

===Pros===
*'''Aggressive Infantry:''' What? You think Da Boyz are gonna lay about and let those gits come to them. Hell no! Greenskins are a rush faction and their infantry love to run up and smash the hell out of their enemies. Combine this with your battlefield WAAAGH mechanic, and you will either dominate the infantry fight or leave the enemy with damn near nothing left.
*'''Deceptively Good at Ranged:''' I mean, OK you aren't going to out shoot the Wood Elves anytime soon, but a lot of players underestimate how good you are at skirmishing. With cheap skirmish cav, surprisingly good archers that can defend themselves and really solid artilery, you are actually pretty damn good at wining fights from afar. Hell, in some matchhups this is sometimes your best way to win!
*'''AP:''' You are a tank buster faction, with a crap load of AP in both ranged and melee. Factions who rely on heavy armor like Dwarfs or Chaos Warriors hate how well you can punch through their high armor values and delete models.
*'''Monsters:''' The Greenskins have some of the most and best monsters to throw at their enemies. Three species of trolls, giant spiders, big stone monuments, hydras, giants, wyverns and giant spiders '''[[Awesome|on fire]]'''... and multiple flavors of squigs too, of course.
*'''Massive unit roster:''' Because your faction is three races with three subcategories apiece plus monsters, you have an extremely broad pool of unit to draw from. Every unit is fabulously designed and brimming with character. You wil not want for opportunities to play with cool thematic armies.
*'''Humour''': If our favorite merry band of 1970s English football hooligans doesn't earn at least a chuckle at one point, you're playing the wrong game. Paired with amazing voice acting and funny writing (the research tree, for example, is called "Big Thinkin'"), CA has done a perfect job of carrying over the ridiculously funny tone of the Tabletop Greenskins.

===Cons===
*'''Low Leadership:''' Greenskin units tend to have bad Leadership, especially Goblins. The general lack of units that cause Fear or Terror and are Immune to Psychology exacerbates this problem when fighting spooky foes. You have options to mitigate this issue, the Black Orc Big Boss especially, but must still expect your troops to be running fairly often.
*'''Tricky Heavy Cavalry:''' Boars are slow movers and tend to lose to most other heavy cav within their price range. As such, you better make sure to support them and work out strategies to get your money's worth from them.
*'''Lack of Armour''': If you aren't a Lord/Hero, a Black Orc or a monster your armor is probably defined as "Tissue Papper"
*''' Lack of Anti-Large:''' Your anti large options are extremly limited, especially outside campaign where you can at least try to mitigate these issues. Big 'Uns (both kinds), Boar Big 'Uns (both kinds) and the Arachnarok Spider are the only units with unmodified anti-large bonuses and none of them have charge defenses against cavalry and monsters. As such, well-aimed and -timed cavalry charges can ''wreck'' your battle lines.
*'''Slow Movers:''' Aside from your gobbo cav, your troops aren't the fastest things around, so expect to be out maneuvered by most good opponents.
*'''Lack of Air Power:''' You get exactly two options for flying units: A high-end Wyvern mount for certain Warbosses and a campaign-exclusive Wyvern unit. Between this and merely being decent at ranged, you will learn to hate and despise races with lots of flying options. It also draws attention to how slow your army is to reach the enemy.
*'''DLC Reliant:''' As with all Core Races (and soon some DLC ones) a lot of your really good units are behind DLCs. If you want to take your green friends and win somewhat consistently, you may be forced to hand over some extra dough.

==Universal Traits==
*'''Expendable:''' A trait most of your Goblins have. As the name implies, your Orks don't give a [[Skaven|rat's]] ass about using Goblins as cannon-fodder and won't suffer any leadership penalties for watching entire units of them explode in horrible ways. Expendable units themselves aren't so brave and will get scared shitless if they see a Carnosaur rampaging through a neighboring Goblin formation, but that's not really your Warboss' problem, now is it?
*'''WAAAAGH!:''' Did anyone really expect it to be called anything else? This is your in battle army ability, used in both campaign and multiplayer. For every second an entity (not a unit, entity) is in melee, it will fill up a bar at the top of the screen. Once that bar is filled, you can call a WAAAGH giving your army a map-wide boost to melee damage and Immune to Psychology. Even the humble Goblin can become a decently scary unit if he is backed up by a WAAAGH. This means you are rewarded for going with a wide melee build, as it will allow you to build up this bar much quicker and get these WAAAAGHs off much faster. In a way, it's very similar to the Dark Elves' Murderous Prowess only it's actually much better for two reasons. One, since you have to push a button to activate it you can use it whenever you want, so you can wait for that perfect moment, and two if you keep the fight going you can use it more than once, though your troops need to be in melee longer and longer to get off successive WAAAGHs. In campaign, your legendary lords have unique WAAAGHs, that can reward going with certain army styles.
*'''Reputation/Call to Waaagh!:''' Finally, the dark days of the old, useless Waaagh! mechanic are over! Krumpin' gits, raiding and basically, everything that involves a good scrap earns you reputation, that gives you growth, income, and public order bonuses. When you reach the maximum of 200 reputation, you can make a Call to Waaagh, dedicated to either Mork or Gork, which gives you bonuses for either ranged or melee troops respectively. When the Waaagh is called, Waaagh armies will start to build up at random on all of your armies, that contain as many units as the army had when the Waaagh was started. They work as additional support armies that reinforce your standing army in combat and consist mostly of fodder, but can, depending on the placement of your army on the map, also contain some exotic units that you can't get elsewhere, like Armoured Squig Hoppers or Feral Wyverns. When you start a Waaagh, you also select an enemy factions capital, if you occupy and hold or raze it within 20 turns, you gain a trophy that has permanent effects depending on how strong the enemy was (i.e. killing a rank 89 faction in the middle of nowhere will yield a smaller bonus compared to factions like Reikland, Karaz-a-Karak or Eataine) and what kind of enemy it was. This mechanic makes Greenskins a serious threat on the campaign map because not even High Elves can hope to withstand 40 units at once, not to mention the support the Orcs might bring with them. It's best used to support your bursts of expansion in a truly Orky fashion and as an added benefit, it also feels very close to the Fluff.
*'''Scrap:''' The second, and very small mechanic the Greenskins have. Killing enemies in battles and razing settlements earns you the Scrap resource, which can be spent on certain technologies, unit upgrades and, if you play as Grom the Paunch, cooking dishes in his cauldron.
[[Category:Total Warhammer]]

==Legendary Lords==

*'''Grimgor Ironhide:''' The one and only Grimgor is a close-combat beatstick who specialises in cracking lines and peeling tin can infantry. His character-killer abilities also make him ideal for going after enemy Lords and Heroes. Just remember that he's not invincible and will need support to avoid getting crumped by things outside of his jurisdiction. Send chaff units to absorb charges from large single entities, Big 'Uns to help him handle cavalry and monsters, Shamans to boost his stats or obscure his approach where necessary and of course Black Orcs to help him crack heavy infantry lines. His personal skill tree will majorly buff Black Orcs and Big 'Uns in his army, so make sure to go for that as soon as possible. Unfortunately, his biggest weakness is very limited mobility. He gets no mounts and moves at Black Orc speed, making him very vulnerable to kiting from the more mobile factions in the game, so make sure to send fast units like Wolf Riders and Spider Riders to tarpit his targets in case you find him targeting something fast (Elves especially).

:: Grimgor's faction, '''Grimgor's 'Ardboyz''' starts in the middle of the Badlands at Black Crag and in a prime position to become a formidable power. Your immediate enemies are the various Greenskin tribes of the Badlands that need a proper krumpin', some Skaven and the isolated Dwarfs of Karak Azul. The main Dwarfen faction of Karaz-A-Karak will be your main enemy for the majority of the early to late game. If you want a general tutorial on how to deal with Dwarfs and their annoyingly thick armour, you pick Grimgor.

*'''Azhag the Slaughterer:''' Azhag is a Hybrid Lord that can do a bit of everything and currently the only Orc LL with access to a flying mount in the form of his trusty Wyvern Skullmuncha. Prior to "The Warden and the Paunch", he was the only character the Greenskins had with access to the Lord of Death, which is a pretty good lore, all things considered. In direct combat, he holds up well enough but is inferior against most Lords and Heroes that are either dedicated melee characters (Like Karl Franz or Grimgor) or are just really tanky; but his utility is pretty good. Too bad that his biggest weakness in MP is his exorbitant price tag; Skullmuncha has to be included because he is too flimsy otherwise.

::Azhag got his own faction now! He leads the '''Bonerattlaz''' in the very northeastern corner of the Old World, starting in Red Eye Mountain and diplomatic bonusses with Vampire factions (and Arkhan the Black) and at war with the Elector Count of Ostermark. A unique advantage Azhag has over other Greenskin factions is that he makes Temperate climate settlements inhabitable (it's "unpleaseant" to others). Also worthy of note is that Azhag alone gets access to the Great Halls of Nagashizzar Landmark, which is only available to Vampires and Arkhan the Black and provides immunity to all effects of Vampiric Corruption as well as a +50 opinion increase with these factions.

*'''[[Skarsnik]] (DLC):''' is a Triscky lord having a surprising about of defense and offense despite being a goblin thanks to the squig he is chained to. He is a support lord that will give enemies hell, with Trisksy Traps letting a detachment of your army be invisible until they do a surprise flank. His Waaagh! gives bonuses AP Damage to missile weapons.

::As Boss of the '''Crooked Moon Tribe''', Skarsnik's campaign is almost entirely no Orcs allowed, as he needs to take and hold Karak Eight Peaks to recruit most Orc units. Until then, his goals are essentially a race across the [[Gray Mountains]] and [[Badlands]] towards his old stomping grounds.

*'''Wurrzag, The Great Green Prophet (FLC):''' Your obligatory Caster LL, and he is not messing around. As with most caster lords, he shouldn't see combat unless you're absolutely forced to send him into melee. He boosts your spellcasting by a ludicrous degree and is basically the loremaster for the Lore of the big Waaagh!, has Greater Arcane Conduit and great discounts on the best spells his Lore gives him, most notably 'Ere we go! and Foot of Gork. As if that wasn't enough he also makes Savage Orcs almost as tough as Black Orcs ''and making them cheaper in the process''. Can passively give magical attacks to his entire army in campaign which will make them better at krumping everyone except dwarfs due to their innate magic resistance.(until game 3 that is)

::Wurrzag starts to the west of Grimgor in the '''Bloody Handz''' faction. He has the unique mechanic of being able to build Savage Orc recruitment buildings ''anywhere'' on the map instead of merely in the southern portions of the Badlands.

*'''Grom the Paunch (DLC):''' Fatter than anyone, Grom is as goofy as he is powerful. Picking Grom unlocks access to his Cauldron, where you can cook food for him and his armies from ingredients that have a mini-quest attached in order to unlock them. Those ingredients come in five categories and their sources are fairly intuitive (Kill a Dragon for dragon wings, kill Dwarfs for Dwarfen Beer etc.). You can also buy them from the Food Merchant which will show up from time to time and can be interacted with by placing a Hero or Army next to her. Diffrent combinations of ingredients give different kinds of food and you need to unlock the recipes themselves first. But what is all this food for, you may now ask? The dishes give ''factionwide'' buffs depending on the recipe, and buffs to Grom himself, and nearly all of them are awesome in some form or another (not to mention that the idea that your main quest revolves around finding stuff to eat is just a hilarious contrast to the usual seriousness of the setting). In combat, Grom isn't that bad either. He gives decent buffs to Goblin units and Pump wagons and he himself rides on his big pimp car (Grom does not walk) as a massive chariot. His big mass (pun intended) ensures that he has little trouble punching through enemy lines, although prolonged exposure to enemies with bonusses against large is not something he likes.

