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Mongols

2022-07-11T18:19:34Z

2607:FB90:E30B:7564:CD45:72C2:9EAC:984E:

Bad-ass barbarians most notable for producing [[Genghis motherfucking Khan]] and [[rape|probably being one of your ancestors.]] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szxPar0BcMo| They're the exception.]

==Condensed History==
[[image:MongolEmpire.jpg|thumb|500px|right|The Mongolian Empire at its height, teaching both Napoleon and [[Nazi|Hitler]] [[Get shit done|on how to actually conquer]] Russia.]]
To understand the Mongols you first need to understand steppe nomadism. Steppe nomads were, essentially, [[munchkins]] in a very poorly designed campaign. Most societies of the time had a lot of options and thus spread their proverbial character points around. Metallurgy, agriculture, architecture, and philosophy were all valuable links in a massive skill tree that allowed great classical civilizations like [[China]] and the [[Roman Empire]] to thrive. Steppe nomads on the other hand, living in an environment that resembled the moon as much as anything, had a access to a slightly more restricted skill tree. And by restricted we mean it basically consisted of "raising sheep", "riding horses", "shooting things with bows". It's no accident that every society along the steppe belt from East Asia to Central Europe had the same basic patterns of life, adapted the same tactics, and made their neighbors lives the same living hell with a cyclical "trade and raid" policy for thousands of years. Essentially they were all one trick ponies, but that pony had a man on it, and the trick was putting an arrow with sixty pounds of draw tension behind it through your eye at a hundred paces. To this day the steppe nomads still live like that, although now they use snowmobiles and AK-47's.

The Mongols took this incredibly successful monobuild, threw on a couple character flaws like chronic alcoholism for extra points, funneled those points back into horses and archery, and proceeded to set the world on fire. The lynch pin failure of the steppe nomadic model was it's inability to scale up. The northern grasslands they inhabited couldn't sustain sedentary populations and the few tribes that did bump into one another were constantly fighting over what few shiny bits they had. Occasionally they would make organized raids into their settled neighbors' territory, but these just resulted in them looting everything that wasn't nailed down and going home, or settling in and very quickly developing a bad case of [[MAD]] like everybody else. Cue [[Genghis motherfucking Khan]]. We won't go into great detail about him here because he has his own page (which he deserves and which you ''will'' read, sheep) but the short version was that he decided he was going to take everything.

Under the Khan's leadership the Mongols unified and began raiding south. The Chinese, who were already divided and had been licking the boots of successive horse nomad mini-dynasties for years already, put up little concerted resistance. A few decades and tens of millions of lives later all of northern China was under Mongol rule. While the Chinese would eventually play their own trump card strategy of [[weeaboo|just assimilating all the Mongols who came to China]] the first khans managed to keep their edge. Mongol units were routinely rotated back to the steppe to keep them hungry (both figuratively and literally) and distinct cultural and legal institutions were promoted to make sure they didn't get too friendly with the sheeple they were being sent to butcher. The result was a Mongol army that maintained the terrifyingly effective point and click murder of horse archery tactics backed up by the resources, technology, and endless auxilia reserves of China.

And then they fucking rolled out. The horde shifted west and began eating every tribe and buffer state they came in contact with. This continued until the Mongols hit the powerful Khwarezmian empire in modern day Iran. The Khwarezmian shah, having just finished declaring [[exterminatus]] on his own local steppe nomads, wasn't in the mood for diplomacy and sent the Mongol emissaries back in boxes. Unfortunately for the shah and his people this just gave the Mongols a massive erection, and made Genghis Motherfucking Khan [[RAGE]](hurting emissaries being a big no-no in nomad culture). The ruling khans immediately stopped bickering and exploded west in an [[Angron]]-worthy campaign of pillage and depopulation that culminated in the seizure of most of the middle east. The Muslims, who were by this point fairly certain they were living through the apocalypse, were told to act right and pay their taxes but otherwise to do whatever they wanted. The horde left a few guys to stare portentously at their new Persian/Uzbek subjects and rolled west. A few buffer states later they reached Kievan Rus.

