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Sisters of Silence

2021-03-01T09:09:21Z

2603:8001:6901:B2DB:64AA:CAA9:3F57:A1F6: /* History */

[[image:Sisters of Silence art.jpg|right|250px|thumb|They're as bitchin' as they look.]]
{{Topquote|That's their function... Aside from the fact that they fight like bastards. Got the pariah gene in 'em.|[[Leman Russ]], [[Primarch]] of the [[Space Wolves]], on the Sisters of Silence}}

The '''Sisters of Silence''' are an elite all-female order created by the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor of Mankind]] to man the [[Black Ships]] and round up a planet's renegade [[psyker]]s.

==History==
[[image:Sisters of silence.jpeg|right|250px|thumb|The Sisters of Silence. NOT ELDAR! It's like reverse eldar, anti psykers that have the near same outfits...]]
Near the onset of the [[Great Crusade]], the Emperor formed them as a counter-measure against untrained psykers, whose numbers had increased at the start of the [[Age of Strife]]. To do this, the Emperor ensured that they were all [[Blank|pariah]]s, human beings with no presence in the [[Warp]]; one has to wonder though whether they had to compete with the [[Officio Assassinorum]] for recruits (probably not, seeing as the Culexus Assassins are primarily males). As such, a psyker's abilities would have no effect on them, being cancelled out when they got close enough to the Sisters. In one of his stranger decisions, the Emperor explicitly had the Sisters take literal vows of silence upon becoming full Sisters. They could communicate via several sign languages (including [[Space Marines|Astartes]] battle-sign) but would not speak a word upon completion of their training. To ensure communication between other branches of the [[Imperium of Man]], Sisters-in-training would serve as communicators.

Given recent revelations about the nature of the Emperor, this [[skub|may or may not]] have been to stop them blabbing [[Neckbeard|what they saw]] under his glamours. It's implied that what a Sister sees when she looks at a warp entity is not the same as what a regular being will see; Tannau Aleya describes Bloodthirsters as being horrific ''looking'' creatures but that's it. Speaking of daemons, recent fluff from the ''Horus Heresy''/''Siege Of Terra'' novels, as well as the more current era ''Dark Imperium'' entries have really expanded on just how much the neverborn fear these ladies. Even the likes of Drach'nyen and Ku'Gath (among others), excessively powerful greater daemons both, have outright stated that to be struck down by one of the Sisters will result not in merely getting banished back to the warp, but in a ''true death''.

The Sisters of Silence are also consummate warriors. Actually, that's something of an understatemen; don't make the mistake of assuming they're comparable to the Sisters of Battle, who occupy a space somewhere between Guardsman and Astartes. They are not. The Sisters of Silence operate alongside The Custodes, and what's more, are able to ''keep up with them'', which probably says more about their prowess than anything else could. The Silent Sisterhood are trained to at least the same levels as the Space Marine Legions and using similar wargear, such as [[bolter]]s and [[power weapon]]s, as well as being covered in gold, SoB-like power armour; theirs typically lacks an armored helmet or other head protection aside from the bevor that hides their mouths, which leads to a lot of deaths from headshots during the burning of [[Prospero]]. As a military force, they are formidable; during the Burning of Prospero, they were deployed to augment the [[Space Wolves]] and the [[Adeptus Custodes]]. While this was more because the pariah gene would neutralize the [[Thousand Sons]]' psyker abilities, they were more than capable of fighting against the Astartes. They would also in turn augment the Custodes, the [[Imperial Fists]], the [[Blood Angels]], and the [[White Scars]] during the [[Siege of Terra]], where the pariah gene became a boon fighting the [[Daemon]]s unleashed by the traitors.

===After the Horus Heresy===
For the longest time, the fate of the Sisters of Silence following the [[Horus Heresy]] had been an object of much speculation in the fandom. It is only recently that what they've been doing has been brought to light, and while some of the theories have been surprisingly spot on (that many Sisters were absorbed into the Inquisition to man their Black Ships), others... didn't quite hit the mark. Thanks to their own mini-codex, as well as the [[War of the Beast]] series and ''Watchers of the Throne'' and ''Dark Imperium'', a somewhat clearer picture of ''what'' happened to the Sisters can be reconstructed.

It turns out that the Sisters were never "officially" disbanded by the [[Administratum]]. However in the wake of the Emperor's internment within the Golden Throne, the surviving Sisters suddenly found themselves without direct support from the Imperial Bureaucracy. This made a lot of the surviving Sisters bitter obviously, but a number of them shrugged, and decided to continue with their Emperor-given mandate anyway... just with less resources than they're used to. In all honesty this is downright unbelievable beyond 40K’s standards. This is the Emperor’s personal witch-hunters and responsible for collecting the Imperium’s psykers as well as part of his revered talons. It’s just as ridiculous and downright IMPOSSIBLE for them to be cut off as it is the freaking CUSTODES. Just ignore this as it is...well it’s genuinely impossible (but perhaps them being the blanks - the creatures who's presence is extremely uncomfortable - is the big factor of it).

As previously mentioned, some Sisters were absorbed into the [[Adeptus Astra Telepathica]] to crew its [[Black Ships]], or served as retinues to important [[Inquisitor]] Lords. Many others, however dispersed, back into the general populace, settling down to have normal lives, and in doing so passed down the Pariah gene down to their descendants. Lastly, some quietly found secret Convents in out-of-way worlds, far from view of the average Imperial citizen. It is one of these Convents that [[Slaughter Koorland]] approached and convinced to aid the Imperium in the [[War of the Beast]].