::Grom has the honour of being the only Greenfaction with access to both Mortal Empires and Eye of the Vortex as well having wildly differing starting positions. He leads the '''Broken Axe''' faction and starts the game at war with his eternal enemy, Eltharion the Grim. Your main campaign goal revolves around getting a foothold on Ulthuan and destroying Tor Yvresse, which can take quite some time, but is easily the most fun you can have with any of the Greenskin campaigns, CA did a great job with him. On Mortal Empires, he starts in the middle of Bretonnia in the not-so-creatively named Massif Orcal, on Eye of the Vortex, he starts as far away from Ulthuan as you can get in Karag Orrud, near the southeastern edge of the map. It's important to remember that Eltharion will always send some armies your way.

===Workshop Boyz===

These lads are not leaders of factions, instead being unlockable by any faction through research in the Big Thinkin' techtree. They are both semi-Legendary in that they are Immortal and have specific army-buffing gimmicks but don't have unique voice actors or lines. Also you can change their names.

*'''Raknik Spiderclaw:''' Raknik is a Great Goblin Shaman who gives buffs to all kinds of spider-related units in his army, has the ability to summon Spider Hatchlings up to five times as a bound summon spell and can ride a Catchweb Spidershrine.

*'''Oglok the 'Orrible:''' Oglok is an Orc Warboss who gives decent bonuses to Orc infantry, Boar Boyz and Boar Chariots.

==Units==
===Generic Lords===

*'''Orc Warboss:''' The simple and cheaper beatstick lord. He's not nearly as tricksy as the other two Lords, but he makes up for it with great melee stats. He's also the only other lord besides Azhag to have a Wyvern mount, and he's a pretty good fighter while mounted. If you just want a fighting lord to fly around the enemy and wreck their backline, the Warboss does the job just as well as Azhag for considerably cheaper.
*'''Goblin Great Shaman:''' Your Little Waaagh! caster lord. He was orignally a cheap but fragile debuffing caster, but he got a lot tougher and more dangerous once the Warden and the Paunch DLC added the option to ride a Spidershrine. Also has an ability that increase an enemy targets recharge time for extra obnoxiousness if you know how recharge-time works.
*'''Night Goblin Warboss (DLC):''' A cheaper, enemy controller type of lord. Annoying as hell with conjuring wrecking ball Loons, which causes enemies to rampage, and then Tormentor Sword to lock them in place so they get dogpiled. He's a surprisingly decent duelist especially with a giant cave squig mount, although his low armour means he has to be careful who he goes up against. On the campaign he also unlocks the Goblin-buffing perks Grom and Skarnik have in their skilltrees, making pure Goblin Armies viable in the first place.

===Heroes===

*'''Goblin Big Boss:''' Low cost and surprisingly decent stats. Take 2-3 of them and have them roam around gooning enemy lords + heroes. Always give them a mount. The wolf is faster + cheaper, the spider gives poison attacks to cripple high-value targets.
*'''Orc Shaman:''' Your damage-dealing and buffing wizard. Even on a Warboar, is relatively slower than his contemporary mages on their own faction mount. He is easy to catch but has decent melee offense by virtue of being part of the Orc race but less melee defense than a contemporary old-magic-man so will his hp pool will quickly drain to zero.
*'''Night Goblin Shaman:''' The sneaky debuffing caster, and he needs to be sneaky because he's just a night goblin with no mount options. He's an excellent ambusher with both Vanguard and Stalk for quickly unleashing his spells (likely before getting trampled), and he even gets some magic 'shrooms so he can cast the same spell several times in quick secession.
*'''Black Orc Big Boss:''' Big tough guy that holds the line in addition to or while the lord is the way. Has the best overall melee stats and highest armor value of your Heroes. He's a pretty great fighter, but seriously hampered by his lack of a decent mount. He also provides an aura granting allied units Immune to Psychology, shoring up the low leadership that plagues most greenskins.
*'''River Troll Hag (DLC):''' Your Death caster outside Azhag, while also being very tanky with high ap weapon damage like all swamp trolls. She has the ability to snipe and debuff important enemies while brawling it out in the front lines, but her slow speed and large size makes her easy pickings for fire arrows.

===Melee Infantry===

*'''Goblins:''' Ah, the humble Goblin. One of the few units in the game to match the numbers of Skaven and being a decent option for tarpits for that very reason. All but the most aggressive factions (Think Darks Elves or Norscans) will need quite some time to chew through 160 bodies, and if you combine them with Grom or Skarsnik, they become decent core troops on their own, thanks to the bonusses on Physical Resist and Melee Attack the Goblin Bosses can stack on them. Don't come with a bonus vs. large outside of campaign buffs and even then don't rely on it, since their weapon strength is rather poor.
*'''Night Goblins:''' Crazed Gobbos that are high as a kite and bring poisoned attacks to the table. Night Goblins are really just Goblins +1, gaining Vanguard Deployment poisoned attacks, stalk and better Melee attack. You might not use the base version in the campaign all that much, since Fanatics are superior in almost any way. As with regular Goblins, picking the right Lord can also elevate them to decent Frontline-level.
**'''Da Warlord's Boyz (ROR, DLC):''' Night goblin warriors that trade poison for Armor rending. These nuts are a great way to patch up your lack of armour-piercing damage in the early game. They also have a place in multi-player as a cheap way to give your mobs an edge against armoured foes.
*'''Night Goblins (Fanatics):''' Identical to regular Night Goblins except for having an ability that can clear entire units if used right. Ignore the game telling you it's a vortex with unpredictable release, it's actually identical to Breath-type spells and release exactly where you tell it to.
**'''Da Eight Peak Loonies (ROR, DLC):''' Unbreakable gobbo tarpits. Just don't wait till the last moment to use their ability since it's disabled below 25% HP.
*'''Orc Boyz:''' Da Boyz! They are no slouch and have a lot going for them. While a bit on the pricey side for an early game unit, Boyz love smashing stuff in melee and dominate early game melee encounters with ease and can even hold their ground against some of the more elite units the AI will use. Sturdy, reliable, dead killy.
*'''Nasty Skulkers:''' Glass cannon kan-openers. Stalk allows you to get them to exactly where your opponent least wants them while their smoke bomb keeps victims from getting away by slowing their movement speed by 76% for 21 seconds. Skulkers also have the benefit of being extremely effective for their cost, as well as coming with Goblin numbers of entities in one Regiment.
*'''Savage Orcs:''' Savage Orcs differ from regular Boyz in that they can only be built on Orc pilgrimage sites and have no armour. They make up for it by having physical resistance, a small ward save that can be buffed through research and Wurrzag. Generally speaking, more of a glass cannon.
*'''Orc Big Uns:''' Even killier than regular boys, Big 'Uns love smashing stuff and do it in a truly great fashion. Notable downsides to them are their relatively high price and their lack of a shield; missile units love shooting at them.
*'''Savage Orc Big Uns:''' The equivalent on the Savage side of the Orcs, but these guys are absurdly deadly and only Black Orcs surpass them, Wurrzag makes them arguably even stronger.
*'''Black Orcs:''' Da big Boyz. By the time they show up, the enemy frontline might as well just pack up and leave. If they do leave, you might be in a bit of trouble, since Black Orcs move very slowly (a base speed of 34 when running is considerably slower than standard infantry speed, which is in the 40-45 range for most factions) and are more than other similar elite units in the game dependent on tarpits to tie their targets down. Once they are in melee, you're in for a treat though. Base leadership of 87 means that there is practically nothing in the game they will run from, an abundance of AP damage and an obscene base weapon strength of 70 (for comparison: Swordmasters of Hoeth have 45 WS) turn every enemy unit into a fine red mist within minutes.
**'''Da Krimson Killas (ROR, DLC):''' Have two axes and can just exterminate any other Melee infantry in the game. Has a unique (for infantry units) cleave attack where each unit will swing their two axes hitting multiple enemies at once ''with each swing''. This makes them unparalleled infantry killers, and the single best infantry unit in the entire game. Slap Grimgor's Immortulz banner on them, stick them in a chokepoint and watch them beat entire armies by themselves.

===Ranged Infantry===

*'''Goblin Archers:''' Your first foot archer option and... uh... there's not much to say about them, really. They slightly out-damage Skavenslave Slingers (Hint: that's not really all that good) and can get upgrades to increase their Armour-Piercing damage from 1 damage to a whopping 4. They have their use as counters to skirmishers and cavalry archers, but get rid of them as soon as something better arrives on the scene.
*'''Night Goblin Archers/Night Goblin Archer Fanatics:''' The much preferable alternative to either of the Orc Archers and basic Goblin Archers. They share the comparatively low base damage of their arrows with similar bow infantry, but get poisoned shots - invaluable to whittle down big beasts or elite units. In a pinch you can also build them as Fanatics, that gives them a good answer to crowds - but that's really something you better leave to melee Night Goblins.
**'''Da Rusty Arrers (ROR):''' Night gobbo archers with armor sundering. These guys make a great center for your shooting line: use them to open the enemy armour before the rest of your army finishes them off.
*'''Orc Arrer Boyz:''' A very, very two-sided sword. They gain much needed range and missile strength over Goblins, but at the cost of low accuracy and a low model count of just 80. Not all that good considering that they often lose even against mid-tier Missile Cavalry.
*'''Savage Orc Arrer Boyz:''' The same deal as Arrer Boyz, minus the armour. Yay. Only use them when no other options are available.

