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Warp

2019-12-03T09:09:20Z

2601:585:8301:76D0:455A:9655:9E33:16A7: /* History */

[[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''', 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 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. 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, 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 deep 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, ala the world of ''[[Mage: The Ascension]]''. Worse is that it, 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]]), 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 catatonic 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.]] This human was a marine, ([[Space Marine |No, not that marine]]...we think?) and he fought wave after wave of daemons on mars until he was killed in an ambush by the daemons. 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 physiscal 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.

[[Awesome |TL:DR HE CAME, HE SAW, HE RIPPED AND TORE DAEMON GUTS]]

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]], and they still lost. 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.

==Things to do in the Warp==
*If you're NOT Chaos, Chaos affiliated, or a blank, 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!]]
***If 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 harm coming to as a parody of Dante's Inferno.
*Stop at 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.
*Find the nearest Eldar stranded in there and 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 use it as a garotte to kill you.
*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.
*Eat the cookies, it's warp-tastic.
*If you're Chaos or Chaos affiliated please visit you local commissariat and file for execution.
*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]] [[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 <s>be a daemon engine.</s> be fed into the soul furnaces so that your screaming, eternally tormented soul will be used to fuel the forge.
*If you wandered into the Fortress of [[Khorne]]; try to beat something up. You might become a [[Bloodletter]].
**Do be careful not to wander into the Juggernaut pens. They ''will'' gore you without question until you're a stain on the floor.
**If you died fighting in Khorne's name and were carried off by a smoking hot daemonic Viking chick in red armour - congratulations, you may have entered Chaos Valhalla.
*If you wandered into the Palace of [[Slaanesh]]; fap. You might become a [[Daemonette]]
**If Slaanesh is feeling rather iffy, you might instead end up as his/her new sex toy for his/her newest 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 stuck (about to be ass raped by a 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 your grandfathers favor and not end up as a complete rotted cabbage patch kid. This is a last resort though and you will still end up a plague bearer.
**Alternatively, you may be eaten by one of the garden's denizens or the garden itself before you succumb to the garden's many plagues. You may still become the Plaguebeaer after they shit you out, though.
*If you wandered into the Maze of [[Tzeentch]]; do random things. Something might happen.
**Although do note that 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 and Kaldor Draigo and troll together.
*[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UHNJUgat2i8 Meet up with [[Leman Russ]], get hammered, and troll away.]
*If you can't 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. And 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) would dissolve into nothing. This includes the things you're standing 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.
*For the more technically inclined. One should 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 horde 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 rotted heap flesh 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]]

Leman Russ

2019-12-03T09:08:01Z

2601:585:8301:76D0:455A:9655:9E33:16A7:

[[Image:LEMAN_RUSS.jpg|frame|My hand is fire, my hair is rage, my pauldrons are justice and my cock is wolf. Prepare to die!]]
{{Topquote|I am the punishment of God...If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you.|[[Genghis motherfucking Khan|Genghis Khan]]}}
{{Topquote|When he is nearly ten, his mother submits him to a first ordeal: she sews his shirt to his arms through the skin. Siggeir's sons, submitted to the same ordeal, [[Anal circumference|had howled with pain]], but Sinfjotli remains imperturbable. His mother then pulls off his shirt, tearing away the skin, and asks him if he feels anything. The boy answers that a [[Badasious|Volsung is not troubled by such a trifle]] (...) After this proof of courage Sigmund takes the boy into the forest with him. One day they find two wolfskins hanging from the wall of a hut. [[Horus|The two sons]] [[Emperor|of a king]] had been transformed into wolves and could only come out of the skins every tenth day. Sigmund and Sinfjotli put on the skins, but cannot get them off. They howl like wolves and understand the wolves' language.|Volsung Saga, summarized and commented by Mircea Eliade, ''Birth and Rebirth'' (New York: Harper & Row, 1958)}}
{{Topquote|It never troubles the wolf how many the sheep may be.|Virgil}}

'''Leman Russ''', '''The Great Wolf''', '''The Lord of Winter and Ruin''', and '''Wolf King of Fenris''', (also known as '''Lemon Russ''', '''Lemon Rust''','''wolf father''' if your [[Logan Grimnar]] or '''That Fucking Furry''' if your [[Magnus the Red]]). not to be confused with the [[Leman Russ (tank)|tank bearing his name]], is the primarch of the [[Space Wolves]] legion. A superhuman nordic king with a warrior's crude humor and a stubborn streak a mile wide. He was such a hard headed son of a bitch, that he's survived extended fights with [[Angron]], [[Magnus]], [[Lion El'Jonson|The Lion]], and even the Emperor himself. General all-around badass deserving of much respect, but superstitious and flawed, with a serious problem valuing others' points of view, even if he understood them. He's blond underneath [[Rip and Tear|all the blood.]] There appears to be no specific way to pronounce his surename as both the wider Imperium and the Wolves themselves commonly alternate between "R-UH-ss" and "Rh-OOs", when speaking about him or the [[Leman Russ Battle Tank|battle tank named after him]].

==Origins==
When the Primarchs were lost, Leman's capsule landed on [[Fenris]], a harsh planet of insane violence that the Norse gods shit out after a three day meth fueled orgy with a tyranid hive fleet. The locals there enjoy a life of fishing, drinking, sailing, fucking, pillaging, and conquering other tribes of people for the modest little islands they all have to live on. Granted, it's also usually a very short life, because they're sharing the world with trolls, yetis, wolves the size of horses, wolves the size of battle tanks, bears the size of a house, whales that kill for fun, and krakens, which are to a squid as a [[Hierophant]] is to a [[Hormagaunt]].

So it was that little baby Russ left his capsule in the polar mountain region of Asaheim. There, some monstrous female wolf found him and said to herself "I WANT!". So Russ was raised by a dire wolf In Spess. A few years pass, Russ growing up big and strong and hairy, having a grand old time running around the mountains and killing the sheep and such of the humans there with his wolf brothers. Eventually a king named Thengir heard of the Wolf-man, and decreed he be captured and brought to his hall. The mist of ages (and retcons) have hidden the details of Thengir's first meeting with Russ. Some stories would say that Russ was bound and gagged and dragged into the hall of the King Thengir after his Wolf family was slain, others claim a hunting party stumbled across his cave and kicked off a bloody melee in which a dozen hunters were killed, along with Russ's mother, after which the hunters realized they weren't fighting a wolf (they were probably drunk and kind of retarded) and somehow convinced Russ to stand down and come with them, a conversation that may or may not have included copious amounts of alcohol and whores. Thengir took a wondrous interest in Russ and ordered he be educated. In a short time, Russ was trash-talking every short bastard who dared look at him the wrong way, and had become insanely good with weaponry. When Thengir finally died, all declared that Leman of the Russ become the new high King.

Also, remember that Volsung Saga quote regarding Warrior Initiations for [[Angron|Berserks]]? Considering that (according to old Fluff) Sanguinius looked like a young teen adult at 1 year old, Leman Russ passed this trial that when he was around 7-10 months old or so. No wonder he went on to be a [[Eldrad|dick]] [[Primarch#Douchebagginess|with]] [[Magnus|some]] [[Unknown Primarchs|of]] [[Lion El'Jonson|his brothers]] and his new recruits (first, the Space Wolves feed them like they arrived to Valhalla and [[Assholetep|then, when they fall asleep they abandon them in the cold wilderness of Fenris until they transform into Wulfen or return home by themselves]]...) and was easily manipulated by the Luna Wolf Primarch in tearing a new asshole to Magnus.

==GW origins==
He was just an ordinary commander who came with two wolves, Freki and Geri. This is them.

[[Image:russ_original.jpg|300px|thumb|frame|left|This is the very first canonical portrayal of Leman Russ. I shit you not (In Rogue Trader; before primarchs were a thing, but still.)]]

http://www.solegends.com/citrt2/rt070121LemanRuss/Wd117p80070121SWCommanderLemanRussx-01.htm

==The Next Step==
Russ conquered and took. He bartered and traded. He united the people of Asaheim under his rule. Somehow, the Emprah heard of it and realized it all had to be the work of a Primarch. So then he attended a royal banquet in the Hall of the Mountain Ki- I mean Leman Russ. The Emprah, taking a leaf out of Odin's book, disguised himself as some old geezer, then waited until the right moment to reveal his true identity. When he did Russ refused to bow down and challenged him to several contests, he ate so much the Emprah was forced to back down. Russ drank so much the Emprah was forced to back down. By now, the Emprah was fairly surprised at finally being out-done by someone else, Russ gazed upon the Emperor and challenged him in combat, and so did the Emprah raise his Power Glove into the air for all to see, and so did he then bring it down on Leman Russ's head, knocking him the fuck out in one solid hit.

[[Image:russ_furry_original.jpg|300px|thumb|frame|right|...and this is the first portrayal getting ready for a furry con.]]

Of course fluff changes and a 1-hit KO wasn't very fulfilling, so the new lore arrived: After the Emperor revealed himself Leman Russ skipped the eating and drinking contests and just challenged the Emperor to a fight. It is unknown whether the Emperor was in his full armour and actually had his Power Fist at the time, or whether he used his psychic powers; but the duel lasted for hours. (Presumably Russ did a lot better this time by virtue of not being drunk.) In the end, though the Emperor, presumably pissy that Leman was waving his cock in his face by just straight up fighting him, punched him square in the face and dropped him. When Russ awoke, he laughed it off and swore loyalty to the one who managed to beat him. Afterwards he ended up in command of the one Space Marine legion that knows how to eat, drink, brawl and make war upon any asshole that mocks their Thunderwolf.

Rumour has it that the Emp was so pleased with Russ' prowess, that he tasked him and the Space Wolves to be his executioners and it seems Russ is the reason the 2nd and 11th Legions no longer exist. So he has experience fucking up a Primarch, which is pretty goddamn manly. (Not confirmed by any sources and is not more than passing conversation in one Black Library novel, other than that, yeah totally definitely didn't kill the other legions. Also if you take how he acted with Angron and Magnus, he totally hated his job of being the executioner... and apparently thought Lorgar was a pretty cool guy).

(The novel "Betrayer" give's Angron's version of their run-in, where he tells to Lorgar what happened. Russ had taken it upon himself to school the World Eaters as he was disgusted by their behavior. Angron was having none of Russ's babbling and picked a fight with him by insulting the Big.E. Angron eventually defeats Russ in single combat, but because only he was fighting to kill while Russ was trying to teach. It then ends with the Space Wolves entirely outmaneuvering the Eaters and winning a tactical victory by surrounding Angron, some more hissing vitriol between the two Primarchs and Angron leaving. The World Eaters believed they won due to a higher kill count and the Wolves leave disappointed that their legion brothers were too retarded to see the lesson Russ was teaching. It is pretty telling that even <u>Lorgar</u> replies to Angron that he was a complete tool on that night and would have been killed after hearing him boast of how he won against Russ. With that said, Lorgar was able to get Angron to learn the lesson Russ was trying to teach him by just talking to him ''for two minutes'', and he did it without getting a shit load of his own men killed or getting his ass kicked in a duel. Not only does it show just how badly Russ failed at what he had set out to do on the Night of the Wolf, but also how his own hot headedness and fundamental inability to understand his brothers can royally bite him in the ass.)

Apart from that, Russ and his Space Wolves had a goddamn good time during the Great Crusade, although it hasn't been written about so this is all we can guess. Until ''Inferno'' dropped. It turns out that Russ became the Emperor's executioner in the process of fighting the Rangdan Xenocides, which saw entire Army regiments, Titan Legions and [REDACTED] Space Marine Legions (could be Chapters, could actually be entire Legions) wiped out. With the Luna Woves up to the eyes in glorious warfare in the Galactic East, Russ and the VI headed north along with the I Legion - this is the war that ended the I's time as the largest Legion. The end of the Xenocides entailed a series of bio-pogroms which left the Wolves with a very ugly reputation, and from then on Russ' role was the doer of necessary dirty deeds.

When that bitch-ass [[Horus]] started whining and crying, Leman Russ and his Legion were on their way to Prospero to bring Magnus the Red to Terra for questioning. Horus intercepted the message and re-worded it to order Russ to destroy Magnus and his Thousand Sons, and interestingly Russ found when they arrived at Prospero he didn't want to do that. He decided to go against the orders he thought were legit, and instead detain him and his legion so that they could be transported to Terra (ironically doing exactly what his legit orders were by going against what he thought they were), but when Magnus refused to answer the phone and the Thousand Sons' calls were all being blocked by he Primarch he became more and more annoyed, and eventually he was pissed off enough that he and the Space Wolves carried out a class-10 clusterfucking on Prospero (aided along a bit by Magnus himself lowering his planet's defenses because he wanted to atone for his wrongdoings in the dumbest fucking way possible). It should have ended with the glorious finale where Leman Russ himself lifted Magnus the Red over his shoulders and broke the sorcerer's back over his knee (rumour has it that Russ could be heard shouting “Ah yes. I was wondering what would break first: your spirit… or your body!”...turns out it was both at the same time!). But even so, the red bastard managed to utter one single word of power and escaped through the fucking ground. Russ was so enraged that he ordered the 13th company of Space Wolves to pursue the fleeing Thousand Sons through their pansy-ass portals.

This said, winning the Battle of Prospero left a bitter taste in Russ' mouth and complicated things for the Wolves in the long run. First of all, despite his reputation as the Emperor's Executioner, fighting Magnus took a serious toll on Russ. Rumour has it, that during the battle between those two demigods Magnus, by psychic means, laid his heart and mind bare to Russ, revealing that he knew not only every blow that was coming from his brother, but everything that he had come to know, accepting his failure and his fate, which was defeat. In the recently published Horus Heresy novel Wolfsbane Magnus' last words to Russ are finally revealed "You are a sword in the wrong hands. You have severed an innocent neck." In other words: Magnus was even aware that the wolves had been manipulated into wiping the Thousand Sons out, instead of detaining them and bringing them back to Terra (but not aware he wasn;t actually innocent), and the idiot just let it happen instead of talking to Russ who wanted to ignore his orders and detain the Sons, in order to bring them back to Terra. It will be interesting to see how GW tries to fill the logic gap regarding the hatred of Magnus towards the wolves now, considering he obviously *knew* that Russ had been manipulated into killing Magnus and the entirety of the Burning of Prospero is directly his fault. Or is it all about the shard of Magnus that held his nobility which was absorbed by Ianus (first grandmaster of the Grey Knights, a former Thousand Son that was in the process of succumbing to the flesh change when this little "accident" occurred). That would be the easy way out (and therefore probably the road trodden), although fans would be deserving of a more convincing explanation. Seeing a hypergenius like Magnus hating the Space Wolves for destroying his legion - irrespective of the fact that he *knew* that they had been manipulated into doing so and the fact that he intentionally chose for his legion to be destroyed - makes absolutely no sense any more.

Either way, the events of Prospero shook the Wolf King deeply, but Russ decided to carry on and try to make the best of a real clusterfuck of a situation. (An Inquisitor once called it an "emo phase" in front of a Rune Priest, and was fed balls-first to a Thunderwolf.) Not long after that, the news of the Drop Site Massacre reached the Wolves; which was another blow for the Wolf King. In his own words, Russ felt he'd been "in the wrong place, doing the wrong thing", wasting his time and men fighting an eventually futile battle instead of standing with his brother Primarchs against the real threat. Just to make things worse, the [[Battle of the Alaxxes Nebula|Alpha Legion turned up to batter the Wolves]] and prevent them from heading to Terra and helping Big E. As the rotten cherry on top of an already really bad cake, the White Scars, who'd been bros with the Thousand Sons and had no idea why Russ had just decided to fuck them up royally seemingly out of the blue, weren't going to help them after Prospero. But the [[Dark Angels]] of all people aided [[File:Battle_of_Trisolian.jpg|280px|thumb|right|Only room for one wolf pelt wearing Primarch in this universe.]] the Wolves in fighting off the Alpha Legion, letting the Wolves damage their fleet to an impressive degree. A plus here was that [[Bjorn the Fell-Handed]] came to his attention, setting the young warrior on the path to ironclad badassness. This said, when he went to Yarant to fight the main Traitor advance, Russ was badly injured, entering a coma and giving Bjorn temporary command of the Legion. He bought Dorn and the Emperor more time, but didn't make it back to Terra until it was too late.

Oh and Empy totally gave him a spear after most of the Terran members of his original legion died fighting various gribbly xenos. Including Tyranids. Yup. Said spear was tossed into a certain Daemon Primarchs single eye, thereby preventing him from manifesting in reality AND resurrecting his legion. Russ totally hated this spear btw. At one point Russ tried to hit a moon orbiting some planet (he was drunk, don't judge) and the spear was lost for months [[troll|but since it had been a gift from Big.E the Wolves did spend said months searching for it]]. In the new novel Wolfsbane, it's revealed he was fearful of the spear and purposefully avoided using it while "forgetting" it at conferences before people brought it back. He later uses it and became fond of it as a weapon. Later he uses said spear to [[Battle of Trisolian|fight]] chaos-empowered Horus, after another try to get rid of it. He manages to stop the Warmaster with it, but then he acts like a fucking idiot, instead of just killing Horus and ending the rebellion then and there, he tries to reach out to Horus' good side and gets fucked up because of it.

Funny thing, that spear. It's actually the twin of another spear, the Apollonian Spear, wielded by the commander of the Custodes, Constantin Valdor. Russ's spear is known by many names, including Gungnir (the spear of Odin), simply the Spear of Russ, and others. But, this spear and its twin were both crafted by Big E, so before any of those other names it was called the Dionysian spear. Now, this is a bit of a deep cut on GWs part, but the Apollonian and Dionysian actually refers to the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche (feeling lost yet?), who was in turn writing about the Greek gods Apollo and Dionysus. In Nietzsche's philosophy, the Apollonian is representative of everything bright and individual, meaning life and the person living it, as well as order and stability. The Dionysian, however, is representative of the primordial state from which all things originally emerge, the CHAOTIC nothingness from which the individual Apollonian springs forth. So, bringing it back to 40k, the Apollonian spear of Constantin Valdor can impart the memories of the person it kills to its wielder, capturing that individual and orderly moment. What does Russ's spear, the Dionysian spear do? Well, we really don't know, but if the novel Wolfsbane is anything to go by, it seems that at least a couple people believe it's the weapon best suited for killing a Primarch. And since the Primarchs are essentially the Emperor's Own Daemonkin, it stands to reason that the Dionysian Spear was designed by the Emperor to destroy the soul of the Primarchs and return them to the primal Chaos from which they originated. This in turn jives with Russ's wyrd of being the Emperor's "executioner".

== Russ and his Brothers ==

In many ways Russ can be best understood by looking at the clashes between him and his brothers, butting heads with [[Angron]], [[Magnus]], and [[Lion El'Jonson]] over the years. All three of them had much in common with Russ, and there was potential for great brotherhood there, but in large part his lack of tact or understanding crushed whatever relationship might have been.

His fight with Angron was an attempt to teach his brother a lesson. Both of them were consummate warriors, both relied on their amazing athleticism and berzerker rages to triumph in battle, both were known for losing their temper when challenged, but Russ saw weakness in his brother's lack of strategy. Leman tried to just talk to the World Eater's primarch, but Angron was so uncontrollably, incredibly, "calm down son", angry that he just attacked Russ. While Russ and Angron were dueling, their retinues kicked off an open war, and in the battle that followed Russ found himself defeated by Angron, but Angron was in turn outmaneuvered and surrounded by the Space Wolves, thus proving Russ's lesson that warrior prowess isn't enough. That said, no one learned '''anything'''. Angron thought himself the victor because he'd won the duel and his sons had inflicted greater casualties than the Wolves, but Russ thought himself the victor because he'd proven his point and "educated" his brother. On the flip side, arguments that Russ should have been more tactful ignore that he was trying to deal with a Space Marine Legion of questionable loyalty that could and had caused massive amounts of collateral damage. There's a time for caution; it's not when rampaging supersoldiers are threatening the Imperium and its people. Which is indeed a good point, but then he should have gone all the way and gotten Big.E's approval to deal with this shit once and for all if it came down to that instead of trying to do things on his own on the sly. No matter how you look at it, Russ' idea to "educate" his brother was one of good intent (no really, it's a genuine bro' move that the Primarchs rarely extended to another) but of poor execution. If Russ had paid more attention and thought things through rather than sticking to do things his way, he'd have used subtler methods of persuasion to calm Angron, as Fulgrim and especially Lorgar had done in the past. Russ would have had an easier time of persuading Angron than either of them, given that he and Angron had a similar sense of brutal honor and a great lust for war. But, ultimately, it didn't occur to Russ to slow down and think his idea though, so he failed that day..... Well, that last statement is a bit in the grey zone. It was rightfully pointed out above that Russ was not exactly cool-headed either. And it was only when Angron said that without the Nails he might have been a more honourable man (like Russ claimed to be); but that if this were so he might have decided at some point to storm the Emperor's palace and "chop the slavering bastards head off". That was the final straw for Russ who couldn't take more of that shit, hissed "Heretic" as he lost his temper and things went downhill from there until both legions clashed. It is also noteworthy (and of course grimdark/tragic) that Angron made some pretty valid and surprisingly logical arguments including showing genuine regret for having been pressed into a role he had never wanted ("I died on Nuceria") , especially considering what a berzerk killer he was even then already. Several years/brain hemorrhages later only the berzerk killer with the attention span of a two year old was left but that's a story for another day (as in: when he was [[troll]]ing Ultramar with Lorgar, which ultimately culminated in his ascension to daemon(prince)hood).

Russ really, ''really'' didn't get along with Magnus, even before the burning of Prospero. He hated that his brother used sorcery and warpcraft so extensively. The Rune Priests of the Space Wolves use their psychic abilities in a much more limited and controlled way than the Thousand Sons, and the Rout never used Chaos familiars (which the Thousand Sons - to be fair - were totally unaware of using. They thought them to be benevolent spirits or "tutelaries"... until the Burning of Prospero of course when these spirits showed their true colours and turned on Magnus' sons). The Wolves also use the spirits of Fenris, hence all the totems and runes. Nearly all fluff indicates that this is utter horseshit, until the Spirit of Fenris was revealed to be real. Russ' convictions led him to feud with Magnus, but so did his concerns over the threat the XVth Legion posed to the Imperium and his frustration with Magnus' tendency to abandon his allies in favor of investigating some psychic artifact or slow down a conquest to avoid damaging some books. Russ never stopped to consider that Magnus' understanding of the Warp might have been better than his, or that the things Magnus preserved might have value for the humans Russ wanted to make the Galaxy safe for. Ridiculous theories that Russ was a psyker aside, another significant source of the feud between Magnus and Russ was The Crimson King's sheer arrogance. Leman Russ was rightly proud of his cunning battle tactics and personal ferocity, and was fully aware that he grew up on a savage death world where everything is constantly trying to kill you, while Magnus had it comparatively easy on Prospero. The Wolf King and his Legion, from the Wheel of Fire to the Rangdan Xenocides, had proved its mettle, cunning, and devotion to the Emperor many times over, yet Magnus treated him like a dumb hick and acted as though his psychic powers made him the greatest primarch. It couldn't have helped matters that some of the threats the VIth had bested were psychic in nature. Yet Magnus knew none of this; only the Emperor and the Space Wolves understood the extent of the threats they had faced down. Russ never considered that Magnus had no knowledge of the terrible secrets that only he had been entrusted with; he expected Magnus to take the word of an "ignorant savage" that the abilities he defined himself by couldn't be trusted. Whether Magnus would have listened if he did explain all that on the other hand, is another story - recall that he didn't listen the first time the Emperor told him to stop.

Perhaps most famous and most tragic of Russ's feuds was his strife with [[Lion El'Jonson]]. Both men had very similar origins, but slight differences in their upbringings drove a wedge between them. The Wolf and the Lion were both raised by the wild: both of their pods had crashed in areas with no humans, and they had to learn to survive with no lessons from other men. Both were eventually taken in when they were discovered by the men of their world, but that's where their stories differ. Where Russ was raised in the friendly, bawdy brotherhood of Thengir's men, the Lion was trained and educated in the somber fraternity of the knightly Order. While Russ had been brawling and singing with his friends, leading great hunts to destroy monsters and enemy tribes, the Lion was mastering discipline and embarking on solemn quests to destroy the Great Beasts of the forest. The battle between the two came on the world of Dulan, where the VIth and Ist legion were fighting together to slay a tyrant who'd insulted Russ's honor. At the beginning of the conflict the two brothers had promised to work together, but as time went on the Lion grew tired of his brother's insistence on utterly smashing every pocket of resistance rather than taking a more efficient, direct method of ending the war. Eventually he just launched an assault on the tyrant's palace, and beheaded the man before Russ could reach them. In the heat of the moment, Russ was ''furious'' to hear that and immediately confronted his brother. Russ was an angry dickhead, the Lion was a snarky bastard, and before long blades were drawn and the two were trying to kill each other in a violent battle. After a long and bloody fight in which the two of them beat one another senseless and finally fell over the ramparts of the fortress to the ground below, Russ started laughing, the ridiculousness of what they were doing finally apparent. Here they were, two Primarchs of the Legiones Astartes, brawling like children instead of leading their men. The Lion, however, didn't laugh. Like, at all. He coldly asked if his brother would yield, a question that just confused Russ. ''His brother thought this was a real duel?'' Russ had thought of the fight as a brawl between angry brothers like would happen on Fenris: a quick spat that would end with both of them beaten and bloodied, a spur-of-the-moment thing to vent their anger they'd laugh about over a tankard of Mjod years later. The Lion however was taking it deadly seriously and while Russ was laughing he struck a final blow, shattering Russ's skull and ending the fight. Had Russ stopped to consider his brother's mentality, or listened more closely to the Lion's words, he would have realized that the Lion saw the conflict as something profoundly different from what Russ thought it was, taking the matter of honour as something deadly serious. Again, Russ's lack of consideration was his failing.

However, while certainly abrasive, arrogant, and brutal, Russ was also every bit as loyal as Sanguinius or Dorn. The other thing Magnus, Angron, and the Lion had in common? All three of them behaved like assholes in their way. The Lion had zero people skills, arrogantly considered himself the best of all Primarchs, acted like he was some prince-in-waiting and lorded it over his brothers, him turning a small brawl into a duel of honour case in point. Magnus was much more enjoyable to be around but he arrogantly assumed he knew best because of his powers and blatantly favored psykers in his Legion. Angron's case is... [[Rage|self-explanatory]]. Bottom line, his brothers all put their own feelings/goals before those of the Emperor. Not to say that Russ was tactful, diplomatic, or understanding with these three - he certainly could have handled all of these conflicts better - but Russ was never a dick just for the sake of being a dick - he was a dick because someone had to keep his brothers in line.

His relationships with his brothers also highlight another one of his traits. Fans LOVE to call him a hypocrite, and this isn't far off the mark. However, it's not quite on target either. To elaborate, Russ did indeed criticize (and at times even physically attacked) his brothers for traits he or his Legion also had. On closer inspection, though, the way Russ dealt with his flaws was different from his brothers - and that's the best justification for his behavior:

*Russ and Angron both led Legions that were extremely violent, especially towards the defenseless. But Russ made a point from the very beginning to rein himself in and taught his Legion to temper their bloodlust and fight to make the galaxy safe for humans by example. Angron didn't care about either his Legion or the people of the Imperium, the only leadership and example he gave the World Eaters was to slaughter anything that dared stand in his way. Even worse, Angron jammed the Butcher's Nails in the brains of his War Hounds, taking their discipline and brotherhood away from them and leaving them to degenerate into blood-crazed psychopathic supersoldiers living only to kill without rhyme or reason. Russ gave massacres of friendly units as his main reason for intervening.

*As for Jonson, both Primarchs had an element of glory-seeking in their nature. Both were also very stubborn and combative, with an animalistic side. However, Russ wasn't ruled by his pride but his drive to serve the Emperor came from a different place: the Lion lectured Russ about wasting time destroying the Emperor's enemies, when winning wars is all that matters. ''(ironically a similar lesson that Russ tried to teach Angron)'', while Russ couldn't countenance leaving any enemies alive. During a dispute between the Space Wolves and the Dark Angels over a friendly fire incident, Russ personally apologized to the Lion in spite of the Dark Angels being the ones who knowingly fired on the Rout. Russ put aside his lust for glory and victory to save the lives of his men, then privately made it clear [[Rip and Tear|what would happen should the Dark Angels do something similar again.]] By contrast, the Lion's honour was everything to him, that the Dark Angels fired on the Rout because they had been fired on first ''(even after warnings were given)'' and that the Lion seemed fully prepared to kill his brother in the brawl over kill stealing, because Russ laid hands on him first. This distinction justifies Russ' initial hatred of Jonson though the two did come to an understanding later; that the reason for the Lion breaking his promise on Dulan was because Russ was putting off the final blow and allowing the battle to drag out, costing lives, which was pretty much the lesson Jonson was trying to point out earlier. All because Russ had wandered off the battle-plan to sort out the Wulfen issue within the 13th Company, something that Russ later realised that the Lion <u>already knew</u> and had quietly disposed of the evidence for his brother, even though he could have used the knowledge to break the Space Wolves Legion.

*With Magnus, the accusations of hypocrisy carry little weight. Russ' attempts to cover up the Curse of the Wulfen are somewhat similar to Magnus' treatment of the flesh change (the Wulfen curse was not exacerbated by rampant sorcerous power use like the flesh change was), and both Legions did use psykers. The real difference here is how they dealt with the situation. However, the Rune Priests were much more cautious than the sorcerers of the Thousand Sons in their dealings with the Empyrean and only ''"taking a sip of the cup when needed instead of drinking deep each time"'' as the Khan would put it. More importantly, the Space Wolves treat the degeneration of their gene-seed and the transformation into Wulfen as a curse, a failing to be contained and if possible eradicated. The Thousand Sons treat their psyker powers as a badge of superiority, taking any excuse to use them and revelling in what made them unique without considering its links with the flesh change. Russ did his best to control his secrets, he didn't glorify them or thought it made him and his Wolves better than the other Legions. Magnus was controlled by his secrets and saw them as strengths. It's also worth noting that as per ''Prospero Burns'' Tzeentchian dickery had led Russ and others to believe Magnus' equerry had planted a spy among the Wolves, with Amon apparently attacking Bjorn and a Custodian at Nikaea. It is a tragic turn of events in its own right that this "Amon" was in truth a daemon masquerading as the Amon (who had - matter of factly - faithfully stayed at Magnus' side which was generously entirely disregarded by both the Wolves and the Custodians for plot reasons), playing a pivotal role in tipping the balance towards the dissolution of the Librarius (which - ironically - would have been one of the greatest assets the Imperium/the Emperor would have been able to field against Chaos during the Heresy.. [[Just as planned]]!!!!).

TL;DR: Russ shared many flaws with his brothers, but he was defined by being in control rather than being thrall to his flaws. His bloodlust never overtook his discipline like it would Angron. His glory-seeking never overrode his sense of responsibility like it would Lion El'Jonson. He made sure his sons worked against their curse rather than have them embrace it like Magnus did. It comes to no surprise that someone who worked so hard for control resented people who thought they didn't need it, hence the accusations of hypocrisy, however ([[Lion El'Jonson|in]] [[Ferrus Manus|fairness]] [[Rogal Dorn|like]] [[Roboute Guilliman|many]] [[Angron|of]] [[Perturabo|his]] [[Mortarion|brothers]] [[Night Haunter|Primarchs]]), interpersonal skills weren't exactly his forte. Russ' real failing was not that he accused others for things he had to deal with himself, but rather that he was in an unique position where he could have been an example to his brothers ''because he shared and knew how to deal with said flaws'' but his brashness and agressivity drove them apart instead.

On a somewhat amusing tangent. Russ considered [[Roboute Guilliman]] a good choice for Warmaster, and in return Guilliman considered Russ and his legion part of his "Dauntless Few", meaning that Bobby G sincerely believed that alongside Russ and his Wolves, the Ultramarines could defeat any opponent. Rather amusingly, when he was struck down by Fulgrim, Guilliman's last thoughts were, in order, of his sons, of the Imperium, and then for his brothers, the first being Russ. While they weren't exactly [[Fulgrim|best]] of [[Ferrus Manus|buds]], Russ actually believed Guilliman and [[Perturabo]] were the most boring among his brothers after [[Rogal Dorn]], they had a sincere respect for each other as warriors. The only thing they [[skub|had a bit of a pickle with]] was Rob's [[Codex Astartes]] thing; and Russ eventually [[Council of Nikaea|ostensibly acquiesced]] only to [[Thousand Sons|ignore it]] when G-man stopped breathing down his neck, kinda. The Space Wolves did try to form a successor Chapter, the [[Wolf Brothers]], but those very quickly devolved into Wulfen for whatever reason (it is suspected the planet Fenris has something to do with it).

== Post-Heresy ==
Although unable to return to aid the Imperium in the Battle for Terra, Russ and the Space Wolves threw themselves headfirst into the post-Heresy war efforts. Aside from spanking the traitors into the Eye of Terror, he came up with the concept for the Adeptus Praeses. Though he'd told Guilliman where he could shove his Codex, Russ liked the idea of successor chapters for the Wolves. To him (or the little reformist movement within the Legion later, the fluff isn't totally clear), they were a way of maintaining the Wolves' influence alongside that of Girlyman, Dorn and the rest. Unfortunately the Wolves' gene-seed proved too unstable to set up any viable successor chapters, and as a result while the Ultramarines, Imperial Fists and Dark Angels have shitloads of descendants to call on in a crisis, the Wolves are the sole embodiment of Russ' strength and drive. This hasn't helped their situation with Imperial institutions such as the Inquisition.

One-hundred years to the day after the Emperor's internment on the Golden Throne, during a feast in the halls of the Space Wolves fortress, Russ climbed upon a table to give a speech. He was stricken with a vision, and after standing there speechless for a few minutes, he fell to one knee, issued hushed orders to his retinue, and left. He left his sons with their first Wolf Lord; [[Bjorn the Fell Handed]], and a message.

"In the end, I will be there. For the final battle. For <s>the wolf</s> dinner time."

And then the winds of change blew over the fluff once again. In the audio play Parting of Ways we get a slightly different version of events. There was still an annual feast, though it wasn't just to celebrate the day the Emperor got the snot beaten out of him by Horus, but also to commemorate the Wolves that had died during the spring cleaning that followed the Heresy, plus the completion of the Aett - the giant [[fortress-monastery|fortress]] of the Space Wolves. Also instead of a hundred years, it was two hundred years since the siege of Terra, so unless Dorn was a really slow learner and not very bright and it took him over a hundred years to assemble the Golden Throne, that is a clear lore change. Then again, given how Perturabo thoroughly kicked Dorn's ass in the iron Cage, forcing Bobby.G and the Ultrasmurfs to come and save Dorn's sorry ass, it's a possibility that Dorn just wasn't very bright. It's also a possibility that the Emperor got the Golden Throne from an old IKEA warehouse, which would explain why even a Primarch would have had trouble in figuring out how to put it together in less than a hundred years.