By M32, the Sisters of Silence refused to recognize the Imperium in its political form, seeing it as a corrupted simulacrum of what the Emperor actually intended, but they still acknowledge the Emperor as the focus of their loyalty. Thus, when their services are required again, they accept the calling and return to Terra, where they are granted an audience with the Emperor in his sanctum, a privilege that not even the High Lords are afforded. [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|Just how exactly that would've worked is a mystery, given how the Emperor can presumably only communicate psychically at this point, which probably wouldn't work at all on a group of nulls.]] Of course, blanks/nulls/whatever have been overpowered by strong psykers before, so it wouldn’t take the Emperor any real effort. Or he sent Astropaths to deliver messages via secretaries or something.

Although that particular Convent was wiped out slaying the Beast, many more survived through the millennia, and by the end of the 41st Millennium, the number of Sisters had swelled into the tens of thousands. And it was just as well too, as the Imperium would need their aid really REALLY soon.

===Returning to the Fray: The Rise of the Primarch===
[[image:Sister-of-silence.jpg|right|250px|thumb|You, Psyker. Yeah You. Fuck You.]]

Shortly after the reappearance of [[Magnus the Red]] during the [[Fenris]] campaign, the High Lords of Terra issued a writ that would summon the Sisterhood back to Terra, where they would be used once again. It transpired that [[Trajann Valoris]], Captain-General of the [[Adeptus Custodes]] had pre-empted this decree and had quietly been collecting disparate Sisters to Terra in advance, knowing that the time may come when they were needed again; the knee-jerk response of the High Lords to Terra simply rendered it legal.

Some of the exiled Sisters resented this greatly, having been ignored for millennia. In the novel ''Watchers of the Throne'', one particular sister, Tannau Aleya, spends most of the book (quietly) raging about how her convent was left without support for so long, especially how the Custodes seemed to be "pampered" by comparison, despite being stuck on Terra for nearly ten millennia. Aleya also "talks" a fair bit about the mentality of the Silent Sisters, stating that the Sisters ironically crave human fellowship, as it temporarily fills the void they feel inside due to their nature as blanks. This also leads to extremely strong bonds between the Sisters described as a fierce almost desperate love, due to sharing such a unique bond and having been reviled and hated by most of the people they'd ever come across. The sisters also seem to grow close to the Custodes they fought with during the Great Crusade, to the extent Custodes could tell what a sister was trying to convey without her even having to sign it to him, something that later made one sister immediately realize Drach'nyen was impersonating a Custodes. They also never entirely get used to the reaction they cause in others, with every twitch and every appalled expression twisting the knife every time they see that reaction.

Overall they come across as somewhat tragic, as they spend their lives protecting a species that can't even stand to be in the same room as them, and hates them without even being able to articulate why.

The Sisters' first "official" action was to deploy with the Custodes on Luna to save a recently resurrected Lord Guilliman from being used by Magnus to mop the floor, and they later helped fight back against a [[Khorne]] daemon invasion of Terra directly. When Guilliman returned from his audience with the Emperor, he dissolved the standing order that restricted the Custodians to Terra, and he ordered the Sisterhood to coordinate with them and join the front lines.

Still, no matter how hurt or angry they are, they still answered the call to defend humanity from Chaos again.

==Emperor Worship==

By the 41st Millennium it turns out that some Sisters had converted to the worship of the Emperor, even describing the Emperor as "holy" right in front of Lord Commander [[Roboute Guilliman]], while considering the Primarch to be his divine messenger and demigod son. Though this is not entirely new information, as even during the Horus Heresy, there were some Sisters who had already started to consider the Emperor as a god, and were willing to break their vows of tranquility. Some had even "read the book" ''(the Lectitio Divinitatus)'' according to [[Knights-Errant|Kyril Sinderman]], and allowed the faithful to escape custody from the Somnus Citadel on Luna so that they could continue to spread the word.

Since most of ''Dark Imperium'' was about Guilliman trying to come to terms with what humanity had become since the Heresy, it was all Guilliman could do to not [[Blam|eat his own bolter]] then and there. However, giving the appearance of converting to the faith is the easiest way to integrate themselves with the Imperium without getting grief from the other branches. This is definitely true for at least one convent; Aleya's was said to have had "sham" shrines and it's implied that those Sisters feigned their faith to avoid being persecuted as heretics. There is also a difference between those sisters that manned the [[Black Ships]] versus those that were outside of the Imperium's control, with those that were aboard the black ships having closer ties and a lot more loyalty towards the [[High Lords of Terra|Imperium's leadership]], to the extent that Aleya didn't trust them to do what was needed without waiting for permission. It's possible the Emperor-worshiping Sisters are those that were recruited and controlled by the Imperium for the black ships, while those outside of Imperial control and influence managed to keep their old ways.

==Notable Sisters==
* '''Jenetia Krole:''' AKA the "Soulless Queen of the Imperium" was the Knight Commander of the Sisters of silence and the single most terrifying woman in the entire human race. No, Really. (NOT confirmed to be a redhead.) She could be placed in a staring contest with an entire Convent of [[Sisters of Battle]], [[Inquisitor Greyfax]], A warband of [[Night Lords]] and a FUCKING Dark Eldar [[Haemonculus]] and she would stare them all down until they ran away with their tails between their legs. Her Pariah aura was so strong and distracting she caused members of the [[Adeptus Custodes]] to avert their eyes because it pained them to look at Her. To most beings, her anti-soul aura was so strong that they simply couldn't see her. When Big E needed the [[Thousand Sons]] "disciplined" she challenged the legions most powerful sorcerers to duels and Killed them, and then she Killed a Daemon just for good measure. She then fought in the Webway and survived the retreat to the Imperial Palace losing 3 fingers on the way, not really seeming to care about her lost digits. She used a Zwei-hander sword dubbed "Veracity" that was used by [[The Emperor]] during the unification wars, so yeah, that's cool too. She finally dies while fighting [[Khârn]] during the Siege of Terra, right after she took out a fuckton of named World Eaters.

