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Exterminatus

2023-02-20T15:31:15Z

2607:FB90:3F8A:5651:7867:CB67:A80F:A89: /* Dark Eldar */

{{Topquote|[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_at_Béziers#%22Kill_them_all,_God_will_know_His_own%22 Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius.]|[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnaud_Amalric Arnoldus Amalricus], [[Inquisitor]] and [[Chaplain|Cistercian Abbot]], 209M.2}}
{{Topquote|The world is what it is, which is to say, nothing much.|Albert Camus, reacting to the bombing of Hiroshima}}
{{Topquote|I say we take off and [[Exterminatus#Just_Shoot_the_Shit_Out_of_It_.28Orbital_Bombardment.29|nuke the entire site from orbit]]. It's the only way to be sure.|[[Sisters of Battle|Ellen Ripley]] in ''Aliens'' (986.M2)}}
[[TTS|{{Topquote|Y'know what, they're just running around shooting each other down there, better just lay the Exterminatus upon these heretics, alright, FIRE!]]|[[Inquisitor]] [[TTS#The Inquisition|Headsmash]], ca. 990.M41}}
[[Image:Exterminatus Retribution.jpg|right|450px|"[[TTS|...FUCKING HERETICS!"]]|thumb]]
'''Exterminatus''' is the biggest middle finger the [[Imperium of Man|Imperium]] can give to [[xenos]] and [[Chaos]] infestations on their own planets. It basically involves UTTERLY DESTROYING THE PLANET SURFACE via heavy orbital bombardment if they decide that it would be impossible to retake the planet by [[Imperial Guard|drowning their enemies in corpses, like they usually do]]. Declarable only by a Inquisitor, Chapter Master, or the High Lords of Terra (and before the [[Horus Heresy]], solely the [[God-Emperor of Mankind]] and his [[Primarch|Primarchs]]), Exterminatus can range from destroying all life on a planet (down to the bacteria), to destroying a planet in its entirety (Death Star-style).

And, of course, there is no kill like overkill.

Before you go into some sort of sanctimonious tirade about the morality of blowing the fuck out of an entire planet, understand the context. A world deemed worthy of Exterminatus is one considered past the point where anything can be salvaged from it - whether because it's about to be lost to [[Tyranids|countless ravening giant insects that will zerg-rush and eat fucking everything]] or [[Ork|reality-warping fungi that reproduce into millions of spores every time one '''breathes''' and will all kill you because they think it's fun]] ...[[Looted|and then steal all of your shit because it looks shiny, hurty or fast.]] Or because it will be turned into a fucking [[Chaos|daemon-and-tentacle-rape-infested shit-pit where neither sanity nor time has any meaning and your soul will be tortured for eternity]]. Or because of an ineradicable [[Heresy|heretical belief]] that threatens to bring down any of the above or a similar threat.

Bottom line: Exterminatus happens when shit is fucked and the only option is fucking glassing a planet and to deny it to the enemy, or to ensure SOMETHING can be saved. It's ''the'' last-ditch measure, and it's there purely because the other option sucks even worse. It is the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekcXHVXPIQc&app=desktop Scorched Earth] strategy on a planetary scale: if you can't have it, burn it so your foes can't use it.

...[[grimdark|Then again, there's nothing stopping an Inquisitor from ordering it just because he wants one for his birthday]]. Oversight on Exterminatus orders is fairly nonexistent and it's easy to see why. The problem is the same one real life atomic weapons have, who do you want to have to be able to launch them? You want the most powerful, highly ranked people to have that authority, but if they're so highly ranked and with so much power, who watches them? Who second guesses an Inquisitor's judgement about if a world is to be blown up or not?

Well, that's just the thing: [[Grimdark|Nobody does]]. [[Kryptman|The Imperium's only solution is to just declare the trigger-happy sod Excommunicate Traitoris afterwards if they don't agree]]. The [[Just as Planned|over the top villainy of Warhammer 40k]] means that some fuckholes within the Imperium do get trigger happy with this, ordering an Exterminatus on worlds over things like a few of its people coming into contact with alien technology, or a small hint of [[heresy]] that would probably not require killing everything, or a loose pubic hair being in the Inquisitor's cereal this morning.

On the bright side these instances are few and far between, destroying an uncorrupted planet is seen as a gross waste of Imperial Resources, and anybody caught doing so will quickly be forced to explain the [[Heresy|legitimate reasoning]] behind it by the full might of the [[Administratum]]... who will then proceed to hand out a light slap on the wrist, letting the offender get off scot-free [[Salamanders|unless they meet a giant, angry black dude in green]] (or the woefully understaffed Ordo Excorium). What, you're surprised that an Empire of "Space Nazis 2.0" can have actual legitimate excuses, common sense, reasoning and sensibility? You're in for a whole new series of surprises...

[[Deal with it]]. Bitching any further will rile the [[Commissar|Commissariat]]. You have been warned.

Joking aside, it's somewhat fluff dependent; in Seventh Retribution by [[Ben Counter]], for instance, Exterminatus is never even mentioned as a 'solution' despite the fact that the planet got halfway to being a Daemon World (although part of this was because the [[Officio Assassinorum]] couldn't be 100% sure that even Exterminatus would do the trick and they needed to be fucking certain the antagonist of the book was a confirmed kill). Also in the ''Space Wolves Omnibus'', in the Ultramarines ''Nightbringer'' books and in ''[[Ciaphas Cain]]'s'' stories, we get Inquisitors saying they have been at it for well over a century without calling down the Exterminatus even once.

For a recent and probably well-known example of the kind of conditions under which the Exterminatus is called down: [[Dawn of War II|DoW II: Retribution]] has a subsector-wide Exterminatus called down only after ten solid years of warfare and three back-to-back crusades by the [[Blood Ravens]] and massed [[Imperial Guard]] forces against [[Black Legion]] [[Chaos Space Marines]], [[Tyranids]], and [[Eldar]] alike with little to no appreciable increase in stability, coupled with a high incidence of guardsmen and even Astartes falling to Chaos and turning traitor.

As of current fluff, the Inquisition turns out to actually have an entire Ordo (the aforementioned Ordo Excorium) who deal exclusively with managing this sort of affair to ensure that people aren't just committing mass genocides for shits and giggles. And for all intents and purposes, it seems they're actually doing their damn jobs: the 6th/7th Ed. Inquisition Codex indicates that about 90% of Inquisitors who called down a single Exterminatus were later stripped of their rank (and declared heretics in several cases) for deciding to go full fuck force and blow up a planet where it wasn't warranted. Impressive, for a group numbering barely 100 Inquisitors. It also makes a surprising amount of sense in the often grimderpy universe of 40k; if Armageddon of all places hasn't been Exterminatused yet, very, ''very'' few places probably outright warrant it.

==Methods of Exterminatus==
The Imperium has several means for dealing with hopeless infestations:

===Just Shoot the Shit Out of It (Orbital Bombardment)===
Saturating planets with over-sized cannons larger than apartment buildings is the stereotypical way of nuking the fuck out of something you don't like. Nuclear warheads, Space Marine Battle Barge bombardment batteries, Nova cannons, and/or banks of Lances are often used. Examples of this include the [[Dark Angels]] destroying their homeworld, Caliban, <s>after it was lost to heretics within their legion</s> {{BLAM|AFTER SOMEONE THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TO HUNT FOR DINNER FOR OUR TOTALLY NON-HERETICAL AND OBVIOUSLY LOYAL BROTHERS USING THE ORBITAL BOMBARDMENT CANNONS}} and the [[Night Lords]]' purge of Nostramo.

If we take the purging of Typhon Primaris from Dawn of War II as canon, this method can also be used during the opening stages of the Exterminatus before you unleash one of the Inquisition's more thorough toys upon it.

===Virus Bombs===
Virus Bombs are warheads loaded with the Life Eater virus, a biological payload that causes all living tissue to super-quickly rot and decompose (which gives Nurgle a massive boner). The bombs are designed to release their payload mid-air, so that the aerosol form of the virus gets spread out through the atmosphere, potentially achieving [[meme|complete global saturation]] in minutes under the right conditions. This immediate rot causes a build-up of methane and other flammable gases, which in turn can be ignited by one of the lasers above (or any still smouldering Lho sticks, or any other source of flame), sweeping the area in firestorms. A relentless bombing of these fucking things is what reduced [[Tallarn]] from a verdant forest world to the desert hellhole it is now.

They were also used by [[Horus|Warmaster Horus]] to kill off loyalists in the Traitor Legions during the Istvaan Campaign of the [[Horus Heresy]] (the Life Eater virus eats through any filters and corrodes power armour till it gets to the gooey marine inside, though a Dreadnought can endure it easily if its shell isn't even slightly cracked). Though popular during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy, according to [[Amberley Vail]], virus bombings are rarely used in the 41st millennium, because the Inquisition has figured out that they feed the fucking [[Nurgle|Plaguefather]] every time they're used. [[Fail|Whoops]].

(That said, they were falling out of favour even before that: since as demonstrated on [[Armageddon]] one virus bomb usually isn't enough to kill the whole planet and you might need to hit the planet several times all around. Plus, since it's airborne, this can result in hilarious [[FAIL]] when the wind patterns disperse the virus in the wrong direction, as canonically happened with [[Herman von Strab]]'s use of them on Armageddon).

===Atmospheric Incinerator Torpedo===
Atmospheric Incinerator Torpedoes are [[plasma]] torpedoes that burst in low planetary orbit and super-heat the atmosphere of a planet until all combustible material ignites. So it's essentially [[Rape|a napalm airburst bomb on steroids and an additional dose of plasma, designed to directly turn the planet's surface into an endless expanse of raging hellfire.]]

This method of Exterminatus was used on Medusa IV. It is said that the aftermath of the Exterminatus, Medusa IV's surface was melted to glass and that the entire world burned like a piece of amber in space even a month after the attack had been launched. However, they're only effective on planets with relatively stable atmospheres made of flammable gas, and plasma torpedoes are both somewhat rare and expensive.

===Modalis Atmospheric Missile===
Another weapon that has similar results from the Atmospheric Incinerator Torpedo but its function is completely different. Regarded as the most powerful incendiary device accessible in the Imperium. The Modalis Atmospheric Missile is one ECKS BAWKS HUEG [[Phosphor Weaponry|Phosphex weapon]] used to burn a planet into a crisp. Think White Phosphorous on steroids. A salvo of several Modalis Atmospheric Missiles from orbiting warships will blanket an entire world in deadly Phosphex. The resultant firestorm of living fire will eat away at every carbon-based element on the planet, rendering it uninhabitable. All that would be left would be dust and echoes.

===Cyclonic Torpedoes===
The primary method of Exterminatus used in the 41st millennium, these are basically skyscraper-sized nuclear missiles that've eaten their weight in steroids. These capital ship-fired warheads each generate a series of massive, self-sustaining nuclear reactions, which, when fired in bulk, fuels a much larger reaction that causes the devastation to spread and multiply, eventually glassing the entire world with a thermonuclear holocaust given a sufficient barrage. If you fire enough in the same spot it will break through the crust of a planet, causing part of the mantle to erupt out and royally buttfucking the entire planet in the process ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYXj9xOUFIM see the ''Fire Warrior'' end cinematic]).

[[Krieg]] is an example of a radioactive perpetual-winter world that survived multiple cyclonic torpedo strikes, though in this case it was on a much smaller scale and in some sources are described as standard nukes. This was the method that killed Typhon, in combination with the above shoot-the-shit-out-of-it method. (Another theory holds that the bombardment is used to remove anything that might prevent the torpedo from reaching the surface or to weaken planets crust.) Only the [[Inquisition]] and the [[Space Marines]] are authorized to carry cyclonic torpedoes in their warships, the former because the Inquisition has the authority to do anything, and the latter because the Imperium figures that if the Space Marines can't beat it, nothing else will.

Cyclonic Torpedoes are pretty variable in their strength, either due to there being different classes of torpedoes or the fact that the strength of a single torpedo has never been nailed down in official materials. In one case, ol' [[Abaddon|Abby]] dropped a dozen to fry a single hive; in another a single torpedo is a qualified planet cracker. Similarly, this method is the easiest to thwart with shields, as they disrupt the stacked efficiency needed for ongoing detonation. Presumably this variability in strength is due to "Cyclonic Torpedo" being as broad a description as "atomic bomb", which can refer to both a Davy Crockett and a Tsar Bomba.

===Two-Stage Cyclonic Torpedoes===
In the two-stage torpedo, a [[melta]] charge activates first to allow the weapon to burrow into the planet's crust and down to the core. The second stage thermonuclear charge then goes off, causing the planet to break apart Death Star style.

This is really the only way to deal with Necron Tomb Worlds since, due to their tendency to make everything subterranean, they aren't overly bothered by the other methods which devastate the surface (and anything alive) but leave the planet as a whole mostly intact. Talos of the Night Lords used this in a rather unconventional manner; faced with a [[Genesis Chapter]] strike cruiser hiding behind a moon, he [[Awesome|blew a continent-sized hole through the moon]] with one of these, and watched the loyalist ship get torn apart as a new asteroid field got shotgunned into space.

===Smashing It with a Fucking Moon===
This method involves radically altering the orbit of a nearby moon or large asteroid and placing it on a collision course with the planet, and therefore requires the use of several Mechanicus voidships. This method was used to destroy Phaenon Prime when the Virus Bomb failed to wipe out the planet's corruptive influence. It was also used during the [[Horus Heresy]] by renegade Iron Hands commander Autek Mor to destroy the World Eaters recruitment world of Bodt and during the Badab War to finally smash through [[Huron Blackheart]]'s defensive Ring of Steel around Badab. Needless to say, this pretty much fucking annihilates the planet in question (or whatever else it's thrown at like Huron's defensive systems).

Despite its flair and effectiveness, [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Rocks_Are_Not_Free! the Administratum vehemently requests that Imperial commanders avoid this method whenever possible] because it's stupidly expensive -- it can take weeks or even months for the moon or asteroid in question to actually strike the planet, which costs rations and sublight fuel while the ships sit around doing fuck-all, while orbital bombardments only cost one day's worth of rations and fuel, plus ammunition. That said there is one advantage to doing this: you don't need to be near the planet to pull it off. If the planet in question has strong enough Orbital or Surface to Orbit Defences you can't get close, to do a traditional bombing, then a old fashion moon can be set up few thousand million kilometres away.

===Release the Krourk===
Krourk [[Ogryn]] are known as the most brutal, powerful, and primitive tribe of Ogryn in the Imperium (and that's saying something). They are so well-known for their frightening savagery in close combat that they're considered a solid match for Orks, and are also known for being so primitively stupid that the Imperial Guard can't even teach them to use traditional Ogryn weapons like ripper guns. Their reputation is so fearsome that it has gotten to the point where deploying thousands of these things is considered a crude method of Exterminatus amongst Imperial commanders since they can't be taught to discriminate between friend and foe.

===Send it to [[Warp|Hell]]===
Sending your problems somewhere else is a rather simple solution to most problems. Doing so with an entire planet is possible, though difficult. As a result, various factions have simply thought "Hey, if we send a planet into the Warp, it’s no longer in the Materium, and therefore it’s not our problem."

There are many problems with this, but that has not stopped some particularly idiotic individuals from doing it anyway. The reason it is listed here (and not in the non-Imperium section) is because the Imperium believes that this is actually a valid method to dispose of Tyranids... and '''only''' Tyranids. (Anything else would be either [[ork|redundant]], or [[chaos|basically what they wanted in the first place]]). The Warp is [[Hive Fleet Kronos|mostly]] foreign to the Tyranids; as a result, it's one of the few things that they cannot truly combat on a wide scale, not to mention the fact that [[Chaos]] hates them.

However, the Shadow in the Warp makes it difficult to pull this off at the best of times, so it has not been tested yet (beside one or two desperation attacks, such as [[Hive Fleet Behemoth]] being wiped by ''Dominus Astra'' during the First Tyrannic War).

==Non-Imperium Exterminatus==
Several factions outside the Imperium do things similar to the Imperial Exterminatus (adding any examples from the lore would be greatly appreciated). However, most of them don't use these methods often. Some examples:

===Craftworld Eldar===
The [[Eldar|Craftworld Eldar]] have some respect for life (and not nearly as many weapons of mass destruction as they had before the [[Fall of the Eldar|Fall]]) so they don't do it often. Didn't stop them from purging all life in the Octarius system to clean up [[Kryptman|Kryptman's]] mess, though (in that case the Dark Eldar provided the WMD). The most well-known Eldar engines of planetary destruction are called [[Blackstone Fortress|Blackstone Fortresses]], which are ancient weapons they designed to fight the [[C'tan]]. To put it simply, think of a floating citadel with a distort weapon (like the ones the [[Wraithguard]] have) the size of an Emperor-class battleship. During the Gothic Wars, three Blackstone Fortresses combined their power to cause a star to go supernova, destroying an entire solar system.

In Apocalypse War Zone: Valedor, the Craftworld Eldar from [[Iyanden]] procured another type of ancient WMD, the Fireheart: a complex nodal resonator capable of causing a planet's molten core to enter violent death throes and send lakes of lava to the surface (or just explode two-stage torpedo style, the tie-in novel plays the fireworks up to a big degree). The [[Dark Eldar]] originally had this, but they gave it away because they didn't have the psychic power to activate the weapon. The Fireheart was used successfully on Valedor and prevented Hive Fleets [[Hive Fleet Kraken|Kraken]] and [[Hive Fleet Behemoth|Behemoth]] from joining forces. If they had, the [[Tyranids]] would have had all of the genetic data of the Orks and the Eldar, enabling them to fashion unthinkable monstrosities.

Before the fall (and possibly still kicking around somewhere) they had devices that fired entire suns or black holes at their enemies.

===Dark Eldar===
The [[Dark Eldar]] as a whole lack a good stockpile of planet-killing weaponry and prefer to keep planets intact for slaves, although they are still capable of exterminating the populace of entire planets if they wanted to. One method is pillaging the shit out of it. It has been proven time and time again that an entire major kabal or dozens of separate, smaller kabals, is more than capable of kidnapping an entire planet of its populace, faster than that local PDF trooper can finish his scream of agony. Granted, being taken captive isn't part of a traditional Exterminatus' MO, but if you know the fate of a hapless mortal in Commorragh; [[Fist of the North Star|they are already dead]] (at best).

There has also been one instance of an entire Hive World being poisoned by the Dark Eldar, as well as an incident in which they smashed a Space Hulk at a Webway sub-realm and so the warp drives would detonate to release hordes of daemons (though that's not exactly a 'repeatable' means of planet killing). There's also counting the DE's ability to steal entire suns; allowing them to turn entire habitable planets into ice worlds if need be. Like the Craftworld Eldar, they also possess a psychic doomsday device called The Fireheart to implode a planet's core.

The Kabal of the Dying Sun actually does have a stockpile of WMDs - some of which are powerful enough to destroy stars - and [[Asdrubael Vect|Vect]] keeps black holes in his back pocket to control people. The former is kept in check by several things; they don't know how all of them work, many are psychically activated (psychic powers being forbidden in Commorragh on direct orders from Vect), the other Kabals would almost certainly go after the stockpile if it became known, and it's usually more lucrative for them to conduct raids. For Vect, portable black holes are a special occasion weapon. Like party favours, except with event horizons.

The Dark Eldar can also just have other races kill planets for them. [[Just as Planned|Through manipulation from the sides; they could convince (and managed to do so at one point) the Imperium to declare Exterminatus on a planet.]] And of course as part of an ancient race that was waging war from before the rise of man they can just assemble a nuclear weapon if they need a really big - if crude - bomb. [[Grimdark|But again, they like their victims alive.]]

===Necrons===
The [[Necrons]] have lost many WMDs, but may have several more just waiting to be awakened. ([[Not as Planned|Maybe the Necrons are more trigger-happy with Exterminatus than the Imperium, but they're better at ensuring there're no witnesses]]?).

One of their most notorious Exterminatus-tier machines was the [[The World Engine|World Engine]], which was a planet-sized vessel equipped with the largest [[Gauss|gauss weapon]] known to man. It looked like the combination of a Death Star, Unicron and a Forerunner Shield-World all rolled into one. A [[Rape|flying rape-machine of ungodly proportions]], it took a coalition of several Space Marine chapters and the entire Imperial fleet of the Vidar Subsector to destroy it. For some reason, it had shields that could withstand the [[Awesome|bombardment of an ''entire navy'',]] yet it was [[What|vulnerable]] to a ship [[Meme|impacting at sufficient velocity.]] (Then again, most space shields are designed to stop large projectiles weighing several dozen tonnes fired at high velocity, not kilometers-long Battle Barges weighing hundreds of thousands of tonnes or more [[Angry Marines|being forced up their ass]] at comparatively slow velocity).

The [[Maynarkh Dynasty]] deploys a peculiar device that causes supercharged solar flares that incinerate the daylight-facing sides of ALL planets in a system. Unfortunately for the population on the side of the planet facing away from the sun, incinerating half a planet's surface would also incinerate its atmosphere, stripping the whole planet bare of its life giving biosphere, or whatever gases it had trapped. Even more unfortunately, Maynarkh Necrons are even more interested in making a planetfall and skinning them alive.

Also, the Tomb World of Thanatos has a giant hologram map of the galaxy known as the '''Celestial Orrery''', and if [[What|you were to destroy a star on it, the real life counterpart would go supernova]]. While this makes the Necrons seem like [[Matt Ward|the most powerful faction in the entire galaxy by far]] who could [[Bullshit|instantly kill everyone else in the galaxy without any risk]], the lore also states that a star detonated this way could set off a catastrophic and unpredictable chain-reaction of dying stars which in turn could destroy the whole galaxy. It could also destroy the Necrons of Thanatos, which would destroy the Celestial Orrery and guarantee the death of the entire galaxy, something even the Necrons are not willing to risk.

(In a similar vein to the above, if the Necrons ''really'' wanted to destroy a world, they could just unleash a particularly powerful Transcendent C'tan shard on it without a Tesseract Vault. Though it would most likely escape and be nearly impossible to return to Necron control, it would achieve the same effects.)

The Necrons can also employ an [[Abattoir]] when directly terraforming a planet. They are large, [[monolith]]-like devices except that they physically carry what they're transporting, are the size of a small city, and are covered in tentacles that disintegrate organic material while harvesting its anguish. Also, given that their standard guns can disintegrate adamantium, and they don't mind waiting a few million years to achieve their goals, an enterprising (or bored) Lord could just order his legions to start shooting rocks, making for a thorough but hilariously slow Exterminatus.

In "Twice-dead King" novels one of their capital ships has a star, [[Wat|too large to be held together by its own gravity]], stashed inside a sub-dimensional pocket, which both hides its gravity and stabilizes its existense. If need arises, the pocket can be opened, releasing a blast powerful enough to ''melt a continent''. The funny thing is that said weapon was initially designed to be used against enemies' fleets, not planets.

===Tyranids===
[[Meme|No, Tyranids, you are the Exterminatus.]]

A [[Tyranids|Tyranid]] fleet's primary objective is to devour entire planets and systems for biomass. After they're done, the world they invaded is left a lifeless rock, utterly devoid of life.

The Tyranids also travel through sublight via gravity manipulations, and these can rip apart asteroids, voidships, space stations and small moons entirely and cause a massive series of earthquakes on anything bigger before the 'nids make planetfall.

In one special case however. It is proven that even Tyranids can accidentally cause an Exterminatus that doesn't involved being devoured. In the Doom of Hesp where an escalating Chemical/Biological war between the Death Guard and the Tyranids using Venomthropes and Toxicrenes led to the planet being so toxic that the biomass on the planet was inedible and the bioship got destroyed by fellow hiveships when it tried to devour the biomass to replenish itself, out of the Hive Mind's fear that the poisoned biomass would impair the fleet.

===Orks===
In theory, the [[Ork]]s could develop an Ork-sterminatus-sized weapon (as much by accident and luck as by design); they grab an asteroid, put engines and weapons and armor on it, fill it with Orks, and then ram it full speed into a planet. It wouldn't matter if it turned out to function as a giant transport or just a suicide missile; it generates tremendous amounts of [[lulz]] and serves its purpose of making a big boom, which is all the Orks are concerned with. This haphazard design and construction process would limit the amount of these contraptions the Orks could build (if any).

In general, however, Orks want to avoid wiping out everything on the planet from orbit, as it would leave them with nothing to fight on the ground. Although a Big Mek in need of roks once smashed a moon into a planet and took his pick from the best bits.

The [[War of the Beast]] proves that this wasn't the furthest extent either. The Orks under the Beast's control were weaponizing entire moons and used their gravitational fields to rip apart planets.

===Tau Empire===
While the [[Tau]] almost certainly have the technological capability to destroy entire planets (if the fucking Orks can figure it out without having to build back up to Krork, then the Tau probably at least gave it some thought), there are a number of philosophical, political, and strategic reasons that they would avoid doing this in all but the most extreme circumstances.

For one, the Tau Empire is in the process of expanding, and it isn't exactly conducive to your expansion efforts to blow up perfectly colonizable worlds; thus the Tau would likely see Imperial Exterminatus orders as an egregious waste of resources. Also, the Tau are arguably [[Grimdark|the only race in the 40k universe]] who operate by something parodying a moral compass that is beyond survive at any cost, so the idea of obliterating a planet and its inhabitants is likely appalling to their [[Noblebright|naive wittle sensibilities]].

On the other hand, the Tau have officially declared some races (Orks, Tyranids, Dark Eldar, and Necrons) "lost causes" to be destroyed wherever encountered, so one could plausibly imagine a situation hopeless enough that they would sacrifice a planet to be rid of them. Still, they would probably try to at least leave the world itself salvageable and only exterminate the infesting species. This might not be a concern on a lifeless rock that happened to be a Necron tomb world, however. There are stories of populations being sterilized or generally dispatched, which is about as mean as the Tau get; one such case was the Poctroon, who were the first sapient species they ever encountered. Their planet was ripe for colonization, and when the Tau arrived, the Poctroon all died of a 'mysterious' contagion, though the Tau obviously have admitted no diabolical fuckery.

As their expansion accelerated deeper into Imperial space, the Tau started to deploy more and more experimental technologies to both battlefields and production lines, some of which weren't properly tested. As a result, quite a few moons, planets and even stars have been accidentally destroyed by various mishaps. While such destruction sometimes happened to be advantageous to Tau forces (for example, by shattering Imperial defences with massive tidal waves and earthquakes after the destruction of a planet's moon), they have shown no attempts to weaponize it.