Also Russ wasn't about to hold a speech, instead he had at first partaken in the festivities but as the party grew sullen, Russ retreated, sensing, as Bjorn put it, "a fell wind from beyond the mountains, bleeding through the cracks of the Fang". After clenching the table for a while, Russ clambered to his feet on the table, screaming ''“No More!”'' The shout silenced the Space Wolves in their brawling and made the flags of the smoke filled halls tremble, so Russ apparently also had a gift for speech, plus he had a gift for getting instantly sober as Bjorn described his face going from being ruddy flushed with Mjod to looking like an ice spectre. Russ then held the following [[awesome|kickass]] speech:

''“We come here to celebrate the All-father, we come here to remember his sacrifice and his ascension from the world of the senses and his victory over my brother the traitor.”
''“We remember the dead, who even now gather in the oververse, their blade sharp, their aim keen.”''
''“They are better than we are for they perished in the war to end all wars and their souls have been purified! And what of us those left behind, wallowing in the drinks the fallen gods have left us?”''
''“We have grown fat, we have the beast within us, but is has never yet been mastered.”''

Then Russ paused to grab his drinking horn and held it aloft and continued:
''“So let us celebrate my father's ascension, let us remember what he was able to accomplish, let us remember what he built and what he foresaw and then what he lost and how he failed.”''
''“Do not mourn the fact that he no longer walks among us, for the galaxy was too small to accommodate such a soul, he was of an age of '''gods!''' And we are slumped in an age of mortals.”''
''“The lights of the stars will fade, this place will grow old and the ice will crack it.”''
''“We will forget no matter how much the skalds tell the old tales, what battles are left for us like the ones before?”''
''“My fallen brothers are gone, Malcador is gone, the leeches cluster around the Golden Throne and whisper of deeds done before they were born as if it were '''they''' who achieved them.”''

At this point Russ looked unsteady on his feet and his eyes went glassy:
''“A doubt of all of this, one thing remains true we were not on Terra, we were not there when the palace fell and that shame will pursue us for eternity.”''

Then Russ dropped his drinking horn on the board and then started to speak not to his warriors, but to himself or to some presence that was unseen.
''“It remains unfinished… I have waited for too long, building this mountain, squabbling with Guilliman. I will not grow old, feeble, limping around a crumbling inheritance. I have an Oath to keep, there are beasts left to slay.”''

At this point Russ was fully immersed in his premonitions and he looked around the room, a smile dancing on his fanged face, seeing things from either long ago or yet to come.
''“Listen closely my brothers, there shall come a time far from now, when the chapter itself is dying and our foes shall gather to destroy us.”''
''“Then, my sons, I shall listen for your call, in whatever realm holds me and come I shall, no matter what the laws of life and death forbid.”''
''“At the end, I will be there. For the final battle. FOR THE WOLF TIME!”''

Then Russ gave the mustering signal and he and his retinue left, though as Bjorn made to follow only to have Russ turn towards him saying a single sentence: ''“Not you.”'' When Bjorn asked for an explanation all Russ did was repeat the words: ''“Not you.”'' [[Eldrad|Then he left.]]

It is theorized that Russ like Magnus had the gift of premonition and knew that Bjorn would be needed in the years to come as the first Great Wolf, as it is heavily implied that if Bjorn hadn't been persuaded to take the mantle of great wolf, the Chapter itself would have fallen apart in the absence of Russ.

More likely Russ just didn't want Bjorn's moodiness to poison what ever adventure he was on. His helmet eventually came to be in the possession of [[Ulrik the Slayer]].

As to where Russ went and what happened to him there's a few theories given:
*Russ sought the Lion out to make amends of their old feuding (if so they both forgot to tell both their chapters about it).
*That he fought in eternal combat with the resurrected cadaver of Horus (no that would be Abaddon's task and he completely owned that clone of Horus).
*That he searched for the tree of life to heal the Emperor's soul.
*That he is trapped within a hollow star and tormented by his old adversary Magnus (Since Tzeentch was able to trap Sigmar in another dimension, trapping Russ in a hollow star and have his star pupil Magnus use him as a punching bag makes as much sense as anything).
*That he is actually searching for Magnus, to finish the last task given to him by the Emperor and "arrest" his wayward brother.
*That he passed beyond the bounds of space and time and now roams among the gods, ready to return when needed accompanied by the fallen of his legion sundered in a paradise of warriors (so basically he's in the Age of Sigmar at this point? somebody put him out of his misery, that's not a paradise that's hell on earth).
*That he's simply lost in the galactic fjord known as the Warp and has been playing drunken pranks on daemonic villagers for 10,000 years.

/tg/ theorizes that Leman Russ may return as [[Horo]] (Implying Horo isn't just one of Leman's many, many bastard children growing up on some shithole Feudal world).

Magnus actually know where Russ is now, but he don't tell it even to his trusted sorcerer lords.

The 13th company, and a figure bearing the likeness of Russ, was spotted during the 13th crusade and the siege of the capital of Cadia.

==On The Tabletop==
{| class=wikitable
! || Pts || WS || BS || S || T || W || I || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Leman Russ:''' || 455 || 9 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 6 || 10 || 2+/4++
|}

An impressive stat-line, even by the insane standards of Primarchs, is coupled with unbelievably powerful wargear:
*The '''Armour Elavagar''' starts as your bog-standard 2+/4++ which is increased to a 3++ against flamer (in case you meet an AP2 flamer or something), melta, and plasma weapons, but the truly <strike>awesome</strike> severely-overpowered-bullshit part is that it imposes -1 to hit on anyone in BtB with him. Do note however that it ''only'' works in BtB contact, so the models not directly in contact with Russ would still hit him as usual (likely on 5+ due to his insane WS). Basically, he's insanely tanky in a fight.
*The '''Axe of Helwinter''' is a ''+2 S master-crafted power axe with sunder and without unwieldy'' for your vehicle-wrecking needs and putting some more guaranteed wounds on high toughness opponents. Also useful for inflicting Instant Death on anything T4 or lower.
*The '''Sword of Balenight''' is a Shredding AP2 power sword; oh wait, it also has '''Sever Life'''. If Russ' prey suffers one or more wounds from the sword, roll a 2d6. If this result beats your target's toughness, add 1d3 additional wounds.
**Thanks to vague wording, when you must make the test for Sever Life is a subject of debate. Some say "suffering one or more wounds" means that the rule applies immediately before saves are made. HOWEVER, the rule clearly states that Sever Life is used only if the model "is not slain" by the initial attacks, and you HAVE to make your save rolls in order to know if they are slain or not, so one can lawfully argue that ''unsaved'' wounds are the real trigger. Keep calm and make it clear with your opponent until a FAQ is released. Besides, the times Russ isn't going to be able to get at least one wound in with this sword are going to be pretty rare.
*For ranged fights he has the [[Vulkan]]-remade bolter (mentioned to be regular one until Xzibit got his hands on it) turned into a pistol for Primarch's hand, called '''Scornspitter''' which is assault 3 AP3 rending, but with pitiful 12" range. Of course if you aren't within 12", then you can't charge, and if you can't charge you're running therefore even if it did have a greater than 12" range it wouldn't be used anyway.

His Wolf-Kin are deployed separately and he can't join them, but they're great harassing units and surprisingly brutal fighters.

Meanwhile, his Sire of the Space Wolves gives him Night Vision, Counter-Attack, Preternatural Senses, and Hunter's Gait: all Wolves get +1Ld and Russ gets to Howl once per game (letting everyone in his detachment reroll run and charge for said turn). Breaker of Shields, Bringer of Ruin gives weapon mastery (like Horus and Calgar). If he's Warlord, you can take Veteran Tacticals (who may run/shoot bolters then charge instead of regular Vet tactics) and Varagyr Terminators as troops.

If Horus plays like everything a Space Marine Chapter Master ought to be, Russ is best compared to an Ork Warboss. He isn't exactly "tactical" in the traditional sense of reserve dickery, but Howl of the Death Wolf combined with Warrior's Mettle Veterans can make your army a strong hunter-killer force, able to get in your enemy's face and fuck up his battle plans. This is an unpredictable force, able to catch most armies by surprise and keep them off balance. Freki and Geri are practically auto-takes, and Russ himself can and will fuck up everything from Leviathans to Thanatars to Land Raiders. Due to high strength, high initiative, and high weapon skill, even Imperial Knights aren't out of the question. Worth it.

==Leman Russ VS other Primarchs:==
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
Inferno is finally released and you came here to see how your favorite/most hated superhuman demi-god fares against the other Primarchs, because you love delicious Mathhammer trolling and cautious planning before battle.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
'''<big>[[RIP AND TEAR|THEY ALL DIE. EVERY. LAST. ONE. OF. THEM.]]</big>'''

Sever Life on The Sword of Balenight is the real kicker here. Allowing him to potentially pile on more wounds than what would normally be possible for the amount of attacks he has. And since most primarchs only have a 4++, they tend to die in short order (with even the tougher ones eventually going down from sheer wound output). So if you want to add the damage for Sever Life, here's the results:

*Against T6 Sever Life will cause an additional 1.091 Wounds on average.
*Against T7 Sever Life will cause an additional 0.909 Wounds on average.
::Note that these are Wounds that can still be saved via Invulnerable saves.

This is made even crazier with his ability to split his attacks between his axe of awesome and his sword of cheese (Yes just like Horus). Since all it takes is one wound going through to trigger Sever Life thus he can lay on the hurt with his high strength axe while still getting some good jabs in with his sword. When combined with the additional wounds from sever life (assuming it goes off, which against most Primarchs it should since they are mostly in the T6 range) this guy can lay on more wounds on a single target than just about any other Primarch (except a fully buffed Angron, though to be fair that is really all Angron has got going in a fight).

Possibly worse than Sever Life (which probably is intended to trigger after saves, hence the "Is not slain" part) is his armor, which cripples almost every Primarch's ability to damage him with the negatives to hit. Since thanks to his insane weapon skill almost all will be needing 6's or 5's at best to even hit him, and after taking wound rolls and saves into account he is basically taking almost no damage. Which really hurts alot of his opponents since most of their special rules in CC rely on doing damage (e.g. Horus disabling strike and Perturabo's fancy hammer with basically every CC special rule). Even the uber-tanks are left flailing at him, barely doing any damage, while he grinds them out.

The only ones who can even stand a snowball's chance are heavy-hitters in the range of Horus, Fulgrim, Angron with maximum attacks, Ferrus Manus, Perturabo and a fully buffed Magnus. In addition a Transfigured Lorgar might be able to tar pit him for awhile (though don't expect him to actually win). But I do mean snowball, even these guys barring some amazing rolls will probably lose virtually every fight (including Horus).

Vulkan holds out pretty well but only if Russ is just using the sword... against the axe... well lets hope the dice are on your side!

Do note too that if Russ brings his wolves along (as he should) then they can challenge and take challenges in his place, as they are both characters. Thanks to how the rules work, this means that Russ essentially has 8 wounds, and in the case of Primarchs who can't ID the wolves 14 wounds. In effect he can use this to prevent Horus from using his talon to drop his stats or Perturabo smacking him to many times with his hammer while making the combat last even longer, since for example if Horus uses Worldbreaker to kill the first wolf Russ can just tank the wounds before his other wolf challenges in round 2, all the while Russ is beating the shit out of Horus completely unharmed. Statistically if Leman Russ brings his wolves along it is near impossible for any single other Primarch to kill Russ before he grinds them down if in a challenge.

HOWEVER if you or your opponent plays him in a list he can potentially be tar pitted with terminators with thunder hammers and storm shields. Russ is not immune to concussion and the invuln save is superior than Russ. This will bring him down to an equal playing field since while they will not be doing much damage to him (since needing 6s to hit), he will probably not be able to rip throw them before the game ends (he is more a challenge monster than infantry wrecker, again that is Angrons job). Though don't rely on this as like all primarchs he is perfectly capable of wiping them out.
Such is the fickleness of the dice. And again this is not even taking into account his two wolves. With either of them tanking a shot or two and preventing Concussion from setting in Leman Russ again has a very good chance of ripping through them. So don't expect this to be a consistent solution to dealing with him.

Bottom line, Horus is lucky that Russ didn't get there first.

</div>
</div>

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:russ_original.jpg|First portrayal of Leman Russ in canon (Rogue Trader)
File:russ_furry_original.jpg|First retcon of Leman Russ, now approximately 215% furrier, in 1st. Ed compilation
File:Leman russ by alexboca-d7930sk.jpg
File:Russ_Behind.jpg| RUN <s> FORREST </s> LEMAN, RUN!
File:Russ_Front.jpg| He's running so [[White Scars|fast]] because he saw someone throw a stick.
File:Russ_Side.jpg
File:Horus vs Leman.jpg|True Wolf vs Emperor's Puppy.
File:Horus-Primarchs-Warhammer-Russ.jpeg|
</gallery>

{{Primarchs}}

[[Category:Space Wolves]]

==See Also==
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0Q8uymv0vw&index=2&list=PLdPq6mYy-DRdA9aTRJghfDsQiyR5WLs7y/ Admit it, this is the only song that truly befits the glory of the Sons of Russ.]
* [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mzkqA4-4jIM/ Not so fast.]

Leman Russ

2019-12-03T09:02:39Z

2601:585:8301:76D0:455A:9655:9E33:16A7:

[[Image:LEMAN_RUSS.jpg|frame|My hand is fire, my hair is rage, my pauldrons are justice and my cock is wolf. Prepare to die!]]
{{Topquote|I am the punishment of God...If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you.|[[Genghis motherfucking Khan|Genghis Khan]]}}
{{Topquote|When he is nearly ten, his mother submits him to a first ordeal: she sews his shirt to his arms through the skin. Siggeir's sons, submitted to the same ordeal, [[Anal circumference|had howled with pain]], but Sinfjotli remains imperturbable. His mother then pulls off his shirt, tearing away the skin, and asks him if he feels anything. The boy answers that a [[Badasious|Volsung is not troubled by such a trifle]] (...) After this proof of courage Sigmund takes the boy into the forest with him. One day they find two wolfskins hanging from the wall of a hut. [[Horus|The two sons]] [[Emperor|of a king]] had been transformed into wolves and could only come out of the skins every tenth day. Sigmund and Sinfjotli put on the skins, but cannot get them off. They howl like wolves and understand the wolves' language.|Volsung Saga, summarized and commented by Mircea Eliade, ''Birth and Rebirth'' (New York: Harper & Row, 1958)}}
{{Topquote|It never troubles the wolf how many the sheep may be.|Virgil}}

'''Leman Russ''', '''The Great Wolf''', '''The Lord of Winter and Ruin''', and '''Wolf King of Fenris''', (also known as '''Lemon Russ''', '''Lemon Rust''', or '''That Fucking Furry''' if your [[Magnus the Red]]). not to be confused with the [[Leman Russ (tank)|tank bearing his name]], is the primarch of the [[Space Wolves]] legion. A superhuman nordic king with a warrior's crude humor and a stubborn streak a mile wide. He was such a hard headed son of a bitch, that he's survived extended fights with [[Angron]], [[Magnus]], [[Lion El'Jonson|The Lion]], and even the Emperor himself. General all-around badass deserving of much respect, but superstitious and flawed, with a serious problem valuing others' points of view, even if he understood them. He's blond underneath [[Rip and Tear|all the blood.]] There appears to be no specific way to pronounce his surename as both the wider Imperium and the Wolves themselves commonly alternate between "R-UH-ss" and "Rh-OOs", when speaking about him or the [[Leman Russ Battle Tank|battle tank named after him]].

==Origins==
When the Primarchs were lost, Leman's capsule landed on [[Fenris]], a harsh planet of insane violence that the Norse gods shit out after a three day meth fueled orgy with a tyranid hive fleet. The locals there enjoy a life of fishing, drinking, sailing, fucking, pillaging, and conquering other tribes of people for the modest little islands they all have to live on. Granted, it's also usually a very short life, because they're sharing the world with trolls, yetis, wolves the size of horses, wolves the size of battle tanks, bears the size of a house, whales that kill for fun, and krakens, which are to a squid as a [[Hierophant]] is to a [[Hormagaunt]].

So it was that little baby Russ left his capsule in the polar mountain region of Asaheim. There, some monstrous female wolf found him and said to herself "I WANT!". So Russ was raised by a dire wolf In Spess. A few years pass, Russ growing up big and strong and hairy, having a grand old time running around the mountains and killing the sheep and such of the humans there with his wolf brothers. Eventually a king named Thengir heard of the Wolf-man, and decreed he be captured and brought to his hall. The mist of ages (and retcons) have hidden the details of Thengir's first meeting with Russ. Some stories would say that Russ was bound and gagged and dragged into the hall of the King Thengir after his Wolf family was slain, others claim a hunting party stumbled across his cave and kicked off a bloody melee in which a dozen hunters were killed, along with Russ's mother, after which the hunters realized they weren't fighting a wolf (they were probably drunk and kind of retarded) and somehow convinced Russ to stand down and come with them, a conversation that may or may not have included copious amounts of alcohol and whores. Thengir took a wondrous interest in Russ and ordered he be educated. In a short time, Russ was trash-talking every short bastard who dared look at him the wrong way, and had become insanely good with weaponry. When Thengir finally died, all declared that Leman of the Russ become the new high King.

Also, remember that Volsung Saga quote regarding Warrior Initiations for [[Angron|Berserks]]? Considering that (according to old Fluff) Sanguinius looked like a young teen adult at 1 year old, Leman Russ passed this trial that when he was around 7-10 months old or so. No wonder he went on to be a [[Eldrad|dick]] [[Primarch#Douchebagginess|with]] [[Magnus|some]] [[Unknown Primarchs|of]] [[Lion El'Jonson|his brothers]] and his new recruits (first, the Space Wolves feed them like they arrived to Valhalla and [[Assholetep|then, when they fall asleep they abandon them in the cold wilderness of Fenris until they transform into Wulfen or return home by themselves]]...) and was easily manipulated by the Luna Wolf Primarch in tearing a new asshole to Magnus.

==GW origins==
He was just an ordinary commander who came with two wolves, Freki and Geri. This is them.

[[Image:russ_original.jpg|300px|thumb|frame|left|This is the very first canonical portrayal of Leman Russ. I shit you not (In Rogue Trader; before primarchs were a thing, but still.)]]

http://www.solegends.com/citrt2/rt070121LemanRuss/Wd117p80070121SWCommanderLemanRussx-01.htm

==The Next Step==
Russ conquered and took. He bartered and traded. He united the people of Asaheim under his rule. Somehow, the Emprah heard of it and realized it all had to be the work of a Primarch. So then he attended a royal banquet in the Hall of the Mountain Ki- I mean Leman Russ. The Emprah, taking a leaf out of Odin's book, disguised himself as some old geezer, then waited until the right moment to reveal his true identity. When he did Russ refused to bow down and challenged him to several contests, he ate so much the Emprah was forced to back down. Russ drank so much the Emprah was forced to back down. By now, the Emprah was fairly surprised at finally being out-done by someone else, Russ gazed upon the Emperor and challenged him in combat, and so did the Emprah raise his Power Glove into the air for all to see, and so did he then bring it down on Leman Russ's head, knocking him the fuck out in one solid hit.

[[Image:russ_furry_original.jpg|300px|thumb|frame|right|...and this is the first portrayal getting ready for a furry con.]]

Of course fluff changes and a 1-hit KO wasn't very fulfilling, so the new lore arrived: After the Emperor revealed himself Leman Russ skipped the eating and drinking contests and just challenged the Emperor to a fight. It is unknown whether the Emperor was in his full armour and actually had his Power Fist at the time, or whether he used his psychic powers; but the duel lasted for hours. (Presumably Russ did a lot better this time by virtue of not being drunk.) In the end, though the Emperor, presumably pissy that Leman was waving his cock in his face by just straight up fighting him, punched him square in the face and dropped him. When Russ awoke, he laughed it off and swore loyalty to the one who managed to beat him. Afterwards he ended up in command of the one Space Marine legion that knows how to eat, drink, brawl and make war upon any asshole that mocks their Thunderwolf.

Rumour has it that the Emp was so pleased with Russ' prowess, that he tasked him and the Space Wolves to be his executioners and it seems Russ is the reason the 2nd and 11th Legions no longer exist. So he has experience fucking up a Primarch, which is pretty goddamn manly. (Not confirmed by any sources and is not more than passing conversation in one Black Library novel, other than that, yeah totally definitely didn't kill the other legions. Also if you take how he acted with Angron and Magnus, he totally hated his job of being the executioner... and apparently thought Lorgar was a pretty cool guy).

(The novel "Betrayer" give's Angron's version of their run-in, where he tells to Lorgar what happened. Russ had taken it upon himself to school the World Eaters as he was disgusted by their behavior. Angron was having none of Russ's babbling and picked a fight with him by insulting the Big.E. Angron eventually defeats Russ in single combat, but because only he was fighting to kill while Russ was trying to teach. It then ends with the Space Wolves entirely outmaneuvering the Eaters and winning a tactical victory by surrounding Angron, some more hissing vitriol between the two Primarchs and Angron leaving. The World Eaters believed they won due to a higher kill count and the Wolves leave disappointed that their legion brothers were too retarded to see the lesson Russ was teaching. It is pretty telling that even <u>Lorgar</u> replies to Angron that he was a complete tool on that night and would have been killed after hearing him boast of how he won against Russ. With that said, Lorgar was able to get Angron to learn the lesson Russ was trying to teach him by just talking to him ''for two minutes'', and he did it without getting a shit load of his own men killed or getting his ass kicked in a duel. Not only does it show just how badly Russ failed at what he had set out to do on the Night of the Wolf, but also how his own hot headedness and fundamental inability to understand his brothers can royally bite him in the ass.)

Apart from that, Russ and his Space Wolves had a goddamn good time during the Great Crusade, although it hasn't been written about so this is all we can guess. Until ''Inferno'' dropped. It turns out that Russ became the Emperor's executioner in the process of fighting the Rangdan Xenocides, which saw entire Army regiments, Titan Legions and [REDACTED] Space Marine Legions (could be Chapters, could actually be entire Legions) wiped out. With the Luna Woves up to the eyes in glorious warfare in the Galactic East, Russ and the VI headed north along with the I Legion - this is the war that ended the I's time as the largest Legion. The end of the Xenocides entailed a series of bio-pogroms which left the Wolves with a very ugly reputation, and from then on Russ' role was the doer of necessary dirty deeds.

When that bitch-ass [[Horus]] started whining and crying, Leman Russ and his Legion were on their way to Prospero to bring Magnus the Red to Terra for questioning. Horus intercepted the message and re-worded it to order Russ to destroy Magnus and his Thousand Sons, and interestingly Russ found when they arrived at Prospero he didn't want to do that. He decided to go against the orders he thought were legit, and instead detain him and his legion so that they could be transported to Terra (ironically doing exactly what his legit orders were by going against what he thought they were), but when Magnus refused to answer the phone and the Thousand Sons' calls were all being blocked by he Primarch he became more and more annoyed, and eventually he was pissed off enough that he and the Space Wolves carried out a class-10 clusterfucking on Prospero (aided along a bit by Magnus himself lowering his planet's defenses because he wanted to atone for his wrongdoings in the dumbest fucking way possible). It should have ended with the glorious finale where Leman Russ himself lifted Magnus the Red over his shoulders and broke the sorcerer's back over his knee (rumour has it that Russ could be heard shouting “Ah yes. I was wondering what would break first: your spirit… or your body!”...turns out it was both at the same time!). But even so, the red bastard managed to utter one single word of power and escaped through the fucking ground. Russ was so enraged that he ordered the 13th company of Space Wolves to pursue the fleeing Thousand Sons through their pansy-ass portals.

This said, winning the Battle of Prospero left a bitter taste in Russ' mouth and complicated things for the Wolves in the long run. First of all, despite his reputation as the Emperor's Executioner, fighting Magnus took a serious toll on Russ. Rumour has it, that during the battle between those two demigods Magnus, by psychic means, laid his heart and mind bare to Russ, revealing that he knew not only every blow that was coming from his brother, but everything that he had come to know, accepting his failure and his fate, which was defeat. In the recently published Horus Heresy novel Wolfsbane Magnus' last words to Russ are finally revealed "You are a sword in the wrong hands. You have severed an innocent neck." In other words: Magnus was even aware that the wolves had been manipulated into wiping the Thousand Sons out, instead of detaining them and bringing them back to Terra (but not aware he wasn;t actually innocent), and the idiot just let it happen instead of talking to Russ who wanted to ignore his orders and detain the Sons, in order to bring them back to Terra. It will be interesting to see how GW tries to fill the logic gap regarding the hatred of Magnus towards the wolves now, considering he obviously *knew* that Russ had been manipulated into killing Magnus and the entirety of the Burning of Prospero is directly his fault. Or is it all about the shard of Magnus that held his nobility which was absorbed by Ianus (first grandmaster of the Grey Knights, a former Thousand Son that was in the process of succumbing to the flesh change when this little "accident" occurred). That would be the easy way out (and therefore probably the road trodden), although fans would be deserving of a more convincing explanation. Seeing a hypergenius like Magnus hating the Space Wolves for destroying his legion - irrespective of the fact that he *knew* that they had been manipulated into doing so and the fact that he intentionally chose for his legion to be destroyed - makes absolutely no sense any more.

Either way, the events of Prospero shook the Wolf King deeply, but Russ decided to carry on and try to make the best of a real clusterfuck of a situation. (An Inquisitor once called it an "emo phase" in front of a Rune Priest, and was fed balls-first to a Thunderwolf.) Not long after that, the news of the Drop Site Massacre reached the Wolves; which was another blow for the Wolf King. In his own words, Russ felt he'd been "in the wrong place, doing the wrong thing", wasting his time and men fighting an eventually futile battle instead of standing with his brother Primarchs against the real threat. Just to make things worse, the [[Battle of the Alaxxes Nebula|Alpha Legion turned up to batter the Wolves]] and prevent them from heading to Terra and helping Big E. As the rotten cherry on top of an already really bad cake, the White Scars, who'd been bros with the Thousand Sons and had no idea why Russ had just decided to fuck them up royally seemingly out of the blue, weren't going to help them after Prospero. But the [[Dark Angels]] of all people aided [[File:Battle_of_Trisolian.jpg|280px|thumb|right|Only room for one wolf pelt wearing Primarch in this universe.]] the Wolves in fighting off the Alpha Legion, letting the Wolves damage their fleet to an impressive degree. A plus here was that [[Bjorn the Fell-Handed]] came to his attention, setting the young warrior on the path to ironclad badassness. This said, when he went to Yarant to fight the main Traitor advance, Russ was badly injured, entering a coma and giving Bjorn temporary command of the Legion. He bought Dorn and the Emperor more time, but didn't make it back to Terra until it was too late.

Oh and Empy totally gave him a spear after most of the Terran members of his original legion died fighting various gribbly xenos. Including Tyranids. Yup. Said spear was tossed into a certain Daemon Primarchs single eye, thereby preventing him from manifesting in reality AND resurrecting his legion. Russ totally hated this spear btw. At one point Russ tried to hit a moon orbiting some planet (he was drunk, don't judge) and the spear was lost for months [[troll|but since it had been a gift from Big.E the Wolves did spend said months searching for it]]. In the new novel Wolfsbane, it's revealed he was fearful of the spear and purposefully avoided using it while "forgetting" it at conferences before people brought it back. He later uses it and became fond of it as a weapon. Later he uses said spear to [[Battle of Trisolian|fight]] chaos-empowered Horus, after another try to get rid of it. He manages to stop the Warmaster with it, but then he acts like a fucking idiot, instead of just killing Horus and ending the rebellion then and there, he tries to reach out to Horus' good side and gets fucked up because of it.

Funny thing, that spear. It's actually the twin of another spear, the Apollonian Spear, wielded by the commander of the Custodes, Constantin Valdor. Russ's spear is known by many names, including Gungnir (the spear of Odin), simply the Spear of Russ, and others. But, this spear and its twin were both crafted by Big E, so before any of those other names it was called the Dionysian spear. Now, this is a bit of a deep cut on GWs part, but the Apollonian and Dionysian actually refers to the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche (feeling lost yet?), who was in turn writing about the Greek gods Apollo and Dionysus. In Nietzsche's philosophy, the Apollonian is representative of everything bright and individual, meaning life and the person living it, as well as order and stability. The Dionysian, however, is representative of the primordial state from which all things originally emerge, the CHAOTIC nothingness from which the individual Apollonian springs forth. So, bringing it back to 40k, the Apollonian spear of Constantin Valdor can impart the memories of the person it kills to its wielder, capturing that individual and orderly moment. What does Russ's spear, the Dionysian spear do? Well, we really don't know, but if the novel Wolfsbane is anything to go by, it seems that at least a couple people believe it's the weapon best suited for killing a Primarch. And since the Primarchs are essentially the Emperor's Own Daemonkin, it stands to reason that the Dionysian Spear was designed by the Emperor to destroy the soul of the Primarchs and return them to the primal Chaos from which they originated. This in turn jives with Russ's wyrd of being the Emperor's "executioner".

== Russ and his Brothers ==

In many ways Russ can be best understood by looking at the clashes between him and his brothers, butting heads with [[Angron]], [[Magnus]], and [[Lion El'Jonson]] over the years. All three of them had much in common with Russ, and there was potential for great brotherhood there, but in large part his lack of tact or understanding crushed whatever relationship might have been.

His fight with Angron was an attempt to teach his brother a lesson. Both of them were consummate warriors, both relied on their amazing athleticism and berzerker rages to triumph in battle, both were known for losing their temper when challenged, but Russ saw weakness in his brother's lack of strategy. Leman tried to just talk to the World Eater's primarch, but Angron was so uncontrollably, incredibly, "calm down son", angry that he just attacked Russ. While Russ and Angron were dueling, their retinues kicked off an open war, and in the battle that followed Russ found himself defeated by Angron, but Angron was in turn outmaneuvered and surrounded by the Space Wolves, thus proving Russ's lesson that warrior prowess isn't enough. That said, no one learned '''anything'''. Angron thought himself the victor because he'd won the duel and his sons had inflicted greater casualties than the Wolves, but Russ thought himself the victor because he'd proven his point and "educated" his brother. On the flip side, arguments that Russ should have been more tactful ignore that he was trying to deal with a Space Marine Legion of questionable loyalty that could and had caused massive amounts of collateral damage. There's a time for caution; it's not when rampaging supersoldiers are threatening the Imperium and its people. Which is indeed a good point, but then he should have gone all the way and gotten Big.E's approval to deal with this shit once and for all if it came down to that instead of trying to do things on his own on the sly. No matter how you look at it, Russ' idea to "educate" his brother was one of good intent (no really, it's a genuine bro' move that the Primarchs rarely extended to another) but of poor execution. If Russ had paid more attention and thought things through rather than sticking to do things his way, he'd have used subtler methods of persuasion to calm Angron, as Fulgrim and especially Lorgar had done in the past. Russ would have had an easier time of persuading Angron than either of them, given that he and Angron had a similar sense of brutal honor and a great lust for war. But, ultimately, it didn't occur to Russ to slow down and think his idea though, so he failed that day..... Well, that last statement is a bit in the grey zone. It was rightfully pointed out above that Russ was not exactly cool-headed either. And it was only when Angron said that without the Nails he might have been a more honourable man (like Russ claimed to be); but that if this were so he might have decided at some point to storm the Emperor's palace and "chop the slavering bastards head off". That was the final straw for Russ who couldn't take more of that shit, hissed "Heretic" as he lost his temper and things went downhill from there until both legions clashed. It is also noteworthy (and of course grimdark/tragic) that Angron made some pretty valid and surprisingly logical arguments including showing genuine regret for having been pressed into a role he had never wanted ("I died on Nuceria") , especially considering what a berzerk killer he was even then already. Several years/brain hemorrhages later only the berzerk killer with the attention span of a two year old was left but that's a story for another day (as in: when he was [[troll]]ing Ultramar with Lorgar, which ultimately culminated in his ascension to daemon(prince)hood).

Russ really, ''really'' didn't get along with Magnus, even before the burning of Prospero. He hated that his brother used sorcery and warpcraft so extensively. The Rune Priests of the Space Wolves use their psychic abilities in a much more limited and controlled way than the Thousand Sons, and the Rout never used Chaos familiars (which the Thousand Sons - to be fair - were totally unaware of using. They thought them to be benevolent spirits or "tutelaries"... until the Burning of Prospero of course when these spirits showed their true colours and turned on Magnus' sons). The Wolves also use the spirits of Fenris, hence all the totems and runes. Nearly all fluff indicates that this is utter horseshit, until the Spirit of Fenris was revealed to be real. Russ' convictions led him to feud with Magnus, but so did his concerns over the threat the XVth Legion posed to the Imperium and his frustration with Magnus' tendency to abandon his allies in favor of investigating some psychic artifact or slow down a conquest to avoid damaging some books. Russ never stopped to consider that Magnus' understanding of the Warp might have been better than his, or that the things Magnus preserved might have value for the humans Russ wanted to make the Galaxy safe for. Ridiculous theories that Russ was a psyker aside, another significant source of the feud between Magnus and Russ was The Crimson King's sheer arrogance. Leman Russ was rightly proud of his cunning battle tactics and personal ferocity, and was fully aware that he grew up on a savage death world where everything is constantly trying to kill you, while Magnus had it comparatively easy on Prospero. The Wolf King and his Legion, from the Wheel of Fire to the Rangdan Xenocides, had proved its mettle, cunning, and devotion to the Emperor many times over, yet Magnus treated him like a dumb hick and acted as though his psychic powers made him the greatest primarch. It couldn't have helped matters that some of the threats the VIth had bested were psychic in nature. Yet Magnus knew none of this; only the Emperor and the Space Wolves understood the extent of the threats they had faced down. Russ never considered that Magnus had no knowledge of the terrible secrets that only he had been entrusted with; he expected Magnus to take the word of an "ignorant savage" that the abilities he defined himself by couldn't be trusted. Whether Magnus would have listened if he did explain all that on the other hand, is another story - recall that he didn't listen the first time the Emperor told him to stop.