*'''Amendera Kendel''' - A former Sister of Silence turned ''[[Knights-Errant|Agentia Tercius]]'' to Malcador. She is still a Pariah of course, but she gave up her vow of silence to become one of the first members of Malcador's [[Inquisition|band of merry travellers]]. She is quite possibly the first "True" Inquisitor, by virtue of her background as a Witch-Hunter and the later development of her character which shows her radically using the authority granted to her by the Sigillite to get shit done: Co-opting Space Marines from the survivors of the ''Eisenstein'' into her retinue, and later ordering a battle-barge to enact ''[[Exterminatus]]'' on a planet turned renegade, despite the fact that <u>no-one</u> other than a Primarch or the Emperor himself had ever ordered such an act before her.

* '''Tannau Aleya:''' One of the (previously mentioned) POV characters for ''Watchers of the Throne''. A Sister from the convent located on Araissa, she becomes its sole survivor when it is attacked by the [[Black Legion]] while she was away hunting down cultists on another world. Hot-headed and very opinionated, Aleya spends most of the book bitter at the Imperium for ignoring the Sisters for so long, and infuriated that [[Shield-Captain]] Valerian (the ''other'' POV character of the book) seems impossible to goad into anger, but takes her duties as a Sister very seriously, and was willing to lay down her life at even a chance to cave in some Black Legion heads. Started out using a heavy flamer to do her work, before turning it in for a greatsword once she got picked up by Navradaan on the way to Terra. She is also an absolute badass, winning a firefight that was 5-1 and taking on a Chaos Marine in close quarters alone and WINNING, then removing his helmet and spitting in his face for killing her sisters. The updated rules for the Talons of The Emperor make her not just in fluff but also in-game a battle couple with Valerian, another proof tsunderism and animu is slowly infecting 40k's updated setting.

==Mini-Codex and Moving Forward==

A common rumor is that they will be added into some upcoming [[Sisters of Battle]] relaunch. If so, that would be an interesting revision; on the one hand, the Sisters of Battle, despite being designated witch-hunters, are lacking in the anti-psyker department. On the other hand, the Sisters of Silence, much like the Space Marines, are big believers in the Great Crusade era of the Imperium, and likely won't mesh well with the [[Ecclesiarchy]]. On the other hand, Dark Imperium implies they fully converted to the Imperial Cult over time so their ideology would likely mesh together well. So, in conclusion, the most probable thing that GW can do with the SoS is to say that the Adepta Sororitas in its current form can trace its origins to the M36 '''Daughters of the Emperor''' as well as offshoots of the original [[Sisters of Silence]] and find some way to reconcile them both.

As of 2018, any news on them has been slow and via the Horus Heresy Team at Forge World. They stated that there would at least be some 8th edition rules for Talons (which includes Grey Knights apparently) coming eventually while they're not working on all these other Horus Heresy, Titanicus, Necromunda, and Blood Bowl projects. So far nothing on Sisters but Custodians at least got a handful of new kit.

Why they weren't simply added to the Custodes codex, only GW knows.

As of 2020, during Nurgle's Pandemic, it's been all but confirmed by GW that Sisters of Silence and Custodes will be merged together in the second-to-last chapter of the Psychic Awakening, "War of the Spider", as the Talons of the Emperor. Coupled with the new Black Library models that feature a Shield Captain and SoS in a single unit with that as a faction keyword, there is a lot of evidence that supports this.

==See Also==
*[[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Talons_of_the_Emperor_(30k)|Sisters of Silence (AKA Talons of the Emperor) Horus Heresy Tactics]]
*[[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Talons of the Emperor (9E)|Sisters of Silence (AKA Talons of the Emperor) 40k Tactics]]

==Gallery==
<center>
<gallery>
SoS vs. TS Dred.jpg|Being in a Dreadnought does not make you safe from these chicks.
SoS vs. EC Noise Marines.jpg|Even ''these'' bastards are having a hard time dealing with them.
Sister_of_silence_by_n924.jpg|As scary as they are, they can still be the cutest sweethearts of the Emprah.
Jenetia Krole.jpg|Jenetia Krole, She's not staring into your soul, she's staring through it.
</gallery>
</center>

{{Template:Sisters-of-Silence}}

{{Imperium}}

The Cabal

2021-03-01T09:05:22Z

2603:8001:6901:B2DB:64AA:CAA9:3F57:A1F6: /* Assassinating Vulkan */

The '''Cabal''' was a group of xenos races determined to fight Chaos, mentioned in a number of the [[Horus Heresy]] novels, primarily ''Legion''. At least one [[Eldar]] [[Autarch]], at least two [[Kroot]] ("Spavined avian creatures"), two humans (and [[Perpetual]]s to boot), and possibly the [[Watchers in the Dark]] were included, as well as nearly-extinct, intelligent atmospheric layers and a small, not-dickish omniglot insectoid. ''Legion'' also makes references to the "Old Kind," but it seems that the Perpetual saying that was merely calling the Eldar et. al. "older than humanity," not referring to a literal race. They would have invited the Emperor, but <s>he would rather kill all xenos than work with any of them, as he really ''is'' that much of a bloodthirsty bastard.</s> {{BLAM|'''*BLAM!* He was wise enough to realise their plan was deeply flawed and would never bear fruit!'''}}