The Tau also have orbital high-yield nuclear warhead options, but they generally use them to generate EMP pulses to blackout a wide area. They can also use these warheads to scatter toxic radiation over an area instead, though, burning through flesh and killing those below.

The Tau are also one of the few factions in 40k who still possess functioning terraforming technology (the Eldar lost theirs during the [[Fall of the Eldar|Fall]], Tyranid "terraforming" is more just them going about eating everything, and Necron terraforming is an Exterminatus on its own), so they can restore exterminated planets to habitability again, provided they haven't been utterly destroyed Deathstar-style. So yes, [[Meme| in the Tau Empire, Exterminatus get purged by YOU!]]

One of the notable examples would be [[Commander Or'es'Ka]] from [[Dawn of War|Dawn of War Soulstorm]], where he had this huge ass gun called "Ar'Ka Cannon" installed on the moon of Kaurava II. The cannon can fire anywhere in the Kaurava system (including the moon where the cannon is), obliterating any enemies before the main force moves in. The said [[ork|BIGGIZT GUNZ]] is also the most Eco-friendly WMD ever built in the grimdark future, as it is capable of damaging only advanced life forms while incapable of harming plants and buildings.

===Forces of Chaos===
Being former servants of the Imperium, fleets of [[Chaos Space Marines]] often still possess the good old Imperial Exterminatus weapons, like virus bombs for the old legions, cyclonic torpedoes for more recently turned traitors, or Just Shoot The Shit Out Of It for any warband with ships in their fleet big enough to carry the guns. Occasionally they will [[Looted|pillage]] Imperial Exteminatus weapons, or else invent some of their own with technology, sorcery, daemonic shit or some combination of the three. [[Honsou|Some]] Chaos guys tend to be quite inventive in finding ways to kill planets.

During one of his Black Crusades, [[Abaddon]] managed to steal or destroy all of the Blackstone Fortresses that the Imperium had in their possession. Naturally, they work just as well for Chaos as they did for the Eldar (and far better than they ever did for the Imperium). He also commissioned [[Planet Killer|an incredibly huge destroyer of a spaceship]], the front half of which is basically a battery of miles-long energy cannons. This "Armageddon Gun" can split a planet in half with one shot.

Then there is World Eaters, who live up to their name when they are united. 50,000 of these motherfuckers slaughtered 70 Sectors in Angron's Dominion of Fire campaign. [[Derp| Then all the planets they conquered were retaken. It seems like they forgot to salt the earth.]] To be fair though, Imperium needed four Chapters, two Titan Legions and more than thirty Guard Regiments (''However, WAAAGH Skargor took on fifty Guard regiments and SIX spess mehreen chapters. Perhaps World Eaters lack the power of [[dakka]].''). Back in Great Crusade, these butchers manually killed everything on the planets they went to conquer. Most of the time, it took them one day. This gave birth to another problem: There were no subjects on these planets to rule over. So the Emprah had to sent fleets to colonize planets left over by World Eaters, which was a pain in the arse for him.

Uniquely amongst 40k factions, the armies of Chaos can make planets effectively Exterminatus-proof by turning them into [[Daemon World|Daemon Worlds]], where the laws of physics are fucked up so hard by the power of the [[Warp]] that all weapons just cease to function on and around it, or even achieve the opposite effect by nourishing the daemon patron of the world and making him even stronger (don't even think about virus bombing a [[Nurgle]] Daemon World). Though admittedly, from literally any point of view besides that of Chaos, Exterminatus is a preferable option to Daemon World transformation, as it would just kill you, rather than damning you to the eternity of torment.

Of course, there's also the act of summoning [[Aetaos'Rau'Keres]]. Keres will turn any planet he's summoned on into a lifeless husk. He doesn't care what side you are on or even if you're the cult that summoned him; he will murder ''everyone'' unlucky enough to be on the planet he's currently on. Such is his methods that he's the closest thing the Chaos Daemons have to a true (i.e.: not reliant on material tools) planetary Exterminatus.

===[[Jokaero]]===
In theory, the Jokaero would be entirely capable of inventing any number of weird means of Exterminatus on the fly, assuming they're even cognitively capable of the abstract thinking involved in deciding to destroy the planet itself instead of just the zillions of gribblies in your immediate proximity, which they probably aren't.

==Exterminatus in other settings==
===Star Trek===
In [[Star Trek]] the Federation's General Order 24 calls for the extermination of all life on a planet. It is threatened multiple times, but never seen on screen. One novel and (very weird) comic do show it, however. Just the original Enterprise on its own is supposed to be able to accomplish this task. While this would take time, the fact that it's theoretically possible without preparing the ship at a shipyard indicates Federation ships are quite a bit more powerful than the Federation's peaceful goals suggests.

More famously, ''Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan'' introduces the Genesis Device. When used properly it's a planet-seeding device that can instigate the formation of life on dead worlds. In practice the massive amount of energy released means it also functions as a planet-glassing bomb, killing everything that already lived there.

===Star Wars===
While it is known to the Clone Wars era (possibly earlier) Republic and the Galactic Empire as Base Delta Zero, the Galaxy Far Far Away has known of orbital attack causing the destruction of all life on a planet for much longer. [[Bioware|Knights of the Old Republic]] implies Tatooine is the giant ball of sand that it is because it pissed off the Rakatan Infinite Empire precursors long before the formation of the Republic, and shows the city-planet of Taris destroyed with such an attack on orders of Darth Malak.

A few years before that, Mandalore the Ultimate ordered two planets (Serroco and Jebble) nuked from orbit, killing everything that failed to escape (but for one Jedi Assassin on Jebble, who was stuck in a stasis coffin built by an ancient Sith alchemist and managed to survive). Three centuries after Taris got bombed (with only the Undercity inhabitants surviving before succumbing to rakghouls) various super weapons theoretically capable of Exterminatus were made during the Great Galactic War period. Various other super weapons were made and used earlier and later, occasionally [[Not_As_Planned|backfiring]].

The Empire regularly made use of Exterminatus as part of its campaign to rule through terror. The peaceful planet of Caamas was destroyed early into the Empire merely for the suspicion they would one day oppose the Empire and (due to the widespread respect they had for maintaining a stance of actual pacifism) encourage others to do so. BDZ is implied to have been relatively common under the Empire, as opposed to the Old Republic (who used it as a last resort before the Ruusan Reformation; they slowly began getting more and more liberal with it during the Clone Wars due to Palpatine and his cronies' manipulation.) The Empire even had propaganda broadcasts that would mention "planetary liberation utilizing the Base Delta Zero initiative". It would seem that the vast majority of the Empire's population (including one of the characters from Star Wars Rebels) was unaware as to what "liberation" by Base Delta Zero actually implied.

This was taken to the extreme with the Death Star, a weapon designed to make Exterminatus so easy nobody would oppose it out of fear. This backfired horribly when the station was destroyed after its second use at Alderaan, causing the galaxy to lash out in revolt (the first use was the slave labor planet it was being built at, where it took three mid-power shots to kill everything, crack the mantle and blow it up in that order. A minimum-power blast also one-shot the sole Rebel capital ship in a task force that tried to attack it at that slave-planet.)

Aside from these, the Empire had a fetish for impractical super weapons capable of Exterminatus, with the pre-Disney EU featuring weapons such as the Galaxy Gun (the Death Star, but smaller and with missiles), the ''Tarkin'' (The Death Star, but ship-sized), the ''Eclipse'' and ''Sovereign''-class Star Destroyers (see before), the World Devastators, and the [[Mary Sue|Sun Crusher]] ([[What|the Death Star, but the size of a ''starfighter'']]; generally regarded as a concept emblematic of the [[C.S Goto|worst elements of the original Expanded Universe]]). Amusingly enough, [https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Superweapon/Legends#Superweapons it's actually pointed out in-universe how stupid this hard-on for powerful but impractical superweapons is].

While the New Republic initially rejected Exterminatus, the war with extra-galactic invaders the Yuuzhan Vong (who had their own Tyranid-like Exterminatus methods, converting biospheres to forms inimical to non-Yuuzhan Vong life) eventually pushed them into using it. BDZ was frequently used in later years as well by the One Sith, most notably at Ossus in 137 ABY and during the Genocide of Dac (in which Mon Calamari was basically Virus Bombed to uninhabitability by the One Sith; as with the destruction of Alderaan a hundred years earlier, this backfired horribly in the long term, the One Sith getting themselves wiped out with no other Sith remaining a few years later).

===Halo===
In the [[Halo]] universe wiping out all life on a planet happens surprisingly often, and there are many interesting ways of doing so. It is the only way to be 100% certain you have dealt with a Flood outbreak.

The UNSC has the options of nuking the planet in the bog-standard nuclear holocaust situation that's very much what you'd expect. However, their most powerful weapon is the NOVA bomb. The NOVA bomb is created by strapping together nine standard fusion warheads and encasing them in a casing of lithium triteride which amplifies the warheads destructive output that is unfortunately never mentioned but has the power to crack open a planet, earning the nickname "Planet Crackers". The first real use of this weapon was when it detonated between a planet and its moon, destroying the moon and scorching half the surface of the planet, as well as destroying three-fifths of a 300-strong fleet.

The Covenant is well known for their orbital bombardment technique known as "glassing", where through sustained high-energy plasma bombardment, a planet's surface is reduced to a glass-like material resembling obsidian. This was the fate of many human planets during the Human-Covenant War, including but not limited to Harvest, Madrigal, Eridanus II, Miridien, Paris IV, and Reach.

The Forerunners, of course, have arguably the most powerful method of wiping out all life on a planet in Halo canon: the titular Halo rings, which can cleanse either a single planet of life on lower settings, to everything within 25,000 light-years at maximum. When all seven are fired in concert, they can wipe out all life in the galaxy, which they have done before. The Forerunners have also created a device known as the Composer, which takes an organic being, destroys their body, and uploads their consciousness into a digital format. The process is extremely painful and those composed aren't always sane by the end of it. Of course, there could be who knows what kind of galaxy-killing weapons in the Forerunner arsenal that haven't been revealed yet.

==IRL Exterminatus==
''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_catastrophic_risk see Global Catastrophic Risk]''

===Thermo-Nuclear Holocaust===
Apparently, even when we aren't in the 41st millennium we still mastered the art of royally buttfucking a planet. In this case, it's ours, and a full-scale thermonuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union, who each have a few thousands of nukes, would be enough to kill off humanity (1 billion in the exchange itself, everyone else within the next 2 years). This is how Mutually Assured Destruction works, threatening each other and our own planet with Exterminatus with zero chance of survival, just so we won't begin another World War. Because [[Imperium of Man|we're bastards like that]].

The Cobalt Bombs described by Dr. Strangelove above are actually possible, though currently theoretical. Nuclear weapons designed to be deployed as bombs or missiles aren't strong enough to destroy the world with only 50 warheads, but if you don't mind moving the weapon once it's built, the only limit on how big your nuke can get is how much material you're willing to use on it. In theory, the doomsday device of Dr. Strangelove could be achieved with a single massive bomb.

This is further worth mentioning because automated retaliation systems that could activate nuclear weapons in response to a detected threat ''actually existed''. The Soviet Union had the "Dead Hand" system, based off of seismic, air pressure, and EM sensors. The system was normally kept inactive and was only supposed to be turned on during a crisis to guarantee that the Soviets would still be able to use their weapons even if their leadership was taken out by a first strike.

Some believe that elements of the Dead Hand system may have been lost or buried, and are active to this day. [[grimdark|A ticking automated Exterminatus waiting for a signal from aging Cold War-era sensors.]]

An old quote from the film ''WarGames'' summarizes the game of Global Thermonuclear War/Exterminatus: ''The only winning move is not to play..."

Side note: simply saturating the surface of a planet with nukes is actually exponentially more energy-efficient than any method of destroying the actual planet itself, so if all you want gone is the people or creatures inhabiting it, then realistically this is what you'd go with.

===An Asteroid===
Really, all it takes to kill everything on a planet is a big enough rock traveling fast enough. Normally it's the cloud of dust that is kicked up into the atmosphere and blocks out the sun that does most of the work. Dinosaurs learned this the hard way. Of course, this doesn't really work too well on a forge or hive world which is already like that. For raw destructive force, however, the damage is a function of the speed and size of the asteroid. The former has some practical limits (though a civilization looking to weaponize this sort of Exterminatus could possibly bring the rock up to relativistic speeds), but the latter can be nearly unlimited.

A collision with a near planet-sized object would be more devastating than most ''fictional'' Exterminatus weapons, obliterating the target world entirely. There could be any number of so-called 'rogue' planets floating in the empty spaces between stars, ready to slide into the solar system and crash into Earth, assuming humanity fails its collective ''Save or Die'' roll for the week. They'd have to [[fail]] incredibly hard because the overwhelming chance is that the rogue body will end up into the Sun (or Jupiter as a distant second choice), but yeah. [[Just as planned|Shit happens, yo!]]

Also, to clarify something: once the asteroid rises above a certain size threshold --many times larger than the one that killed the dinosaurs, in fact-- then a collision with Earth would actually result in completely ''sterilizing'' the planet, as in everything down to the last microbe would die. So... sweet dreams. (though once they got that big we would almost certainly see it coming.)

===Super Volcano===
Works on the same principal as the asteroid, that if you get enough shit into the atmosphere you've royally fucked all life bigger than a mouse. This may not be very likely though on Earth as one of the biggest volcanoes (see Yellowstone Park) wouldn't wipe out humanity. Maybe.

Unless, of course, seismic activity from that eruption managed to trigger the [http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-25598050/ OTHER NINETEEN] super volcanoes.

===Artificial Plague===
The Black Plague killed up to 60% of Europe's population and the Spanish Flu over doubled the death toll of what was then most devastating war in history. With '''''SCIENCE!''''' you could do even better! You could even render your own people immune to the effects before hand and only kill the enemy. Sane people dismiss this as possible but a fantastically stupid idea because viruses are impossible to contain and like to mutate, rendering any vaccine you used worthless. Still, people interested in causing the end of the world have minimal overlap with sane people, so terrorists causing one is a popular plot. Another possibility is a virus in a research lab breaking containment rather than being released intentionally.

However before you start panicky a plague basically has no chance at killing humanity off. It can do a lot of damage yes, but once it kills enough people it will, like a fire, run out of fuel and burn it self out. This is why the common cold is so, well, common, It doesn't kill you so you can keep spreading it. Any sickness lethal enough to even have a shot at killing humanity off, will kill people so fast that it can't spread, even assuming humans can't treat it. Now if you think the COVID-19 pandemic showed that developing a vaccine isn't necessarily quick or easy, well your wrong. Less then a year for a vaccine is incredibly quick all things considered. In contrast the polio vaccine took over 4 years to produce. And after almost less then a year we are managing to produce over [[Noblebright|1 Million Doses Per of Vaccine per-day]]. That is a feat and a half even before you consider how we've managed to mitigate it via social behavior.

===Other Methods===
Some dude actually collected a list of ways that the Earth itself could be physically destroyed here: https://qntm.org/destroy But note that unlike with Exterminatus, the working goal there was to physically destroy ''the planet itself,'' not just the population.

It's a really clever and thorough list. One listed method, for example, is basically to just yeet rocks into space until you run out of rocks.

==The Fall of Typhon==
Good to know there's a ceremony for blowing up a planet.

''"We have arrived, and it is now that we perform our charge. ''
''In fealty to the God-Emperor, our undying Lord and by the grace of the Golden Throne, I declare Exterminatus upon the Imperial world of Typhon Primaris. ''
''I hereby sign the death warrant of an entire world and consign a million souls to oblivion. ''
''May Imperial Justice account in all balance. ''
''The Emperor Protects."''

==The Words of Gabriel Angelos==
{{Topquote|It is human nature to seek culpability in a time of tragedy. It is a sign of strength to cry out against fate, rather than to bow one's head and succumb. Inevitably many shall fault the hands upon the sword which felled Typhon, the Ordo Malleus. But the Inquisition merely performs the duty of its office. To further fear them is redundant; to hate them, heretical. Those more sensible will place responsibility with those who forced the hands of the Inquisition. With some fortune, they may foster this hatred into purpose, and further rule their own fate by coming to the Emperor's service. Yet ultimately, it was I who set these events into motion, with a single blow from my hammer, God Splitter.|Gabriel Angelos of the Blood Ravens}}

Fuck, that's deep. The use of a properly modified version of this quote from Dawn of War Retribution has proved highly effective in sageing furfag troll threads and thus has been sanctioned by the holy /tg/ Inquisition for public use (keep it on /tg/).

==Battlefleet Gothic: Armada==
Admiral Spire has the balls to ask an inquisitor if exterminatus is the only option. Since at the beginning of the story he passed the inquisitor's test of faith (it's as painful as you imagine), the inquisitor indulges him with an actual answer:

{{Topquote|Admiral Spire, it is said that heresy is like a tree. Its roots lie in darkness while its leaves wave in the sun. You can prune away its branches, even cut the tree to the ground. But it will grow again, ever stronger. Such is the nature of heresy and why it is so difficult to destroy. Some may question my right to destroy a world of ten billion souls. But those who truly understand, realize I have no right to let them live. No sacrifice is too great. No treachery too small.|Inquisitor Horst}}''

==Exterminatus on the Tabletop==
Though not the most effective of lists, it is particularly hilarious and surprisingly fluffy to declare Exterminatus on large table games of 40k. In general Exterminatus is used when one player with a large force of 3500+ points of space marines is in danger of losing the field of battle. In which case the player grabs the closest heavy object and begins to smash the opponents models screaming “EXTERMINATUS IN THE NAME OF THE EMPEROR EXTERMINATUS” until the opponent’s army is destroyed and (or) he is forcibly removed from the table.

Another relatively simple way is to simply take a [[Grey Knights]] army, field a single Bro-Capt. or Grand Master with an orbital Strike Relay, [[Witch Hunters|Karamazov]] (who also has one) and two troop choices (if you're playing a regular game -- if you're playing [[Apocalypse]], you can skip the troops) Then cram in as many Techmarines as you can, give them all Orbital Strike Relays and watch the bombs drop. For the average 3000 point game, you can get Krazypantsoff and 20 bare-bones techies with the relays. That's 21 Strength 10 AP1 pie-plates smashing down on your opponents Baneblades, Warhounds and other special hard-as-balls to kill shit your opponents have! Also great for swarm-busting (the relays can fire D3 pieplates each per guy but at Strength 6). Picture Krazypantsoff standing on a hilltop, pointing at buildings and going "Bang.", then watching them all blow up.

(Of course, if the Inquisitor dies, you're fucked. So maybe just camp him in cover. But that's only if you're lame.)

For those of you with enough money to field the Horus Heresy army list from Forge World, Horus can call down an orbital strike with infinite range and S10 AP1 from anywhere on the map. Now you can reenact the Istvaan III atrocities yourself!

For an Apocalypse game you can also field an exterminatus guard force.
All you need is:
n * 6 guardsmen (one with a vox).
The list is fairly simple - Just field as many Company Command Squads with nothing but Master of Ordinance and fire away (for a 3k game its almost 38 s9 ap3 blasts a turn)
Don't forget to field some epic(troll) music to laugh at your opponents face, and after the battle proceed with knocking the table down to finish with a speech gritty nuff to make Sturnn himself proud.

Another option is to us the Exterminatus rules for your Apocalypse game (In the unnatural disasters table (by rolling a 6))

As of 7th edition, it's now possible to forego the FoC chart and take whatever models you want. This means you can take 15 Chapter Masters in a 2k list.

In 40k terms, you can get some SERIOUS Exterminatus going with the [[Necrons|'Crons]] and their Doomsday Arks. In one Primary Detachment, for example, you can take a fully viable 1500-point Necron army as so: Overlord with Warscythe, 5 Immortals, 10 Warriors and 3 Doomsday Arks. If the Doomsday Arks don't move, they can provide one 72" Strength 10 AP 1 Primary Weapon Large Blast each, allowing for some serious [[butthurt]] from your opponents (and this may make you [[That Guy]] if done well because this is a level of cheese on the table that France would be proud of). If you're trying to break into a bunker-sized fortification, use these three things on the doors. Then you can re-enact the dying moments of [[The Conquest of Uttu Prime]] sans the [[Megalith]]!

==TL;DR==
You fuckers just backed Chaos and now you have a daemon infestation? Your planet 'gon git [[FATAL|raaaaaaaaaaaaaaped]].

<gallery>
image:exterminatus.jpg
image:exterminatus2.jpg
File:Red nuke button turned into EXTERMINATUS.png|Suffer not the Tau Player to live.
File:Exterminatusthread.jpg|The E-quisition vigilantly purges the Emperor's internets of chaos taint.
File:Foxy Lady.jpg|If the inhabitants of a planet remotely resembles this creature, it's guaranteed to be exterminatused upon discovery. If pictures like this are found on a thread in /tg/, it's guaranteed to be saged and trolled upon discovery.
File:Fall_of_Reach_1.jpg|If said inhabitants started space-faring like a certain [[Chakat|Chakat]], then you could call your local Inquisition or any Xeno manly enough to [[Get shit done|get shit done, just like the Covenant shown in the image.]]
File:Hello exterminatus Warhammer 40k sister of battle rule 34.jpg|See? The Internet can even make the end of the world look sexy!
File:Rocks are not free citizen.jpg|Don't suggest bolides as a method of exterminatus.
File:Sherman.gif|War is Hell, and Hell is beautiful.
File:Ohara Incident.png|Although this is not a planet, it's just too B-E-A-[[weeaboo]]-TIFUL.
File:ExterminatusButton.gif|Not ''actually'' how the Inquisition works...mostly.
File:Larrynevindisk.jpg|The original Magic: the Gathering Exterminatus
</gallery>

Vidya:
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h67JpMyrOVE
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYXj9xOUFIM
* The unofficial theme-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_tIw9Il934
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEGo41443iI The heresy scene mentioned in the quotes at the top.]
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubNqUyf0op0
[[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Meme]]

Exterminatus

2023-02-20T15:30:28Z

2607:FB90:3F8A:5651:7867:CB67:A80F:A89: /* Dark Eldar */

{{Topquote|[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_at_Béziers#%22Kill_them_all,_God_will_know_His_own%22 Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius.]|[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnaud_Amalric Arnoldus Amalricus], [[Inquisitor]] and [[Chaplain|Cistercian Abbot]], 209M.2}}
{{Topquote|The world is what it is, which is to say, nothing much.|Albert Camus, reacting to the bombing of Hiroshima}}
{{Topquote|I say we take off and [[Exterminatus#Just_Shoot_the_Shit_Out_of_It_.28Orbital_Bombardment.29|nuke the entire site from orbit]]. It's the only way to be sure.|[[Sisters of Battle|Ellen Ripley]] in ''Aliens'' (986.M2)}}
[[TTS|{{Topquote|Y'know what, they're just running around shooting each other down there, better just lay the Exterminatus upon these heretics, alright, FIRE!]]|[[Inquisitor]] [[TTS#The Inquisition|Headsmash]], ca. 990.M41}}
[[Image:Exterminatus Retribution.jpg|right|450px|"[[TTS|...FUCKING HERETICS!"]]|thumb]]
'''Exterminatus''' is the biggest middle finger the [[Imperium of Man|Imperium]] can give to [[xenos]] and [[Chaos]] infestations on their own planets. It basically involves UTTERLY DESTROYING THE PLANET SURFACE via heavy orbital bombardment if they decide that it would be impossible to retake the planet by [[Imperial Guard|drowning their enemies in corpses, like they usually do]]. Declarable only by a Inquisitor, Chapter Master, or the High Lords of Terra (and before the [[Horus Heresy]], solely the [[God-Emperor of Mankind]] and his [[Primarch|Primarchs]]), Exterminatus can range from destroying all life on a planet (down to the bacteria), to destroying a planet in its entirety (Death Star-style).

And, of course, there is no kill like overkill.

Before you go into some sort of sanctimonious tirade about the morality of blowing the fuck out of an entire planet, understand the context. A world deemed worthy of Exterminatus is one considered past the point where anything can be salvaged from it - whether because it's about to be lost to [[Tyranids|countless ravening giant insects that will zerg-rush and eat fucking everything]] or [[Ork|reality-warping fungi that reproduce into millions of spores every time one '''breathes''' and will all kill you because they think it's fun]] ...[[Looted|and then steal all of your shit because it looks shiny, hurty or fast.]] Or because it will be turned into a fucking [[Chaos|daemon-and-tentacle-rape-infested shit-pit where neither sanity nor time has any meaning and your soul will be tortured for eternity]]. Or because of an ineradicable [[Heresy|heretical belief]] that threatens to bring down any of the above or a similar threat.

Bottom line: Exterminatus happens when shit is fucked and the only option is fucking glassing a planet and to deny it to the enemy, or to ensure SOMETHING can be saved. It's ''the'' last-ditch measure, and it's there purely because the other option sucks even worse. It is the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekcXHVXPIQc&app=desktop Scorched Earth] strategy on a planetary scale: if you can't have it, burn it so your foes can't use it.

...[[grimdark|Then again, there's nothing stopping an Inquisitor from ordering it just because he wants one for his birthday]]. Oversight on Exterminatus orders is fairly nonexistent and it's easy to see why. The problem is the same one real life atomic weapons have, who do you want to have to be able to launch them? You want the most powerful, highly ranked people to have that authority, but if they're so highly ranked and with so much power, who watches them? Who second guesses an Inquisitor's judgement about if a world is to be blown up or not?

Well, that's just the thing: [[Grimdark|Nobody does]]. [[Kryptman|The Imperium's only solution is to just declare the trigger-happy sod Excommunicate Traitoris afterwards if they don't agree]]. The [[Just as Planned|over the top villainy of Warhammer 40k]] means that some fuckholes within the Imperium do get trigger happy with this, ordering an Exterminatus on worlds over things like a few of its people coming into contact with alien technology, or a small hint of [[heresy]] that would probably not require killing everything, or a loose pubic hair being in the Inquisitor's cereal this morning.

On the bright side these instances are few and far between, destroying an uncorrupted planet is seen as a gross waste of Imperial Resources, and anybody caught doing so will quickly be forced to explain the [[Heresy|legitimate reasoning]] behind it by the full might of the [[Administratum]]... who will then proceed to hand out a light slap on the wrist, letting the offender get off scot-free [[Salamanders|unless they meet a giant, angry black dude in green]] (or the woefully understaffed Ordo Excorium). What, you're surprised that an Empire of "Space Nazis 2.0" can have actual legitimate excuses, common sense, reasoning and sensibility? You're in for a whole new series of surprises...