Perhaps most famous and most tragic of Russ's feuds was his strife with [[Lion El'Jonson]]. Both men had very similar origins, but slight differences in their upbringings drove a wedge between them. The Wolf and the Lion were both raised by the wild: both of their pods had crashed in areas with no humans, and they had to learn to survive with no lessons from other men. Both were eventually taken in when they were discovered by the men of their world, but that's where their stories differ. Where Russ was raised in the friendly, bawdy brotherhood of Thengir's men, the Lion was trained and educated in the somber fraternity of the knightly Order. While Russ had been brawling and singing with his friends, leading great hunts to destroy monsters and enemy tribes, the Lion was mastering discipline and embarking on solemn quests to destroy the Great Beasts of the forest. The battle between the two came on the world of Dulan, where the VIth and Ist legion were fighting together to slay a tyrant who'd insulted Russ's honor. At the beginning of the conflict the two brothers had promised to work together, but as time went on the Lion grew tired of his brother's insistence on utterly smashing every pocket of resistance rather than taking a more efficient, direct method of ending the war. Eventually he just launched an assault on the tyrant's palace, and beheaded the man before Russ could reach them. In the heat of the moment, Russ was ''furious'' to hear that and immediately confronted his brother. Russ was an angry dickhead, the Lion was a snarky bastard, and before long blades were drawn and the two were trying to kill each other in a violent battle. After a long and bloody fight in which the two of them beat one another senseless and finally fell over the ramparts of the fortress to the ground below, Russ started laughing, the ridiculousness of what they were doing finally apparent. Here they were, two Primarchs of the Legiones Astartes, brawling like children instead of leading their men. The Lion, however, didn't laugh. Like, at all. He coldly asked if his brother would yield, a question that just confused Russ. ''His brother thought this was a real duel?'' Russ had thought of the fight as a brawl between angry brothers like would happen on Fenris: a quick spat that would end with both of them beaten and bloodied, a spur-of-the-moment thing to vent their anger they'd laugh about over a tankard of Mjod years later. The Lion however was taking it deadly seriously and while Russ was laughing he struck a final blow, shattering Russ's skull and ending the fight. Had Russ stopped to consider his brother's mentality, or listened more closely to the Lion's words, he would have realized that the Lion saw the conflict as something profoundly different from what Russ thought it was, taking the matter of honour as something deadly serious. Again, Russ's lack of consideration was his failing.

However, while certainly abrasive, arrogant, and brutal, Russ was also every bit as loyal as Sanguinius or Dorn. The other thing Magnus, Angron, and the Lion had in common? All three of them behaved like assholes in their way. The Lion had zero people skills, arrogantly considered himself the best of all Primarchs, acted like he was some prince-in-waiting and lorded it over his brothers, him turning a small brawl into a duel of honour case in point. Magnus was much more enjoyable to be around but he arrogantly assumed he knew best because of his powers and blatantly favored psykers in his Legion. Angron's case is... [[Rage|self-explanatory]]. Bottom line, his brothers all put their own feelings/goals before those of the Emperor. Not to say that Russ was tactful, diplomatic, or understanding with these three - he certainly could have handled all of these conflicts better - but Russ was never a dick just for the sake of being a dick - he was a dick because someone had to keep his brothers in line.

His relationships with his brothers also highlight another one of his traits. Fans LOVE to call him a hypocrite, and this isn't far off the mark. However, it's not quite on target either. To elaborate, Russ did indeed criticize (and at times even physically attacked) his brothers for traits he or his Legion also had. On closer inspection, though, the way Russ dealt with his flaws was different from his brothers - and that's the best justification for his behavior:

*Russ and Angron both led Legions that were extremely violent, especially towards the defenseless. But Russ made a point from the very beginning to rein himself in and taught his Legion to temper their bloodlust and fight to make the galaxy safe for humans by example. Angron didn't care about either his Legion or the people of the Imperium, the only leadership and example he gave the World Eaters was to slaughter anything that dared stand in his way. Even worse, Angron jammed the Butcher's Nails in the brains of his War Hounds, taking their discipline and brotherhood away from them and leaving them to degenerate into blood-crazed psychopathic supersoldiers living only to kill without rhyme or reason. Russ gave massacres of friendly units as his main reason for intervening.

*As for Jonson, both Primarchs had an element of glory-seeking in their nature. Both were also very stubborn and combative, with an animalistic side. However, Russ wasn't ruled by his pride but his drive to serve the Emperor came from a different place: the Lion lectured Russ about wasting time destroying the Emperor's enemies, when winning wars is all that matters. ''(ironically a similar lesson that Russ tried to teach Angron)'', while Russ couldn't countenance leaving any enemies alive. During a dispute between the Space Wolves and the Dark Angels over a friendly fire incident, Russ personally apologized to the Lion in spite of the Dark Angels being the ones who knowingly fired on the Rout. Russ put aside his lust for glory and victory to save the lives of his men, then privately made it clear [[Rip and Tear|what would happen should the Dark Angels do something similar again.]] By contrast, the Lion's honour was everything to him, that the Dark Angels fired on the Rout because they had been fired on first ''(even after warnings were given)'' and that the Lion seemed fully prepared to kill his brother in the brawl over kill stealing, because Russ laid hands on him first. This distinction justifies Russ' initial hatred of Jonson though the two did come to an understanding later; that the reason for the Lion breaking his promise on Dulan was because Russ was putting off the final blow and allowing the battle to drag out, costing lives, which was pretty much the lesson Jonson was trying to point out earlier. All because Russ had wandered off the battle-plan to sort out the Wulfen issue within the 13th Company, something that Russ later realised that the Lion <u>already knew</u> and had quietly disposed of the evidence for his brother, even though he could have used the knowledge to break the Space Wolves Legion.

*With Magnus, the accusations of hypocrisy carry little weight. Russ' attempts to cover up the Curse of the Wulfen are somewhat similar to Magnus' treatment of the flesh change (the Wulfen curse was not exacerbated by rampant sorcerous power use like the flesh change was), and both Legions did use psykers. The real difference here is how they dealt with the situation. However, the Rune Priests were much more cautious than the sorcerers of the Thousand Sons in their dealings with the Empyrean and only ''"taking a sip of the cup when needed instead of drinking deep each time"'' as the Khan would put it. More importantly, the Space Wolves treat the degeneration of their gene-seed and the transformation into Wulfen as a curse, a failing to be contained and if possible eradicated. The Thousand Sons treat their psyker powers as a badge of superiority, taking any excuse to use them and revelling in what made them unique without considering its links with the flesh change. Russ did his best to control his secrets, he didn't glorify them or thought it made him and his Wolves better than the other Legions. Magnus was controlled by his secrets and saw them as strengths. It's also worth noting that as per ''Prospero Burns'' Tzeentchian dickery had led Russ and others to believe Magnus' equerry had planted a spy among the Wolves, with Amon apparently attacking Bjorn and a Custodian at Nikaea. It is a tragic turn of events in its own right that this "Amon" was in truth a daemon masquerading as the Amon (who had - matter of factly - faithfully stayed at Magnus' side which was generously entirely disregarded by both the Wolves and the Custodians for plot reasons), playing a pivotal role in tipping the balance towards the dissolution of the Librarius (which - ironically - would have been one of the greatest assets the Imperium/the Emperor would have been able to field against Chaos during the Heresy.. [[Just as planned]]!!!!).

TL;DR: Russ shared many flaws with his brothers, but he was defined by being in control rather than being thrall to his flaws. His bloodlust never overtook his discipline like it would Angron. His glory-seeking never overrode his sense of responsibility like it would Lion El'Jonson. He made sure his sons worked against their curse rather than have them embrace it like Magnus did. It comes to no surprise that someone who worked so hard for control resented people who thought they didn't need it, hence the accusations of hypocrisy, however ([[Lion El'Jonson|in]] [[Ferrus Manus|fairness]] [[Rogal Dorn|like]] [[Roboute Guilliman|many]] [[Angron|of]] [[Perturabo|his]] [[Mortarion|brothers]] [[Night Haunter|Primarchs]]), interpersonal skills weren't exactly his forte. Russ' real failing was not that he accused others for things he had to deal with himself, but rather that he was in an unique position where he could have been an example to his brothers ''because he shared and knew how to deal with said flaws'' but his brashness and agressivity drove them apart instead.

On a somewhat amusing tangent. Russ considered [[Roboute Guilliman]] a good choice for Warmaster, and in return Guilliman considered Russ and his legion part of his "Dauntless Few", meaning that Bobby G sincerely believed that alongside Russ and his Wolves, the Ultramarines could defeat any opponent. Rather amusingly, when he was struck down by Fulgrim, Guilliman's last thoughts were, in order, of his sons, of the Imperium, and then for his brothers, the first being Russ. While they weren't exactly [[Fulgrim|best]] of [[Ferrus Manus|buds]], Russ actually believed Guilliman and [[Perturabo]] were the most boring among his brothers after [[Rogal Dorn]], they had a sincere respect for each other as warriors. The only thing they [[skub|had a bit of a pickle with]] was Rob's [[Codex Astartes]] thing; and Russ eventually [[Council of Nikaea|ostensibly acquiesced]] only to [[Thousand Sons|ignore it]] when G-man stopped breathing down his neck, kinda. The Space Wolves did try to form a successor Chapter, the [[Wolf Brothers]], but those very quickly devolved into Wulfen for whatever reason (it is suspected the planet Fenris has something to do with it).

== Post-Heresy ==
Although unable to return to aid the Imperium in the Battle for Terra, Russ and the Space Wolves threw themselves headfirst into the post-Heresy war efforts. Aside from spanking the traitors into the Eye of Terror, he came up with the concept for the Adeptus Praeses. Though he'd told Guilliman where he could shove his Codex, Russ liked the idea of successor chapters for the Wolves. To him (or the little reformist movement within the Legion later, the fluff isn't totally clear), they were a way of maintaining the Wolves' influence alongside that of Girlyman, Dorn and the rest. Unfortunately the Wolves' gene-seed proved too unstable to set up any viable successor chapters, and as a result while the Ultramarines, Imperial Fists and Dark Angels have shitloads of descendants to call on in a crisis, the Wolves are the sole embodiment of Russ' strength and drive. This hasn't helped their situation with Imperial institutions such as the Inquisition.

One-hundred years to the day after the Emperor's internment on the Golden Throne, during a feast in the halls of the Space Wolves fortress, Russ climbed upon a table to give a speech. He was stricken with a vision, and after standing there speechless for a few minutes, he fell to one knee, issued hushed orders to his retinue, and left. He left his sons with their first Wolf Lord; [[Bjorn the Fell Handed]], and a message.

"In the end, I will be there. For the final battle. For <s>the wolf</s> dinner time."

And then the winds of change blew over the fluff once again. In the audio play Parting of Ways we get a slightly different version of events. There was still an annual feast, though it wasn't just to celebrate the day the Emperor got the snot beaten out of him by Horus, but also to commemorate the Wolves that had died during the spring cleaning that followed the Heresy, plus the completion of the Aett - the giant [[fortress-monastery|fortress]] of the Space Wolves. Also instead of a hundred years, it was two hundred years since the siege of Terra, so unless Dorn was a really slow learner and not very bright and it took him over a hundred years to assemble the Golden Throne, that is a clear lore change. Then again, given how Perturabo thoroughly kicked Dorn's ass in the iron Cage, forcing Bobby.G and the Ultrasmurfs to come and save Dorn's sorry ass, it's a possibility that Dorn just wasn't very bright. It's also a possibility that the Emperor got the Golden Throne from an old IKEA warehouse, which would explain why even a Primarch would have had trouble in figuring out how to put it together in less than a hundred years.

Also Russ wasn't about to hold a speech, instead he had at first partaken in the festivities but as the party grew sullen, Russ retreated, sensing, as Bjorn put it, "a fell wind from beyond the mountains, bleeding through the cracks of the Fang". After clenching the table for a while, Russ clambered to his feet on the table, screaming ''“No More!”'' The shout silenced the Space Wolves in their brawling and made the flags of the smoke filled halls tremble, so Russ apparently also had a gift for speech, plus he had a gift for getting instantly sober as Bjorn described his face going from being ruddy flushed with Mjod to looking like an ice spectre. Russ then held the following [[awesome|kickass]] speech:

''“We come here to celebrate the All-father, we come here to remember his sacrifice and his ascension from the world of the senses and his victory over my brother the traitor.”
''“We remember the dead, who even now gather in the oververse, their blade sharp, their aim keen.”''
''“They are better than we are for they perished in the war to end all wars and their souls have been purified! And what of us those left behind, wallowing in the drinks the fallen gods have left us?”''
''“We have grown fat, we have the beast within us, but is has never yet been mastered.”''

Then Russ paused to grab his drinking horn and held it aloft and continued:
''“So let us celebrate my father's ascension, let us remember what he was able to accomplish, let us remember what he built and what he foresaw and then what he lost and how he failed.”''
''“Do not mourn the fact that he no longer walks among us, for the galaxy was too small to accommodate such a soul, he was of an age of '''gods!''' And we are slumped in an age of mortals.”''
''“The lights of the stars will fade, this place will grow old and the ice will crack it.”''
''“We will forget no matter how much the skalds tell the old tales, what battles are left for us like the ones before?”''
''“My fallen brothers are gone, Malcador is gone, the leeches cluster around the Golden Throne and whisper of deeds done before they were born as if it were '''they''' who achieved them.”''

At this point Russ looked unsteady on his feet and his eyes went glassy:
''“A doubt of all of this, one thing remains true we were not on Terra, we were not there when the palace fell and that shame will pursue us for eternity.”''

Then Russ dropped his drinking horn on the board and then started to speak not to his warriors, but to himself or to some presence that was unseen.
''“It remains unfinished… I have waited for too long, building this mountain, squabbling with Guilliman. I will not grow old, feeble, limping around a crumbling inheritance. I have an Oath to keep, there are beasts left to slay.”''

At this point Russ was fully immersed in his premonitions and he looked around the room, a smile dancing on his fanged face, seeing things from either long ago or yet to come.
''“Listen closely my brothers, there shall come a time far from now, when the chapter itself is dying and our foes shall gather to destroy us.”''
''“Then, my sons, I shall listen for your call, in whatever realm holds me and come I shall, no matter what the laws of life and death forbid.”''
''“At the end, I will be there. For the final battle. FOR THE WOLF TIME!”''

Then Russ gave the mustering signal and he and his retinue left, though as Bjorn made to follow only to have Russ turn towards him saying a single sentence: ''“Not you.”'' When Bjorn asked for an explanation all Russ did was repeat the words: ''“Not you.”'' [[Eldrad|Then he left.]]

It is theorized that Russ like Magnus had the gift of premonition and knew that Bjorn would be needed in the years to come as the first Great Wolf, as it is heavily implied that if Bjorn hadn't been persuaded to take the mantle of great wolf, the Chapter itself would have fallen apart in the absence of Russ.

More likely Russ just didn't want Bjorn's moodiness to poison what ever adventure he was on. His helmet eventually came to be in the possession of [[Ulrik the Slayer]].

As to where Russ went and what happened to him there's a few theories given:
*Russ sought the Lion out to make amends of their old feuding (if so they both forgot to tell both their chapters about it).
*That he fought in eternal combat with the resurrected cadaver of Horus (no that would be Abaddon's task and he completely owned that clone of Horus).
*That he searched for the tree of life to heal the Emperor's soul.
*That he is trapped within a hollow star and tormented by his old adversary Magnus (Since Tzeentch was able to trap Sigmar in another dimension, trapping Russ in a hollow star and have his star pupil Magnus use him as a punching bag makes as much sense as anything).
*That he is actually searching for Magnus, to finish the last task given to him by the Emperor and "arrest" his wayward brother.
*That he passed beyond the bounds of space and time and now roams among the gods, ready to return when needed accompanied by the fallen of his legion sundered in a paradise of warriors (so basically he's in the Age of Sigmar at this point? somebody put him out of his misery, that's not a paradise that's hell on earth).
*That he's simply lost in the galactic fjord known as the Warp and has been playing drunken pranks on daemonic villagers for 10,000 years.

/tg/ theorizes that Leman Russ may return as [[Horo]] (Implying Horo isn't just one of Leman's many, many bastard children growing up on some shithole Feudal world).

Magnus actually know where Russ is now, but he don't tell it even to his trusted sorcerer lords.

The 13th company, and a figure bearing the likeness of Russ, was spotted during the 13th crusade and the siege of the capital of Cadia.

==On The Tabletop==
{| class=wikitable
! || Pts || WS || BS || S || T || W || I || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Leman Russ:''' || 455 || 9 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 6 || 10 || 2+/4++
|}

An impressive stat-line, even by the insane standards of Primarchs, is coupled with unbelievably powerful wargear:
*The '''Armour Elavagar''' starts as your bog-standard 2+/4++ which is increased to a 3++ against flamer (in case you meet an AP2 flamer or something), melta, and plasma weapons, but the truly <strike>awesome</strike> severely-overpowered-bullshit part is that it imposes -1 to hit on anyone in BtB with him. Do note however that it ''only'' works in BtB contact, so the models not directly in contact with Russ would still hit him as usual (likely on 5+ due to his insane WS). Basically, he's insanely tanky in a fight.
*The '''Axe of Helwinter''' is a ''+2 S master-crafted power axe with sunder and without unwieldy'' for your vehicle-wrecking needs and putting some more guaranteed wounds on high toughness opponents. Also useful for inflicting Instant Death on anything T4 or lower.
*The '''Sword of Balenight''' is a Shredding AP2 power sword; oh wait, it also has '''Sever Life'''. If Russ' prey suffers one or more wounds from the sword, roll a 2d6. If this result beats your target's toughness, add 1d3 additional wounds.
**Thanks to vague wording, when you must make the test for Sever Life is a subject of debate. Some say "suffering one or more wounds" means that the rule applies immediately before saves are made. HOWEVER, the rule clearly states that Sever Life is used only if the model "is not slain" by the initial attacks, and you HAVE to make your save rolls in order to know if they are slain or not, so one can lawfully argue that ''unsaved'' wounds are the real trigger. Keep calm and make it clear with your opponent until a FAQ is released. Besides, the times Russ isn't going to be able to get at least one wound in with this sword are going to be pretty rare.
*For ranged fights he has the [[Vulkan]]-remade bolter (mentioned to be regular one until Xzibit got his hands on it) turned into a pistol for Primarch's hand, called '''Scornspitter''' which is assault 3 AP3 rending, but with pitiful 12" range. Of course if you aren't within 12", then you can't charge, and if you can't charge you're running therefore even if it did have a greater than 12" range it wouldn't be used anyway.

His Wolf-Kin are deployed separately and he can't join them, but they're great harassing units and surprisingly brutal fighters.

Meanwhile, his Sire of the Space Wolves gives him Night Vision, Counter-Attack, Preternatural Senses, and Hunter's Gait: all Wolves get +1Ld and Russ gets to Howl once per game (letting everyone in his detachment reroll run and charge for said turn). Breaker of Shields, Bringer of Ruin gives weapon mastery (like Horus and Calgar). If he's Warlord, you can take Veteran Tacticals (who may run/shoot bolters then charge instead of regular Vet tactics) and Varagyr Terminators as troops.

If Horus plays like everything a Space Marine Chapter Master ought to be, Russ is best compared to an Ork Warboss. He isn't exactly "tactical" in the traditional sense of reserve dickery, but Howl of the Death Wolf combined with Warrior's Mettle Veterans can make your army a strong hunter-killer force, able to get in your enemy's face and fuck up his battle plans. This is an unpredictable force, able to catch most armies by surprise and keep them off balance. Freki and Geri are practically auto-takes, and Russ himself can and will fuck up everything from Leviathans to Thanatars to Land Raiders. Due to high strength, high initiative, and high weapon skill, even Imperial Knights aren't out of the question. Worth it.

==Leman Russ VS other Primarchs:==
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Inferno is finally released and you came here to see how your favorite/most hated superhuman demi-god fares against the other Primarchs, because you love delicious Mathhammer trolling and cautious planning before battle.
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'''<big>[[RIP AND TEAR|THEY ALL DIE. EVERY. LAST. ONE. OF. THEM.]]</big>'''

Sever Life on The Sword of Balenight is the real kicker here. Allowing him to potentially pile on more wounds than what would normally be possible for the amount of attacks he has. And since most primarchs only have a 4++, they tend to die in short order (with even the tougher ones eventually going down from sheer wound output). So if you want to add the damage for Sever Life, here's the results:

*Against T6 Sever Life will cause an additional 1.091 Wounds on average.
*Against T7 Sever Life will cause an additional 0.909 Wounds on average.
::Note that these are Wounds that can still be saved via Invulnerable saves.

This is made even crazier with his ability to split his attacks between his axe of awesome and his sword of cheese (Yes just like Horus). Since all it takes is one wound going through to trigger Sever Life thus he can lay on the hurt with his high strength axe while still getting some good jabs in with his sword. When combined with the additional wounds from sever life (assuming it goes off, which against most Primarchs it should since they are mostly in the T6 range) this guy can lay on more wounds on a single target than just about any other Primarch (except a fully buffed Angron, though to be fair that is really all Angron has got going in a fight).

Possibly worse than Sever Life (which probably is intended to trigger after saves, hence the "Is not slain" part) is his armor, which cripples almost every Primarch's ability to damage him with the negatives to hit. Since thanks to his insane weapon skill almost all will be needing 6's or 5's at best to even hit him, and after taking wound rolls and saves into account he is basically taking almost no damage. Which really hurts alot of his opponents since most of their special rules in CC rely on doing damage (e.g. Horus disabling strike and Perturabo's fancy hammer with basically every CC special rule). Even the uber-tanks are left flailing at him, barely doing any damage, while he grinds them out.

The only ones who can even stand a snowball's chance are heavy-hitters in the range of Horus, Fulgrim, Angron with maximum attacks, Ferrus Manus, Perturabo and a fully buffed Magnus. In addition a Transfigured Lorgar might be able to tar pit him for awhile (though don't expect him to actually win). But I do mean snowball, even these guys barring some amazing rolls will probably lose virtually every fight (including Horus).

Vulkan holds out pretty well but only if Russ is just using the sword... against the axe... well lets hope the dice are on your side!

Do note too that if Russ brings his wolves along (as he should) then they can challenge and take challenges in his place, as they are both characters. Thanks to how the rules work, this means that Russ essentially has 8 wounds, and in the case of Primarchs who can't ID the wolves 14 wounds. In effect he can use this to prevent Horus from using his talon to drop his stats or Perturabo smacking him to many times with his hammer while making the combat last even longer, since for example if Horus uses Worldbreaker to kill the first wolf Russ can just tank the wounds before his other wolf challenges in round 2, all the while Russ is beating the shit out of Horus completely unharmed. Statistically if Leman Russ brings his wolves along it is near impossible for any single other Primarch to kill Russ before he grinds them down if in a challenge.

HOWEVER if you or your opponent plays him in a list he can potentially be tar pitted with terminators with thunder hammers and storm shields. Russ is not immune to concussion and the invuln save is superior than Russ. This will bring him down to an equal playing field since while they will not be doing much damage to him (since needing 6s to hit), he will probably not be able to rip throw them before the game ends (he is more a challenge monster than infantry wrecker, again that is Angrons job). Though don't rely on this as like all primarchs he is perfectly capable of wiping them out.
Such is the fickleness of the dice. And again this is not even taking into account his two wolves. With either of them tanking a shot or two and preventing Concussion from setting in Leman Russ again has a very good chance of ripping through them. So don't expect this to be a consistent solution to dealing with him.

Bottom line, Horus is lucky that Russ didn't get there first.

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==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:russ_original.jpg|First portrayal of Leman Russ in canon (Rogue Trader)
File:russ_furry_original.jpg|First retcon of Leman Russ, now approximately 215% furrier, in 1st. Ed compilation
File:Leman russ by alexboca-d7930sk.jpg
File:Russ_Behind.jpg| RUN <s> FORREST </s> LEMAN, RUN!
File:Russ_Front.jpg| He's running so [[White Scars|fast]] because he saw someone throw a stick.
File:Russ_Side.jpg
File:Horus vs Leman.jpg|True Wolf vs Emperor's Puppy.
File:Horus-Primarchs-Warhammer-Russ.jpeg|
</gallery>

{{Primarchs}}

[[Category:Space Wolves]]

==See Also==
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0Q8uymv0vw&index=2&list=PLdPq6mYy-DRdA9aTRJghfDsQiyR5WLs7y/ Admit it, this is the only song that truly befits the glory of the Sons of Russ.]
* [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mzkqA4-4jIM/ Not so fast.]

Leman Russ

2019-12-03T09:01:51Z

2601:585:8301:76D0:455A:9655:9E33:16A7:

[[Image:LEMAN_RUSS.jpg|frame|My hand is fire, my hair is rage, my pauldrons are justice and my cock is wolf. Prepare to die!]]
{{Topquote|I am the punishment of God...If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you.|[[Genghis motherfucking Khan|Genghis Khan]]}}
{{Topquote|When he is nearly ten, his mother submits him to a first ordeal: she sews his shirt to his arms through the skin. Siggeir's sons, submitted to the same ordeal, [[Anal circumference|had howled with pain]], but Sinfjotli remains imperturbable. His mother then pulls off his shirt, tearing away the skin, and asks him if he feels anything. The boy answers that a [[Badasious|Volsung is not troubled by such a trifle]] (...) After this proof of courage Sigmund takes the boy into the forest with him. One day they find two wolfskins hanging from the wall of a hut. [[Horus|The two sons]] [[Emperor|of a king]] had been transformed into wolves and could only come out of the skins every tenth day. Sigmund and Sinfjotli put on the skins, but cannot get them off. They howl like wolves and understand the wolves' language.|Volsung Saga, summarized and commented by Mircea Eliade, ''Birth and Rebirth'' (New York: Harper & Row, 1958)}}
{{Topquote|It never troubles the wolf how many the sheep may be.|Virgil}}

'''Leman Russ''', '''The Great Wolf''', '''The Lord of Winter and Ruin''', and '''Wolf King of Fenris''', also known as '''Lemon Russ''', '''Lemon Rust''', or '''That Fucking Furry''' if your [[Magnus the Red]]. not to be confused with the [[Leman Russ (tank)|tank bearing his name]], is the primarch of the [[Space Wolves]] legion. A superhuman nordic king with a warrior's crude humor and a stubborn streak a mile wide. He was such a hard headed son of a bitch, that he's survived extended fights with [[Angron]], [[Magnus]], [[Lion El'Jonson|The Lion]], and even the Emperor himself. General all-around badass deserving of much respect, but superstitious and flawed, with a serious problem valuing others' points of view, even if he understood them. He's blond underneath [[Rip and Tear|all the blood.]] There appears to be no specific way to pronounce his surename as both the wider Imperium and the Wolves themselves commonly alternate between "R-UH-ss" and "Rh-OOs", when speaking about him or the [[Leman Russ Battle Tank|battle tank named after him]].

==Origins==
When the Primarchs were lost, Leman's capsule landed on [[Fenris]], a harsh planet of insane violence that the Norse gods shit out after a three day meth fueled orgy with a tyranid hive fleet. The locals there enjoy a life of fishing, drinking, sailing, fucking, pillaging, and conquering other tribes of people for the modest little islands they all have to live on. Granted, it's also usually a very short life, because they're sharing the world with trolls, yetis, wolves the size of horses, wolves the size of battle tanks, bears the size of a house, whales that kill for fun, and krakens, which are to a squid as a [[Hierophant]] is to a [[Hormagaunt]].

So it was that little baby Russ left his capsule in the polar mountain region of Asaheim. There, some monstrous female wolf found him and said to herself "I WANT!". So Russ was raised by a dire wolf In Spess. A few years pass, Russ growing up big and strong and hairy, having a grand old time running around the mountains and killing the sheep and such of the humans there with his wolf brothers. Eventually a king named Thengir heard of the Wolf-man, and decreed he be captured and brought to his hall. The mist of ages (and retcons) have hidden the details of Thengir's first meeting with Russ. Some stories would say that Russ was bound and gagged and dragged into the hall of the King Thengir after his Wolf family was slain, others claim a hunting party stumbled across his cave and kicked off a bloody melee in which a dozen hunters were killed, along with Russ's mother, after which the hunters realized they weren't fighting a wolf (they were probably drunk and kind of retarded) and somehow convinced Russ to stand down and come with them, a conversation that may or may not have included copious amounts of alcohol and whores. Thengir took a wondrous interest in Russ and ordered he be educated. In a short time, Russ was trash-talking every short bastard who dared look at him the wrong way, and had become insanely good with weaponry. When Thengir finally died, all declared that Leman of the Russ become the new high King.

Also, remember that Volsung Saga quote regarding Warrior Initiations for [[Angron|Berserks]]? Considering that (according to old Fluff) Sanguinius looked like a young teen adult at 1 year old, Leman Russ passed this trial that when he was around 7-10 months old or so. No wonder he went on to be a [[Eldrad|dick]] [[Primarch#Douchebagginess|with]] [[Magnus|some]] [[Unknown Primarchs|of]] [[Lion El'Jonson|his brothers]] and his new recruits (first, the Space Wolves feed them like they arrived to Valhalla and [[Assholetep|then, when they fall asleep they abandon them in the cold wilderness of Fenris until they transform into Wulfen or return home by themselves]]...) and was easily manipulated by the Luna Wolf Primarch in tearing a new asshole to Magnus.

==GW origins==
He was just an ordinary commander who came with two wolves, Freki and Geri. This is them.

[[Image:russ_original.jpg|300px|thumb|frame|left|This is the very first canonical portrayal of Leman Russ. I shit you not (In Rogue Trader; before primarchs were a thing, but still.)]]

http://www.solegends.com/citrt2/rt070121LemanRuss/Wd117p80070121SWCommanderLemanRussx-01.htm

==The Next Step==
Russ conquered and took. He bartered and traded. He united the people of Asaheim under his rule. Somehow, the Emprah heard of it and realized it all had to be the work of a Primarch. So then he attended a royal banquet in the Hall of the Mountain Ki- I mean Leman Russ. The Emprah, taking a leaf out of Odin's book, disguised himself as some old geezer, then waited until the right moment to reveal his true identity. When he did Russ refused to bow down and challenged him to several contests, he ate so much the Emprah was forced to back down. Russ drank so much the Emprah was forced to back down. By now, the Emprah was fairly surprised at finally being out-done by someone else, Russ gazed upon the Emperor and challenged him in combat, and so did the Emprah raise his Power Glove into the air for all to see, and so did he then bring it down on Leman Russ's head, knocking him the fuck out in one solid hit.

[[Image:russ_furry_original.jpg|300px|thumb|frame|right|...and this is the first portrayal getting ready for a furry con.]]

Of course fluff changes and a 1-hit KO wasn't very fulfilling, so the new lore arrived: After the Emperor revealed himself Leman Russ skipped the eating and drinking contests and just challenged the Emperor to a fight. It is unknown whether the Emperor was in his full armour and actually had his Power Fist at the time, or whether he used his psychic powers; but the duel lasted for hours. (Presumably Russ did a lot better this time by virtue of not being drunk.) In the end, though the Emperor, presumably pissy that Leman was waving his cock in his face by just straight up fighting him, punched him square in the face and dropped him. When Russ awoke, he laughed it off and swore loyalty to the one who managed to beat him. Afterwards he ended up in command of the one Space Marine legion that knows how to eat, drink, brawl and make war upon any asshole that mocks their Thunderwolf.

Rumour has it that the Emp was so pleased with Russ' prowess, that he tasked him and the Space Wolves to be his executioners and it seems Russ is the reason the 2nd and 11th Legions no longer exist. So he has experience fucking up a Primarch, which is pretty goddamn manly. (Not confirmed by any sources and is not more than passing conversation in one Black Library novel, other than that, yeah totally definitely didn't kill the other legions. Also if you take how he acted with Angron and Magnus, he totally hated his job of being the executioner... and apparently thought Lorgar was a pretty cool guy).

(The novel "Betrayer" give's Angron's version of their run-in, where he tells to Lorgar what happened. Russ had taken it upon himself to school the World Eaters as he was disgusted by their behavior. Angron was having none of Russ's babbling and picked a fight with him by insulting the Big.E. Angron eventually defeats Russ in single combat, but because only he was fighting to kill while Russ was trying to teach. It then ends with the Space Wolves entirely outmaneuvering the Eaters and winning a tactical victory by surrounding Angron, some more hissing vitriol between the two Primarchs and Angron leaving. The World Eaters believed they won due to a higher kill count and the Wolves leave disappointed that their legion brothers were too retarded to see the lesson Russ was teaching. It is pretty telling that even <u>Lorgar</u> replies to Angron that he was a complete tool on that night and would have been killed after hearing him boast of how he won against Russ. With that said, Lorgar was able to get Angron to learn the lesson Russ was trying to teach him by just talking to him ''for two minutes'', and he did it without getting a shit load of his own men killed or getting his ass kicked in a duel. Not only does it show just how badly Russ failed at what he had set out to do on the Night of the Wolf, but also how his own hot headedness and fundamental inability to understand his brothers can royally bite him in the ass.)

Apart from that, Russ and his Space Wolves had a goddamn good time during the Great Crusade, although it hasn't been written about so this is all we can guess. Until ''Inferno'' dropped. It turns out that Russ became the Emperor's executioner in the process of fighting the Rangdan Xenocides, which saw entire Army regiments, Titan Legions and [REDACTED] Space Marine Legions (could be Chapters, could actually be entire Legions) wiped out. With the Luna Woves up to the eyes in glorious warfare in the Galactic East, Russ and the VI headed north along with the I Legion - this is the war that ended the I's time as the largest Legion. The end of the Xenocides entailed a series of bio-pogroms which left the Wolves with a very ugly reputation, and from then on Russ' role was the doer of necessary dirty deeds.

When that bitch-ass [[Horus]] started whining and crying, Leman Russ and his Legion were on their way to Prospero to bring Magnus the Red to Terra for questioning. Horus intercepted the message and re-worded it to order Russ to destroy Magnus and his Thousand Sons, and interestingly Russ found when they arrived at Prospero he didn't want to do that. He decided to go against the orders he thought were legit, and instead detain him and his legion so that they could be transported to Terra (ironically doing exactly what his legit orders were by going against what he thought they were), but when Magnus refused to answer the phone and the Thousand Sons' calls were all being blocked by he Primarch he became more and more annoyed, and eventually he was pissed off enough that he and the Space Wolves carried out a class-10 clusterfucking on Prospero (aided along a bit by Magnus himself lowering his planet's defenses because he wanted to atone for his wrongdoings in the dumbest fucking way possible). It should have ended with the glorious finale where Leman Russ himself lifted Magnus the Red over his shoulders and broke the sorcerer's back over his knee (rumour has it that Russ could be heard shouting “Ah yes. I was wondering what would break first: your spirit… or your body!”...turns out it was both at the same time!). But even so, the red bastard managed to utter one single word of power and escaped through the fucking ground. Russ was so enraged that he ordered the 13th company of Space Wolves to pursue the fleeing Thousand Sons through their pansy-ass portals.