==The Alpharius Gambit==
They are the group responsible for Alpharius' (and Omegon's) treachery (or LOYALTY?). Using the Acuity, a form of divination based on Eldar [[Farseer|farseeing]], they told them that they had two options:
* 1: The Emperor wins and the galaxy is plunged into 10,000 years of stagnation, during which time Chaos will grow steadily more powerful, eventually consuming the galaxy and all living things in it. Which we know is a blatant lie because the Emperor was obsessed with technological progress and because stagnation only positively effects Nurgle while being antithetical to the other three powers.
**This option suggests that the Emperor's victory would have resulted in it playing out as it did in canon, when it only went that way partly due to the Cabal's interference. If they had helped or done nothing at all, things almost assuredly would have gone a different way and we probably wouldn't have gotten the grimdark galaxy we have today. This lie is partly “justified” in that despite their claims to the contrary, the Cabal are ignorant of the nature of Chaos, and the majority of the Cabal considered humanity under the Emperor's rule a threat to themselves (and their races). They may have chosen not to aid humanity outright due to distrusting their plans for what would happen after Chaos was dealt with, after all it's unlikely any of them were willing to have their races reduced to slave states (assuming the Emperor did not decide they would be better off exterminated). This tells us something about them, though. As the Emperor only purged species that chose to be a threat to humanity. Simply choose not to be and you’ll be ignored/conquered. In short, the Cabal were just unwitting pawns of Chaos.
* 2: The Emperor dies, Horus wins, and the galaxy is plunged into Chaos. However, Horus's guilt over having killed the Emperor would lead him to self-destructively trying to destroy the human race, and the [[Chaos Gods]], having gorged themselves on human emotions, would collapse along with them; non-human life in the galaxy would survive, however. This outcome doesn't look as retarded on face value, but with the benefit of hindsight one could see why this is still retarded on the part of the Cabal. Ignoring for a moment that one of the Chaos Gods exists ''BECAUSE'' of a non-human species, there's absolutely no assurances that the extinction of humanity would kill off the Chaos Gods. Based on existing lore, we know that the Laer worshipped Slaanesh, and the other Chaos Gods can still affect sentient alien races in some way if given the chance (which WILL present itself). There's no reason to assume the Chaos Gods couldn't and wouldn't feed off the emotions of other sentient life forms if humanity isn't available. Besides, the Emperor losing would have resulted in the galaxy being either turned into a giant Eye of Terror (wiping out all non-human life) or the Chaos humans exterminating/torturing/eating/raping all non-human life into extinction. Case in point: all Chaos humans are still shown to utterly hate aliens and seek to purge their existence.

Later events imply that neither Alpharius nor Omegon fully believed these, although they disagreed with what ''would'' happen. Either regarding these visions as false or at least trying to find another option, the twins have started working against each other, and therefore the Cabal consider this endeavor to have been a failed Gambit on their part and move towards other options.

Originally, the Emperor’s victory prediction was that during the Emperor’s victory tour of the Imperium, a human would stab him with a Chaos artifact that would corrupt him. Eventually enough people pointed out that putting Chaos in the physical manifestation of anti-Chaos wouldn’t do jackshit and that Chaos, barring extremely powerful beings, cannot even exist, or are even UNMADE in his presence, and so the artifact would have been rendered inert just being near him. Thus Games Workshop retconned it to treat the canon result as the Emperor’s victory. Even though any retard can tell it was at best mutual destruction, not victory. It can’t even be said he saved the Imperium since the Imperium he built was essentially destroyed by his confinement on the Golden Throne.

==Assassinating Vulkan==
The Cabal's next move was to arrange for [[Perpetual#John Grammaticus|John Grammaticus]] to kill Vulkan using divine cast-off energy from the Emperor. According to the Cabal, only a Primarch was capable of using the fulgurite cast-off, so John was ''supposed'' to pass the artefact off to [[Konrad Curze]] and let him do it, but [[Eldrad]] co-opted Grammaticus and got him to do the stabbing instead. The end result being that Vulkan ''was'' slain after being stabbed by the weapon, but it doesn't kill him permanently as the Cabal had anticipated. Because the Cabal is too retarded to realize that you cannot kill a being made of the Emperor’s power using the Emperor’s power.

The reason for this is because [[Eldrad|the dick]] had started trying to undermine the Cabal and was attempting to save [[Vulkan]]. Eldrad believes that an actual victory for the Emperor would be bad for the Chaos Gods ([[Bullshit|a being Chaos is mortally terrified of and calls “The Anathema” winning against Chaos being a good thing!?]]), and if Vulkan is at the Siege of Terra, he would affect the outcome of the Heresy in a way that would be beneficial to the overall Galaxy. Eldrad later appeared at Mount Deathfire on [[Nocturne]] in the guise of an old man, and met a newly resurrected [[Vulkan]], who had just forged an artefact called the ''Talisman of Seven Hammers''. Eldrad directed Vulkan to the [[Webway]] so that he could reach Terra and fulfill his destiny. Apparently Vulkan gave Eldrad a drake tooth as a mark of trust between them.

After a short stop off with the Shattered Legions and destroying the remnants of his brother [[Ferrus Manus]], Vulkan eventually made it through the webway to the Terran portion of it, which was being assailed by countless daemons. Vulkan used the last remnant of the fulgurite's power to destroy the army and make it to the Imperial Palace, where he discovered the Talisman of Seven Hammers acted as a kill-switch for the Golden Throne. In the event that Chaos won, the planet would be destroyed in a fiery inferno that would kill all traitors and loyalists alike, but also, according to Big-E, dealing the Great Enemy themselves a blow from which they would never recover, though he did not go into further detail.

Considering that the Cabal wanted Terra to fall and for Horus to win; it can be understood why the installation of the kill-switch would be an outcome they wished to avoid. Plus having a [[Perpetual|regenerating]] [[Primarch|demigod]] standing in defense of the Eternity Gate against the daemonic hordes in the Webway would probably make it a lot more difficult for the Emperor to lose too.

