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Vulkan

2020-09-05T10:09:36Z

2605:E000:1314:831B:9DDF:B401:1F6A:119B:

[[File:Vulkan's Face.jpg|400px|thumb|right|Vulkan, The Lord of Drakes, The Hammer of Salvation, the HNIC. The Promethean Fire. Too cool a guy to complain that [[Sanguinius]] got all the glamour genes.]]
{{topquote|Vulkan: "There will be no Rad or Phosphex in my legion. We shall fight wars humanely. Some things should be left in the dark age." [[Ferrus Manus|Ferrus]]: "Oh cool, when are you going to stop burning people to death?" Vulkan: "I don't understand the question.|A conversation between the X and XVIII Primarchs}}
{{Topquote|Even the softest and sweetest heart was made by design for extreme battle.|Bryant McGill}}
{{Topquote|Having a soft heart in a cruel world is courage, not weakness.|Katherine Henson}}
{{Topquote|Why am I alive? Why would I want to be dead? Being alive is fun, all my friends are here! Besides, I tried being dead. UNPLEASANT IT WAS.|[[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|Vulkan, on his experiences as a perpetual.]]}}

Vulkan, aka '''the Lord of Drakes, the Hammer of Salvation, the Promethean Fire, the [[Alternate Heresy|Black Dragon]], and the [[TTS|Jolly Green Giant]]''', is the [[Primarch]] of the [[Salamanders]] [[Chapter]] of [[Space Marines]]. He is notable for being a fuckawesome smith, and advancing a civilization from Stone to the Steel Age in a matter of months, as well as being perhaps one of the only likable and bro-tier Primarchs, a trait he shares with [[Sanguinius]] and Crusade Era [[Horus]]. He does not pity the [[Dark Eldar]] fools who raided his planet.

Like all Primarchs, he was dropped on [[Nocturne|a far-flung planet]] as an infant, and worked his way to a position of power. Some Primarchs became powerful by being good at politics and bureaucracy, or by kicking enemy ass. Vulkan did it by being really fucking smart and murdering as many Dark Eldar as he could find with massive [[Warhammer 40,000|hammers]], both of which are fine occupations for a Demigod. He also made some really cool stuff, which the Salamanders have been spending all of their free time trying to find. As Primarchs go, he's more or less tied with Sanguinius as being a shining example of [[this guy]], especially [[Lorgar|compared to]] [[Perturabo|some]] [[Konrad Curze|of]] [[Angron|them]].

The only real chink in his moral armor is his out-of-control pyromania. When he banned the use of Destroyers and other terror weapons within his legion as "too cruel," Ferrus Manus pointed out that burning people to death with flamers, volkite rays, and melta weaponry was hardly that much better. He wasn't wrong, but Vulkan was too busy setting a tank on fire with those boosted flamer-pen rolls to notice.

He is also a [[Perpetual]], which means that he regenerates from ANY injury, even the ones that actually kill him. With enough time, [[Anval Thawn|he can return from a death which vaporized him to atoms]], find the culprit, and kick his sorry ass from one edge of the galaxy to the other. [[Konrad Curze]] found this out the hard way. Unfortunately this has not been translated into tabletop rules, on the well-grounded point that having a Primarch that is LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO KILL is slightly unfair. He inherited this ability from [[Emperor|his father]], which implies that the Emperor is a perpetual as well. This can provoke [[Skub|long and passionate debate]]. Nevermind, The Emperor's status as a perpetual has has since been confirmed and stated outright both in the Siege of Terra novel, ''Saturnine'', as well as GW itself by way of an FAQ posting.

Pretty cool guy. Definitely cooler than his brothers.

== History ==

=== Early Life ===
[[File:Vulkan.jpg|400px|thumb|left|Vulkan will burn a fool to ash instead of pitying him.]]
The Primarch of the Salamanders legion was Vulkan. Rather than be dumped in a volcano for being a bad omen, as is the fate of many small children who crash on feudal death worlds in space pods, Vulkan grew up as the adopted son of a blacksmith named N'bel, from whom he learned the basics of metallurgy. Of course, being a genetically engineered super-soldier like his brothers he reached adulthood at the age of three and started inventing new alloys like they were going out of style, bringing most of the planet up to the late Steel Age in a matter of months.

Anyway, Vulkan enjoyed his normal life (or as close to normal a super-strong basically Demi-God genius blacksmith could) until the [[Dark Eldar]] came to town. Nocturne, it turns out, was a favorite raiding destination for [[Mandrakes]], whose realm of '''Aelindrach''' was connected to Nocturne by a series of Webway gates. The populace, who had advanced to about the iron age before Vulkan came along, generally tended to hide from the space rapists with guns that shoot poisonous glass, but Vulkan didn't share their good sense (possibly having something to do with the fact that he could have tanked multiple RPG-7 rounds to the torso and only gotten mildly pissed off, but whatever). Instead, the first time they came after his arrival, he grabbed a pair of blacksmith's hammers and went to town on Spess Elf ass. ''(If this sounds suspiciously [http://whfb.lexicanum.com/wiki/Valten familiar] then congratulations, you're paying attention. If you also noticed that Vulkan predates that character, making the other one the rip-off, then even better! We will make an expert of you yet!)'' Although admittedly, Vulkan's first attempt at dealing with the situation resulted in a failure; he drove off the Eldar, but then he took a force of his best men into the webway to defeat the Mandrakes at their source, only to be picked off and murdered while they advanced. They got as far as [[Kheradruakh]]'s tower, but there Vulkan ended up being the last man standing and forced to retreat. When he got back to Nocturne he smashed the webway gate to bits, regretting his decision not to do it in the first place and lamenting the loss of so many good men. [[Troll|A season later the Mandrakes returned]], forcing Vulkan to realise that there was more than one Webway gate on the planet, and that his earlier attempt to destroy their entrance as well as the counter-charge were both futile actions on their own, meaning he would have to destroy each one if he wanted to protect his people. [[awesome|And guess what? He did exactly that!]]

<s>Shortly after Valt-- I mean Vulkan</s> {{BLAM}} {{BLAM|Heresy! Vulkan came first!}} drove off the raiders, his settlement threw a bigass feast to celebrate the victory along with a competition to see who had the biggest [[Pauldrons|man-parts]]. Amongst the events were to be anvil-lifting, weapon-forging, and bigass fire-breathing dragon-thing slaying. Or something like that. A stranger ended up intruding on the ceremony, and proved himself Vulkan's equal in every contest except the salamander slaying, which Vulkan won by virtue of his own thick-headedness and the stranger saving his sorry ass. (If you want the long story filled with themes of honor and dignity read the fucking [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Vulkan Lexicanum]) Vulkan pledged his loyalty to the stranger immediately after being declared the victor, saying that anyone who valued human life over victory was worth following, and with insufferable predictability the stranger revealed himself to be [[God-Emperor of Mankind|the Emprah]].

The short story ''Mercy of the Dragon'' adds a little more to the story however, in that Vulkan's acceptance was not immediate upon declaring the Emperor the victor. The two spoke for a while, with the Emperor trying to convince Vulkan to leave his homeworld and join the Great Crusade. After hearing about his brothers, the terrors of the Old Night and of the Imperial Truth; Vulkan put it quite plainly that as the son of a blacksmith, he had no interest in being a general or a conqueror. Pointing out that where his brother primarchs were already great and proud generals, Vulkan only desired peace. The Emperor told Vulkan that he was ''"utterly unlike"'' the rest of his brothers, and that was both his single greatest trait and the Emperor's proudest achievement. So when asked by Vulkan what could he possibly teach the other Primarchs, big Emps told him that his lesson was the most crucial and that he was uniquely disposed to teach it: his Humanity.

=== Great Crusade ===
Despite being brought into the fold, the Emperor took the unusual step of not officially revealing Vulkan and keeping him close by for an extended period of time, quite possibly because a massive charcoal-black dude with red eyes might have been too much for a puritanical Imperium to deal with at least initially ''(all of the initial Terran Salamanders were only "slightly" darkened and had ember eyes, and it was quite likely that Magnus was not discovered yet)'' OR because the Emperor considered Vulkan to be too soft and compassionate and needed some tough-love OR because big Emps had a different plan for Vulkan. For a few years during the Great Crusade, Vulkan would not act without wearing his armour or travelling very far from the Emperor himself, thus for a time all people knew was that the Emperor had picked up a gigantic, nameless, emerald champion from somewhere. The only people privy to Vulkan's existence were the other Primarchs who were already discovered, and the Priesthood of Mars.

Vulkan was only officially revealed at the right moment: when 19,000 members of his Legion were under siege by a force of over a million Orks, they were relieved by a "new" force of 3000 marines drawn from Nocturne accompanied by an entire battlefleet composed of warships & war machines of Vulkan's own design, which explains what he was doing with the Mechanicum for those years. Collectively they demolished the Orks and the old Terran Salamanders got to find out who their forefather was.