This said, winning the Battle of Prospero left a bitter taste in Russ' mouth and complicated things for the Wolves in the long run. First of all, despite his reputation as the Emperor's Executioner, fighting Magnus took a serious toll on Russ. Rumour has it, that during the battle between those two demigods Magnus, by psychic means, laid his heart and mind bare to Russ, revealing that he knew not only every blow that was coming from his brother, but everything that he had come to know, accepting his failure and his fate, which was defeat. In the recently published Horus Heresy novel Wolfsbane Magnus' last words to Russ are finally revealed "You are a sword in the wrong hands. You have severed an innocent neck." In other words: Magnus was even aware that the wolves had been manipulated into wiping the Thousand Sons out, instead of detaining them and bringing them back to Terra (but not aware he wasn;t actually innocent), and the idiot just let it happen instead of talking to Russ who wanted to ignore his orders and detain the Sons, in order to bring them back to Terra. It will be interesting to see how GW tries to fill the logic gap regarding the hatred of Magnus towards the wolves now, considering he obviously *knew* that Russ had been manipulated into killing Magnus and the entirety of the Burning of Prospero is directly his fault. Or is it all about the shard of Magnus that held his nobility which was absorbed by Ianus (first grandmaster of the Grey Knights, a former Thousand Son that was in the process of succumbing to the flesh change when this little "accident" occurred). That would be the easy way out (and therefore probably the road trodden), although fans would be deserving of a more convincing explanation. Seeing a hypergenius like Magnus hating the Space Wolves for destroying his legion - irrespective of the fact that he *knew* that they had been manipulated into doing so and the fact that he intentionally chose for his legion to be destroyed - makes absolutely no sense any more.

Either way, the events of Prospero shook the Wolf King deeply, but Russ decided to carry on and try to make the best of a real clusterfuck of a situation. (An Inquisitor once called it an "emo phase" in front of a Rune Priest, and was fed balls-first to a Thunderwolf.) Not long after that, the news of the Drop Site Massacre reached the Wolves; which was another blow for the Wolf King. In his own words, Russ felt he'd been "in the wrong place, doing the wrong thing", wasting his time and men fighting an eventually futile battle instead of standing with his brother Primarchs against the real threat. Just to make things worse, the [[Battle of the Alaxxes Nebula|Alpha Legion turned up to batter the Wolves]] and prevent them from heading to Terra and helping Big E. As the rotten cherry on top of an already really bad cake, the White Scars, who'd been bros with the Thousand Sons and had no idea why Russ had just decided to fuck them up royally seemingly out of the blue, weren't going to help them after Prospero. But the [[Dark Angels]] of all people aided [[File:Battle_of_Trisolian.jpg|280px|thumb|right|Only room for one wolf pelt wearing Primarch in this universe.]] the Wolves in fighting off the Alpha Legion, letting the Wolves damage their fleet to an impressive degree. A plus here was that [[Bjorn the Fell-Handed]] came to his attention, setting the young warrior on the path to ironclad badassness. This said, when he went to Yarant to fight the main Traitor advance, Russ was badly injured, entering a coma and giving Bjorn temporary command of the Legion. He bought Dorn and the Emperor more time, but didn't make it back to Terra until it was too late.

Oh and Empy totally gave him a spear after most of the Terran members of his original legion died fighting various gribbly xenos. Including Tyranids. Yup. Said spear was tossed into a certain Daemon Primarchs single eye, thereby preventing him from manifesting in reality AND resurrecting his legion. Russ totally hated this spear btw. At one point Russ tried to hit a moon orbiting some planet (he was drunk, don't judge) and the spear was lost for months [[troll|but since it had been a gift from Big.E the Wolves did spend said months searching for it]]. In the new novel Wolfsbane, it's revealed he was fearful of the spear and purposefully avoided using it while "forgetting" it at conferences before people brought it back. He later uses it and became fond of it as a weapon. Later he uses said spear to [[Battle of Trisolian|fight]] chaos-empowered Horus, after another try to get rid of it. He manages to stop the Warmaster with it, but then he acts like a fucking idiot, instead of just killing Horus and ending the rebellion then and there, he tries to reach out to Horus' good side and gets fucked up because of it.

Funny thing, that spear. It's actually the twin of another spear, the Apollonian Spear, wielded by the commander of the Custodes, Constantin Valdor. Russ's spear is known by many names, including Gungnir (the spear of Odin), simply the Spear of Russ, and others. But, this spear and its twin were both crafted by Big E, so before any of those other names it was called the Dionysian spear. Now, this is a bit of a deep cut on GWs part, but the Apollonian and Dionysian actually refers to the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche (feeling lost yet?), who was in turn writing about the Greek gods Apollo and Dionysus. In Nietzsche's philosophy, the Apollonian is representative of everything bright and individual, meaning life and the person living it, as well as order and stability. The Dionysian, however, is representative of the primordial state from which all things originally emerge, the CHAOTIC nothingness from which the individual Apollonian springs forth. So, bringing it back to 40k, the Apollonian spear of Constantin Valdor can impart the memories of the person it kills to its wielder, capturing that individual and orderly moment. What does Russ's spear, the Dionysian spear do? Well, we really don't know, but if the novel Wolfsbane is anything to go by, it seems that at least a couple people believe it's the weapon best suited for killing a Primarch. And since the Primarchs are essentially the Emperor's Own Daemonkin, it stands to reason that the Dionysian Spear was designed by the Emperor to destroy the soul of the Primarchs and return them to the primal Chaos from which they originated. This in turn jives with Russ's wyrd of being the Emperor's "executioner".

== Russ and his Brothers ==

In many ways Russ can be best understood by looking at the clashes between him and his brothers, butting heads with [[Angron]], [[Magnus]], and [[Lion El'Jonson]] over the years. All three of them had much in common with Russ, and there was potential for great brotherhood there, but in large part his lack of tact or understanding crushed whatever relationship might have been.

His fight with Angron was an attempt to teach his brother a lesson. Both of them were consummate warriors, both relied on their amazing athleticism and berzerker rages to triumph in battle, both were known for losing their temper when challenged, but Russ saw weakness in his brother's lack of strategy. Leman tried to just talk to the World Eater's primarch, but Angron was so uncontrollably, incredibly, "calm down son", angry that he just attacked Russ. While Russ and Angron were dueling, their retinues kicked off an open war, and in the battle that followed Russ found himself defeated by Angron, but Angron was in turn outmaneuvered and surrounded by the Space Wolves, thus proving Russ's lesson that warrior prowess isn't enough. That said, no one learned '''anything'''. Angron thought himself the victor because he'd won the duel and his sons had inflicted greater casualties than the Wolves, but Russ thought himself the victor because he'd proven his point and "educated" his brother. On the flip side, arguments that Russ should have been more tactful ignore that he was trying to deal with a Space Marine Legion of questionable loyalty that could and had caused massive amounts of collateral damage. There's a time for caution; it's not when rampaging supersoldiers are threatening the Imperium and its people. Which is indeed a good point, but then he should have gone all the way and gotten Big.E's approval to deal with this shit once and for all if it came down to that instead of trying to do things on his own on the sly. No matter how you look at it, Russ' idea to "educate" his brother was one of good intent (no really, it's a genuine bro' move that the Primarchs rarely extended to another) but of poor execution. If Russ had paid more attention and thought things through rather than sticking to do things his way, he'd have used subtler methods of persuasion to calm Angron, as Fulgrim and especially Lorgar had done in the past. Russ would have had an easier time of persuading Angron than either of them, given that he and Angron had a similar sense of brutal honor and a great lust for war. But, ultimately, it didn't occur to Russ to slow down and think his idea though, so he failed that day..... Well, that last statement is a bit in the grey zone. It was rightfully pointed out above that Russ was not exactly cool-headed either. And it was only when Angron said that without the Nails he might have been a more honourable man (like Russ claimed to be); but that if this were so he might have decided at some point to storm the Emperor's palace and "chop the slavering bastards head off". That was the final straw for Russ who couldn't take more of that shit, hissed "Heretic" as he lost his temper and things went downhill from there until both legions clashed. It is also noteworthy (and of course grimdark/tragic) that Angron made some pretty valid and surprisingly logical arguments including showing genuine regret for having been pressed into a role he had never wanted ("I died on Nuceria") , especially considering what a berzerk killer he was even then already. Several years/brain hemorrhages later only the berzerk killer with the attention span of a two year old was left but that's a story for another day (as in: when he was [[troll]]ing Ultramar with Lorgar, which ultimately culminated in his ascension to daemon(prince)hood).

Russ really, ''really'' didn't get along with Magnus, even before the burning of Prospero. He hated that his brother used sorcery and warpcraft so extensively. The Rune Priests of the Space Wolves use their psychic abilities in a much more limited and controlled way than the Thousand Sons, and the Rout never used Chaos familiars (which the Thousand Sons - to be fair - were totally unaware of using. They thought them to be benevolent spirits or "tutelaries"... until the Burning of Prospero of course when these spirits showed their true colours and turned on Magnus' sons). The Wolves also use the spirits of Fenris, hence all the totems and runes. Nearly all fluff indicates that this is utter horseshit, until the Spirit of Fenris was revealed to be real. Russ' convictions led him to feud with Magnus, but so did his concerns over the threat the XVth Legion posed to the Imperium and his frustration with Magnus' tendency to abandon his allies in favor of investigating some psychic artifact or slow down a conquest to avoid damaging some books. Russ never stopped to consider that Magnus' understanding of the Warp might have been better than his, or that the things Magnus preserved might have value for the humans Russ wanted to make the Galaxy safe for. Ridiculous theories that Russ was a psyker aside, another significant source of the feud between Magnus and Russ was The Crimson King's sheer arrogance. Leman Russ was rightly proud of his cunning battle tactics and personal ferocity, and was fully aware that he grew up on a savage death world where everything is constantly trying to kill you, while Magnus had it comparatively easy on Prospero. The Wolf King and his Legion, from the Wheel of Fire to the Rangdan Xenocides, had proved its mettle, cunning, and devotion to the Emperor many times over, yet Magnus treated him like a dumb hick and acted as though his psychic powers made him the greatest primarch. It couldn't have helped matters that some of the threats the VIth had bested were psychic in nature. Yet Magnus knew none of this; only the Emperor and the Space Wolves understood the extent of the threats they had faced down. Russ never considered that Magnus had no knowledge of the terrible secrets that only he had been entrusted with; he expected Magnus to take the word of an "ignorant savage" that the abilities he defined himself by couldn't be trusted. Whether Magnus would have listened if he did explain all that on the other hand, is another story - recall that he didn't listen the first time the Emperor told him to stop.

Perhaps most famous and most tragic of Russ's feuds was his strife with [[Lion El'Jonson]]. Both men had very similar origins, but slight differences in their upbringings drove a wedge between them. The Wolf and the Lion were both raised by the wild: both of their pods had crashed in areas with no humans, and they had to learn to survive with no lessons from other men. Both were eventually taken in when they were discovered by the men of their world, but that's where their stories differ. Where Russ was raised in the friendly, bawdy brotherhood of Thengir's men, the Lion was trained and educated in the somber fraternity of the knightly Order. While Russ had been brawling and singing with his friends, leading great hunts to destroy monsters and enemy tribes, the Lion was mastering discipline and embarking on solemn quests to destroy the Great Beasts of the forest. The battle between the two came on the world of Dulan, where the VIth and Ist legion were fighting together to slay a tyrant who'd insulted Russ's honor. At the beginning of the conflict the two brothers had promised to work together, but as time went on the Lion grew tired of his brother's insistence on utterly smashing every pocket of resistance rather than taking a more efficient, direct method of ending the war. Eventually he just launched an assault on the tyrant's palace, and beheaded the man before Russ could reach them. In the heat of the moment, Russ was ''furious'' to hear that and immediately confronted his brother. Russ was an angry dickhead, the Lion was a snarky bastard, and before long blades were drawn and the two were trying to kill each other in a violent battle. After a long and bloody fight in which the two of them beat one another senseless and finally fell over the ramparts of the fortress to the ground below, Russ started laughing, the ridiculousness of what they were doing finally apparent. Here they were, two Primarchs of the Legiones Astartes, brawling like children instead of leading their men. The Lion, however, didn't laugh. Like, at all. He coldly asked if his brother would yield, a question that just confused Russ. ''His brother thought this was a real duel?'' Russ had thought of the fight as a brawl between angry brothers like would happen on Fenris: a quick spat that would end with both of them beaten and bloodied, a spur-of-the-moment thing to vent their anger they'd laugh about over a tankard of Mjod years later. The Lion however was taking it deadly seriously and while Russ was laughing he struck a final blow, shattering Russ's skull and ending the fight. Had Russ stopped to consider his brother's mentality, or listened more closely to the Lion's words, he would have realized that the Lion saw the conflict as something profoundly different from what Russ thought it was, taking the matter of honour as something deadly serious. Again, Russ's lack of consideration was his failing.

However, while certainly abrasive, arrogant, and brutal, Russ was also every bit as loyal as Sanguinius or Dorn. The other thing Magnus, Angron, and the Lion had in common? All three of them behaved like assholes in their way. The Lion had zero people skills, arrogantly considered himself the best of all Primarchs, acted like he was some prince-in-waiting and lorded it over his brothers, him turning a small brawl into a duel of honour case in point. Magnus was much more enjoyable to be around but he arrogantly assumed he knew best because of his powers and blatantly favored psykers in his Legion. Angron's case is... [[Rage|self-explanatory]]. Bottom line, his brothers all put their own feelings/goals before those of the Emperor. Not to say that Russ was tactful, diplomatic, or understanding with these three - he certainly could have handled all of these conflicts better - but Russ was never a dick just for the sake of being a dick - he was a dick because someone had to keep his brothers in line.

His relationships with his brothers also highlight another one of his traits. Fans LOVE to call him a hypocrite, and this isn't far off the mark. However, it's not quite on target either. To elaborate, Russ did indeed criticize (and at times even physically attacked) his brothers for traits he or his Legion also had. On closer inspection, though, the way Russ dealt with his flaws was different from his brothers - and that's the best justification for his behavior:

*Russ and Angron both led Legions that were extremely violent, especially towards the defenseless. But Russ made a point from the very beginning to rein himself in and taught his Legion to temper their bloodlust and fight to make the galaxy safe for humans by example. Angron didn't care about either his Legion or the people of the Imperium, the only leadership and example he gave the World Eaters was to slaughter anything that dared stand in his way. Even worse, Angron jammed the Butcher's Nails in the brains of his War Hounds, taking their discipline and brotherhood away from them and leaving them to degenerate into blood-crazed psychopathic supersoldiers living only to kill without rhyme or reason. Russ gave massacres of friendly units as his main reason for intervening.

*As for Jonson, both Primarchs had an element of glory-seeking in their nature. Both were also very stubborn and combative, with an animalistic side. However, Russ wasn't ruled by his pride but his drive to serve the Emperor came from a different place: the Lion lectured Russ about wasting time destroying the Emperor's enemies, when winning wars is all that matters. ''(ironically a similar lesson that Russ tried to teach Angron)'', while Russ couldn't countenance leaving any enemies alive. During a dispute between the Space Wolves and the Dark Angels over a friendly fire incident, Russ personally apologized to the Lion in spite of the Dark Angels being the ones who knowingly fired on the Rout. Russ put aside his lust for glory and victory to save the lives of his men, then privately made it clear [[Rip and Tear|what would happen should the Dark Angels do something similar again.]] By contrast, the Lion's honour was everything to him, that the Dark Angels fired on the Rout because they had been fired on first ''(even after warnings were given)'' and that the Lion seemed fully prepared to kill his brother in the brawl over kill stealing, because Russ laid hands on him first. This distinction justifies Russ' initial hatred of Jonson though the two did come to an understanding later; that the reason for the Lion breaking his promise on Dulan was because Russ was putting off the final blow and allowing the battle to drag out, costing lives, which was pretty much the lesson Jonson was trying to point out earlier. All because Russ had wandered off the battle-plan to sort out the Wulfen issue within the 13th Company, something that Russ later realised that the Lion <u>already knew</u> and had quietly disposed of the evidence for his brother, even though he could have used the knowledge to break the Space Wolves Legion.

*With Magnus, the accusations of hypocrisy carry little weight. Russ' attempts to cover up the Curse of the Wulfen are somewhat similar to Magnus' treatment of the flesh change (the Wulfen curse was not exacerbated by rampant sorcerous power use like the flesh change was), and both Legions did use psykers. The real difference here is how they dealt with the situation. However, the Rune Priests were much more cautious than the sorcerers of the Thousand Sons in their dealings with the Empyrean and only ''"taking a sip of the cup when needed instead of drinking deep each time"'' as the Khan would put it. More importantly, the Space Wolves treat the degeneration of their gene-seed and the transformation into Wulfen as a curse, a failing to be contained and if possible eradicated. The Thousand Sons treat their psyker powers as a badge of superiority, taking any excuse to use them and revelling in what made them unique without considering its links with the flesh change. Russ did his best to control his secrets, he didn't glorify them or thought it made him and his Wolves better than the other Legions. Magnus was controlled by his secrets and saw them as strengths. It's also worth noting that as per ''Prospero Burns'' Tzeentchian dickery had led Russ and others to believe Magnus' equerry had planted a spy among the Wolves, with Amon apparently attacking Bjorn and a Custodian at Nikaea. It is a tragic turn of events in its own right that this "Amon" was in truth a daemon masquerading as the Amon (who had - matter of factly - faithfully stayed at Magnus' side which was generously entirely disregarded by both the Wolves and the Custodians for plot reasons), playing a pivotal role in tipping the balance towards the dissolution of the Librarius (which - ironically - would have been one of the greatest assets the Imperium/the Emperor would have been able to field against Chaos during the Heresy.. [[Just as planned]]!!!!).

TL;DR: Russ shared many flaws with his brothers, but he was defined by being in control rather than being thrall to his flaws. His bloodlust never overtook his discipline like it would Angron. His glory-seeking never overrode his sense of responsibility like it would Lion El'Jonson. He made sure his sons worked against their curse rather than have them embrace it like Magnus did. It comes to no surprise that someone who worked so hard for control resented people who thought they didn't need it, hence the accusations of hypocrisy, however ([[Lion El'Jonson|in]] [[Ferrus Manus|fairness]] [[Rogal Dorn|like]] [[Roboute Guilliman|many]] [[Angron|of]] [[Perturabo|his]] [[Mortarion|brothers]] [[Night Haunter|Primarchs]]), interpersonal skills weren't exactly his forte. Russ' real failing was not that he accused others for things he had to deal with himself, but rather that he was in an unique position where he could have been an example to his brothers ''because he shared and knew how to deal with said flaws'' but his brashness and agressivity drove them apart instead.

On a somewhat amusing tangent. Russ considered [[Roboute Guilliman]] a good choice for Warmaster, and in return Guilliman considered Russ and his legion part of his "Dauntless Few", meaning that Bobby G sincerely believed that alongside Russ and his Wolves, the Ultramarines could defeat any opponent. Rather amusingly, when he was struck down by Fulgrim, Guilliman's last thoughts were, in order, of his sons, of the Imperium, and then for his brothers, the first being Russ. While they weren't exactly [[Fulgrim|best]] of [[Ferrus Manus|buds]], Russ actually believed Guilliman and [[Perturabo]] were the most boring among his brothers after [[Rogal Dorn]], they had a sincere respect for each other as warriors. The only thing they [[skub|had a bit of a pickle with]] was Rob's [[Codex Astartes]] thing; and Russ eventually [[Council of Nikaea|ostensibly acquiesced]] only to [[Thousand Sons|ignore it]] when G-man stopped breathing down his neck, kinda. The Space Wolves did try to form a successor Chapter, the [[Wolf Brothers]], but those very quickly devolved into Wulfen for whatever reason (it is suspected the planet Fenris has something to do with it).

== Post-Heresy ==
Although unable to return to aid the Imperium in the Battle for Terra, Russ and the Space Wolves threw themselves headfirst into the post-Heresy war efforts. Aside from spanking the traitors into the Eye of Terror, he came up with the concept for the Adeptus Praeses. Though he'd told Guilliman where he could shove his Codex, Russ liked the idea of successor chapters for the Wolves. To him (or the little reformist movement within the Legion later, the fluff isn't totally clear), they were a way of maintaining the Wolves' influence alongside that of Girlyman, Dorn and the rest. Unfortunately the Wolves' gene-seed proved too unstable to set up any viable successor chapters, and as a result while the Ultramarines, Imperial Fists and Dark Angels have shitloads of descendants to call on in a crisis, the Wolves are the sole embodiment of Russ' strength and drive. This hasn't helped their situation with Imperial institutions such as the Inquisition.

One-hundred years to the day after the Emperor's internment on the Golden Throne, during a feast in the halls of the Space Wolves fortress, Russ climbed upon a table to give a speech. He was stricken with a vision, and after standing there speechless for a few minutes, he fell to one knee, issued hushed orders to his retinue, and left. He left his sons with their first Wolf Lord; [[Bjorn the Fell Handed]], and a message.

"In the end, I will be there. For the final battle. For <s>the wolf</s> dinner time."

And then the winds of change blew over the fluff once again. In the audio play Parting of Ways we get a slightly different version of events. There was still an annual feast, though it wasn't just to celebrate the day the Emperor got the snot beaten out of him by Horus, but also to commemorate the Wolves that had died during the spring cleaning that followed the Heresy, plus the completion of the Aett - the giant [[fortress-monastery|fortress]] of the Space Wolves. Also instead of a hundred years, it was two hundred years since the siege of Terra, so unless Dorn was a really slow learner and not very bright and it took him over a hundred years to assemble the Golden Throne, that is a clear lore change. Then again, given how Perturabo thoroughly kicked Dorn's ass in the iron Cage, forcing Bobby.G and the Ultrasmurfs to come and save Dorn's sorry ass, it's a possibility that Dorn just wasn't very bright. It's also a possibility that the Emperor got the Golden Throne from an old IKEA warehouse, which would explain why even a Primarch would have had trouble in figuring out how to put it together in less than a hundred years.

Also Russ wasn't about to hold a speech, instead he had at first partaken in the festivities but as the party grew sullen, Russ retreated, sensing, as Bjorn put it, "a fell wind from beyond the mountains, bleeding through the cracks of the Fang". After clenching the table for a while, Russ clambered to his feet on the table, screaming ''“No More!”'' The shout silenced the Space Wolves in their brawling and made the flags of the smoke filled halls tremble, so Russ apparently also had a gift for speech, plus he had a gift for getting instantly sober as Bjorn described his face going from being ruddy flushed with Mjod to looking like an ice spectre. Russ then held the following [[awesome|kickass]] speech:

''“We come here to celebrate the All-father, we come here to remember his sacrifice and his ascension from the world of the senses and his victory over my brother the traitor.”
''“We remember the dead, who even now gather in the oververse, their blade sharp, their aim keen.”''
''“They are better than we are for they perished in the war to end all wars and their souls have been purified! And what of us those left behind, wallowing in the drinks the fallen gods have left us?”''
''“We have grown fat, we have the beast within us, but is has never yet been mastered.”''

Then Russ paused to grab his drinking horn and held it aloft and continued:
''“So let us celebrate my father's ascension, let us remember what he was able to accomplish, let us remember what he built and what he foresaw and then what he lost and how he failed.”''
''“Do not mourn the fact that he no longer walks among us, for the galaxy was too small to accommodate such a soul, he was of an age of '''gods!''' And we are slumped in an age of mortals.”''
''“The lights of the stars will fade, this place will grow old and the ice will crack it.”''
''“We will forget no matter how much the skalds tell the old tales, what battles are left for us like the ones before?”''
''“My fallen brothers are gone, Malcador is gone, the leeches cluster around the Golden Throne and whisper of deeds done before they were born as if it were '''they''' who achieved them.”''

At this point Russ looked unsteady on his feet and his eyes went glassy:
''“A doubt of all of this, one thing remains true we were not on Terra, we were not there when the palace fell and that shame will pursue us for eternity.”''

Then Russ dropped his drinking horn on the board and then started to speak not to his warriors, but to himself or to some presence that was unseen.
''“It remains unfinished… I have waited for too long, building this mountain, squabbling with Guilliman. I will not grow old, feeble, limping around a crumbling inheritance. I have an Oath to keep, there are beasts left to slay.”''

At this point Russ was fully immersed in his premonitions and he looked around the room, a smile dancing on his fanged face, seeing things from either long ago or yet to come.
''“Listen closely my brothers, there shall come a time far from now, when the chapter itself is dying and our foes shall gather to destroy us.”''
''“Then, my sons, I shall listen for your call, in whatever realm holds me and come I shall, no matter what the laws of life and death forbid.”''
''“At the end, I will be there. For the final battle. FOR THE WOLF TIME!”''

Then Russ gave the mustering signal and he and his retinue left, though as Bjorn made to follow only to have Russ turn towards him saying a single sentence: ''“Not you.”'' When Bjorn asked for an explanation all Russ did was repeat the words: ''“Not you.”'' [[Eldrad|Then he left.]]

It is theorized that Russ like Magnus had the gift of premonition and knew that Bjorn would be needed in the years to come as the first Great Wolf, as it is heavily implied that if Bjorn hadn't been persuaded to take the mantle of great wolf, the Chapter itself would have fallen apart in the absence of Russ.

More likely Russ just didn't want Bjorn's moodiness to poison what ever adventure he was on. His helmet eventually came to be in the possession of [[Ulrik the Slayer]].

As to where Russ went and what happened to him there's a few theories given:
*Russ sought the Lion out to make amends of their old feuding (if so they both forgot to tell both their chapters about it).
*That he fought in eternal combat with the resurrected cadaver of Horus (no that would be Abaddon's task and he completely owned that clone of Horus).
*That he searched for the tree of life to heal the Emperor's soul.
*That he is trapped within a hollow star and tormented by his old adversary Magnus (Since Tzeentch was able to trap Sigmar in another dimension, trapping Russ in a hollow star and have his star pupil Magnus use him as a punching bag makes as much sense as anything).
*That he is actually searching for Magnus, to finish the last task given to him by the Emperor and "arrest" his wayward brother.
*That he passed beyond the bounds of space and time and now roams among the gods, ready to return when needed accompanied by the fallen of his legion sundered in a paradise of warriors (so basically he's in the Age of Sigmar at this point? somebody put him out of his misery, that's not a paradise that's hell on earth).
*That he's simply lost in the galactic fjord known as the Warp and has been playing drunken pranks on daemonic villagers for 10,000 years.

/tg/ theorizes that Leman Russ may return as [[Horo]] (Implying Horo isn't just one of Leman's many, many bastard children growing up on some shithole Feudal world).

Magnus actually know where Russ is now, but he don't tell it even to his trusted sorcerer lords.

The 13th company, and a figure bearing the likeness of Russ, was spotted during the 13th crusade and the siege of the capital of Cadia.

==On The Tabletop==
{| class=wikitable
! || Pts || WS || BS || S || T || W || I || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Leman Russ:''' || 455 || 9 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 6 || 10 || 2+/4++
|}

An impressive stat-line, even by the insane standards of Primarchs, is coupled with unbelievably powerful wargear:
*The '''Armour Elavagar''' starts as your bog-standard 2+/4++ which is increased to a 3++ against flamer (in case you meet an AP2 flamer or something), melta, and plasma weapons, but the truly <strike>awesome</strike> severely-overpowered-bullshit part is that it imposes -1 to hit on anyone in BtB with him. Do note however that it ''only'' works in BtB contact, so the models not directly in contact with Russ would still hit him as usual (likely on 5+ due to his insane WS). Basically, he's insanely tanky in a fight.
*The '''Axe of Helwinter''' is a ''+2 S master-crafted power axe with sunder and without unwieldy'' for your vehicle-wrecking needs and putting some more guaranteed wounds on high toughness opponents. Also useful for inflicting Instant Death on anything T4 or lower.
*The '''Sword of Balenight''' is a Shredding AP2 power sword; oh wait, it also has '''Sever Life'''. If Russ' prey suffers one or more wounds from the sword, roll a 2d6. If this result beats your target's toughness, add 1d3 additional wounds.
**Thanks to vague wording, when you must make the test for Sever Life is a subject of debate. Some say "suffering one or more wounds" means that the rule applies immediately before saves are made. HOWEVER, the rule clearly states that Sever Life is used only if the model "is not slain" by the initial attacks, and you HAVE to make your save rolls in order to know if they are slain or not, so one can lawfully argue that ''unsaved'' wounds are the real trigger. Keep calm and make it clear with your opponent until a FAQ is released. Besides, the times Russ isn't going to be able to get at least one wound in with this sword are going to be pretty rare.
*For ranged fights he has the [[Vulkan]]-remade bolter (mentioned to be regular one until Xzibit got his hands on it) turned into a pistol for Primarch's hand, called '''Scornspitter''' which is assault 3 AP3 rending, but with pitiful 12" range. Of course if you aren't within 12", then you can't charge, and if you can't charge you're running therefore even if it did have a greater than 12" range it wouldn't be used anyway.

His Wolf-Kin are deployed separately and he can't join them, but they're great harassing units and surprisingly brutal fighters.

Meanwhile, his Sire of the Space Wolves gives him Night Vision, Counter-Attack, Preternatural Senses, and Hunter's Gait: all Wolves get +1Ld and Russ gets to Howl once per game (letting everyone in his detachment reroll run and charge for said turn). Breaker of Shields, Bringer of Ruin gives weapon mastery (like Horus and Calgar). If he's Warlord, you can take Veteran Tacticals (who may run/shoot bolters then charge instead of regular Vet tactics) and Varagyr Terminators as troops.

If Horus plays like everything a Space Marine Chapter Master ought to be, Russ is best compared to an Ork Warboss. He isn't exactly "tactical" in the traditional sense of reserve dickery, but Howl of the Death Wolf combined with Warrior's Mettle Veterans can make your army a strong hunter-killer force, able to get in your enemy's face and fuck up his battle plans. This is an unpredictable force, able to catch most armies by surprise and keep them off balance. Freki and Geri are practically auto-takes, and Russ himself can and will fuck up everything from Leviathans to Thanatars to Land Raiders. Due to high strength, high initiative, and high weapon skill, even Imperial Knights aren't out of the question. Worth it.

==Leman Russ VS other Primarchs:==
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
Inferno is finally released and you came here to see how your favorite/most hated superhuman demi-god fares against the other Primarchs, because you love delicious Mathhammer trolling and cautious planning before battle.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
'''<big>[[RIP AND TEAR|THEY ALL DIE. EVERY. LAST. ONE. OF. THEM.]]</big>'''

Sever Life on The Sword of Balenight is the real kicker here. Allowing him to potentially pile on more wounds than what would normally be possible for the amount of attacks he has. And since most primarchs only have a 4++, they tend to die in short order (with even the tougher ones eventually going down from sheer wound output). So if you want to add the damage for Sever Life, here's the results:

*Against T6 Sever Life will cause an additional 1.091 Wounds on average.
*Against T7 Sever Life will cause an additional 0.909 Wounds on average.
::Note that these are Wounds that can still be saved via Invulnerable saves.

This is made even crazier with his ability to split his attacks between his axe of awesome and his sword of cheese (Yes just like Horus). Since all it takes is one wound going through to trigger Sever Life thus he can lay on the hurt with his high strength axe while still getting some good jabs in with his sword. When combined with the additional wounds from sever life (assuming it goes off, which against most Primarchs it should since they are mostly in the T6 range) this guy can lay on more wounds on a single target than just about any other Primarch (except a fully buffed Angron, though to be fair that is really all Angron has got going in a fight).

Possibly worse than Sever Life (which probably is intended to trigger after saves, hence the "Is not slain" part) is his armor, which cripples almost every Primarch's ability to damage him with the negatives to hit. Since thanks to his insane weapon skill almost all will be needing 6's or 5's at best to even hit him, and after taking wound rolls and saves into account he is basically taking almost no damage. Which really hurts alot of his opponents since most of their special rules in CC rely on doing damage (e.g. Horus disabling strike and Perturabo's fancy hammer with basically every CC special rule). Even the uber-tanks are left flailing at him, barely doing any damage, while he grinds them out.

The only ones who can even stand a snowball's chance are heavy-hitters in the range of Horus, Fulgrim, Angron with maximum attacks, Ferrus Manus, Perturabo and a fully buffed Magnus. In addition a Transfigured Lorgar might be able to tar pit him for awhile (though don't expect him to actually win). But I do mean snowball, even these guys barring some amazing rolls will probably lose virtually every fight (including Horus).

Vulkan holds out pretty well but only if Russ is just using the sword... against the axe... well lets hope the dice are on your side!

Do note too that if Russ brings his wolves along (as he should) then they can challenge and take challenges in his place, as they are both characters. Thanks to how the rules work, this means that Russ essentially has 8 wounds, and in the case of Primarchs who can't ID the wolves 14 wounds. In effect he can use this to prevent Horus from using his talon to drop his stats or Perturabo smacking him to many times with his hammer while making the combat last even longer, since for example if Horus uses Worldbreaker to kill the first wolf Russ can just tank the wounds before his other wolf challenges in round 2, all the while Russ is beating the shit out of Horus completely unharmed. Statistically if Leman Russ brings his wolves along it is near impossible for any single other Primarch to kill Russ before he grinds them down if in a challenge.

HOWEVER if you or your opponent plays him in a list he can potentially be tar pitted with terminators with thunder hammers and storm shields. Russ is not immune to concussion and the invuln save is superior than Russ. This will bring him down to an equal playing field since while they will not be doing much damage to him (since needing 6s to hit), he will probably not be able to rip throw them before the game ends (he is more a challenge monster than infantry wrecker, again that is Angrons job). Though don't rely on this as like all primarchs he is perfectly capable of wiping them out.
Such is the fickleness of the dice. And again this is not even taking into account his two wolves. With either of them tanking a shot or two and preventing Concussion from setting in Leman Russ again has a very good chance of ripping through them. So don't expect this to be a consistent solution to dealing with him.

Bottom line, Horus is lucky that Russ didn't get there first.