==Eventual Fates==
According to ''The Beast Arises'', the Cabal were wiped out during the Heresy. Because shortly after sending Vulkan on his way, Eldrad killed them all with help from Barthusa Narek, a member of the [[Word Bearers]] who despised the direction his legion had taken and wanted [[Lorgar]] dead. It also reveals that the Cabal had considered the Eldar's destruction an acceptable loss, meaning that the master manipulators had been manipulated despite the aforementioned Autarch insisting that it was Eldrad who was the race traitor. Though due to the Eldar beliefs it could be the Autarch thought sacrificing the Eldar to destroy Chaos was their species’ goal (which is actually true, to be fair) but Eldrad believed defeating Chaos without that was preferred (also true).

Even in death, they still maintained that the Acuity was more accurate than Eldrad could ever hope to be. He finds this sentiment amusing, especially since it didn't let them foresee their own destruction. Not to mention the dumb fucks made the colossal mistake of thinking they could out-predict a group of practically omniscient entities, including the one known for both its interest in precognition and for its being ''the'' greatest schemer in the galaxy. A being who is, by the way, LITERALLY MADE OF EVERY THOUGHT THAT HAS EXISTED, DOES EXIST, AND WILL EXIST. Ultimately, it can be said that their attempts at fighting Chaos ultimately made the Ruinous Powers stronger instead (and knowing Tzeentch, that was all part of one of its plans).

TLDR; the Cabal tried to play dice with the gods. It went about as well as you'd expect.

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]

The Cabal

2021-03-01T08:57:20Z

2603:8001:6901:B2DB:64AA:CAA9:3F57:A1F6: /* Assassinating Vulkan */

The '''Cabal''' was a group of xenos races determined to fight Chaos, mentioned in a number of the [[Horus Heresy]] novels, primarily ''Legion''. At least one [[Eldar]] [[Autarch]], at least two [[Kroot]] ("Spavined avian creatures"), two humans (and [[Perpetual]]s to boot), and possibly the [[Watchers in the Dark]] were included, as well as nearly-extinct, intelligent atmospheric layers and a small, not-dickish omniglot insectoid. ''Legion'' also makes references to the "Old Kind," but it seems that the Perpetual saying that was merely calling the Eldar et. al. "older than humanity," not referring to a literal race. They would have invited the Emperor, but <s>he would rather kill all xenos than work with any of them, as he really ''is'' that much of a bloodthirsty bastard.</s> {{BLAM|'''*BLAM!* He was wise enough to realise their plan was deeply flawed and would never bear fruit!'''}}

==The Alpharius Gambit==
They are the group responsible for Alpharius' (and Omegon's) treachery (or LOYALTY?). Using the Acuity, a form of divination based on Eldar [[Farseer|farseeing]], they told them that they had two options:
* 1: The Emperor wins and the galaxy is plunged into 10,000 years of stagnation, during which time Chaos will grow steadily more powerful, eventually consuming the galaxy and all living things in it. Which we know is a blatant lie because the Emperor was obsessed with technological progress and because stagnation only positively effects Nurgle while being antithetical to the other three powers.
**This option suggests that the Emperor's victory would have resulted in it playing out as it did in canon, when it only went that way partly due to the Cabal's interference. If they had helped or done nothing at all, things almost assuredly would have gone a different way and we probably wouldn't have gotten the grimdark galaxy we have today. This lie is partly “justified” in that despite their claims to the contrary, the Cabal are ignorant of the nature of Chaos, and the majority of the Cabal considered humanity under the Emperor's rule a threat to themselves (and their races). They may have chosen not to aid humanity outright due to distrusting their plans for what would happen after Chaos was dealt with, after all it's unlikely any of them were willing to have their races reduced to slave states (assuming the Emperor did not decide they would be better off exterminated). This tells us something about them, though. As the Emperor only purged species that chose to be a threat to humanity. Simply choose not to be and you’ll be ignored/conquered. In short, the Cabal were just unwitting pawns of Chaos.
* 2: The Emperor dies, Horus wins, and the galaxy is plunged into Chaos. However, Horus's guilt over having killed the Emperor would lead him to self-destructively trying to destroy the human race, and the [[Chaos Gods]], having gorged themselves on human emotions, would collapse along with them; non-human life in the galaxy would survive, however. This outcome doesn't look as retarded on face value, but with the benefit of hindsight one could see why this is still retarded on the part of the Cabal. Ignoring for a moment that one of the Chaos Gods exists ''BECAUSE'' of a non-human species, there's absolutely no assurances that the extinction of humanity would kill off the Chaos Gods. Based on existing lore, we know that the Laer worshipped Slaanesh, and the other Chaos Gods can still affect sentient alien races in some way if given the chance (which WILL present itself). There's no reason to assume the Chaos Gods couldn't and wouldn't feed off the emotions of other sentient life forms if humanity isn't available. Besides, the Emperor losing would have resulted in the galaxy being either turned into a giant Eye of Terror (wiping out all non-human life) or the Chaos humans exterminating/torturing/eating/raping all non-human life into extinction. Case in point: all Chaos humans are still shown to utterly hate aliens and seek to purge their existence.

Later events imply that neither Alpharius nor Omegon fully believed these, although they disagreed with what ''would'' happen. Either regarding these visions as false or at least trying to find another option, the twins have started working against each other, and therefore the Cabal consider this endeavor to have been a failed Gambit on their part and move towards other options.