===Cavalry and Beasts===

*'''Goblin Wolf Riders:''' Cheap and quick. Has a similar stat line as generic goblins and a much lower unit count, so they don't do well against anything that can actually fight back. Low cost + high speed makes them well suited for killing weapon teams and harassing broken units off the map, similar to chaos warhounds.
**'''Moon-howlers: (RoR)''' Gives them fear. If you need to chase low leadership enemies off the field, these are the ones to do it.
*'''Goblin Wolf Rider Archers:''' Very fast, meek skirmisher unit. Can be used to annoy the shit out of everything on foot and particularly dwarfs, but not much else.
*'''Forest Goblin Spider Riders:''' Straight upgrade from Wolf Riders, except now they actually stand a chance of killing something reliably, due to poison. Their cheapness combined with their speed make them excellent expendable throwaway units to put the enemy backline into serious disarray, while anything short of Dark Elven Dark Riders is completely unable to catch them.
*'''Forest Goblin Spider Rider Archers:''' Ranged poison delivery system. Much like the spear variety, these are a straight upgrade to wolf-riders and will accomplish more against any foe they fight.
**'''Deff Creepers: (RoR)''' Spider rider archers with Regeneration. Quite a boon for an army that doesn't have any healing, but at the end of the day, they're still just spider riders. A decent pick, but not always worth the cost.
*'''Orc Boar Boyz:''' Your anti-infantry heavy cav. They're only have 60 speed, so don't overextend them. They can't outrun fast monsters + most enemy cav so it's pretty much game over for them if they get caught out of position.
*'''Orc Boar Big 'Unz:''' Your anti-large heavy cav. They have similar speed problems as vanilla boar boys so you'll primarily use them to deter enemy cav from charging your boyz.
**'''Broken Tusks Mob:''' Bigger and stronger Boar Big 'Unz. There's no gimmick with this unit; they're just Orc Boar Big 'Unz with more health, armour, and damage. Simple but pretty damn effective.
*'''Savage Orc Boar Boyz''': Actually better than regular Boar Boyz, especially when Wurrzag is leading your army. They might lose missle resistance and armour in exchange for raw Physical resist (which Wurrzag can buff up to 56%!) but gain a substantial amount of weapon strength, melee attack, AP and Frenzy.
*'''Savage Orc Boar Big 'Unz''': Good lord, here is a proppa heavy cav for da boyz. As with the standard boar boyz, much better than their "civilized" counterparts, due to their raw damage output and a bonus vs. Infantry, especially when used with Wurrzag as your leader. Compared with regular Boar Big 'Unz, they lose their ability to fight cavalry as efficiently, so you need to look out for anything on horse or bigger.
*'''Squig Herd (DLC):''' Cheap armor piercing infantry blenders with immune to psychology and rampage. These little balls of teeth and fury are as unsubtle as they are effective; just point them at the biggest infantry the enemy has and let them go. They'll all die, but they'll take quite a few enemies down with them. Rampage is more of a benefit than a drawback for these guys; they're so disposable that blindly attacking whatever is in front of them is a better value than if the ran away. They won't win any battles on their own, but they can soften up an enemy unit before the propa gits finish the job.
*'''Night Goblin Squig Hoppers (DLC):''' Similar to spider riders, these guys are a fast poison delivery system. Squig Hoppers are fragile and cheap but extremely quick backline harasser units that make mincemeat out of a plethora of missle units, as well as elite infantry, thanks to a bonus vs. infantry and AP attacks. The downside is that they are very squishy and vulnerable to intercepting cavalry, to which they have no answers to.
**'''Durkit's Squigs: (RoR):''' Squig Hoppers with added missile resistance. Hoppers are pretty squishy, so anything to keep them alive helps.

===Monsters and Chariots===

*'''Trolls:''' Good stats and regeneration, but terrible leadership. Their purpose is cycle charging, taking breaks to recover. Completely outclassed by their DLC troll cousins.
*'''Stone Trolls (DLC):''' Like regular trolls, but 'arder. They pack more punch and are very durable with built in magic and missile resistance. Less regen though.
*'''River Trolls (DLC):''' An improvement on vanilla trolls with better melee defense and reduce enemy DPS around them. Not as good as Stone Trolls in a straight up fight, but useful as support trolls.
**'''Da Swamp Fingz (RoR, DLC):''' Swamp Trolls with terror and poison. Causing terror is all well and good, but more importantly the ability makes Da Swamp Fings immune to fear and terror, an invaluable trait for such an expensive unit that normally struggles with leadership.
*'''Arachnarok Spider:''' Your big iconic monster. This bad girl has everything you could hope for: speed, armour, anti-large damage, and poison attacks. It even has some goblin archers on top for a bit of ranged damage. One often-overlooked factor is that the Arachnarok Spider has the strider ability, allowing it to move through forests and other terrain with no cost in speed.
**'''The Arachnarok Queen:''' Even better at slaying monsters that the normal Arachnarok, and the queen has the unique ability to summon units of spider hatchlings to absorb enemy charges, help pin down the foe, or clear out enemy chaff.
*'''Rogue Idol (DLC):''' If you want to pummel the enemy front line with the biggest, bluntest object you can find, accept no substitutes. Rogue Idols are scary frontline beatsticks with a crapload of armour and HP that start falling apart when they run low on health, damaging everything around them. It's one crucial weakness is its extremely low speed, making it vulnerable to kiting and fairly easy even for basic infantry to avoid them. Pinning the enemy down with goblins isn't very effective for this monster; the idol is so damn slow that any enemy worth attacking will kill the chaff before you get to them. These guys are absolute monsters when laying siege to an enemy; walls and towers are about the only thing a rogue idol can consistently outrun.
**'''Da big 'Un (RoR, DLC):''' A Rogue Idol that doubles as an Artillery piece can replenish its ammo at the cost of HP. The addition of a ranged attack goes a long way for making up for the Idol's lack of speed.
*'''Giant:''' No. Just no. Giants are far too frail and far too vulnerable to getting tarpitted to be even worth considering, not to mention their price. You could get an Anachnarok Spider for the same money that does the same things a Giant does, with some added missile support and much more durability and mobility. Starting a campaign with Wurrzag gets you one for free, and Azahg needs to get one as part of his legendary armour quest. Aside from those two circumstances you should never bother to get them.
*'''Goblin Wolf Chariots:''' A fast hybrid chariot that can shoot with bows and charge into melee. Most of the time, a unit of wolf archers or a boar chariot will do the job better; but there is something to be said for versatility. Skarsnik and Grom can both get more use out of them in the campaign, but in multi-player it's usually better to leave them out.
**'''Teef Robbers (ROR):''' Wolf chariots with vanguard deployment, allowing them to set up right beside the ordinary wolf riders.
*'''Orc Boar Chariot:''' The big heavy chariot. Like everything orc it's slow, tough, and hits like a ton of bricks. The armour and melee defense mean it won't immediately crumble if it gets stuck in combat, which is good because it's so dang slow that it can't always escape from the enemy. This thing works best as the spear-tip for a larger boar charge; the chariot can put a hole in the enemy lines, and the boar cavalry can keep it open for the chariot to escape. The boar chariot is also great for beginner players to learn the basics of cycle charging; it's armour makes it more forgiving of mistakes and the slower speed makes it easier to see when to hit and when to run. The closest equivalent is the spiky rollaz pump wagon; both cost about the same points and the same tier in the campaign, but the spiky pump wagon does more charge damage, while the boar chariot is better for sustained combats.
*'''Snotling Pump Wagons (Regular/Flappas/Spikey Rollaz) (DLC):''' The snotling pumpwagons are fragile little chariots that come in 3 varieties: the cheap one (regular), the fast one (flappas), and the heavy one (spikey rollas). In all three cases they are flimsy little lawnmowers who need to rely on cycle charging to do any real damage. They're good if you can micro them effectively, but they'll fall apart if they get trapped in combat.
**'''Logey Bogey's Spore 'Sploda's: (RoR):''' This is a weird one. Each chariot has a cache of explosive spores on the front that burst out when it charges into combat, causing some decent damage in a very large area. The spores take 60 seconds to regrow and the cooldown only begins once the wagon is out of combat. Best used to destroy enemy chaff very quickly; but whilst the spores are on cooldown they pump-wagons are basically identical to the normal variety. They need good micro to be useful, even more than normal pump-wagons.

===Artillery===

*'''Goblin Rock Lobbers:''' Generic catapult with decent damage and armor piercing. Cheaper than the Doom-Diver catapult with slightly less damage and much less accuracy. Still a decent weapon, and cheap enough to be fit into most armies. Keep in mind the crew is just a bunch of goblins and they're even more helpless than most artillery crews. Can be useful on harder campaign difficulties that make AI dwarf warriors all but unbreakable.
**'''Hammer of Gork: (RoR)''' Rock Lobbers that blind whatever they hit, making them great for debuffing an enemy before you smash them in melee.
*'''Doom Diver Catapults:''' More damage than the Rock Lobber, shockingly accurate, and utterly hilarious. Their projectiles home in on the enemy, a distinction they share only with Hellcannons. Best used for eliminating key units in the enemy army before they can cause you any problems. If you got the attention to spare taking manual control of them allows you to fly the projectile.

===WAAAAAGH Units/Campaign Only===

*'''Lava Goblin Spider Rider Archers:''' Now that's a mouthful. Trade the poisoned shots for Fire Damage, which makes them infinitely more viable as a harassing skirmisher unit.
*'''Spider Hatchlings:''' Essentially smaller, cheaper spider riders. A cheap way to bring fast poison to the battlefield, but not much else. You can recruit these early in game as Grom during the vortex campaign, but you should phase them out for true spider cavalry ASAP.
*'''Armoured Squig Hoppers:''' Just what it says on the tin: squig hoppers, but with armour. Ordinary squig hoppers are pretty squishy, so anything to increase their survivability helps.
*'''Soopa Squig:''' A squig that explodes when it charges into an enemy in the same way a Bloated Corpse does. Make sure it actually gets to its destination as the enemy will focus fire on it the moment it gets into range.
*'''Lava Arachnarok Spider:''' Arachnarok Spider with 50% fire resistance and three uses of free fire barrage that lays waste to targets with low armour in its vicinity. Pretty great, but very rare.
*'''Feral Wyvern:''' It's your only air unit outside of the warboss, and not a terrible one at that. Flying poison is always useful, and air support is always a good thing.
*'''Feral Hydra:''' It's a hydra, but on the side of the Greenskins. Stat-wise it's identical to the Dark Elf War Hydra.

==Multiplayer Strategies==
In most fantasy games, Orcs are usually tied to brute force and smashing your enemy until there is nothing left to smash. And... yeah in this game that's pretty much the case. With the WAAAAGH! battle ability and your great melee stats few factions can really put up a fight with you in melee. However, what most people don't expect is that your army is surprisingly versatile. You got good skirmishing, monsters, magic and artillery allowing you to employ numerous tactics and be pretty sneaky. What really screws the Greenskins over is their poor leadership, and most of your losses won't come from the enemy out fighting you, but from them exploiting your boyz lack of morale. You also aren't exactly the Empire in terms of versatility, as WAAAGH still encourages you to be aggressive. As long as you can keep the boyz in the fight though, Gork and Mork will be plenty pleased. <span style='color:green;font-size:150%'>'''''"WAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHH!!!!!!"'''''</span>

*'''Beastmen:''' You need to be aggressive with Beastmen; they do a lot of damage on the charge but you do your best damage in prolonged fights to build up your WAAAAAGH!. An interesting strategy here can be leaving the goblins at home entirely; the enemies considerable speed will be neutralized if everything in your army is a strong fighter that wants to be in melee anyway, and their ranged game is nowhere near strong enough to avoid melee. Just keep your eyes peeled for their monsters; you don't have many options to deal with them and they can cause all manner of problems if you leave them unchecked.

*'''Bretonnia:''' You know how greenskins have a distinct lack of anti-large and anti-air weaponry? You will after fighting Bretonnia. Your best bet is to bring a ton of cheap chaff units to surround their knights and lock them into combat; you benifit from prolonged combat and they suffer in it. Squig Herds and Sneaky Gits are your friend here; they're numerous enough to keep enemy knights in place and do enough anti-armour damage to put the hurt on them. Some skirmishing cavalry is also useful, peasants are one of the only infantry units that your goblins can reliably push around on their own.