The rest, as they say, is history.

=== Horus Heresy ===
[[File:Vulkan Lives.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Vulkan Lives. And he's got a big hammer. (That Marine is totally going to reveal that he ripped his pants)]]
While the rest may be history, what happened after the [[Horus Heresy]] is an absolute records nightmare.

Sensing that the galaxy was about to change in a bad way, Vulkan created the post of Forgefather before leaving for Istvaan, with instructions to destroy all his masterwork creations so they could never be misused in the future. The new Forgefather protested, leading Vulkan to relent, and tell him to pick out seven artifacts to remain. Whether these are the same artifacts as in 40k is currently unclear.

During the Drop Site Massacre, the Salamanders took such severe losses that they were reduced to 780 battle-brothers. Worse yet, Vulkan was initially believed to have been killed in the Dropsite Massacre, although his body was never found, in earlier fluff this was a contentious sticking point, because "Vulkan" was also have supposedly survived at least up to the [[Second Founding]], although at that time it wasn't certain whether this was the actual Vulkan, or one of the Forgefathers that followed him.

The Horus Heresy novels cleared this up somewhat, then threw some new wrinkles into the equation: Vulkan died '''''and''''' lived. Like the Emperor, John Grammaticus, and [[Ollanius Pius]], Vulkan is a [[Perpetual]]: a being who can be killed by any means ''(decapitation, immolation, asphyxiation, having his heart torn out with a rusty fork, etc)'' and will regenerate from it. His first death occurred during the [[Drop Site Massacre]], where the [[Iron Warriors]] launched a tactical nuclear missile at the Salamanders, killing Vulkan and the bulk of the XVIII Legion. Vulkan (seemingly) survived, however, and was given over to [[Konrad Curze]] for [[Dark Eldar|sick, torturous fun]]. [[If_the_Emperor_had_a_Text-to-Speech_Device|He tried to kill Vulkan. Really, REALLY hard! With a FORK!]] But it soon turned to unstoppable rage when Curze learned he couldn't fully kill Vulkan, so he just kept killing him over and over, getting even more pissed off, which is strange; seeing as Curze is a murderous psychopath, one would hypothesize this would be a dream come true (one must assume Sevatar and Sheng were pulling straws on delivering Curze the bad news at this point) before Vulkan managed to steal ''Dawnbringer'', a thunder hammer originally intended as a gift for [[Horus]] with teleportation function included. The hammer teleported Vulkan off the ''Nightfall'' (though not before he beat Konrad, who had apparently forgotten ''"It's also a hammer"'', to a pulp) and sent him to [[Macragge]], where he burned up on re-entry and resurrected himself again. Unfortunately, the constant deaths drove Vulkan completely insane, into little more than a feral beast, attacking everyone he saw, including [[Roboute Guilliman]].

While this was going on, [[xenos]] were doing their thing: plotting. [[The Cabal]], a group of xenos who believed that allowing [[Chaos]] to win the [[Horus Heresy]] would get the [[Chaos Gods]] addicted on human emotions and then be destroyed outright when humanity collapsed on itself, so they sent John Grammaticus with a fulgurite, a piece of the Emperor's psychic lightning encased within a shard, to give to a Primarch with which to kill Vulkan, as they feared he might turn the tide at Terra. However, [[Eldrad]], in an incredibly undickish move, told John Grammaticus that if ''he'' killed Vulkan, he could instead heal Vulkan's mind, allowing him to perform his desired role. After Konrad Curze arrived on Macragge (after jumping off [[Lion El'Jonson]]'s battle barge after playing an extended game of hide and seek), Vulkan went apeshit and made a beeline for Curze. Apparently, the fulgurite could only kill Vulkan permanently if it was USED BY ANOTHER PRIMARCH. During the battle, John Grammaticus, in a change of heart, instead of giving the fulgurite to Curze to kill Vulkan, stabbed Vulkan with the shard himself, restoring Vulkan's sanity but simultaneously knocking him into a deep coma, while making Grammaticus fully human. Guilliman hoped he might revive himself, so he placed him in a coffin (or preservation capsule, as he told [[Lion El'Jonson]] and [[Sanguinius]]), hand-crafted by Guilliman himself, where he was guarded by some Salamanders who had made it to Macragge, who thought they might have heard a heartbeat. Before you get your hopes up, however, the coffin was named ''The Unbound Flame'', the last of the fabled ''Artifacts of Vulkan'' that the Forgefathers would be looking for in later 40k.

*Those of you who enjoy speculation should be getting a kick out of this. While internally consistent, it is almost completely incompatible with [[Vulkan He'stan]]'s lore, which is just as canon as ''Vulkan Lives'' as of the 6th ed Marines codex. Ignoring for a moment the question of how the "Unbound Flame" was lost to the Salamanders, "Unbound Flame" was ''Vulkan's'' name for the artifact, not Guilliman's, and it's a name that predates the Drop Site Massacre. Vulkan had no prior history of being able to see the future, and was unconscious, dead, or completely insane during any of the times when it would have made sense for him to tell Guilliman what to name his casket. Also, the coffin would have to be *extremely* oversized and only usable for a Primarch. The Horus Heresy Novel ''Deathfire'' is based around the Salamander remnants trying to return The Unbound Flame to Nocturne, which they succeed at. So far as we know, it is not now and has never been missing. The biggest problem is that the casket was made by Guilliman and the fulgurite and Vulkan himself were both made by the Emperor, so neither the casket nor its contents were made by Vulkan, and all nine artifacts that have to be recovered were made by Vulkan himself.
*This is somewhat mitigated when one considers that Vulkan only told his first Forgefather to choose seven artefacts rather than nine, so the other two had to come from somewhere else or made by Vulkan at some point after the Dropsite Massacre. It also turns out that the Unbound Flame (or Immolus as it was known on Nocturne), as well as being a title occasionally attributed to Vulkan himself, was a central concept to everyone on Nocturne - the all destroying fire and could refer to pretty much anything.
*In Nick Kyme's Salamanders Trilogy, the Chapter believes that the Unbound Flame might in fact be the soul of Vulkan, rather than a specific object. The Chapter are not aware of Vulkan's Perpetual ability and consider the possibility to the term could refer to him directly without them realising, though it could also be a form of reincarnation. Even though they conclude that one of their Librarians: '''Hazon Dak'ir''' is probably NOT the Unbound Flame ''(and therefore not a reincarnation of the Primarch)'' it doesn't mean they aren't correct with their original guess or that they don't realize they are hunting for Vulkan instead of an artefact.

The novel Deathfire ended up resolving a few issues and creating a few more mysteries. After First Captain '''Artellus Numeon''' of the Salamanders is rescued and relocated to Macragge, he goes a bit...crazy over finding out that Vulkan is dead. Weird things happen and the body is briefly stolen (by whom is unknown, though current bets are on the [[Lion El'Jonson|Lion]]) before being reclaimed by the Salamanders and fast tracked back to Nocturne. In spite of Vulkan's previous resurrection powers (which were supposedly removed), the remaining Salamanders believe that returning the body to Nocturne would bring him back to life, according to the Promethean Creed. After fighting off a variety of parties trying to get the body back (including a surprising turn from one of the shards of [[Magnus the Red]]), Numeon is told, not surprisingly, that the story was allegorical - any resurrection was a rebirth of spirit, ideals, and resolve; not a literal one. After getting a little suicidal about the whole thing, Numeon climbs the slopes of an erupting Mount Deathfire. A rescue party is sent out to find him (or his convection broiled corpse) but instead they find Vulkan alive and well, having ended up resurrecting himself after all.

'''Old Earth''' pads this resurrection out somewhat; Vulkan awakes in a cave inside of Mount Deathfire, missing some important memories but possessing some unexplained knowledge. Having a conversation with [[Eldrad|this dick in disguise]], Vulkan realises that there is still a Webway gate left on Nocturne, and that it is buried underneath Deathfire. Based on his own limited understanding of his Perpetual limits, he also comes to the conclusion that his Father's purpose for him is no longer to lead his Legion, arguing that the Imperium already has enough generals. So he decides not to rejoin the Salamanders or the Horus Heresy, but instead travel to Terra through the Webway, taking only three Legionaries with him and swearing them to secrecy about his return. When he does reach Terra, the Emperor tells him, in true grimdark fashion, that Vulkan had an additional purpose to uphold. In the event of Chaos winning the battle of Terra, Vulkan's interaction with the Golden Throne would somehow lead to the whole planet annihilating itself ; throneworld, loyalists, traitors, webway entrance and daemons alike. Whilst coming out of nowhere, it at least gives a reason for Vulkan to be on Terra but not seen during the siege itself if he was acting as a living deadman's switch.