Originally, the Emperor’s victory prediction was that during the Emperor’s victory tour of the Imperium, a human would stab him with a Chaos artifact that would corrupt him. Eventually enough people pointed out that putting Chaos in the physical manifestation of anti-Chaos wouldn’t do jackshit and that Chaos, barring extremely powerful beings, cannot even exist, or are even UNMADE in his presence, and so the artifact would have been rendered inert just being near him. Thus Games Workshop retconned it to treat the canon result as the Emperor’s victory. Even though any retard can tell it was at best mutual destruction, not victory. It can’t even be said he saved the Imperium since the Imperium he built was essentially destroyed by his confinement on the Golden Throne.

==Assassinating Vulkan==
The Cabal's next move was to arrange for [[Perpetual#John Grammaticus|John Grammaticus]] to kill Vulkan using divine cast-off energy from the Emperor. According to the Cabal, only a Primarch was capable of using the fulgurite cast-off, so John was ''supposed'' to pass the artefact off to [[Konrad Curze]] and let him do it, but [[Eldrad]] co-opted Grammaticus and got him to do the stabbing instead. The end result being that Vulkan ''was'' slain after being stabbed by the weapon, but it doesn't kill him permanently as the Cabal had anticipated. Because the Cabal is too retarded to realize that you cannot kill a being made of the Emperor’s power using the Emperor’s power.

The reason for this is because [[Eldrad|the dick]] had started trying to undermine the Cabal and was attempting to save [[Vulkan]]. Eldrad believes that an actual victory for the Emperor would be bad for the Chaos Gods ([[Bullshit|a being Chaos is mortally terrified of and calls “The Anathema” winning against Chaos being a good thing!?]]), and if Vulkan is at the Siege of Terra, he would affect the outcome of the Heresy in a way that would be beneficial to the overall Galaxy. Eldrad later appeared at Mount Deathfire on [[Nocturne]] in the guise of an old man, and met a newly resurrected [[Vulkan]], who had just forged an artefact called the ''Talisman of Seven Hammers''. Eldrad directed Vulkan to the [[Webway]] so that he could reach Terra and fulfill his destiny. Apparently Vulkan gave Eldrad a drake tooth as a mark of trust between them.

After a short stop off with the Shattered Legions and destroying the remnants of his brother [[Ferrus Manus]], Vulkan eventually made it through the webway to the Terran portion of it, which was being assailed by countless daemons. Vulkan used the last remnant of the fulgurite's power to destroy the army and make it to the Imperial Palace, where he discovered the Talisman of Seven Hammers acted as a kill-switch for the Golden Throne. In the event that Chaos won, the planet would be destroyed in a fiery inferno.

Considering that the Cabal wanted Terra to fall and for Horus to win; it can be understood why the installation of the kill-switch would be an outcome they wished to avoid. Plus having a [[Perpetual|regenerating]] [[Primarch|demigod]] standing in defense of the Eternity Gate against the daemonic hordes in the Webway would probably make it a lot more difficult for the Emperor to lose too.

==Eventual Fates==
According to ''The Beast Arises'', the Cabal were wiped out during the Heresy. Because shortly after sending Vulkan on his way, Eldrad killed them all with help from Barthusa Narek, a member of the [[Word Bearers]] who despised the direction his legion had taken and wanted [[Lorgar]] dead. It also reveals that the Cabal had considered the Eldar's destruction an acceptable loss, meaning that the master manipulators had been manipulated despite the aforementioned Autarch insisting that it was Eldrad who was the race traitor. Though due to the Eldar beliefs it could be the Autarch thought sacrificing the Eldar to destroy Chaos was their species’ goal (which is actually true, to be fair) but Eldrad believed defeating Chaos without that was preferred (also true).

Even in death, they still maintained that the Acuity was more accurate than Eldrad could ever hope to be. He finds this sentiment amusing, especially since it didn't let them foresee their own destruction. Not to mention the dumb fucks made the colossal mistake of thinking they could out-predict a group of practically omniscient entities, including the one known for both its interest in precognition and for its being ''the'' greatest schemer in the galaxy. A being who is, by the way, LITERALLY MADE OF EVERY THOUGHT THAT HAS EXISTED, DOES EXIST, AND WILL EXIST. Ultimately, it can be said that their attempts at fighting Chaos ultimately made the Ruinous Powers stronger instead (and knowing Tzeentch, that was all part of one of its plans).

TLDR; the Cabal tried to play dice with the gods. It went about as well as you'd expect.

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]

The Cabal

2021-03-01T08:54:06Z

2603:8001:6901:B2DB:64AA:CAA9:3F57:A1F6: /* The Alpharius Gambit */

The '''Cabal''' was a group of xenos races determined to fight Chaos, mentioned in a number of the [[Horus Heresy]] novels, primarily ''Legion''. At least one [[Eldar]] [[Autarch]], at least two [[Kroot]] ("Spavined avian creatures"), two humans (and [[Perpetual]]s to boot), and possibly the [[Watchers in the Dark]] were included, as well as nearly-extinct, intelligent atmospheric layers and a small, not-dickish omniglot insectoid. ''Legion'' also makes references to the "Old Kind," but it seems that the Perpetual saying that was merely calling the Eldar et. al. "older than humanity," not referring to a literal race. They would have invited the Emperor, but <s>he would rather kill all xenos than work with any of them, as he really ''is'' that much of a bloodthirsty bastard.</s> {{BLAM|'''*BLAM!* He was wise enough to realise their plan was deeply flawed and would never bear fruit!'''}}