After the powerful and united Khwarezmian empire, crushing Rus, which by the time was split into dozen of feudal states waging petty wars on each other with little to no central government (much like the rest of the Europe of that times) posed about as much challenge as a [[nurgling]] would to [[Marneus Calgar]]. After a few curb stomp battles the Russian princes attempted to play their own ethnic special ability of running away and letting winter conditions kill everybody. The Mongols, having come from one of the few earthly places shittier than Russia, were quite pleased that they could now march over frozen rivers and promptly [[wat|sped up]]. The usual results ensued (several Russian nobles were lashed together and used as a picnic table) and the states of Rus were united for the first time in centuries under Mongol rule (except for Novgorod and Galich who bribed their way out of serious fighting). From here the horde grew increasingly fractious and fell deeper and deeper into infighting. Temujin's offspring had always been a bunch of clusterfucking alcoholic maniacs but their egos and power had finally grown so large that even the laws and systems he had devised could no longer contain them. The final years of the empire weren't without merits. The war machine kept grinding on even in the absence of competent leadership. The horde penetrated central Europe and began fucking up places like Poland and Hungary. Several battles ensued between Europe's chivalric armies and the Mongols, and usually played out like a match between the New York Yankees and your local tee-ball team (if Derek Jeter killed and mutilated the entire group of children after the game). Nobody is quite sure how far the Mongol forces might have swept it their leadership hadn't imploded, but take a moment to be happy you aren't speaking Mongolian.

== Impact ==
Leaving aside the toll in human lives, the Mongols did have some lasting impacts in the areas they conquered. In truth the Mongols did not contribute much new to science, technology or artwork directly, but they were good at spreading things around. When the Mongols went to Iran, they brought with them rice from China. They also sent cobalt east to Chinese potters for use in their ceramics industry as blue paint. Mongolians built roads and established trade posts on the conquered territories (well, not by themselves - they ordered locals to do it), and were responsible for creating one of the first reliable mail networks, that spanned from Kiev to Peking (several ancient civilisations beat them to it, not least the ancient Achaemenids, who were first, and the Romans). Additionally, they credited with the first cannons - combining European bell-casting techniques with Chinese gunpowder.

Mongols also liked to swear a lot, and to this day roughly 10 to 50% of swear words in the places they had conquered have Mongolian roots.

It should be noted that it was under the Mongol Empire that Europe started having more regular contact with the Far East; while this was partly due to them being right on Eastern Europe's doorstep, the Europeans had also sent many emissaries, including famed explorer Marco Polo, who spent years in Kublai Khan's court and introduced Europe to a world that they knew little of before; this culminated in a fascination with the far East, leading to repeated attempts by Europeans to find efficient trade routes during Age of Exploration.

==Reasons You're Completely Fucked==
*The Mongols invented blitzkrieg warfare. In an era where most armies had to give up and go home every time farming needed to happen, the Mongols had only one reason to ever stop, namely that since Mongols used composite bows, wet weather could break the glue of their bows apart which may have been why they did not take much of wetter Europe, but other than that problem of their bows breaking apart, they would not stop. Every Mongol trooper carried everything he needed to survive and fight including extra bow strings (the penalty for losing one was death) and herded sheep along as a mobile food source. In the unlikely event that they ran out of sheep, they would simply steal from the locals; and in the unlikelier scenario that they were in a place with nothing to loot, they would [[vampire|drink their horses' blood]]. Historians credit this fact for the wildly exaggerated numbers most opposing armies credited the Mongols with having. Nobody could believe that the same people who had fucked their shit up last [[Tuesday]] at the border were now camped outside their capital.
*Fortunately for their enemies, the Mongols refused to shed Noble blood. Unfortunately for enemies, the Mongols were incredibly creative people. Countless Nobles were executed by via trampling, drowning, being fed molten silver, being converted into a table and used for a mongol picnic, or just plain choked the fuck out.
*The Mongols were incredibly progressive. They respected local customs and allowed open worship, meaning successful rebellions almost never took in their territories. All they asked was that you kept telling your god [[Imperial Cult|what a cool guy the khan is]], and that you definitely think he deserves to get into heaven/nirvana/be reincarnated as a Mongol.
*In the event that a rebellion was gaining traction, the Mongols had an incredibly sophisticated and advanced intelligence network ready to sabotage it. Anybody plotting against the horde would be bribed, blackmailed, or assassinated before they got anywhere near carrying out a plot. Far from being a group of rock banging barbarians, the Mongols knew that not every problem could be solved by [[Khorne]] scale ultra-violence. Just most problems.
*Remember all that religious pluralism? It didn't stop them from taking their own beliefs pretty seriously. Said beliefs included the idea that the Mongols were destined to take over the world, and that even token resistance to Mongol conquest was [[heresy]]. [[Exterminatus|Heretics were dealt with accordingly.]]
*The mongols may have invented biological warfare by taking the bodies of people who died of the black plague, loading them into catapults and flinging them over the walls of enemy strongholds to let the plague do their work for them. On the subject of the black plague, even when the Mongols were not spreading it on purpose, they carried it with them everywhere they went and with their rapid, fast moving forces acting as carriers, allowing the Plague to spread from [[Exterminatus|China (where it killed 25 million) to Europe (where it killed roughly a third of the total population)]] before it burned out.