[[Deal with it]]. Bitching any further will rile the [[Commissar|Commissariat]]. You have been warned.

Joking aside, it's somewhat fluff dependent; in Seventh Retribution by [[Ben Counter]], for instance, Exterminatus is never even mentioned as a 'solution' despite the fact that the planet got halfway to being a Daemon World (although part of this was because the [[Officio Assassinorum]] couldn't be 100% sure that even Exterminatus would do the trick and they needed to be fucking certain the antagonist of the book was a confirmed kill). Also in the ''Space Wolves Omnibus'', in the Ultramarines ''Nightbringer'' books and in ''[[Ciaphas Cain]]'s'' stories, we get Inquisitors saying they have been at it for well over a century without calling down the Exterminatus even once.

For a recent and probably well-known example of the kind of conditions under which the Exterminatus is called down: [[Dawn of War II|DoW II: Retribution]] has a subsector-wide Exterminatus called down only after ten solid years of warfare and three back-to-back crusades by the [[Blood Ravens]] and massed [[Imperial Guard]] forces against [[Black Legion]] [[Chaos Space Marines]], [[Tyranids]], and [[Eldar]] alike with little to no appreciable increase in stability, coupled with a high incidence of guardsmen and even Astartes falling to Chaos and turning traitor.

As of current fluff, the Inquisition turns out to actually have an entire Ordo (the aforementioned Ordo Excorium) who deal exclusively with managing this sort of affair to ensure that people aren't just committing mass genocides for shits and giggles. And for all intents and purposes, it seems they're actually doing their damn jobs: the 6th/7th Ed. Inquisition Codex indicates that about 90% of Inquisitors who called down a single Exterminatus were later stripped of their rank (and declared heretics in several cases) for deciding to go full fuck force and blow up a planet where it wasn't warranted. Impressive, for a group numbering barely 100 Inquisitors. It also makes a surprising amount of sense in the often grimderpy universe of 40k; if Armageddon of all places hasn't been Exterminatused yet, very, ''very'' few places probably outright warrant it.

==Methods of Exterminatus==
The Imperium has several means for dealing with hopeless infestations:

===Just Shoot the Shit Out of It (Orbital Bombardment)===
Saturating planets with over-sized cannons larger than apartment buildings is the stereotypical way of nuking the fuck out of something you don't like. Nuclear warheads, Space Marine Battle Barge bombardment batteries, Nova cannons, and/or banks of Lances are often used. Examples of this include the [[Dark Angels]] destroying their homeworld, Caliban, <s>after it was lost to heretics within their legion</s> {{BLAM|AFTER SOMEONE THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TO HUNT FOR DINNER FOR OUR TOTALLY NON-HERETICAL AND OBVIOUSLY LOYAL BROTHERS USING THE ORBITAL BOMBARDMENT CANNONS}} and the [[Night Lords]]' purge of Nostramo.

If we take the purging of Typhon Primaris from Dawn of War II as canon, this method can also be used during the opening stages of the Exterminatus before you unleash one of the Inquisition's more thorough toys upon it.

===Virus Bombs===
Virus Bombs are warheads loaded with the Life Eater virus, a biological payload that causes all living tissue to super-quickly rot and decompose (which gives Nurgle a massive boner). The bombs are designed to release their payload mid-air, so that the aerosol form of the virus gets spread out through the atmosphere, potentially achieving [[meme|complete global saturation]] in minutes under the right conditions. This immediate rot causes a build-up of methane and other flammable gases, which in turn can be ignited by one of the lasers above (or any still smouldering Lho sticks, or any other source of flame), sweeping the area in firestorms. A relentless bombing of these fucking things is what reduced [[Tallarn]] from a verdant forest world to the desert hellhole it is now.

They were also used by [[Horus|Warmaster Horus]] to kill off loyalists in the Traitor Legions during the Istvaan Campaign of the [[Horus Heresy]] (the Life Eater virus eats through any filters and corrodes power armour till it gets to the gooey marine inside, though a Dreadnought can endure it easily if its shell isn't even slightly cracked). Though popular during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy, according to [[Amberley Vail]], virus bombings are rarely used in the 41st millennium, because the Inquisition has figured out that they feed the fucking [[Nurgle|Plaguefather]] every time they're used. [[Fail|Whoops]].

(That said, they were falling out of favour even before that: since as demonstrated on [[Armageddon]] one virus bomb usually isn't enough to kill the whole planet and you might need to hit the planet several times all around. Plus, since it's airborne, this can result in hilarious [[FAIL]] when the wind patterns disperse the virus in the wrong direction, as canonically happened with [[Herman von Strab]]'s use of them on Armageddon).

===Atmospheric Incinerator Torpedo===
Atmospheric Incinerator Torpedoes are [[plasma]] torpedoes that burst in low planetary orbit and super-heat the atmosphere of a planet until all combustible material ignites. So it's essentially [[Rape|a napalm airburst bomb on steroids and an additional dose of plasma, designed to directly turn the planet's surface into an endless expanse of raging hellfire.]]

This method of Exterminatus was used on Medusa IV. It is said that the aftermath of the Exterminatus, Medusa IV's surface was melted to glass and that the entire world burned like a piece of amber in space even a month after the attack had been launched. However, they're only effective on planets with relatively stable atmospheres made of flammable gas, and plasma torpedoes are both somewhat rare and expensive.

===Modalis Atmospheric Missile===
Another weapon that has similar results from the Atmospheric Incinerator Torpedo but its function is completely different. Regarded as the most powerful incendiary device accessible in the Imperium. The Modalis Atmospheric Missile is one ECKS BAWKS HUEG [[Phosphor Weaponry|Phosphex weapon]] used to burn a planet into a crisp. Think White Phosphorous on steroids. A salvo of several Modalis Atmospheric Missiles from orbiting warships will blanket an entire world in deadly Phosphex. The resultant firestorm of living fire will eat away at every carbon-based element on the planet, rendering it uninhabitable. All that would be left would be dust and echoes.

===Cyclonic Torpedoes===
The primary method of Exterminatus used in the 41st millennium, these are basically skyscraper-sized nuclear missiles that've eaten their weight in steroids. These capital ship-fired warheads each generate a series of massive, self-sustaining nuclear reactions, which, when fired in bulk, fuels a much larger reaction that causes the devastation to spread and multiply, eventually glassing the entire world with a thermonuclear holocaust given a sufficient barrage. If you fire enough in the same spot it will break through the crust of a planet, causing part of the mantle to erupt out and royally buttfucking the entire planet in the process ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYXj9xOUFIM see the ''Fire Warrior'' end cinematic]).

[[Krieg]] is an example of a radioactive perpetual-winter world that survived multiple cyclonic torpedo strikes, though in this case it was on a much smaller scale and in some sources are described as standard nukes. This was the method that killed Typhon, in combination with the above shoot-the-shit-out-of-it method. (Another theory holds that the bombardment is used to remove anything that might prevent the torpedo from reaching the surface or to weaken planets crust.) Only the [[Inquisition]] and the [[Space Marines]] are authorized to carry cyclonic torpedoes in their warships, the former because the Inquisition has the authority to do anything, and the latter because the Imperium figures that if the Space Marines can't beat it, nothing else will.

Cyclonic Torpedoes are pretty variable in their strength, either due to there being different classes of torpedoes or the fact that the strength of a single torpedo has never been nailed down in official materials. In one case, ol' [[Abaddon|Abby]] dropped a dozen to fry a single hive; in another a single torpedo is a qualified planet cracker. Similarly, this method is the easiest to thwart with shields, as they disrupt the stacked efficiency needed for ongoing detonation. Presumably this variability in strength is due to "Cyclonic Torpedo" being as broad a description as "atomic bomb", which can refer to both a Davy Crockett and a Tsar Bomba.

===Two-Stage Cyclonic Torpedoes===
In the two-stage torpedo, a [[melta]] charge activates first to allow the weapon to burrow into the planet's crust and down to the core. The second stage thermonuclear charge then goes off, causing the planet to break apart Death Star style.

This is really the only way to deal with Necron Tomb Worlds since, due to their tendency to make everything subterranean, they aren't overly bothered by the other methods which devastate the surface (and anything alive) but leave the planet as a whole mostly intact. Talos of the Night Lords used this in a rather unconventional manner; faced with a [[Genesis Chapter]] strike cruiser hiding behind a moon, he [[Awesome|blew a continent-sized hole through the moon]] with one of these, and watched the loyalist ship get torn apart as a new asteroid field got shotgunned into space.

===Smashing It with a Fucking Moon===
This method involves radically altering the orbit of a nearby moon or large asteroid and placing it on a collision course with the planet, and therefore requires the use of several Mechanicus voidships. This method was used to destroy Phaenon Prime when the Virus Bomb failed to wipe out the planet's corruptive influence. It was also used during the [[Horus Heresy]] by renegade Iron Hands commander Autek Mor to destroy the World Eaters recruitment world of Bodt and during the Badab War to finally smash through [[Huron Blackheart]]'s defensive Ring of Steel around Badab. Needless to say, this pretty much fucking annihilates the planet in question (or whatever else it's thrown at like Huron's defensive systems).

Despite its flair and effectiveness, [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Rocks_Are_Not_Free! the Administratum vehemently requests that Imperial commanders avoid this method whenever possible] because it's stupidly expensive -- it can take weeks or even months for the moon or asteroid in question to actually strike the planet, which costs rations and sublight fuel while the ships sit around doing fuck-all, while orbital bombardments only cost one day's worth of rations and fuel, plus ammunition. That said there is one advantage to doing this: you don't need to be near the planet to pull it off. If the planet in question has strong enough Orbital or Surface to Orbit Defences you can't get close, to do a traditional bombing, then a old fashion moon can be set up few thousand million kilometres away.

===Release the Krourk===
Krourk [[Ogryn]] are known as the most brutal, powerful, and primitive tribe of Ogryn in the Imperium (and that's saying something). They are so well-known for their frightening savagery in close combat that they're considered a solid match for Orks, and are also known for being so primitively stupid that the Imperial Guard can't even teach them to use traditional Ogryn weapons like ripper guns. Their reputation is so fearsome that it has gotten to the point where deploying thousands of these things is considered a crude method of Exterminatus amongst Imperial commanders since they can't be taught to discriminate between friend and foe.

===Send it to [[Warp|Hell]]===
Sending your problems somewhere else is a rather simple solution to most problems. Doing so with an entire planet is possible, though difficult. As a result, various factions have simply thought "Hey, if we send a planet into the Warp, it’s no longer in the Materium, and therefore it’s not our problem."

There are many problems with this, but that has not stopped some particularly idiotic individuals from doing it anyway. The reason it is listed here (and not in the non-Imperium section) is because the Imperium believes that this is actually a valid method to dispose of Tyranids... and '''only''' Tyranids. (Anything else would be either [[ork|redundant]], or [[chaos|basically what they wanted in the first place]]). The Warp is [[Hive Fleet Kronos|mostly]] foreign to the Tyranids; as a result, it's one of the few things that they cannot truly combat on a wide scale, not to mention the fact that [[Chaos]] hates them.

However, the Shadow in the Warp makes it difficult to pull this off at the best of times, so it has not been tested yet (beside one or two desperation attacks, such as [[Hive Fleet Behemoth]] being wiped by ''Dominus Astra'' during the First Tyrannic War).

==Non-Imperium Exterminatus==
Several factions outside the Imperium do things similar to the Imperial Exterminatus (adding any examples from the lore would be greatly appreciated). However, most of them don't use these methods often. Some examples:

===Craftworld Eldar===
The [[Eldar|Craftworld Eldar]] have some respect for life (and not nearly as many weapons of mass destruction as they had before the [[Fall of the Eldar|Fall]]) so they don't do it often. Didn't stop them from purging all life in the Octarius system to clean up [[Kryptman|Kryptman's]] mess, though (in that case the Dark Eldar provided the WMD). The most well-known Eldar engines of planetary destruction are called [[Blackstone Fortress|Blackstone Fortresses]], which are ancient weapons they designed to fight the [[C'tan]]. To put it simply, think of a floating citadel with a distort weapon (like the ones the [[Wraithguard]] have) the size of an Emperor-class battleship. During the Gothic Wars, three Blackstone Fortresses combined their power to cause a star to go supernova, destroying an entire solar system.

In Apocalypse War Zone: Valedor, the Craftworld Eldar from [[Iyanden]] procured another type of ancient WMD, the Fireheart: a complex nodal resonator capable of causing a planet's molten core to enter violent death throes and send lakes of lava to the surface (or just explode two-stage torpedo style, the tie-in novel plays the fireworks up to a big degree). The [[Dark Eldar]] originally had this, but they gave it away because they didn't have the psychic power to activate the weapon. The Fireheart was used successfully on Valedor and prevented Hive Fleets [[Hive Fleet Kraken|Kraken]] and [[Hive Fleet Behemoth|Behemoth]] from joining forces. If they had, the [[Tyranids]] would have had all of the genetic data of the Orks and the Eldar, enabling them to fashion unthinkable monstrosities.

Before the fall (and possibly still kicking around somewhere) they had devices that fired entire suns or black holes at their enemies.

===Dark Eldar===
The [[Dark Eldar]] as a whole lack a good stockpile of planet-killing weaponry and prefer to keep planets intact for slaves, although they are still capable of exterminating the populace of entire planets if they wanted to. One method is pillaging the shit out of it. It has been proven time and time again that an entire major kabal or dozens of separate, smaller kabals, is more than capable of kidnapping an entire planet of its populace, faster than that local PDF trooper can finish his scream of agony. Granted, being taken captive isn't part of a traditional Exterminatus' MO, but if you know the fate of a hapless mortal in Commorragh; [[Fist of the North Star|they are already dead]] (at best).

There has also been one instance of an entire Hive World being poisoned by the Dark Eldar, as well as an incident in which they smashed a Space Hulk at a Webway sub-realm and so the warp drives would detonate to release hordes of daemons (though that's not exactly a 'repeatable' means of planet killing). There's also counting the DE's ability to steal entire suns; allowing them to turn entire habitable planets into ice worlds if need be. Like the Craftworld Eldar, they also possess a psychic doomsday device called The Fireheart to implode a planet's core.

The Kabal of the Dying Sun actually does have a stockpile of WMDs - some of which are powerful enough to destroy stars - and [[Vect]] keeps black holes in his back pocket to control people. The former is kept in check by several things; they don't know how all of them work, many are psychically activated (psychic powers being forbidden in Commorragh on direct orders from Vect), the other Kabals would almost certainly go after the stockpile if it became known, and it's usually more lucrative for them to conduct raids. For Vect, portable black holes are a special occasion weapon. Like party favours, except with event horizons.

The Dark Eldar can also just have other races kill planets for them. [[Just as Planned|Through manipulation from the sides; they could convince (and managed to do so at one point) the Imperium to declare Exterminatus on a planet.]] And of course as part of an ancient race that was waging war from before the rise of man they can just assemble a nuclear weapon if they need a really big - if crude - bomb. [[Grimdark|But again, they like their victims alive.]]

===Necrons===
The [[Necrons]] have lost many WMDs, but may have several more just waiting to be awakened. ([[Not as Planned|Maybe the Necrons are more trigger-happy with Exterminatus than the Imperium, but they're better at ensuring there're no witnesses]]?).

One of their most notorious Exterminatus-tier machines was the [[The World Engine|World Engine]], which was a planet-sized vessel equipped with the largest [[Gauss|gauss weapon]] known to man. It looked like the combination of a Death Star, Unicron and a Forerunner Shield-World all rolled into one. A [[Rape|flying rape-machine of ungodly proportions]], it took a coalition of several Space Marine chapters and the entire Imperial fleet of the Vidar Subsector to destroy it. For some reason, it had shields that could withstand the [[Awesome|bombardment of an ''entire navy'',]] yet it was [[What|vulnerable]] to a ship [[Meme|impacting at sufficient velocity.]] (Then again, most space shields are designed to stop large projectiles weighing several dozen tonnes fired at high velocity, not kilometers-long Battle Barges weighing hundreds of thousands of tonnes or more [[Angry Marines|being forced up their ass]] at comparatively slow velocity).

The [[Maynarkh Dynasty]] deploys a peculiar device that causes supercharged solar flares that incinerate the daylight-facing sides of ALL planets in a system. Unfortunately for the population on the side of the planet facing away from the sun, incinerating half a planet's surface would also incinerate its atmosphere, stripping the whole planet bare of its life giving biosphere, or whatever gases it had trapped. Even more unfortunately, Maynarkh Necrons are even more interested in making a planetfall and skinning them alive.

Also, the Tomb World of Thanatos has a giant hologram map of the galaxy known as the '''Celestial Orrery''', and if [[What|you were to destroy a star on it, the real life counterpart would go supernova]]. While this makes the Necrons seem like [[Matt Ward|the most powerful faction in the entire galaxy by far]] who could [[Bullshit|instantly kill everyone else in the galaxy without any risk]], the lore also states that a star detonated this way could set off a catastrophic and unpredictable chain-reaction of dying stars which in turn could destroy the whole galaxy. It could also destroy the Necrons of Thanatos, which would destroy the Celestial Orrery and guarantee the death of the entire galaxy, something even the Necrons are not willing to risk.

(In a similar vein to the above, if the Necrons ''really'' wanted to destroy a world, they could just unleash a particularly powerful Transcendent C'tan shard on it without a Tesseract Vault. Though it would most likely escape and be nearly impossible to return to Necron control, it would achieve the same effects.)

The Necrons can also employ an [[Abattoir]] when directly terraforming a planet. They are large, [[monolith]]-like devices except that they physically carry what they're transporting, are the size of a small city, and are covered in tentacles that disintegrate organic material while harvesting its anguish. Also, given that their standard guns can disintegrate adamantium, and they don't mind waiting a few million years to achieve their goals, an enterprising (or bored) Lord could just order his legions to start shooting rocks, making for a thorough but hilariously slow Exterminatus.

In "Twice-dead King" novels one of their capital ships has a star, [[Wat|too large to be held together by its own gravity]], stashed inside a sub-dimensional pocket, which both hides its gravity and stabilizes its existense. If need arises, the pocket can be opened, releasing a blast powerful enough to ''melt a continent''. The funny thing is that said weapon was initially designed to be used against enemies' fleets, not planets.

===Tyranids===
[[Meme|No, Tyranids, you are the Exterminatus.]]

A [[Tyranids|Tyranid]] fleet's primary objective is to devour entire planets and systems for biomass. After they're done, the world they invaded is left a lifeless rock, utterly devoid of life.

The Tyranids also travel through sublight via gravity manipulations, and these can rip apart asteroids, voidships, space stations and small moons entirely and cause a massive series of earthquakes on anything bigger before the 'nids make planetfall.

In one special case however. It is proven that even Tyranids can accidentally cause an Exterminatus that doesn't involved being devoured. In the Doom of Hesp where an escalating Chemical/Biological war between the Death Guard and the Tyranids using Venomthropes and Toxicrenes led to the planet being so toxic that the biomass on the planet was inedible and the bioship got destroyed by fellow hiveships when it tried to devour the biomass to replenish itself, out of the Hive Mind's fear that the poisoned biomass would impair the fleet.

===Orks===
In theory, the [[Ork]]s could develop an Ork-sterminatus-sized weapon (as much by accident and luck as by design); they grab an asteroid, put engines and weapons and armor on it, fill it with Orks, and then ram it full speed into a planet. It wouldn't matter if it turned out to function as a giant transport or just a suicide missile; it generates tremendous amounts of [[lulz]] and serves its purpose of making a big boom, which is all the Orks are concerned with. This haphazard design and construction process would limit the amount of these contraptions the Orks could build (if any).

In general, however, Orks want to avoid wiping out everything on the planet from orbit, as it would leave them with nothing to fight on the ground. Although a Big Mek in need of roks once smashed a moon into a planet and took his pick from the best bits.

The [[War of the Beast]] proves that this wasn't the furthest extent either. The Orks under the Beast's control were weaponizing entire moons and used their gravitational fields to rip apart planets.

===Tau Empire===
While the [[Tau]] almost certainly have the technological capability to destroy entire planets (if the fucking Orks can figure it out without having to build back up to Krork, then the Tau probably at least gave it some thought), there are a number of philosophical, political, and strategic reasons that they would avoid doing this in all but the most extreme circumstances.

For one, the Tau Empire is in the process of expanding, and it isn't exactly conducive to your expansion efforts to blow up perfectly colonizable worlds; thus the Tau would likely see Imperial Exterminatus orders as an egregious waste of resources. Also, the Tau are arguably [[Grimdark|the only race in the 40k universe]] who operate by something parodying a moral compass that is beyond survive at any cost, so the idea of obliterating a planet and its inhabitants is likely appalling to their [[Noblebright|naive wittle sensibilities]].

On the other hand, the Tau have officially declared some races (Orks, Tyranids, Dark Eldar, and Necrons) "lost causes" to be destroyed wherever encountered, so one could plausibly imagine a situation hopeless enough that they would sacrifice a planet to be rid of them. Still, they would probably try to at least leave the world itself salvageable and only exterminate the infesting species. This might not be a concern on a lifeless rock that happened to be a Necron tomb world, however. There are stories of populations being sterilized or generally dispatched, which is about as mean as the Tau get; one such case was the Poctroon, who were the first sapient species they ever encountered. Their planet was ripe for colonization, and when the Tau arrived, the Poctroon all died of a 'mysterious' contagion, though the Tau obviously have admitted no diabolical fuckery.

As their expansion accelerated deeper into Imperial space, the Tau started to deploy more and more experimental technologies to both battlefields and production lines, some of which weren't properly tested. As a result, quite a few moons, planets and even stars have been accidentally destroyed by various mishaps. While such destruction sometimes happened to be advantageous to Tau forces (for example, by shattering Imperial defences with massive tidal waves and earthquakes after the destruction of a planet's moon), they have shown no attempts to weaponize it.

The Tau also have orbital high-yield nuclear warhead options, but they generally use them to generate EMP pulses to blackout a wide area. They can also use these warheads to scatter toxic radiation over an area instead, though, burning through flesh and killing those below.

The Tau are also one of the few factions in 40k who still possess functioning terraforming technology (the Eldar lost theirs during the [[Fall of the Eldar|Fall]], Tyranid "terraforming" is more just them going about eating everything, and Necron terraforming is an Exterminatus on its own), so they can restore exterminated planets to habitability again, provided they haven't been utterly destroyed Deathstar-style. So yes, [[Meme| in the Tau Empire, Exterminatus get purged by YOU!]]

One of the notable examples would be [[Commander Or'es'Ka]] from [[Dawn of War|Dawn of War Soulstorm]], where he had this huge ass gun called "Ar'Ka Cannon" installed on the moon of Kaurava II. The cannon can fire anywhere in the Kaurava system (including the moon where the cannon is), obliterating any enemies before the main force moves in. The said [[ork|BIGGIZT GUNZ]] is also the most Eco-friendly WMD ever built in the grimdark future, as it is capable of damaging only advanced life forms while incapable of harming plants and buildings.

===Forces of Chaos===
Being former servants of the Imperium, fleets of [[Chaos Space Marines]] often still possess the good old Imperial Exterminatus weapons, like virus bombs for the old legions, cyclonic torpedoes for more recently turned traitors, or Just Shoot The Shit Out Of It for any warband with ships in their fleet big enough to carry the guns. Occasionally they will [[Looted|pillage]] Imperial Exteminatus weapons, or else invent some of their own with technology, sorcery, daemonic shit or some combination of the three. [[Honsou|Some]] Chaos guys tend to be quite inventive in finding ways to kill planets.

During one of his Black Crusades, [[Abaddon]] managed to steal or destroy all of the Blackstone Fortresses that the Imperium had in their possession. Naturally, they work just as well for Chaos as they did for the Eldar (and far better than they ever did for the Imperium). He also commissioned [[Planet Killer|an incredibly huge destroyer of a spaceship]], the front half of which is basically a battery of miles-long energy cannons. This "Armageddon Gun" can split a planet in half with one shot.

Then there is World Eaters, who live up to their name when they are united. 50,000 of these motherfuckers slaughtered 70 Sectors in Angron's Dominion of Fire campaign. [[Derp| Then all the planets they conquered were retaken. It seems like they forgot to salt the earth.]] To be fair though, Imperium needed four Chapters, two Titan Legions and more than thirty Guard Regiments (''However, WAAAGH Skargor took on fifty Guard regiments and SIX spess mehreen chapters. Perhaps World Eaters lack the power of [[dakka]].''). Back in Great Crusade, these butchers manually killed everything on the planets they went to conquer. Most of the time, it took them one day. This gave birth to another problem: There were no subjects on these planets to rule over. So the Emprah had to sent fleets to colonize planets left over by World Eaters, which was a pain in the arse for him.

Uniquely amongst 40k factions, the armies of Chaos can make planets effectively Exterminatus-proof by turning them into [[Daemon World|Daemon Worlds]], where the laws of physics are fucked up so hard by the power of the [[Warp]] that all weapons just cease to function on and around it, or even achieve the opposite effect by nourishing the daemon patron of the world and making him even stronger (don't even think about virus bombing a [[Nurgle]] Daemon World). Though admittedly, from literally any point of view besides that of Chaos, Exterminatus is a preferable option to Daemon World transformation, as it would just kill you, rather than damning you to the eternity of torment.

Of course, there's also the act of summoning [[Aetaos'Rau'Keres]]. Keres will turn any planet he's summoned on into a lifeless husk. He doesn't care what side you are on or even if you're the cult that summoned him; he will murder ''everyone'' unlucky enough to be on the planet he's currently on. Such is his methods that he's the closest thing the Chaos Daemons have to a true (i.e.: not reliant on material tools) planetary Exterminatus.

===[[Jokaero]]===
In theory, the Jokaero would be entirely capable of inventing any number of weird means of Exterminatus on the fly, assuming they're even cognitively capable of the abstract thinking involved in deciding to destroy the planet itself instead of just the zillions of gribblies in your immediate proximity, which they probably aren't.

==Exterminatus in other settings==
===Star Trek===
In [[Star Trek]] the Federation's General Order 24 calls for the extermination of all life on a planet. It is threatened multiple times, but never seen on screen. One novel and (very weird) comic do show it, however. Just the original Enterprise on its own is supposed to be able to accomplish this task. While this would take time, the fact that it's theoretically possible without preparing the ship at a shipyard indicates Federation ships are quite a bit more powerful than the Federation's peaceful goals suggests.

