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Ollanius Pius

2017-02-11T08:40:25Z

2605:6001:E7D1:6C00:ED74:EFE4:7E88:3C2B: /* New Fluff */

{{Oldschool}}
[[Image:1225596941657.jpg|thumb|right|The most hardcore Guardsman....ever.]]

''"Where I fall, ten more shall take my place! And one hundred each of them!
''So strike me down! I am the harbinger!"'' 
-Ollanius Pius, an Imperial Guardsman, to Warmaster Horus. You read that correctly.

''“Why the hell is everything always [[Imperial_Guard|our]] job?”'' 
-What he said just before that battle

'''Ollanius Pius''' embodies what it means to be a soldier of the [[Imperial Guard]] in this [[Grimdark|grimdark]] universe. He is THE most hardcore Guardsman ever and also the legendary saint of the Imperial Guard, because as legend goes, in the hopes of protecting the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor of Mankind]], Ollanius Pius put himself directly in front of [[Horus Lupercal|a walking demigod of battle]]. The fact that he did so without fainting, shitting himself in terror, or mewling like a wounded grox suggests that his testicles must have been forged from Mars-grade adamantium (or more likely, he had power balls. His testicles were of such might that they ignored armor saves in close combat). Ollanius Pius is so manly that he makes [[Vance Motherfucking Stubbs]], [[Commissar Yarrick]], [[Kharn]], [[Colonel "Iron Hand" Straken]], [[Logan Grimnar]] and [[Sly Marbo]] piss themselves in terror.

Naturally, like a bunch of [[Squats|awesome]] [[Zoats|shit]] and virtually every piece of lore that has ever existed in Warhammer 40,000, [[Games Workshop]] sort of retconned this story in several ways. Firstly his introduction is a bit of a retcon, since Ollanius wasn't in the original battle (read the Slaves to Darkness book) where the Emperor teleported to Horus' bunker (not flagship) and fought him there. Then when he was introduced, he was said to have originally sacrificed himself during Horus' assault on the Imperial Palace, placing himself between the Emperor and Horus (which would mean in that version Horus broke through), which makes sense, so they had to change it. The next story the Emperor fought Horus in Horus' command bunker again, teleporting in with Imperial Fists and Custodes, and while having a bunker on the ground makes it entirely possible that Pius was there (especially since the traitor legions were busy at the palace walls) it's fairly unlikely. Then they changed it again, this time having Emps board Horus' flagship, the Vengeful Spirit, along with a company of Imperial Fist terminators and Custodes, no Pius this time due to the fact that a Guardsmen would probably die the second they arrive there. At no point from here on out is Ollanius ever mentioned to have boarded the Vengeful Spirit, though the idea of a heroic sacrifice was kept, GW replaced Pius with a [[Space Marine|Spehss Mahreen]] [[Terminator]], which wasn't that bad but then they retconned out the Terminator with an [[Adeptus Custodes]], which is SIX KINDS OF LAME.

[[Fantasy Flight Games]] brought him back though (sort of, leaving his existence in current canon questionable at best), which is a great justice and if you trust them, he really is just the most badass Guardsman ever, though exactly what he did isn't too clear besides die for the Emperor. But, NOW, thanks to [[Dan Abnett]], if GW ever returns Ollanius to his place at the Emperor's side, that's no big deal. He'll just be over 10,000 years old. Still a normal human, but just one that regenerates and has lived a long time. So...following the trend, there is a risk that he will be added back in the universe as the one who made the chip in Horus's armor and not [[Sanguinius]], and thus completely ruin the original story.

Other than the fact that he was man enough to stand up to Daddy's former favourite with nothing more than a flashlight and toilet paper armour, not much else is known about him, which probably means that he did even more heroic and manly shit during the Siege of Terra.

The entire point of the character is to demonstrate that [[The Lord of the Rings|true courage and inner strength can be found even among the weakest (by comparison) of individuals]]. (Also, see "Tank Man" [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_Man]). Games Workshop, in their infinite wisdom, completely missed this point and proceeded to replace the brave and ordinary little soldier with a progressively bigger and stronger superhero with every reveal/retcon, thus in a way making Horus' fall to Chaos seem less and less despicable; the original story of a superhuman so remorselessly killing an ordinary human could be seen in a similar light as a grown man killing a child. It is probably a near certainty that the next retcon will trade up the Custode for one of the missing Primarchs (such as the glorious and magnificent Ollanius [[Galactic Partridges|Partridge]]) or a fucking omnipresent [[Imperial Knight]]. Further updates will likely add the Terminator, the Custode, the second missing Primarch and an Imperial [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Titan]] for good measure, all at the same time.