*'''Dark Elves:''' It's always interesting to fight an enemy that's as aggressive as you are, and who benefit from a long scrap as much as you do. Dark Elves hit hard and can chase down even your fastest units, so need to be a bit more sneaky to deal with them. Night Goblins can be remarkably useful here; bringing poison and numbers to the fight. Poison is a wonderful tool for whittling Dark Elves down and taking the sting out of their assault. Stone Trolls are great for this battle as they bring magic and missile resistance. And unlike the High Elves, the Dark Elves don't have enough fire damage to reliably counter your trolls. However, they DO have plenty of sources of anti-large, and their Scourgerunners and ap missiles can be very dangerous for your big Arachnaroks and Rogue Idols, so leave them at home unless you're sure you can protect them. Dark Elves have great heavy infantry, but it's expensive for them to bring so you can usually bet on the infantry grind going slightly in your favor. All-in-all Dark Elves are formidable enemies, and make for a very interesting matchup.

*'''Dwarfs:''' An iconic matchup; but also a difficult one for you. The good news is that Dwarfs are too slow and too brave to run from combat, so once you get into melee your WAAAAGH! bar will fill almost constantly. The bad news is actually getting into melee in the first place will blow. You're going to need some fast harassers to disrupt the enemy artillery but most dwarfs will bunker up hard and your wolf and spider riders will struggle to break through. Enter the pump-wagon; cheap enough to be spammed, swift enough to get into combat before being shot to death, and with enough mass to disrupt the enemy's formations with repeated cycle charges. The flapping variety is probably best for this; the increased speed is essential to tying the enemy down ASAP. After that, you gotta bring in your big guys; Black Orcs, Big 'Uns, and Boar cavalry will all wreak havoc on dwarfen lines, especially if you bring some night goblins for the poison debuff. If you really want to bring Grimgor Ironhide in multiplayer this is the matchup to do it; even his mount-less ass can catch a Dwarf, and he's enough of a badass to take whatever they can throw at him and come out on top.

*'''Empire:''' Fighting the Empire can be a hassle because you can never be certain what the enemy is going to bring. One match they could have a solid gunline, next match it's a Bretonnian-style cavalry army. You need to be ready for just about anything; fortunately greenskins have a large and diverse army to choose from. Units like Goblin Spider Archers and Wolf Chariots can fill a large variety of roles and should be strongly considered against the humans, as well as your generalist units like Orc Boyz and Stone Trolls. Regardless of the individual play-style, virtually every Empire army will have a few wizards and artillery in support, so some fast flanking units will always come in handy. Tip: Don't underestimate the worth a unit or two of Nasty Skulkers can bring to the table. Sending out a suicide screen of the little critters to take out the Empire's artillery will seriously hurt them - without having all that much counterplay because of Stalk.

*'''Grand Cathay''': This is going to be pretty similar to playing against Dwarfs or the Empire, falling somewhere between the two in terms of versatility. Bring Wolf or Spider riders once again to screen for your main army and tangle up the enemy gunline. Chariots and monsters may not be the best option for cracking this nut though, given Cathay's plentiful halberd units. Big Un's and Black Orcs will be valuable here, as will goblins with Stalk. Boar Boyz might also be a good investment, as Cathay lacks much in the way of cavalry and is vulnerable to flanking. Your biggest problem are likely to be their large and flying units. Terracotta Sentinels, dragon characters, and Sky Lanterns are all going to be difficult to deal with as you lack both good anti-large and flying units of your own.

*'''Greenskins:''' Greenskin internal battles are both interesting and fluffy; and have a surprising amount of nuance simply due to the varieties of units you can bring. In the most generalist terms greenskins counter each other like a game of rock-paper-scissors: goblins can outmaneuver and poison orcs, orcs have the armor piercing damage to bring down monsters, and monsters can trample goblins with impunity. Obviously there is a little more nuance than that, but as a good rule of thumb everything the greenskins have can be hard countered by a different greenskins unit. Mind your positioning and play your strengths against their weaknesses.

*'''High Elves:''' First things first: leave the savage orcs at home. High Elves have so much magic and fire damage that any savage orcs you bring will crumble in short order. Try to to be aggressive (even more than usual, if possible) because you cannot survive high elf archery for very long. If you're good with micro and map-presence you can do amazing things with Stone Trolls, they can run rampage through any lines as long as you stay away from fire. You don't have any easy way to deal with Dragons or Dragon Princes aside from pinning them down and chewing through them with black orcs and Arachnarok Spiders, so keep them surrounded as soon as you can. Don't let fancy units like Pheonix Guard or Swordmasters of Hoeth intimidate you; if you can get close enough to krump'em, the elves will collapse like a house of cards. But getting close is easier said then done.

*'''Khorne''':

*'''Kislev''':

*'''Lizardmen:''' This matchup is where your general lack of anti-large options and leadership issues tend to become rather apparent. With a multitude of large, armored dinosaurs that bowl through your unarmored infantry and scare the shit out of the survivors in the process, you will have issues if the Lizardmen monsters have free reign over the battlefield. Have an Arachnarok Spider supported by some Orc Boar Big 'Unz to focus down the bigger beasties while you use Goblin Spider Riders to run circles around any skink skirmishers trying to poke and prod your flanks. Aside said skinks, Lizardmen have a noted lack of ranged firepower, so regular archers won't go amiss against the scaly rank and file on their slow approach. Trolls, if you can ensure any Salamanders the lizards may have brought are thoroughly shut down, can often shoulder their way through most of the infantry the Lizardmen have on tap, but you'll need to keep them away from anything bigger than they are.

*'''Norsca:''' An important factor in this matchup is how Norscan Rage compares to greenskin WAAAAAGH! Norscan want to stay in melee combat up to a point, then they start to lose steam and need to break away and recuperate. You pretty much never want to leave melee once your there, and benefit from longer engagements. Pile on the pressure with flanking units and nasty skulkers to keep the enemy locked in combat and grind them out. Your goblins can have a lot of fun against these unarmoured northerners; sneak, skulk and skirmish your way to victory with your brutal cunning and archer cavalry. Keep an eye out for mammoths, though. Your best bet to deal with them are your own monsters, but Norscans are quite good at killing monsters so you'll want to hang back until you've softened their lines up a bit.

*'''Nurgle''': Nurgle is slow, wants to stay in a prolonged fight, has no anti-large at all, has weak fliers, is poorly armoured, has mediocre artillery, and has very little defence against missile attacks. Basically, they're completely fucked. The Waaaagh! is powerful enough to overcome Nurgle's progressively growing debuffs and they have basically no way of dealing with your various methods of skirmishing them. Once you swat down any rotflies, drones, or furies; plague toads and pox riders are pretty easy pickings for the likes of stone trolls and boar boy big 'unz, while the Nurglite main line simply isn't killy enough to win before you krump them.

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''': If the Dwarfs are the immovable object to your irresistble force then the Ogres are the equally irresistible force. Except you're vulnerable to terror routing and bad at stopping charges and the Ogres are nearly all monsters who can cause terror and charge like run-away freight trains. This is one of those match-ups where you just don't have a lot of good options. Ogre leadbelchers and ironblasters will reduce your monsters to mush, basic ogres can simply plough through just about any number of infantry you throw in their way, and Ogres are disturbingly fast for such fat lads. Skirmishing them may be your best bet since Ogres generally have poor armour and bad shields.

*'''Skaven:''' Two words: goblin cavalry. Your orcs will be shot to bits before they can reach the skaven lines, so you'll need to tie them down first. Even the humble wolf riders can reliably beat skaven in melee. But pinning down the enemy line isn't enough to win a battle; bring some orcs (or ideally orc cavalry) to finish the rats off once you've got them trapped. Rock lobbas will also do good in this battle, just make sure they're firing at the right targets.

*'''Slaanesh''':

*'''Tomb Kings:''' Tomb Kings have a lot of big scary constructs, and you aren't that good against anything big or scary. A Black Orc Warboss or two is a must for the immune to psychology bubble, and some ordinary black orcs wouldn't hurt either. You'll need some fast cavalry to intercept enemy artillery, the screaming skull catapult does even more leadership penalties than other catapults and can quickly shatter your lines. You should be very careful with your monsters in this matchup; Tomb King Necrosphinxs can tear your big beasts apart. The one bit of good news is that you don't have to worry about enemy infantry; skellingtons are trash and even your goblins have a decent chance of beating them in combat.

*'''Tzeentch''':

*'''Vampire Coast:''' This is a strange one, because most of your best units struggle whilst your often-forgotten units thrive. Black Orcs and monsters will get shot to pieces before they can get into combat, but your humbler ranged cavalry can cause all manner of headaches for the enemy. This is also one of the few circumstances where you'll want orc archers instead of the cheaper goblins; the increased range is really important when fighting a gunpowder army. Despite the aforementioned flaws with Black Orcs, you will probably want to keep a squad or two around to shore up your frontlines, Immune to Psychology is just too valuable against an undead army. Just keep some chaff in front of them; most guns can't arc their shots and will have to deal with whatever's in front of them first. Leave the Arachnorak Spiders and Rogue Idols at home, though; those two are just to easy to shoot to be worth the cost.

*'''Vampire Counts:''' This is where your low leadership really becomes a problem; you can easily outfight basic Vampire Counts units, but your boyz will often rout anyway from fear. Black Orcs, Squig Herds, and Squig Hoppers are all immune to psychology, and should form the core of your army. This is the match to bring a Rogue Idol, the vampires <i>have</i> to deal with it in melee and that thing gets more dangerous as it gets hurt. Doom Diver catapults are useful here; all artillery is useful against Vampire Counts, but the doom diver is especially good at singling out individual targets. Nothing is more satisfying than watching a VC army crumble because an idiot goblin squished their lord.

*'''Warriors of Chaos:''' There aren't many armies that can reliably beat you in melee. Unfortunately, Chaos Warriors can. Bring plenty of artillery and some spider riders to deal with their hellcannons. You're going to need to soften up the Chaos lines before they reach you, but you can't outrun them forever. Chaos Warriors are a hassle for some, but you've got anti-infantry and anti-armour aplenty, which helps out. Black Orcs are one of the only infantry units that can go toe-to-toe with Chaos Chosen and survive; so be sure to bring some of them. Rogue Idols are also pretty great in this matchup, provided you can keep them safe from hellcannons.

*'''Wood Elves:''' Ouch. Not a very fun matchup; a good Wood Elves player will kite you across the battlefield while whittling you down with shooting. Your goblin cavalry is almost as fast as the wood elven kind, but struggles to keep the bastards pinned down for long enough to let your other guys catch up. Sneaky Skulkers can be useful here to lock the enemy in place with smoke-bombs, but again; you have to get close to use them. A good bet is to focus on goblins over orcs; goblins are faster, have better missile resistance, and have the numbers to overwhelm the enemy and hold them in place. Just watch out for flanking attacks and cavalry charges.