</div>
</div>

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:russ_original.jpg|First portrayal of Leman Russ in canon (Rogue Trader)
File:russ_furry_original.jpg|First retcon of Leman Russ, now approximately 215% furrier, in 1st. Ed compilation
File:Leman russ by alexboca-d7930sk.jpg
File:Russ_Behind.jpg| RUN <s> FORREST </s> LEMAN, RUN!
File:Russ_Front.jpg| He's running so [[White Scars|fast]] because he saw someone throw a stick.
File:Russ_Side.jpg
File:Horus vs Leman.jpg|True Wolf vs Emperor's Puppy.
File:Horus-Primarchs-Warhammer-Russ.jpeg|
</gallery>

{{Primarchs}}

[[Category:Space Wolves]]

==See Also==
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0Q8uymv0vw&index=2&list=PLdPq6mYy-DRdA9aTRJghfDsQiyR5WLs7y/ Admit it, this is the only song that truly befits the glory of the Sons of Russ.]
* [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mzkqA4-4jIM/ Not so fast.]

Doom

2019-12-03T08:59:18Z

2601:585:8301:76D0:455A:9655:9E33:16A7: /* Doom 4 (aka DOOM aka DOOD aka Brutal Doom HD) */

{{/vg/}}
{{Oldschool}}
{{awesome}}
{{Cleanup}}
[[File:Doom cover poster.jpeg|thumb|If you don't already have the first level's music in your head, you may be on the wrong site.]]
{{topquote|Over the centuries, mankind has tried many ways of combatting the forces of evil... prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until Doom, no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun. Eat leaden death, demon...|[[Discworld|Terry Pratchett]]}}

The granddaddy of the first person shooter, the original ass-kicking demon-slaying 3D slaughterfest, '''''Doom''''' is a franchise that demands respect even in the hallowed halls of /tg/. It was actually inspired by a [[Dungeons & Dragons]] campaign played by the founders of id Software; John Romero had given a demon lord the key to overrunning the material plane in exchange for a magic [[Katanas are Underpowered in d20|katana]] because he's an edgy little bitch like that, and John Carmack (the DM) decided it made a good premise for their new 3D game. The katana in question would later be used in Romero's game ''Daikatana'', which was a total failure for reasons that aren't important enough to go over right now.

The plot? What do you think this is, [[Fags of 4chan#Board Fags|urchin?]] Here's your plot: you are a Space Marine (no, not the 40K guy, a jumped-up soldier who is sent to fight on other planets, so closer to the [[Imperial Guard]]) stationed on Mars. Somehow, demons break through into our reality and slaughter everyone else. Your job? Fight your way to where, you hope, there's a ride off of this rock, and make bloody mincemeat out of everything standing between you and salvation. Standing in your way are armies of zombified fellow marines and eggheads, fireball-tossing imps, hulking flesh-eating demons, cyborg-demon monstrosities, and various other hell-spawned nasties who want to kill you horribly. Good luck. You'll need it...

Although not the very ''first'' of the FPS genre (even its predecessor, [[Wolfenstein]] 3D, wasn't the first, as the history of the genre goes back all the way into 70's), Doom was definitive to the genre, so much so that "Doom Clone" was the standard nickname for many years afterwards. People are still playing it and making it even more awesome with [[Homebrew|their own custom modifications]] 24 years later, which isn't something you hear that often outside of /tg/; this is one of the main reasons why the franchise is so well-respected.

Fun fact: that iconic Doom monster, the Cacodemon, was actually inspired by the artwork for an Astral Dreadnought on the cover of the [[Dungeons & Dragons]] 1st edition [[Manual of the Planes]] splatbook. Also relevant to /tg/ is that Sandy Petersen, co-designer of [[Ghostbusters RPG]], creator of [[Call of Cthulhu]], and author of some [[RuneQuest]] stuff, worked on the game. He designed some levels (more in the sequel) and made some contributions to the monster design.

==Classic DOOM (aka The Good Shit)==
{{topquote|Welcome to DOOM, a lightning-fast virtual reality adventure where you're the toughest space trooper ever to suck vacuum. Your mission is to shoot your way through a monster-infested holocaust. Living to tell the tale if possible.|README.TXT, Doom 1.8 shareware}}
The original Doom was fast-paced and bloody compared to what came before, but wasn't afraid to vary the pace with more labyrinthine levels or make you shit your pants by dropping you into a crowd of demons when you least expected it. (Fun fact No. 2: The extra levels included in the full version of Doom were built by the same guy who wrote [[Call of Cthulhu]] in just 10 weeks.) Doom II on the other hand was a circle-strafing explosion-rich gorefest, and is what basically everyone thinks of when they think of both Doom and 90s FPS gameplay in general. Plot was bare-minimum: Demons took over Phobos and ate Deimos, kill them all. Or, in Doom 2's case, Demons are trying to infest Earth in revenge, kill them all AGAIN. But this time, ''it's personal''. (No, seriously, they killed your pet bunny Daisy.) The Doom engine is extremely mod-friendly for a 90s game (as both Carmack and Romero had been big into software tinkering in their day) and id Software actually paid a modding group for the right to sell two of their expansion packs commercially. Slightly more obscure but still relevant is Doom 64, which replaced the high-speed explode-o-rama with a stronger horror theme and more deliberate pace. id Software then for a time turned toward more multiplayer-oriented games with the ''Quake'' series and gave Doom a rest.

===The Doom Comic===
{{topquote|'''DYNAMITE! I'M COOKING WITH GAS! I'VE GOTTA HANDFUL OF VERTEBRAE AND A HEADFUL OF MAD! YEAH, THAT'S YOUR SPINAL CORD, BABY! DIG IT!'''|You, the moment you read that heading}}
The origin of [[Rip and Tear]]. Possibly the most ridiculously, amazingly, stupidly 90s thing that has ever been put to paper with the possible exception of [[Snowflame]]. It has to be read to be believed. [https://www.doomworld.com/10years/doomcomic/ So go read it.]

===Monsters===
[[File:Reaperminis.jpg|thumb|right|Limited-edition monster minis from [[Reaper Miniatures]]. Admit it, you want that Cyberdemon for your Daemons of Chaos army.]]
*'''Former human''': Wet toilet paper. Only dangerous until you get a shotgun.
*'''Former sergeant''': Still wet toilet paper, but full of broken glass; if one of these assholes gets behind you before you find armor you're probably dead. Likely to be your first source for shotguns.
*'''Imp''': The first true demon you encounter with a dodgeable projectile and more health than the formers. The first meaningful enemy you meet, and runner-up for most iconic non-boss monster.
*'''Demon''': Otherwise known as '''Pinkies'''. Giant hairless gorilla with a mouth that could give a [[squig]] lessons in eating. [[Derp|They can't walk and bite at the same time]] so you can just step out of their way, but they tend to come in large groups and dance around like spastic toddlers (which makes them harder to shoot) as they run up to you.
**'''Spectre''': Demon with Predator-style optic camo. An absolute bitch to deal with in dark environments, which is naturally where you find them.
*'''Cacodemon''': Mr. [[Astral Dreadnought]] Head. These fuckers can fly and you can't look up, so have fun fighting them in close quarters where they can float out of your field of view. Dangerous, but get a rapid-fire weapon and they become a joke as you stunlock them until they are all dead. ''The'' most iconic non-boss monster, partially because of its sheer WTFery but mostly because of how easy it is to chibi/make plushies out of.
*'''Lost Soul''': Floating flaming skulls that fly at you at approximately SANIC miles per hour. Fairly weak, but very fast and has a habit of nibbling at you while you focus on something more dangerous.
*'''Hell Knight''': Now we're talking. [[Space Marine]] sized and equipped with a punch and moderate projectile attacks (fireballs). Shooting him in the face with a shotgun will kill him pretty quickly.
**'''Baron of Hell''': Super hell knight with double the health. Big and equipped with nasty melee and projectile attacks. Shooting ''him'' in the face with a shotgun just '''pisses him off'''. Super shotguns will work though.
*'''Former commando''': Unlike the other formers this guy is no joke: he's durable enough to not die when breathed on and his hitscan chaingun is almost as powerful as yours. Using hordes of these guys in an open arena with no cover is the pinnacle of dick moves in Doom mapping.
*'''Revenant''': [[Meme|Agitating skeleton aka '''DOOT'''.]] One of the few monsters that moves anywhere near as fast as you do, plus he runs up and tries to punch your head off if you move inside the minimum range of the homing rockets he shoots. It is an established fact that any given Doom map is automatically casuals-only unless the mapper adds at least 100 revenants.
*'''Mancubus''': [[Festus the Leechlord|HELLO I'M FUCKING FAT.]] Slow, but very tank and he has dual heavy flamers for arms that hurt like hell. Fortunately, this also applies to any nearby demons, so you can make them kill each other for your amusement just by standing between a mancubus and another monster.
*'''Pain elemental''': [[Meme|Meatball demon.]] Like a cacodemon, but instead of shooting fireballs, it shoots Lost Souls. Has the opposite problem to the pinkies in that [[Derp|you can stand in front of its face]] and prevent the lost souls from spawning.
*'''Arch-vile''': One of the few monsters that that's faster than the player at a full run. Sets you on fire [[Psyker|with its mind]] and revives any monsters it comes across so you have to kill them all over again. Meeting one of these guys in a slaughtermap will make you [[Khorne|hate everything forever.]]
*'''Cyberdemon''': [[Rip and tear|Is huge, and therefore has huge guts.]] Basically a (Chaos possesed?) Carnifex with a rocket launcher for an arm, and significantly faster than he looks. Without a doubt the fuckingest monster in the classic game, and practically tailor made for soaking up BFG shots.
*'''Spider Mastermind''': Doom 1’s final boss, despite being inferior in almost every way to the Cyberdemon you fight earlier. Go figure. Even more XBOX HUEG than the Cyberdemon, but has a super-chaingun instead of a rocket launcher and refuses to let up until either you or it are dead. Has the critical weakness of BFG shots up the ass due to the way its hugeness interacts with the mechanics of the classic BFG.
**'''Arachnotron''': Babby Masterminds that go fast and shit plasma at you.

==Doom 3==
In the early 2000s, Doom 3 came along. It blows chunks compared to the classics, but since the classics are so damn good it ends up being passable anyway. Since Valve had made "story-driven" shooters and "realistic" scripted encounters the in thing id decided to rip off Half-Life, grafting on elements of the original Doom that had been scrapped at the concept stage. Unfortunately the gameplay was too slow and similar to the rest of the genre, the scripting and story interludes just made the gameplay even clunkier and the big technological gimmick (per-pixel lighting) meant you had to choose between seeing what you're supposed to shoot with a crappy little flashlight and actually being able to shoot it. Supposedly the lighting effects were resource intense during development and this was the "solution" (of course we know better that they wanted to make it a quasi survival horror). Naturally the first mod for the game was duct tape.

==Doom 4 (aka DOOM aka DOOD aka Brutal Doom HD)==
{{topquote|They are rage, brutal, without mercy. But you? You will be '''worse'''. [[Rip and Tear]], until it is '''DONE'''.|A direct order from what is either [[God-Emperor of Mankind|God's]] [[Living Saint|seraphs]], [[Khorne]] himself, or his champion (at the time) ,and your co-conspirator, the ''first'' betrayer (not [[Kharn|Khârn]]) Seriously, does any of that really matter. do you really need more of a mission briefing? if so why are you playing this game?}}

Then the latest Doom came out in May 2016. This rendition can basically be described as "3d Brutal Doom II" only sexier, with features like [[Rip and tear|ripping enemies apart with your bare hands]] and having to stay on the move to avoid being torn to shreds. The plot is also about as bare minimum as the original (albeit with a surprising amount of lore hidden away in the Codex), kicking the player straight into the action with waking up on Mars, immediately [[Rip and tear|smashing a zombie’s skull]], and basically being told “demonic invasion, go kill everything.” Also, the player this time around is someone the demons call the “Doom Slayer", who has traveled through “Worlds and Time” (hinting that the Doom Slayer could very well be the original Doomguy from the first two games, having also survived Doom 64 and has been traveling Hell since but that's deliberately left ambiguous in-game, names will be used interchangeably), and millennia ago [[Awesome|kicked Hell’s ass so hard that the best the demons could do is seal him away so that he wouldn’t destroy Hell]]. Then the UAC decides to deal with an Energy Crisis by quite literally [[Humanity Fuck Yeah|slamming an Oil Derrick on a Hell Portal to siphon off Hell Energy for power]], and just for giggles starts tomb raiding Hell for artifacts and treasures as well, ultimately running off with the Doomguy's sarcophagus. The demons see that the Doomguy’s prison/tomb is empty, and the subsequent invasion is actually a panicked attempt to stop the Doomguy from being woken up. Obviously they fail and he butchers ever last one of them.

Samuel Hayden is the guy in charge of the UAC, a cyborg the size of a 40k [[Space Marine]]. He and Vega, the Mars UAC AI, are basically quest givers for the most part. His subordinate Olivia Pierce pretty much ran a cult while Hayden was pillaging artifacts from Hell, [[Grimdark|being the only one to make it back from the expeditions]]. When shit hits the fan he decides to wake the Doom Slayer up. Of course, once awake, he goes on a rampage and busts the UACs shit, as Hayden's disregard for human life is too far even for Doomguy to take, expressing his outrage without the need for a voice actor.

So now it's up to the Doom Slayer in awesome power armor to [[Rip and Tear|rip and tear]] and dakka every demon he comes across to stop Olivia while wrecking UACs energy production. After going to hell at least once due to Olivia breaking an Argent Accumulator and making it back to Mars, then after Hayden installs a "tether" to him, Hayden sends Doomguy on a quest to find the Helix Stone, picking up the most powerful version of the BFG 9000 yet on the way(more on that below). Once he reaches the Helix Stone it directs Doomguy to acquire the Crucible, a relic in the Titan's Realm. So Doomguy has to kill the Cyberdemon to get back to hell, make a long trek and fight three bosses, two of them at once, for the Crucible and returns to Mars again. Then to finally stop Olivia, Hayden, being the bastard that he is, even sacrifices his old friend, Vega, though unlike everyone else, at least our player character is nice enough to make a backup. The first major hint that Hayden is a corporate douchebag is that he doesn't tell Doomguy that the backup function even exists. The Doom Slayer uses the Crucible to shutdown Hell's energy wells and releases the spirits of his old friends, the Night Sentinels.

Once Olivia is found, she transforms into the Spider Mastermind. If you've been collecting all the stuff like you should have, she can easily be(and the other bosses) can be cheesed by the best weapons even on the highest difficulty, with the [[Cheese|Rich get Richer]] Rune fully upgraded. Once she's dead its the final cutscene, Where Hayden steals the "Crucible" which turns out to be an energy blade that makes a Lightsaber look like a toothpick, Then sends the Doom Slayer off to who knows where with the tether he installed into the Praetor suit earlier. So he can have a gopher who isn't dead or something. Then you experience one of the best credit sequences made for a video game in over a decade.

Mick Gordon's soundtrack gives the game the best metal music ever. BFG Divison being the standout in the soundtrack. Used for two whole levels and the final boss music is a Glitch remix of it. There is also some inspiration from RPG style FPS a la Metro 2033 and [[Samus|Metroid Prime]]. As collecting Argent Energy, weapon mods and Runes allow them to upgrade the Praetor Suit to suit their preferred play style. The engine allows the Doom Slayer a wide range of first-person animations. As his destruction of UAC property and actions portrays an "I'm too old for this shit" attitude. Having to fight demons for centuries doesn't make for a happy camper.

The damage of the BFG 9000 itself is notable. This thing instantly vaporizes every non-boss enemy on-screen!(and them too if you exploit a glitch. However what a player does that the devs didn't intend is dubious in canon.) You read that correctly you don't have to aim it directly at your targets to kill them. You just have to find the right opening to make it kill every demon you can. As the Plasma Bolt throws out lightening or much more likely, solar flares. That would mean the Plasma the BFG fires is likely firing a fucking miniature star with each shot! The F in BFG may stand for Fermentation, Grimdark! with science!. We can wait while you Google it.

Don't be impressed just yet. A Baron of Hell is 2000 pounds and because it turns everything into gibs it comes in contact with.
That means it has to have 7 Gigajoules of energy and would have to be heated up to over 100,000 degrees Celsius! [[Anal_Circumference|A temperature range which is only seen in small stars and nebula!]] That's not just [[GrimDark]], that's just fucking cold in the most brutal way possible and speaks to the insanity of the UAC for building this thing. Are we sure somebody didn't screw up the name? Though Brown Dwarf Gun 9000 doesn't sound as cool.(Though why is it green? Because it's blue-green! As blue in space equals very fucking hot!) In all possibility, if the Doom Slayer didn't wear his Praetor suit. Firing the weapon would instantly annihilate him too! (since Photons are their own particle and antiparticle the word is valid) No apologies for the science jokes. They are necessary evils in explaining how the BFG 9000 works.

It also says a lot of the bosses as a direct hit will merely stun them (without using the weapon wheel glitch) while shaving off large portions of their health. So you need either a very advanced suit of Powered Armor or a significant amount of mass to survive a direct hit from the plasma bolt and its flares. The only real con to using the BFG 9000 is it's limited ammo of four shots. Though a good player can get around that if they set up their Runes correctly.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig_gQAITzIk| Science and math mostly explained in this Youtube video ]. So yeah, the BFG 9000 shoots miniature stars.

===DOOM Eternal===
Doom Eternal was announced at E3 and a gameplay reveal was shown at Quakecon 2018. From the look of it, it's glorious. It's set on a demonically infested Earth and the now post-Exterminatus Mars and Phobos Research Center, the latter of which featuring the BFG10000 (a stationary ship-sized version of the BFG9000). The Doom Slayer has a shitload of new abilities: gone is the Preator Suit and hello Predator Suit!
It includes a shoulder-mounted flamethrower/grenade launcher (which you can fire WHILE you fire your Chaingun!), a retractable arm blade to split demons in half, a dash move, the super shotgun has been upgraded with a grappling hook, A FUCKING DEMON SWORD (which has been confirmed by the devs to be another Crucible, which raises the question as to how many of those things are there?) and shitloads of other toys. Some demons from the old Doom games have returned (such as the Arch-Vile and Arachnotron). The designs have also been updated; for example, the Mancubus looks more like its Doom II design, and the Baron of Hell has dual flaming swords. There is also an awesome feature called "Destructible Demons", where demons will actually show more damage on their bodies the more they get hit. There will also be a player mode called Invasion, a [[Dark Souls]]-inspired feature where players can join another player's campaign and fight them as demons (it can be turned off if you want). Overall, a lot of amazing things are in this game.

Also, check out [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0Bx4G3bOu4 this video where the Doom Slayer's presence scares the shit out of humans and demons alike]. Awesome.

Of course, we can assume Samuel Hayden fails to save Earth from its energy crisis. Also obvious is that whatever hell-cult took over the UAC on Mars wasn't an isolated case, as it seems to have dug itself deep enough to make Earth undergo its own apocalypse. Based on the above clip, a significant portion of upper management is part of the cult as they tell their terrified subordinates to let the demons through; another clip tells employees to outright welcome demons to Earth, going full-on Quisling even as they’re being turned into zombies left and right. One would think Hayden would replace his dead Elite Guard with cyborgs loyal to himself who ''wouldn't'' be influenced by a bunch of fanatics. But since this is a video game series that mocks corporate malfeasance every chance it gets, Hayden's doctorate seems to have been sparse on the ability for strategic planning. This is all speculation though, as we've only seen two members high ranking members of the UAC so far in the reboot series.

On top of all that, the Doom Slayer appears to have a demonic counterpart now, wearing armor that looks similar to his Praetor Suit and equipped with a super shotgun and demonic axe. Who is he? Where did he come from? Whatever the case it’s looking like Doomy may have found a worthy adversary. In a notable first for the series, there are also signs of an opposing (but not necessarily friendly to humanity) force opposing Hell, with screenshots and box art showing vaguely angelic (or at least non-demonic) vistas and enemies to be fought. Because of course, the Doom Slayer would be able to tear Heaven down too.

==Doom: The Board Game==
Yes, there is a Board Game - made by [[Fantasy Flight Games]] no less - giving the vague '/tg/ related' qualifications this site uses.
It was released around the time Doom 3 was released, though it wasn't that remarkable and is pretty hard to find nowadays.

One guy plays the baddies, the other 1-4 players play a band of unfortunate marines. The heroes start with 2-3 powerup cards, and the baddies get 5 cards from his own deck and during the game, he gets to draw more (the rate of which is equal to how many marines there are) and if his deck is empty, he gets to insta-kill one of the Marines. His guys are more varied in their movement but they can only shoot once.

The marines have three options: move 8 spaces without shooting, move 4 spaces and shoot once, or shoot twice without movement. They need to explore the board, find computers and other events as the board provides. The baddies, meanwhile, can either upgrade his monsters or bring more to the board.
Either way, his goal is to score 6 kills on the Marines.

A new board game got released shortly after May 2016 Doom, which, to my understanding, is basically just the same shit as before with a new coat of paint.
* It's different, but not too different. Similar in concept and design, with the main differences seeming to be in how the Marines play, and victory conditions for certain scenarios. Absolutely beautiful models however, and incredibly fun. Highly recommended.

==Movie==
Also (roughly) around the same time as Doom 3 was a movie starring Karl Urban and former WWE superstar Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. It pretty much replaced the whole Hell plot with some genetic experimentation to give people superpowers that only succeeds in creating hyper-aggressive mutants, and a squad of Marines sent to investigate the mayhem. It wasn't that good, with the only really 'good' scene being this one scene where it's all FPS-style like the original games and has monster killing.

Another movie was released in 2019, named ''Doom : Annihilation.'' When asked what they thought about this, id Software simply replied: "We are not involved in the movie."

==External Links==
*[https://doomwiki.org/ Doom Wiki] for all your Doom-related autism needs
*[https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/ /idgames/], the home of pretty much every Doom mod worth playing (and pretty much every Doom mod that isn't worth playing) since 1994.

[[Category:Video Games]][[Category:Awesome]]

Doom

2019-12-03T08:57:16Z

2601:585:8301:76D0:455A:9655:9E33:16A7: /* Doom 4 (aka DOOM aka DOOD aka Brutal Doom HD) */

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[[File:Doom cover poster.jpeg|thumb|If you don't already have the first level's music in your head, you may be on the wrong site.]]
{{topquote|Over the centuries, mankind has tried many ways of combatting the forces of evil... prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until Doom, no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun. Eat leaden death, demon...|[[Discworld|Terry Pratchett]]}}

The granddaddy of the first person shooter, the original ass-kicking demon-slaying 3D slaughterfest, '''''Doom''''' is a franchise that demands respect even in the hallowed halls of /tg/. It was actually inspired by a [[Dungeons & Dragons]] campaign played by the founders of id Software; John Romero had given a demon lord the key to overrunning the material plane in exchange for a magic [[Katanas are Underpowered in d20|katana]] because he's an edgy little bitch like that, and John Carmack (the DM) decided it made a good premise for their new 3D game. The katana in question would later be used in Romero's game ''Daikatana'', which was a total failure for reasons that aren't important enough to go over right now.

The plot? What do you think this is, [[Fags of 4chan#Board Fags|urchin?]] Here's your plot: you are a Space Marine (no, not the 40K guy, a jumped-up soldier who is sent to fight on other planets, so closer to the [[Imperial Guard]]) stationed on Mars. Somehow, demons break through into our reality and slaughter everyone else. Your job? Fight your way to where, you hope, there's a ride off of this rock, and make bloody mincemeat out of everything standing between you and salvation. Standing in your way are armies of zombified fellow marines and eggheads, fireball-tossing imps, hulking flesh-eating demons, cyborg-demon monstrosities, and various other hell-spawned nasties who want to kill you horribly. Good luck. You'll need it...

Although not the very ''first'' of the FPS genre (even its predecessor, [[Wolfenstein]] 3D, wasn't the first, as the history of the genre goes back all the way into 70's), Doom was definitive to the genre, so much so that "Doom Clone" was the standard nickname for many years afterwards. People are still playing it and making it even more awesome with [[Homebrew|their own custom modifications]] 24 years later, which isn't something you hear that often outside of /tg/; this is one of the main reasons why the franchise is so well-respected.

Fun fact: that iconic Doom monster, the Cacodemon, was actually inspired by the artwork for an Astral Dreadnought on the cover of the [[Dungeons & Dragons]] 1st edition [[Manual of the Planes]] splatbook. Also relevant to /tg/ is that Sandy Petersen, co-designer of [[Ghostbusters RPG]], creator of [[Call of Cthulhu]], and author of some [[RuneQuest]] stuff, worked on the game. He designed some levels (more in the sequel) and made some contributions to the monster design.

==Classic DOOM (aka The Good Shit)==
{{topquote|Welcome to DOOM, a lightning-fast virtual reality adventure where you're the toughest space trooper ever to suck vacuum. Your mission is to shoot your way through a monster-infested holocaust. Living to tell the tale if possible.|README.TXT, Doom 1.8 shareware}}
The original Doom was fast-paced and bloody compared to what came before, but wasn't afraid to vary the pace with more labyrinthine levels or make you shit your pants by dropping you into a crowd of demons when you least expected it. (Fun fact No. 2: The extra levels included in the full version of Doom were built by the same guy who wrote [[Call of Cthulhu]] in just 10 weeks.) Doom II on the other hand was a circle-strafing explosion-rich gorefest, and is what basically everyone thinks of when they think of both Doom and 90s FPS gameplay in general. Plot was bare-minimum: Demons took over Phobos and ate Deimos, kill them all. Or, in Doom 2's case, Demons are trying to infest Earth in revenge, kill them all AGAIN. But this time, ''it's personal''. (No, seriously, they killed your pet bunny Daisy.) The Doom engine is extremely mod-friendly for a 90s game (as both Carmack and Romero had been big into software tinkering in their day) and id Software actually paid a modding group for the right to sell two of their expansion packs commercially. Slightly more obscure but still relevant is Doom 64, which replaced the high-speed explode-o-rama with a stronger horror theme and more deliberate pace. id Software then for a time turned toward more multiplayer-oriented games with the ''Quake'' series and gave Doom a rest.

===The Doom Comic===
{{topquote|'''DYNAMITE! I'M COOKING WITH GAS! I'VE GOTTA HANDFUL OF VERTEBRAE AND A HEADFUL OF MAD! YEAH, THAT'S YOUR SPINAL CORD, BABY! DIG IT!'''|You, the moment you read that heading}}
The origin of [[Rip and Tear]]. Possibly the most ridiculously, amazingly, stupidly 90s thing that has ever been put to paper with the possible exception of [[Snowflame]]. It has to be read to be believed. [https://www.doomworld.com/10years/doomcomic/ So go read it.]

===Monsters===
[[File:Reaperminis.jpg|thumb|right|Limited-edition monster minis from [[Reaper Miniatures]]. Admit it, you want that Cyberdemon for your Daemons of Chaos army.]]
*'''Former human''': Wet toilet paper. Only dangerous until you get a shotgun.
*'''Former sergeant''': Still wet toilet paper, but full of broken glass; if one of these assholes gets behind you before you find armor you're probably dead. Likely to be your first source for shotguns.
*'''Imp''': The first true demon you encounter with a dodgeable projectile and more health than the formers. The first meaningful enemy you meet, and runner-up for most iconic non-boss monster.
*'''Demon''': Otherwise known as '''Pinkies'''. Giant hairless gorilla with a mouth that could give a [[squig]] lessons in eating. [[Derp|They can't walk and bite at the same time]] so you can just step out of their way, but they tend to come in large groups and dance around like spastic toddlers (which makes them harder to shoot) as they run up to you.
**'''Spectre''': Demon with Predator-style optic camo. An absolute bitch to deal with in dark environments, which is naturally where you find them.
*'''Cacodemon''': Mr. [[Astral Dreadnought]] Head. These fuckers can fly and you can't look up, so have fun fighting them in close quarters where they can float out of your field of view. Dangerous, but get a rapid-fire weapon and they become a joke as you stunlock them until they are all dead. ''The'' most iconic non-boss monster, partially because of its sheer WTFery but mostly because of how easy it is to chibi/make plushies out of.
*'''Lost Soul''': Floating flaming skulls that fly at you at approximately SANIC miles per hour. Fairly weak, but very fast and has a habit of nibbling at you while you focus on something more dangerous.
*'''Hell Knight''': Now we're talking. [[Space Marine]] sized and equipped with a punch and moderate projectile attacks (fireballs). Shooting him in the face with a shotgun will kill him pretty quickly.
**'''Baron of Hell''': Super hell knight with double the health. Big and equipped with nasty melee and projectile attacks. Shooting ''him'' in the face with a shotgun just '''pisses him off'''. Super shotguns will work though.
*'''Former commando''': Unlike the other formers this guy is no joke: he's durable enough to not die when breathed on and his hitscan chaingun is almost as powerful as yours. Using hordes of these guys in an open arena with no cover is the pinnacle of dick moves in Doom mapping.
*'''Revenant''': [[Meme|Agitating skeleton aka '''DOOT'''.]] One of the few monsters that moves anywhere near as fast as you do, plus he runs up and tries to punch your head off if you move inside the minimum range of the homing rockets he shoots. It is an established fact that any given Doom map is automatically casuals-only unless the mapper adds at least 100 revenants.
*'''Mancubus''': [[Festus the Leechlord|HELLO I'M FUCKING FAT.]] Slow, but very tank and he has dual heavy flamers for arms that hurt like hell. Fortunately, this also applies to any nearby demons, so you can make them kill each other for your amusement just by standing between a mancubus and another monster.
*'''Pain elemental''': [[Meme|Meatball demon.]] Like a cacodemon, but instead of shooting fireballs, it shoots Lost Souls. Has the opposite problem to the pinkies in that [[Derp|you can stand in front of its face]] and prevent the lost souls from spawning.
*'''Arch-vile''': One of the few monsters that that's faster than the player at a full run. Sets you on fire [[Psyker|with its mind]] and revives any monsters it comes across so you have to kill them all over again. Meeting one of these guys in a slaughtermap will make you [[Khorne|hate everything forever.]]
*'''Cyberdemon''': [[Rip and tear|Is huge, and therefore has huge guts.]] Basically a (Chaos possesed?) Carnifex with a rocket launcher for an arm, and significantly faster than he looks. Without a doubt the fuckingest monster in the classic game, and practically tailor made for soaking up BFG shots.
*'''Spider Mastermind''': Doom 1’s final boss, despite being inferior in almost every way to the Cyberdemon you fight earlier. Go figure. Even more XBOX HUEG than the Cyberdemon, but has a super-chaingun instead of a rocket launcher and refuses to let up until either you or it are dead. Has the critical weakness of BFG shots up the ass due to the way its hugeness interacts with the mechanics of the classic BFG.
**'''Arachnotron''': Babby Masterminds that go fast and shit plasma at you.

==Doom 3==
In the early 2000s, Doom 3 came along. It blows chunks compared to the classics, but since the classics are so damn good it ends up being passable anyway. Since Valve had made "story-driven" shooters and "realistic" scripted encounters the in thing id decided to rip off Half-Life, grafting on elements of the original Doom that had been scrapped at the concept stage. Unfortunately the gameplay was too slow and similar to the rest of the genre, the scripting and story interludes just made the gameplay even clunkier and the big technological gimmick (per-pixel lighting) meant you had to choose between seeing what you're supposed to shoot with a crappy little flashlight and actually being able to shoot it. Supposedly the lighting effects were resource intense during development and this was the "solution" (of course we know better that they wanted to make it a quasi survival horror). Naturally the first mod for the game was duct tape.

==Doom 4 (aka DOOM aka DOOD aka Brutal Doom HD)==
{{topquote|They are rage, brutal, without mercy. But you? You will be '''worse'''. [[Rip and Tear]], until it is '''done'''.|A direct order from what is either [[God-Emperor of Mankind|God's]] [[Living Saint|seraphs]], [[Khorne]] himself, or his champion (at the time) ,and your co-conspirator, the ''first'' betrayer (not [[Kharn|Khârn]]) Seriously, does any of that really matter. do you really need more of a mission briefing? if so why are you playing this game?}}

Then the latest Doom came out in May 2016. This rendition can basically be described as "3d Brutal Doom II" only sexier, with features like [[Rip and tear|ripping enemies apart with your bare hands]] and having to stay on the move to avoid being torn to shreds. The plot is also about as bare minimum as the original (albeit with a surprising amount of lore hidden away in the Codex), kicking the player straight into the action with waking up on Mars, immediately [[Rip and tear|smashing a zombie’s skull]], and basically being told “demonic invasion, go kill everything.” Also, the player this time around is someone the demons call the “Doom Slayer", who has traveled through “Worlds and Time” (hinting that the Doom Slayer could very well be the original Doomguy from the first two games, having also survived Doom 64 and has been traveling Hell since but that's deliberately left ambiguous in-game, names will be used interchangeably), and millennia ago [[Awesome|kicked Hell’s ass so hard that the best the demons could do is seal him away so that he wouldn’t destroy Hell]]. Then the UAC decides to deal with an Energy Crisis by quite literally [[Humanity Fuck Yeah|slamming an Oil Derrick on a Hell Portal to siphon off Hell Energy for power]], and just for giggles starts tomb raiding Hell for artifacts and treasures as well, ultimately running off with the Doomguy's sarcophagus. The demons see that the Doomguy’s prison/tomb is empty, and the subsequent invasion is actually a panicked attempt to stop the Doomguy from being woken up. Obviously they fail and he butchers ever last one of them.

Samuel Hayden is the guy in charge of the UAC, a cyborg the size of a 40k [[Space Marine]]. He and Vega, the Mars UAC AI, are basically quest givers for the most part. His subordinate Olivia Pierce pretty much ran a cult while Hayden was pillaging artifacts from Hell, [[Grimdark|being the only one to make it back from the expeditions]]. When shit hits the fan he decides to wake the Doom Slayer up. Of course, once awake, he goes on a rampage and busts the UACs shit, as Hayden's disregard for human life is too far even for Doomguy to take, expressing his outrage without the need for a voice actor.

So now it's up to the Doom Slayer in awesome power armor to [[Rip and Tear|rip and tear]] and dakka every demon he comes across to stop Olivia while wrecking UACs energy production. After going to hell at least once due to Olivia breaking an Argent Accumulator and making it back to Mars, then after Hayden installs a "tether" to him, Hayden sends Doomguy on a quest to find the Helix Stone, picking up the most powerful version of the BFG 9000 yet on the way(more on that below). Once he reaches the Helix Stone it directs Doomguy to acquire the Crucible, a relic in the Titan's Realm. So Doomguy has to kill the Cyberdemon to get back to hell, make a long trek and fight three bosses, two of them at once, for the Crucible and returns to Mars again. Then to finally stop Olivia, Hayden, being the bastard that he is, even sacrifices his old friend, Vega, though unlike everyone else, at least our player character is nice enough to make a backup. The first major hint that Hayden is a corporate douchebag is that he doesn't tell Doomguy that the backup function even exists. The Doom Slayer uses the Crucible to shutdown Hell's energy wells and releases the spirits of his old friends, the Night Sentinels.