More famously, ''Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan'' introduces the Genesis Device. When used properly it's a planet-seeding device that can instigate the formation of life on dead worlds. In practice the massive amount of energy released means it also functions as a planet-glassing bomb, killing everything that already lived there.

===Star Wars===
While it is known to the Clone Wars era (possibly earlier) Republic and the Galactic Empire as Base Delta Zero, the Galaxy Far Far Away has known of orbital attack causing the destruction of all life on a planet for much longer. [[Bioware|Knights of the Old Republic]] implies Tatooine is the giant ball of sand that it is because it pissed off the Rakatan Infinite Empire precursors long before the formation of the Republic, and shows the city-planet of Taris destroyed with such an attack on orders of Darth Malak.

A few years before that, Mandalore the Ultimate ordered two planets (Serroco and Jebble) nuked from orbit, killing everything that failed to escape (but for one Jedi Assassin on Jebble, who was stuck in a stasis coffin built by an ancient Sith alchemist and managed to survive). Three centuries after Taris got bombed (with only the Undercity inhabitants surviving before succumbing to rakghouls) various super weapons theoretically capable of Exterminatus were made during the Great Galactic War period. Various other super weapons were made and used earlier and later, occasionally [[Not_As_Planned|backfiring]].

The Empire regularly made use of Exterminatus as part of its campaign to rule through terror. The peaceful planet of Caamas was destroyed early into the Empire merely for the suspicion they would one day oppose the Empire and (due to the widespread respect they had for maintaining a stance of actual pacifism) encourage others to do so. BDZ is implied to have been relatively common under the Empire, as opposed to the Old Republic (who used it as a last resort before the Ruusan Reformation; they slowly began getting more and more liberal with it during the Clone Wars due to Palpatine and his cronies' manipulation.) The Empire even had propaganda broadcasts that would mention "planetary liberation utilizing the Base Delta Zero initiative". It would seem that the vast majority of the Empire's population (including one of the characters from Star Wars Rebels) was unaware as to what "liberation" by Base Delta Zero actually implied.

This was taken to the extreme with the Death Star, a weapon designed to make Exterminatus so easy nobody would oppose it out of fear. This backfired horribly when the station was destroyed after its second use at Alderaan, causing the galaxy to lash out in revolt (the first use was the slave labor planet it was being built at, where it took three mid-power shots to kill everything, crack the mantle and blow it up in that order. A minimum-power blast also one-shot the sole Rebel capital ship in a task force that tried to attack it at that slave-planet.)

Aside from these, the Empire had a fetish for impractical super weapons capable of Exterminatus, with the pre-Disney EU featuring weapons such as the Galaxy Gun (the Death Star, but smaller and with missiles), the ''Tarkin'' (The Death Star, but ship-sized), the ''Eclipse'' and ''Sovereign''-class Star Destroyers (see before), the World Devastators, and the [[Mary Sue|Sun Crusher]] ([[What|the Death Star, but the size of a ''starfighter'']]; generally regarded as a concept emblematic of the [[C.S Goto|worst elements of the original Expanded Universe]]). Amusingly enough, [https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Superweapon/Legends#Superweapons it's actually pointed out in-universe how stupid this hard-on for powerful but impractical superweapons is].

While the New Republic initially rejected Exterminatus, the war with extra-galactic invaders the Yuuzhan Vong (who had their own Tyranid-like Exterminatus methods, converting biospheres to forms inimical to non-Yuuzhan Vong life) eventually pushed them into using it. BDZ was frequently used in later years as well by the One Sith, most notably at Ossus in 137 ABY and during the Genocide of Dac (in which Mon Calamari was basically Virus Bombed to uninhabitability by the One Sith; as with the destruction of Alderaan a hundred years earlier, this backfired horribly in the long term, the One Sith getting themselves wiped out with no other Sith remaining a few years later).

===Halo===
In the [[Halo]] universe wiping out all life on a planet happens surprisingly often, and there are many interesting ways of doing so. It is the only way to be 100% certain you have dealt with a Flood outbreak.

The UNSC has the options of nuking the planet in the bog-standard nuclear holocaust situation that's very much what you'd expect. However, their most powerful weapon is the NOVA bomb. The NOVA bomb is created by strapping together nine standard fusion warheads and encasing them in a casing of lithium triteride which amplifies the warheads destructive output that is unfortunately never mentioned but has the power to crack open a planet, earning the nickname "Planet Crackers". The first real use of this weapon was when it detonated between a planet and its moon, destroying the moon and scorching half the surface of the planet, as well as destroying three-fifths of a 300-strong fleet.

The Covenant is well known for their orbital bombardment technique known as "glassing", where through sustained high-energy plasma bombardment, a planet's surface is reduced to a glass-like material resembling obsidian. This was the fate of many human planets during the Human-Covenant War, including but not limited to Harvest, Madrigal, Eridanus II, Miridien, Paris IV, and Reach.

The Forerunners, of course, have arguably the most powerful method of wiping out all life on a planet in Halo canon: the titular Halo rings, which can cleanse either a single planet of life on lower settings, to everything within 25,000 light-years at maximum. When all seven are fired in concert, they can wipe out all life in the galaxy, which they have done before. The Forerunners have also created a device known as the Composer, which takes an organic being, destroys their body, and uploads their consciousness into a digital format. The process is extremely painful and those composed aren't always sane by the end of it. Of course, there could be who knows what kind of galaxy-killing weapons in the Forerunner arsenal that haven't been revealed yet.

==IRL Exterminatus==
''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_catastrophic_risk see Global Catastrophic Risk]''

===Thermo-Nuclear Holocaust===
Apparently, even when we aren't in the 41st millennium we still mastered the art of royally buttfucking a planet. In this case, it's ours, and a full-scale thermonuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union, who each have a few thousands of nukes, would be enough to kill off humanity (1 billion in the exchange itself, everyone else within the next 2 years). This is how Mutually Assured Destruction works, threatening each other and our own planet with Exterminatus with zero chance of survival, just so we won't begin another World War. Because [[Imperium of Man|we're bastards like that]].

The Cobalt Bombs described by Dr. Strangelove above are actually possible, though currently theoretical. Nuclear weapons designed to be deployed as bombs or missiles aren't strong enough to destroy the world with only 50 warheads, but if you don't mind moving the weapon once it's built, the only limit on how big your nuke can get is how much material you're willing to use on it. In theory, the doomsday device of Dr. Strangelove could be achieved with a single massive bomb.

This is further worth mentioning because automated retaliation systems that could activate nuclear weapons in response to a detected threat ''actually existed''. The Soviet Union had the "Dead Hand" system, based off of seismic, air pressure, and EM sensors. The system was normally kept inactive and was only supposed to be turned on during a crisis to guarantee that the Soviets would still be able to use their weapons even if their leadership was taken out by a first strike.

Some believe that elements of the Dead Hand system may have been lost or buried, and are active to this day. [[grimdark|A ticking automated Exterminatus waiting for a signal from aging Cold War-era sensors.]]

An old quote from the film ''WarGames'' summarizes the game of Global Thermonuclear War/Exterminatus: ''The only winning move is not to play..."

Side note: simply saturating the surface of a planet with nukes is actually exponentially more energy-efficient than any method of destroying the actual planet itself, so if all you want gone is the people or creatures inhabiting it, then realistically this is what you'd go with.

===An Asteroid===
Really, all it takes to kill everything on a planet is a big enough rock traveling fast enough. Normally it's the cloud of dust that is kicked up into the atmosphere and blocks out the sun that does most of the work. Dinosaurs learned this the hard way. Of course, this doesn't really work too well on a forge or hive world which is already like that. For raw destructive force, however, the damage is a function of the speed and size of the asteroid. The former has some practical limits (though a civilization looking to weaponize this sort of Exterminatus could possibly bring the rock up to relativistic speeds), but the latter can be nearly unlimited.

A collision with a near planet-sized object would be more devastating than most ''fictional'' Exterminatus weapons, obliterating the target world entirely. There could be any number of so-called 'rogue' planets floating in the empty spaces between stars, ready to slide into the solar system and crash into Earth, assuming humanity fails its collective ''Save or Die'' roll for the week. They'd have to [[fail]] incredibly hard because the overwhelming chance is that the rogue body will end up into the Sun (or Jupiter as a distant second choice), but yeah. [[Just as planned|Shit happens, yo!]]

Also, to clarify something: once the asteroid rises above a certain size threshold --many times larger than the one that killed the dinosaurs, in fact-- then a collision with Earth would actually result in completely ''sterilizing'' the planet, as in everything down to the last microbe would die. So... sweet dreams. (though once they got that big we would almost certainly see it coming.)

===Super Volcano===
Works on the same principal as the asteroid, that if you get enough shit into the atmosphere you've royally fucked all life bigger than a mouse. This may not be very likely though on Earth as one of the biggest volcanoes (see Yellowstone Park) wouldn't wipe out humanity. Maybe.

Unless, of course, seismic activity from that eruption managed to trigger the [http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-25598050/ OTHER NINETEEN] super volcanoes.

===Artificial Plague===
The Black Plague killed up to 60% of Europe's population and the Spanish Flu over doubled the death toll of what was then most devastating war in history. With '''''SCIENCE!''''' you could do even better! You could even render your own people immune to the effects before hand and only kill the enemy. Sane people dismiss this as possible but a fantastically stupid idea because viruses are impossible to contain and like to mutate, rendering any vaccine you used worthless. Still, people interested in causing the end of the world have minimal overlap with sane people, so terrorists causing one is a popular plot. Another possibility is a virus in a research lab breaking containment rather than being released intentionally.

However before you start panicky a plague basically has no chance at killing humanity off. It can do a lot of damage yes, but once it kills enough people it will, like a fire, run out of fuel and burn it self out. This is why the common cold is so, well, common, It doesn't kill you so you can keep spreading it. Any sickness lethal enough to even have a shot at killing humanity off, will kill people so fast that it can't spread, even assuming humans can't treat it. Now if you think the COVID-19 pandemic showed that developing a vaccine isn't necessarily quick or easy, well your wrong. Less then a year for a vaccine is incredibly quick all things considered. In contrast the polio vaccine took over 4 years to produce. And after almost less then a year we are managing to produce over [[Noblebright|1 Million Doses Per of Vaccine per-day]]. That is a feat and a half even before you consider how we've managed to mitigate it via social behavior.

===Other Methods===
Some dude actually collected a list of ways that the Earth itself could be physically destroyed here: https://qntm.org/destroy But note that unlike with Exterminatus, the working goal there was to physically destroy ''the planet itself,'' not just the population.

It's a really clever and thorough list. One listed method, for example, is basically to just yeet rocks into space until you run out of rocks.

==The Fall of Typhon==
Good to know there's a ceremony for blowing up a planet.

''"We have arrived, and it is now that we perform our charge. ''
''In fealty to the God-Emperor, our undying Lord and by the grace of the Golden Throne, I declare Exterminatus upon the Imperial world of Typhon Primaris. ''
''I hereby sign the death warrant of an entire world and consign a million souls to oblivion. ''
''May Imperial Justice account in all balance. ''
''The Emperor Protects."''

==The Words of Gabriel Angelos==
{{Topquote|It is human nature to seek culpability in a time of tragedy. It is a sign of strength to cry out against fate, rather than to bow one's head and succumb. Inevitably many shall fault the hands upon the sword which felled Typhon, the Ordo Malleus. But the Inquisition merely performs the duty of its office. To further fear them is redundant; to hate them, heretical. Those more sensible will place responsibility with those who forced the hands of the Inquisition. With some fortune, they may foster this hatred into purpose, and further rule their own fate by coming to the Emperor's service. Yet ultimately, it was I who set these events into motion, with a single blow from my hammer, God Splitter.|Gabriel Angelos of the Blood Ravens}}

Fuck, that's deep. The use of a properly modified version of this quote from Dawn of War Retribution has proved highly effective in sageing furfag troll threads and thus has been sanctioned by the holy /tg/ Inquisition for public use (keep it on /tg/).

==Battlefleet Gothic: Armada==
Admiral Spire has the balls to ask an inquisitor if exterminatus is the only option. Since at the beginning of the story he passed the inquisitor's test of faith (it's as painful as you imagine), the inquisitor indulges him with an actual answer:

{{Topquote|Admiral Spire, it is said that heresy is like a tree. Its roots lie in darkness while its leaves wave in the sun. You can prune away its branches, even cut the tree to the ground. But it will grow again, ever stronger. Such is the nature of heresy and why it is so difficult to destroy. Some may question my right to destroy a world of ten billion souls. But those who truly understand, realize I have no right to let them live. No sacrifice is too great. No treachery too small.|Inquisitor Horst}}''

==Exterminatus on the Tabletop==
Though not the most effective of lists, it is particularly hilarious and surprisingly fluffy to declare Exterminatus on large table games of 40k. In general Exterminatus is used when one player with a large force of 3500+ points of space marines is in danger of losing the field of battle. In which case the player grabs the closest heavy object and begins to smash the opponents models screaming “EXTERMINATUS IN THE NAME OF THE EMPEROR EXTERMINATUS” until the opponent’s army is destroyed and (or) he is forcibly removed from the table.

Another relatively simple way is to simply take a [[Grey Knights]] army, field a single Bro-Capt. or Grand Master with an orbital Strike Relay, [[Witch Hunters|Karamazov]] (who also has one) and two troop choices (if you're playing a regular game -- if you're playing [[Apocalypse]], you can skip the troops) Then cram in as many Techmarines as you can, give them all Orbital Strike Relays and watch the bombs drop. For the average 3000 point game, you can get Krazypantsoff and 20 bare-bones techies with the relays. That's 21 Strength 10 AP1 pie-plates smashing down on your opponents Baneblades, Warhounds and other special hard-as-balls to kill shit your opponents have! Also great for swarm-busting (the relays can fire D3 pieplates each per guy but at Strength 6). Picture Krazypantsoff standing on a hilltop, pointing at buildings and going "Bang.", then watching them all blow up.

(Of course, if the Inquisitor dies, you're fucked. So maybe just camp him in cover. But that's only if you're lame.)

For those of you with enough money to field the Horus Heresy army list from Forge World, Horus can call down an orbital strike with infinite range and S10 AP1 from anywhere on the map. Now you can reenact the Istvaan III atrocities yourself!

For an Apocalypse game you can also field an exterminatus guard force.
All you need is:
n * 6 guardsmen (one with a vox).
The list is fairly simple - Just field as many Company Command Squads with nothing but Master of Ordinance and fire away (for a 3k game its almost 38 s9 ap3 blasts a turn)
Don't forget to field some epic(troll) music to laugh at your opponents face, and after the battle proceed with knocking the table down to finish with a speech gritty nuff to make Sturnn himself proud.

Another option is to us the Exterminatus rules for your Apocalypse game (In the unnatural disasters table (by rolling a 6))

As of 7th edition, it's now possible to forego the FoC chart and take whatever models you want. This means you can take 15 Chapter Masters in a 2k list.

In 40k terms, you can get some SERIOUS Exterminatus going with the [[Necrons|'Crons]] and their Doomsday Arks. In one Primary Detachment, for example, you can take a fully viable 1500-point Necron army as so: Overlord with Warscythe, 5 Immortals, 10 Warriors and 3 Doomsday Arks. If the Doomsday Arks don't move, they can provide one 72" Strength 10 AP 1 Primary Weapon Large Blast each, allowing for some serious [[butthurt]] from your opponents (and this may make you [[That Guy]] if done well because this is a level of cheese on the table that France would be proud of). If you're trying to break into a bunker-sized fortification, use these three things on the doors. Then you can re-enact the dying moments of [[The Conquest of Uttu Prime]] sans the [[Megalith]]!

==TL;DR==
You fuckers just backed Chaos and now you have a daemon infestation? Your planet 'gon git [[FATAL|raaaaaaaaaaaaaaped]].

<gallery>
image:exterminatus.jpg
image:exterminatus2.jpg
File:Red nuke button turned into EXTERMINATUS.png|Suffer not the Tau Player to live.
File:Exterminatusthread.jpg|The E-quisition vigilantly purges the Emperor's internets of chaos taint.
File:Foxy Lady.jpg|If the inhabitants of a planet remotely resembles this creature, it's guaranteed to be exterminatused upon discovery. If pictures like this are found on a thread in /tg/, it's guaranteed to be saged and trolled upon discovery.
File:Fall_of_Reach_1.jpg|If said inhabitants started space-faring like a certain [[Chakat|Chakat]], then you could call your local Inquisition or any Xeno manly enough to [[Get shit done|get shit done, just like the Covenant shown in the image.]]
File:Hello exterminatus Warhammer 40k sister of battle rule 34.jpg|See? The Internet can even make the end of the world look sexy!
File:Rocks are not free citizen.jpg|Don't suggest bolides as a method of exterminatus.
File:Sherman.gif|War is Hell, and Hell is beautiful.
File:Ohara Incident.png|Although this is not a planet, it's just too B-E-A-[[weeaboo]]-TIFUL.
File:ExterminatusButton.gif|Not ''actually'' how the Inquisition works...mostly.
File:Larrynevindisk.jpg|The original Magic: the Gathering Exterminatus
</gallery>

Vidya:
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h67JpMyrOVE
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYXj9xOUFIM
* The unofficial theme-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_tIw9Il934
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEGo41443iI The heresy scene mentioned in the quotes at the top.]
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubNqUyf0op0
[[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Meme]]

Gregor Eisenhorn

2023-02-20T15:17:47Z

2607:FB90:3F8A:5651:7867:CB67:A80F:A89:

{{Awesome}}
[[Image:Youngeisenhorn.jpg|200px|thumb|Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn, recognizable by the grumpy expression.]]
{{Topquote|It remains a sad truth of the Imperium that virtually no veteran ever comes back from fighting its wars intact. Combat alone shreds nerves and shatters bodies. But the horrors of the warp, and of foul Xenos forms like the Tyranid, steal sanity forever, and leave veterans fearing the shadows, and the night and, sometimes, the nature of their friends and neighbors, for the rest of their lives.|The boy himself}}

'''Gregor Eisenhorn''' is an [[Inquisition|Inquisitor]] of the [[Alienhunters|Ordo Xenos]] operating out of the [[Scarus Sector]], and the hero of the eponymous Eisenhorn novels by [[Dan Abnett]]. He is essentially the [[Grimdark]] [[James Bond]], or Sherlock Holmes; or if you actually read books he's basically just Glen Cook's ''Garrett P.I.''... IN SPACEEEEE. He is responsible for training the equally awesome [[Inquisitor Gideon Ravenor]], who was incredibly similar to his master in terms of efficiency, though Ravenor did things with a much more angsty monologue.

Eisenhorn is a [[psyker]], for whatever it's worth. He is definitely not the strongest, but his meager abilities serve his duties well, in that he can sense disturbances in the [[warp]], communicate with people over distances without producing noise, and he can also ''rape your mind.'' This comes in handy several times, as he frequently uses psychic weapons and items.
The one distinct problem brought up by his psychic abilities is the fact that his one true love, Alizabeth Bequin, is an Untouchable, making physical proximity painful for him, let alone '''physical contact'''. She wound up eating shit and was placed in a cryo-tube after falling comatose, before Eisenhorn could finally suck it up and admit his feelings after a century of working with her, and thus he is now so ronery. He does, however, occasionally visit her tube and talk to her.

In addition to his psychic abilities, later in his career he also delved into Chaos sorcery, allowing him to perform such acts as creating and binding Daemonhosts, possessing a corpse as a surrogate body, and causing said corpse to self-destruct in a warp-vortex capable of destroying a hive block. By his old age, he had gained a limited ability to use Enuncia, a language capable of warping reality.

[[Image:Eisenhorn_Inquisitor_Book.png|thumb|left|Eisenhorn began life thus, in the old [[Inquisitor (role-playing_game)|''Inquisitor'']] game. And as such was actually invented by [[Gav Thorpe]], not [[Dan Abnett]], but he came into his own as one of the best 40K characters in the novels by the latter, who was inspired by some of the art and text in the RPG book. Thorpe had one of his acolytes named "Slim", though, but that's probably just the [[Skub|BL writer tier system]] at work.]]
Eisenhorn likes to keep a small profile and work within the regular power structures of the imperium. This means that he tries to keep the local and imperial laws and tries to ask for help rather than demand it. He does not own a space ship but rents rogue traders or other ships for his travels. His only notable way of transportation is an imperial gun cutter which is unable to travel trough the warp by its own.
At the beginning of his career Eisenhorn keeps only a relatively small retinue (for an Inquisitor) which is armed with relatively normal weaponry. For Eisenhorn himself this means usually a (power) sword and a bolt- or las-pistol, in addition to some stub pistols earlier in his career. No digi-weapons, never malfunctioning plasma pistols or other impossible plot devices. The rest of his crew is armed with equipment that can be found in any well stocked [[Imperial Guard]] base or weapons from their home world.
As he ages he not only acquires more pimped out weaponry but has also the brains to build himself a cabal of untouchables in order to fight psykers, deamons and generally everything an [[Alienhunters|Ordo Xenos]] Inquisitor should never encounter.

Speaking of which, while being an Inquisitor of the [[Alienhunters|Ordo Xenos]] he encounters nearly no aliens during his quest. Most of his time is taken up with imperial dissidents, heretics, cults and even daemons. So judged by his work he could be an member of the [[Daemonhunters|Ordo Malleus]] or [[Witch Hunters|Ordo Hereticus]]. Not that he gives a fuck about jurisdiction.

He suffered a terrible amount of torture under a real psycho's intense care, permanently damaging some of his facial muscles, rendering him unable to smile for the rest of his life. In the novels, however, him being so charming and witty, he sometimes forgets his disability and has "forced a smile" or he "had to smile" or sometimes even "can't help but smile". This is how space James Bond rolls. Or fucking reality with his mind subconsciously. After events detailed in Magos he regains his ability to smile, implying that he is now either powerful enough to warp reality intentionally or permanently fixed the damage.

[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/warhammer-tv-series-works-man-high-castle-creator-1224874 Greg is set to be the star of a show] called ''Eisenhorn'' from the guy behind ''The Man in the High Castle''. How they'll pull off anything past Imperial Guard on a TV budget remains to be seen. Don't get your hopes up either, Man in the High Castle was [[Matt Ward|garbage]] and nothing like the book.

==Books==
*'''''Eisenhorn: Xenos''''': Eisenhorn loses a member of his retinue and gains an extra two, Godwyn Fischig and Alizabeth Bequin. Investigates House Glaw and learns of a plot for a chaos cult to purchase a book written in chaos script from a xenos species called the Saruthi (A Chaos tainted xeno species who (according to the mobile game) looks like a [[chaos spawn|gigantic ugly mess]] walking on 4 giant chopsticks). Destroys both copies of the book and meets a friendly daemon named Cherubael.
*'''''Eisenhorn: Malleus''''': Gideon Ravenor is wounded while he and Eisenhorn are attending a military parade. Hijinks ensue resulting in Eisenhorn tracking down a rogue inquisitor named Quixos who was trying to use Cadian pylons to close the eye of terror (looking at you [[Belisarius Cawl]]). After killing the rogue inquisitor, he and Cherubael decide to become bonded soul mates, and Cherubael moves in. Yes, he killed a rogue Inquisitor trying to close the Eye of Terror using a technology that was capable of achieving such a feat. What a hero. (To be fair, the guy was hinted to be a daemonhost too and was completely insane to boot.)
*'''''Eisenhorn: Hereticus''''': Pontius Glaw tricks a Magos to build him a body made of knives. He then launches a pre-emptive strike on Eisenhorn that wipes out almost his entire retinue. Eisenhorn proceeds to counter attack and the day is saved. Oh and Eisenhorn reveals that he trumps a [[Warlord Battle Titan|Warlord Titan]] using Cherubael.
*'''''Eisenhorn: The Magos''''':
**Pestilence: Through good detective work, an [[Administratum]] adept named Lemual Sark discovers the source of an unnatural plague to be from chaos itself.
**Master Imus's Transgression: An accountant reports the appearance of chaotic numbers in the books of the business he works for. Interrogator Eisenhorn burns down the whole business and thanks the accountant for his due diligence, leaving him to his newly unemployed life in a hive city.
**Regia Occulta: Eisenhorn ends up in a rural town. Tracking what appears to be a serial killer he discovers that it's just two confused [[Orks]] who wandered through a warp tear.
**Missing in Action: A truly heartwrenching tale, Eisenhorn has to put down a group of loyal imperial veterans who are killing citizens suspected of chaos taint, but without the proper permits for cleansing.
**Backcloth For A Crown Additional: Clients of a photographer spontaneously die of fright shortly after having their picture taken. Photographer doesn't think it is strange that a bottle of special chemicals never runs out and is always full. A daemon in the chemicals grabs the photographer into all his pictures and Eisenhorn burns down the photographers caravan. A good example of how scary daemons can really be in 40K.
**The Strange Demise of Titus Endor: A former pal of Eisenhorn succumbs to brain worms which ate up the brain of Eisenhorn's mentor. He still believes he's an Inquisitor and hallucinates his own death by a Chaos predator.
**The Curiosity: The Magos Valentin Drusher finds out he somehow missed an apex predator during his mission to catalog all the species on the planet Gershom. He and his girlfriend Germaine Macks eventually track it down and it is revealed to be a Tyranid remote controlled by the planetary Bishop who wants to strike fear into his flock. Drusher is subsequently permanently marooned on the planet.
**Playing Patience: Inquisitor Ravenor saves Patience Kys from a couple of rich guys running a gladiator pit. Everyone in the retinue gets to act cool except the computer nerd who shits his pants.
**Thorn Wishes Talon: Ravenor and his retinue are attempting to reach a location while being hampered by a cultist army hunting them down. There's even a chaos dreadnaught. They meet Eisenhorn and he warns Ravenor about a demonic manifestation in his future. Eisenhorn and Cherubael proceed to wipe out the entire army.
**Gardens of Tycho: Magos Drusher is called out of retirement to help Macks locate a predator terrorizing a city. Initially thought to be a lion but revealed to be just a combat servitor somebody forgot to turn off. The turn it off and he and Macks get married after the story.
**The Keeler Image: Eisenhorn tracks down a document and picture of uncorrupted Horus, with the document explaining how the Emperor denied his divinity. Destroys the clearly heretical document, but is left confused due to the heretical nature of disobeying the Emperor's will. Slaughters an inquisitorial stormtrooper battalion with Cherubael if you're still confused about his loyalty to the throne.
**Perihelion: Eisenhorn is at a conference of inquisitors, and during a distraction caused by a psyker assassin, meets up with Ravenor to catch up on how Ravenor's feeling locked in a grav chair.
**The Magos: Eisenhorn enters a pocket dimension with the help of Magos Drusher and Macks, is captured and [[Bullshit|plugged into a chaos warp focusing device. Its supercharges him into an alpha class psyker with a built in dictionary of Enuncia]], even Cherubael is terrified of him, and after cleaning everything up proceeds to hunt down a new nemesis: The King in Yellow. Leaves Drusher with a big payout which he can choose to either escape his planet (which he's been trying to the whole time since being marooned there) or try to win back the love of Macks (who divorced him since he was always bitching about being stuck on her planet).
*'''''Bequin Trilogy: Eisenhorn vs Ravenor''''':
**Pariah: Bequin is alive! Or at least has been cloned by the cognitae. Turns out the cognitae setup an academy for Pariahs in a big city, training the pariahs to infiltrate every strata of imperial society, combat & wetwork included. All while telling the candidates that they serve the Holy Inquisition. Which can be a big shock when she has to help one of her mentors kill an interrogator working for Ravenor. Ravenor airstrikes/storm trooper kill teams the cognitae academy and Beta finds herself on the run from the real Inquisition (believing Ravenor to be the cognitae), chaos cult aristocracy (including a descendant of the Glaw family), the Ecclesiarchy (who are trying to build a dictionary of enuncia), Word Bearer marines (assisting the Ecclesiarchy, who else are you going to call to learn about the divine emperor?), Inquisitor Eisenhorn (a real who am I running from moment), an Ecclesiarchy penitent monk (whose life mission is to protect her after being hired by Patience Kys), and an Emperor's Children marine (who was trying to infiltrate the King in Yellow's warp space domain for Fulgrim). She eventually realizes that the Cognitae were turning Pariahs into vessels for warp spiders working for the King in Yellow, and decides to work with Eisenhorn, gets captured by Ravenor at the end who tells her Eisenhorn is a heretic who works with demons, and is promptly busted out of her jail cell by Cherubael, immediately proving Ravenor correct. Oh and SPOILER ALERT! the king in yellow's true name is [[Adeptus Custodes|Constantin Valdor]]. I wish we were joking.