==Campaign Strategies==
===General tips===

The Greenskin campaign is probably the one most determined by your legendary lord. If you're Grom or Skarsnik you can get your goblins good or cheap enough to make most orcs obsolete; Wurzzag will also want to skip normal orcs in favor of the savage kind. Skarsnik can't recruit normal orcs anywhere but Eight Peaks, but he can recruit savage orcs in the southern badlands so he'll probably use of lot of those as well. Grimgor Ironhide is the polar opposite, he is best with elite units of Black Orcs and normal Orc Big 'Uns, with no goblins aside from chaff and disruption. Azhag the Slaughterer is probably the most generalized lord with a focus on magic, which slots nicely into any army you care to bring. Azhag, Grimgor, Skarsnik and Wurzzag all get unique scrap upgrades for certain units, whilst Grom uses his scrap for the cauldron. Aquiring scrap is so easy as to almost be incidental; all your favorite things to do (fighting, raiding, and wrecking towns) all provide scrap, so it will build up pretty well without much trouble. On the other hand, if you need extra scrap it can be hard to get it quickly; in a good greenskin campaign you'll be fighting and raiding as much as you can all the time, so you can't exactly pick up the pace for quick scrap. Plan ahead and keep your priorities straight; Big Thinkin' is more beneficial than upgrades for individual units.
The most important mechanic to learn in the Call to WAAAAGH!, which is already explained in the Universal Traits section. The only thing to mention about that ability is that when your WAAAAGH! reputation goes up you get bonuses to public order and growth. Therefore, it can be beneficial to sit on a full WAAAAGH! bar whilst you gather your forces and tighten your grip on your holdings. It should also be mentioned that Calling a WAAAAGH! isn't really worth it unless your targeting an enemy with strength rating of at least 30; if you don't think your strong enough to take such an enemy, feel free to wait until you're strong enough to go big!

===Specific Campaign Tips===

====Azhag====
* Be '' 'very''' careful with your movements and who you declare war to. It' s very easy to get bogged down and overwhelmed fighting the Empire and Elector Counts, so they should always be on your mind.
* Your victory conditions tell you to destroy Kislev, but Throt/Chaos usually does that for you anyway (and even if they don't Kislev is a somewhat passive faction (For now)).
* Alliances with the Von Carstiens (ideally both Vlad and Manfred) are quite useful in the early game, and your bonus diplomacy with vampires helps a great deal. Just keep in mind that you and they are competing for the same territories, so you will probably end up at war sooner or later. Manfred especially has an annoying habit of constantly breaking treaties for no reason, and there isn't much you can do about it.

====Grimgor====
* Try to rush the dwarfs as fast as you can; the longer you let Thorgrim fortify the Silver Road the worse things get for you.
* Form an alliance with Wurzzag as soon as you can to keep your eastern flank safe; you can declare war and beat him in combat to force him into a confederation once you have your other sides secured.
* You don't need to ally with Queek to your south, but you shouldn't provoke him either; you want to focus on expanding north and east to take care of the dwarfs. Do consider intervening if it looks like he is going to kill Wurzzag; you want to keep Wurzzag alive to ensure you can snatch him up later.
* You can also push east and meet with Malus Darkblade; eliminating him gives you several nice ports, while the rest of the Dark Elves and their allies are too far away to stop you.
* Once you've pushed up through the dwarf lines you'll run into Azhag. Just like Wurrzag, ally with him for as long as you need to, then force him into confederacy.
* You can also try to confederate with Grom and Skarsnik if you really want to collect every LL, but they are both pretty out of the way for you and don't give your army much benefit.
* Eight Peaks has a unique structure that boosts Black Orcs, so try to grab it as soon as you can.

====Grom====
* (Eye of the Vortex only) Do be aware that at any point, Eltharion may send an army to come and give you a shit day. Due to your relations with high elves, the rest of Ulthuan and the Knights of Caledor will join suit in his war with you. Be prepared for the Elves to come hunt you down.
* (Mortal Empires only) Don't be fooled by the climate, it's much better to take care of Bretonnia before trying to get to Ulthuan. Letting the knights tech up is a really bad idea, as Greenskins suck at Anti-Large, and you'll need a solid power base before attacking the Donut anyway.

====Skarsnik====
* Obviously, you want to rush Eight Peaks as soon as possible. Feel free to abandon your starting area once you've crossed the river into the badlands; you don't want to spread your armies out too thin.
* Try to kill (or at least cripple) Belegar Ironhammer on your way to Eight Peaks; he'll try to take it from you and you have to kill him anyway as part of your win condition.
* On your path to Eight Peaks you'll run into Wurzzag, try to force him into a confederacy as soon as you can. Not only is he a powerful Legendary Lord, but he controls most of the southern badlands where you can recruit savage orcs, which you'll need to take Eight Peaks.

====Wurzzag====
* Form an alliance with Grimgor ASAP. Your armies consider frozen territory inhospitable, so you don't want to expand north. Having Grimgor as an ally takes the pressure of the northern flanks and lets you focus on the south and west.
* Take out Queek Headtaker as soon as you can; you'll both be fighting for the badlands and he can be very difficult to destroy in the late game.
* You'll be fighting a lot of Tomb Kings and Lizardmen in the south, so consider investing in Black Orc bosses for their leadership bonus.

{{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Destruction/Sons of Behemat

2022-05-11T23:11:57Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* Warscrolls */

{{Age of Sigmar Faction|Faction=Sons of Behemat|Logo=Kraken-eater.jpg|Alliance=Destruction|Motto= Big and friendly these giants are not...}}

Three new, MASSIVE THICC BOIS, the biggest plastic GW kit so far, able to stare Archaon in the eye while he's on Dorghar; plus some regular gargants; are ready stomp on your face.

==Why Play Sons Of Behemat?==
* 'Cuz they are fucken [[Awesome|GIANTS]]. Chicks dig drunken giants.
* Ultra elite army. In 2000pts min four models, max ten.
* You're not bothered by a small unit pool when what you've got is really good.
* No need to bother with that other faff other factions have to think about: No allies, no wizards (unless you take an item from the Takers Tribe), no endless spells, no faction scenery, no special dice.
* In 40k your favorite army are Imperial Knights.
* You watched Attack on Titan and sympathized more with the naked monsters than the humans (can’t say I blame you), or else related to the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk as a kid.

'''Pros:'''
* BATTLELINE MEGA-GARGANTS!
* Getting your army built and painted will be really quick, despite the initial impression. Given they are basically oversized [[fa/tg/uys]], they are ripe for customization too.
* Rending attacks everywhere.
* Decent shooting attacks (including Drogg's halitosis).
* Single model units are immune to bravery checks.
* If you thought Nurgle was EXTRA THICC...
* Unspeakably beefy. All your giants have a bunch of wounds, with your mega-gargants having more wounds than the oversized HQs of other factions while being immune to instant death.
* Your faction acronym is SoB.
* A shit-ton of spare parts to share with your gaming group; shields, bones, debri, even dead animal bits! This all makes for fantastic scenery and all kinds of kitbashes.
* A single, specific Mega can join any other Allegiance. This is flavorful, considering how many factions could contract a Giant back in [[The Old World]].
* Third edition was incredibly kind to Sons of Behemat. Between the new artifacts being absolutely broken on any Mega, the fact that Mega-Gargants are battleline now, the combination of Heroic Actions and Monstrous Rampages (All the megas are eligible for heroic actions, and everything in the army can Rampage), and the new command abilities being fantastic, the Gargants are rolling in the love.
* The General's Handbook 2021 was also incredibly kind. Your grand Strategy is basically a free 3 points if you take Beast Master, since you've either been tabled, or you get it. You get bonus points for scoring most of the Battle Tactics if you do so with a monster, and the new command ability, Feral Roar, lets a Gargant who's wounded fight at top strength for a combat phase, which is quite useful on a Mega-Gargant who's been smacked on for a couple turns.

'''Cons:'''
* You're the AoS equivalent of Knights player, except for the pretty static poses (unless you’re creative with modifications), and nowhere near to be as magnet-friendly as Knights. The poses are workable, but transportation is a bit of a chore.
* Just two plastic kits. (Okay, one of those is amazing, and the other is ok). Bonegrinder is also part of this faction, but he's from FW.
* Everyone is a MONSTER, so good luck surviving specialist monster hunters. Other Destruction factions, especially Bonesplitterz Warclans and Beastclaw Raiders Mawtribes, will be your bane.
* In general, your interaction with your opponent will be limited to smashing his models into goop. Don't get me wrong, that's not a bad thing, but the opponent's going to be teleporting, casting spells, and generally ignoring everything except your enormous bases. A good opponent will out-position you every time, and you can't be everywhere at once, so your objective control is limited to whatever is directly beneath a gargant's ass.
* Being ultra elite, you’re almost always bringing single digit models.
* +4 Save is by no way bad... when you are an elite unit from a conventional army. But that's all you have to defend yourself without taking the FnP artifact. So don't think you can sponge MW all day long: you have lots of wounds but you'd expect they would have much thicker hides. Vastly improved with the new All-Out Defense command ability, for a nice 3+ save.
* You will probably never get a Start Collecting box and if you do it's going to be like, half a kit
* Your faction acronym is SoB. [[Age_of_Sigmar/Tactics/Chaos/Slaves_to_Darkness|Could have been a lot worse...]]
*The General's Handbook 2021 added a new rule: killing a '''Monster''' gives a free VP once per battle round, so as long as your opponent is actively trying to kill your gargants, you'll inevitably give away a few free VP, especially considering how vulnerable the Mancrushers are.

==Rulebooks==
{{AOSRulebooks|tome=Sons of Behemat|points=Generals Handbook 2021}}

==Allegiance Abilities==

*Mightier Makes Rightier: For objectives,one {{AOSKeyword|MEGA-GARGANT}} model counts as 20 models, and each {{AOSKeyword|MANCRUSHER GARGANT}} count as 10.

*Chuck Rocks: During your Shooting phase, your {{AOSKeyword|MEGA-GARGANT}} General can command one {{AOSKeyword|mancrusher gargant}} unit wholly within 18" unit to chuck rocks (18" d3 attacks 4+/3+/-1/D3)
**Quite effective in with units of 3. Will soften lots of enemies.

==Tribes==
Each SoB army belongs to a tribe, dependant on your choice of general.

===Stomper Tribes===
'''General''': Warstomper
*'''Getting Stuck In''': All {{AOSKeyword|MANCRUSHER GARGANT}}s attacks get +1 damage against units of 10+ models, or +2 against 20+

*'''Bawling Bellowing Lunks'''
Command Abilities that affect all {{AOSKeyword|MANCRUSHER GARGANT}}s within 18" of your general (they can't use other Command Abilities).
#'''Get a Move On, You Slackers!''': At the start of the movement phase, only one {{AOSKeyword|MANCRUSHER GARGANT}} unit Runs 6" instead of rolling.
#'''Grab Those Rocks and Chuck 'em at Somethin'!''': At the start of the shooting phase, All {{AOSKeyword|MANCRUSHER GARGANT}} units in range chuck rocks
#'''Oi You, Yes! Charge!''': At the start of the charge phase, a unit Rerolls charge rolls for all {{AOSKeyword|MANCRUSHER GARGANT}}s in range.
#'''Stop Muckin' About and Hit 'em!''': At the start of the combat phase, Reroll hits of 1 for all {{AOSKeyword|MANCRUSHER GARGANT}}s in range.
#'''Watch Your Backs You Gormless Lot!''': At the start of the combat phase, Reroll saves of 1 for all {{AOSKeyword|MANCRUSHER GARGANT}}s in range.
#'''Where Do You Think You're Going!''': At the start of the battleshock phase, Don't take battleshock for all {{AOSKeyword|MANCRUSHER GARGANT}}s in range.