Critical opinions aside, it does at least explain how Vulkan was able to do things post-Heresy and why information on his activities after the Heresy are spotty and incomplete, since at this point he had already decided to move into the background and leave the Salamanders generally nonplussed.

=== Later 40k ===
[[File:Big+black+friendly+salamander+centerhttpstwittercomdrunkrembrancerstatus.jpg|500px|right|thumb|Fan art depicting Vulkan dressing [[Corvus Corax|his best friend Corax]] up in a [[Salamander]] onesie (The beasts of Nocturne, not the Chapter) [[Disney 40k|and showing him a whole new world.]] [[Lofn|Say it with me everybody!]] [[Dawww|Daaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwww!]]]]
The 6th edition codex and ''Vulkan Lives'' have included quotes from Vulkan after the Horus Heresy, arguing with Roboute Guilliman about his issues with the Codex (namely the fact that the Salamanders didn't have enough marines left to fill one chapter, let alone two) and a speech that he made to the survivors of his legion on Terra, so there's hope that more will happen in the future of the (yet unfinished) Horus Heresy books. But all of this hits a snag when one realizes that it could have been simply the First Forge Father and 10,000 years resulted in people forgetting that wasn't the real Vulkan. The black library novel series and the 8th edition Codex confirmed his survival after the Heresy, claiming that he would return to aid the Salamanders from time to time for a couple of millennia afterwards and added that he bequeathed the Tome of Fire to the Salamanders after warning them he had to leave on a long journey for reasons he couldn't discuss.

In response, the Salamanders created the position of Forgefather, chosen from a Company Captain who would travel the galaxy searching for information on the fate of Vulkan and his nine Artifacts of Vulkan. So far, five have been discovered, three of which are pieces of wargear used by the Forgefather. Another is a massive laser weapon used to shoot out incoming ships trying to attack [[Nocturne]]. The fifth is a downed forgeship used to create wargear for the Chapter, which, alongside their unique practices, is the reason they have so many master-crafted weapons. The locations--and even the form--of the other Artifacts are completely unknown. The Salamanders hold that once all nine Artifacts have been located, Vulkan will return to the Salamanders and lead them once more. Like [[Leman Russ]], but with more style.

The Beast Arises series says that at least 1500 years after the Horus Heresy, Vulkan was still alive and kicking, and of course he was trapped on an Ork world fighting them all the time, so the Imperial Fists set out to investigate these rumours and bring him back if possible. They succeed, but he refuses to abandon the world he's on, claiming that ''every'' world in the Imperium is just as important as [[Terra]] and is equally as deserving of protection and instead rallies the Imperial forces to defeat the Orks, save the world, and give stirring speeches to everyone who sees him. But not before a few clues are dropped that the years since the Horus Heresy have not been kind to him. He doesn't seem to understand what a "Successor Chapter" is, which given that he was present at the time of the Second founding is pretty ridiculous unless it really was the Forgefather who spoke for him at the Second Founding rather than himself. He also implies that he can communicate with [[Dorn]], as he said he would tell Dorn that Koorland is a worthy successor when he sees him. Though this statement about Dorn might signify the onset of madness or senility, considering that he had already been haunted by visions of his dead brother [[Ferrus Manus]] during the Horus Heresy; it might instead signify that the departed soul of Dorn might still be reachable, considering the Emperor could psychically summon an effigy of their brother Ferrus to battle daemons in the webway; or it might really mean that Dorn is in fact still alive, giving fans some hope to cling to. Or he just didn't realise that Dorn had died during the intervening years of his self-exile.

Vulkan appears very much out of place during the War of the Beast as his mere existence is juxtaposed against a more modern Imperium that already considers him and his brothers as something out of a barely understood myth. He then agrees to go back with Terra and take command of the Imperial response, although he leaves the "actual" command of everything to Koorland and works primarily as an advisor ''(see above about him saying that the Imperium already has enough generals)'' and refuses to present himself to his own Chapter who would be dying to have an audience with their Primarch. Eventually he ends up exploding himself and The Beast together, not before stating he would return in another time to help humanity in a conflict that would make them tremble. Vulkan was officially declared dead, but the Salamanders and Chapter Master Koorland of the Imperial Fists believed that Vulkan could have survived. ''(And he probably did, him being a Perpetual and all that.)''

==On The Tabletop==
[[File:VulkanModel.JPG|300px|thumb|right|Vulkan's model is an instructional manual on how to deploy Hammertime.]]
Thank you, Forgeworld. We have rules for Vulkan now because of Horus Heresy Book 2: Electric Boogaloo. Remember how Mortarion in the first book got a ton of rules that basically made him unkillable? T7, a bajillionty wounds, saving throws coming out from places he didn't even know he had, rerolling failed It Will Not Die saves? Well, Vulkan gets all that fun stuff too except in a slightly different variety, AND he's as McHUEG deadly in both shooting and assault phases.

{| class=wikitable
! || Pts || WS || BS || S || T || W || I || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Vulkan:''' || 425|| 7 || 5|| 7 || 7 || 6 || 5 || 4 || 10 || 2+/3++
|}

Firstly, your entire army gains +1 Ld and Adamantium Will while he's deployed, because fuck psykers. He gets to reroll failed It Will Not Die and 5+ Deny the Witch, making him the fifth best psyker-proof Primarch (After Magnus, Lorgar, Mortarion and Horus) on par with Guilliman.

Vulkan's armor is stupidly good: as if 2+/3++ wasn't good enough, the Draken Scale also reduces the strength of any flamer, fusion, volkite, melta and plasma weapons used against him, BY HALF, rounded down. That means Plasma is only Strength 3 against him. Oh wait, he's T7. That means he's LITERALLY IMMUNE TO PLASMA WEAPONS, at least the ones that aren't attached to a superheavy tank or a titan. The only way to reliably cause wounds on Vulkan is heaping gobs and gobs of [[Imperial Ordnance|ordnance]] on him or unleash a few dozen [[Lascannon]]s and hope he stops moving before he gets too close. Or just being a Dark Eldar, with all guns poisoned 4+ or S8 AP2. No wonder Vulkan hates them.

His close combat weapon, the Dawnbringer, effectively makes him Sauron in that one scene before Sauron gets his finger chopped off in the Lord of the Rings movie. You know, where he bats entire legions of dudes around in a single swing? Yeah, that. Not only is the weapon itself Strength 10 AP1 [[Rip and tear|ConcussiveArmorbaneInstantDeath]] ''without'' also being Unwieldy, he can choose to not make attacks normally in combat to place a small blast template (you know, the 3" kind you use with grenades) anywhere in base to base contact with himself that does not cover friendly models. All models under it take a beefy S8 AP3 hit with Strikedown automatically. AKA: Thunk.

Vulkan is fairly shooty, too, something kind of odd for all the Primarchs released so far save Ferrus Manus. Go figure, Vulkan's line-drawing gun was created by the liquid metal-armed one. The best part is both ranged weapons Vulkan carries do not require you to roll to hit, so his below average (for a Primarch) BS5 doesn't come into play. One is simply a strength 6 heavy flamer, while the other is an 18" S6 AP2 beam gun with rending. You know how you utilize Beam psychic powers? It works just like that, except there are no 'deny the witch rolls' to be made.

All this said, no Primarch can do everything, and Vulkan is no exception. The Ld bonus and Adamantium Will are good, but don't stack up against [[Ferrus Manus|making your marines and tanks even tougher]], [[Lorgar|morale shenanigans and choosing psychic powers]], or [[Fulgrim|strategic traits, +2 to combat resolution, and challenge excellence]]. He also shares a problem with [[Angron]] and [[Leman Russ]] - as killy as he is he isn't very mobile, and he can't just mulch through tarpits like Dorn or Mortarion would. The Lord of Drakes just can't kill enough shit to justify his points cost unless your enemy brought something ludicrous like a Fellblade. If you're bringing him, you need a transport, a retinue, and a plan.

===Vulkan VS other Primarchs:===
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
Primarch fighting, while fun to see, isn't a very competitive thing to do as it'll usually tie up both Primarchs for the entire game without either of them dying (Especially in the case of Vulkan. No other primarch is resilient as he is, not even Mortarion. In your face, Khan!) With that in mind this section is about how Vulkan fares against other Primarchs Mathhammer wise. Please note that all the various abilities are taken into accounts when possible and the match-ups assume the Primarchs are the only ones involved in the fighting, so various abilities like Angron's "The Butcher's Nails" and Rampage do not provide any bonuses. In essence, the fights are supposed to happen in a "Vacuum" for simplicity, but notes are added to make things clearer in particular instances. Also all of the Primarch use their most powerful weapons (because why have a contest if you don't do your best?).
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">

* Vulkan VS Horus
**Horus hits 4.667 times (Worldbreaker), wounds 3.333 times, 1.111 after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.556 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Vulkan hits 2 times, wounds 1.667 times, 0.556 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.222.
**Vulkan loses.