However, in the Visions Of Heresy Novel, the humble Imperial Guardsman is back with his heroic act of sacrifice, though it is not stated whether his name was Ollanius Pius.

He also has a relic in the latest 6th Edition Astra Militarum/Imperial Guard codex, with the fluff saying he martyred himself against Horus and is the epitome of Imperial Sainthood. The [[Dark Heresy]] ''Blood of Martyrs'' splat mentions him there, saying the story of Pius is apocryphal (bringing up that other organizations have their own version of the tale) but still frequently told and he is widely venerated among Guardsmen as an exemplar of what a faithful Guardsman should be. So the Imperial Guard apparently canonically believes the original version of the tale, whether or not that's what actually happened. And at this point, nobody knows what actually happened and never will because GeeDubs refuses to enforce any kind of consistency in its own fluff (see below).

==New Fluff==

Also known as "Why the Black Library should not be allowed to write or sell anything".

[[Image:Ollanius Pius.jpeg|thumb|right|Oll Pius returns, better than ever. Note the cross around his neck.]]
In Dan Abnett's Horus Heresy novel "Know No Fear" Ollanius Pius' lore has changed dramatically. In the book he is named "Ollanius Perrson" (or "Oll" to his friends) and is part of a small group of immortal humans spread throughout the galaxy called [[Perpetual]]s. John Grammaticus (who is alive and well) claimed that out of the entire Ultramarine empire (which at the time consisted of a staggering 500 planets) there are only three Perpetuals (the total amount in the Imperium is unknown, but almost certainly not much higher). Pius is confirmed to be at least 30,000 years old and is the same "breed" as Grammaticus and possibly the Emperor. At first this sounds like GW is missing the point again, but besides his extreme age and the whole immortality thing he seems to just be a normal human with normal human strength (coupled with the fact that, by all indications, he hasn't died once so far). Which, when compared to the psychic gestalt übermensch that is the Emperor, is kind of important; Ollanius is more representative of every strength (and weakness) of Mankind than the Emperor EVER was.

In the days of ancient Terra he was one of the Argonauts who adventured with Jason on the Argo to get the Golden Fleece and later he learned how to fight with a bayonet whilst fighting for the French in the trenches at Verdun during World War I. He actually demonstrates his bayonet-trench fighting skills at Verdun in the novel "Angel Exterminatus." In Angel Exterminatus, the Iron Warriors Trident Warsmith Kroeger has a flashback (sort of, the memories were the memories of other people) and relives the near-death of "Carl", a German soldier at the hands of one "Olivier Perrson." Carl thought Ol was very rude because he interrupted Carl's dinner. Yes, poor Carl's dinner. Ol happened upon Carl eating . . . Carl's own commander. Oh yeah, Carl was a closet cannibal. Still, Carl thought it was a bit of an overreaction by an overly Pius asshole to stab Carl in the gut. Carl was only saved from a certain death when the crush of the battle forces Ol out of the trench.

<s>He was also a member of the Fellowship of the Ring, a Harry Potter classmate and a main contributor to quantum theory (Dan Abnett likes to mix popular references without any sense) but these facts was finally removed from the novel because of lack of space. He was also dubbed an "Old one" in the latest novella from BL "Perpetual", but that's probably just a coincidence...</s> '''*{{BLAM|BLAM}}*'''{{BLAM|HERESY!!}}

He is confirmed as being very religious but hates Chaos and looks to the Emperor as a peer rather than a god/divine. He was a veteran in the Imperial Army before retiring to become a farmer on Calth. In the events of Know No Fear Pius joins in the fight against Chaos.

We don't get it either but a vision given to Ollanius by Grammaticus indicates that he'll be restored to his original status as the person who sacrifices his life to save the Emperor from Horus, so at least he's back. Of course, whether he actually dies when this happens given the Perpetuals' ability to resurrect themselves upon death is anyone's guess. He might, as during Mark of Calth he realizes that this is going to be the end for him. Which makes sense given that he was killed by a super-chaos Horus. You don't get up from that, immortality won't help you if your soul is snuffed out. But perhaps not.