'''Command Traits - Veterans of One-Sided Battle'''
# '''Monstrously Tough''': You have 40 wounds instead of 35. Harder to kill, but degrades just as easily.
# '''Old and Gnarly''': Re-roll save rolls of 1. An alternative to the above CT, but no protection from Armor save ignore attacks and MWs.
# '''Louder than Words''': Add 1 to your attacks for the club. Your maximum number of attacks is still 10 but you need one less model in range to be most combat effective.
# '''Inescapable Grip''': Re-roll the dice roll for Hurled Body ability. Greatly increases the likelihood of picking up that 3 to 4 wound model and then dealing that much MW to another unit.
# '''Very Shouty''': D3 extra CP's at the start of the first battle round. The Stompers use Command Abilities to milk a lot out of Mancrushers, so this is always useful.
# '''Eager for a Fight''': Roll 3D6" for your charge and you can charge 18". Gets the big guy into combat as fast as possible.

'''Artefacts of Power - Trappings of the Titan'''
''Warstomper Only.''
# '''Ironweld Cestus''': Reroll failed Saves and deal a mortal wound on an unmodified save roll of 6 if the reroll was a 6 only. 4+ is Already a good save, and then milking even more DPS.
# '''Club of the First Oak''': In your hero phase, heal 1 wound. In addition, if the bearer is slain roll a dice on a 4+ the wound is negated as well as any unallocated ones, it doesn't break so you can keep using this. 1 wound doesn’t seem to matter initially, but remember that 1 wound can potentially potentially keep you on the higher end of the damage chart.
# '''Mantle of the Destroyer''': Friendly gargant units within 12" have a bravery characteristic of 10 and they can re-roll charges. Save you spending CP and that 10 bravery can protect you from some particular save-or-die(or be hampered) abilities.

===Breaker Tribe===
'''General''': Gatebreaker
*'''Fierce Loathings''': All {{AOSKeyword|Gatebreaker Mega-Gargants}} and {{AOSKeyword|Mancrusher Gargants}} get +1 to all hits against one of the following unit types.
** '''Bossy Pants and Clever Clogs''': {{AOSKeyword|HERO}} or {{AOSKeyword|WIZARD}}.
** '''Idiots with Flags''': {{AOSKeyword|TOTEM}} or any unit with command models.
** '''Shiny 'Uns''': Save characteristic better than 5+ that aren't a {{AOSKeyword|HERO}} or {{AOSKeyword|monster}}.
** '''Crowds''': Units with 20 or more models.
** '''Wannabes''': {{AOSKeyword|monster}} or {{AOSKeyword|war machine}}.
** '''Piggybackers''': Units with a mount that are not a {{AOSKeyword|monster}}.

*'''Breaking Down The Houses''': {{AOSKeyword|Mancrusher Gargants}} gain the Gatebreaker’a Smash Down ability (+1 Damage on attacks against enemies on terrain or Garrisoned and ability to destroy terrain). Greatly boosts their attack power especially on boards that force the enemy to move onto the terrain.

'''Command Traits - Unstoppable Besiegers'''
#'''Monstrously Tough''': 40 wounds instead of 35. Just as easy to degrade, but more difficult to put down for good.
#'''Old and Gnarly''': Re-roll save rolls of 1. An alternative to the above CT, but no protection from Armor save ignore attacks and MWs.
#'''Louder than Words''': +2 to flail attacks. At full health, a Gatebreaker gets 12, Rend-3, 3 damage attacks, so definitely consider this.
#'''Extremely Bitter''': Pick an additional Fierce Loathing, but only applies to the General. Situational, unless you want that extra oomph against enemy characters and Monsters.
#'''Smasher''': Re-roll Smash-Down ability. You’re very likely to get the roll anyway and only have a problem at low health. Hard pass.
#'''Sees Red''': When within 9" of a terrain that can have a garrison, attack as if it hasn't suffered any wounds. A very situational trait.

'''Artefacts of Power - Legacy of Demolition'''
''Gatebreaker only.''
#'''Enchanted Portcullis''': 6+ FNP. Better than it looks, with the sheer number of wounds a Gatebreaker has, this is a lot of dice rolled, and therefore a lot of wounds saved. 100% weaker than the '''Amulet of Destiny''' so it no longer has a reason to be taken, but it's important to note how strong Ward saves are for Gargants.
#'''The Great Wrecka''': Unmodified hit rolls of 6 with Fortcrusha Flail does a MW and +1 to Smash Down ability.
#'''Kingslaughter Cowl''': Reroll wound rolls of 1 that target a Hero (or all failed wound rolls for the enemy General).

===Taker Tribe===
'''General:''' Kraken-eater
*'''Get Rid of 'Em!''': For objectives, {{AOSKeyword|MEGA-GARGANTS}} count as 30 models, {{AOSKeyword|MANCRUSHER GARGANTS}} count as 15. If you're having trouble with the objectives game, then maybe this is for you. Center a Mega on a 6" objective, and it's going to be tricky for your opponent to get 31 models into that circle.
*'''More Stuff For Me Collection''': Roll a triumph every time you kill an enemy wielding an artefact. You're going trigger this once, maybe twice per battle, so not the best. However, if your opponent really doesn't want you to gain these, then it's going to force them to play defensively with their artefact wielders (or even cause them to bring non-optimal lists).

'''Command Traits - Irascible Old Bullies'''
#'''Monstrously Tough''': You have 40 wounds instead of 35. Just as easy to degrade, but more difficult to put down for good.
#'''Old and Gnarly''': Re-roll save rolls of 1. An alternative to the above CT, but no protection from Armor save ignore attacks and MWs.
#'''Louder than Words''': Add 1 to your attacks for the club. Helps to offset the Kraken-Eater’s more objective based gameplay.
#'''Strong Right Foot''': “Get Orf Me Land!” now allows you to roll 3d6 instead of 2d6 when determining how far you kick the objective.
#'''Very Acquisitive''': You get 2 artefacts instead of 1 and your general can carry 2 artefacts. Double up on your general or spread the power to a second Kraken-eater.
#'''Extremely Intimidating''': -1 to hit rolls for every enemy model within 3". More durability is always good, just be cautious of any ranged units.

'''Artefacts of Power - Trophies Taken By Force'''
''Kraken-eater only.''
#'''Jaws of Mogaladon''': Once per phase, re-roll one save, hit, or wound roll. You do have a lot of big damage attacks, so this saves on CP, especially to get off that Death Grip attack.
#'''Walloping Tentacles''': At the start of the combat phase, pick an enemy {{AOSKeyword|hero}} within 3". Roll a dice and on a 4+ it takes 1 MW and you can re-roll hit rolls of 1 with all your attacks. More situational than the Jar of Burning Grog, especially if your opponent uses back campers or has big bubble-wraps of chaff.
#'''Jar of Burning Grog''': Once per battle at the start of the combat phase, pick 1 enemy unit within 3" of the bearer, on a 2+ it takes D3 MW's and re-roll wounds for gargants that target the unit, on a 1 you take D3 MW's. With all the attacks your Gargants can dish out, mass rerolls are always good.
#'''Net of the Beast-Reaver''': Start of the combat phase, on a 4+ roll, for one enemy monster, they get -1 to hit, you get +1 to hit
#'''Glowy Lantern''': [[Just as planned|Your Gargant is now a Wizard.]] [[Not as planned|Take the Universal Arcane Tome instead]], because in AoS3 the Lantern only makes your Mega a Wizard; it doesn't give you any particular spell, both give you access to Endless Spells and Fiery Weapon, but, unlike the Tome, also gives you Arcane Bolt and, most importantly, Mystic Shield AND Dispell.
#'''Krakenskin Sandals''': Almighty Stomp has 3 attacks, rend -3 and damage 3.

==Battalions==
Surprise! 3rd Edition brought universal battalions for free!

You will only be able to pick Linebreaker and Battle Regiment from universal battalions (and only Linebreaker will be actually useful for the SoB faction), with more battalions later on with new battlepacks.

Linebreaker is genuinely useful though, as it issues the effect of Command Abilities without the Order being issued, meaning that you can double dip the effect on two of your units in the same phase. Decent.

The August 2021 White Dwarf gave us two exclusive battalions. Both of each are far superior to the standard Linebreaker one:
*'''Bosses of the Stomp''': 2-4 Megas. Grants unified deployment or an extra enhancement.
*'''Footsloggas''': 2-3 Mancrushers (units, not models), and 0-1 Mega. Grants unified deployment or a free use of the ‘At the Double’ or ‘Forward to Victory’ command abilities to one unit from this battalion.

==Warscrolls==
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
All Mega-gargants have the following:
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
*35 wounds, with 12 wounds needed to drop from the top entry on warscroll, and even then they don't drop much. These guys are beasts! Sadly that thick leathery skin only gives 4+ save, and they still need protection against some of the biggest damage dealers in the game, which is tricky when you don't have many models for screens.
*'''Death Grip''': Whilst only a single attack, this is Rend -3 and flat out removes the chance of stopping attacks for anything with a 4+ or worse save. Don't underestimate it. Plus, using '''Death Grip''' you can reroll hits of 1 against '''MONSTER'''s - GW is hinting about the best way to use it.
*'''Almighty Stomp/Jump:''' Get at least 2 less powerful '''Death Grip''' but get a reroll hits of 1 against non-'''MONSTER'''s.
*All our other attacks are at least rend -1 or -2.
*'''Son of Behemat''': Auto kill abilities and spells instead just deal D6 mortals. Whilst it'd be hilarious to see an SoB fall wiped out this way, it's quite an essential auto-lose preventer.
*'''Crushing Charge''': After making a charge move, roll a dice for each enemy unit within 1" of this model. On a 2+ they suffer D3 wounds if they're a '''MONSTER''' or D6 wounds if they aren't.
*'''Terror''': Enemies within 3" get -1 bravery. Given the ways to avoid battleshock, this isn't really going to make any difference most of the time.
*'''TIMBERRRR!''': When it dies, the winner of a roll-off chooses a point 5" away. Every unit within 3", except {{AOSKeyword|Mega garagants}}, gets D3 mortals. Essentially it's a 50% chance of sending a few mortals at the guy that just killed you. If your enemy is fully within 2", then this isn't going to do anything (assume they were stood between his legs). Also potentially deadly for your single unit Mancrushers.
*'''Longshanks''': Basically, limited flying, or hovering? Let me explain: you can walk over models with up to 10 wounds, terrain, and endless spells (including the not-endless spells exclusive to Fyreslayers, Khorne, and Daughters of Khaine) up to 4" tall.
</div></div>