* Vulkan VS Angron
**Angron Round 1: hits 5.333 times, wounds 3.555 times, 1.185 after saves, and IWND take it down to 0.63.
**Angron Round 2: hits 4 times, wounds 2.666 times, 0.889 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.333 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Vulkan hits 2 times, wounds 1.666 times, 0.833 wounds after saves (ID Negates FNP) and IWND will take that down to 0.5 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Thanks to his sheer resilience, Vulkan comes out on top.

* Vulkan vs Mortarion
**Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.25 times, 0.415 wounds after saves and 0 wounds after IWND.
**Vulkan hits 2 times, wounds 1.666 times, 0.833 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.278 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Vulkan wins.

* Vulkan vs Fulgrim
**Fulgrim Round 1 (And every round he is not Concussed): hits 6 times, wounds 3 times, 1 wounds after saves and 0.444 wounds after IWND.
**Fulgrim (Every round he IS Concussed): hits 4 times, wounds 2 times, 0.667 wounds after saves and 0.111 wounds after IWND.
**Vulkan hits 2 times, wounds 1.666 times, 0.556 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.222 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**A really close (and long) fight but it ends in victory for Fulgrim, for even with the 55% chance of being concussed his average damage is 0.261, a little bit higher than Vulkan's.

* Vulkan vs Ferrus Manus
**Ferrus hits 2.5 times, wounds 2 times, 0.667 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.111 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Vulkan hits 2 times, wounds 1.666 times, 0.556 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.222 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**The fight between the two big tanks ends in victory for Vulkan, 'cause even though Ferrus does marginally more damage, Vulkan is a bit tougher (or better, he regenerates a lot faster).

* Vulkan vs Konrad Curze
**Curze hits 4 times, wounds 2.222 times, 0.741 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.185 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Vulkan hits 2 times, wounds 1.666 times, 0.833 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.5 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Vulkan wins as he is just too tanky for Konrad.

* Vulkan VS Lorgar
**Lorgar hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.667 times, 0.556 after saves and IWND will take that to 0 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Vulkan Round 1: hits 2.37 times, wounds 1.865 times, 0.932 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.599 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Vulkan Round 2: hits 2.666 times, wounds 2.221 times, 1.11 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.777 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Vulkan wins as Lorgar can't even put a dent on him.
**Note: as always, psychic powers not included. You know how it would end anyway...

* Vulkan VS Perturabo
**Perturabo hits 2.667 times, wounds 2.222, 0.741 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.185 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Vulkan hits 2 times, wounds 1.667 times, 0.555 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.222 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Vulkan (Blinded): hits 1.333 times, wounds 1.111 times, 0.37 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.037 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Perturabo wins against Vulkan thanks to his Hammer.

* Vulkan VS Alpharius
**Alpharius hits 2.92 times and wounds 1.136 times, 0.379 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Vulkan hits 2 times, wounds 1.667 times, 0.833 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.5 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Vulkan wins without breaking a sweat.

* Vulkan VS Rogal Dorn
**Dorn hits 2.667 times, wounds 1.481 times, 0.494 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Vulkan hits 2 times, wounds 1.333 times, 0.667 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.333 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Vulkan wins again.

* Vulkan VS Corvus Corax
**Corvus hits 4 times (Scourge)/3 times (Shadow-walk), wounds 2.222 times (Scourge)/1.667 times (Shadow-walk), 0.741 wounds (Scourge)/0.556 wounds (Shadow-walk) after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.185/0 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Vulkan hits 2 times/1.333 times, wounds 1.667 times/1.111 times, 1.111 wounds/0.741 after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.778/0.408 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Vulkan wins.
**Note: even with Hit & Run Corax will struggle to keep up with the damage output of Vulkan, and if he uses Scourge (the only way to really do more damage than him) chance are pretty high that Vulkan will Hammer him to I 1, thus making almost impossible for him to escape.

* Vulkan VS Roboute Guilliman
**Guilliman Round 1: hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.083 times, 0.694 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.139 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Guilliman Round 2 and thereafter: hits 3.333 times, wounds 2.778 times, 0.926 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.37 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Vulkan hits 2 times, wounds 1.667 times, 0.833 times after saves, 0.417 after Armor of Reason and IWND will take that down to 0.083.
**Guilliman takes the win (after a loooong fight) because he does more damage than Vulkan.

* Vulkan VS Leman Russ
**Russ hits 4 times, wounds 2.222 times, 0.741 time after saves, plus 0.206 wounds from Sever Life for a whole 0.947 wounds and IWND will take that down to 0.392 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Vulkan round 1: hits 1.333 times, wounds 1.111 times, 0.555 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.222.
**Vulkan Round 2 and thereafter: hits 0.667 times, wounds 0.555 times, 0.278 times after saves and IWND will take that down to -0.055 wounds.
**Vulkan loses after a long fight.

* Vulkan VS Jaghatai
**Jaghatai hits 4 times, wounds 1.333 times, 0.444 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0
**Vulkan hits 2 times, wounds 1.666 times, 0.556 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.222 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Vulkan is more likely to pass an IWND roll than Khan is to wound him, so Vulkan wins.

* TLDR version: Thanks to his mere resilience Vulkan is actually one of the strongest Primarchs when it comes down to 1 vs 1 fights, losing mathematically to only five of the Primarchs released till now (7, if we include Lorgar transfigured and psychic Magnus), and they all will take some time to kill him, even Horus. Also, even though he strike less than most of them, he strikes really hard, making him hurt everyone in the same way (except for Rogal Dorn..). Then again, even though he would win almost every fight, he will take his sweet time to do so, so don't ever stuck him in a fight with a Primarch; in his case it will never end (unless you want to tie them up for the whole game, in which case, he's perfect).

</div></div>
{{Primarchs}}
[[Category:Imperial]]

Perpetual

2020-09-05T09:56:40Z

2605:E000:1314:831B:9DDF:B401:1F6A:119B: /* Vulkan */

[[File:OllPious.jpg|350px|right|thumb|Ollanius Pius, the most famous Perpetual, the man, the myth, the legend.]]
{{topquote|I just want a normal life." "My friend, you will have as many of those as you wish.|The beings who would one day be [[Ollanius Pius]] and the [[God-Emperor of Mankind]]}}

A '''Perpetual''' (''Homo Superior'') is a person of [[40k|the grim darkness of the 41st millennium]] who drew the absolutely shortest straw possible: they are immortal. And nothing of this "age without youth" or "immortality without indestructibility" bullshit: they do not age (after some point in adulthood that isn't clear but seems to be the mid-to-late 30s or early 40s, maybe [[Alivia Sureka|earlier]] or maybe [[Ollanius Pius|later]]) and can survive the most gruesome deaths imaginable up to and including taking an [[Exterminatus]] to the face because they can reassemble themselves from their constituent atoms. [[/co/|They're like Wolverine on steroids like that]]. Which, given [[Grimdark|the relentless sunshine of the Warhammer 40.000 universe is NOT a good thing: not even death will relieve your suffering.]] There are only a [[Sly Marbo|few things]] said to be able to kill a Perpetual for good, but these powers and weapons are known to only a few individuals in the galaxy (and even then it's not known for certain how effective they are, or if they even work). Very little is known about the Perpetuals including their origin (but given the fact that Ollanius Persson was around as far back as the time of Greek myth, they've undoubtedly been around for ages), number, purpose or even if those suspected to be them actually being Perpetuals (all that we know is that during the Horus Heresy, there were exactly 3 Perpetuals living in Ultramar; given that Ultramar consisted of 500 planets at the time, we have to assume that they're extraordinarily rare). Of only eight individuals is the status of Perpetual known or confirmed. Another foible they have is their very existence fucks up farseeing to a considerable degree, which lead Eldrad to kill off as many of them as possible to try and find a way to avoid Chaos winning overall.

We do however know, that people could be turned Perpetual by being resurrected. Which, ironically, might imply that [[Kharn]] and [[Lucius]] at some point became Perpetual too, since they've both came back from dead. It'll explain how Kharn managed to survive for that long despite his suicidal psychotic charges into everything he sees, and how Lucius resurrected without possessing anyone's body after first being outfought by Nykona Sharrowkyn of the [[Raven Guard]], and then subsequently being cut to pieces by an emotionless [[Rubric Marine|Rubric Swordmaster]] (who in any case no longer had a body to possess either).