==The Alpharius Gambit==
They are the group responsible for Alpharius' (and Omegon's) treachery (or LOYALTY?). Using the Acuity, a form of divination based on Eldar [[Farseer|farseeing]], they told them that they had two options:
* 1: The Emperor wins and the galaxy is plunged into 10,000 years of stagnation, during which time Chaos will grow steadily more powerful, eventually consuming the galaxy and all living things in it. Which we know is a blatant lie because the Emperor was obsessed with technological progress and because stagnation only positively effects Nurgle while being antithetical to the other three powers.
**This option suggests that the Emperor's victory would have resulted in it playing out as it did in canon, when it only went that way partly due to the Cabal's interference. If they had helped or done nothing at all, things almost assuredly would have gone a different way and we probably wouldn't have gotten the grimdark galaxy we have today. This lie is partly “justified” in that despite their claims to the contrary, the Cabal are ignorant of the nature of Chaos, and the majority of the Cabal considered humanity under the Emperor's rule a threat to themselves (and their races). They may have chosen not to aid humanity outright due to distrusting their plans for what would happen after Chaos was dealt with, after all it's unlikely any of them were willing to have their races reduced to slave states (assuming the Emperor did not decide they would be better off exterminated). This tells us something about them, though. As the Emperor only purged species that chose to be a threat to humanity. Simply choose not to be and you’ll be ignored/conquered. In short, the Cabal were just unwitting pawns of Chaos.
* 2: The Emperor dies, Horus wins, and the galaxy is plunged into Chaos. However, Horus's guilt over having killed the Emperor would lead him to self-destructively trying to destroy the human race, and the [[Chaos Gods]], having gorged themselves on human emotions, would collapse along with them; non-human life in the galaxy would survive, however. This outcome doesn't look as retarded on face value, but with the benefit of hindsight one could see why this is still retarded on the part of the Cabal. Ignoring for a moment that one of the Chaos Gods exists ''BECAUSE'' of a non-human species, there's absolutely no assurances that the extinction of humanity would kill off the Chaos Gods. Based on existing lore, we know that the Laer worshipped Slaanesh, and the other Chaos Gods can still affect sentient alien races in some way if given the chance (which WILL present itself). There's no reason to assume the Chaos Gods couldn't and wouldn't feed off the emotions of other sentient life forms if humanity isn't available. Besides, the Emperor losing would have resulted in the galaxy being either turned into a giant Eye of Terror (wiping out all non-human life) or the Chaos humans exterminating/torturing/eating/raping all non-human life into extinction. Case in point: all Chaos humans are still shown to utterly hate aliens and seek to purge their existence.

Later events imply that neither Alpharius nor Omegon fully believed these, although they disagreed with what ''would'' happen. Either regarding these visions as false or at least trying to find another option, the twins have started working against each other, and therefore the Cabal consider this endeavor to have been a failed Gambit on their part and move towards other options.

Originally, the Emperor’s victory prediction was that during the Emperor’s victory tour of the Imperium, a human would stab him with a Chaos artifact that would corrupt him. Eventually enough people pointed out that putting Chaos in the physical manifestation of anti-Chaos wouldn’t do jackshit and that Chaos, barring extremely powerful beings, cannot even exist, or are even UNMADE in his presence, and so the artifact would have been rendered inert just being near him. Thus Games Workshop retconned it to treat the canon result as the Emperor’s victory. Even though any retard can tell it was at best mutual destruction, not victory. It can’t even be said he saved the Imperium since the Imperium he built was essentially destroyed by his confinement on the Golden Throne.

==Assassinating Vulkan==
The Cabal's next move was to arrange for [[Perpetual#John Grammaticus|John Grammaticus]] to kill Vulkan using divine cast-off energy from the Emperor. According to the Cabal, only a Primarch was capable of using the fulgurite cast-off, so John was ''supposed'' to pass the artefact off to [[Konrad Curze]] and let him do it, but [[Eldrad]] co-opted Grammaticus and got him to do the stabbing instead. The end result being that Vulkan ''was'' slain after being stabbed by the weapon, but it doesn't kill him permanently as the Cabal had anticipated. Because the Cabal is too retarded to realize that you cannot kill a being made of the Emperor’s power using the Emperor’s power.

The reason for this is because [[Eldrad|the dick]] had started trying to undermine the Cabal and was attempting to save [[Vulkan]]. Eldrad believes that an actual victory for the Emperor would be bad for the Chaos Gods ([[Bullshit|a being Chaos is mortally terrified of and calls “The Anathema” winning against Chaos being a good thing!?]]), and if Vulkan is at the Siege of Terra, he would affect the outcome of the Heresy in a way that would be beneficial to the overall Galaxy. Eldrad later appeared at Mount Deathfire on [[Nocturne]] in the guise of an old man, and met a newly resurrected [[Vulkan]], who had just forged an artefact called the ''Talisman of Seven Hammers''. Eldrad directed Vulkan to the [[Webway]] so that he could reach Terra and fulfill his destiny. Apparently Vulkan gave Eldrad a drake tooth as a mark of trust between them.

After a short stop off with the Shattered Legions and destroying the remnants of his brother [[Ferrus Manus]], Vulkan eventually made it through the webway to the Terran portion of it, which was being assailed by countless daemons. Vulkan used the last remnant of the fulgurite's power to destroy the army and make it to the Imperial Palace, where he discovered the Talisman of Seven Hammers acted as a kill-switch for the Golden Throne. In the event that Chaos won, the planet would be destroyed in a fiery inferno.

Considering that the Cabal wanted Terra to fall and for Horus to win; it can be understood why the installation of the kill-switch would be an outcome they wished to avoid. Plus having a [[Perpetual|regenerating]] [[Primarch|demigod]] standing in defense of the Eternity Gate against the daemonic hordes in the Webway would probably make it a lot more difficult for the Emperor to lose too.