==Writefaggatory==

WARNING: The following entry is so manly that reading out loud may cause you to suddenly grow a beard. Girls, do not read this out loud.
A fa/tg/uy's explanation on Ollanius:

''LOOK AT THIS FUCKING GUARDSMAN.''

''He's spent months fighting a grueling war in which his enemies are demigods allied with daemons, and now he's found himself in the closest thing to Hell he's ever known. He probably wasn't even supposed to get teleported up to the arch-traitor's battle barge in the first place, and just ended up in the wrong place at the worst possible time.

''Somehow he's survived horrors beyond comprehension to make his way to the very bridge of Horus' flagship. He saw a veritable angel call upon Horus to answer for his crimes, and he saw that angel die as messily as any guardsman. His Emperor - who he fervently believes is a god incarnate, even if he's not supposed to - lies mortally wounded, and Horus, perhaps, has taken a moment to gloat before he strikes the killing blow.''

''His armor is slightly more effective than tissue paper, his weapon slightly more powerful than a flashlight. A single electrified claw from Horus' weapon is bigger than his entire body. He stands before a being infused by the dark gods' with incalculable power, that can and will obliterate his soul with no more effort than it would take him to swat a gnat. Nothing he can do could possibly make a difference.''

''He could run. He could turn his weapon on himself. He could give in to the insidious whispers that echo from the ship's corridors into his mind.''

''Ollanius Pius does the duty his Emperor requires of him. He dies standing and holds the '''FUCKING''' line.''

===A short poem about Ollanius Pius===
[[File:The Last Stand 1.png|400px|thumb|right|HE BOUGHT THE EMPEROR TIME... TIME TO SAVE US ALL.]]
The first time I hold my blood in my hands,
 The first time I see a man with nothing.
 Would be the first time I see my own lands,
 Covered in heresy, death, and rotting.

 My son stands over him corrupt and pale,
 A guard Ollanius Pius stands free.
 My fallen Horus lifts the deadly flail,
 In one instant, the strength of man I see.

 This mere man done what I was unable.
 A tear flows from my eye and it is clear,
 The tyrant's cold reign I must disable.
 Briefly I know what it means to feel fear.

 I leave the future to the strength of man,
 For they alone do far more than I can.

===Another poem regarding Ollanius===

Somewhere in the universe a coin flip lands on its side.

Somewhere in the universe a drop of water saves a life.

Somewhere in the universe a pebble stops a landslide.

Maybe it is because someone believed hard enough.

Maybe it is because everything is secretly fair.

Maybe it is because the universe is a vast place.

Yesterday, I was very cold.

Yesterday, I was very hungry.

Yesterday, I wanted to run away.

Today, I am going to believe hard enough.

Today, a pebble will stop a landslide.

Today, I am not going anywhere.

<gallery>
Kriegsmeisterbunker.jpg|The first version of Horus and the Emperor's duel. Notice the location, making Pius' sacrifice possible, if implausible.
The legend of Ollanius Pius.jpg|The legend.
MUH OLLANIUS PIUS.png|The retcon.
Ollanius existed and was a Perpetual.png|Fantasy Flight Games' take on it.
</gallery>
{{IG-Characters}}
[[Category:Awesome]]
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Imperial Guard]]

Malcador the Sigillite

2017-02-11T08:38:37Z

2605:6001:E7D1:6C00:ED74:EFE4:7E88:3C2B:

[[File:The Sigillite clean.jpg|thumb|300px|The [[Administratum]] of the 41st millennium wishes it could be half as badass as Malcador. [[Unknown Primarchs|Interesting armrests...]]]]
Malcador the Sigillite (Also known as Malcador the Hero, or Malcador the Laundryman Of Teh Emprah) was Regent of Terra, Master of the [[Administratum]], Grand Master of the [[Officio Assassinorum]], and all around bestest bud of the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor of Mankind]] during the [[Great Crusade]] and the [[Horus Heresy]]. The real-life equivalent of Malcador's position in the Imperium was that of the Prime Minister/Chancellor, who acted as de facto Head of Government in the name of the sovereign (the Emperor).