Recent fluff has revealed that the universe itself (or is it just the Eldar? Assholes that they are.) isn't too keen on Perpetuals as their very existence is a spanner in its gears, because <s>[[meme|people should die when they are killed]]</s> each of their revivals end up fucking farseeing over and altering causality. In order to try and find alternatives to the Cabal's plan of letting humanity die to kill Chaos, Eldrad went on a galaxy wide murder tour bumping off other Perpetuals and members of the Cabal, a choice he deeply regretted when he tried farseeing and saw what the future would eventually hold. It also turns out they're capable of resisting daemonic possession, partly due to any warp entity inhabiting their soul gets fucked up when they die (and then come back). It's still implied to be horrifically traumatic but it explains how both Alivia Sureka and Anval Thawn were able to resist.

==Predating the [[Great Crusade]]==

===The Emperor===
With all of his mysteries about the [[Emperor]] it would explain a number of things if he was a Perpetual: such as his age, knowledge in an era where everyone else on [[Terra]] was too busy [[LARP]]ing a crossover of [[Terminator]] and [[Fist of the North Star]] to learn shit and his massive power (learned over time). On the other hand it would not explain why he didn't just regenerate after being bitchslapped by [[Horus]]. The best explanation for this (besides Horus being able to injure the Emperor permanently through being the virtual avatar of all four [[Chaos Gods]]) is that that the Golden Throne, while maintaining his life functions, is also keeping him from resurrecting himself- in theory, if it was shut down, the only real effect it would have is that the Emperor would "die" for a day or two at most before fully healing from his injuries. A shame that nobody seems to realize this, as it would end most of the Imperium's problems on the spot at the expense of leaving Terra defenseless to being raped, both literally and figuratively, by hordes upon hordes of daemons, even if for a couple days. ''(That's assuming he doesn't turn into a real God the moment he "dies" and use his new God-like powers to seal the broken portal)''. Though it would create some new problems, as quite a few people wouldn't be happy with the return of [[Imperial Truth]], especially the Ecclesiarchy. Of course, knowing the Emperor he'd crush them like bugs if they tried to oppose him, or even if they didn't. There is no way he would agree with the current Imperium.

Recent revelations from the Horus Heresy books also suggest that his godlike powers were actually stolen from the Chaos Gods themselves instead of being wholly his own. Needless to say, the Ruinous Powers still have a grudge.
*'''Note''': This is what Chaos Gods told Horus (since the initial Horus Heresy trilogy, though ''Vengeful Spirit'' had them stick with the story), and we all know how trustworthy they are. The most plausible explanation is that Emperor either tried to destroy them but failed or he infiltrated their compound to learn the secrets of the warp so he could divide fragments of his souls and make Primarchs from them. Or possibly, the original "gods" in the portal may also have been referring to Eldar pantheon (or what remains of it), who may have given the Emperor his powers, and possibly an easy way back home (via the webway) since the Emperor didn't need a ship to get back home.

Recent fluff from 7e suggests that Golden Throne is not a life-support, but a pain engine, better than any DE Haemonculus could possibly dream of, sapping his strength to keep the seal intact, and that [[Malcador the Sigillite|Malcadore]], also stated by Erda and the KHan to be a Perpetual, crumbled into dust without resurrection after several hours. Apparently, it damages soul itself, and even with his psychic gestalt status and powers stolen/bargained from Chaos Gods he takes a heavy toll.

===[[Erda]]===
<strike>Big E's waifu, mom to the primarchs</strike> Erebus 2: Menopause boogaloo. A female perpetual who donated her egg cells and genetic expertise to the Primarch Project, make her their mother minus a lot of her genes. It turns out that ''she'', not Horus or Argal Tal being sent back in time by the Chaos Gods, scattered the Primarchs. What a TWEEST!

===[[Ollanius Pius]], AKA Ollie Persson===
A confirmed Perpetual. By the time of the [[Horus Heresy]], Ollanius reckons his age to be around 45,000 ''(give or take)'' and he is fully aware of the connection between the Imperial and the Gregorian calendars, putting his birth at around 15,000BC (or in layman's terms, somewhere in the latter half of the Stone Age) in Biblical Nineveh. [[Ollanius Pius|Ollie Persson]] is quite reasonably older than the Emperor, considering that big Emps was born in Anatolia around 8000BC. At some point in time he became a Christian, and maintained his faith until, well, forever. Even once the word "Catholic" was somehow corrupted into "Catheric." This has interesting [[Ollanius Pius#Religion|implications]] given his service to the atheistic Empire of Terra.

He was one of the Argonauts of Greek myth and fought at Austerlitz (described as Napoleon's greatest victory) and Verdun (infamous as one of the bloodiest battles in all of World War I, which is saying something), as well as the First Gulf War, implied to have been [[Heresy|fighting on the side of Suddam Hussein]] (in fact, the [[Ollanius Pius#The Eternal Infantryman|occasional references to his military history]], which is extensive—having been apparently a soldier in all his ''documented'' lives, if not all of them, period—it's also implied that he tends to fight on the losing side, or even exclusively has, whether as some sort of curse or by some sort of design.) It also explains how he managed to survive boarding Horus' flagship during the [[Siege of Terra]]. It is unknown if Horus actually managed to kill him: while [[Chaos|CHAOS]] [[Dakka|MINDBULLETS]] certainly sound like they could do the trick it still is quite possible that [[Troll|he reassembled himself and walked off, not giving a fuck.]] A man with true balls of steel, especially as it's implied that he's never died once in his whole lifetime, and most of the time he has come back and back again to fight wars in the (literal at times) trenches. He does not want to be bothered one single fuck with John Grammaticus or the Cabal, but gets suckered in to galaxy saving adventures once and again. Such is the lot of a perpetual.

====St. Ollanius Pius: Old Lore and New====
Before perpetuals were introduced in the [[Horus Heresy]] novels, specifically in ''Legion'' by Dan Abnett, and more on Ollanius is elaborated in the some particularly good stories by Abnett set on Calth stories, especially ''Know no Fear'' and ''Unmarked'' (a short story anthologized in ''The Mark of Calth''), St. Ollanius Pius was just a regular old balls-of-steel Guardsman who's balls turned to adamantium as he threw himself in front of his emperor during the most epic duel of all time, and thus was sanctified in lore and the Imperial cult from then on down. He was later revealed to be a Perpetual [[skub|somewhat controversial]] change. From the point of view of the average Imperial citizen, or indeed, in fact just about anyone perhaps save the Emperor himself, he was that adamantium-testicled Guardsman and remains that holy Saint who is highly revered by the Imperium (the highest decoration in the [[Imperial Guard]], for instance, is named for him.) In fact, of course, he may still be wandering around, probably from what we all know trying to live this all down modestly. Ollanius, no doubt, would prefer the ambiguity as to whether his existence was utterly obliterated in the [[Rip and Tear|horrendous space kablooie]] surrounding the duel between the Emperor to remain as such.

===John Grammaticus===
Former officer of the Emperor's armies during the [[Unification Wars]] on Terra and later agent of [[the Cabal]] and a lesser [[psyker]]; [[Perpetual#John Grammaticus|John Grammaticus]] [[meme|<strike>WHO WAS GORDON GRAMMATICUS' BROTHER WAS ONE DAY AT AN OFFICE TYPING ON A COMPUTOR</strike>]] is an interesting case: after he died at Anatol [[Hive]], an [[Eldar]] [[Autarch]] called Slau Dha found his body and made him into a Perpetual. This signaled that it is possible for humans to become Perpetuals; or, Slau Dha was the equivalent of Ramirez and John was Connor MacLeod from Highlander. If this were the case this would make John and Slau Dha at least eight times more [[awesome]]. Grammaticus' skills gained over the course of a millennium of life were instrumental for recruiting [[Alpharius]] to the cause of the Cabal, but he felt bad for this and stepped out of an airlock in the faint hope that it would kill him. (It did, but then he just came back to life again). After the [[Drop Site Massacre]] he spent some time digging up an old relic spear that was actually made from cast-off lightning of the Emperor's divinity, reputed to be able to kill anything, even other immortals. After the apparent failure of the "Alpharius Gambit" ''(two choices, two primarchs, go figure)'' the Cabal had intended to use it to stop Vulkan from reaching Terra and interfering with their future plans. Unfortunately such a powerful relic made Grammaticus into a big giant target, and he ended up getting captured, killed and recaptured by the [[Word Bearers]] and the broken legions and eventually finding his way to [[Macragge]].

On the way he was contacted psychically by [[Eldrad|this dick]] who told him that he could strike back at the Cabal by stabbing Vulkan himself, since if [[derp|another immortal did it it would work differently]], and in this case it would somehow heal the primarch who was mentally broken after years of torture by [[Konrad Curze]]. Because of reasons. So after seeking Vulkan out on Macragge he stabbed him, investing his own immortality into the strike, and sucking it out of himself and making him mortal... also apparently killing Vulkan properly this time and therefore doing what the Cabal wanted in the first place. Also at some point during the invasion of Calth he found Oll Persson and tried to recruit him to the cause, though that didn't go too well as he was only half-hearted in his attempts anyway, plus Oll couldn't be bothered. He was mindwiped after the Vulkan thing, but Eldrad restored his memories and asked him to make sure Oll reached Terra.