== Ideology and Its Development ==
[[Image:Oldeisenhorn.jpg|200px|thumb|left|The man in his later years. He got scarier and yet cooler as well as acquiring a pimp cane. Still grumpy though.]]
Eisenhorn started off his career as a Puritan Inquisitor, meaning that he was fucking hardcore. He went around with high-bar morals, shooting other Inquisitors for being radical pricks, gaining him cool points with the rest of the Inquisition. However, shit hit the fan and he ultimately found himself chasing a daemonhost named Cherubael across Scarus while picking up more and more '''[[Heresy|HERESY]]''' as he went along. He became obsessed with screwing that prick Cherubael over, and stumbled on a '''[[Heresy|HERESY]]''' so big it cost him his high and mighty Puritan status to be able to clean it up. He wound up taking advice from a major, imprisoned heretic on how to deal with heresy, and in the process set himself down the road of becoming a Radical Inquisitor. He saved the galaxy, imprisoned Cherubael using an [[Necronomicon|extra]] '''[[Heresy|HERETICAL]]''' [[Necronomicon|book]] and then went along his merry way.

The heretic who Eisenhorn got advice from was Pontius Glaw, an arch-heretic who was thought to have been dead after causing mass havoc in the sector years before Eisenhorn's time; in reality he escaped the Inquisition by having his mind placed in a little box. Glaw had a distinct problem with Eisenhorn, as the Inquisitor had cheated him out of returning to a physical form. Life gets lonely inside a small box, and so Eisenhorn managed to convince him to give him information in exchange for being able to wander around in a servitor body.
Eisenhorn left Glaw's box to be attended to by a Tech-Priest friend, which was probably the biggest mistake he ever made, as Tech-Priests have a tendency to '''make everything dangerous'''. Rather than simply give him a normal servitor chassis like Eisenhorn asked, the Tech-Priest apparently gave Glaw a body that would make General Grievous envious, complete with a ''cloak made of knives''. Glaw killed the poor guy then escaped, in order to take vengeance on Eisenhorn.
It was ultimately due to Glaw's assault that Eisenhorn became a full-blown radical. He began implementing more and more heretical means to figure out Glaw's plans, estranging himself from his remaining colleagues in the process. He went as far as to, with the help of his student Ravenor, enlist the aid of the [[eldar]] [[Macha|Farseer]]. After completely falling from grace, being named a rogue by his peers, and losing his friends, Eisenhorn disappeared, followed close by Cherubael, who he has bound into his servitude. He came back for one last gig trying to protect the daughter of Alizabeth Bequin and take down one last uber bad guy before going off the deep end.

==Retinue==
Besides Ravenor, Bequin, and Cherubael, Eisenhorn maintained a retinue of individuals hired for their skills:

*'''Godwyn Fischig''': Former chastener in the [[Adeptus Arbites]], he joined Eisenhorn around the same time as Bequin. A person of strong morals and faith in the God-Emperor, Fischig basically served as Eisenhorn's conscience. When he learned about Cherubael, Fischig went to some of Eisenhorn's rivals in the Ordo Malleus, mostly out of a desperate attempt to save Eisenhorn's soul. Medea Betancore was forced to shoot him in the back, and Aemos later bound Cherubael to his dead body. If a good man serving as a conscience to his friends, struggling to do the right thing, ending up getting killed by said friends and made a daemonhost doesn't show you that that 40k is [[grimdark]] to the max, we don't know what will. (Also, his name means "fishy" in German.)

*'''Uber Aemos''': Savant and Eisenhorn's longest serving friend. He acquired a meme-virus where he became addicted to information (it's 40k, don't think too hard). He stayed by Eisenhorn's side when he went full radical, eventually reading the aforementioned heretical book to help Eisenhorn figure out what Glaw was after. Chaos tomes being what they are, Aemos went insane, with the knowledge eventually killing him. Fond of the phrase "most perturbatory".

*'''Midas and Medea Betancore''': Midas served as the pilot of Eisenhorn's personal gun-cutter, and was one of the best pilots Eisenhorn ever had. He was killed by a heretic (the same one that ended up causing Bequin's death) one month before the birth of his daughter Medea (lol, Greek mythology reference). Medea eventually became the pilot for Eisenhorn's gun-cutter, giving up a potentially wealthy life for service in the Inquisition. Spent 20 years raising "Beta" Bequin, which didn't help Beta's trust issues when she learned that her nun wasn't really a nun.

*'''Harlon Nayl''': Former mercenary who Eisenhorn hired on as extra muscle. Probably the second-most badass member of the retinue after Eisenhorn. Later went to work for Ravenor, but returned to mercenary after Ravenor was "retired" by the Inquisition. As of "The Magos" he is back in Eisenhorn's employ.

*'''Kara Swole''': A former circus acrobat who was hired by Eisenhorn. Constantly described as "voluptuous" (a term Dan Abnett insists on using, even though voluptuous wouldn't be good for acrobatics. This is, however, pointed out more than once.). Remained as part of Ravenor's staff in retirement.

*'''[[Alpharius]]''': A [[primarch|fuckhuge warrior]] who took down a warp boosted emperor's children marine in blade combat. Beta literally thinks he's a space marine but disregards that because that would be crazy. Eisenhorn refers to him as one of his "specialists". If you are still confused about Eisenhorn's heretical status.

== "I am truly irredeemable!" ==
[[File:Eisenhorn_Past_and_Present.jpg|400px|thumb|right|Eisenhorn and his retinue at the start of his journey, and at the end of it. Oh how the mighty can fall...]]
Eisenhorn understandably has quite a few things to feel guilty about. However, some of those that have affected him the most took place while he was still at the Elementary Scholam.

-''"I colored outside the lines on my [[Emprah]] coloring book. I feel like such a heathen."''

-''"I smoked Lho sticks in the restroom. May the Emperor have mercy on my soul."''

-''"Once, I failed to properly answer a history problem. I fasted for 3 days in penance for my failures."''

-''"I neglected to knot my footwear in a manner pleasing to Our Schola. I can hardly live for my shame."''

-''"I hid porno slates underneath my cot. I am truly irredeemable."''

-''"My best friend Billy kept beating me at Rock-Paper-Scissors, so I had him publicly accused of [[Heresy]] and he was executed by being bathed in holy promethium in front of the Schola. I shed a single tear. I was never more ashamed. I should not have cried."''

-''"Once, I cut in line when the class was being served their daily rations. Truly, I am beyond redemption."''

-''"I missed a step learning how to perform The Emperor's Sacred Ballroom Dance. Why they did not execute me on the spot, I will never know."''

-''"On a rainy day on which recess was held indoors, I cheated at Go-Fish. I am the scum of the Imperium."''

-''"In my executions class, it took me longer than one of the other students to learn proper execution format with Bolt-pistols. I must pray for forgiveness."''

-''"I allowed three of my pawns to be taken in regicide today. I am a failure in life."''

-''"God-Emperor, how was I supposed to know all those initiates were Orders Famulous."''

-''"I showed weakness by blushing in front of this girl, Marcy, in my basic arithmatics class. I flagellated myself for an hour. Blushing is a sin."''

-''"How was I supposed to know the cheerleader was a guy? Emperor help me."'

-''"I once had heretical thoughts about my young female instructor in basic combat training. I must be impure."''

-''"I missed a line in my recital of the hymns of the Emperor. I wore an [[Imperial Fists|Imperial Fist]] pain glove for a day without stopping to atone for my sins.

-''"I misspelled a word on a spelling test in my basic Low Gothic class. I am no better than the arch-traitor [[Horus]]."''

-''"I once chuckled at a joke disparaging the Schola headmaster. They should throw me from the top of the [[hive]]."''

== Okay, but really ==
Is Eisenhorn a heretic? He's a radical Inquisitor condemned by the Inquisition and is being chased by his old student. He uses a daemonhost, uses enuncia, kills loyal stormtroopers, works with the Alpha Legion, and he is going after Constantin Valdor himself. All signs point to heretic.

Yet there's several things to remember. First of all, daemonhosts don't necessary corrupt those around them. They are bound with very specific runes and rituals and are basically controlled nukes. Eisenhorn has his tied up as tight as he possibly can, locking its trickster personality behind huge barriers meaning it can't tempt him in any meaningful way.

Second, despite the protests of [[Ollanius Pius|Oll Persson]], the Emperor himself tried to learn and control enuncia. The language itself is not inherently corrupted by chaos, nor does it corrupt by you knowing it. It's kinda like a Blackstone Fortress in a way. It can be used for incredible evil by Chaos, but itself is not a corrupting influence.

Thirdly, Inquisitors kill loyal servants of the Imperium all the time. In this case, every citizen in the Imperium is brainwashed from birth to see Heresy everywhere, especially stormtroopers. In no uncertain terms, the stormtroopers Eisenhorn met were a liability to him and could be used to take him down. They would never understand him or his methods and would never agree with them anyways. In order to keep operating, he had to kill them.

As for the Alpha Legion, while it is hinted many of them went off the deep end and fell to chaos, we know several of them who didn't. For example [[Omegon]] always stayed loyal to the Imperium and worked against his brother [[Alpharius]] and Horus. Several Alpha Legionaires in modern 40K are still loyal. It is implied that the "Alpharius" that works with Eisenhorn is one of those. No one anywhere in the Imperium would understand this key difference, not even his protege Ravenor. The Alpha Legion is just that untrustworthy.

The only thing we might not be able to excuse is his grudge against Constantin Valdor. It can be argued, however, that Valdor is a huge extremist. The man has a stick so far up his ass that an Imperial Fist would tell him to calm down. This is a man that has conditioned his men to become such fanatics that they shot [[C.S Goto|loyal Primaris Marines whose chapter they were sent to reinforce rebelled]]. These Primaris were traveling to the planet with the Custodes and, thus, couldn't possibly have been involved with the Heresy, but were instantly declared heretics by guilt of association. If anyone is going to want to take down a loyal, but radical Inquisitor, it's going to be Valdor. If anything, it wouldn't be surprising if Valdor was the one who started the grudge match to begin with - he actually has no idea who the king in Yellow is until the last sentence of the book. Killing a Captain general to avoid and all out war with all the Eldar and chaos (and we have no idea what he's actually going to get either) might be exactly what a radical would do.

Finally, Eisenhorn swept in and helped subvert and destroy a chaos corrupted cult of Ecclesiastical morons who worked directly with an offshoot of cognitae heretics. This was a group who were good enough to infiltrate the fucking Inquisition after FOUR generations of their teachings being diluted. These dudes were Alpha Legion levels of scary. No one is denying that Eisenhorn is radical. A traitor however? Unlikely (no matter how much Dan Abnett tries messing with us).

== TL;DR: ==
'''Eisenhorn is a total fucking badass. An angsty badass, but a badass nonetheless. Extra bonus points for having carried the most fuckawesome power sword in existence, a literal lightsaber. '''

== New model announced ==
[https://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Eisenhorn-2018 There it is]!

== The TV Series ==
Way, way back, in the year 2019, a live-action TV adaptation was announced. And that was it. No actors named, number of episodes, run length, or even what platform it will be on, is known. We don't even have an estimated release date. So... forget about it and be (un)pleasantly surprised in the future? (they'll fuck it up.)

== The vidya ==

[[Eisenhorn:_Xenos_(Video_Game)|It's shit]].

== On the tabletop ==
{| class=wikitable
! || Pts ||M|| WS || BS || S || T || W || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Inquisitor Eisenhorn:''' || 100 ||6"|| 3+ || 3+ || 3 || 3 || 5 || 4 || 10 || 4+
|}

Based purely on his statline and wargear, Eisenhorn isn't much. He has an artificer bolt pistol, which gains +1 AP and +1 Damage, and electrobane grenades, which are just eldar plasma grenades that do a mortal wound to a {{Template:W40kKeyword|VEHICLE}} on a wound roll of 4+ (or D3 mortal wounds on a 6+). In the fight phase, he can hit with his sword Barbarisater (force sword which hits on a 2+) or his runestaff (force staff which has Strength +3 instead of +2). He can ignore wounds on a 6+, but on the surface, he's not much better than any of the other named inquisitors.

What sets him above other named inquisitors, though, is his Malus Codicium ability. If you want Eisenhorn to embrace his radical side, he can summon Cherubael to come wreck some shit! Cherubael is treated as a Daemonhost with Strength/Toughness 6, 6 wounds, and 5 attacks! And, unlike other daemonhosts, Cherubael actually has the {{Template:W40kKeyword|CHARACTER}} keyword! On top of all of this, Cherubael adds 1 to his hit, wound, and invulnerable saving throws as long as he remains within 6" of Eisenhorn. This 25 point upgrade is a must-bring, turning Eisenhorn from an okay-inquisitor to a regular MEQ-killer!

== Links ==
* [https://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Eisenhorn-2018 The official GW model]
* [https://artelw.com/Inquisitor-Gregor-p98202462 A Russian company makes Eisenhorn minis]
* [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10656018/ TV Series]

= Gallery =
<gallery>
Image:Xenos wallpaper1.jpg|Eisenhorn, da Vidya Gaem
Image:27072416 344061662670003 1247525829051395031 n.jpg
</gallery>

{{Template:Famous members of the Inquisiton}}

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Inquisition]]

Forge World

2023-02-20T03:43:34Z

2607:FB90:3F8A:5651:7867:CB67:A80F:A89: /* Notable Writers */

{{HurfDurf}}

{{Topquote|Alas, expensive things are better than the cheap.|Janina Ipohorska}}

'''Forge World''' is a term associated with [[Warhammer 40,000]]. In-universe, it applies to planets owned by the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] devoted entirely to manufacturing. Out-of-universe, it applies to a division within [[Games Workshop]] that specializes in large and finely-detailed, hyper-expensive models. Seriously, you could spend the same amount of money on a decent used car as one of their premium lumps of plastic.

== Company ==
[[Image:Manta.jpg|thumb|Hello, I'm a Tau [[Manta]]. I am reasonably priced at a mere £1,100 (€1,360) ($1,705).]]
[[Image:Trumpeter-KT.jpg|thumb|Hello, I'm a Trumpeter 2-in-1 1:16 King Tiger. You can buy four of me for that.]]
The first meaning of Forge World is if you took [[Games Workshop]] and leveled it up a few times. It's a sub-division of GW and produces [[finecast|resin-cast models]] for 40k, [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle|Fantasy Battle]], [[Battlefleet Gothic]], and [[Epic]]. Forge World grew from one of the oldest official giant [[butthurt|stupid]] model projects, the early 40K lead [[Thunderhawk]] Gunship, which was originally created as a limited edition and routinely thrown at people who won GW contests. The Thunderhawk proved so popular that GW realized there was a serious market for giant stupid models, and thus Forge World was born to provide them, starting with [[Baneblade]]s and suchlike, working up to full-sized [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|40K Titans]]. Over time it's since gone about producing its own range of models and rule sets for a huge array of different factions, and even has its own home-grown [[Imperial Guard]] variants (the badass <s>[[Death Korps of Krieg]]</s> (or at least codified what was once little more than a doodle in the 3rd Edition IG Codex) and [[Elysian Drop Troops]]). The awesome-looking Chaos Renegades for [[Lost and the Damned]] also came from here.

More recently, Forge World has been spitting out gloriously beautiful and horrendously expensive Horus Heresy-era models, meaning every mark of Astartes [[Power Armour|Power Armor]], Cataphractii [[Terminator]]s, and older patterns of [[Rhino Transport|Rhino]] and [[Land Raider]]. This, in turn, creates the best and worst things ever; re-built, revamped [[Rogue Trader]] models. The horrible, goofy weapons, tanks, and dreadnoughts are back, in wonderful, goofy new resin kits. They all look amazingly terrible (and terribly amazing), but the icing on the cake includes [[Primarch]]s like ''[[Horus]] himself'' and ''fukken [[Jetbike#Imperial_Jetbikes|JETBIKES]].'' Yes, Forge World put out pre-Heresy Jetbikes, and they are everything you hoped and dreamed for (provided you hoped and dreamed for resin dicks with Spess mahrienss inside them), including a new forgotten weapon type (the [[Volkite Weaponry|Volkite]]). And now they also have Mechanicum models too- because who doesn't want to play around with the oft-forgotten Imperial Robots?

In addition, many of their older models (read: all the ones you want) are no longer available and command even ''higher'' premium prices, and all special models (read: all of them) require an attendant overpriced supplement containing rules that tell you how the hell to actually use it, since just including these as a printable PDF on the site would remove a valuable opportunity to steal your moneys. These are called [[Imperial Armour]] Volumes, and are handily abbreviated by [[Neckbeard|everyone here]] as '''IA''' (and then a Volume Number). People who claim they have these either do not actually have these and instead have [[Heresy|.pdf copies]] '''/''' only have one or two (generally out of date) and treat them like Gutenberg Bibles '''/''' have like 4+ and are [[Flash Gitz|way too rich for their own good]].

Also responsible for the [[Forgeworld Reserve Phenomenon]].

As of April 1st, 2016 (and no, it doesn't appear to be an April Fools joke), Forge World has apparently jumped onto GW's "Last Chance to Buy" bandwagon and has decided to do some housecleaning on their product range. Thankfully, it's mostly obscure bits that likely hardly anyone ever bought or used, but notable losses include the Ork Kill Krusha Tank, Macharius Omega, and almost the [[Rage|''entire'' MKIV Dreadnought line, ''both'' Chaos and Loyalist]]. Many other models have gotten the axe since, notably all the Elysian line, mark 2, 3, and 4 space marine armor, etc. Combined with the retarded markup they now give to buyers outside the UK and the Adeptus Titanicus <strike>fiasco</strike> [[Adeptus Titanicus| glorious]] [[Adeptus Titanicus/Tactics| rebirth]], Forge World is <strike>now seemingly becoming the hated company Games Workshop once was, while the main branch keeps rolling out PR successes.</strike> showing the true colors of Games Workshop as a whole once more - with their "faster shipping" fiasco proving that the entirety of their social media is merely a publicity stunt (like most corporations). It's worth nothing that FW represents GW as a whole - they are run by the same people on the highest levels.

As of 2022, their relevance has seen a decline. With the Horus Heresy, one of their most popular lines, getting a full-fledged reboot and its models being transferred over to the main studio, FW has been relegated to dealing with only the niche games, such as the LotR game and Blood Bowl...which GamesWorkshop ''also'' has stuff for on their main site. Even then, it's not very clear if they're the ones writing the rules to the games or if they're just making models. Their main claim to relevance with the 40K crowd right now seems to be keeping Death Korps of Krieg players content.

'''In conclusion:''' "Five hundred quid for a fucking titan? [[Rage|If I ever find the fucker responsible I'm going to beat them to death with their own]] [[HHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhnnnnnnngggggg-]]".
Note: Look at the new Warlord titans, 900 POUNDS for a titan, 1240 with weaponry.

'''*This doesn't mean to imply that you're limited to only two models unless you happen to be a serial killer or a corrupt mortician.'''

=== Notable Writers ===

*[[Alan Bligh]], who unfortunately died of [[cancer]] on May 26, 2017, and who was responsible for the creation of many rules concepts eventually used in the Forge World rulebooks. [http://www.john-french.com/2017/05/alan-bligh-remembered.html Read an obituary written by fellow GW writer John French here.]
*[[John French]]
*[[Andy Hoare]]
*[[Neil Wylie]]
*[[Anuj Malhotra]]

=== Things Forge World Loves ===
[[Image:Red_Scorpions_Marine.png‎|thumb|150px|right|Screw giving the Sisters of Battle some [[Sisters of Cleaning|much needed loving]], let's just concentrate all our resources on some [[Red Scorpions|obscure chapter that nobody cares about]].]]
* Your money
* The [[Horus Heresy]]
* Aircraft
* Rapiers
* [[Tau]] [[Battlesuit]]s <strike>(XV9s!! fap fap fap) (XV107s!!! fapfapfapfap)</strike> (HERESY! '''''BLAMBLAMBLAM''''')
* IG Tanks
* Have we said your money?
* [[Daemon Engines]]
* '''[[Red Scorpions]]'''
* [[Terminator]]s, all the Terminators (except for the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Terminator robots originating from a certain movie], even though Games Workshop lifted from that movie to make [[Necrons|a race of robots for their setting]])
* [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Titan]]s and the price to go with them
* TEH [[Baneblade|BANEBLEHDS]]
* <s>[[Kroot]]</s>
* We may as well say it again, your money
* Charging 100$ for a book
* High quality Customer Service
* [[Space Marines]]
* [[Dreadnought]]s (they actually sell autocannons!!!)
** Now really only true for Contemptor/Leviathan/Deredeo Dreads, since they axed most of their Mk IV/V Dread stuff, including FW-exclusive variants like [[Chaplain]] and [[Noise Marines|Sonic]] Dreadnoughts.
* [[Death Korps of Krieg]] (enough so that many of their units aren't as overpriced, though still not for the stingy).
* Adding an extra "0" to the end of reasonable prices
* The word "siege" attached to everything
* Turrets & Immobile scenery
* <strike>Units that are broken to play against</strike> not anymore, GW realised they lost money because of that
* Your ''Opponent's'' money
* Selling towing vehicles to move that immobile scenery around
* Bringing civilian vehicles to battle. Seriously, a Sentinel [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_(franchise)| Power-lifter]?
* Introducing Salvo Weapons on units that will never use the rules for salvo weapons properly, or making them so bad that no-one ever takes them.
* Papa [[Nurgle]]
* The [[Orks]], when [[Games Workshop|GW]] won't love them because they aren't serious enough
* [[Total War: WARHAMMER]] (Especially the Norsca DLC, which whilst [[Awesome]], was basically a playable Forge World advertisement! Until they stopped selling most of those things. But hey, they still sell the Mourngul and boob troll.)
* [https://i.imgur.com/BgYmszI.png Discontinuing items more-or-less at random], apparently. Including ones you might actually need for making viable Horus Heresy armies.
* '''Your Money'''

=== Things Forge World Hates ===
* Decent shipping
* Australians
* New Zealanders
* EU Citizens
* 'Rest of the World' citizens
* Anyone not in the UK, really
* Poor people (eg. most of the editors of 1d4chan).
* You.
* Making sure their rules all have models.
* Making sure their models all have rules.
* Making sure their weapons have weapon profiles.
* Making army lists (the rules for their models are fine; their lists, on the other hand, are not).
* Making sure their stuff is balanced.
*Making sure the £180 Fellblade Super Heavy Tank you just bought came with THE FUCKING TURRET
* Spell Chequing.
* The Sisters of Battle
* Did we mention you? You.
* Proofreading books before release for rules/timelines/basic logic errors ''(supersonic transports that cannot land?)''.
* Warhammer Fantasy.
* <strike>Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit.</strike> No longer true, ever since they were given full control over the range. Now it's one of the few things they still make stuff for.
* Chaos that isn't Khorne or Nurgle.
* [[Dwarfs]]
* The Empire
* Other games workshop stores
* [[Gabriel Angelos|Making faces that don't look like shit.]]
* Making their instructions anywhere near understandable.
* Making uniform base sizes.
* Making sure their weapons don't have similar (or in some cases, the same) names.
* Releasing anything they advertise until long after the initial hype has died down.
* '''You'''

=== An Alternative Point on the Price (which is your soul, by the way) ===
While it’s a tradition of neckbeards everywhere to bemoan having to pay an arm, leg, testicle and unicorn blood for Forge World, it could be argued that Forge World’s high costs do have the beneficial side effect of taking some of the overpowered weapons and wargear that are supposed to be rare in the fluff, and bringing them into the tabletop while still making them rather rare in the meta, as comparatively few people are willing or able to fork over the [[teef]] for the models and rules. This is a good thing because, well, everybody ''wants'' a Titan, but do you really want everybody to actually ''have one''? This way, it’s a bigger deal when this stuff actually shows up on the tabletop, as it should be, and if you’re the sort that doesn’t like to go up against that sort of cheese you’re not likely to run into it too often.... or at least that's how it WOULD be if Forge World units weren't such a mixed bag these days. Not everything they make right now is overpowered, in fact if they aren't they tend to be absolute shite.

A case in point of what happens when that little status quo is disrupted, with the release of affordable plastic Contemptor dreadnoughts and Cataphractii terminators, and with Angels of Death giving us non-Forge World rules for them, you can bet that everyone and their [[squig]] is gonna have the damn things now, even with the rather dumbed-down rules compared to Imperial Armour.