==Decline==
Since this article had been spent mostly aggrandizing the Mongols as warriors and conquerors one might be left asking the question of what happened to them. Why are not steppe horsemen ruling over us now? There are three main reasons for this...
*Fragmentation: As previously mentioned, the Mongol Empire began breaking up into smaller domains, usually due to succession conflicts. These would continue to break down into yet smaller bits and because there were fighting Mongols with Mongols as a rule neither side had a decisive advantage to just roll over the opposition and so forth until non-mongols could take em on. The first major division split the empire into four parts...
** Yuan Dynasy: Kublai Khan managed to finish off China by knocking off the Song dynasty. But then he tried to invade Japan and that went really badly (both of their invasion fleets got hit by a typhoon). Then he died and less than a century later the Ming dynasty took power although the remnants of Yuan would remain a thorn in their side until both sides fell to the Jin dynasty.
** The Golden Horde: Batu son of Jochi took control of the steppe lands, encompassing much of the territory of modern Russia. The nomadic tribes of the steppe reverted to old habit, fighting among themselves for several centuries until falling to the Russian empire.
** Ilkhanate: first ruled by Tolui, the Ilkhanate stretched from Asia Minor (Turkey) to the Persian Gulf. While most of the mongol khanates were buddist, the Ilkhanate were exposed to Islam, thought it was great and converted, then the whole khanate fell apart until it was absorbed into the Ottoman empire.
** Chagatai: Initially spanning Afghanistan and surrounding areas, the Chagatai khanate invaded India, becoming the Mughal empire (mongol in hindi). However, the Mughals ran into the problem EVERY empire runs into with India: that they've got a bajillion people with a pluralistic culture and every attempt to get them to abandon the Brahminist caste system is doomed to fail. Nevertheless of all the khanates the Mugals held on the longest, and were still ostensibly in control of a few parts of India when the British Empire showed up.
*Administration: The Mongols were great warriors and were often led by great generals, but long story short a bunch of nomadic horse peoples off the steppes did not understand the fine details of managing complex agricultural and urban societies, especially when they often kept themselves said societies at arms length. Improper administration inevitably led to economic downturns, resentment and eventually rebellions. The biggest example would be in the death of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, in which their bad policies led to them getting kicked out from power after less than a century of ruling china, proving that outsourcing bureaucracy to other civil servants who were themselves from another land (Arabia) was not sustainable.
*[[Firearm|Gunpowder]]: If there was a good hard counter to Mongol horse archers it would be firearms, sort of. It took the Mongols some seventy years to conquer China and they only succeeded in doing so when it was divided, after overrunning the northern Jin Dynasty and adopting gunpowder weapons of their own. At the battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, an army of the Mamluk Sultanate defeated a Mongol army partially by using gunpowder weapons. The Red Turban rebellion which toppled the Yuan Dynasty managed to drive them out in part through being good with blackpowder weapons. In both cases, these were very primitive firearms they went up against and firearms technology continued to advance. The Mongols' goose was cooked when the age of the Arquebus came around. The issue of course is not that Arquebuses are better than Mongol horsemen, but that it takes a Mongol a lifetime to be trained how to shoot accurately from horseback while at a full gallop, whereas you can train almost anybody to use a Arquebus in a matter of mere weeks, which the vastly more populated city cultures could use to create armies much larger and faster then the Nomadic Mongols.