===Damon Prytanis===
[[X-Files|Alex Krycek]] in space. Another agent of the Cabal, though unlike John Grammaticus, Damon was more of a soldier than a spy and got all the killy jobs. It is heavily implied that he was the one who killed Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, as well as other important figures throughout human history. No, really. The novels specifically mention he was responsible for the death of "the good man in Memphis" and "the brother in the City of Angels".

Was apparently more comfortable with his position in the Cabal, even though it meant working against his own species, and would infer as much during his meetings with John Grammaticus, which made him more trustworthy in the eyes of the Cabal. During John's last mission Damon was sent to watch over him and make sure that he didn't falter or chicken out and try to derail their plans. Though he sort of failed to contain Grammaticus, he does kill Vulkan once, shredding him with a pair of shuriken pistols, but it's worth noting the primarch was already pretty shattered after having died a couple of times by that point.

He was the individual who brought Cyrene Valantion into the Cabal's fold, having to die once or twice on board the Word Bearers' starship just to prove a point to her. He's now definitely dead for real after Narek shot him in the head with a fulgurite round at point blank.

===[[Alivia Sureka]]===
Another female Perpetual and empathic psyker and the most recent to be introduced. Unlike most of the others though she has no apparent connection to the Cabal at all, and in fact is much more closely linked to the Emperor. She had traveled with Him and undisclosed "others" to the planet Moloch where the Emperor somehow travelled directly into the Warp and stole portions of the Chaos God's powers (or so the Chaos Gods claim).

She was left behind on Molech to guard the gateway to stop anyone else from passing through and doing the same thing. Which apparently she did dutifully for a few thousand years... meaning that she is the only other Perpetual in the Emperor's peer group who is actually loyal to him at the time of the Crusade. When the Great Crusade arrived on the planet, the Emperor fortified the shit out of it, leaving detachments of [[Blood Angels]], [[Ultramarines]], [[Imperial Knight]]s, [[Titans]] and [[Imperial Guard|Imperial Army]], making her somewhat redundant so she settled down and married. At least until [[Horus]] arrived during the Heresy and laid waste to most of the Imperial forces in a bid to follow in his father's footsteps and take the same power for himself.

Humorously, Alivia has several affectations brought over from the third millenium; she has a tendency to use "modern-day" phrases such as "OK", which do not actually exist in the 31st millenium. She also carries around a book of Hans Christian Andersen stories ''(probably one of the most priceless artifacts in the Imperium, if anyone knew what it was)'' which she reads to her adopted children.

==Surfaced during and after the Great Crusade==

===Vulkan===
Like his dad is, [[Vulkan]] of the [[Salamanders]] was a confirmed Perpetual. This was put to the ultimate test by none other than <s>[[Konrad Curze|the goddamn Night Haunter himself]]</s> [[Konrad Curze|the little emo goth kid on super-steroids]], who proceeded to perform the [[Daemonculaba|most depraved tortures and murders on the Lord of the Salamanders in an attempt to break his will]], [[/d/|and had to invent several new ones just for the occasion]]. Whether he was [[Grimdark|shot with bolters at point-blank range, cut apart, decapitated, eviscerated, impaled, dismembered, evaporated, getting his throat torn out with a rusty fork, being quite literally mindfucked, or being tossed naked into an active warp drive]], Vulkan would neither break nor stay dead, [[Rage|pissing Curze right the fuck off]]. Eventually, Curze locked him in a maze courtesy of [[Perturabo]] where he would hunt Vulkan himself. Curze's mistake was to place Dawnbringer at the center of the maze. When Vulkan got to his hammer, [[Awesome|he proceeded to hand Kurze a helping of it straight to the face]], then [[Just as planned|he activated a built-in teleporter that sent him right over to]] [[Macragge]] where he promptly burned up in the atmosphere like a human meteor, killing him again in the process.

Here things get complicated: Vulkan regenerated on Macragge but lost his mind, so Guilliman kept him locked up until he could figure out what to do with him ''(even concealing his presence when the Lion arrived)''. However, when [[Konrad Curze]] arrived on Macragge after stowing away on the Lion's flagship, Vulkan escaped in a moment of lucidity and tore his way across the planet (while naked) hunting Curze down and almost defeated him in a one-on-one duel. Shortly afterwards John Grammaticus found the broken primarch and stabbed him with the fulgurite, a stone spearhead charged with the psychic essence of the Emperor himself. He could not regenerate from this and neither [[Roboute Guilliman]], [[Sanguinius]], nor [[Lion El'Jonson]] could remove the spear from their brother's chest. Given that he was sent back to [[Nocturne]] for burial, we are forced to assume that his casket included a long tube-shaped appendage at least several feet long sticking out at an unusual angle, making this (while [[Grimdark|tragic)]] at least [[Khorne|eight]] times [[Lulz|more amusing]] (assuming that he was ever stabbed in the first place[though it was only the head of a spear not the shaft itself]).

Guilliman was hopeful that Vulkan would resurrect himself in time and insisted that the coffin was a preservation capsule, which Guilliman dubbed "The Unbound Flame". Some Salamanders who maintained a vigil of mourning thought they could hear a heartbeat. After an even more convoluted series of events surrounding the return of Vulkan's remains to Nocturne, the Primarch was found alive and well once more, which is even more confusing given that the fulgurite, which was supposed to kill him permanently, was still sticking out of his chest at the time of his entombment.

What raises an interesting question in Vulkan's case is regarding the source of his powers. If it was given to him by the Emperor, it begs the question why the Emperor did not give all of his sons this ability (though it sort of answers itself with the thought of [[Angron]] becoming the [[Juggernaut]] (bitch!). If it was not the case, it would suggest that the Perpetual trait can be passed down one's bloodline, or at least transferred by cloning. Big E certainly ''knew'' that Vulkan was immortal and depended on that fact in order to get him to bring the Talisman of Seven Hammers back to Terra. This couldn't have been the Emperor's "ultimate plan" for Vulkan, and seems more of a last ditch contingency considering how badly the Golden Throne got fucked over by Magnus; if he had planned to put a self-destruct on it all along, he probably could/should have done it before he got stuck sitting on it.

The Emperor also told Vulkan plainly that his son's "humanity" was his single greatest trait and also his proudest achievement, and that he hoped that Vulkan would eventually teach it to his brothers. Certainly Vulkan was probably the nicest of the Primarchs and as such would probably have been the best bet for an undying son, especially if you were relying on him to tone down the more [[Rip and Tear|extreme]] traits of his brothers after the Great Crusade was finished. When Empy was looking over the petri dishes for which one to add the immortality to he had to choose between (in order): [[Lion El'Jonson|a two faced jerk]], [[Primarch#Two_Missing_Primarchs|a [RECORDS LOST]]], [[Fulgrim|a preening egotistical asshole]], [[Perturabo|a genocidal maniac with poor impulse control]], [[Jaghatai Khan|Genghis Khan]], [[Leman Russ|a dick with a furry fetish]], [[Rogal Dorn|a stubborn joyless masochist]], [[Konrad Curze|a psychopath serial killer who uses terror as a weapon]], [[Sanguinius|a guy with a terrible terrible secret]], [[Ferrus Manus|a nerd who'd rather be talking to a toaster]], [[Primarch#Two_Missing_Primarchs|a [RECORDS LOST]]], [[Angron|an explosively violent psychopath]], [[Roboute Guilliman|a jerk with a heart of gold]], [[Mortarion|an aspie psychopath]], [[Magnus the Red|a massively powerful arrogant psyker who can't take orders]], [[Horus|a spoiled egomaniac]], [[Lorgar|a petulant child with a religiously pathologic daddy complex]], [[Corvus Corax|an emo bird]], and [[Alpharius|two people obsessed with]] [[Omegon|secrets and lies]]. On the other hand, a lot of those traits were nurture rather then purely nature. Even so, if he did do it deliberately, he [[Just as Planned|made a decent choice]].