=== Common Misconceptions ===
You'll occasionally find arguments online or perhaps within local gaming groups about the validity or "official-ness" of Forge World products. This has become less prevalent in recent years as the general perception of Forge World has become more mainstream, though every now and then the prejudice rears its ugly head, usually when a [[That Guy|certain opponent]] [[Butthurt|won't let you play]] the FW model you forked out a small fortune for.

Lets make one thing perfectly clear: Forge World ''(and Black Library)'' is Games Workshop. They share the same trading address and legal identity. It is not a subsidiary company (which would be a separate legal entity, but owned by the parent) nor is it a [[Fantasy Flight Games|licensee]] (which is a third party permitted to use the IP).

By comparison, [[Citadel Miniatures]] was founded as a subsidiary company and had its own separate projects outside of Warhammer/Warhammer 40,000 ''(so your opponent can [[Rage]] when you tell him your Forge World model has more direct legal provenance than his old metal models)''. GW also acquired Sabertooth games, which operated as an independent subsidiary, but both were eventually absorbed back into Games Workshop.

So, back to the issue with Forge World. Many [[Trolls|people]] had an innate dislike for the fact that Forge World models and rules were not actually declared by Forge World *or* Games Workshop to be "officially" part of the game; they would refuse to allow them on the tabletop, since they did not come from a Games Workshop primary rules source (such as a Codex, or the Big Rule Book). Forge World eventually started printing prefaces in their books explaining that their rules were official; but some still claim that since "Games Workshop" itself hasn't come out and said it, that they remain unofficial. However, since the spines of FW's books have always had the Games Workshop logos on them and the inside front cover have the legal copyright and property notices from GW, this argument seems specious at best; rather, much like how the Big Rule Book has no actual explicit declaration that rules from [[White Dwarf]] are "official", the Imperial Armour books themselves should be considered as canonical (what ever that means in 40k) as GW sources.

However, as with White Dwarf, GW hates you far too much as a gamer and customer to label any of their rulebooks/codices with edition numbers, much less ensure that their FW rules are always kept up to date with the current edition, and unlike Codices where you can typically determine the edition at a glance, a lot of Forge World books superficially "look" similar and may even have exactly the same name ''(to date there have been FOUR books with the title "Imperial Armour Apocalypse" but only two of them have sub-titles)''. This can be a major reason the rules are banned at tournaments, and an opponent might object for the same reason they might object to fighting a [[Squat]]s army under the current rules - however "obvious" the rules translation might be, some people are uncomfortable playing games across too wide an edition gap, as rules interactions may make no sense at all and/or have utterly pathological balance ramifications. '''Update''' this has become pretty much irrelevant with the release of 8th edition where Forge World have released complete indexes for pretty much their entire line.

We all know how [[ChapterHouse Studios|litigious]] GW can get with regards to "unofficial" products using their copyright, so you can bet if it wasn't official/legal Forge World would have had their asses handed to them, but it would seem absolutely stupid to sue the guys in the next office over in the same building as you. Seriously, there isn't even a divider between the FW and main parts of the store at Warhammer World anymore...

So next time you get to the table and your opponent starts whining about your Forge World models not being legal, just batter him over the head with your Imperial Armour book, which will be an order of magnitude heavier than his little codex and claim your victory by default.

'''As an additional side note''' - this has nothing to do with the perception of FW rules being either powerfully unbalanced or too focused on the narrative, but on reflection, that's no different from the [[skub]] surrounding [[Grey Knights|codex creep]] and [[Tyranids|painful nerfing]] already rampant within "core" GW material. So what's new?

If a Tournament Organiser decides that they don't want to include Forge World rules then that is entirely their prerogative as they will want the tournament to be as balanced or as hassle free as is reasonable, especially since FW have a tendency to publish their rules with minor variances across multiple "in-date" books, which can be a nightmare to manage, especially where some books have "current" rules alongside other rules which have been superseded elsewhere. Though with the advent of 8th edition, and all factions receiving simultaneous rule updates via indexes (Imperial, Xenos and Chaos Imperial Armour indexes), these rules are much easier to keep track of than ever before.

But these organisers ''(if they are smart)'' will also likely restrict "core" army selections too, so no Unbound lists or may exclude certain FOCs, because in the end which is more unbalanced and [[Cheese|cheesy]]? The guy who takes a contemptor dreadnought in his Combined Arms detachment or the guy who take an unbound army of Heldrakes? (Ha Held Rakes sound scary). If the tournament organizer is using the ITC standard for 40k, Forge World units themselves are in fact quite legal.

All that said however, there is a somewhat valid reason why someone may be a bit "model-shy" around Forge World rules; and that is information. There are 16 armies in 40k, and each dex tends to have more than one valid build; the Astra Militarum alone has six (tank heavy, artillery heavy, balance, flying circus, infantry spam, veteran spam). From a player's perspective, throwing MORE armies, rules, and models at them only compounds how much they need to consider. By counting Forge World, the number of army lists jumps to over 28 without considering supplements or mini-codices with only a handful of options, and again, each list can be played in more than one way, and then there are the (admittedly handful) of differences between Forge World and Games Workshop about the same model "is that the vanquisher with the coaxial? or not?" and then on top of all that you need to consider allies. While Forge World is legal from any logical standpoint, people are not logical, and may be daunted by just how much new information they have to learn in order to make proper gameplay choices and not lose, because they did not know that the Death Korp can give orders to artillery. Again, though Forge World is by any standard as legal as any codex, the other player may feel intimidated by your Space Marine siege army just because he does not know for sure what it can do and chose to walk way from it the same way he would if you brought an unbound army made of nothing but riptides.

== Planet ==

The second, fluffy, definition is a type of [[Imperial Worlds]] that refers to an entire world converted into a factory; one that runs at high capacity, even for its size. They produce everything from [[laspistol]]s to [[Land Raider]]s to [[Titan]]s, so they are needed to keep the Imperial war machine trundling forward. Many of them have particular specialties, such as Ryza's plasma weapons. Because of their nature, the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] highly regard these worlds as holy places, and the Mechanicus owns just about all of them, which is fine since there are only a few of them and the Mechanicus is best at maintaining that shit. Losing a single one is considered an unacceptable loss by the Mechanicus, and the Imperium as well since it'll be harder than fuck to fill in those planet-sized gaps in their industrial sector (with that said, it's frequent to see hive worlds being described as essential industrial centers, and many of them certainly live off of their industrial output alone, so being industrial centers alone doesn't make a planet a forge world). In the [[fluff]], there is actually a Forge World called [[What|'Zpandex']]. Turns out, many of them are actually [[Tomb World]]s.

=== A few Forge Worlds of note: ===
{| class="wikitable"
|+ '''Known Forge Worlds:'''
|'''Accatran'''
|Makes all the wargear for the [[Elysian Drop Troops]]. Their Titan Legion, the Legio Destructor, is the largest of all the Titan legions and their constant battles against Orks have made the Legio Destructor increasingly unorthodox in its outlook and behavior (read: Orky), and they have the awesome battlecry, 'big death, Big Death, BIG DEATH! '''BIG DEFF!!!!!!''''
|-
|'''Agripinaa'''
|One of the Forge Worlds near the [[Eye of Terror]]; too bad [[Typhus]] turned one of their Agri-Worlds into his own little Daemon World. Has kept itself independent and Chaos-free since the fall of Cadia by "recruiting" refugees into its Skitarii legions and occasionally making them into [[servitor]]s.
|-
|'''Angstrom'''
|Situated near [[Badab]]. Pledged loyalty to Ryza and doubles as an Explorator base and watchtower for the Maelstrom. When Lugft Huron's secession occurred they initially supplied both sides but ultimately fell in line with the Imperials and contributed the [[Adeptus Titanicus|Legio Crucius]] to the invasion of the Badab System.
|-
|'''Anvilus'''
|Prime maker of the [[Land Raider]] before the Heresy, as well as the [[Dreadclaw]] during the [[Great Crusade]]. Described as the only serious rival to Mars for manufacturing output once Phaeton was bullied into splitting its assets. Taken over by Horus's forces during the Heresy and if the lore of the [[Storm Eagle]] is any indication, suffered catastrophic damage during the war.
|-
|'''Aphret'''
|A minor Forge World during the Great Crusade. Contributed frigates to the Imperium's fleets, notably the ''Grey Talon''.
|-
|'''Arachnus'''
|A Forge World that seems to specialize quite heavily in big fucking lasers. They're the assholes that produce the "Heavy Laser Destroyers" that are sometimes mounted on [[Dreadnought#Deredeo_Pattern|Deredeo]] Dreadnoughts, as well as the ones used by Custodians. Despite this, their integration into the Imperium was a shaky one and when the Horus Heresy happened they declared their independence from both the Emperor and the Warmaster and began carving out an empire of their own. It would only be reconquered some time later. Home to the Legio Venator, whose renegade elements renamed themselves as the Legio Tritonis.
|-
|'''Atar Median'''
|Founded by exiles from Phaeton. Home to the Legio Atarus (Firebrands).
|-
|'''Chaeroneia'''
|A minor Forge World that turned traitor and started using extreme amounts of biomechanical tech to the point where literally every building, computer, and engine on the planet was at least half-biological. [[Titan_(Warhammer_40,000)#Castigator_Titan|An advanced AI]] was responsible for the world's fall, corrupting an Archmagos who subsequently converted the ruling class into a [[Chaos Cults|Chaos cult]] that worshipped the Chaos-corrupted AI as the Omnissiah.
|-
|'''Cyclothrathe'''
|Home to a particularly brutal sect in 30K, who followed Horus into rebellion. Used a House of enslaved and tortured Knights, and their warlord [[Draykavac]] became one of the most hated members of the nascent Dark Mechanicum.
|-
|'''Deimos'''
|One of the moons of Mars, a micro Forge World. Deimos is pretty much the size of an asteroid (and shaped like a potato); it made the old-school patterns of vehicles that we players refer to as "heresy era". After the Horus Heresy it was displaced and put into orbit around Titan to provide all the goodies to the [[Grey Knights]] instead, so it's now a moon of a moon. The functionaries of Deimos are mindwiped at both ends to prevent them knowing about daemons, but the moon still maintains three knightly houses with complementary skitarii ready to assist the Grey Knights should they need support. Apparently attending to one order of Knights wasn't enough; they need ''four'' to really be satiated.
|-
|'''Phobos'''
|In case you're wondering about the other moon: Phobos in 40k was covered in guns literally as Mars' last line of defence. In reality it is expected to slam into Mars at some point in the future (by 'future', we mean about 30 or 50 million years). But that's without having a shit ton of guns on it, and they can probably fly it somewhere like they did with Deimos, so who knows what its orbit is now. Interestingly, Phobos has a [[Monolith]] on it. [[wikipedia:Phobos_monolith|Seriously]].
|-
|'''Estaban III'''
|Had a feud with [[Ryza]] over the [[Thanatar-Class Robot]]. Home to the Legio Tempestus maniple which went heretic, and went with them. Eventually reclaimed by the Imperium.
|-
|'''Firestorm'''
|Homeworld of the [[Aurora Chapter]] located in the Ultima Segmentum, its manufacturing capacity can top that of several noted Forge Worlds combined.
|-
|'''Graia'''
|A Forge World made of space stations that orbit the planet Graia. Their Tech-Priests and Skitarii are so coldly logical and rational that even psykers struggle to breach their minds. The last known makers of the Rapier Laser Destroyer, and incur misfortune (like getting attacked by [[Orks]] in [[Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine]] and then eaten by the [[Tyranids]]) because GW ''hates'' the Rapier. Known for recently dealing with their frequent invasion problem by indulging in that most ancient of human tradition of taking ones ball and leaving, Graia no longer resides in its own home system. Poetically, [http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Imperial_Guard/Death-Korps-of-Krieg/GRAIA-PATTERN-RAPIER-LASER-DESTROYER.html Forge World loves Rapiers.]
|-
|'''Gryphonne IV'''
|Got wrecked by the [[Tyranids]], although some pretty cool artillery and [[Chimera Transport|Chimera]]s made from there still roll with the [[Imperial Guard|IG]]. Currently trying to find a place to rebuild as a nomadic Explorator fleet.
|-
|'''Incaladion'''
|A Forge World on the fringes of Imperial Space and constantly raided during the Age of Strife, it was home to the Legio Fureans ('Tiger Eyes').
|-
|'''Jupiter'''
|I know right? Bet you didn't know about this one. The Imperial Navy's foremost shipyard and drydock. It only makes ships. It is a hotly contested Imperial political debate as to whether Jupiter is sovereign to the Mechanicus or the Imperium. They went totally green though, the hippies.
|-
|'''Kai'''
|Once relatively close to Eye Of Terror. Due to [[Just as planned|an unfortunate flux]], the Eye expanded and engulfed it. Managed to maintain an Imperial presence for a time, considering that their weapons didn't have to obey the laws of physics. Eventually, they had to barter their services (and guns) to various daemons and Chaos Legions inside the Eye in return for protection. Made the legendary [[Bolter#Kai_Gun|Kai Guns]] during this time. Chaos being Chaos, the Machine Smiths of Kai got eradicated in the battle between daemons wanting their [[dakka]] fix. GW being GW, the hundreds of other strange and mystical weapons forged on Kai during its time in the Warp will never be elaborated upon.
|-
|'''Kaurava I'''
|A Forge World (continent-spanning Manufactorum, to be precise) which is capable of producing [[Vance Motherfucking Stubbs|over 100 Baneblades]] at any given notice. The status of this world is unclear, although it was likely abandoned or destroyed during the Kaurava conflict of [[Dawn of War|Dawn of war: Soulstorm]]. (Dawn of War III confirms that Gorgutz won the Kaurava Conflict)
|-
|'''The Lathes'''
|Actually a group of three Forge Worlds in one system, named Het, Hesh and Hadd individually. These planets all have an extremely odd orbit around their parent star, which somehow results in their native ores having unusual properties because of [[bullshit|"gravity fluctuations"]] (the truth is probably way more heretical). Besides being the centre of production for the Calixis Sector, their most famous exports are Lathe-forged Blades, which use the aforementioned ore to basically be indestructible, able to stand up to even power blades.
|-
|'''Lliax'''
|30K-era Forge World. Supplied Shadrak Meduson's warbands during the Heresy, but they seem to have been involved in subverting his command with the Cult of the Gorgon.
|-
|'''Lucius'''
|First colonized by [[Battletech]] players from the late Eighties. [[Awesome|A hollowed out world that has replaced its core with an artificial sun.]] Though everyone knows that someday the sun will fail, the Tech-Priests of Lucius hold that death in pursuit of innovation is the greatest offering once can give to the Omnissiah. Maintains the ancient Legio Astorum, better known as the Warp Runners, and supplies the [[Death Korps of Krieg]]. Most notable for their teleportation tech, as well as how they fought against [[Hive Fleet Leviathan]]: rather than concentrating all the [[Imperial Guard|meat]] in one futile last stand, they hunkered down in the hollow of their world and sent their military out piece-by-piece, accepting the loss of their servitors, but retrieving the undigested mechanical bits (presumably after they were shitted out) for recycling afterwards. Unable to breach the crust and access the gooey center of the mechanicus tootsie pop, the Hive Fleet fell back, losing more biomass than they gained. [[Tomb World|Does any of this sound familiar?]] They have exclusive patterns for some Titans which are cheaper to produce, [[skub|but not as sweet looking as Mars patterns]]. Didn't get super-heavy tank STCs for a while, which is why they were one of the few major Forge Worlds that launched Macharius tank production when its STC get re-discovered, while most others frowned on it as a "poor man's Baneblade". Unlike most other Mechanicus, they favour white robes for both their priesthood and skitarii, probably because it's the colour of hot plasma. So yeah, those unusually white-robed Enginseers from the Ciaphas Cain novels are probably Lucians. Although they've since been retconned into wearing dark red, so maybe not.
|-
|'''[[Mars]]'''
|The big boss of the other Forge Worlds and the go-to guy for [[STC|stock patterns]] of weapons. Home to the original three titan legions, the ''Triad Ferrum Morgulus'': Legio Ignatum (Fire Wasps), [[Dark Mechanicus|Legio]] [[Nurgle|Mortis]] (Death's Heads), and Legio Tempestus (Stormlords). Has a giant shipyard called the Ring of Iron in orbit, which claims to be one of the largest human-made objects in existence.
|-
|'''Metalica'''
|Home to the Legio Metalica. Also known as Metalicus due to GW not wanting to get sued. They maintain the only known [[Titans_40k#Imperial_Titans|Imperial Titans]] capable of out-rocking the [[Gargant]]s made by the [[Ork#Rokkas|Goff Rokkas]]. They also provide most of the Adeptus Mechanicus forces fighting on Armageddon at any given time, and are notable for [[Awesome|going on Tyranid safaris]]. Following the Charadon Campaign, its techpriests been preoccupied with keeping the techno-virus that [[Typhus]] infected it with from corrupting the planet. So far they've been relatively successful, but the virus has yet to be eradicated.
|-
|'''Mezoa'''
|A Volcanic Forge World where no Titan can walk for fear of falling through the planet's crust. Was besieged during the Horus Heresy and the Gothic War.
|-
|'''Mordax'''
|The one that got taken over by the [[Orks]]. They named it Mordakka ([[MOAR DAKKA|Yes really...]]) and [[Blood Ravens|Blood Ravens-ed]] the titans on it. Despite the dubious [[Canon|canonicity]] of the old 13th [[Black Crusade]] materials, Geedubs hasn't forgotten about Mordakka, giving it a place on the Skitarii 7th Edition Codex and AdMech 8th Edition codex's galactic map. It's more than can be said for other worlds on this list...
|-
|'''Morvane'''
|Mentioned in the [[Adeptus Custodes]] codex, Morvane is a "lost" Forge World and the only lead the Custodes have to a possible fix for the [[Golden Throne]].
|-
|'''M'Pandex'''
|Also called Z'pandex, Mappandax and Zaphadak. [[Lulz|You may commence laughing]]. (The original joke may have been that, during the Rogue Trader days, the Imperium needed a Forge World dedicated just to making all of the 80's-style spandex it would chew through.)
|-
|'''Orestes'''
|Supplied the Sabbat Worlds Crusade, but got attacked by Chaos Titans. [[Awesome|''And won.'']] [[Dan Abnett]] wrote [[Titanicus|a book]] about it. Presumably get overrun by Chaos with the rest of segmentum during the Night of Thousand Rebellions. It's apparently a Mechanicus-affiliated Knight World now. [[What|What the hell, GW?]]
|-
|'''Paramar'''
|Invaded and overrun several times during the Horus Heresy by both Loyalists and Traitors.
|-
|'''Phaeton'''
|Used to be where the standard Leman Russ, Chimera and Basilisk patterns came from, before GW changed the models to the Mars pattern. Home to the Legio Osedax (Cockatrices). It probably still is where the STCs were discovered, and Mars just "lifted" them for safe keeping.
|-
|'''Ryza'''
|Makes all the coolest plasma stuff because nobody else could keep their act together. Their Titan Legion is the awesomely named Legio Crucius (Warmongers). After fighting Orkz for so long their Skitarii have the most badass war cry among other Forgeworlds: "[[Rip and tear|Red in Cog and Claw!]]"
|-
|'''Sarum'''
|Forge World closely aligned with the [[World Eaters]]. Home to the bound daemon Sa'ra'ram, the source of Obliterators. It's since become a full-on Hell Forge, with all the Warp weirdness that goes with that, fading in and out of reality across the Golgothan Wastes.
|-
|'''Stygies VIII'''
|Makes awesome guns and ammo, as well as the (apparently rare) [[Leman Russ Battle Tank|Leman Russ Vanquisher]]. Cannot keep their act together, losing [[Vance Motherfucking Stubbs|''two whole Titan Legions'']] to [[Chaos]] and having to get another legion [[Fail|transplanted in.]] [[What|Also it is a moon.]] Their tech priests constantly get into fights with Deathwatch killteams due to their intense interest in xenos technology.
|-
|'''Toil'''
|Got fucked over by [[Perturabo]] invoking Nurgle, causing the factories to become living Daemon Engines. Completely lifeless, [[Fail|with dying horribly to the Iron Warriors being its only notable purpose]].
|-
|'''<s>Tigrus</s> Tigris'''
|Originally made/discovered the Vanquisher Cannon, the Fellblade Accelerator Cannon, and several other Great Crusade-Era Imperial ordinance pieces and ammunition. Like Anvillius, it got absolutely wrecked during the Heresy. Currently overrun by the [[Orks]], specifically the Murda Meks of Tigris. Most players generally consider the Orkish takeover a good thing, seeing as this world now makes the [[Kill Tanks]] from IA8.
|-
|'''Tigrus'''
|Sits on the "dark" edge of the galaxy-wide fuck-off warp rift known as the Cicatrix Maledictum. Notably ''not'' overrun by Orks. Unlike the above world of ''Tigris'', which is also conveniently in the Ultima Segmentum. Seriously guys, Tigrus ''just'' won a campaign against the Tau in M41! They ''totally aren't'' the same Forge World, and GW ''totally didn't'' [[derp|forget about one of the most famous Ork-held worlds]] between 5th and 8th Edition when the new Adeptus Mechanicus codex came out, and the ''totally unrelated'' former Forge World Tigris ''totally isn't'' a misspelling existing only in IA8! Why are you all looking at me like that?
|-
|'''[[Tolkien|Tolkhan]]'''
|[[Imperial Armour|IA Vol. 1]] gave us this gem. Oh [[Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader|Rogue Trader]], how you haunt [[Games Workshop|GW]] to this day. [[/tg/|We]] love you so. Incidentally, it is home to the best named Titan Legion ever: Legio Pallidus Mor, the Pale Riders.
|-
|'''Triplex Phall'''
|A Forge World on the Eastern Fringe, nearly got shitcanned by attacks from Hive Fleet Kraken and the Death Guard. Used to produce lasrifles for the [[Solar Auxila]] and currently produces the M-Galaxy Pattern lasgun. Constantly pisses of Mars by hoarding archeotech while refusing to hand them over.
|-
|'''Urdesh'''
|A Chaos-tainted Forge World in the Sabbat Worlds Sector, and contested heavily during the Sabbat World's Crusade. It was a more general-purpose Forge World, in that it produced all sorts of munitions, from Lascarbines to Autocannons to APCs and much, much more. Its specialty, however, was a large number of tank designs, most notably the AT-70 ''Reaver'' and the AT-83 ''Brigand''. While not quite as useful as Leman Russes, they were capable enough for the PDF in the sector. It remained under control of the Blood Pact army of Chaos until sometime towards the end of the Crusade. The [[Tanith First (And Only)]] face off against a lot of production from this world.
|-
|'''Vanaheim'''
|Known for producing its its own pattern of the [[Medusa Siege Gun|Medusa]] and [[Basilisk Artillery Gun|Basilisk]] with a unique gunshield as well as being the Forge World of origin for the [[Salamander Reconnaissance Tank|Salamander]] and [[Centaur Utility Vehicle|Centaur]].
|-
|'''Voss Prime'''
|A ''prime'' example of [[Imperium|Imperial]] [[fail]], has no idea what to do with [[Plasma|plasma.]] On the other hand, it made a Lasgun 2.0 called the Voss Pattern Lasrifle (it was [[awesome]]) and supplied the entire [[Solar Auxilia]] with it, down to a man. Who cares about plasma when you manufacture enough flashlights to light the whole Galaxy up? Still manages to maintain the goofily-named Legio Invigilata though. Also makes Vulture gunships and Lightning Strike Fighters. Main supplier for the Armageddon fleet, and known for their unconventional ideas about escort ship designs (most of which were produced for all of about three weeks before Games Workshop decided to shitcan their molds).
|-
|'''[[Xana II]]'''
|A neutral Forge World that tried to play both sides during the Heresy, only for the Loyalists to fuck their shit up. Taken over by a hardcore motherfucker named [[Anacharis Scoria|Anacharis "I Eat Primarchs For Dinner" Scoria]] and became the first of the Dark Mechanicum Hellforges. Now drifts through the warp, selling Hellblades, Hell Talons and Harbinger Bombers to Chaos Warbands.
|-
|'''Zhao-Arkhad'''
|Also spelled Arkkad, the Anarcho-Capitalist Forge World that decided it was best to buddy up with the [[Thousand Sons]]. Their mistake led to their Forge World being razed during the Heresy. It would be re-founded in M41, and the schematics for the [[Crassus Armored Assault Transport|Crassus]] and Praetor found there. Once home to the Legio Xestobiax (Iron Vigil), who used heretekal Psi-Control cores in their Titans. It is unknown if this made Xestobiax titans Psi-Titans or not.
|}

{{40k-Planets}}
[[Category:Games Workshop]][[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]][[Category:Dark Mechanicus]]
[[Category:Model Manufacturers]]

Slaanesh

2023-02-20T03:32:31Z

2607:FB90:3F8A:5651:7867:CB67:A80F:A89: /* Introduction: The Slaanesh Inquisition */

[[File:Slaanesh_mark.png|center]]
{{awesome}}
{{heresy}}
{{Promotions}}
{{/d/}}
{{sick|The hermaphrodite god/goddess of rape who wants to eat everyone's souls and rape them forever.}}

[[Image:Slaanesh_by_baklaher-d7dvohn.jpg|thumb|500px|right|Slaanesh... tempting you to join a [[rape|party which you will never forget...]] [[Rule 34|also now in even more NSFW!]]]]