Once Olivia is found, she transforms into the Spider Mastermind. If you've been collecting all the stuff like you should have, she can easily be(and the other bosses) can be cheesed by the best weapons even on the highest difficulty, with the [[Cheese|Rich get Richer]] Rune fully upgraded. Once she's dead its the final cutscene, Where Hayden steals the "Crucible" which turns out to be an energy blade that makes a Lightsaber look like a toothpick, Then sends the Doom Slayer off to who knows where with the tether he installed into the Praetor suit earlier. So he can have a gopher who isn't dead or something. Then you experience one of the best credit sequences made for a video game in over a decade.

Mick Gordon's soundtrack gives the game the best metal music ever. BFG Divison being the standout in the soundtrack. Used for two whole levels and the final boss music is a Glitch remix of it. There is also some inspiration from RPG style FPS a la Metro 2033 and [[Samus|Metroid Prime]]. As collecting Argent Energy, weapon mods and Runes allow them to upgrade the Praetor Suit to suit their preferred play style. The engine allows the Doom Slayer a wide range of first-person animations. As his destruction of UAC property and actions portrays an "I'm too old for this shit" attitude. Having to fight demons for centuries doesn't make for a happy camper.

The damage of the BFG 9000 itself is notable. This thing instantly vaporizes every non-boss enemy on-screen!(and them too if you exploit a glitch. However what a player does that the devs didn't intend is dubious in canon.) You read that correctly you don't have to aim it directly at your targets to kill them. You just have to find the right opening to make it kill every demon you can. As the Plasma Bolt throws out lightening or much more likely, solar flares. That would mean the Plasma the BFG fires is likely firing a fucking miniature star with each shot! The F in BFG may stand for Fermentation, Grimdark! with science!. We can wait while you Google it.

Don't be impressed just yet. A Baron of Hell is 2000 pounds and because it turns everything into gibs it comes in contact with.
That means it has to have 7 Gigajoules of energy and would have to be heated up to over 100,000 degrees Celsius! [[Anal_Circumference|A temperature range which is only seen in small stars and nebula!]] That's not just [[GrimDark]], that's just fucking cold in the most brutal way possible and speaks to the insanity of the UAC for building this thing. Are we sure somebody didn't screw up the name? Though Brown Dwarf Gun 9000 doesn't sound as cool.(Though why is it green? Because it's blue-green! As blue in space equals very fucking hot!) In all possibility, if the Doom Slayer didn't wear his Praetor suit. Firing the weapon would instantly annihilate him too! (since Photons are their own particle and antiparticle the word is valid) No apologies for the science jokes. They are necessary evils in explaining how the BFG 9000 works.

It also says a lot of the bosses as a direct hit will merely stun them (without using the weapon wheel glitch) while shaving off large portions of their health. So you need either a very advanced suit of Powered Armor or a significant amount of mass to survive a direct hit from the plasma bolt and its flares. The only real con to using the BFG 9000 is it's limited ammo of four shots. Though a good player can get around that if they set up their Runes correctly.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig_gQAITzIk| Science and math mostly explained in this Youtube video ]. So yeah, the BFG 9000 shoots miniature stars.

===DOOM Eternal===
Doom Eternal was announced at E3 and a gameplay reveal was shown at Quakecon 2018. From the look of it, it's glorious. It's set on a demonically infested Earth and the now post-Exterminatus Mars and Phobos Research Center, the latter of which featuring the BFG10000 (a stationary ship-sized version of the BFG9000). The Doom Slayer has a shitload of new abilities: gone is the Preator Suit and hello Predator Suit!
It includes a shoulder-mounted flamethrower/grenade launcher (which you can fire WHILE you fire your Chaingun!), a retractable arm blade to split demons in half, a dash move, the super shotgun has been upgraded with a grappling hook, A FUCKING DEMON SWORD (which has been confirmed by the devs to be another Crucible, which raises the question as to how many of those things are there?) and shitloads of other toys. Some demons from the old Doom games have returned (such as the Arch-Vile and Arachnotron). The designs have also been updated; for example, the Mancubus looks more like its Doom II design, and the Baron of Hell has dual flaming swords. There is also an awesome feature called "Destructible Demons", where demons will actually show more damage on their bodies the more they get hit. There will also be a player mode called Invasion, a [[Dark Souls]]-inspired feature where players can join another player's campaign and fight them as demons (it can be turned off if you want). Overall, a lot of amazing things are in this game.

Also, check out [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0Bx4G3bOu4 this video where the Doom Slayer's presence scares the shit out of humans and demons alike]. Awesome.

Of course, we can assume Samuel Hayden fails to save Earth from its energy crisis. Also obvious is that whatever hell-cult took over the UAC on Mars wasn't an isolated case, as it seems to have dug itself deep enough to make Earth undergo its own apocalypse. Based on the above clip, a significant portion of upper management is part of the cult as they tell their terrified subordinates to let the demons through; another clip tells employees to outright welcome demons to Earth, going full-on Quisling even as they’re being turned into zombies left and right. One would think Hayden would replace his dead Elite Guard with cyborgs loyal to himself who ''wouldn't'' be influenced by a bunch of fanatics. But since this is a video game series that mocks corporate malfeasance every chance it gets, Hayden's doctorate seems to have been sparse on the ability for strategic planning. This is all speculation though, as we've only seen two members high ranking members of the UAC so far in the reboot series.

On top of all that, the Doom Slayer appears to have a demonic counterpart now, wearing armor that looks similar to his Praetor Suit and equipped with a super shotgun and demonic axe. Who is he? Where did he come from? Whatever the case it’s looking like Doomy may have found a worthy adversary. In a notable first for the series, there are also signs of an opposing (but not necessarily friendly to humanity) force opposing Hell, with screenshots and box art showing vaguely angelic (or at least non-demonic) vistas and enemies to be fought. Because of course, the Doom Slayer would be able to tear Heaven down too.

==Doom: The Board Game==
Yes, there is a Board Game - made by [[Fantasy Flight Games]] no less - giving the vague '/tg/ related' qualifications this site uses.
It was released around the time Doom 3 was released, though it wasn't that remarkable and is pretty hard to find nowadays.

One guy plays the baddies, the other 1-4 players play a band of unfortunate marines. The heroes start with 2-3 powerup cards, and the baddies get 5 cards from his own deck and during the game, he gets to draw more (the rate of which is equal to how many marines there are) and if his deck is empty, he gets to insta-kill one of the Marines. His guys are more varied in their movement but they can only shoot once.

The marines have three options: move 8 spaces without shooting, move 4 spaces and shoot once, or shoot twice without movement. They need to explore the board, find computers and other events as the board provides. The baddies, meanwhile, can either upgrade his monsters or bring more to the board.
Either way, his goal is to score 6 kills on the Marines.

A new board game got released shortly after May 2016 Doom, which, to my understanding, is basically just the same shit as before with a new coat of paint.
* It's different, but not too different. Similar in concept and design, with the main differences seeming to be in how the Marines play, and victory conditions for certain scenarios. Absolutely beautiful models however, and incredibly fun. Highly recommended.

==Movie==
Also (roughly) around the same time as Doom 3 was a movie starring Karl Urban and former WWE superstar Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. It pretty much replaced the whole Hell plot with some genetic experimentation to give people superpowers that only succeeds in creating hyper-aggressive mutants, and a squad of Marines sent to investigate the mayhem. It wasn't that good, with the only really 'good' scene being this one scene where it's all FPS-style like the original games and has monster killing.

Another movie was released in 2019, named ''Doom : Annihilation.'' When asked what they thought about this, id Software simply replied: "We are not involved in the movie."

==External Links==
*[https://doomwiki.org/ Doom Wiki] for all your Doom-related autism needs
*[https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/ /idgames/], the home of pretty much every Doom mod worth playing (and pretty much every Doom mod that isn't worth playing) since 1994.

[[Category:Video Games]][[Category:Awesome]]

Doom

2019-12-03T08:56:32Z

2601:585:8301:76D0:455A:9655:9E33:16A7: /* Doom 4 (aka DOOM aka DOOD aka Brutal Doom HD) */

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[[File:Doom cover poster.jpeg|thumb|If you don't already have the first level's music in your head, you may be on the wrong site.]]
{{topquote|Over the centuries, mankind has tried many ways of combatting the forces of evil... prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until Doom, no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun. Eat leaden death, demon...|[[Discworld|Terry Pratchett]]}}

The granddaddy of the first person shooter, the original ass-kicking demon-slaying 3D slaughterfest, '''''Doom''''' is a franchise that demands respect even in the hallowed halls of /tg/. It was actually inspired by a [[Dungeons & Dragons]] campaign played by the founders of id Software; John Romero had given a demon lord the key to overrunning the material plane in exchange for a magic [[Katanas are Underpowered in d20|katana]] because he's an edgy little bitch like that, and John Carmack (the DM) decided it made a good premise for their new 3D game. The katana in question would later be used in Romero's game ''Daikatana'', which was a total failure for reasons that aren't important enough to go over right now.

The plot? What do you think this is, [[Fags of 4chan#Board Fags|urchin?]] Here's your plot: you are a Space Marine (no, not the 40K guy, a jumped-up soldier who is sent to fight on other planets, so closer to the [[Imperial Guard]]) stationed on Mars. Somehow, demons break through into our reality and slaughter everyone else. Your job? Fight your way to where, you hope, there's a ride off of this rock, and make bloody mincemeat out of everything standing between you and salvation. Standing in your way are armies of zombified fellow marines and eggheads, fireball-tossing imps, hulking flesh-eating demons, cyborg-demon monstrosities, and various other hell-spawned nasties who want to kill you horribly. Good luck. You'll need it...

Although not the very ''first'' of the FPS genre (even its predecessor, [[Wolfenstein]] 3D, wasn't the first, as the history of the genre goes back all the way into 70's), Doom was definitive to the genre, so much so that "Doom Clone" was the standard nickname for many years afterwards. People are still playing it and making it even more awesome with [[Homebrew|their own custom modifications]] 24 years later, which isn't something you hear that often outside of /tg/; this is one of the main reasons why the franchise is so well-respected.

Fun fact: that iconic Doom monster, the Cacodemon, was actually inspired by the artwork for an Astral Dreadnought on the cover of the [[Dungeons & Dragons]] 1st edition [[Manual of the Planes]] splatbook. Also relevant to /tg/ is that Sandy Petersen, co-designer of [[Ghostbusters RPG]], creator of [[Call of Cthulhu]], and author of some [[RuneQuest]] stuff, worked on the game. He designed some levels (more in the sequel) and made some contributions to the monster design.

==Classic DOOM (aka The Good Shit)==
{{topquote|Welcome to DOOM, a lightning-fast virtual reality adventure where you're the toughest space trooper ever to suck vacuum. Your mission is to shoot your way through a monster-infested holocaust. Living to tell the tale if possible.|README.TXT, Doom 1.8 shareware}}
The original Doom was fast-paced and bloody compared to what came before, but wasn't afraid to vary the pace with more labyrinthine levels or make you shit your pants by dropping you into a crowd of demons when you least expected it. (Fun fact No. 2: The extra levels included in the full version of Doom were built by the same guy who wrote [[Call of Cthulhu]] in just 10 weeks.) Doom II on the other hand was a circle-strafing explosion-rich gorefest, and is what basically everyone thinks of when they think of both Doom and 90s FPS gameplay in general. Plot was bare-minimum: Demons took over Phobos and ate Deimos, kill them all. Or, in Doom 2's case, Demons are trying to infest Earth in revenge, kill them all AGAIN. But this time, ''it's personal''. (No, seriously, they killed your pet bunny Daisy.) The Doom engine is extremely mod-friendly for a 90s game (as both Carmack and Romero had been big into software tinkering in their day) and id Software actually paid a modding group for the right to sell two of their expansion packs commercially. Slightly more obscure but still relevant is Doom 64, which replaced the high-speed explode-o-rama with a stronger horror theme and more deliberate pace. id Software then for a time turned toward more multiplayer-oriented games with the ''Quake'' series and gave Doom a rest.

===The Doom Comic===
{{topquote|'''DYNAMITE! I'M COOKING WITH GAS! I'VE GOTTA HANDFUL OF VERTEBRAE AND A HEADFUL OF MAD! YEAH, THAT'S YOUR SPINAL CORD, BABY! DIG IT!'''|You, the moment you read that heading}}
The origin of [[Rip and Tear]]. Possibly the most ridiculously, amazingly, stupidly 90s thing that has ever been put to paper with the possible exception of [[Snowflame]]. It has to be read to be believed. [https://www.doomworld.com/10years/doomcomic/ So go read it.]

===Monsters===
[[File:Reaperminis.jpg|thumb|right|Limited-edition monster minis from [[Reaper Miniatures]]. Admit it, you want that Cyberdemon for your Daemons of Chaos army.]]
*'''Former human''': Wet toilet paper. Only dangerous until you get a shotgun.
*'''Former sergeant''': Still wet toilet paper, but full of broken glass; if one of these assholes gets behind you before you find armor you're probably dead. Likely to be your first source for shotguns.
*'''Imp''': The first true demon you encounter with a dodgeable projectile and more health than the formers. The first meaningful enemy you meet, and runner-up for most iconic non-boss monster.
*'''Demon''': Otherwise known as '''Pinkies'''. Giant hairless gorilla with a mouth that could give a [[squig]] lessons in eating. [[Derp|They can't walk and bite at the same time]] so you can just step out of their way, but they tend to come in large groups and dance around like spastic toddlers (which makes them harder to shoot) as they run up to you.
**'''Spectre''': Demon with Predator-style optic camo. An absolute bitch to deal with in dark environments, which is naturally where you find them.
*'''Cacodemon''': Mr. [[Astral Dreadnought]] Head. These fuckers can fly and you can't look up, so have fun fighting them in close quarters where they can float out of your field of view. Dangerous, but get a rapid-fire weapon and they become a joke as you stunlock them until they are all dead. ''The'' most iconic non-boss monster, partially because of its sheer WTFery but mostly because of how easy it is to chibi/make plushies out of.
*'''Lost Soul''': Floating flaming skulls that fly at you at approximately SANIC miles per hour. Fairly weak, but very fast and has a habit of nibbling at you while you focus on something more dangerous.
*'''Hell Knight''': Now we're talking. [[Space Marine]] sized and equipped with a punch and moderate projectile attacks (fireballs). Shooting him in the face with a shotgun will kill him pretty quickly.
**'''Baron of Hell''': Super hell knight with double the health. Big and equipped with nasty melee and projectile attacks. Shooting ''him'' in the face with a shotgun just '''pisses him off'''. Super shotguns will work though.
*'''Former commando''': Unlike the other formers this guy is no joke: he's durable enough to not die when breathed on and his hitscan chaingun is almost as powerful as yours. Using hordes of these guys in an open arena with no cover is the pinnacle of dick moves in Doom mapping.
*'''Revenant''': [[Meme|Agitating skeleton aka '''DOOT'''.]] One of the few monsters that moves anywhere near as fast as you do, plus he runs up and tries to punch your head off if you move inside the minimum range of the homing rockets he shoots. It is an established fact that any given Doom map is automatically casuals-only unless the mapper adds at least 100 revenants.
*'''Mancubus''': [[Festus the Leechlord|HELLO I'M FUCKING FAT.]] Slow, but very tank and he has dual heavy flamers for arms that hurt like hell. Fortunately, this also applies to any nearby demons, so you can make them kill each other for your amusement just by standing between a mancubus and another monster.
*'''Pain elemental''': [[Meme|Meatball demon.]] Like a cacodemon, but instead of shooting fireballs, it shoots Lost Souls. Has the opposite problem to the pinkies in that [[Derp|you can stand in front of its face]] and prevent the lost souls from spawning.
*'''Arch-vile''': One of the few monsters that that's faster than the player at a full run. Sets you on fire [[Psyker|with its mind]] and revives any monsters it comes across so you have to kill them all over again. Meeting one of these guys in a slaughtermap will make you [[Khorne|hate everything forever.]]
*'''Cyberdemon''': [[Rip and tear|Is huge, and therefore has huge guts.]] Basically a (Chaos possesed?) Carnifex with a rocket launcher for an arm, and significantly faster than he looks. Without a doubt the fuckingest monster in the classic game, and practically tailor made for soaking up BFG shots.
*'''Spider Mastermind''': Doom 1’s final boss, despite being inferior in almost every way to the Cyberdemon you fight earlier. Go figure. Even more XBOX HUEG than the Cyberdemon, but has a super-chaingun instead of a rocket launcher and refuses to let up until either you or it are dead. Has the critical weakness of BFG shots up the ass due to the way its hugeness interacts with the mechanics of the classic BFG.
**'''Arachnotron''': Babby Masterminds that go fast and shit plasma at you.

==Doom 3==
In the early 2000s, Doom 3 came along. It blows chunks compared to the classics, but since the classics are so damn good it ends up being passable anyway. Since Valve had made "story-driven" shooters and "realistic" scripted encounters the in thing id decided to rip off Half-Life, grafting on elements of the original Doom that had been scrapped at the concept stage. Unfortunately the gameplay was too slow and similar to the rest of the genre, the scripting and story interludes just made the gameplay even clunkier and the big technological gimmick (per-pixel lighting) meant you had to choose between seeing what you're supposed to shoot with a crappy little flashlight and actually being able to shoot it. Supposedly the lighting effects were resource intense during development and this was the "solution" (of course we know better that they wanted to make it a quasi survival horror). Naturally the first mod for the game was duct tape.

==Doom 4 (aka DOOM aka DOOD aka Brutal Doom HD)==
{{topquote|They are rage, brutal, without mercy. But you? You will be '''worse'''. [[Rip and Tear]], until it is '''done'''.|A direct order from what is either [[God-Emperor of Mankind|God's]] [[Living Saint|seraphs]], [[Khorne]] himself, or his champion (and your co-conspirator)the ''first'' betrayer (not [[Kharn|Khârn]]) Seriously, does any of that really matter. do you really need more of a mission briefing? if so why are you playing this game?}}

Then the latest Doom came out in May 2016. This rendition can basically be described as "3d Brutal Doom II" only sexier, with features like [[Rip and tear|ripping enemies apart with your bare hands]] and having to stay on the move to avoid being torn to shreds. The plot is also about as bare minimum as the original (albeit with a surprising amount of lore hidden away in the Codex), kicking the player straight into the action with waking up on Mars, immediately [[Rip and tear|smashing a zombie’s skull]], and basically being told “demonic invasion, go kill everything.” Also, the player this time around is someone the demons call the “Doom Slayer", who has traveled through “Worlds and Time” (hinting that the Doom Slayer could very well be the original Doomguy from the first two games, having also survived Doom 64 and has been traveling Hell since but that's deliberately left ambiguous in-game, names will be used interchangeably), and millennia ago [[Awesome|kicked Hell’s ass so hard that the best the demons could do is seal him away so that he wouldn’t destroy Hell]]. Then the UAC decides to deal with an Energy Crisis by quite literally [[Humanity Fuck Yeah|slamming an Oil Derrick on a Hell Portal to siphon off Hell Energy for power]], and just for giggles starts tomb raiding Hell for artifacts and treasures as well, ultimately running off with the Doomguy's sarcophagus. The demons see that the Doomguy’s prison/tomb is empty, and the subsequent invasion is actually a panicked attempt to stop the Doomguy from being woken up. Obviously they fail and he butchers ever last one of them.

Samuel Hayden is the guy in charge of the UAC, a cyborg the size of a 40k [[Space Marine]]. He and Vega, the Mars UAC AI, are basically quest givers for the most part. His subordinate Olivia Pierce pretty much ran a cult while Hayden was pillaging artifacts from Hell, [[Grimdark|being the only one to make it back from the expeditions]]. When shit hits the fan he decides to wake the Doom Slayer up. Of course, once awake, he goes on a rampage and busts the UACs shit, as Hayden's disregard for human life is too far even for Doomguy to take, expressing his outrage without the need for a voice actor.

So now it's up to the Doom Slayer in awesome power armor to [[Rip and Tear|rip and tear]] and dakka every demon he comes across to stop Olivia while wrecking UACs energy production. After going to hell at least once due to Olivia breaking an Argent Accumulator and making it back to Mars, then after Hayden installs a "tether" to him, Hayden sends Doomguy on a quest to find the Helix Stone, picking up the most powerful version of the BFG 9000 yet on the way(more on that below). Once he reaches the Helix Stone it directs Doomguy to acquire the Crucible, a relic in the Titan's Realm. So Doomguy has to kill the Cyberdemon to get back to hell, make a long trek and fight three bosses, two of them at once, for the Crucible and returns to Mars again. Then to finally stop Olivia, Hayden, being the bastard that he is, even sacrifices his old friend, Vega, though unlike everyone else, at least our player character is nice enough to make a backup. The first major hint that Hayden is a corporate douchebag is that he doesn't tell Doomguy that the backup function even exists. The Doom Slayer uses the Crucible to shutdown Hell's energy wells and releases the spirits of his old friends, the Night Sentinels.

Once Olivia is found, she transforms into the Spider Mastermind. If you've been collecting all the stuff like you should have, she can easily be(and the other bosses) can be cheesed by the best weapons even on the highest difficulty, with the [[Cheese|Rich get Richer]] Rune fully upgraded. Once she's dead its the final cutscene, Where Hayden steals the "Crucible" which turns out to be an energy blade that makes a Lightsaber look like a toothpick, Then sends the Doom Slayer off to who knows where with the tether he installed into the Praetor suit earlier. So he can have a gopher who isn't dead or something. Then you experience one of the best credit sequences made for a video game in over a decade.

Mick Gordon's soundtrack gives the game the best metal music ever. BFG Divison being the standout in the soundtrack. Used for two whole levels and the final boss music is a Glitch remix of it. There is also some inspiration from RPG style FPS a la Metro 2033 and [[Samus|Metroid Prime]]. As collecting Argent Energy, weapon mods and Runes allow them to upgrade the Praetor Suit to suit their preferred play style. The engine allows the Doom Slayer a wide range of first-person animations. As his destruction of UAC property and actions portrays an "I'm too old for this shit" attitude. Having to fight demons for centuries doesn't make for a happy camper.

The damage of the BFG 9000 itself is notable. This thing instantly vaporizes every non-boss enemy on-screen!(and them too if you exploit a glitch. However what a player does that the devs didn't intend is dubious in canon.) You read that correctly you don't have to aim it directly at your targets to kill them. You just have to find the right opening to make it kill every demon you can. As the Plasma Bolt throws out lightening or much more likely, solar flares. That would mean the Plasma the BFG fires is likely firing a fucking miniature star with each shot! The F in BFG may stand for Fermentation, Grimdark! with science!. We can wait while you Google it.

Don't be impressed just yet. A Baron of Hell is 2000 pounds and because it turns everything into gibs it comes in contact with.
That means it has to have 7 Gigajoules of energy and would have to be heated up to over 100,000 degrees Celsius! [[Anal_Circumference|A temperature range which is only seen in small stars and nebula!]] That's not just [[GrimDark]], that's just fucking cold in the most brutal way possible and speaks to the insanity of the UAC for building this thing. Are we sure somebody didn't screw up the name? Though Brown Dwarf Gun 9000 doesn't sound as cool.(Though why is it green? Because it's blue-green! As blue in space equals very fucking hot!) In all possibility, if the Doom Slayer didn't wear his Praetor suit. Firing the weapon would instantly annihilate him too! (since Photons are their own particle and antiparticle the word is valid) No apologies for the science jokes. They are necessary evils in explaining how the BFG 9000 works.

It also says a lot of the bosses as a direct hit will merely stun them (without using the weapon wheel glitch) while shaving off large portions of their health. So you need either a very advanced suit of Powered Armor or a significant amount of mass to survive a direct hit from the plasma bolt and its flares. The only real con to using the BFG 9000 is it's limited ammo of four shots. Though a good player can get around that if they set up their Runes correctly.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig_gQAITzIk| Science and math mostly explained in this Youtube video ]. So yeah, the BFG 9000 shoots miniature stars.

===DOOM Eternal===
Doom Eternal was announced at E3 and a gameplay reveal was shown at Quakecon 2018. From the look of it, it's glorious. It's set on a demonically infested Earth and the now post-Exterminatus Mars and Phobos Research Center, the latter of which featuring the BFG10000 (a stationary ship-sized version of the BFG9000). The Doom Slayer has a shitload of new abilities: gone is the Preator Suit and hello Predator Suit!
It includes a shoulder-mounted flamethrower/grenade launcher (which you can fire WHILE you fire your Chaingun!), a retractable arm blade to split demons in half, a dash move, the super shotgun has been upgraded with a grappling hook, A FUCKING DEMON SWORD (which has been confirmed by the devs to be another Crucible, which raises the question as to how many of those things are there?) and shitloads of other toys. Some demons from the old Doom games have returned (such as the Arch-Vile and Arachnotron). The designs have also been updated; for example, the Mancubus looks more like its Doom II design, and the Baron of Hell has dual flaming swords. There is also an awesome feature called "Destructible Demons", where demons will actually show more damage on their bodies the more they get hit. There will also be a player mode called Invasion, a [[Dark Souls]]-inspired feature where players can join another player's campaign and fight them as demons (it can be turned off if you want). Overall, a lot of amazing things are in this game.

Also, check out [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0Bx4G3bOu4 this video where the Doom Slayer's presence scares the shit out of humans and demons alike]. Awesome.

Of course, we can assume Samuel Hayden fails to save Earth from its energy crisis. Also obvious is that whatever hell-cult took over the UAC on Mars wasn't an isolated case, as it seems to have dug itself deep enough to make Earth undergo its own apocalypse. Based on the above clip, a significant portion of upper management is part of the cult as they tell their terrified subordinates to let the demons through; another clip tells employees to outright welcome demons to Earth, going full-on Quisling even as they’re being turned into zombies left and right. One would think Hayden would replace his dead Elite Guard with cyborgs loyal to himself who ''wouldn't'' be influenced by a bunch of fanatics. But since this is a video game series that mocks corporate malfeasance every chance it gets, Hayden's doctorate seems to have been sparse on the ability for strategic planning. This is all speculation though, as we've only seen two members high ranking members of the UAC so far in the reboot series.

On top of all that, the Doom Slayer appears to have a demonic counterpart now, wearing armor that looks similar to his Praetor Suit and equipped with a super shotgun and demonic axe. Who is he? Where did he come from? Whatever the case it’s looking like Doomy may have found a worthy adversary. In a notable first for the series, there are also signs of an opposing (but not necessarily friendly to humanity) force opposing Hell, with screenshots and box art showing vaguely angelic (or at least non-demonic) vistas and enemies to be fought. Because of course, the Doom Slayer would be able to tear Heaven down too.

==Doom: The Board Game==
Yes, there is a Board Game - made by [[Fantasy Flight Games]] no less - giving the vague '/tg/ related' qualifications this site uses.
It was released around the time Doom 3 was released, though it wasn't that remarkable and is pretty hard to find nowadays.

One guy plays the baddies, the other 1-4 players play a band of unfortunate marines. The heroes start with 2-3 powerup cards, and the baddies get 5 cards from his own deck and during the game, he gets to draw more (the rate of which is equal to how many marines there are) and if his deck is empty, he gets to insta-kill one of the Marines. His guys are more varied in their movement but they can only shoot once.

The marines have three options: move 8 spaces without shooting, move 4 spaces and shoot once, or shoot twice without movement. They need to explore the board, find computers and other events as the board provides. The baddies, meanwhile, can either upgrade his monsters or bring more to the board.
Either way, his goal is to score 6 kills on the Marines.

A new board game got released shortly after May 2016 Doom, which, to my understanding, is basically just the same shit as before with a new coat of paint.
* It's different, but not too different. Similar in concept and design, with the main differences seeming to be in how the Marines play, and victory conditions for certain scenarios. Absolutely beautiful models however, and incredibly fun. Highly recommended.

==Movie==
Also (roughly) around the same time as Doom 3 was a movie starring Karl Urban and former WWE superstar Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. It pretty much replaced the whole Hell plot with some genetic experimentation to give people superpowers that only succeeds in creating hyper-aggressive mutants, and a squad of Marines sent to investigate the mayhem. It wasn't that good, with the only really 'good' scene being this one scene where it's all FPS-style like the original games and has monster killing.

Another movie was released in 2019, named ''Doom : Annihilation.'' When asked what they thought about this, id Software simply replied: "We are not involved in the movie."

==External Links==
*[https://doomwiki.org/ Doom Wiki] for all your Doom-related autism needs
*[https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/ /idgames/], the home of pretty much every Doom mod worth playing (and pretty much every Doom mod that isn't worth playing) since 1994.

[[Category:Video Games]][[Category:Awesome]]

Doom

2019-12-03T08:53:21Z

2601:585:8301:76D0:455A:9655:9E33:16A7: /* Doom 4 (aka DOOM aka DOOD aka Brutal Doom HD) */

{{/vg/}}
{{Oldschool}}
{{awesome}}
{{Cleanup}}
[[File:Doom cover poster.jpeg|thumb|If you don't already have the first level's music in your head, you may be on the wrong site.]]
{{topquote|Over the centuries, mankind has tried many ways of combatting the forces of evil... prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until Doom, no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun. Eat leaden death, demon...|[[Discworld|Terry Pratchett]]}}

The granddaddy of the first person shooter, the original ass-kicking demon-slaying 3D slaughterfest, '''''Doom''''' is a franchise that demands respect even in the hallowed halls of /tg/. It was actually inspired by a [[Dungeons & Dragons]] campaign played by the founders of id Software; John Romero had given a demon lord the key to overrunning the material plane in exchange for a magic [[Katanas are Underpowered in d20|katana]] because he's an edgy little bitch like that, and John Carmack (the DM) decided it made a good premise for their new 3D game. The katana in question would later be used in Romero's game ''Daikatana'', which was a total failure for reasons that aren't important enough to go over right now.

The plot? What do you think this is, [[Fags of 4chan#Board Fags|urchin?]] Here's your plot: you are a Space Marine (no, not the 40K guy, a jumped-up soldier who is sent to fight on other planets, so closer to the [[Imperial Guard]]) stationed on Mars. Somehow, demons break through into our reality and slaughter everyone else. Your job? Fight your way to where, you hope, there's a ride off of this rock, and make bloody mincemeat out of everything standing between you and salvation. Standing in your way are armies of zombified fellow marines and eggheads, fireball-tossing imps, hulking flesh-eating demons, cyborg-demon monstrosities, and various other hell-spawned nasties who want to kill you horribly. Good luck. You'll need it...

Although not the very ''first'' of the FPS genre (even its predecessor, [[Wolfenstein]] 3D, wasn't the first, as the history of the genre goes back all the way into 70's), Doom was definitive to the genre, so much so that "Doom Clone" was the standard nickname for many years afterwards. People are still playing it and making it even more awesome with [[Homebrew|their own custom modifications]] 24 years later, which isn't something you hear that often outside of /tg/; this is one of the main reasons why the franchise is so well-respected.

Fun fact: that iconic Doom monster, the Cacodemon, was actually inspired by the artwork for an Astral Dreadnought on the cover of the [[Dungeons & Dragons]] 1st edition [[Manual of the Planes]] splatbook. Also relevant to /tg/ is that Sandy Petersen, co-designer of [[Ghostbusters RPG]], creator of [[Call of Cthulhu]], and author of some [[RuneQuest]] stuff, worked on the game. He designed some levels (more in the sequel) and made some contributions to the monster design.

==Classic DOOM (aka The Good Shit)==
{{topquote|Welcome to DOOM, a lightning-fast virtual reality adventure where you're the toughest space trooper ever to suck vacuum. Your mission is to shoot your way through a monster-infested holocaust. Living to tell the tale if possible.|README.TXT, Doom 1.8 shareware}}
The original Doom was fast-paced and bloody compared to what came before, but wasn't afraid to vary the pace with more labyrinthine levels or make you shit your pants by dropping you into a crowd of demons when you least expected it. (Fun fact No. 2: The extra levels included in the full version of Doom were built by the same guy who wrote [[Call of Cthulhu]] in just 10 weeks.) Doom II on the other hand was a circle-strafing explosion-rich gorefest, and is what basically everyone thinks of when they think of both Doom and 90s FPS gameplay in general. Plot was bare-minimum: Demons took over Phobos and ate Deimos, kill them all. Or, in Doom 2's case, Demons are trying to infest Earth in revenge, kill them all AGAIN. But this time, ''it's personal''. (No, seriously, they killed your pet bunny Daisy.) The Doom engine is extremely mod-friendly for a 90s game (as both Carmack and Romero had been big into software tinkering in their day) and id Software actually paid a modding group for the right to sell two of their expansion packs commercially. Slightly more obscure but still relevant is Doom 64, which replaced the high-speed explode-o-rama with a stronger horror theme and more deliberate pace. id Software then for a time turned toward more multiplayer-oriented games with the ''Quake'' series and gave Doom a rest.

===The Doom Comic===
{{topquote|'''DYNAMITE! I'M COOKING WITH GAS! I'VE GOTTA HANDFUL OF VERTEBRAE AND A HEADFUL OF MAD! YEAH, THAT'S YOUR SPINAL CORD, BABY! DIG IT!'''|You, the moment you read that heading}}
The origin of [[Rip and Tear]]. Possibly the most ridiculously, amazingly, stupidly 90s thing that has ever been put to paper with the possible exception of [[Snowflame]]. It has to be read to be believed. [https://www.doomworld.com/10years/doomcomic/ So go read it.]