===Dalia Cythera===
Dalia Cythera is a former Administratum Transcriber and a latent psyker during the Great Crusade/Horus Heresy (specifically during the [https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Schism_of_Mars Death of Innocence]). While she was at one point at risk of [[Blam| unemployment]] due to her insatiable desire to learn and actually read the tomes she transcribed, she was soon protected by [https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Koriel_Zeth Adept Koriel Zeth] and delivered to Magma City, her forge on Mars. Dalia has three wow factors going for her, one, she was somehow not a thrall after all that indoctrination (and implied lobotomy), two, possessed an eidetic memory and could read noospheric data without augments, and three, had a connection to [[Mag%27ladroth| a cold dark thing]] that gave her bad dreams and intuitive knowledge about technology. Zeth involved her in the development of the Akashic Reader, it was basically her pet project to tap into the the sum of all knowledge, which was the hypothesized source of Dalia's ability. Using an array of a thousand sanctioned psykers as a surge protector and another, Jonas, strapped into a gold throne with a fancy hat, the plan was to siphon the energy needed to pierce into the [[Warp| aether]] from the Astronomican, shove Jonas' perceptions in the Akashic Record and somehow get that fool enough paper to jot it all down for them before his brain liquefied. Dalia forgot the first rule of engineering which is to overengineer; naturally it went tits up, but [[Chaos| it would have anyways]].

Such a feat would <s>potentially help humanity regain all its' lost knowledge and free itself from the shackles of ignorance, dogma, and superstition</s> have been a great leap forward for a rapidly booming age of technology in this wonderful time of development and progress! Unfortunately, the project was utterly annihilated during the Martian Schism due to <s>scrapcode</s> [[waifu| Koriel Zeth's]] last stand, slagging the entire forge city to keep Kelbor Hal's slimy mitts off. Absolutely everything, was either reclaimed by magma or obliterated in the detonation of the forge reactors.

Meanwhile, Dalia and friends are off on a merry adventure to seek out that thing that's calling her out to join it in the void of Noctis Labyrinthus!
They meet some jolly characters along the way like [https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Kaban_Machine Kaban-chan] and later Semyon, just a normal unaugmented 10,000 year old dude with a pet servitor living at the bottom of a pitch black chasm. Dalia could relate, having a pet Protector of her own, Rho-Mu 31. Semyon was blessed by the Emperor himself to fulfill the role of 'Guardian of the Dragon,' protector of secrets and warden. Semyon talks about how he is 'running out of time' which implies that Dalia's Perpetuity either has a time limit of 10,000 years, or will begin to wane when her replacement is found. It is clarified that it wasn't the Void Dragon initiating, turns out it was [[The_God-Emperor_of_Mankind| Big E]] all along! [[Mary_Sue|Dalia]] is The Chosen One (plus her pet too I guess), and is destined to [[Irony| rot in a hole where her innate abilities will be absolutely useless to everyone]]. Her job duties include somehow keeping folks from releasing the Dragon of Mars, [[FAIL| and thwarting any attempts to steal a tome]], which makes sure to explicitly impart the lesson that the Dragon was put on Mars so jerkoffs would make whatever wacky shit it dreamed about in captivity later, without any of the requisite explanations of why he did it of course, so that's not bad or anything. As soon as Semyon passes his Perpetual status to Dalia he goes the way of [[Malcador_the_Sigillite| Malcador]], dust in the wind. Servitor too, so it goes.

===Anval Thawn===
Justicar [[Anval Thawn]] of the [[Grey Knights]] is the biggest mystery of them all. All that is known is that he can walk away from the most gruesome [[Daemon]]-inflicted deaths one can imagine, much to the chagrin of his brothers and bewilderment of the Brotherhood's [[Librarian]]s. It also begs the question of why him being a Perpetual was not detected during his induction into the Grey Knights, [[Gene-seed|either during the tests or abnormal recovery from the involved surgeries or the speed at which he accepted the nineteen organs]]. Perhaps the Perpetualness is undetectable by normal science or it manifests after a person's first death (much like in Highlander or the [[Planeswalker]] spark of [[Magic: The Gathering]]). Another option is that he might be Ollanius Pius or John Grammaticus, who were tired of dicking around for another 10.000 years and wanted a shot at becoming a [[Space Marine]]. And an even better question is how the fuck the [[Eldar]] were able to recognize him for what he was after only a short period of interaction with them.

===Cyrene Valantion===
Cyrene Valantion was a common woman from Monarchia, a planet conquered by Word Bearers during the Great Crusade, until the [[Ultramarines]] blew her home city to ashes to send a "Stop Worshipping Me!" message from the [[Emperor|Big E]] to [[Lorgar]]. Since the smurfs weren't complete assholes they evacuated all civilians first (only [[blam|BLAMing]] those who didn't want to in process). Well, except Cyrene and a couple (hundreds) of others. She decided to stay out of the city borders and watch as orbital bombardment erased her home. Apparently watching an entire city being nuked was not her best decision, since she lost her eyes and almost died due to the extreme flash of light and from radiation burns. When the [[Word Bearers]] arrived they rescued her and figured that she was the only surviving witness of their punishment, because smurfs couldn't be bothered helping civilians whose city they just destroyed. This turned her into some kind of saint in their eyes, so they offered her a position of Confessor/Holy Relic, aka "The Blessed Lady" in their fleet. During the few decades of her service to the Word Bearers she became on a short hand with captain [[Argel Tal]] and guided him to his path to become the first [[Possessed Marine]] and overall awesome guy who kill loyalists and isn't afraid anything. Everything was fine and dandy until the Heresy, when during the Drop Site Massacre she got herself killed by some Custodes assholes <s>for just being in their way</s> [[FATAL|who thought they'd have an easier way ''obtaining'' answers out of her than from any Word Bearer]]. Needless to say Argel Tal cried manly tears of rage over her corpse and swore revenge at Custodes, which he delivered just a few hours later, butchering them all amidst the ashes of Istvaan V.

Fast forward one year to [[Erebus]] being a dick where he resurrects her to facilitate his machinations with Argel Tal. Mind you while she was dead for a year, [[Grimdark| he had her soul torn apart and eaten by multiple daemons]] from whom Erebus "persuaded" to give the pieces back. Being the badass she was, Cyrene recovered from the shock of being mutilated and tormented in hell surprisingly fast, until the battle for Nuceria, wherein her ship was blown up and she got rescued by none other than Damon Prytanis who told her that being resurrected turned her into Perpetual. And then... cliffhanger.

===Joaqhuine Desdemondra===
Joaqhuine Desdemondra is a Living Saint and a secret lover of Inquisitor Bronislaw Czevak. Formerly a blood-drinking Death Cult assassin from the Path Incarnadine, she was an associate of Czevak. Other names she was known as include Saint Joaqhuine the Renascent - Living Saint of the Imperial Creed, or The Idolatress. She was identified as a form of immortal called a Reanimate upon being introduced in the "Atlas Infernal" novel. Unfortunately for her, she was later captured by Ahriman and was tortured repeatedly by being incinerated to death in front of Czevak in order to break the mental wards placed on his mind so Ahriman can extract knowledge about the Black Library from him. While Czevak was later taken from Ahriman's hands, she remained in captivity. Which is a point of motivation for Bronislav to confront Ahriman again.

==Created by Bureaucratic Fiat==

===Caiphas Cain===
The first non-perpetual perpetual. [[Ciaphas Cain]] was a commissar in the Damocles Gulf campaign, and was buried with full honors (including tolling the Black Bell of Terra) sometime in early M42. However, over the course of his career he was declared killed in action only to return on so many occasions that the administratum placed standing orders forbidding changes to his duty status, regardless of evidence. If they mark him down as dead, he'll come back.

{{Imperium}}
[[Category:Space Marines]]

Ollanius Pius

2020-09-05T09:55:04Z

2605:E000:1314:831B:9DDF:B401:1F6A:119B: /* Ollanius Piers */

{{Oldschool}}
[[Image:1225596941657.jpg|300px|thumb|right|The most hardcore Guardsman....ever.]]
{{Topquote|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 (The First Guardsman), to Arch-Traitor Horus "supercharged motherfucking avatar of Chaos" Lupercal. Yes, you read that correctly.}}

{{Topquote|A hero is someone who steps up when everyone else backs down.|Anonymous}}

'''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 and could themselves be used as weapons). Ollanius Pius is so manly that he makes [[Vance Motherfucking Stubbs]], [[Commissar Yarrick]], [[Gregor Eisenhorn]], [[Ciaphas Cain]], [[Kharn]], [[Colonel "Iron Hand" Straken]], [[Logan Grimnar]], [[Merrick]], [[Gunnery Sergeant "Stonetooth" Harker|Harker]], [[Creed]] and [[Sly Marbo]] piss themselves in terror. Well, maybe not [[Sly Marbo]] but he still respects the shit out of him.

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]] 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 (although, see below for a different take on his [[Perpetual|perepetuality]] and it's implications in his final act of heroism.) This, in a way, makes 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. Probably because there was no need to, since everyone already knew his name in the fandom.

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, as does a similar relic in the 8th Edition Astra Militarum Codex. 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==
[[Image:Ollanius Pius.jpeg|thumb|right|Oll Pius returns, "better" than ever. Note the cross around his neck.]]
Also known as "Why the Black Library should not be allowed to write or sell anything".