'''''PORN FOR THE PORN GOD! SMUT FOR THE SMUT THRONE! RAPE FOR THE RAPE TRAIN! - The Motto that Slaanesh wants YOU to believe in'''''

{{Topquote|Give yourself over to absolute pleasure. Swim the warm waters of sins of the flesh - erotic nightmares beyond any measure, and sensual daydreams to treasure forever. Can't you just see it? Don't dream it, be it.|Dr. Frank-N-Furter, Rocky Horror Picture Show}}

{{Topquote|Blood does more than turn me on, it makes me cum. And more than the sight of it, I love the taste of it. The taste of hot, freshly killed blood... Kill everyone now! Condone first degree murder! Advocate cannibalism! Eat shit! Filth are my politics! Filth is my life! Take whatever you like.|Divine, Pink Flamingoes, seen here showing fealty to [[Khorne]], [[Nurgle]], and Slaanesh, while also making [[Tzeentch]] feel sad due to lack of attention}}

{{Topquote|OO! KINKY!|Austin Powers}}

==Introduction: The Slaanesh Inquisition==
[[Image:Slaanesh by genzoman-d2y8ylf.jpg|thumb|500px|[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2qT7GylRxw And to think... I hesitated.] Wait, one whip is held in the hand and the other is held in the...]]
Behold '''Slaanesh''', also known as '''Shaarnor''' (to [[Cult Of Slaanesh|Elves and some humans]]), '''Shornaal''' (to [[Warriors of Chaos|humans and some Elves]]), '''She Who Thirsts, The Dark Prince, the Lord of Excess, Leviathan, Lord of the Labyrinth, Big Tiddy Goth Prince, Dr. Frank-N-Furter, The Sweet Transvestite, The Lusty Argonian Maid, the Colossal Pervert, Creator of Rule 34''', '''the Ultimate Trap''', '''the Transgender Trashgirl''', '''[[If_the_Emperor_had_a_Text-to-Speech_Device|Xenololi Futanari Vore Garbage]]''', '''the Trap God''', '''Mega-Mommy Milkies''', '''the Maker of [[Eldar|Knife-Ear]] Fleshlights''', [[Cornholio the Cultist|'''Tiddycaca''']], '''Never Went to Rehab''', '''Slut4Evar''', '''[[Fall of the Eldar|the]]''' '''''[[Erebus|Other]]''''' '''[[War in Heaven|Other]]''' '''[[Cybernetic Revolt|Thing That Ruined Everything]]''', '''the New Guy/Girl/Whatever''', '''literally Satan but add some crab claws''' and 6969 other names.

Slaanesh is the [[Chaos God]] of [[/d/|perversion, Hentai]], [[Extra Heresy|shamelessness]], [[Furry|excess]], [[Rebecca Black|the most disgusting Pop Music in the history of ever]], sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Heretical Fa/tg/uys cannot resist the most disgusting [[heresy]] of masturbating furiously to Slaanesh and her [[daemonette]]s.

Slaanesh was 'born' during the fall of the [[Eldar]], when all their torture, [[rape]], S&M, bondage, and decadence eventually tore the fabric of reality a new one and gave birth to Slaanesh along with the [[Eye of Terror]], killing the majority of their race. Thus, the final chaos god is known as the one that was literally murderfucked into existence. As a result, Slaanesh owns almost every last Eldar soul in the entire galaxy. In the event of an Eldar dying without a spirit stone, he or she becomes Slaanesh's sex toy for all of eternity day and night forever and ever (excluding Exodites, whose soul will automatically go to their planet's world spirit; Harlequins, who are scooped up by the [[Cegorach|great clown]] himself; and the faithful of Ynnead). This is why Eldar are willing to manipulate entire worlds into [[Exterminatus|exterminating]] each other just to save one of their own. The [[Dark Eldar]] take this up to eleven; because they do not use spirit stones nor are they protected like the Harlequins, Slaanesh is constantly sanding their souls down around the edges. In order to circumvent this they resort to huffing the souls of those in agony or of those who have recently died; in essence they sacrifice others to him/her in order to live. However this isn't done ''just'' for survival; the Dark Eldar revel in sadism for its own sake too. In the end every Eldar in the galaxy, even the Drukhari and the Harlequins, are inextricably linked to Slaanesh in some way.

Of course, the descriptions above apply primarily to Slaanesh's WH40K history. In WHFB, Slaanesh has no real backstory and sort of just came out of nowhere like the other Chaos gods.

Among other things, Slaanesh is the god of sex, drugs, and rock n' roll. Slaanesh is fueled by excess and pleasure, which means gratuitous amounts of anything generally fall under its influence. This actually becomes a big problem for Khorne, the [[God-Emperor of Mankind]] and the other Chaos Gods, whose worshipers have to constantly try not to enjoy themselves too much lest they end up feeding the Warp's whipping bitch. Especially when the Inquisition is all too enthusiastic about whipping heretics. It is for this reason ironically enough that she is hated by every single entity in the warp, Yes even Nurgle. More on that below.

Many horny juveniles who have just found Warhammer seem to be obsessed with Slaanesh being a God(ess) of sexual pleasure. While [[fluff]] claims this is not true, in practical terms Slaanesh is the deity of pleasure, which can be broad. Pleasure can be derived from various sources, as such this can be anything from sex, eating, companionship, and so on and so forth. However, because Chaos is Chaos, Slaanesh is mostly associated with the extremes of pleasure including lechery, gluttony, extreme masochism, extreme sadism, perverse sexual deviance, and so on. These are just some of the pleasures Slaaneshi followers partake in because Slaanesh's credo is to experience everything to the fullest. As a practitioner falls ever deeper into the embrace of their dark god, they are consumed with a need to drive these sensations first to the limit of human experience, and then beyond into madness. This basically means: why settle for one loving wife to have sex with you when you can have a hive world of insatiable concubines to fulfill your every desire? Or why eat one disgustingly expensive luxury meal when you could eat a Paradise world's supply of the stuff? Why just resort to cutting yourself to feel the pleasure of pain when you could be chopping off lumps of your flesh to heighten the sensation of pain? Numerous examples of 40k lore have made it apparent that while those who fall to Slaanesh might start off with a desire to fulfill their rather run-of-the-mill baser instincts, it always spirals into insanity. For example, in the novel ''Shadowsword'', a young nobleman makes a deal with a devilish creature so that he can possess and sleep with his lady love, who is also his first cousin. By the time all is said and done, a grand party to welcome the forces of Chaos to their world turns into a charnel scene where the guests ''imagine'' themselves to be dancing and enjoying fine food and drink, but in reality they are tearing each other apart with their bare hands and engaging in cannibalism; others believe that they are embracing when their bodies and flesh are literally melding together. These are the types of scenes that truly resonate in the Warp, and thus grant Slaanesh power.

One would think that if, as claimed, Slaanesh was the lord of all ''pleasure'' then Slaanesh would be omnipotent because, in the end, biological and psychological fact tells us that every living thing with a fucking Neuron acts in order to feel pleasure and escape pain (the "pleasure principle"). However, here is the most important thing worth emphasizing, just in case you haven't picked it up already: the point of Slaanesh is not to revel in ''any'' pain or pleasure. Rather, the point is to gain power from exposing mortals to the types of experiences that a sane person ''could not'' and ''would not'' ever be able to imagine in the first place. For all but the very strongest and most devout, this pollutes and twists their very souls to such an extent that they remain in thrall to Slaanesh forever. Such horizons of experience and sensation are far, far beyond the predictable inclinations and fetishes of your typical 4chan fa/tg/uy.

Even [[Khorne]], Slaanesh's primary rival, feels pleasure in killing, and Tzeentch feels pleasure in [[Just as Planned]]. That is why 40k lore tends to focus on Slaanesh as a God of the most disgusting pleasures ever, not as a God of all pleasure. Additionally, in the [[fluff]], it does state that most pleasures (like regular love or the desire to eat) that might be covered under the "pleasure principle" are too "weak" to sustain Slaanesh. Considering that it's damn hard for most humans to get more than a piece of stale toast and a dry handjob before collapsing from exhaustion after a grueling 80-hour week working in some hive-world factory for the Emprah, the only way to get enough sex, drugs, and partying in to impress Slaanesh is to be a ruthless, controlling, evil bastard. (''It is worth noting that GW seems to have picked up somewhat on this fact. As of the latest daemon codex it does mention that Slaanesh has a particular way of influencing the other chaos gods and that they are all wary of them given that they draw some strength from the extreme behaviours they promote in their followers and are subject to themselves.'')

Slaanesh is also associated with the arts and creativity, as creativity means pursuing one's own personal desires. Self-indulgence and personal expression are the bedrock of the arts, after all. Those attracted to Slaanesh could theoretically be more than just aristocratic ravers, but also particularly eccentric artists, writers, etc. In this, Slaanesh treads in on Tzeentch's territory as the Architect of Fate also likes to play muse. But Slaanesh is all Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll in the purest sense of the word. It is not just the depraved orgy after the concert, but the scintillatingly brilliant concert that caused the orgy to begin with. One could assume that, in order to prevent Slaanesh's influence from spreading, the Imperium of Man would censor not just content but style. A radically structured poem, a painting with hints of debased content, even a deviation from traditional chord structures would presumably bring the Inquisition to your doorstep.

If Slaanesh had a voice actor, it would be [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc80tFJpTuo Tim Curry] and/or Tilda Swinton.

==What? Warhammer?==
[[File:Slaanesh Old.jpg|thumb|right|150px|The first depiction of Slaanesh in Warhammer art.]]
In the new [[Age of Sigmar]] setting, Slaanesh has gone missing. Tyrion and Malerion worked together to capture Slaanesh, unknowningly helped along by the machinations of Tzeentch. Thus Slaanesh has been removed from the Pantheon of Chaos and replaced by the [[Horned Rat]]. Derp. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIMg2Xw4_8s While it was thought Slaanesh is being kept in a hidden warehouse while Tyrion works him/her over to make Slaanesh give back Aliathra's soul], this is revealed to be mostly true, but for elves in general as there is no sign of Aliathra yet.
[[File:AoSBeholdSlaanesh.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Slaanesh imprisoned: Unable to decide which dildo to use first, Slaanesh is effectively neutralized! Ingenious! (Also, to answer the question you never asked, Slaanesh is not circumcised. Seriously, take a close look at where those chains pierce)]]

Yet hope for Slaanesh faction lovers still remains. With Slaanesh missing, his forces have split between those trying to find and free Slaanesh (the refer to themselves as Seekers), those who are trying to claim their former master's position (they are referred to as Pretenders and consists of every Chaos Lord and Keeper of Secrets that wants to claim their former masters position as the new god of depravity) and those who have continued to be allied to [[Archaon]] in his wars against the Mortal Realms (who are referred to as Invaders). This last faction is currently the biggest and is the main Slaanesh force fighting Order; it is mostly being led by Slaanesh's greater daemons who lead Slaanesh's demonic and mortal followers but some have actually looked to venerating Archaon as their replacement deity.

The release of the first Daughter of Khaine battletome revealed that Slaanesh has been trapped in the void space between Ulgu (Realm of Shadows) and Hysh (Realm of Light) by the collective work of [[Tyrion]] and [[Teclis]] - now gods of Hysh, [[Malekith|Malerion]] - god of Ulgu, and [[Morathi]]. There the elf gods are slowly taking back the elf souls the Chaos god devoured after the End Times, reforging them to their liking, while Slaanesh is trapped in a position that will make it impossible for him to escape (in theory). That is, unless Morathi cast a spell to get more souls than it was initially planned for her to receive, a spell that would weaken the chains that are keeping Slaanesh trapped, which of course she did. Now Slaanesh is ever so slowly getting further from Hysh and closer to Ulgu, which enabled Slaanesh's followers to learn where he was. The only things standing in their way are the fact that they can't reach Slaanesh's prison, the aelf gods and their forces. Even then, Slaanesh might eventually be able to free itself.

With the announcement of Realm of Chaos: Wrath and Rapture, it appears GW is ready to bring Slaanesh back to the 40k and AoS universes, along with a (daemonic) host of new models. And this did come to pass... Though it isn't as grand as many would have hoped. It has been revealed that the 66 chains holding Slaanesh (real subtle, GW) can be broken by certain depraved or powerful acts, ie, an excess of anger from Khorne, or a Stormhost turning on the people they protect (which did happen and was engineered by Slaanesh taking a leaf from Tzeentch's book). Having broken a handful of the chains Slaanesh cast illusions to prevent the elves from discovering this, and if the majority of chains get shattered Slaanesh will be strong enough to break the rest. If Slaanesh ever did escape, he would immediately try and engulf all of Ulgu and Hysh, securing two whole realms and thereby winning the great game though Khorne would object violently, as would Archaon. However, Archaon still needed Slaanesh and was actively tracking down the trapped god. Archaon eventually succeeded at finding Slaanesh and started working to free him, though Slaanesh's sass vexed Archaon. It would've worked eventually, but Archaon had a vision of the Nighthaunt and Bonereapers taking the Shyish realmgate and attacking the Varanspire. Though Archaon was pissed, since he knew the elf gods would move Slaanesh's prison and tighten security after this, he abandoned Slaanesh and went back to the Allpoints.

But now Slaanesh is a mommy/daddy! During Morathi's ritual for godhood, Slaanesh took advantage of it and emitted a stream of saliva (more likely some ''other'' bodily fluid that begins with "S") that gained sentience. The entity followed Morathi out of Slaanesh's prison, and flew through the skies across Ulgu before crashing to the ground. The Godseekers followed it to the point of impact, and over time thousands of Hedonites gathered. There the entity, known only as The Newborn, took on a form so beautiful and terrible that many who looked upon it died and spoke to Hedonites. It eventually became two demigods called Dexcessa and Synessa, who are filling in for Slaanesh until he/she is freed from Uhl-Gysh. The twins make their first appearance when they try to take advantage of the rampage of the newly awakened god of Earthquakes [[Kragnos]] to conquer the city of Excelsis, a plan which falls flat on its ass when the twins get banished by the actions of a set of witch-hunters and the sacrifice of the local stormcast eternal leader. Be'lakor then approaches the twins in the epilogue of the book and proceeds to throw shade at them for such a lackluster first showing on their part, when they diss him back about fleeing from one Dwarf, Be'lakor points out that the Dwarf was actually a powerful god and tells them to be prepared as the storms of chaos he unleashed by blowing up realmgates are spreading throughout the mortal realms.

== Followers ==
[[File:Slaanesh Banners.jpg|thumb|right|400px|Slaaneshi banners.]]
Slaanesh attracts mortal followers from those seeking to become charismatic and popular, but instead corrupts them to become colossal perverts; alternatively, she may attract followers from those who are already [[Ultramarines|colossal perverts]], and corrupt them to become more charismatic and popular. [[Just as planned]].

Alternatively, Slaanesh sometimes finds those in the mortal realm with far more looks than brains to approach and gives them everything they could ever want because she tells them that they simply deserve it, with nothing expected in return...other than them turning into a collossal egotistical hedonist with no sense of responsibility, right and wrong, or empathy as they fuck over creation on whim or for the lulz due to the ultimate entitlement complex possible.

Slaanesh and Khorne actually compete for the same pool of followers more often than you'd think, which is part of his hatred for it. A good rule of thumb is this: if a warrior wants to be the ''best'', gets his thrills from making that perfect shot, that perfect move, [[/v/|that perfect 360 noscope,]] to [[powergamer|hone his or her skills the sharpest they can ever be]], or debasing their foes, they're Slaaneshi...even if they don’t want to be. If the thrill lies in just killing people-- the pure joy of murder-- and the skill is just a way of facilitating that, they're Khornate. Slaaneshi types also get off on the sensory overload rather than actual killing or even pain, like the Emperor's Children who get carved up by Raven Guard and won't fight back because the feeling of lightning claws dicing them up is too damn blissful. [[Troll|They also get off on the reactions they get from others]]-- for example, the loyalist who Lucius tricks into slaughtering his own men. These are things that Khorne can’t stand, because Khorne has standards. Slaanesh takes those standards, throws them out the window, follows them out the window and murderfucks them with its arms pumping wildly.

When it come to more "social" followers, Slaanesh competes with Tzeentch, as followers of both are known for being silver-tongued manipulative dicks with a huge hard-on for power. Here the difference lies in that Slaaneshi followers seek power for their own gain, usually through charismatic speeches and the like, while Tzeenchians often have more altruistic goals or are more interested in the process of gaining power than actually getting it, intentionally raising the challenge to impossible level just to feed their ambitions. Tzeentch followers are quite notable for being dicks, not evil monsters (...usually, also barring daemons). Other than being egotistical trolls they're pretty normal people. The 'huge hard-on' part is also much more [[Heresy|literal]] in Slaanesh's case. However Tzeentch has realized that since personal gain is inevitable when scheming, Slaanesh still wins, so Tzeentch hates them too.

Apart from [[AIDS|the obvious]], Slaanesh and Nurgle rarely have any interaction. There was the matter of the [[Isha|qt Eldar waifu]] Slaanesh wanted to keep for [[/d/|some]] [[rape|after-party]] [[FATAL|entertainment]], but since Nurgle is a fa/tg/uy at heart he couldn't resist claiming her for himself. <s>But they're mostly over that</s> Slaanesh is over it, Nurgle is not. Otherwise, their domains are just too different that they don't overlap all that much. Those who are ambitious and feel they deserve better choose Slaanesh, while those who give up or accept their lot fall into Nurgle's open, sweaty arms. Conflict occurs, but love of the self and love of others aren't as mutually exclusive as the desire to destroy and the desire to create, or a demand for the spotlight against careful orchestration. That being said Nurgle is still not fond of them-- mainly due to the aforementioned Eldar waifu.

[[File:Slaaneshi Forces.JPG|thumb|right|500px|Slaaneshi forces in their realm.]]

Slaanesh units are:
* '''[[Daemonettes]]''', hideous crab-clawed hermaphrodites or seductive scythe-clawed elf-girls depending on which fluff you choose to believe, fa/tg/uys love Daemonettes and spend much time eagerly awaiting the drawfags to provide them with moar heresy. Some fluff seems to suggest that they're hot elf girls until they decide it's time to rip your face off, at which point they become something more akin to the BDSM glam-rock black-eyed lobster women seen in the current models. Moreover, they're supposedly attractive to the beholder (though these are often xenophobic assholes and thus only consider themselves beautiful) - this means that it is very likely that their appearance is entirely subject to the individual desires of whomever is perceiving them. This is represented by their hermaphroditic/androgynous appearance, supposedly rendering them attractive regardless of preference or sexuality. Their monstrous nature is a juxtaposition of slender sensuality and horrible, flesh-tearing daemonic claws. Like many Daemons, their appearance is supposed to be highly varied, which is never represented in the models unless you combine all the old and new, modify heavily, and use [[Proxy|proxies]] randomly. Daemonettes are created by Slaanesh's waking thoughts, popping into existence as she contemplates trolling Khorne, destroying a civilization from within, or getting off.
* '''[[Seekers of Slaanesh]]''', Daemonettes mounted upon [[Steeds of Slaanesh]] which are the mix of an aardvark and a raptor [[dinosaur]]; fast and lots of attacks for not much points, prone to dying in a hail of arrow/bolter fire.
* '''[[Fiends of Slaanesh]]''', large creatures that look like a bizarre cross between an aardvark and a scorpion with rows of breasts, these are created when Slaanesh dreams (because apparently Chaos Gods sleep). They're basically if a Daemonette and a Seeker had a child.
* '''[[Seeker Chariots of Slaanesh]]''', hard hitting unit/squad-wipe models, this is whom you call for when you need that pesky [[tarpit]] removed. Right now. From other end of the board. Be cautious though, these things need protection like grimoire and preferrably invisibility,or at least [[Distraction Carnifex|target mitigation]] to live long enough to do their job since they are big targets with juicy 10 armor all round. Also never ever position yourself so that the enemy could have even remote chance of charging these things: even squad of retarded [[Tau|fire warriors]] or some [[High Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|Spearmen]] can take these chariots down in melee if they get the charge. These things live and die by the hammer of wrath attacks, use them accordingly. Also comes in the "Exalted Seeker Chariot" variant, which is literally just a larger Seeker Chariot crewed by higher ranked Daemonettes.
* '''[[Hellflayer Chariots of Slaanesh]]''', what happens when you combine enough Chariots to make Daemonettes literally [[/d/|dripping]] with excitement at being in battle.
* '''[[Keepers Of Secrets]]''', Slaanesh's Greater Daemons, like a Daemonette on steroids, ecstasy and Viagra. Created intentionally from Slaanesh's own darkest thoughts and desires, rather than the Daemonettes/Seekers/Fiends which are created passively, each is radically different (even though there's only been three different models, one of which is long out of production). Geniuses capable of turning entire armies to their side, or destroying civilizations. The default leaders of almost any Slaaneshi army, unless led by a...
* '''[[Daemon Prince]]''', a human (with [[Dechala|one Elf]] as the exception) so devout to Slaanesh that they managed to become a Daemon. In Fantasy this is usually, but not always, a Warriors of Chaos Champion who made the perilous journey of getting not to little or too much attention while in her service.

=== 40k ===
* '''[[Chaos Space Marines]]''', the traitor marines of the [[Emperor's Children|third legion]] worship Slaanesh exclusively, as do warbands such as the Angels of Ecstasy and the Flawless Host. They also make up a large chunk of the Black Legion, as the Children of Torment.
** '''[[Noise Marines]]''', the specialist traitors dedicated to Slaanesh, akin to Khorne's [[Khorne Berzerkers|Berzerkers]], Nurgle's [[Plague Marines]] or Tzeentch's [[Thousand Sons]]. Aural-focused traitors who specialise in using [[Sonic Weaponry]] because the cacophony is the only thing that can register on their jaded senses anymore. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berghain Can be found IRL also.]

=== Fantasy ===
* '''[[Dark Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|Druchii]]''': The Warhamer Fantasy evil Elves who are the highest ranking worshipers of Slaanesh, who they call Shornaal, in the [[Cult Of Slaanesh|Cult Of Pleasure]]. In most of the games history (4 editions out of 8 total, the first two having virtually no story whatsoever), Dark Elves had their origin in their Queen [[Morathi]] being the high priestess of Slaanesh, who corrupted her [[Malekith|son]] and about half the Elf race. While most Dark Elves torture and kill in the name of [[Khaine]], Morathi lead a cult of Chaos Elves and regularly allied with other Slaaneshi factions (other than Beastmen, because Morathi kept [[Harpy#Warhammer|her own]] as pets and shits on all others like a good Chaos character should). In later editions, Chaos Elves were retconned away into worshipers of [[Atharti]], [[Hekarti]], and [[Ereth Khial]], three Elven Slaanesh-expy gods, in order to redo the Dark Elf faction as evil Elves who ally with other Elves in the interest of mutual survival instead of evil Elves who just want to watch the world burn while a slave whose skin has been torn off gives them oral. This choice split many fans, some asking why Elves should worship Slaanesh when they have Khaine instead of Khorne, others asking why they worship Khaine when Khorne is better.
* '''[[Warriors of Chaos]]''': Not-Vikings/Mongols who live in the desolate north of Warhammer Fantasy and fight against each other when not raiding the rest of the world. The closer to the [[Warp Gate]]s they are, the more they are like living Daemons while the furthest south are generally only concerned with survival and not offending gods.
* '''[[Beastmen]]''': Rapist omnivorous (in every sense of the word) animal-mutants that infest the world. Beastmen serve all of Chaos, some serve specific gods more than others but few serve one entirely. Live to literally and canonically shit on civilization and order. Ironically treated like shit by all of the rest of Chaos. Slaanesh, in keeping with the trend, allows his followers to fuck their women and drink their wine.
*'''[[Hellstriders]]''': Warriors of Chaos mounted upon Seeker mounts. Unlike most Chaos Gods, who give daemonic mounts as rewards for their best followers, Slaanesh (or Keepers of Secrets in Age of Sigmar given Slaanesh's imprisonment) gives out Seekers to the weak-willed and lazy looking for a quick path to power. Those who fall for this trap find that although they gain power, they also gain a crippling addiction to the souls of their enemies that quickly results in them losing all pleasure outside of killing. If a Hellstrider is unable to kill, they will quite literally die from withdrawal.

=== [[Age of Sigmar]] ===
* '''Lord of Pain''': BDSM-freak Chaos Lords who are obsessed with giving and receiving pain. Not only does their high pain tolerance make them almost Nurgle-level tough, but they can even reflect their pain back to their enemies.
* '''Shardspeaker of Slaanesh''': Slaaneshi sorcerers who use their magical mirrors to force their enemies to submit to their most shameful hidden desires.
* '''Myrmidesh Painbringers''': The warrior elite of the Hedonites. Myrmidesh Painbringers are unusually chosen for their ability to withstand temptation, denying all carnal pleasures for a single minded focus on perfecting combat and ensuring their enemies die in the most beautiful and painful ways possible.
* '''Symbaresh Twinsouls''': Trying to be a disciplined aescetic warrior while being surrounded by perverted freaks is hard. So it isn't suprising that some Myrmidesh find themselves unable to keep up their eternal No-Nut November and fall off the deep end, allowing their souls to be possessed by daemons. Expectedly, this fusing of daemon and mortal blood makes the Twinsouls a favored unit of [[Syll'Esske]].
* '''Blissbarb Archers''': The dregs of Hedonite warbands excluded from the rush of melee combat. They coat their arrows in the eponymous Blissbarb poison that’s one part aphrodisiac and another part paralyzing agent.
* '''Blissbarb Seekers''': When the aforementioned Archer gets their first taste of steel cutting their skin (and lives to tell about it), they’re likely to become addicted to this feeling and seek to claim a Seeker as their mount in order to chase after this exquisite sensation.
* '''Slickblade Seekers''': Elite Hellstriders with a nasty jealous streak against anyone who dares to steal the killing blow from them. They ride on the unique Exalted Seeker of Slaanesh rather than the stock variant.
* '''Slaangor Fiendbloods''': [[Slaangor]]s are back baby! The shock troopers of the Hedonite hosts, they are venerated by other Slaaneshi followers as physical avatars of the Dark Prince.

[[File:Slaanesh TWW3.png|300px|thumb|right|Slaanesh as he appears during survival battles in Total War: Warhammer 3, not taking kindly those who refuse the temptation events]]

==Total War: Warhammer 3==
In the game you must collect the souls of 4 daemon princes, one from each Chaos god, in order to fight Be'lakor and get to Ursun. Slaanesh's realm is both the easiest and the hardest; the Arch-Temptress lives up to the name and thus while going down the circle, besides fighting various AI armies you will be given scenarios that you can either ignore or play in order to fight Slaanesh's daemon prince. The positives it gives are beyond good - a beyond enormous amount of gold which lets you buy anything you want, increasing Public Order up to 200, really good replacement, and more. However, if you choose to take one of these gifts, you'll be kicked out of the realm and have to wait till it appears again, so steel your heart and march onward while slapping yourself in the face for good measure, and struggle on till you get that soul. Or use the warp portals to teleport to your rivals and use your Slaanesh buffed forces to kneecap them on the world map. Not like they can mount a decent defense when their best army is tooling around in the chaos realms.