===Monsters===
[[File:Reaperminis.jpg|thumb|right|Limited-edition monster minis from [[Reaper Miniatures]]. Admit it, you want that Cyberdemon for your Daemons of Chaos army.]]
*'''Former human''': Wet toilet paper. Only dangerous until you get a shotgun.
*'''Former sergeant''': Still wet toilet paper, but full of broken glass; if one of these assholes gets behind you before you find armor you're probably dead. Likely to be your first source for shotguns.
*'''Imp''': The first true demon you encounter with a dodgeable projectile and more health than the formers. The first meaningful enemy you meet, and runner-up for most iconic non-boss monster.
*'''Demon''': Otherwise known as '''Pinkies'''. Giant hairless gorilla with a mouth that could give a [[squig]] lessons in eating. [[Derp|They can't walk and bite at the same time]] so you can just step out of their way, but they tend to come in large groups and dance around like spastic toddlers (which makes them harder to shoot) as they run up to you.
**'''Spectre''': Demon with Predator-style optic camo. An absolute bitch to deal with in dark environments, which is naturally where you find them.
*'''Cacodemon''': Mr. [[Astral Dreadnought]] Head. These fuckers can fly and you can't look up, so have fun fighting them in close quarters where they can float out of your field of view. Dangerous, but get a rapid-fire weapon and they become a joke as you stunlock them until they are all dead. ''The'' most iconic non-boss monster, partially because of its sheer WTFery but mostly because of how easy it is to chibi/make plushies out of.
*'''Lost Soul''': Floating flaming skulls that fly at you at approximately SANIC miles per hour. Fairly weak, but very fast and has a habit of nibbling at you while you focus on something more dangerous.
*'''Hell Knight''': Now we're talking. [[Space Marine]] sized and equipped with a punch and moderate projectile attacks (fireballs). Shooting him in the face with a shotgun will kill him pretty quickly.
**'''Baron of Hell''': Super hell knight with double the health. Big and equipped with nasty melee and projectile attacks. Shooting ''him'' in the face with a shotgun just '''pisses him off'''. Super shotguns will work though.
*'''Former commando''': Unlike the other formers this guy is no joke: he's durable enough to not die when breathed on and his hitscan chaingun is almost as powerful as yours. Using hordes of these guys in an open arena with no cover is the pinnacle of dick moves in Doom mapping.
*'''Revenant''': [[Meme|Agitating skeleton aka '''DOOT'''.]] One of the few monsters that moves anywhere near as fast as you do, plus he runs up and tries to punch your head off if you move inside the minimum range of the homing rockets he shoots. It is an established fact that any given Doom map is automatically casuals-only unless the mapper adds at least 100 revenants.
*'''Mancubus''': [[Festus the Leechlord|HELLO I'M FUCKING FAT.]] Slow, but very tank and he has dual heavy flamers for arms that hurt like hell. Fortunately, this also applies to any nearby demons, so you can make them kill each other for your amusement just by standing between a mancubus and another monster.
*'''Pain elemental''': [[Meme|Meatball demon.]] Like a cacodemon, but instead of shooting fireballs, it shoots Lost Souls. Has the opposite problem to the pinkies in that [[Derp|you can stand in front of its face]] and prevent the lost souls from spawning.
*'''Arch-vile''': One of the few monsters that that's faster than the player at a full run. Sets you on fire [[Psyker|with its mind]] and revives any monsters it comes across so you have to kill them all over again. Meeting one of these guys in a slaughtermap will make you [[Khorne|hate everything forever.]]
*'''Cyberdemon''': [[Rip and tear|Is huge, and therefore has huge guts.]] Basically a (Chaos possesed?) Carnifex with a rocket launcher for an arm, and significantly faster than he looks. Without a doubt the fuckingest monster in the classic game, and practically tailor made for soaking up BFG shots.
*'''Spider Mastermind''': Doom 1’s final boss, despite being inferior in almost every way to the Cyberdemon you fight earlier. Go figure. Even more XBOX HUEG than the Cyberdemon, but has a super-chaingun instead of a rocket launcher and refuses to let up until either you or it are dead. Has the critical weakness of BFG shots up the ass due to the way its hugeness interacts with the mechanics of the classic BFG.
**'''Arachnotron''': Babby Masterminds that go fast and shit plasma at you.

==Doom 3==
In the early 2000s, Doom 3 came along. It blows chunks compared to the classics, but since the classics are so damn good it ends up being passable anyway. Since Valve had made "story-driven" shooters and "realistic" scripted encounters the in thing id decided to rip off Half-Life, grafting on elements of the original Doom that had been scrapped at the concept stage. Unfortunately the gameplay was too slow and similar to the rest of the genre, the scripting and story interludes just made the gameplay even clunkier and the big technological gimmick (per-pixel lighting) meant you had to choose between seeing what you're supposed to shoot with a crappy little flashlight and actually being able to shoot it. Supposedly the lighting effects were resource intense during development and this was the "solution" (of course we know better that they wanted to make it a quasi survival horror). Naturally the first mod for the game was duct tape.

==Doom 4 (aka DOOM aka DOOD aka Brutal Doom HD)==
{{topquote|They are rage, brutal, without mercy. But you? You will be '''worse'''. [[Rip and Tear]], until it is '''done'''.|A direct order from what is either [[God-Emperor of Mankind|God's]] [[Living Saint|seraphs]], [[Khorne]] himself, or his champion (and your co-conspirator) [[Kharn|Khârn]] Seriously, does it really matter. do you really need more of a mission briefing?}}

Then the latest Doom came out in May 2016. This rendition can basically be described as "3d Brutal Doom II" only sexier, with features like [[Rip and tear|ripping enemies apart with your bare hands]] and having to stay on the move to avoid being torn to shreds. The plot is also about as bare minimum as the original (albeit with a surprising amount of lore hidden away in the Codex), kicking the player straight into the action with waking up on Mars, immediately [[Rip and tear|smashing a zombie’s skull]], and basically being told “demonic invasion, go kill everything.” Also, the player this time around is someone the demons call the “Doom Slayer", who has traveled through “Worlds and Time” (hinting that the Doom Slayer could very well be the original Doomguy from the first two games, having also survived Doom 64 and has been traveling Hell since but that's deliberately left ambiguous in-game, names will be used interchangeably), and millennia ago [[Awesome|kicked Hell’s ass so hard that the best the demons could do is seal him away so that he wouldn’t destroy Hell]]. Then the UAC decides to deal with an Energy Crisis by quite literally [[Humanity Fuck Yeah|slamming an Oil Derrick on a Hell Portal to siphon off Hell Energy for power]], and just for giggles starts tomb raiding Hell for artifacts and treasures as well, ultimately running off with the Doomguy's sarcophagus. The demons see that the Doomguy’s prison/tomb is empty, and the subsequent invasion is actually a panicked attempt to stop the Doomguy from being woken up. Obviously they fail and he butchers ever last one of them.

Samuel Hayden is the guy in charge of the UAC, a cyborg the size of a 40k [[Space Marine]]. He and Vega, the Mars UAC AI, are basically quest givers for the most part. His subordinate Olivia Pierce pretty much ran a cult while Hayden was pillaging artifacts from Hell, [[Grimdark|being the only one to make it back from the expeditions]]. When shit hits the fan he decides to wake the Doom Slayer up. Of course, once awake, he goes on a rampage and busts the UACs shit, as Hayden's disregard for human life is too far even for Doomguy to take, expressing his outrage without the need for a voice actor.

So now it's up to the Doom Slayer in awesome power armor to [[Rip and Tear|rip and tear]] and dakka every demon he comes across to stop Olivia while wrecking UACs energy production. After going to hell at least once due to Olivia breaking an Argent Accumulator and making it back to Mars, then after Hayden installs a "tether" to him, Hayden sends Doomguy on a quest to find the Helix Stone, picking up the most powerful version of the BFG 9000 yet on the way(more on that below). Once he reaches the Helix Stone it directs Doomguy to acquire the Crucible, a relic in the Titan's Realm. So Doomguy has to kill the Cyberdemon to get back to hell, make a long trek and fight three bosses, two of them at once, for the Crucible and returns to Mars again. Then to finally stop Olivia, Hayden, being the bastard that he is, even sacrifices his old friend, Vega, though unlike everyone else, at least our player character is nice enough to make a backup. The first major hint that Hayden is a corporate douchebag is that he doesn't tell Doomguy that the backup function even exists. The Doom Slayer uses the Crucible to shutdown Hell's energy wells and releases the spirits of his old friends, the Night Sentinels.

Once Olivia is found, she transforms into the Spider Mastermind. If you've been collecting all the stuff like you should have, she can easily be(and the other bosses) can be cheesed by the best weapons even on the highest difficulty, with the [[Cheese|Rich get Richer]] Rune fully upgraded. Once she's dead its the final cutscene, Where Hayden steals the "Crucible" which turns out to be an energy blade that makes a Lightsaber look like a toothpick, Then sends the Doom Slayer off to who knows where with the tether he installed into the Praetor suit earlier. So he can have a gopher who isn't dead or something. Then you experience one of the best credit sequences made for a video game in over a decade.

Mick Gordon's soundtrack gives the game the best metal music ever. BFG Divison being the standout in the soundtrack. Used for two whole levels and the final boss music is a Glitch remix of it. There is also some inspiration from RPG style FPS a la Metro 2033 and [[Samus|Metroid Prime]]. As collecting Argent Energy, weapon mods and Runes allow them to upgrade the Praetor Suit to suit their preferred play style. The engine allows the Doom Slayer a wide range of first-person animations. As his destruction of UAC property and actions portrays an "I'm too old for this shit" attitude. Having to fight demons for centuries doesn't make for a happy camper.

The damage of the BFG 9000 itself is notable. This thing instantly vaporizes every non-boss enemy on-screen!(and them too if you exploit a glitch. However what a player does that the devs didn't intend is dubious in canon.) You read that correctly you don't have to aim it directly at your targets to kill them. You just have to find the right opening to make it kill every demon you can. As the Plasma Bolt throws out lightening or much more likely, solar flares. That would mean the Plasma the BFG fires is likely firing a fucking miniature star with each shot! The F in BFG may stand for Fermentation, Grimdark! with science!. We can wait while you Google it.

Don't be impressed just yet. A Baron of Hell is 2000 pounds and because it turns everything into gibs it comes in contact with.
That means it has to have 7 Gigajoules of energy and would have to be heated up to over 100,000 degrees Celsius! [[Anal_Circumference|A temperature range which is only seen in small stars and nebula!]] That's not just [[GrimDark]], that's just fucking cold in the most brutal way possible and speaks to the insanity of the UAC for building this thing. Are we sure somebody didn't screw up the name? Though Brown Dwarf Gun 9000 doesn't sound as cool.(Though why is it green? Because it's blue-green! As blue in space equals very fucking hot!) In all possibility, if the Doom Slayer didn't wear his Praetor suit. Firing the weapon would instantly annihilate him too! (since Photons are their own particle and antiparticle the word is valid) No apologies for the science jokes. They are necessary evils in explaining how the BFG 9000 works.

It also says a lot of the bosses as a direct hit will merely stun them (without using the weapon wheel glitch) while shaving off large portions of their health. So you need either a very advanced suit of Powered Armor or a significant amount of mass to survive a direct hit from the plasma bolt and its flares. The only real con to using the BFG 9000 is it's limited ammo of four shots. Though a good player can get around that if they set up their Runes correctly.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig_gQAITzIk| Science and math mostly explained in this Youtube video ]. So yeah, the BFG 9000 shoots miniature stars.

===DOOM Eternal===
Doom Eternal was announced at E3 and a gameplay reveal was shown at Quakecon 2018. From the look of it, it's glorious. It's set on a demonically infested Earth and the now post-Exterminatus Mars and Phobos Research Center, the latter of which featuring the BFG10000 (a stationary ship-sized version of the BFG9000). The Doom Slayer has a shitload of new abilities: gone is the Preator Suit and hello Predator Suit!
It includes a shoulder-mounted flamethrower/grenade launcher (which you can fire WHILE you fire your Chaingun!), a retractable arm blade to split demons in half, a dash move, the super shotgun has been upgraded with a grappling hook, A FUCKING DEMON SWORD (which has been confirmed by the devs to be another Crucible, which raises the question as to how many of those things are there?) and shitloads of other toys. Some demons from the old Doom games have returned (such as the Arch-Vile and Arachnotron). The designs have also been updated; for example, the Mancubus looks more like its Doom II design, and the Baron of Hell has dual flaming swords. There is also an awesome feature called "Destructible Demons", where demons will actually show more damage on their bodies the more they get hit. There will also be a player mode called Invasion, a [[Dark Souls]]-inspired feature where players can join another player's campaign and fight them as demons (it can be turned off if you want). Overall, a lot of amazing things are in this game.

Also, check out [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0Bx4G3bOu4 this video where the Doom Slayer's presence scares the shit out of humans and demons alike]. Awesome.

Of course, we can assume Samuel Hayden fails to save Earth from its energy crisis. Also obvious is that whatever hell-cult took over the UAC on Mars wasn't an isolated case, as it seems to have dug itself deep enough to make Earth undergo its own apocalypse. Based on the above clip, a significant portion of upper management is part of the cult as they tell their terrified subordinates to let the demons through; another clip tells employees to outright welcome demons to Earth, going full-on Quisling even as they’re being turned into zombies left and right. One would think Hayden would replace his dead Elite Guard with cyborgs loyal to himself who ''wouldn't'' be influenced by a bunch of fanatics. But since this is a video game series that mocks corporate malfeasance every chance it gets, Hayden's doctorate seems to have been sparse on the ability for strategic planning. This is all speculation though, as we've only seen two members high ranking members of the UAC so far in the reboot series.

On top of all that, the Doom Slayer appears to have a demonic counterpart now, wearing armor that looks similar to his Praetor Suit and equipped with a super shotgun and demonic axe. Who is he? Where did he come from? Whatever the case it’s looking like Doomy may have found a worthy adversary. In a notable first for the series, there are also signs of an opposing (but not necessarily friendly to humanity) force opposing Hell, with screenshots and box art showing vaguely angelic (or at least non-demonic) vistas and enemies to be fought. Because of course, the Doom Slayer would be able to tear Heaven down too.

==Doom: The Board Game==
Yes, there is a Board Game - made by [[Fantasy Flight Games]] no less - giving the vague '/tg/ related' qualifications this site uses.
It was released around the time Doom 3 was released, though it wasn't that remarkable and is pretty hard to find nowadays.

One guy plays the baddies, the other 1-4 players play a band of unfortunate marines. The heroes start with 2-3 powerup cards, and the baddies get 5 cards from his own deck and during the game, he gets to draw more (the rate of which is equal to how many marines there are) and if his deck is empty, he gets to insta-kill one of the Marines. His guys are more varied in their movement but they can only shoot once.

The marines have three options: move 8 spaces without shooting, move 4 spaces and shoot once, or shoot twice without movement. They need to explore the board, find computers and other events as the board provides. The baddies, meanwhile, can either upgrade his monsters or bring more to the board.
Either way, his goal is to score 6 kills on the Marines.

A new board game got released shortly after May 2016 Doom, which, to my understanding, is basically just the same shit as before with a new coat of paint.
* It's different, but not too different. Similar in concept and design, with the main differences seeming to be in how the Marines play, and victory conditions for certain scenarios. Absolutely beautiful models however, and incredibly fun. Highly recommended.

==Movie==
Also (roughly) around the same time as Doom 3 was a movie starring Karl Urban and former WWE superstar Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. It pretty much replaced the whole Hell plot with some genetic experimentation to give people superpowers that only succeeds in creating hyper-aggressive mutants, and a squad of Marines sent to investigate the mayhem. It wasn't that good, with the only really 'good' scene being this one scene where it's all FPS-style like the original games and has monster killing.

Another movie was released in 2019, named ''Doom : Annihilation.'' When asked what they thought about this, id Software simply replied: "We are not involved in the movie."

==External Links==
*[https://doomwiki.org/ Doom Wiki] for all your Doom-related autism needs
*[https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/ /idgames/], the home of pretty much every Doom mod worth playing (and pretty much every Doom mod that isn't worth playing) since 1994.

[[Category:Video Games]][[Category:Awesome]]

Warp

2019-12-03T08:48:35Z

2601:585:8301:76D0:455A:9655:9E33:16A7: /* History */

[[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''', 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 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. 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, 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 deep 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, ala the world of ''[[Mage: The Ascension]]''. Worse is that it, 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]]), 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 catatonic 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.]] This human was a marine, ([[Space Marine |No, not that marine]]...we think?) and he fought wave after wave of daemons on mars until he was killed in an ambush by the daemons. 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 physiscal 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.

[[Awesome |TL:DR HE CAME, HE SAW, HE RIPPED AND TORE DAEMON GUTS]]

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]], and they still lost. 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.

==Things to do in the Warp==
*If you're NOT Chaos, Chaos affiliated, or a blank, 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!]]
***If 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 harm coming to as a parody of Dante's Inferno.
*Stop at 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.
*Find the nearest Eldar stranded in there and 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 use it as a garotte to kill you.
*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.
*Eat the cookies, it's warp-tastic.
*If you're Chaos or Chaos affiliated please visit you local commissariat and file for execution.
*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]] [[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 <s>be a daemon engine.</s> be fed into the soul furnaces so that your screaming, eternally tormented soul will be used to fuel the forge.
*If you wandered into the Fortress of [[Khorne]]; try to beat something up. You might become a [[Bloodletter]].
**Do be careful not to wander into the Juggernaut pens. They ''will'' gore you without question until you're a stain on the floor.
**If you died fighting in Khorne's name and were carried off by a smoking hot daemonic Viking chick in red armour - congratulations, you may have entered Chaos Valhalla.
*If you wandered into the Palace of [[Slaanesh]]; fap. You might become a [[Daemonette]]
**If Slaanesh is feeling rather iffy, you might instead end up as his/her new sex toy for his/her newest 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 stuck (about to be ass raped by a 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 your grandfathers favor and not end up as a complete rotted cabbage patch kid. This is a last resort though and you will still end up a plague bearer.
**Alternatively, you may be eaten by one of the garden's denizens or the garden itself before you succumb to the garden's many plagues. You may still become the Plaguebeaer after they shit you out, though.
*If you wandered into the Maze of [[Tzeentch]]; do random things. Something might happen.
**Although do note that 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 and Kaldor Draigo and troll together.
*[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UHNJUgat2i8 Meet up with [[Leman Russ]], get hammered, and troll away.]
*If you can't 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. And 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) would dissolve into nothing. This includes the things you're standing 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.
*For the more technically inclined. One should 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 horde 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 rotted heap flesh 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]]

Doom

2019-12-03T08:46:19Z

2601:585:8301:76D0:455A:9655:9E33:16A7: /* Doom 4 (aka DOOM aka DOOD aka Brutal Doom HD) */

{{/vg/}}
{{Oldschool}}
{{awesome}}
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[[File:Doom cover poster.jpeg|thumb|If you don't already have the first level's music in your head, you may be on the wrong site.]]
{{topquote|Over the centuries, mankind has tried many ways of combatting the forces of evil... prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until Doom, no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun. Eat leaden death, demon...|[[Discworld|Terry Pratchett]]}}

The granddaddy of the first person shooter, the original ass-kicking demon-slaying 3D slaughterfest, '''''Doom''''' is a franchise that demands respect even in the hallowed halls of /tg/. It was actually inspired by a [[Dungeons & Dragons]] campaign played by the founders of id Software; John Romero had given a demon lord the key to overrunning the material plane in exchange for a magic [[Katanas are Underpowered in d20|katana]] because he's an edgy little bitch like that, and John Carmack (the DM) decided it made a good premise for their new 3D game. The katana in question would later be used in Romero's game ''Daikatana'', which was a total failure for reasons that aren't important enough to go over right now.

The plot? What do you think this is, [[Fags of 4chan#Board Fags|urchin?]] Here's your plot: you are a Space Marine (no, not the 40K guy, a jumped-up soldier who is sent to fight on other planets, so closer to the [[Imperial Guard]]) stationed on Mars. Somehow, demons break through into our reality and slaughter everyone else. Your job? Fight your way to where, you hope, there's a ride off of this rock, and make bloody mincemeat out of everything standing between you and salvation. Standing in your way are armies of zombified fellow marines and eggheads, fireball-tossing imps, hulking flesh-eating demons, cyborg-demon monstrosities, and various other hell-spawned nasties who want to kill you horribly. Good luck. You'll need it...

Although not the very ''first'' of the FPS genre (even its predecessor, [[Wolfenstein]] 3D, wasn't the first, as the history of the genre goes back all the way into 70's), Doom was definitive to the genre, so much so that "Doom Clone" was the standard nickname for many years afterwards. People are still playing it and making it even more awesome with [[Homebrew|their own custom modifications]] 24 years later, which isn't something you hear that often outside of /tg/; this is one of the main reasons why the franchise is so well-respected.

Fun fact: that iconic Doom monster, the Cacodemon, was actually inspired by the artwork for an Astral Dreadnought on the cover of the [[Dungeons & Dragons]] 1st edition [[Manual of the Planes]] splatbook. Also relevant to /tg/ is that Sandy Petersen, co-designer of [[Ghostbusters RPG]], creator of [[Call of Cthulhu]], and author of some [[RuneQuest]] stuff, worked on the game. He designed some levels (more in the sequel) and made some contributions to the monster design.

==Classic DOOM (aka The Good Shit)==
{{topquote|Welcome to DOOM, a lightning-fast virtual reality adventure where you're the toughest space trooper ever to suck vacuum. Your mission is to shoot your way through a monster-infested holocaust. Living to tell the tale if possible.|README.TXT, Doom 1.8 shareware}}
The original Doom was fast-paced and bloody compared to what came before, but wasn't afraid to vary the pace with more labyrinthine levels or make you shit your pants by dropping you into a crowd of demons when you least expected it. (Fun fact No. 2: The extra levels included in the full version of Doom were built by the same guy who wrote [[Call of Cthulhu]] in just 10 weeks.) Doom II on the other hand was a circle-strafing explosion-rich gorefest, and is what basically everyone thinks of when they think of both Doom and 90s FPS gameplay in general. Plot was bare-minimum: Demons took over Phobos and ate Deimos, kill them all. Or, in Doom 2's case, Demons are trying to infest Earth in revenge, kill them all AGAIN. But this time, ''it's personal''. (No, seriously, they killed your pet bunny Daisy.) The Doom engine is extremely mod-friendly for a 90s game (as both Carmack and Romero had been big into software tinkering in their day) and id Software actually paid a modding group for the right to sell two of their expansion packs commercially. Slightly more obscure but still relevant is Doom 64, which replaced the high-speed explode-o-rama with a stronger horror theme and more deliberate pace. id Software then for a time turned toward more multiplayer-oriented games with the ''Quake'' series and gave Doom a rest.

===The Doom Comic===
{{topquote|'''DYNAMITE! I'M COOKING WITH GAS! I'VE GOTTA HANDFUL OF VERTEBRAE AND A HEADFUL OF MAD! YEAH, THAT'S YOUR SPINAL CORD, BABY! DIG IT!'''|You, the moment you read that heading}}
The origin of [[Rip and Tear]]. Possibly the most ridiculously, amazingly, stupidly 90s thing that has ever been put to paper with the possible exception of [[Snowflame]]. It has to be read to be believed. [https://www.doomworld.com/10years/doomcomic/ So go read it.]

===Monsters===
[[File:Reaperminis.jpg|thumb|right|Limited-edition monster minis from [[Reaper Miniatures]]. Admit it, you want that Cyberdemon for your Daemons of Chaos army.]]
*'''Former human''': Wet toilet paper. Only dangerous until you get a shotgun.
*'''Former sergeant''': Still wet toilet paper, but full of broken glass; if one of these assholes gets behind you before you find armor you're probably dead. Likely to be your first source for shotguns.
*'''Imp''': The first true demon you encounter with a dodgeable projectile and more health than the formers. The first meaningful enemy you meet, and runner-up for most iconic non-boss monster.
*'''Demon''': Otherwise known as '''Pinkies'''. Giant hairless gorilla with a mouth that could give a [[squig]] lessons in eating. [[Derp|They can't walk and bite at the same time]] so you can just step out of their way, but they tend to come in large groups and dance around like spastic toddlers (which makes them harder to shoot) as they run up to you.
**'''Spectre''': Demon with Predator-style optic camo. An absolute bitch to deal with in dark environments, which is naturally where you find them.
*'''Cacodemon''': Mr. [[Astral Dreadnought]] Head. These fuckers can fly and you can't look up, so have fun fighting them in close quarters where they can float out of your field of view. Dangerous, but get a rapid-fire weapon and they become a joke as you stunlock them until they are all dead. ''The'' most iconic non-boss monster, partially because of its sheer WTFery but mostly because of how easy it is to chibi/make plushies out of.
*'''Lost Soul''': Floating flaming skulls that fly at you at approximately SANIC miles per hour. Fairly weak, but very fast and has a habit of nibbling at you while you focus on something more dangerous.
*'''Hell Knight''': Now we're talking. [[Space Marine]] sized and equipped with a punch and moderate projectile attacks (fireballs). Shooting him in the face with a shotgun will kill him pretty quickly.
**'''Baron of Hell''': Super hell knight with double the health. Big and equipped with nasty melee and projectile attacks. Shooting ''him'' in the face with a shotgun just '''pisses him off'''. Super shotguns will work though.
*'''Former commando''': Unlike the other formers this guy is no joke: he's durable enough to not die when breathed on and his hitscan chaingun is almost as powerful as yours. Using hordes of these guys in an open arena with no cover is the pinnacle of dick moves in Doom mapping.
*'''Revenant''': [[Meme|Agitating skeleton aka '''DOOT'''.]] One of the few monsters that moves anywhere near as fast as you do, plus he runs up and tries to punch your head off if you move inside the minimum range of the homing rockets he shoots. It is an established fact that any given Doom map is automatically casuals-only unless the mapper adds at least 100 revenants.
*'''Mancubus''': [[Festus the Leechlord|HELLO I'M FUCKING FAT.]] Slow, but very tank and he has dual heavy flamers for arms that hurt like hell. Fortunately, this also applies to any nearby demons, so you can make them kill each other for your amusement just by standing between a mancubus and another monster.
*'''Pain elemental''': [[Meme|Meatball demon.]] Like a cacodemon, but instead of shooting fireballs, it shoots Lost Souls. Has the opposite problem to the pinkies in that [[Derp|you can stand in front of its face]] and prevent the lost souls from spawning.
*'''Arch-vile''': One of the few monsters that that's faster than the player at a full run. Sets you on fire [[Psyker|with its mind]] and revives any monsters it comes across so you have to kill them all over again. Meeting one of these guys in a slaughtermap will make you [[Khorne|hate everything forever.]]
*'''Cyberdemon''': [[Rip and tear|Is huge, and therefore has huge guts.]] Basically a (Chaos possesed?) Carnifex with a rocket launcher for an arm, and significantly faster than he looks. Without a doubt the fuckingest monster in the classic game, and practically tailor made for soaking up BFG shots.
*'''Spider Mastermind''': Doom 1’s final boss, despite being inferior in almost every way to the Cyberdemon you fight earlier. Go figure. Even more XBOX HUEG than the Cyberdemon, but has a super-chaingun instead of a rocket launcher and refuses to let up until either you or it are dead. Has the critical weakness of BFG shots up the ass due to the way its hugeness interacts with the mechanics of the classic BFG.
**'''Arachnotron''': Babby Masterminds that go fast and shit plasma at you.

==Doom 3==
In the early 2000s, Doom 3 came along. It blows chunks compared to the classics, but since the classics are so damn good it ends up being passable anyway. Since Valve had made "story-driven" shooters and "realistic" scripted encounters the in thing id decided to rip off Half-Life, grafting on elements of the original Doom that had been scrapped at the concept stage. Unfortunately the gameplay was too slow and similar to the rest of the genre, the scripting and story interludes just made the gameplay even clunkier and the big technological gimmick (per-pixel lighting) meant you had to choose between seeing what you're supposed to shoot with a crappy little flashlight and actually being able to shoot it. Supposedly the lighting effects were resource intense during development and this was the "solution" (of course we know better that they wanted to make it a quasi survival horror). Naturally the first mod for the game was duct tape.

==Doom 4 (aka DOOM aka DOOD aka Brutal Doom HD)==
{{topquote|They are rage, brutal, without mercy. But you? You will be '''worse'''. [[Rip and Tear]], until it is '''done'''.|A direct order from what is either [[God Emperor of Mankind|God's]] [[Living Saint|seraphs]], [[Khorne]] himself, or his champion (and your co-conspirator) [[Kharn|Khârn]] Seriously, does it really matter. do you really need more of a mission briefing?}}

Then the latest Doom came out in May 2016. This rendition can basically be described as "3d Brutal Doom II" only sexier, with features like [[Rip and tear|ripping enemies apart with your bare hands]] and having to stay on the move to avoid being torn to shreds. The plot is also about as bare minimum as the original (albeit with a surprising amount of lore hidden away in the Codex), kicking the player straight into the action with waking up on Mars, immediately [[Rip and tear|smashing a zombie’s skull]], and basically being told “demonic invasion, go kill everything.” Also, the player this time around is someone the demons call the “Doom Slayer", who has traveled through “Worlds and Time” (hinting that the Doom Slayer could very well be the original Doomguy from the first two games, having also survived Doom 64 and has been traveling Hell since but that's deliberately left ambiguous in-game, names will be used interchangeably), and millennia ago [[Awesome|kicked Hell’s ass so hard that the best the demons could do is seal him away so that he wouldn’t destroy Hell]]. Then the UAC decides to deal with an Energy Crisis by quite literally [[Humanity Fuck Yeah|slamming an Oil Derrick on a Hell Portal to siphon off Hell Energy for power]], and just for giggles starts tomb raiding Hell for artifacts and treasures as well, ultimately running off with the Doomguy's sarcophagus. The demons see that the Doomguy’s prison/tomb is empty, and the subsequent invasion is actually a panicked attempt to stop the Doomguy from being woken up. Obviously they fail and he butchers ever last one of them.

Samuel Hayden is the guy in charge of the UAC, a cyborg the size of a 40k [[Space Marine]]. He and Vega, the Mars UAC AI, are basically quest givers for the most part. His subordinate Olivia Pierce pretty much ran a cult while Hayden was pillaging artifacts from Hell, [[Grimdark|being the only one to make it back from the expeditions]]. When shit hits the fan he decides to wake the Doom Slayer up. Of course, once awake, he goes on a rampage and busts the UACs shit, as Hayden's disregard for human life is too far even for Doomguy to take, expressing his outrage without the need for a voice actor.

So now it's up to the Doom Slayer in awesome power armor to [[Rip and Tear|rip and tear]] and dakka every demon he comes across to stop Olivia while wrecking UACs energy production. After going to hell at least once due to Olivia breaking an Argent Accumulator and making it back to Mars, then after Hayden installs a "tether" to him, Hayden sends Doomguy on a quest to find the Helix Stone, picking up the most powerful version of the BFG 9000 yet on the way(more on that below). Once he reaches the Helix Stone it directs Doomguy to acquire the Crucible, a relic in the Titan's Realm. So Doomguy has to kill the Cyberdemon to get back to hell, make a long trek and fight three bosses, two of them at once, for the Crucible and returns to Mars again. Then to finally stop Olivia, Hayden, being the bastard that he is, even sacrifices his old friend, Vega, though unlike everyone else, at least our player character is nice enough to make a backup. The first major hint that Hayden is a corporate douchebag is that he doesn't tell Doomguy that the backup function even exists. The Doom Slayer uses the Crucible to shutdown Hell's energy wells and releases the spirits of his old friends, the Night Sentinels.

Once Olivia is found, she transforms into the Spider Mastermind. If you've been collecting all the stuff like you should have, she can easily be(and the other bosses) can be cheesed by the best weapons even on the highest difficulty, with the [[Cheese|Rich get Richer]] Rune fully upgraded. Once she's dead its the final cutscene, Where Hayden steals the "Crucible" which turns out to be an energy blade that makes a Lightsaber look like a toothpick, Then sends the Doom Slayer off to who knows where with the tether he installed into the Praetor suit earlier. So he can have a gopher who isn't dead or something. Then you experience one of the best credit sequences made for a video game in over a decade.

Mick Gordon's soundtrack gives the game the best metal music ever. BFG Divison being the standout in the soundtrack. Used for two whole levels and the final boss music is a Glitch remix of it. There is also some inspiration from RPG style FPS a la Metro 2033 and [[Samus|Metroid Prime]]. As collecting Argent Energy, weapon mods and Runes allow them to upgrade the Praetor Suit to suit their preferred play style. The engine allows the Doom Slayer a wide range of first-person animations. As his destruction of UAC property and actions portrays an "I'm too old for this shit" attitude. Having to fight demons for centuries doesn't make for a happy camper.

The damage of the BFG 9000 itself is notable. This thing instantly vaporizes every non-boss enemy on-screen!(and them too if you exploit a glitch. However what a player does that the devs didn't intend is dubious in canon.) You read that correctly you don't have to aim it directly at your targets to kill them. You just have to find the right opening to make it kill every demon you can. As the Plasma Bolt throws out lightening or much more likely, solar flares. That would mean the Plasma the BFG fires is likely firing a fucking miniature star with each shot! The F in BFG may stand for Fermentation, Grimdark! with science!. We can wait while you Google it.

Don't be impressed just yet. A Baron of Hell is 2000 pounds and because it turns everything into gibs it comes in contact with.
That means it has to have 7 Gigajoules of energy and would have to be heated up to over 100,000 degrees Celsius! [[Anal_Circumference|A temperature range which is only seen in small stars and nebula!]] That's not just [[GrimDark]], that's just fucking cold in the most brutal way possible and speaks to the insanity of the UAC for building this thing. Are we sure somebody didn't screw up the name? Though Brown Dwarf Gun 9000 doesn't sound as cool.(Though why is it green? Because it's blue-green! As blue in space equals very fucking hot!) In all possibility, if the Doom Slayer didn't wear his Praetor suit. Firing the weapon would instantly annihilate him too! (since Photons are their own particle and antiparticle the word is valid) No apologies for the science jokes. They are necessary evils in explaining how the BFG 9000 works.

It also says a lot of the bosses as a direct hit will merely stun them (without using the weapon wheel glitch) while shaving off large portions of their health. So you need either a very advanced suit of Powered Armor or a significant amount of mass to survive a direct hit from the plasma bolt and its flares. The only real con to using the BFG 9000 is it's limited ammo of four shots. Though a good player can get around that if they set up their Runes correctly.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig_gQAITzIk| Science and math mostly explained in this Youtube video ]. So yeah, the BFG 9000 shoots miniature stars.

===DOOM Eternal===
Doom Eternal was announced at E3 and a gameplay reveal was shown at Quakecon 2018. From the look of it, it's glorious. It's set on a demonically infested Earth and the now post-Exterminatus Mars and Phobos Research Center, the latter of which featuring the BFG10000 (a stationary ship-sized version of the BFG9000). The Doom Slayer has a shitload of new abilities: gone is the Preator Suit and hello Predator Suit!
It includes a shoulder-mounted flamethrower/grenade launcher (which you can fire WHILE you fire your Chaingun!), a retractable arm blade to split demons in half, a dash move, the super shotgun has been upgraded with a grappling hook, A FUCKING DEMON SWORD (which has been confirmed by the devs to be another Crucible, which raises the question as to how many of those things are there?) and shitloads of other toys. Some demons from the old Doom games have returned (such as the Arch-Vile and Arachnotron). The designs have also been updated; for example, the Mancubus looks more like its Doom II design, and the Baron of Hell has dual flaming swords. There is also an awesome feature called "Destructible Demons", where demons will actually show more damage on their bodies the more they get hit. There will also be a player mode called Invasion, a [[Dark Souls]]-inspired feature where players can join another player's campaign and fight them as demons (it can be turned off if you want). Overall, a lot of amazing things are in this game.