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 estimates his date of birth at some point around 15,000 BC (by contrast, the Emperor claims he was born in roughly 8,000 BC- which would make Pius no less than '''7,000 years older than the Emperor'''. It would also make him ''older than agriculture''), 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.

===The Eternal Infantryman===
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. (Note that "Ole Persson" is the obvious pun, but in idiomatic French, "Olivier Personne" means "Oliver Nobody," which has interesting implications in and of itself.) Interestingly, Ollanius seems to be a sort of "eternal soldier" (he is also confirmed as having fought in the armies of [[Awesome|Napoleon]] and [[Heresy|Saddam Hussein]]), but always is depicted as being a part of the "[[Imperial Guard|poor bloody Infantry]]", in direct opposition to ''another'' perpetual, [[The Emperor|big E]] himself, who is spoken of as having taken on the roles of various august and well known historical personages, or at least being close to positions of power throughout history. There is also an implication that Ollanius always or at least usually fought on the losing side, which is also an interesting extension to this parallel. This makes him a sort of representative of the eternal ordinary everyman; unlike almost every other perpetual, he ''doesn't'' have superpowers (except the neat trick of not dying), and lives ordinary lives, again and again (as the Emperor says to him in the exchange quoted above.) This is more in line with the original spirit of the "legend of Ollanius Pius," and is a counter-argument to the more common view that he is becoming an OP [[Mary Sue]] instead of a representative of ordinary human strength and courage, the ultimate manifestation of which is seen in his actions aboard the ''Vengeful Spirit''.

We sometimes see glimpses of his soldiering past. In ''Unmarked'', another [[Dan Abnett|Abnett]] work (a short story in the anthology ''Mark of Calth''), he travels through time to various battles he fought in while evading the daemon prince [[M'kar]]. In ''Angel Exterminatus'', where an [[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. Oll 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 Oll out of the trench.

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. The confrontation with Horus might be "true death" for him, though, as in ''Unmarked'', he gets the distinct feeling that the [[Horus Heresy|current galactic clusterfuck]] is going to be the end for him. This might even make sense, given that he was killed by not only a primarch, but Horus supercharged by the energies of all four of the Ruinous Powers during an apocalyptic confrontation which outright killed another Primarch and put the most powerful being ever to emerge out of humanity in a near-death state. Get hit by what did ''that'', you're probably not going to get up, and immortality won't help you if your soul is snuffed out by one of the most powerful material manifestations of Chaos ever.

If he did regenerate, he'd probably wake up on the Vengeful Spirit unless his body was moved-Perpetuals don't teleport when they die, they just heal and wake up. This might wind up being a far, far worse end than having his soul shredded (see over on the page for [[Perpetual]] where we say that they've drawn the short straw? Here's an example of why...) Needless to say, being trapped in the bowels of a chaos-infested warship would not be good for him (assuming he can even get off the bridge before [[Abaddon|Abby]] or one of his guards [[Blam|shoots him]].)

Also in ''Unmarked'', Ollanius briefly hooks up with John Grammaticus, another perpetual (although far more of a dick, and, unlike Oll, apparently turned into a perpetual by the Cabal rather than being born one) .. you know, the guy who is actually with the Cabal, going along with their "Alpharius gambit" to destroy humanity but wipe out Chaos, but who is at some point persuaded by [[Eldrad|Eldrad Uthan]] to turn rogue ''against'' the Cabal, since in a rare moment of non-dickery, Eldrad decided that wiping out humanity might ''not be'' the best idea, giving John the final push after long having some scruples about aiding in the genocide of his own race for, among others, arrogant space elves and a sentient floating ball of gas.

===Religion===
Befitting his epithet, he is, indeed, a pious man. He is, in fact, a believing "Catheric," which is apparently a bastardization of "Catholic." Exceedingly rare in the rabidly atheistic Imperium, although not unique in the Heresy Era: another badass <s>guardsman</s> Imperial Army Geno 5-2 Chiliad hetman, Hurtado Bronzi in ''Legion'', also by [[Dan Abnett]], identifies himself as "Catheric by devotion.") He even wears a cross around his neck which conceivably could get him into trouble. ''Practicing'' the major aspects his faith (five of the seven sacraments require a priest) would be difficult, as what happened to the Pope and Church hierarchy we don't know (although it's probably pretty grimdark.) According to real-world Catholic belief, there is a Biblical guarantee for an "unbroken chain" of Popes and Papal authority (Matthew xvi, 18), so there would be theoretically a Pope somewhere, or on the way. The church in Graham McNeal's ''[[The Last Church]]'' wasn't Catholic, although it's sort of implied that it is a bastardized form of high-Church Christianity at least in aesthetic which drifted in it's beliefs over 30 millenia ... which isn't that surprising from the perspective of the sociology of religion. If it was really, however, the literal last church on Terra, and the real-world Catholic view is true, somewhere in some corner of the Imperium there is a man who is the Pope and the Church still exists (picking up sticks and moving probably would have been wise anyway.) Several sci-fi writers have speculated about this sort of thing: ''A Canticle for Leibowitz'' by Walter Miller, considered a classic, has the Catholic church surviving several end-of-the-world [[techno-barbarian]] type scenarios, preserving civilization, and enduring over many millenia, eventually spreading beyond [[Terra|Earth]].

Despite the Emperor hating religion, Ollanius was still doing the right thing by the tenants of his by-then-ancient faith explicitly says that soldiers should obey orders and people should respect their governments and leaders in general (cf. Romans xiv, 3ff., referring to the ''Emperor'' of the time ... ''plus ça change'', no?), ''except'' of course if it involved breaking the precepts of his religion (this was a real dilemma for Roman soldiers up until the 4th century or so, because they had to [[Imperial Cult|worship the emperor]]) ... but this was not such a problem for Ollie, he was a faithful Imperial citizen and, while the Imperium forbade religiosity, it did not (at the time of the Horus Heresy, which is when we last hear of him) require him to [[heresy|worship other Gods]] or such, even though such beliefs were proscribed by the Imperium (which again, resembles certain periods in Church history.)

Despite the prohibition on religion, he seemed to live his faith reasonably openly and at best be regarded as a bit of an eccentric for it: again, not all that different from certain eras of the Roman history in the 2nd and 3rd centuries-it depended on who was on the [[Golden Throne|imperial throne]] just how vigorously Christians were persecuted: sometimes it was an [[Exterminatus|all-day buffet for lions]] and sometimes Christianity was looked at as at best a strange affectation certain people indulged in (perhaps not entirely unlike we look at new religious movements today.) In fact, Ancient Rome, very unlike the 30K Imperium, would've had no problem with Christians at all if they didn't [[heresy|refuse to]] [[Lorgar|worship the Emperor]]. You know, what [[Monarchia]] got glassed for. In the 40K Imperium, the Ecclesiarchy would've probably been pretty cool with Christianity if the [[Emperor]] was ultimately seen as God (which would make Sanguinius Jesus? Except for the resurrection part.) Which Christianity would ''not'' be cool with. So Ollanius being "Catheric" would be a problem for him either way. And probably at several other points in his life (maybe in the Iraqi army, for example. And one assumes at several points over the next 30,000 years or so.)

There is another fan theory that it refers to the "Cathars," a [[extra heresy|heretical]] religious sect that the IRL [[Inquisition]] IRL [[Exterminatus|exterminatused]] in the 13th century. This is a clever play on words, but probably reads too much into it, but doesn't make any historical sense and doesn't really line up with the vague hints at "Cathericism" we get in the books.

===Ollanius Piers===
A new character introduced in one of the newest Horus Heresy Books and the in-universe source of the legends about an Ollanius Pius, Ollanius Piers was an Imperial Army soldier who fought in the siege of Terra. He is a descendant of the immortal one.

While under attack against forces of the World Eaters, Piers as well as a few other soldiers and a historian went out of their way to raise up a banner of the Emperor before they were attacked by a World Eater Marine. Ollanius managed to stand against the Marine long enough that a member of the Sisters of Silence who's powers made her invisible could kill the marine. Afterwards, the historian decided to record Pier's story, making it grander by replacing the World Eaters marine with Horus himself, and the banner with the Emperor. They are just piling on the lame plot twists. Ollanius Piers would go on to die during the fall of the Eternity Wall spaceport, defending a banner of the Emperor from Angron himself.

This is of course nonsense and stupid and rejected by the fandom. How could anyone think the Great Crusade Imperium would accept such a bold-faced bullshit lie? Sure, people will believe a lot, but not when the whole damn planet knows the Emperor wasn’t there.

==Writefaggotry==
WARNING: The following entry is so manly that reading it out loud may cause you to suddenly grow a beard. Girls, do not read this out loud. A fa/tg/uy's explanation of the original 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==
<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]]