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/SonsOfBehemat_Warscroll_Warstomper.pdf Warstomper Mega-Gargant]''' (470)
**For those who just want to pummel hordes into the dirt. They are the anti-number Mega-gargant, Getting 4 stomp attack instead of 2, and the number of club attacks is based on how many models are within 3" and his current wounds (Monster count as 5 [because the +4 stacks with the +1 for nearby models], min:1, Max: 10 attacks) (get max attack when near 8 models at first health bracket). they can also roll to instant slay a single model(best against 3 wounds or lower) and then on a 4+ inflict MW on another enemy. A Warstomper's greatest strength is also its biggest weakness - it relies on being caught in deep combat to do its maximum number of attacks. If it can't face a horde, it's probably going to underperform.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/SonsOfBehemat_Warscroll_Gatebreaker.pdf Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant]''' (525)
**Probably the best all-rounder of the bunch. Definitely the go to option if you hate faction terrain like the [[Ossiarch Bonereapers|OBR Tithe Nexus]] or [[Sylvaneth|the constant sprouting Wyldwoods]]. Has a lower damage potential than a fully powered up Warstomper, but its damage output is much more reliable. He is most effective at attacking enemies that try to hide in cover for that +1sv, but can easily face foes in the open as well. The extra damage and rend May remove that benefit and his ability to destroy the terrain and turn it into Deadly scenery can make the opponent want to stay away from cover.
**A single shooting attack with -3 rend. That's 18" on 3/2/-3/4 damage Youch. And it hits on 2s if you're running Breaker Tribe!
**If you get these guys keep an eye on your point limit, these guys are the only gargant with a price tag that ends in 5 not 0, so they make the math a little trickyer on what to bring, see bellow.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/SonsOfBehemat_Warscroll_KrakenEater.pdf Kraken-eater Mega-Gargant]''' (490)
**The most tricky of the chonky lads. Lets you play football with the objectives. The least damaging potential of the Mega-Gargants, outside of a Hurl range attack that will inflict casualties to low armour saves units. Has retained the ability to stuff 'lil 'uns in bags for a chance to instant slay D3 models each combat - and you choose which ones are removed. These may be command models with strong buffs. The ability to move an objective in range 2D6" is a hilarious feature that could be used to great effect for point scoring and denial.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/SonsOfBehemat_Warscroll_MancrusherGargants.pdf Mancrusher Gargants]''' (170 single, 490 as a Mob of three)
**Not as strong as their bosses, but do have their uses, such as providing extra ranged attacks or serving as a meat shield for your Megas. They are susceptible to battleshock if affected by bravery manipulation, so be careful where you send them. They can be objective holders with a unit of 3 counting as 30 models (45 if Taker tribe). Their speed is slower than Mega-Gargants but its unaffected by decreasing wounds and can run and charge when near a Mega, for an 8"+3d6" threat range. Like the big'uns, each model can inflict MW on a charge, as well as roll to selectively kill 1 model, and inflict MW on death but don't affect other Gargants. They deal a lot of damage (one high rend and damage ’Eadbutt and Kick attack plus many weaker club swing that degrading with health), especially when using the Stomper Tribe’s command abilities to further boost their fightiness.
**In a trio of Mancrushers, only one of them will take damage. That one gargant can tank all the hits while the others remain at their top bracket. However, they will only be able to attack multiple units if the enemy is clumped together. Also, they will only be able to capture and hold 1 objective - but they'll do a great job at it, thanks to Mightier is Rightier. And under the AoS 3 monstrous rampage rules, each of them gets to pick an effect, which may be really useful if they've engaged a unit that you'd like to both stomp and roar at, for example. They do give away vp like candy in the new ghb though so okay cagey.

===Other===
{{anchor|FWBonegrinder}}
*'''[https://www.warhammer-community.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/qoNOUvdzwe7R46S3.pdf Bonegrinder Mega-Gargant]:''' (500pts)
**Forgeworld exclusive that's a strange watered down amalgam of the other Mega-Gargants and probably a few points overpriced. Well rounded with the stomp being more unreliable with his only other good trait being able to selectively slay a model(kill most squishy wizards on a 6+).
**No death grip, but gets the Gatebreaker's shooting attack.
**No mortal wounds on charge.
**Not a {{AOSKeyword|hero}} but doesn't matter too much since they don't get any hero benefits from the tribe and does let them avoid some situational enemy abilities.

==Allies==
None. But the Mega Gargants can join other armies using the Mercenary rules (Including if you so wish; Mega-Gargants Mercs in your own Behemat army.)

==Mercenaries==
Mercenaries allow you to take a special named Sons of Behemat hero in a army for the cost of one CP on top of its standard points. One mercenary per list, with no other allies and restrictions depending on your allegiance - only Destruction get a choice. Remember you're not getting any of those juicy SoB alliance abilities or tribe bonuses, just a bit scary centerpiece monster.

*'''Bundo Whalebiter''' ''Order or Destruction''
A Kraken-eater mercenary. You can choose at the start of the Combat phase for him to fight at the end of the phase, in exchange for re-rolling failed hit rolls.

*'''One-Eyed Grunnok''' ''Chaos or Destruction''
A Warstomper mercenary. Reroll jump attacks of 1, plus enemies within 6" get -1 to hit if the giant used his jump attacks earlier in the combat phase.

*'''Big Drogg Fort-Kicka''' ''Death or Destruction''
A Gatebreaker mercenary. He has a breath attack that attacks one unit within 3" at the end of the combat phase; roll a dice for each model in the unit and deal 1MW on a 6+.

*'''Brawlsmasha:''' ''Destruction''
A Bonegrinder mercenary from Forgeworld. Gives friendly Orruk wholly within 12" +1 Bravery. Nope. This guy is an overpriced weaker Mega-Gargant whose ability is limited to only Orruks and it’s not even that good to begin with. Just ignore him.

==Tactics==

===Tribe Playstyle===
With so few units, most of Sons of Behemat army building is affected by what Tribe you take.
====Stomper====
* Has a preference for multiple Mancrusher Gargants units. Revolving around the Warstmper general, the Mancrushers effectively have their damage doubled when hitting 10+ size units and you Can spend lots of CP to improve their Speed, damage, and durability. Also a line of fire seeing that with one CP all off them can launch stuff.
*The goal is keeping groups of Mancrushers always wholly within 18" of the general so they can go on a killing spree.
*Has a good range game as you can usually command 2 units of 3 to hurl boulders.

====Breaker====
*Not as much damage potential as Stomper but are more free in list building as they affect Mancrushers and Gatebreakers about as evenly.
*Breaker Tribes are extra effective selective parts of an army (decide what to focus on at the start of each game) and counter lists that are reliant on their special terrain or on terrain heavy boards with good effects.

====Taker====
*Takers are the objective claimers. Gargants count as 1.5 more models paired with Kraken-Eaters’ ability to yeet objectives to a more favorable position, the Takers are geared to claim and hold objectives over the increased damage enjoyed by the other tribes.
*Being more about holding the line and have so few models, you should also consider giving your General a defensive CT.
*There is also a side aspect of hero hunting as you gain can Triumphs.

===3rd Edition Artifacts===
With the new edition come a handful of new artifacts, and they're actually really, really good. So good, in fact, that they're worth considering over your existing ones from your tribe, doubly so if you're running a Taker Tribe with Very Acquisitive.
* The '''Arcane Tome''' is the first interesting choice. Having a spell caster who knows both Mystic Shield (For a super tanky Gargant) and Flaming Weapon (for when it's time to just go right down on a motherfucker) is insane in the army, and every hero phase your opponent will sweat at the idea of either spell getting through without being dispelled. Lastly, this artifact let's you dispell, meaning that it slightly reduces your greatest weakness, your inability to interact with the enemy in the shooting phase. But seriously, it can't be understated how good the choice between Mystic Shield and Flaming Weapon are. The Glowy Lantern does exactly this as well. In fact, you can rock a double cast wizard if you want. It's not very good, but it IS funny.
* The '''Amulet of Destiny''' is another absolutely insane choice, being the best way to get a Ward for your Mega Gargant. On average, you're getting an effective 11.66 more wounds out of your guy, and 13.33 if you're '''Monstrously Tough'''. That's a LOT of extra wounds on a huge beatstick, and obviously keeping your army alive is very important. Lastly, it's 100% better than the Breaker Tribe's '''Enchanted Portcullis''', so never, ever take that over the Amulet.
*Lastly, the '''Vial of Manticore Venom''' is a good all-around damage increase, though several attacks on each Mega Gargant's profile already wound on 2's. Combine this with the '''Krakenskin Sandals''' for a truly scary attack profile of 3 attacks 3's/2's/-3 rend/3 damage, which will scare anyone approaching. Or more simply, throw it on your club or flail for great success.

===List Building===
With SoB allignment you don't have much choice.

====2000 points====
*Exactly 4 choices to make (one for each 500 point "slot")
*Every option counts as one battleline, no way to get that wrong.
*Obviously you'll need at least one Mega-Gargant
*Min 4 models; max 10 models.

If you're not taking any Gatebreakers, all these options are valid:
{|class="wikitable
!# !! Slot1 !! Slot2 !! Slot3 !! Slot4 !! #Models !! #Models for objecctives !! #Drops || #Wounds
|-
| 1 || {{color|saddlebrown|Mega-Gargant}} || {{color|saddlebrown|Mega-Gargant}} || {{color|saddlebrown|Mega-Gargant}} || {{color|saddlebrown|Mega-Gargant}} || 4 || 80 || 4 || 140
|-
| 2 || 3x 1 Mancrusher || {{color|saddlebrown|Mega-Gargant}} || {{color|saddlebrown|Mega-Gargant}} || {{color|saddlebrown|Mega-Gargant}} || 6 || 90 || 6 || 141
|-
| 3 || Mancrusher Mob || {{color|saddlebrown|Mega-Gargant}} || {{color|saddlebrown|Mega-Gargant}} || {{color|saddlebrown|Mega-Gargant}} || 6 || 90 || 4 || 141
|-
| 4 || colspan=2 | 6x 1 Mancrusher || {{color|saddlebrown|Mega-Gargant}} || {{color|saddlebrown|Mega-Gargant}} || 8 || 100 || 8 || 142
|-
| 5 || 3x 1 Mancrusher || Mancrusher Mob || {{color|saddlebrown|Mega-Gargant}} || {{color|saddlebrown|Mega-Gargant}} || 8 || 100 || 6 || 142
|-
| 6 || Mancrusher Mob || Mancrusher Mob || {{color|saddlebrown|Mega-Gargant}} || {{color|saddlebrown|Mega-Gargant}} || 8 || 100 || 4 || 142
|-
| 7 || colspan=3 | 9x 1 Mancrusher || {{color|saddlebrown|Mega-Gargant}} || 10 || 110 || 10 || 143
|-
| 8 || colspan=2 | 6x 1 Mancrusher || Mancrusher Mob || {{color|saddlebrown|Mega-Gargant}} || 10 || 110 || 8 || 143
|-
| 9 || 3x 1 Mancrusher || Mancrusher Mob || Mancrusher Mob || {{color|saddlebrown|Mega-Gargant}} || 10 || 110 || 6 || 143
|-
| 10 || Mancrusher Mob || Mancrusher Mob || Mancrusher Mob || {{color|saddlebrown|Mega-Gargant}} || 10 || 110 || 4 || 143
|-
|}