==Mongols In /tg/==
*The [[White Scars]] chapter of space marines in [[40K]] are space Mongols, going so far as to name their leaders Khans.
*The Dothraki in [[A Song of Ice and Fire]]. They share many of the same customs, including "refusing" to shed the blood of nobles.
*[[Tarkir]] is based on the Mongolian empire.
*The Mongols map directly to the Kurgan of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, only [[Grimdark|Grimdarked]] into brutal Chaos-worshipping savages. They're steppe nomads with the darker skin and slanted eyes, strong emphasis on horse archers, military genius stymied by poor administration, and even a "Great Kurgan".
*[[Doombreed]], the first and greatest of [[Khorne|Khorne's]] Daemon Princes is theorised to be Genghis Khan himself.
*[[Orcs]]
*An Ork [[WAAAGH]] can also end up becoming Space Galactic Mongols if it grows far too big and led by a Warboss of exceptional might and cunning, like in [[The War of The Beast]].
*[[Ogre Kingdoms]] in Warhammer Fantasy

==/tg/ in Mongols==
*The Mongols are clearly [[Chaos]] Worshipers, in spirit if not in intentional prayer.
*They pay homage to the angriest [[Chaos]] god, [[Khorne]], with their multicontinent rampage. He seemed to be their primary patron Chaos god. They spilled the blood of their horses if there were no enemies nearby, and they even build pyramids of skulls for him so that they may be added to the Skull Throne.
*Their extensive intelligence network and [[Just as Planned|crafty planning]] prove that they were servants of [[Tzeentch]], god of... crafty planning.
*By conducting biological warfare using corpses, they tick both the "disease" and "death" boxes which make Papa [[Nurgle]] so happy.
*Genetic testing shows that the Great Kahn was a favorite boytoy of [[Slaanesh]], as he sexed the world's population so hard that <s>m</s>billions of people alive are descendants.

[[Category:History]]

Lost and the Damned

2022-07-11T04:42:45Z

2607:FB90:E30B:7564:CD45:72C2:9EAC:984E: /* And you thought the Guard was rough */

{{Oldschool}}
{{heresy}}
{{Cleanup}}
{{Topquote|Where men are forbidden to honor God they honor millionaires, athletes, or film stars instead; even famous prostitutes or gangsters. For Spiritual Nature, like bodily nature, ''will'' be served; deny it food and it will gobble poison.|C.S. Lewis}}
{{Topquote|Struggles of masses and ideas. An epic that will be carried forward by our peoples, mistreated and scorned by imperialism; our people, unreckoned with until today, who are now beginning to shake off their slumber. Imperialism considered us a weak and submissive flock; and now it begins to be terrified of that flock...|Che Guevara}}

[[File:WH Faces (5).jpg|300px|right|thumb|FOR CHAOS!!]]
[[Image:Cultist-chan01.jpg|thumb|300px|right|FHOR KAY-OSS!!]]
[[File:Realm_of_Chaos_-_The_Lost_and_the_Damned.jpg|thumb|200px|right|1989 Chaos! suplement for WFB and 40K.Featuring a flattering image of your mum.]]

The '''Lost and the Damned''' (alternatively Renegades and Heretics) are the various Chaos-following cultists, pirates, rebels, mutants, renegade [[Imperial Guard|Guardsmen]], and so forth that are not [[Chaos Space Marines]] or [[Daemons]], but fight alongside them for the Dark Gods. They're mostly known for their fanaticism, disposability, and alternations between complete brilliance and mind-shattering idiocy (largely depending on the individual group). Most members of the Lost and the Damned are considered at least 50% as ballsy as their Imperial counterparts, which is fairly ballsy by [[Grimdark|the standards of the 41st Millennium]].