==Potential semi-retcon of Slaanesh in 40k==
With the release of "Rise of the Ynnari: Wild Rider" we now have daemons of Slaanesh making an appearance during the [[War in Heaven]]? Now this could be just a case of [[Doctor Who|timey wimey]] Warp shenanigans but it could also be an indication of something else! What if Slaanesh's "birth" was actually more akin to a rebirth of something far older; the original sin if you were.

It is known that even before the Fall agents of Slaanesh were already at large in the galaxy and actively seeking to bring it into being. If Slaanesh did indeed have a presence all the way back in the War in Heaven then perhaps it has always been there, seeking a way to return, as opposed to beginning to gestate within the Empyrean during the conflict itself.

Slaanesh isn't all about sex, [[Drug|drugs]] and more sex, but actually fits all of the seven deadly sins rather well: [[/d/|Lust]], [[RAGE|Wrath]], [[Blood Ravens|Greed]], [[Perturabo|Envy]], [[Giles|Gluttony]], [[Lazy Marines|Sloth]] and [[Cato Sicarius|Pride]] all fall under Slaanesh's domain; each of which play key roles in the other God's spheres of influence also. Of course these are taken to their extremes, as is Slaanesh's trade mark, but even the other Chaos Gods are extremes in their own way, and though they are all placed above the Dark Prince in terms of power they all may "fear" the influence that Slaanesh has the potential to hold over them and are very wary that the Dark Prince may eventually eclipse them all in power.

The War in Heaven is essentially the event(s) that created "Hell" in 40k as many races with a presence in the warp fought and died in the conflict, so it makes sense that there must have been an "original Satan"-like figure as well. Of course, this could be looking too much into this and talking out of our collective arse, but what with Slaanesh in [[Age of Sigmar]] no longer being counted amongst the Four, it opens up a lot of possibilities for when the Dark Prince does eventually return.

==The Wandering Knight in the Palace of Slaanesh==

(AKA [[Kaldor Draigo]] becomes a sleeper agent. Probably. Other things are possible, but this would slap down the Mary Sue, so really, why argue?)

While the other Chaos Gods rarely welcome intruders to their lands within the immaterium, Slaanesh loves to tempt visitors to his unnatural domain, and those that dare enter the Lord of Pleasure's territory risk becoming trapped in its warped delights for eternity.

Slaanesh's realm is divided into six domains, arranged in concentric rings about the Palace of Pleasure. Each of these is a celebration of Slaanesh's desires, and while they might be mistaken for paradises, nothing in the lands of the Dark Prince is as it seems. An intruder can only reach the Palace of Pleasure, in the very heart of Slaanesh's territory, by passing through all six of the circles-- an act of will beyond most souls, both mortal and demonic. One amongst the mortal visitors to his realm still looms large in the memory of Slaanesh, however-- a wandering knight of the Adeptus Astartes whose resolve was as strong as silvered adamantium.

The first circle the knight pushed through was richly appointed beyond the dreams of kings. Mountains of stacked gold reached towards rainbow mosaics of gemstones in the marble vaults high above; glittering ingots and diamonds beyond count littered the ground. The knight marched past many a starving wretch attempting to count the innumerable gold coins, their sallow faces twisted with mounting greed until their piles toppled, and, weeping, they had to start over again. At every corner of the crossroads stood gilded statues, some of beautiful Slaanesh, others of Daemons and mortals trapped in blissful ecstasy. The trails in the diamond dust underfoot betrayed the fact that the statues were once flesh and blood. The knight had left notions of material wealth long behind, and he strode on without touching a single coin.

Crunching his way across a beach of golden teeth, the knight came to the shores of a vast lake of dark wine. The lake was dotted with pallid islands formed from the backs of giants, each linked by crisscrossing bridges. The backward hands of each giant held up a table that groaned under the weight of a lavish feast. There, he saw mortal men gorging themselves on the banquet, wide-eyed and desperate in their hunger; others frantically tried to gulp down the lake itself. The bloated and the obese moaned in pain as they crammed ever more food into their wine-stained mouths. The knight pressed on, distaste twisting his features as he passed the grisly remains of those who had consumed so much that they had physically burst apart.

The wanderer made his way through fields of golden light and soft hay, where lissome maidens and beautiful youths frolicked near-naked in the hallucinogenic musk of the lithe beasts that cavorted with them. The faces and fertile forms of the dancers were impossibly sensual, moulded to the perfect desire of the heart. The knight held his breath and closed his eyes, for though mortal pleasures were forbidden to his order, part of him was still a man. The crooning nymphs gathered around the knight, stroking his silvered armour and whispering of the sweet carnal pleasures they would give him, but he yielded not. The severed limbs and heads that lay underfoot spoke of the truth behind the honeyed lies. Eyes shut, he cut down the daemonette seductresses around him one after another, letting revulsion guide his shining blade.

After fighting his way through the feminine contours of the foothills ahead, the knight emerged onto a balcony where he was greeted by roars of adulation and approval. An army of Space Marines vast beyond counting awaited him on an endless plain, listening in fevered anticipation of his commands for conquest. Planetary governors nodded in obsequious anticipation, and the High Lords of Terra smiled up at him from smaller balconies of their own, motioning him to speak. The knight recognised one of the rulers from his own mortal life; he stood before him, looking deep into the Philosopher-King's eyes. Behind the mask of power and self-assurance, he saw eternal, nagging paranoia, gnawing suspicion and hidden doubts that were acid to the soul. The knight shook his head sadly and walked away.

Wearied by his ordeals, the wanderer strode on through a mesmerising woodland paradise, its maze of pathways thick with flowers and heavy with thorns. The gentle, fragrant breeze whispered to the knight of past glories, reminding him of the executions he had performed in the Emperor's name. Mirrored pools reflected the knight as a shining saint, his face serene but his sword bloodied as he artfully carved apart rank after rank of red-skinned Daemons. The warrior turned away, troubled. In the distance, he could make out tortured figures staring intently into mirror pools of their own, each held immobile by the undergrowth as whispering thorns insinuated themselves into their flesh. The wanderer turned his mind to the humility of the cell he once called home. As he did so, the path through the maze writhed and straightened out before him. So the knight trudged on.

An endless beach stretched away from the knight, and heavenly choirs sung soothing lullabies as the perfumed sea lapped at the fortress walls of his mind. The wanderer's bones cried out for rest, even if only for a moment. The warmth of the golden sun above calmed his soul, and the tide began to erode his will. His tired eyes could barely stay open, but his vision was still clear enough to see the horrible truth: the bone-white sand was made from the remains of those who had rested here and fallen into a coma of blissful indolence. His resolve hardened, the knight strode on toward the shimmering palace in the distance.

It was there, beneath the elegant spires, that the wanderer came before almighty Slaanesh. Statuesque and divinely glamorous, the deity visited him in the form of a youth possessed of an androgynous beauty, clean-limbed and fresh with vigour. The knight unsheathed his rune-etched sword and made to strike him down. To his horror, he found that he could not, for the god-prince was disarming in his innocence and utterly beguiling in his manner.

Even the purest flame can be extinguished by the tide. In that single moment of doubt, the wanderer was lost. He knelt, bowing his head at last, and a single touch of the being's glowing sceptre on each shoulder sealed his fate for eternity.

== Facts ==
[[File:Nope.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Alright, who's next for "Purifying"?]]
* Though Khorne stans and /tg/ will deny it, Slaanesh is secretly the strongest chaos god.
* [[Ynnead]] is secretly Slaanesh
*[[Sanguinius]] is jealous of Slaanesh because they are the only one more fabulous than hi-{{BLAM}}
* Slaanesh wants to fuck the Emperor, but every time they try, the Big E psychically bitch-slaps them, destroys all their sex toys and sex slaves and breaks their hands so they can't fap for a while.
* Slaanesh knows that you can't spell happiness without penis.
** Slaanesh is dyslexic.
*** Slaanesh also knows that you can't spell dyslexic without sex.
* The title of Slaanesh's greatest mortal champion is owned by Shädman''(ayyyyy)''
* Slaanesh is bitching over the fact how their only representation in the DoW series was the [[Emperor's Children]] paint scheme. And they aren't even Slaaneshi like, they're just a generic chaos army. Although, they did grant favor to Eliphas for smashing a ton of soulstones. (And their colours aren't even correct.)
**However, concerning stated above, the developers have added noise marines for Dawn of war 2: Retribution. This has made Slaanesh quite happy. However, he/she/it is still <s>pissed off of not getting enough representation</s> OFFENDED BY THIS SILENCE, considering Nurgle gets Plague Champion hero, the Plague Marine Tier 2 unit, and the Epic Great Unclean One daemon, Khorne then gets the Khornate Chaos Lord, Bloodletters and Bloodcrushers, while Tzeentch gets the Sorcerer hero, has the most effective upgrade for the basic CSM squad (Warpfire bolts make everything in front of them shit brix and was flat out broken in earlier versions of its introduction), and all of the Anti-armor upgrades, while they only get a single unit that frankly eclipsed by either Plague Marines or generic Havocs with an autocannon.
* Charlie Sheen is their first true Daemon Prince (though he was recently diagnosed with HIV which resulted from his sexcapades, so looks like he could swing towards [[Nurgle]]. But just like [[Fulgrim]] his body probably needs to be destroyed first before he can ascend). It was nearly Malcolm Mcdowell, on account of McDowell's filmography including two of Slaanesh's favorite films (see below) and McDowell's hedonistic younger years; before Charlie had even reached puberty, McDowell was already far into sex and drugs both in his films and real-life. But as he got older, McDowell turned away from hedonism and cleaned himself up. Other contenders include Gene Simmons and Tila Tequila.
* Slaanesh gets beaten up/off by all of the other Chaos Gods on a fairly regular basis, and gets off on it.
* If it exists, [[PROMOTIONS|Slaanesh faps/shlicks/shlaps to it]].
* Tzeentch likes to trick Slaanesh into fighting Khorne to get his daily dose of lulz. Slaanesh always loses these fights pretty badly; and each time, Slaanesh takes it pretty hard. [[C.S.Goto|And this pleases them.]]
* Slaanesh is secretly depressed that have no friends. Khorne is a dick, and Tzeentch is the biggest dick there is. Nurgle is nice, but Slaanesh can't get over the fact that he cucked them. ("Can't get over it" in both a [[PROMOTIONS|positive]] and [[RAGE|negative]] sense.)
** Also, Nurgle has ''all'' the STDs, which would make him Slaanesh's natural enemy out in the wild. Isha's immunity to all diseases is better than any protection, which is a pretty substantial reason why Slaanesh liked her.
* Slaanesh gets bullied by all the other Chaos Gods constantly because none of them like him/her/it. This does not upset the balance, though, because Slaanesh likes BDSM where they being bullied and tortured by the other Chaos Gods. He/she lets them do it, and could probably beat them if they tried.
* Slaanesh is Tzeentch's second favorite victim for his hijinks, because it's oh so easy to string them along with offers of porn, whores, BDSM and/or drugs.
* Khorne [[Rip and Tear|regularly tears off Slaanesh's arms]] and beats them over the head with them (Again, this inadvertently makes Slaanesh orgasm, which is why she/he ''lets'' Khorne does it).
* Slaanesh was doping when they killed the Eldar Gods, they couldn't really beat them all without using performance enhancing drugs. (at least that what Khaine, a god of war and destruction, keeps insisting when ever someone asks him why he got both figuratively and possibly literally raped by a god(ess) of sex drugs and rock'n'roll)
** Slaanesh is always on drugs (Except psychiatric medication, they kill sex drive down to the very biology)
* Slaanesh attempted to fight the Nightbringer in a desperate attempt to win back some street cred, they got their left boob cut off for their trouble. It hurt so bad/good that it retroactively cut off the left boobs of all of Slaanesh's greater daemons and that's why they all only have one boob (or six). Given the new backstory and their time of birth, this means that Slaanesh lost against a Necron Pokémon.
* Slaanesh is a great patron of the arts. Their favourite films include:
** ''Hellraiser'': Slaanesh's number one film. In fact, they took a lot of inspiration on many of the movie's aspects... <strike>That is, of course, a lie. They actually ripped off Hellraiser.</strike> Hellraiser ripped them off. Slaanesh had a cameo appearance in the sequel dressed as a lozenge.
** ''A Serbian Film'': Slaanesh's second favorite movie. They already started putting NEWBORN PORN into her/his daily schedule.
** ''Pink Flamingos'': Slaanesh's third favourite movie, which is actually a film adaptation of Slaanesh's journal. Slaanesh especially enjoyed the depictions of their hobbies (including bestiality, scat fetishes and vore), that the movie quotes them directly (see Divine's quote above).
** ''A Clockwork Orange'': One of Slaanesh's favorite movies; not so much the book it was adapted from as it was less about sex and more a commentary on the nature of morality. (Although Slaanesh faps/shlicks to commentaries on morality too.) They like to jerk-off at many of the movie's aspects, but more notably Malcolm McDowell's sexy face. They also find the death of one of the characters totally hilarious, due to the fact that said character was killed by a giant rocking ceramic phallus straight to the face. '''BLOWJOB OF DEATH !!! LULZ !!!''' Unbelievable and improbable? Well here's evidence to prove it: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbRSag-L-GQ Giant rocking ceramic phallus attack !!!].
** ''The Rocky Horror Picture Show'': Mostly because of Tim Curry (who is actually Slaanesh).
** ''Legend'': [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3J91bPrW9A Also because of Tim Curry, who practically plays a daemon prince of Slaanesh].
** ''Caligula'': The movie written by Gore Vidal for copious amounts of sex, incest and Malcolm McDowell as the title character. Slaanesh's favorite scenes are when Caligula engages in an incestuous threesome with his sister and his fiance, and the giant orgies on stage (don't watch the latter if you have a weak stomach - there's a real snake in one scene and [[FATAL|you don't want to know what the woman does with it]]).
** ''Eyes Wide Shut'': Slaanesh has heard the film described as "Just Artsy Porn", but doesn't get the criticism. It's Art and it's Porn. What's not to love?
** ''Event Horizon'': A documentary of how he/she/it is directly responsible for fucking up humanity's first venture into the Warp.
** ''High Rise'': Some say it holds the essence of the one time Slaaneshi and Khaine got jiggy with it.
** ''Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom'': Slaanesh liked it better when they thought it was real and not just special effects.
** ''The Stuff'': A movie about the time some railroad workers found lakes of Slaanesh's jizz at a quarry and marketed it as dessert food due to its properties, leading to numerous shenanigans and giving Slaanesh much lulz that they never learned where it came from.
* Slaanesh enjoys the Song of Ice and Fire books due to the copious amounts of incest and midget sex and the TV adaption Game of Thrones because they added sex scenes and casting several porn stars on top of this.
* Slaanesh's favorite band is GWAR, because everything with them is sex, drugs, and rock and roll in excess, even covering their audience in jizz, blood, random chemicals, and mixtures of all three, and inciting massive blood orgies constantly.
* Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams is also suspected to be one of the early influences of Slaanesh in human music culture, the singer suspected to be one of his/her/its avatars.
* Slaanesh gets ALL the pussy, as well as all the dick, [[Tzeentch|cloaca]], [[Tyranids|ovipositor]], [[Isha|stamen, pistil]], and [[Nurgle|pilus]].
* Slaanesh tried to seduce all of the remaining C'tan at once. Slaanesh ended up getting the pleasure sensors in its brain lobotomized. S/he got off on this.
* Slaanesh found Captain Flashheart so magnificent in Blackadder that they created a daemon prince in his image. Woof woof!
* Despite psychic powers supposedly being Tzeentch's specialty, Slaanesh's tend to be the really [[cheese|cheesy]] ones. 3rd edition had a minor power called Siren, which forbids the caster from being shot at in the opponent's shooting phase (it's just as broken as it sounds). 4th edition has Lash of Submission, which the Chaos Marine tactics cover the usage of (in a nutshell, GW admitted they didn't realize how good it turned out to be and it was the most used on daemon princes even though the +1I from the required MoS wasn't very useful). And what about 6th edition? While Tzeentchian sorcerers focus on pwning the shit our of enemy with (mediocre) mind bullets and warp-beams, Slaaneshi ones pack a whole lot of cheesy buffs and debuffs, which makes them so much better. Similar deal in Fantasy, where Slaanesh, some of the time, offers a better selection of magic than Tzeentch.
* Slaanesh is the only entity in existence who listens to the My Dad Wrote A Porno podcast purely for erotic purposes. He/she/it cannot understand for the life of him/her/it why no one else finds cervix-grabbing sexy. Still, they fap/shlick/???-PROFIT at this.
* Mentioning the names of Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn gives Slaanesh a massive boner/lady-boner. Though Slaanesh didn't have a hand in inventing the internet, three guesses why Slaanesh loves the internet, and the first two don't count. Mentioning Hugh Hefner also has a similar effect.
* As a patron of the arts, Slaanesh has many favorite authors, so can't pick one. Having said that, Marquis de Sade is a strong contender.
* Considering that Slaanesh is about excess, there might be several other types of Marines besides Noise Marines we don't know about:
** Smell Marines, who use gasses to do whatever they wish through peoples noses, whether it be death, insanity, paralysis, suggestibility, 'seeing colors', and so on, always permanent brain damage. This is a way to get Nurgle followers to convert.
** Sight Marines, whose weapons create wondrously intricate bloom and color effects of equally detailed and aesthetically (only to a branch of masochists masochists can't stand) pleasing. This is a way to get Khorne followers to convert.
** Touch Marines, who know the nervous system better than a Bene Gesserit, able to bring the mightiest warriors down with the right jab in the right spot, consumed with uncontrollable orgasms.
** Taste Marines, think about the spiciest thing you've ever eaten, now imagine that a million times stronger, we are talking Exterminatus level of scovilles here, literally melt your god damn tongue off heat. It's like that only worse. They would use super pepper spray that can literally eat through armor.
* Also, a former Tzeentch follower gone Slaaneshi would be incredibly dangerous: Tzeentch followers understand indeterminism (from a very distorted, cynical perspective) and also see knowledge as power per circumstance to win where force, charisma and economics cannot. A devout Slaaneshi seeks to experience everything. Thus a former Tzeentchian, already well read on enough to convince themselves they experienced it, or well read enough to steal peoples experiences, who became a hedonist addict as well would be left with one desire: to be omnipotent and thus be able to go beyond the limits of mortal imaginings in pursuit of understanding and experience for the sake of understanding and experience.
* Slaanesh tried to get in Khorne's head by seeking to understand the appeal of skulls. Instead Slaanesh got bored and invented the idea of skullfucking. '''{{Blam|DAMN IT SLAANESH WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO MY SKULL THRONE THIS IS DISGUSTING!! IT'S EVERYWHERE!! IT'S OOZING OUT OF EVERY EYE SOCKET!!! I'M NEVER GOING TO BE ABLE TO SIT ON THAT AGAIN AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!}}'''
** Khorne secretly loves it when Slaanesh does this, because now he has even more of an excuse to go out and collect enough skulls to replace it.
* [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|Slaanesh Patrols will skull fuck your family.]]
* [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|If you masturbate with barbed wire, a daemon of slaanesh will be summoned, and you will be exterminatus-ed]]
* Slaanesh secretly wants Khorne. S/he's upset that the 'Special K' hates her/him/it.
** However, if Slaanesh ever did create a copy of him/her/their/itself, then the two would immediately try to murderfuck each other, in a kinky simulacrum of Highlander. This would apply to all of the main ruinous powers, apart from <s>including</s> Nurgle, who would simply hug his <s>whose</s> female double and then get to work with said double on a particularly virulent strain of super aids/crotch rot. <s>would get jealous of Isha and conspire with Slaanesh to get rid of that home-wrecking skank.</s>
* Slaanesh is the patron <s>god</s> <s>goddess</s> deity of bonobos (look them up).
* Slaanesh's ''only'' criticism of the Cats movie is that there are no visible genitals.
* Slaanesh #fuckedPalpatine.
* Slaanesh's deepest, darkest, most perverted and debased desire is to hold hands with someone and have loving [[Heterosexual Sex in the Missionary Position]] with lots of cuddling before, during and after - because when you are the embodiment of excess itself, the only truly outrageous thing left is wholesome normalcy.

== Gallery ==
{{heresy}}
{{promotions}}
{{/d/}}
<gallery>
Klaher-baklaher-slanesh.jpg
Image:Slaaneshfaggot.jpeg|A real-life worshipper of Slaanesh.
Image:Slaaneshi.JPG|Slaanesh followers DO COCAINE!!!!!!!!
Image:Daemonette commisssar.JPG|That's a real [[commissar]], just look at the [[hat]].
Image:Daemonette02.JPG|DDaemonette
Image:Daemonette01.JPG|It's not furry, you can totally fap to it.

Image:Daemonette.JPG
Image:Slaaneshi2.JPG|Why it's good to be Slaanesh follower.
Image:Daemonxmas copy.jpg|Slaanesh can be festive as well.
Image:Lurvemudkipz.JPG|Evidence that it is possible that some [[pokémon]] are susceptible to Chaotic influence.

Image:Slaaneshi mudkips.JPG|Oh god. ;_;
Image:Slaanesh trainer.jpg|There is no excuse or explanation for this.
Image:Slaaneshijack copy.jpg|This image can be used to improve a bad thread.
Image:Irresistible.jpg|Simply Irresistible

Image:Dranon5.jpg|Mr Culexus' interpretation of Slaanesh. Notice the massive bulge in the crotch that's bigger than it's boobs.
Image:Not_too_abysmal_by_Mr_Culexus.jpg|Love can bloom in the galaxy of Transylvania
Image:1271157389405.jpg|What a Slaaneshi raptor would look like by non-GW canon.
Image:daemonette_minerva.png|Who else did you think furries worshiped?

Image:Slaanesh_LAWL.jpg|LAWL
Image:Trapmarine.jpg|Slaanesh Chaos Marines come with a little "extra"...
Image:Trapmarine_BW.jpg|... which may not be so "little".
Image:Daemonette_with_seeker_mount.jpg|She "rides" it... if you know what I mean... no seriously, zoom in if you don't believe me. Although for your sake you really should take my word for it.

Image:643214 - Daemonette Eldar Warhammer 40k howling banshee warhammer yuliapw.jpg|The more common and usual fate of Eldar.
Image:Slaanesh cosplay 1 by zk87-d2zo47q.jpg|Now 262.71% more real!
Image:Slaanesh Time.jpg|You might be mixing up love and lust.
Image:Slaanesh_miniature_closeup.jpg|Gimme some sugar

Image:Slaanesh+hr giger.jpg|H. R. Giger is pleased
Image:Slaanesh by zk87-d2z4bpv.jpg|Lashes of Torment!
Image:Slaanesh-153102-SweetAngel.jpg|She Who Thirsts indeed
Image:Khorne-and-Slaanesh.jpg|Khorne is sooo tsundere...
Image:Slaanesh by genzoman-d2y8ylf.jpg|[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2qT7GylRxw And to think... I hesitated]

Image:She_Who_Thirsts.jpg|<s>Still lusting after her now?</s> Who Am I kidding, of course we are.

Image:Dark_Prince_of_Pleasure_Slaanesh_wfrp.jpg|From the old [[WFRP]] days
Image:MoeSlaanesh.png|How can anyone not want to serve something so utterly <s>adorable</s> heretical?
Image:1419021850273.jpg|Yes, that is a Santa outfit.
Image:Anons_fall_to_Chaos.png|Anon heralds the Age of Strife.
Image:Champion of Slaanesh RL.png| We have the makings of a daemon prince here!
Image:HereticalUseOfChainswords.gif| When you say "Go Fuck Yourself with a Chainsword," Slaanesh will take it literally.
Image:Cultist-chan24.jpg|Slaanesh has improved cultist chan
Image:Wildslaanesh.png|Slaanesh Demon corrupts children.
Image:Slaanesh-sorcerer.jpeg|Slaanesh makes the Cenobites from Hellraiser look good.
Image:SlaaneshWH3.png|Slaanesh, as depicted in Total War: Warhammer 3 once the skybox filter is removed.
</gallery>

Give yourself over to absolute pleasure
Swim the warm waters of sins of the flesh
Erotic nightmares beyond any measure
And sensual daydreams to treasure forever
Can't you just see it. Whoa ho ho!
Don't dream it, be it...
Don't dream it, be it...

==See Also==
*[[/d/]]
*[[Azazel]] - The oldest existing [[Daemon Prince]] of Slaanesh in [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]].
*[[Shalaxi Helbane]] Slaanesh main [[Keeper of Secrets]] in [[Warhammer 40,000]] and [[Age Of Sigmar]].
*[[Dechala]] - The oldest existing Chaos Champion special character of Slaanesh in [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]].
*[[The Masque]] - Slaanesh's former fav fab Daemonette stripper, and current PR rep.
*[[Sigvald]], Slaanesh's favorite not-Caligula/not-Joffrey.
*The [[Emperor's Children]] legion - The largest contingent of sick fucks on this side of the warp. And on that side of the warp.
*[[Fulgrim]] - Primarch of the largest contingent of sick fucks ever.
*[[Fabius Bile|Fabulous Bile]] - What you get by combining a self-obsessed homosexual and Dr. Frankenstein, only this one is played by geriatric [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kane_%28wrestler%29 Glenn Jacobs] instead of young Tim Curry.
*[[Lucius]] - Considered by some as the Sickest of Fucks amongst the living.
*[[Doomrider]] - He does COCAINE!
*[[Miriael Sabathiel]] - The most infamous [[Sisters of Battle|Sister of Battle]] to fall to Slaanesh. Commonly mistaken as the ''only'' Chaos Sister of Battle by people who haven't read [[Ephrael Stern|Daemonifuge]]. Last seen hunting Eldar to give them [[Rape|hugs]].
*[[Codex - Fallen Sororitas]] - An entire homebrew army of Slaaneshi Sisters of Battle.
*[[Daemonette]] - Daemons of Slaanesh. Viewing said content is heretical, in 20 seconds or less after clicking the link, expect a squad of inquisitorial storm troopers to barge-in and blam you to hell.
*[[Reasonable Daemonette]] - Slaanesh's perversion knows no bounds. Hers does, and she respects yours.
*[[Loli D]] - The [[loli]] variant of the Slaaneshi Daemonette. Viewing said content is [[Extra Heresy|extra heretical]]. E-Commissars can and will [[Exterminatus|blam you from your monitor with the utmost prejudice]] if you click on this link.
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRPIsrxUc_E Rick and Morty's visit to the Realm of Slaanesh]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-gHgcmFB6Q Slaanesh's visit to the Realm of Rick and Morty]
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[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Age of Sigmar]][[Category:Hedonites of Slaanesh]]