Also, check out [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0Bx4G3bOu4 this video where the Doom Slayer's presence scares the shit out of humans and demons alike]. Awesome.

Of course, we can assume Samuel Hayden fails to save Earth from its energy crisis. Also obvious is that whatever hell-cult took over the UAC on Mars wasn't an isolated case, as it seems to have dug itself deep enough to make Earth undergo its own apocalypse. Based on the above clip, a significant portion of upper management is part of the cult as they tell their terrified subordinates to let the demons through; another clip tells employees to outright welcome demons to Earth, going full-on Quisling even as they’re being turned into zombies left and right. One would think Hayden would replace his dead Elite Guard with cyborgs loyal to himself who ''wouldn't'' be influenced by a bunch of fanatics. But since this is a video game series that mocks corporate malfeasance every chance it gets, Hayden's doctorate seems to have been sparse on the ability for strategic planning. This is all speculation though, as we've only seen two members high ranking members of the UAC so far in the reboot series.

On top of all that, the Doom Slayer appears to have a demonic counterpart now, wearing armor that looks similar to his Praetor Suit and equipped with a super shotgun and demonic axe. Who is he? Where did he come from? Whatever the case it’s looking like Doomy may have found a worthy adversary. In a notable first for the series, there are also signs of an opposing (but not necessarily friendly to humanity) force opposing Hell, with screenshots and box art showing vaguely angelic (or at least non-demonic) vistas and enemies to be fought. Because of course, the Doom Slayer would be able to tear Heaven down too.

==Doom: The Board Game==
Yes, there is a Board Game - made by [[Fantasy Flight Games]] no less - giving the vague '/tg/ related' qualifications this site uses.
It was released around the time Doom 3 was released, though it wasn't that remarkable and is pretty hard to find nowadays.

One guy plays the baddies, the other 1-4 players play a band of unfortunate marines. The heroes start with 2-3 powerup cards, and the baddies get 5 cards from his own deck and during the game, he gets to draw more (the rate of which is equal to how many marines there are) and if his deck is empty, he gets to insta-kill one of the Marines. His guys are more varied in their movement but they can only shoot once.

The marines have three options: move 8 spaces without shooting, move 4 spaces and shoot once, or shoot twice without movement. They need to explore the board, find computers and other events as the board provides. The baddies, meanwhile, can either upgrade his monsters or bring more to the board.
Either way, his goal is to score 6 kills on the Marines.

A new board game got released shortly after May 2016 Doom, which, to my understanding, is basically just the same shit as before with a new coat of paint.
* It's different, but not too different. Similar in concept and design, with the main differences seeming to be in how the Marines play, and victory conditions for certain scenarios. Absolutely beautiful models however, and incredibly fun. Highly recommended.

==Movie==
Also (roughly) around the same time as Doom 3 was a movie starring Karl Urban and former WWE superstar Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. It pretty much replaced the whole Hell plot with some genetic experimentation to give people superpowers that only succeeds in creating hyper-aggressive mutants, and a squad of Marines sent to investigate the mayhem. It wasn't that good, with the only really 'good' scene being this one scene where it's all FPS-style like the original games and has monster killing.

Another movie was released in 2019, named ''Doom : Annihilation.'' When asked what they thought about this, id Software simply replied: "We are not involved in the movie."

==External Links==
*[https://doomwiki.org/ Doom Wiki] for all your Doom-related autism needs
*[https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/ /idgames/], the home of pretty much every Doom mod worth playing (and pretty much every Doom mod that isn't worth playing) since 1994.

[[Category:Video Games]][[Category:Awesome]]

Doom

2019-12-03T08:24:31Z

2601:585:8301:76D0:455A:9655:9E33:16A7: /* Doom 4 (aka DOOM aka DOOD aka Brutal Doom HD) */

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[[File:Doom cover poster.jpeg|thumb|If you don't already have the first level's music in your head, you may be on the wrong site.]]
{{topquote|Over the centuries, mankind has tried many ways of combatting the forces of evil... prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until Doom, no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun. Eat leaden death, demon...|[[Discworld|Terry Pratchett]]}}

The granddaddy of the first person shooter, the original ass-kicking demon-slaying 3D slaughterfest, '''''Doom''''' is a franchise that demands respect even in the hallowed halls of /tg/. It was actually inspired by a [[Dungeons & Dragons]] campaign played by the founders of id Software; John Romero had given a demon lord the key to overrunning the material plane in exchange for a magic [[Katanas are Underpowered in d20|katana]] because he's an edgy little bitch like that, and John Carmack (the DM) decided it made a good premise for their new 3D game. The katana in question would later be used in Romero's game ''Daikatana'', which was a total failure for reasons that aren't important enough to go over right now.

The plot? What do you think this is, [[Fags of 4chan#Board Fags|urchin?]] Here's your plot: you are a Space Marine (no, not the 40K guy, a jumped-up soldier who is sent to fight on other planets, so closer to the [[Imperial Guard]]) stationed on Mars. Somehow, demons break through into our reality and slaughter everyone else. Your job? Fight your way to where, you hope, there's a ride off of this rock, and make bloody mincemeat out of everything standing between you and salvation. Standing in your way are armies of zombified fellow marines and eggheads, fireball-tossing imps, hulking flesh-eating demons, cyborg-demon monstrosities, and various other hell-spawned nasties who want to kill you horribly. Good luck. You'll need it...

Although not the very ''first'' of the FPS genre (even its predecessor, [[Wolfenstein]] 3D, wasn't the first, as the history of the genre goes back all the way into 70's), Doom was definitive to the genre, so much so that "Doom Clone" was the standard nickname for many years afterwards. People are still playing it and making it even more awesome with [[Homebrew|their own custom modifications]] 24 years later, which isn't something you hear that often outside of /tg/; this is one of the main reasons why the franchise is so well-respected.

Fun fact: that iconic Doom monster, the Cacodemon, was actually inspired by the artwork for an Astral Dreadnought on the cover of the [[Dungeons & Dragons]] 1st edition [[Manual of the Planes]] splatbook. Also relevant to /tg/ is that Sandy Petersen, co-designer of [[Ghostbusters RPG]], creator of [[Call of Cthulhu]], and author of some [[RuneQuest]] stuff, worked on the game. He designed some levels (more in the sequel) and made some contributions to the monster design.

==Classic DOOM (aka The Good Shit)==
{{topquote|Welcome to DOOM, a lightning-fast virtual reality adventure where you're the toughest space trooper ever to suck vacuum. Your mission is to shoot your way through a monster-infested holocaust. Living to tell the tale if possible.|README.TXT, Doom 1.8 shareware}}
The original Doom was fast-paced and bloody compared to what came before, but wasn't afraid to vary the pace with more labyrinthine levels or make you shit your pants by dropping you into a crowd of demons when you least expected it. (Fun fact No. 2: The extra levels included in the full version of Doom were built by the same guy who wrote [[Call of Cthulhu]] in just 10 weeks.) Doom II on the other hand was a circle-strafing explosion-rich gorefest, and is what basically everyone thinks of when they think of both Doom and 90s FPS gameplay in general. Plot was bare-minimum: Demons took over Phobos and ate Deimos, kill them all. Or, in Doom 2's case, Demons are trying to infest Earth in revenge, kill them all AGAIN. But this time, ''it's personal''. (No, seriously, they killed your pet bunny Daisy.) The Doom engine is extremely mod-friendly for a 90s game (as both Carmack and Romero had been big into software tinkering in their day) and id Software actually paid a modding group for the right to sell two of their expansion packs commercially. Slightly more obscure but still relevant is Doom 64, which replaced the high-speed explode-o-rama with a stronger horror theme and more deliberate pace. id Software then for a time turned toward more multiplayer-oriented games with the ''Quake'' series and gave Doom a rest.

===The Doom Comic===
{{topquote|'''DYNAMITE! I'M COOKING WITH GAS! I'VE GOTTA HANDFUL OF VERTEBRAE AND A HEADFUL OF MAD! YEAH, THAT'S YOUR SPINAL CORD, BABY! DIG IT!'''|You, the moment you read that heading}}
The origin of [[Rip and Tear]]. Possibly the most ridiculously, amazingly, stupidly 90s thing that has ever been put to paper with the possible exception of [[Snowflame]]. It has to be read to be believed. [https://www.doomworld.com/10years/doomcomic/ So go read it.]

===Monsters===
[[File:Reaperminis.jpg|thumb|right|Limited-edition monster minis from [[Reaper Miniatures]]. Admit it, you want that Cyberdemon for your Daemons of Chaos army.]]
*'''Former human''': Wet toilet paper. Only dangerous until you get a shotgun.
*'''Former sergeant''': Still wet toilet paper, but full of broken glass; if one of these assholes gets behind you before you find armor you're probably dead. Likely to be your first source for shotguns.
*'''Imp''': The first true demon you encounter with a dodgeable projectile and more health than the formers. The first meaningful enemy you meet, and runner-up for most iconic non-boss monster.
*'''Demon''': Otherwise known as '''Pinkies'''. Giant hairless gorilla with a mouth that could give a [[squig]] lessons in eating. [[Derp|They can't walk and bite at the same time]] so you can just step out of their way, but they tend to come in large groups and dance around like spastic toddlers (which makes them harder to shoot) as they run up to you.
**'''Spectre''': Demon with Predator-style optic camo. An absolute bitch to deal with in dark environments, which is naturally where you find them.
*'''Cacodemon''': Mr. [[Astral Dreadnought]] Head. These fuckers can fly and you can't look up, so have fun fighting them in close quarters where they can float out of your field of view. Dangerous, but get a rapid-fire weapon and they become a joke as you stunlock them until they are all dead. ''The'' most iconic non-boss monster, partially because of its sheer WTFery but mostly because of how easy it is to chibi/make plushies out of.
*'''Lost Soul''': Floating flaming skulls that fly at you at approximately SANIC miles per hour. Fairly weak, but very fast and has a habit of nibbling at you while you focus on something more dangerous.
*'''Hell Knight''': Now we're talking. [[Space Marine]] sized and equipped with a punch and moderate projectile attacks (fireballs). Shooting him in the face with a shotgun will kill him pretty quickly.
**'''Baron of Hell''': Super hell knight with double the health. Big and equipped with nasty melee and projectile attacks. Shooting ''him'' in the face with a shotgun just '''pisses him off'''. Super shotguns will work though.
*'''Former commando''': Unlike the other formers this guy is no joke: he's durable enough to not die when breathed on and his hitscan chaingun is almost as powerful as yours. Using hordes of these guys in an open arena with no cover is the pinnacle of dick moves in Doom mapping.
*'''Revenant''': [[Meme|Agitating skeleton aka '''DOOT'''.]] One of the few monsters that moves anywhere near as fast as you do, plus he runs up and tries to punch your head off if you move inside the minimum range of the homing rockets he shoots. It is an established fact that any given Doom map is automatically casuals-only unless the mapper adds at least 100 revenants.
*'''Mancubus''': [[Festus the Leechlord|HELLO I'M FUCKING FAT.]] Slow, but very tank and he has dual heavy flamers for arms that hurt like hell. Fortunately, this also applies to any nearby demons, so you can make them kill each other for your amusement just by standing between a mancubus and another monster.
*'''Pain elemental''': [[Meme|Meatball demon.]] Like a cacodemon, but instead of shooting fireballs, it shoots Lost Souls. Has the opposite problem to the pinkies in that [[Derp|you can stand in front of its face]] and prevent the lost souls from spawning.
*'''Arch-vile''': One of the few monsters that that's faster than the player at a full run. Sets you on fire [[Psyker|with its mind]] and revives any monsters it comes across so you have to kill them all over again. Meeting one of these guys in a slaughtermap will make you [[Khorne|hate everything forever.]]
*'''Cyberdemon''': [[Rip and tear|Is huge, and therefore has huge guts.]] Basically a (Chaos possesed?) Carnifex with a rocket launcher for an arm, and significantly faster than he looks. Without a doubt the fuckingest monster in the classic game, and practically tailor made for soaking up BFG shots.
*'''Spider Mastermind''': Doom 1’s final boss, despite being inferior in almost every way to the Cyberdemon you fight earlier. Go figure. Even more XBOX HUEG than the Cyberdemon, but has a super-chaingun instead of a rocket launcher and refuses to let up until either you or it are dead. Has the critical weakness of BFG shots up the ass due to the way its hugeness interacts with the mechanics of the classic BFG.
**'''Arachnotron''': Babby Masterminds that go fast and shit plasma at you.

==Doom 3==
In the early 2000s, Doom 3 came along. It blows chunks compared to the classics, but since the classics are so damn good it ends up being passable anyway. Since Valve had made "story-driven" shooters and "realistic" scripted encounters the in thing id decided to rip off Half-Life, grafting on elements of the original Doom that had been scrapped at the concept stage. Unfortunately the gameplay was too slow and similar to the rest of the genre, the scripting and story interludes just made the gameplay even clunkier and the big technological gimmick (per-pixel lighting) meant you had to choose between seeing what you're supposed to shoot with a crappy little flashlight and actually being able to shoot it. Supposedly the lighting effects were resource intense during development and this was the "solution" (of course we know better that they wanted to make it a quasi survival horror). Naturally the first mod for the game was duct tape.

==Doom 4 (aka DOOM aka DOOD aka Brutal Doom HD)==
{{topquote|They are rage, brutal, without mercy. But you? You will be '''worse'''. [[Rip and Tear]], until it is '''done'''.|A direct order from what is either God's seraphs, [[Khorne]] himself, or his champion (and your co-conspirator) [[Kharn|Khârn]] Seriously, does it really matter. do you really need more of a mission briefing?}}

Then the latest Doom came out in May 2016. This rendition can basically be described as "3d Brutal Doom II" only sexier, with features like [[Rip and tear|ripping enemies apart with your bare hands]] and having to stay on the move to avoid being torn to shreds. The plot is also about as bare minimum as the original (albeit with a surprising amount of lore hidden away in the Codex), kicking the player straight into the action with waking up on Mars, immediately [[Rip and tear|smashing a zombie’s skull]], and basically being told “demonic invasion, go kill everything.” Also, the player this time around is someone the demons call the “Doom Slayer", who has traveled through “Worlds and Time” (hinting that the Doom Slayer could very well be the original Doomguy from the first two games, having also survived Doom 64 and has been traveling Hell since but that's deliberately left ambiguous in-game, names will be used interchangeably), and millennia ago [[Awesome|kicked Hell’s ass so hard that the best the demons could do is seal him away so that he wouldn’t destroy Hell]]. Then the UAC decides to deal with an Energy Crisis by quite literally [[Humanity Fuck Yeah|slamming an Oil Derrick on a Hell Portal to siphon off Hell Energy for power]], and just for giggles starts tomb raiding Hell for artifacts and treasures as well, ultimately running off with the Doomguy's sarcophagus. The demons see that the Doomguy’s prison/tomb is empty, and the subsequent invasion is actually a panicked attempt to stop the Doomguy from being woken up. Obviously they fail and he butchers ever last one of them.

Samuel Hayden is the guy in charge of the UAC, a cyborg the size of a 40k [[Space Marine]]. He and Vega, the Mars UAC AI, are basically quest givers for the most part. His subordinate Olivia Pierce pretty much ran a cult while Hayden was pillaging artifacts from Hell, [[Grimdark|being the only one to make it back from the expeditions]]. When shit hits the fan he decides to wake the Doom Slayer up. Of course, once awake, he goes on a rampage and busts the UACs shit, as Hayden's disregard for human life is too far even for Doomguy to take, expressing his outrage without the need for a voice actor.

So now it's up to the Doom Slayer in awesome power armor to [[Rip and Tear|rip and tear]] and dakka every demon he comes across to stop Olivia while wrecking UACs energy production. After going to hell at least once due to Olivia breaking an Argent Accumulator and making it back to Mars, then after Hayden installs a "tether" to him, Hayden sends Doomguy on a quest to find the Helix Stone, picking up the most powerful version of the BFG 9000 yet on the way(more on that below). Once he reaches the Helix Stone it directs Doomguy to acquire the Crucible, a relic in the Titan's Realm. So Doomguy has to kill the Cyberdemon to get back to hell, make a long trek and fight three bosses, two of them at once, for the Crucible and returns to Mars again. Then to finally stop Olivia, Hayden, being the bastard that he is, even sacrifices his old friend, Vega, though unlike everyone else, at least our player character is nice enough to make a backup. The first major hint that Hayden is a corporate douchebag is that he doesn't tell Doomguy that the backup function even exists. The Doom Slayer uses the Crucible to shutdown Hell's energy wells and releases the spirits of his old friends, the Night Sentinels.

Once Olivia is found, she transforms into the Spider Mastermind. If you've been collecting all the stuff like you should have, she can easily be(and the other bosses) can be cheesed by the best weapons even on the highest difficulty, with the [[Cheese|Rich get Richer]] Rune fully upgraded. Once she's dead its the final cutscene, Where Hayden steals the "Crucible" which turns out to be an energy blade that makes a Lightsaber look like a toothpick, Then sends the Doom Slayer off to who knows where with the tether he installed into the Praetor suit earlier. So he can have a gopher who isn't dead or something. Then you experience one of the best credit sequences made for a video game in over a decade.

Mick Gordon's soundtrack gives the game the best metal music ever. BFG Divison being the standout in the soundtrack. Used for two whole levels and the final boss music is a Glitch remix of it. There is also some inspiration from RPG style FPS a la Metro 2033 and [[Samus|Metroid Prime]]. As collecting Argent Energy, weapon mods and Runes allow them to upgrade the Praetor Suit to suit their preferred play style. The engine allows the Doom Slayer a wide range of first-person animations. As his destruction of UAC property and actions portrays an "I'm too old for this shit" attitude. Having to fight demons for centuries doesn't make for a happy camper.

The damage of the BFG 9000 itself is notable. This thing instantly vaporizes every non-boss enemy on-screen!(and them too if you exploit a glitch. However what a player does that the devs didn't intend is dubious in canon.) You read that correctly you don't have to aim it directly at your targets to kill them. You just have to find the right opening to make it kill every demon you can. As the Plasma Bolt throws out lightening or much more likely, solar flares. That would mean the Plasma the BFG fires is likely firing a fucking miniature star with each shot! The F in BFG may stand for Fermentation, Grimdark! with science!. We can wait while you Google it.

Don't be impressed just yet. A Baron of Hell is 2000 pounds and because it turns everything into gibs it comes in contact with.
That means it has to have 7 Gigajoules of energy and would have to be heated up to over 100,000 degrees Celsius! [[Anal_Circumference|A temperature range which is only seen in small stars and nebula!]] That's not just [[GrimDark]], that's just fucking cold in the most brutal way possible and speaks to the insanity of the UAC for building this thing. Are we sure somebody didn't screw up the name? Though Brown Dwarf Gun 9000 doesn't sound as cool.(Though why is it green? Because it's blue-green! As blue in space equals very fucking hot!) In all possibility, if the Doom Slayer didn't wear his Praetor suit. Firing the weapon would instantly annihilate him too! (since Photons are their own particle and antiparticle the word is valid) No apologies for the science jokes. They are necessary evils in explaining how the BFG 9000 works.

It also says a lot of the bosses as a direct hit will merely stun them (without using the weapon wheel glitch) while shaving off large portions of their health. So you need either a very advanced suit of Powered Armor or a significant amount of mass to survive a direct hit from the plasma bolt and its flares. The only real con to using the BFG 9000 is it's limited ammo of four shots. Though a good player can get around that if they set up their Runes correctly.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig_gQAITzIk| Science and math mostly explained in this Youtube video ]. So yeah, the BFG 9000 shoots miniature stars.

===DOOM Eternal===
Doom Eternal was announced at E3 and a gameplay reveal was shown at Quakecon 2018. From the look of it, it's glorious. It's set on a demonically infested Earth and the now post-Exterminatus Mars and Phobos Research Center, the latter of which featuring the BFG10000 (a stationary ship-sized version of the BFG9000). The Doom Slayer has a shitload of new abilities: gone is the Preator Suit and hello Predator Suit!
It includes a shoulder-mounted flamethrower/grenade launcher (which you can fire WHILE you fire your Chaingun!), a retractable arm blade to split demons in half, a dash move, the super shotgun has been upgraded with a grappling hook, A FUCKING DEMON SWORD (which has been confirmed by the devs to be another Crucible, which raises the question as to how many of those things are there?) and shitloads of other toys. Some demons from the old Doom games have returned (such as the Arch-Vile and Arachnotron). The designs have also been updated; for example, the Mancubus looks more like its Doom II design, and the Baron of Hell has dual flaming swords. There is also an awesome feature called "Destructible Demons", where demons will actually show more damage on their bodies the more they get hit. There will also be a player mode called Invasion, a [[Dark Souls]]-inspired feature where players can join another player's campaign and fight them as demons (it can be turned off if you want). Overall, a lot of amazing things are in this game.

Also, check out [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0Bx4G3bOu4 this video where the Doom Slayer's presence scares the shit out of humans and demons alike]. Awesome.

Of course, we can assume Samuel Hayden fails to save Earth from its energy crisis. Also obvious is that whatever hell-cult took over the UAC on Mars wasn't an isolated case, as it seems to have dug itself deep enough to make Earth undergo its own apocalypse. Based on the above clip, a significant portion of upper management is part of the cult as they tell their terrified subordinates to let the demons through; another clip tells employees to outright welcome demons to Earth, going full-on Quisling even as they’re being turned into zombies left and right. One would think Hayden would replace his dead Elite Guard with cyborgs loyal to himself who ''wouldn't'' be influenced by a bunch of fanatics. But since this is a video game series that mocks corporate malfeasance every chance it gets, Hayden's doctorate seems to have been sparse on the ability for strategic planning. This is all speculation though, as we've only seen two members high ranking members of the UAC so far in the reboot series.

On top of all that, the Doom Slayer appears to have a demonic counterpart now, wearing armor that looks similar to his Praetor Suit and equipped with a super shotgun and demonic axe. Who is he? Where did he come from? Whatever the case it’s looking like Doomy may have found a worthy adversary. In a notable first for the series, there are also signs of an opposing (but not necessarily friendly to humanity) force opposing Hell, with screenshots and box art showing vaguely angelic (or at least non-demonic) vistas and enemies to be fought. Because of course, the Doom Slayer would be able to tear Heaven down too.

==Doom: The Board Game==
Yes, there is a Board Game - made by [[Fantasy Flight Games]] no less - giving the vague '/tg/ related' qualifications this site uses.
It was released around the time Doom 3 was released, though it wasn't that remarkable and is pretty hard to find nowadays.

One guy plays the baddies, the other 1-4 players play a band of unfortunate marines. The heroes start with 2-3 powerup cards, and the baddies get 5 cards from his own deck and during the game, he gets to draw more (the rate of which is equal to how many marines there are) and if his deck is empty, he gets to insta-kill one of the Marines. His guys are more varied in their movement but they can only shoot once.

The marines have three options: move 8 spaces without shooting, move 4 spaces and shoot once, or shoot twice without movement. They need to explore the board, find computers and other events as the board provides. The baddies, meanwhile, can either upgrade his monsters or bring more to the board.
Either way, his goal is to score 6 kills on the Marines.

A new board game got released shortly after May 2016 Doom, which, to my understanding, is basically just the same shit as before with a new coat of paint.
* It's different, but not too different. Similar in concept and design, with the main differences seeming to be in how the Marines play, and victory conditions for certain scenarios. Absolutely beautiful models however, and incredibly fun. Highly recommended.

==Movie==
Also (roughly) around the same time as Doom 3 was a movie starring Karl Urban and former WWE superstar Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. It pretty much replaced the whole Hell plot with some genetic experimentation to give people superpowers that only succeeds in creating hyper-aggressive mutants, and a squad of Marines sent to investigate the mayhem. It wasn't that good, with the only really 'good' scene being this one scene where it's all FPS-style like the original games and has monster killing.

Another movie was released in 2019, named ''Doom : Annihilation.'' When asked what they thought about this, id Software simply replied: "We are not involved in the movie."

==External Links==
*[https://doomwiki.org/ Doom Wiki] for all your Doom-related autism needs
*[https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/ /idgames/], the home of pretty much every Doom mod worth playing (and pretty much every Doom mod that isn't worth playing) since 1994.

[[Category:Video Games]][[Category:Awesome]]

Fortress-Monastery

2019-12-03T08:15:10Z

2601:585:8301:76D0:455A:9655:9E33:16A7: /* First Founding */

[[File:WhiteScars.JPG|200px|thumb|right|The Quan Zhou Fortress-Monastery of the [[White Scars]], located on [[Chogoris]].]]
A ''Fortress-Monastery'' is the central headquarters of a [[Space Marine Chapter]]. As [[Space Marines]] are viewed as warrior monks, a Fortress-Monastery holds elements of both a military base and an abbey. Exactly what constitutes a Fortress-Monastery will vary depending on the Chapter in question. Most Chapters will have their Fortress-Monastery based on their homeworld, usually isolated from the rest of the planet's population. In Fleet-based Chapters, the Fortress-Monastery may either be a star fort or space station (such as the [[Imperial Fists]] ''[[Phalanx]]'') or [[battle-barge]] which serves as the Chapter's flagship (such as the [[Black Templars]]' ''Eternal Crusader'').

Taking no chances with regards to defence, a Fortress-Monastery will be the most well defended bastion of [[Imperium of Man|Imperial]] strength on the planet it is located (the fact that most Space Marine Chapters live on [[Feral World|Feral]] and [[Death World]]s whose inhabitants are usually unaware of the greater galaxy is not an issue). Indeed, the only way a Fortress-Monastery is ''not'' the most defended base in the entire sector is on the off chance another Space Marine Fortress-Monastery is located in the same sector (though as the Night Lords and Red Corsairs demonstrate to the Marines-Errant, that sometimes doesn't amount to as much as it implies).

Each Monastery will have different buildings and substructures as per tradition or need, but the following locations are almost always present:

*Apothecarion: The fortress-monastery's medical center, where surgical suites for transforming Neophytes into full Astartes is done. It is also the place where [[gene-seed]] is housed and as such is possibly the most heavily warded and fortified area in the entire monastery. Possesses facilities to assist [[Apothecary|Apothecaries]] in gathering genetic data from progenoids and cultivate them into gene-seed organs.
*Armoury: The abode of the Master of the Forge and his [[Techmarine]]s. Serves as the Chapter's motor pool, forge, ammo dump, repair shops, and chapel to the [[Omnissiah]] all in one. Several Chapters with unique equipment, such as the [[Blood Angels]] and the [[Dark Angels]], have special [[Standard Template Construct|Standard Template Constructors]] which fashion unique vehicles and weapons. The Chapter's [[Dreadnought]]s will often be housed in a subsection of the Armory.
*Chapter Master's quarters: The private throne room and personal cell of the [[Chapter Master]]. Frequently the Chapter Council, composed of the chapter's [[Brother-Captain]]s and other senior officers, will meet here to plan campaigns and handle other official matters regarding the chapter as a whole.
*Communal dormitories: Housing for the [[Chapter Serf]]s, when they aren't attending to their duties. Depending on the chapter in question this may be a whole wing of the monastery or simply a janitor's closet next to the sewage system.
*Company blocks: Dormitories for each of the chapter's companies. Each Astartes is given a single small room, called a cell, which houses a bunk and a place to store their [[Power Armour]] and other nick-nacks. Each squad has a personal arming chamber which stores their weapons, ammunition, and replacement parts for their Power Armour. The Brother-Captain will have a larger cell that serves as an office where he can work on the logistical matters of company leadership and a private arming chamber. Each Company block will also house a Company chapel, where the [[Chaplain]] will lead them in prayer.
*Librarium: The abode of the [[Librarian]]s, where the Chapter's records are housed and where potential Librarians are tested. The Chapter's [[Astropath]]s will often work from warded cells located here as well.
*Reclusiam: The abode of the Chaplains, where rituals involving the whole Chapter, such as the coronation of a new Chapter Master or a funeral for an entire company, will be held. The Reclusiam also contains ancient Chapter relics and is overseen by the Reclusiarch, a post sometimes held by the Master of Sanctity. Think of a museum located in the middle of a Catherdral.

==Notable Fortress-Monasteries==

===First Founding===

*'''[[The Rock]]''': The Fortress-Monastery of the [[Dark Angels]]. Originally known as the ''Tower of Angels'', served as the primary headquarters of the Dark Angels on [[Caliban]]; its impressive [[void shields]] allowed it and the county size landmass (not hyperbole) it sits on to survive the planet's destruction. In the aftermath, the chapter installed massive warp and real-space engines into it's bulk, effectively turning an otherwise ordinary asteroid into one of the deadliest vessels in the Imperium. The Rock also serves as <s>a miniature Gitmo ''really, it's more Alcatraz'' for the [[Fallen Angels]]</s> NOTHING MORE THAN A STANDARD FORTRESS-MONASTERY, BECAUSE THE DARK ANGELS HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE.
*'''Quan Zhou:''' The Fortress-Monastery of the [[White Scars]], located on [[Chogoris]]. Originally the site of [[Jaghatai Khan]]'s fortress in the Khum Kharta mountains, like the Blood Angels Fortress-Monastery, the White Scars fortress-monastery went years without an official name before finally getting one in 6th Edition. Perhaps its most notable feature is that the procession leading up to the fortress's main gate is lined with the [[Ork|pike born rotting heads]] of the chapter's enemies.
*'''The Fang:''' The Fortress-Monastery of the [[Space Wolves]], and the tallest mountain on [[Fenris]], also one of the three most fortified locations in the Imperium ''(The others being [[Terra]] and the [[Imperial Knight|Keep Inviolate]] on [[Imperial Worlds|Kolossi]])'' Unsurprisingly, whoever did the Fenrisian to Imperial Gothic translation screwed up. The Wolves (who call themselves the ''Vlka Fenryka'') refer to their fortress-monastery as the ''Aett'', which in Imperial Gothic means "clan home" or "den".
*'''[[The Phalanx]]:''' The Fortress-Monastery of the [[Imperial Fists]]. While it's origins remain conflicted it was first encountered by the Emperor during the Great Crusade in the [[Inwit]] System piloted by [[Rogal Dorn]]. Phalanx is described as the largest and most destructive man made creation in the Imperium. The size of a moon/planetoid, it's size is so vast that it shines like a star. It has bitch slapped everything it has come across and was totally badass during The 13th Black Crusade.
*'''Arx Angelicum:''' The Fortress-Monastery of the [[Blood Angels]], built upon Mount Seraph, the largest mountain on [[Baal]]. Despite more than 25 years, four novels, and three and a half codices (they split ''Codex: Angels of Death'' with the Dark Angels in 2nd edition) the damn thing wasn't given a name until Guy Haley's recent Dante novel.
*'''Land-Behemoths:''' The Fortress-Monasteries of the [[Iron Hands]]. The planet [[Medusa]], the Iron Hands homeworld, is so tectonically unstable that the Iron Hands cannot risk making a single structure to house their gene-seed, Armoury, and Chapter relics, so each clan-company uses an [[Centurio Ordinatus|Ordinatus]]-sized vehicle known as a Land-Behemoth to travel around in.
*'''Fortress of Hera:''' The Fortress-Monastery of the [[Ultramarines]], located in the Mountains of Hera on [[Macragge]]. It was the site where [[Roboute Guilliman]]'s gestation pod landed as well, hence the significance of the place to begin with. Notable for housing the [[Spiritual Liege]] (until he got woken up by [[Belisarius Cawl|an old man in red robes]] and [[Yvraine|a sassy Eldar lass]], that is), being huge and having Maccrage's capital city, Magna Macragge Civitas, situated in the plain below its walls.
*'''Prometheus:''' The Fortress-Monastery of the [[Salamanders]]. Prometheus is the moon of [[Nocturne]], but in reality, the fortress-monastery is little more than a spaceport and barracks for the First Company, while the bulk of the Salamanders Chapter live in the Chapter's company Bastions in and around Nocturne's Sanctuary Cities.
*'''Ravenspire:''' The Fortress-Monastery of the [[Raven Guard]], located on [[Deliverance]]. Originally the guard tower for the Kiavharan enslavers, the Ravenspire was re-purposed as the stronghold of the Deliverance freedom fighters. [[Corvus Corax]] has a delicious sense of irony. Its edifice still bears the scars of battle received during the slave uprising ten thousand years later.

===Later Foundings===

*Eternal Crusader: Fortress-monastery of the [[Black Templars]]. A heavily modified [[battlebarge]] which serves as the flagship of the High Marshal and base of the Black Templars. Later revealed to have been the Imperial Fist's designated Gloriana class ship during the Crusade.
*Watch fortress Erioch: Space Fortress of the Deathwatch. Currently hanging around Segmentum Ultima.
*Arx Tyrannus: Formerly located in the Hellblade mountains on Rynn's World, "Tyrants Fortress" was the home of the Crimson Fists before a surface to space missile malfunctioned and blew it smithereens along with most of the chapter. The monastery was built around a landed battle-barge of the chapter sizable fleet when they took stewardship of the planet in roughly 800.M40
*The Proud Eyrie: Home of the [[Howling Griffons]] chapter located on their homeworld of Mancora. Built from the seeming remains of one of their chapter fleet's ships. Also, one of the few Chapter Monasteries we actually have a picture of.
*Raptorus Rex: Fortress-Monastery of the [[Fire Hawks]], a warp-capable ''Ramilles''-class Star Fort. Lost in the warp with all hands. Possibly now owned by the [[Legion of the Damned]].
*Memento Mori: Fortress-Ossuary of the [[Star Phantoms]]. A [[battle-barge]] currently parked on the ice moon Jhaga. The name means "Remember Death" and is shared with several other imperial (and chaos) starships.
*Nicor: Fortress-Monastery and flagship of the [[Carcharodons]]. This Battle Barge dates back to the Great Crusade and is equipped with stronger void-shields than normal for a ship of its type, fuck-huge harpoons used to pull any poor enemy ships close so that the Space Sharks can [[Rip and Tear|do what they do the best]], something called the "Plasma Destructor", and [[Awesome|a massive teleport system capable of teleporting entire battle companies at once]]. It also has a gigantic shark tank built into the back of the bridge (for the record, both the tank and the sharks inside are gigantic), cementing the Chararadon's as having the coolest ship in the galaxy.

==See Also==
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kihIexKXJA| A slice of life in a Fortress-Monastery]

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:HowlingGriffonsFortress-ProudAerie.jpg|The Proud Aerie, Fortress-Monastery of the Howling Griffons.
</gallery>
[[Category:Space Marines]]
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]