====2000 points: Gatebreakers====

For Gatebreakers, it's a little more complicated.
{|class="wikitable
!# !! Slot1 !! Slot2 !! Slot3 !! Slot4 !! #Models !! #Models for objecctives !! #Drops || #Wounds || Points
|-
| 1 || {{color|maroon|Warstomper}} || {{color|maroon|Warstomper}} || {{color|Olive|Gatebreaker}} || {{color|Olive|Gatebreaker}} || 4|| 80 || 4 || 140 || 1990
|-
| 1 || {{color|teal|Kraken-eater}} || {{color|teal|Kraken-eater}} || {{color|teal|Kraken-eater}} || {{color|Olive|Gatebreaker}} || 4 || 80 || 4 || 140 || 1995
|-
| 2 || Mancrusher Mob || {{color|teal|Kraken-eater}} || {{color|teal|Kraken-eater}} || {{color|Olive|Gatebreaker}} || 6 || 90 || 4 || 141 || 1995
|-
| 3 || Mancrusher Mob || Mancrusher Mob || {{color|teal|Kraken-eater}} || {{color|Olive|Gatebreaker}} || 8 || 100 || 4 || 142 || 1995
|-
| 4 || Mancrusher Mob || Mancrusher Mob || Mancrusher Mob || {{color|Olive|Gatebreaker}} || 10 || 110|| 4 || 143 || 1995
|-
| 5 || {{color|maroon|Warstomper}} || {{color|maroon|Warstomper}} || {{color|maroon|Warstomper}} || {{color|Olive|Gatebreaker}} || 4 || 80 || 4 || 140 || 1935
|-
| 6 ||{{color|teal|Kraken-eater}} || {{color|maroon|Warstomper}} || {{color|maroon|Warstomper}} || {{color|Olive|Gatebreaker}} || 4 || 80 || 4 || 140 || 1955
|-
| 7 || 3x 1 Mancrusher || {{color|maroon|Warstomper}} || {{color|maroon|Warstomper}} || {{color|Olive|Gatebreaker}} || 6 || 90 || 6 || 141 || 1975
|-
| 8 || Mancrusher Mob || {{color|maroon|Warstomper}} || {{color|maroon|Warstomper}} || {{color|Olive|Gatebreaker}} || 6 || 90 || 4 || 141 || 1955
|-
| 9 ||{{color|teal|Kraken-eater}} || {{color|teal|Kraken-eater}} || {{color|maroon|Warstomper}} || {{color|Olive|Gatebreaker}} || 4 || 80 || 4 || 140 || 1975
|-
| 10 || 3x 1 Mancrusher || {{color|teal|Kraken-eater}} || {{color|maroon|Warstomper}} || {{color|Olive|Gatebreaker}} || 6 || 90 || 6 || 141 || 1995
|-
| 11 || Mancrusher Mob || {{color|teal|Kraken-eater}} || {{color|maroon|Warstomper}} || {{color|Olive|Gatebreaker}} || 6 || 90 || 4 || 141 || 1975
|-
| 12 || Mancrusher Mob || Mancrusher Mob || {{color|maroon|Warstomper}} || {{color|Olive|Gatebreaker}} || 8 || 100 || 8 || 142 || 1975
|-
| 13 || 3x 1 Mancrusherb || Mancrusher Mob || {{color|maroon|Warstomper}} || {{color|Olive|Gatebreaker}} || 8 || 100 || 6 || 142 || 1995
|-
|}

====1000 points====
*For 1000 points you just have two slots, and a very limited choice.
*A Breaker Tribe has two lists: a Gatebreaker and 2 single Mancrushers, or a Gatebreaker and a Warstomper.

{|class="wikitable
!# !! Slot1 !! Slot2 !! #Models !! #Models for objecctives !! #Drops || #Wounds
|-
| 1 || {{color|saddlebrown|Mega-Gargant}} || {{color|saddlebrown|Mega-Gargant}} || 2 || 40 || 2 || 70
|-
| 2 || 3x 1 Mancrusher || {{color|saddlebrown|Mega-Gargant}} || 3 || 50 || 4 || 71
|-
| 3 || Mancrusher Mob || {{color|saddlebrown|Mega-Gargant}} || 3 || 50 || 2 || 71
|-
|}

{{Age_of_Sigmar_Tactics}}

Leagues of Votann

2022-05-11T22:45:09Z

2601:1C0:5C01:EAA0:0:0:0:C26D: /* Speculation */

{{stub}}

[[File:Votann meeting.jpg|400px|thumb|right|[[Star Wars|200'000 clones are ready with a million more well on the way.]]]]

{{topquote|So, we're talking about space dwarfs who need more RAM for their gods?|Anon}}

{{topquote|Right after Mankind’s colonization of the galaxy came its first true golden age. Reared by machine prophets, the survivors of the Oedipal plagues built civilizations that equaled and even surpassed their Solar forbears.| CM Koseman, "All Tomorrow's}}

The '''Leagues of Votann''' is a [[retcon|""new""]] faction in the [[Warhammer 40,000]] universe. They are gatherings of short abhuman clones called the Kindred (more commonly known as [[Squats]] by the dirty Necromunda gangers), bound together by the [[Votann]], super-cogitators from the [[Dark Age of Technology]]. Each League has its own Votann, and are organized in strongholds around it. They used the data stored to survive among the stars and maintain their culture across generations. Of course, since some [[Adeptus Mechanicus|factions]] are touchy about AI, the Leagues are very cautious when dealing with [[Imperium of Man|its closest ally]], hence their secretive lifestyle.

However, because of the [[grimdark|setting]], everything is not that simple. Since Windows is not regularly updated anymore and issues that have arisen from having remained active for literal millennia, the Votann began to deteriorate. If they want to repair their computer, <s>[[Dwarf Fortress|they must wage war with other shitcoin miners for more processing power]]</s>, the Kin have to once more brave a galaxy full of danger.

==History/Culture==
Even the oldest living Kin don’t remember what their earliest days were like, though some undeniable “First Truths” remain constant in the Votanns’ data tracks. One such truth is that the First Ancestors departed from ancient Terra prior to the Unification Wars to harvest the untold riches of the galaxy. What became of these Ancestors is unknown, but curiously when the Ancestors begun to fade away…the Votann are first mentioned.

A second First Truth is that the Kindred have always been a cloned people. The Ancestors used genetic systems called “cloneskeins” to manipulate and modify their race’s molecular structure. Over time the Kin became squatter, denser, and stronger than an average human. They’ve even been able to artificially neuter their [[psyker|psychic]] footprint to avoid the attention of [[Chaos]], in a not too dissimilar to how the [[Tau]] souls work. Some fans are now speculating that GW is tying the [[Men of Stone]] thread to the modern Squat civilization (either to the Squats themselves or to the Votann) given the [[Men of Gold]] and [[Men of Iron]] have already been speculated to be [[Perpetual]]s and [[Machine Spirit|abominable intelligence]].

===Speculation===
There's a few ways to look at these First Ancestors. The first is that they were just the first humans of the colonization ships who, after centuries, simply invented the Votann as a long-term solution to administration work, and the cloneskeins as a way to keep their population on their generation ships viable on a genetic level. Then, by the time they landed on the first high-density worlds, were simply long gone, with the Kin being the first settlers walking out to worlds their ancestors tailored them to be specialized for. Couple this with a simple cultural paradigm shift with the Votann literally being cogitator cores built by their ancestors, and so worshipping them as relics of the long-dead, and you end up with the Kin as we know them in the modern setting. But that's not grimdark enough. Alternatively, digital mind duplication of the organic mind of the First Ancestors into AI form is a possibly though it wouldn’t explain why they don’t communicate with their descendants on a persona level.

Another idea could be that the Votann pulled, on a miniaturized and successful scale, a usurpation of their human creators and enslaved the surviving ancestors of the Kin, similar to the Men of Iron. Once victorious, the Votann could have created the cloneskeins as a way to "rebuild" their new fleshy puppets to best suit their needs: high-density worlds far away from the prying eyes of uncaptured humans, and boasting enough resources to build more Votann. Couple this with an implanted genetic desire for the Kin to worship the Votann as their literal creators and ancestors, and you've paved the way to the Leagues' current standing. Tack on the Kin being let loose without their guiding masters, as the Votann have begun to slow down and fall into disrepair, and you're back to the nice and tidy grimdarkness of the 41st Millennium.

But there could be an in-between, if we consider GW's recent attempts at steering their IP into a more friendly and hopeful direction. If anyone is familiar with the short story "All Tomorrows" by CM Koseman, a similar situation appears in that book that happens with the First Ancestors: humans set adrift on massive generation ships to colonize deep space. However, in this story, it's told that the Star People (the aforementioned humans) began to romantically love the AI and machines that tended to them on these generation ships. When they landed on their new worlds, this technophilia was reciprocated by many machines, and the early settlers had a huge problem with procreation because of it, obviously. Now, in the setting of 40k, we could look at the cloneskeins as an attempt by the First Ancestors' machines as a way to get past the obvious disconnect between biology and machinery, allowing the machines to genetically perfect the "child" produced by the DNA used to create the clone from the parent. Over the millennia, this pseudo-breeding results in the Ancestor Cores quite ''literally'' being the ancestors of the modern Kin, as it's them who keep track of the biological heritage of each member of the League. Likewise, the disappearance of the First Ancestors would simply be them dying out due to natural processes, leaving behind their immortal machine partners to rear up their offspring. So, the grimdarkness here lays in the purely heretical nature of "procreating" with the Silica Animus, and the Kin's utter reliance on them to continue their species.

Ultimately, we may likely never get an answer, with such obscurity simply adding to the mystique of a new faction.

Another speculation now that Votann are a thing in universe if anything else in setting is going to be retcon/explained as being one. The most obvious candidate is the [[House Van Saar]] STC's, described as being "large building" sized and "damaged" it in that it spewing radiation, similar to the disrepair some Votann are said to be in albeit more extreme, and if it was a Votann it would explain why Squats are on Nercomunda.

==Forces of the Kindred==
GW is being coy about their reveal. For now we have one statline to go on

*'''Theyn:''' The sci-fi variation of the old Anglo-Saxon Thegns/Thanes. These are most likely your big leaders in the Leagues.
*'''Hernkyn Pioneer:''' THE TRIKES RETURN! [[Skub|AS HOVERTRIKES!]] And with a [[-4 Str|female]] driver. It looks like a spider-tank tachikoma from Ghost in the Shell fucked a Harley and their baby came out a hoverbike.
*'''Hearthkyn Warriors:''' Because replacing i's with y's is so sci-fi and copyright friendly. These are most certainly your basic foot soldiers, giving you a <s>mini-marine</s> Necron Warrior statline of a 4+ save, 3+ WS/BS, and a 4 to Strength and Toughness while having a 5" movement speed. Their special rules are still pending.
*'''[[Ironhead Squat Prospectors]]:''' An off shoot of the Kin that have set up shop on [[Necromunda]] for a long time now, and are busy doing dwarrowesque things, while also dealing with the locals that sometimes try to loot their stuff. While they're only distantly related to the Leagues with no direct affiliation, they're said to get along.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:VotannTrike.jpg|They see me dworfin, they hatin'
File:CNiuMZPWWNpatQNt (1).jpg|dorfy thicc
</gallery>
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]
[[Category:Dwarves]]
[[Category:Squats]]
[[Category:Abhumans]]
[[Category:Under Development]]

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