Once upon a wonderful time, [[Games Workshop|the powers that be]] gave them an army list of their own in ''Codex: Eye of Terror'', the sourcebook for the [[13th Black Crusade]] campaign). Sadly, Games Workshop dropped support for the army as soon as the campaign was over, screwing over everyone that collected an army of them and making them our generation's [[Squat]]s. [[Forge World]], on the other hand, still carries renegade Guardsmen, but also publishes an army list for them, called Renegades & Heretics, which can be found in ''[[Imperial Armour]] Vol. 5: The Siege of Vraks Part 1''; [[Khorne|Khornate-]] and [[Nurgle|Nurglite-]]themed variants can be found in IA 6 & 7, respectively. There are also a few fandices that have been made, which are listed below. There's also the option of creatively using Allies to combine Chaos Space Marines or Daemons with Imperial Guard, as well as simply [[Khorne|painting your Guardsmen red and shouting "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD" whenever you get a chance]].

Of course, none of these options really cover the variety that might be found within the Lost and the Damned, as most focus on renegade Guardsmen and maybe a few other eclectic options.

==And you thought the Guard was rough==
So, you have managed to defect from the Imperium and joined the ranks of the Lost and the Damned. You had been drafted and taken from your dreary but comparatively peaceful home that you shall never see again, taken across the galaxy to a place you have never heard of to die in a war you have never heard of in the name of the Emperor. You have lived off shit rations, been bullied and bossed around and threatened by men in nice [[hats]] and then those voices in the back of your head came offering an escape for all that. And you have managed to somehow switch sides and join up with the local chaos force, everything is going to get better right?

Think again.

First of all, while you have switched heaps, you are still at the bottom. And while your old bosses might have been puritanical callous slave drivers, at least they were sane ([[Meme|ORLY?]]). Siding with [[Slaanesh]] can be rather fun, but you better [[anal circumference|prepare your anus. Literally.]] Sided with [[Khorne]]? Just hope to hell that you don't get set with a delay or have to go on a long march or get pinned down among your fellow psychopaths, because he cares not from whence the blood flows, only that it does. [[Tzeentch]]? Expect to be made an expendable cog in [[Just as Planned|someone's machinations]]. [[Nurgle]]? Hope you like becoming a walking pile of sores, blisters and pustules with random bits falling off, while smelling of a mixture of slaughterhouse runoff, old gym socks and vomit (alright, to be fair you won't care about that, being Nurglite and all).

Actually, life in the Slaaneshi and Nurglite regiments might not be all that different: Everyone's rather cheerful, but you require ample amounts of hemorrhoid cream (if for very different reasons).
Not to mention an actual Khorne renegade guard regiment would find it incredibly fucking dumb to just murder skilled soldiers because muh blood, you moron. ([[Battle of Skalathrax|Skalathrax]] just didn't happen I guess.)([[Kharn]] is an outlier and should not be counted.)

On top of that, your leaders are completely fucking nuts, and you are their literal punching bag. Alright, some are better than others (though the same goes for the Guard that your heretical ass left), but the bottom bar for Chaos leaders is going to be lower since it's more, well, chaotic. It's not uncommon to see someone shot because the boss had one of his little moments, or getting knifed in the back because someone forgot where he put his socks and accuses someone else in your Warband of stealing them. Now, if you are a scheming bastard, a good demagogue, an exceptional fighter and/or simply lucky/favoured by the Gods you might be able to go up in rank (though generals die in the Guard as well, and someone's gotta fill those gaps). That said, this is quite a cut-throat business. On a related note, the forces of Chaos are also opposed to each other. In the absence of loyalists or xenos and the like, a battle between servants of rival Chaos Gods is inevitable. Even if you are fighting a loyalist force or some Orks, you still better keep an eye out for rival Chaos worshipers.