In some respects Malcador represents something of the Emprah's final dream for mankind as well as something of the nightmare that the Imperium became. In every sense he is just a man. Not a super soldier, just a clever old bugger. Like Big E he understood that the Imperium needed taxes and administration as well as generals and he entrusted those duties to other normal humans. Without him most of the things he created were horribly corrupted because humans are kinda jerks but even then at least it was humans being dicks to each other not demigods lording it over the rest.

==History==
Having served the Emprah during the unification of [[Terra]] ''(meaning he was fucking OLD for a human)'', he was present during the creation of the [[Primarchs]] and advised the Emperor during the early crusade. Interestingly, the very first Space Marines (as in pre-legion Dark Angels) were noted to have fought with the the Emperor against a psychic group called the Sigilites, implying that Malcador may have been one of their number. When the Primarchs started getting collected and the new Imperium spreading outwards, Malcador remained as Regent of Terra, acting as a prime minister who kept the day-to-day activities of [[Imperium of Man]] running, sponsoring various agencies (like the [[Remembrancer|Remembrancer Order]]), appointing the [[High Lords of Terra|Council of Terra]] and building the [[Administratum]] from the ground up.

After the Emperor returned to Terra and set up the Council of Terra, the Emperor appointed Malcador to the position of First Lord of the Council (essentially the Prime Minister of the Imperium at that point, where the [[Horus|Warmaster]] was the military commander) while the Emperor descended into the Imperial palace and set to work on building the [[Webway]]. Though he tried to be some kind of cool uncle/granddad to the Primarchs, most of them seem to have got jealous of his closeness to the Emperor. All of them showed off their physical oomph in front of him (though at the time Mortarion was the most recent Primarch to be discovered, so we don't know if Jaghatai, Alpharius and the rest decided to lay the smackdown on grandpa), and at least two of them straight-up assaulted him.

When the [[Horus Heresy]] broke out, Malcador worked closely with [[Rogal Dorn]] in preparing the defenses of Terra and coordinating the logistics of the war-effort, as well as overseeing a formation of special projects such as the [[Astronomican|Adeptus Astronomican]] ''(who were required to replace the Emperor in powering the psychic beacon)'', the [[Officio Assassinorum]] and towards the end of the Horus Heresy; the formation of the [[Grey Knights]].

He is dead. Very, very dead. During the Siege of Terra, the only chance that the Emperor could get to join the battle would be if someone took his place sitting in the Golden Throne (since [[Magnus]] broke it and threatened Terra with a new [[Eye of Terror]]) Malcador's psychic power meant he was the only potential candidate to take the Golden Throne while the Emperor fought off the [[Chaos Space Marines]]. However, since he wasn't a psyker of equivalent level to the Emperor, the process wore him out and he crumbled to dust after the Emperor was returned to the seat by [[Rogal Dorn]] and [[Jaghatai Khan]]. With his last ounce of strength, he allowed the Emperor to communicate with his mortal servants one last time. Truly, an all around awesome bureaucrat.

==Malcador's Insights==
There was much more to Malcador than meets the eye. He claims that he is part of a very old order that has guided humanity from the very beginning, and that the
=][= symbol often associated with the later [[Inquisition]] was actually the symbol of his order, therefore he was probably one of the old-school [[Illuminati (40k)|Illuminati]].

He also does not see eye-to-eye with the Emperor either, disagreeing on some very fundamental points:

*Malcador worried about the Emperor being so far above humanity, so inspirational in his efforts to squeeze out superstition and false-religion that it would eventually cause [[Imperial Cult|religious cults]] to form around himself and his sons instead, which is [[Derp|exactly what happened.]]
*He also warned that humanity would be so invested in the Emperor that if he were to ever leave or die, humanity would not be able to handle the shock and would be left paralysed and without direction. Though the Emperor himself dismissed this as nonsense, since his intention was to raise humanity and allow it to think for itself - Yet another miscalculation on his part.
**When looked at from a different point of view: the Emperor's plan to build and maintain a new Webway ''(which Magnus was supposed to assist with if he had not broken it)'', then lead humanity into enlightenment away from the dangers of unrestrained psychic potential ''(which Mortarion was supposed to be the poster boy for if he hadn't switched sides)'' was so utterly dependent on the Emperor being the center of it all that he was was practically setting himself up for failure. While the Emperor was betting the future of the species on his own outcome, Malcador was thankfully setting up contingencies just in case everything went tits up.