==Eventual Fates==
According to ''The Beast Arises'', the Cabal were wiped out during the Heresy. Because shortly after sending Vulkan on his way, Eldrad killed them all with help from Barthusa Narek, a member of the [[Word Bearers]] who despised the direction his legion had taken and wanted [[Lorgar]] dead. It also reveals that the Cabal had considered the Eldar's destruction an acceptable loss, meaning that the master manipulators had been manipulated despite the aforementioned Autarch insisting that it was Eldrad who was the race traitor. Though due to the Eldar beliefs it could be the Autarch thought sacrificing the Eldar to destroy Chaos was their species’ goal (which is actually true, to be fair) but Eldrad believed defeating Chaos without that was preferred (also true).

Even in death, they still maintained that the Acuity was more accurate than Eldrad could ever hope to be. He finds this sentiment amusing, especially since it didn't let them foresee their own destruction. Not to mention the dumb fucks made the colossal mistake of thinking they could out-predict a group of practically omniscient entities, including the one known for both its interest in precognition and for its being ''the'' greatest schemer in the galaxy. A being who is, by the way, LITERALLY MADE OF EVERY THOUGHT THAT HAS EXISTED, DOES EXIST, AND WILL EXIST. Ultimately, it can be said that their attempts at fighting Chaos ultimately made the Ruinous Powers stronger instead (and knowing Tzeentch, that was all part of one of its plans).

TLDR; the Cabal tried to play dice with the gods. It went about as well as you'd expect.

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]

Khrave

2021-03-01T08:43:42Z

2603:8001:6901:B2DB:64AA:CAA9:3F57:A1F6: /* History */

The '''Khrave''' are mentioned fairly often as far as lesser xenos species go, with encounters ranging from the Great Crusade all the way up to the 41sr Millennium.

==Description==
Described as "chiropteran mind eaters". They differ in size to an extreme degree, with smaller members of the species being roughly man sized, and larger ones being over three meters tall. They are long limbed and sheathed in a reflective carapace while their faces resemble featureless black eggs, with no organs for either respiration, ingestion or sense.

They are a mystery to the Magos Biologos, but psychic scholars know that although they have physical bodies, they reside at least partly in the warp and feed psychically.

Each member of the species was powerfully psychic and capable of manifesting warp glamours, shaping weapons out of energy, possession of weak minds, and raising practically impenetrable force fields that reflect impacts at near-light speed.

==History==
The Khrave began with an entity called the '''Autochthonar''', that was created as a living, psychic weapon by an unnamed species prior to the rise of the [[Eldar]], presumably the [[Old Ones]] during their war against the Necrons and C'tan. Incidentally, the description of its physical appearance given in the primarch book ''Lion El'Jonson: Lord of the First'' makes it seem visually similar to the Nihilanth from the original ''Half-life''.

Over time the Autochthonar gained sentience, and acquired the ability to reproduce, creating a new species calling itself the Khrave. The Autochthonar connected its offspring in a gestalt psychic network, that grew larger each time a Khrave was born and stood as master of them all.

The Khrave network could also acquire minds of other species that they planned to use to use as a source of sustenance and slaves. The Khrave themselves could possess their victims much like a [[Daemon]], giving them a direct host body to manifest in reality. But rather than empowering them, and twisting them with mutation, the Khrave would hollow out their minds, leaving them like living vegetables. Also unlike daemons, while the Khrave were possessing a host in this manner they were also vulnerable to injury and death, and the resulting damage to the psychic network had the potential to send shockwaves that could stun or injure other Khrave.

The Imperium had several run-ins with the Khrave over the Great Crusade, notably the disastrous '''Seryn Reach Campaign''' and the loss of 4,000 [[Ultramarines]], and the '''Compliance of Indra-Sul''' where [[Corax]] managed to reclaim a human world that had been gorged on over centuries, although the human survivors were too far gone to be integrated into the Imperium and were declared ''Servitide Imperpetuis'' and all converted into [[Servitors]] for their own good.

Later the [[Dark Angels]] came into contact with them during the '''Muspel Campaign'''. [[Lion El'Jonson]], knowing who he was facing in advance, as although the [[Blood Angels]] had already rendered the world compliant, it was still a feeding world for the hidden Khrave who were messing with the Imperium by possessing weak minds and inciting petty acts of rebellion and vandalism.

The Lion kept the information from his subordinates to prevent the knowledge from being leaked out psychically and set about baiting his trap. He landed on the world and fortified it, bringing more and more delicious human minds into the system, and essentially daring the Khrave to reveal themselves. Resulting in a massive land and space battle as the human population and crews started getting possessed and turning on one another. The combat escalated as more Khrave arrived physically with their own fleet, and The Dark Angels responded by opening their Archeotech toy boxes filled with weapons not available to the other legions; by battle's end, they had deployed motherfucking MEN OF IRON (albeit leashed, semi-lobotomized ones) to support The Lion's boarding action and the sheer level of destruction they unleashed on The Khrave was surpassed only by The Lion himself. The Lion was able to draw the Autochthonar into direct combat and managed to slay it after a decisive blow to the psychic network was dealt on the planet below with the destruction of one of their titans.

Although the Autochthonar was destroyed the Khrave as a species still existed and remained at large up until the Imperium of today, though mostly relegated to space beyond the Ghoul Stars. They have had contact with the [[Star Phantoms]] ''(somewhat fitting if the Chapter truly is descended from the First Legion)'' and with the [[Storm Wardens]].

It is unknown if they still have the ability to reproduce or manage their psychic network without their progenitor, though this would explain why they have not been able to reach their once eminent status ever again. If the [[Slaugth]] are the same species that participated in the [[Rangdan Xenocides]], then the Khrave can join them as a [[Grimdark|wounded enemy with fantastic powers that are only looking for their opportunity to return and feast on the Imperium]].

{{Important Species in 40k}}