Then there is support. If nothing else, the Imperium has the edge in Industry and general manpower. You will generally have to make do with much less than you did in the Guard, and much of your gear is likely going to be looted from people who don't want you looting their stuff. Now [[Daemons]], some mutations and the blessings of the Chaos gods might be helpful, but that brings up the risk of getting into [[Chaos Spawn|Chaos Spa-urh]], going-even-lower-down-the-command-chain-than-you-already-were-while-losing-your-brain-in-the-process-territory. He meant to say Chaos SpawnAAAAAAAAAHH mmbleble gluh! Finally, you've had enough of this? Well, too bad. There is no going back, [[heretic]] scum.

On the other hand, if you survive, have the skills to pay the bills, and satisfy the Dark Gods, the sky's the goddamned limit. You could even be a champion yourself some day, or perhaps even a [[Daemon Prince]]. It's happened before. All it takes is a combination of ruthlessness, ambition and a willingness to survive (and the ability to not die from a [[blam|bolter slug to the face]]). No one said this was going to be easy, but the ultimate prize justifies everything done to obtain it!

===The Other Hand is Just as Rough===
The above is an accurate summary of experiences for those regiments who start on their particular path to damnation firmly for, shall we say, [[Heresy|"religious reasons."]] However, the fact that Games Workshop has rebranded them as "Renegades and Heretics" should give a glimpse into the notion that guard regiments may have more secular or material reasons to rebel against the Imperium. It's not hard to figure out why, either - the Imperium literally spans a galaxy and running an organization that large with that many people can leave some [[Grimdark|"a little neglected,"]] especially when facing alien factions against whom the Imperium threw into a fight with them, what with their whole empire building and all... although at this point it's more empire repair. Not to mention that war is '''CONSTANT''' in the Imperium, not just against aliens or heretics, but against other polities on the planet or on other planets in that particular solar system, all jockeying for favour and resources for their own pet projects. Oh, and if none of those problems materialize for the planet, then another Imperial faction you've also probably never heard of from half the goddamn galaxy away has taken issue with you for any of the most inscrutable reasons and dispatched themselves to your homeworld to straight up wreck you and take all your shit! Remember that for most imperial citizens, there is little difference between a castigation by the Black Templars or being declared Purgatus by the Inquisition and an invasion by the Black Legion. Then there's civilian life, notoriously horrid in the Imperium: working daily double-digit hours at a minimum under certainly unsafe conditions, minimal education loaded with propaganda and outright misinformation ''and'' disinformation, eating rations made from reprocessed waste if they get any at all, where living in a literal cubicle is a luxury and if they are even perceived as stepping out of line or more likely happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, they will be lucky to die quickly from the incident, executed by the strongman breathing down their neck.

So let that set the stage: you're alone in a galaxy that's either wholly indifferent or actively hostile against you and the billions of people on your planet, the only reason you're there is because [[High Lords of Terra|some guy you will never meet with the sort of political power you cannot begin to imagine]] thought it would be beneficial to found a colony there and most likely did ''not'' afford enough resources to adequately start one, the bulk of which will get sucked up anyway by [[Planetary Governor|said guy's esteemed acquaintance]] [[Ecclesiarchy|or their favourite bootlickers]] while you get tasked with fighting a proxy war against [[Xenos|literal fucking monsters]] that at any moment can become a planet-wide total war while billions of your fellow man around you live under the most horrid conditions possible. Is it any wonder that, in the absence of [[Space Marines|some]] [[Adeptus Titanicus|serious]] [[Battlefleet Gothic|military]] [[Inquisition|authority,]] that so many planets rebel?