Therefore it could be said that all of Malcador's efforts to create the agencies that the Imperium would need later were all part of an insurance policy that humanity could deploy if it ever turned out that the Emperor and his Primarchs could [[Horus Heresy|not be relied upon]] to carry humanity on their [[Pauldron|shoulders]]. Needless to say, if Malcador was the Emperor, [[heresy|things probably would have turned out better for the Imperium]].

One of his more amusing requests was that the Primarchs be made female instead of male, or at the very least, add female primarchs into the mix. His primary reasoning was that it would largely deter conflicts within his children, as boys tended to have a competitive "dick-measuring attitude" towards each other, preventing them all from cohesively working with each other. Females are generally more level-headed than boys and act more as the voice of reason in a family, which would probably have eased some of the tensions that led to the primarchs despising each other. The Emperor eventually dismissed this, both as a joke and that it simply couldn't be done as the Space Marine gene seed was keyed towards male subjects. Additionally, it might be that the Emperor expected his sons to be of one mind as he planned to train them under his unified guidance, ensuring they would work utterly objectively with no personal feelings to get in the way (Much like him). This expectation went to shit when the Chaos Gods spirited the Primarchs away from Terra and they landed on different planets and being raised with different backgrounds and beliefs, causing friction between those whose home culture did not really mesh with each other. This undiffused brotherly rivalry (Not helped because the Emperor did not bother to ease the tensions between his sons, in fact if any he intensified them <strike> by being a total dick.) </strike> {{BLAM|'''*BLAM!* HERESY!'''}} would eventually royally bite him back in his golden buttplate when the Horus Heresy erupted. It also caused Malcador quite a lot of physical pain - all the primarchs made a show of their physical strength in front of him at some point, with Mortarion choking him and Lorgar backhanding him around like a ragdoll.

==Credits==
He was the third most powerful human [[psyker]] of his time (after Big E and [[Magnus the Red]]), being able to do things such as plunging the entire moon of Titan in the Warp to protect what would become the Grey Knights from the attacking Traitor Legions. He was also able to prevent a volkite gun from firing even while [[What|surrounded by a squad]] of [[Sisters of Silence]], who were there to keep the psyker [[Knights-Errant|Sevarian]]'s powers in check, without showing any sort of discomfort or loss of concentration.

Though it has never been seen, he must have been one badass warrior too, since he was the Grand Master of the Assassins. Says something that he took a bone-crunching backhand from Lorgar on the chin. This, in addition to his above-mentioned prodigious psychic power, shows what sort of man Malcador was. With his power - and considering only a few Primarchs are psychic or have psychic defenses (actually they all had psychic potential but most didn't realise, or at least understand their full potential) - he probably could've put Lorgar on a time out. On the moon. With his mind. Or maybe not, considering Lorgy was the fourth most powerful psyker in the Galaxy, straight after the Malc himself. Then again Lorgar's powers hadn't come into their own yet, so Malcador could've put him down for the count quite easily back then.

He proposed the [[Chaplain]] edict, ironically taking the idea from [[Lorgar]] and [[Sanguinius]] though back then they were more like [[Commissar]]s, keeping order and looking for [[heresy]], instead of the modern day warrior-priests.

There is also [[Malcador Heavy Tank|a tank named after him]], though nowadays another tank named after [[Leman Russ|an important hero and leader]] of the Imperium is used instead, the [[Leman Russ Battle Tank|Leman Russ]], passing over yet another [[Macharius Heavy Tank|perfectly servicable vehicle]]. Russ is a [[Galactic Partridges|glory hogger]] like that.

He was also potentially the busiest man in existence, having founded pretty much the ENTIRE Imperium single-handedly. The organizations he founded--the [[Administratum]], the [[Officio Assassinorum]], [[Astronomican|Adeptus Astronomica]] and the [[Inquisition]]--have been fucking up everything else and each other ever since without his guidance.

His force staff has also passed into the hands of [[Varro Tigurius]], because [[Matt Ward|Ultramarines]].

{{Imperium}}