However, as the previous section poignantly notes, a rogue PDF can only go so far on its own - farther if they happen to enjoy the patronage of a nearby forgeworld or are on one themselves. Beggars can't be choosers in this particular depth of desperation so they solicit the help of literally anyone who can assist - often times, you have the usual suspects like renegade and heretic astartes or daemons, but allegiance to either certainly won't help in throwing off the yoke of oppression inasmuch as it's just trading yokes. Same goes for any support from Xenos although [[Tau|some are]] [[Eldar|more helpful]] [[Necrons|than]] [[Dark Eldar|others,]] [[Orks|or]] [[Tyranids|most.]] Indeed, carving out a territory in this frankly rather crowded galaxy only means continued participation in the ceaseless resource war in which the galaxy is embroiled and may inevitably lead to a continuous cycle of breaking and forming alliances to fight former allies or new threats. And on top of all that? The people of the planet, the reason for which you may have taken up this otherwise noble project of sedition, will likely be plunged into the same misery they enjoyed whilst you were still loyal to the Imperium in order to keep your now independent war machine rolling. Thus, planetary insurrection in the Imperium is usually relatively short-lived, though the ones that are most successful are either [[Genestealer Cult|totally subsumed]] [[Daemon World|by a previous benefactor]] and/or require resources to retake that the [[Segmentum#Ultima Segmentum|Imperium has dedicated elsewhere]] long enough to actually enjoy some temporary peace and stability. Most likely though, insurrection in the Imperium is nasty, brutish and thankfully short <s>compared to the agonizing, millennium-spanning, soul-crushing servitude as a pawn in the Imperium's everlasting quest to dominate the galaxy.</s> {{BLAM}} {{BLAM|Heresy!}}

==The Old School (ain't no school like it)==
Cast your mind back to the dark days before the Internet of things to the hallowed days of Rogue Trader when this... well, we hesitate to call it an army, ''a loose confederacy of units,'' yes? Right, This was when Realm of Chaos was released as a two-part supplement to the game. The first book, ''Slaves to Darkness,'' had a lot of rules for Fantasy as well as a limited set of rules for some chaos space marines and daemons, particularly those in service to Khorne and Slaanesh. The second book, ''The Lost and the Damned,'' is where you find stuff for Nurgle, Tzeentch and most importantly for our purposes, an army list for "chaos renegades."

This catchall term included the now familiar items we expect to see in a LatD army, namely traitor guardsmen, mutants and their vehicles backed by a whole bunch of shit you would otherwise find in WHFB: beastment, minotaurs and a whole bunch of other nasty monsters you could add to the list. Because fuck yeah, why not? Luckily, second edition would continue this wholesome content and slam all this stuff into one, single book - and it was great and you know it!

After that, we all know the story - third edition, blah blah blah. Hard rules change, Instant Death, bizarre power creep etc. Chaos Space Marines enjoyed two releases during this time, though their second, infamously OP codex came during the waning days of 3.5. Alongside them, the vaunted Eye of Terror Codex was released for the eponymous global campaign backed by the early 2000's internet and, well, that's more or less the basis for our nostalgia.

==Games Workshop does it again==
The Lost and the Damned army list was a hell of a lot of fun, and was designed for those who had scored Codex: [[Warp|Eye of Terror]] for campaigns. The idea was simple: an army full of non-Marines dedicated to Chaos - pirates and raiders and cultists and mortal warriors devoted to Chaos, all under one banner, albeit with Chaos Marines allowable as Elites (and you could even get a cheaper, if weaker, Chaos Lord/Sorcerer as an HQ).

[[File:Bigmutant.jpg|300px|left|thumb|'''YOU ERASED MY HIGH SCORES ON ''TETRIS''?!'''.]]
The combination of lots of modding possibility, a potentially characterful army, and some interesting ideas to differentiate it from the Imperial Guard went a long way towards endearing it to players, since the idea of cultist units had been toyed with before in the previous Chaos Codex, with the [[Alpha Legion]]. This was taking it to its logical conclusion, and suffice to say, some people thought this was [[Awesome|pretty cool]]. Forge World saw potential here as well, and to promote the new army list, put out some bad-ass new resin-cast models. Several people started to get into the new army, and there was a lot of [[Derp]] and win as players used this to put out some truly entertaining army lists, from Zombie Apocalypse setups backed with heavy armor, to squads of Traitors backed by Mutants and APCs. All in all, the army itself was on the cheesier side of crunch: effectively, you could take the best of both CSM and Imperial Guard codexes which overall translated into a very powerful army with arguably better guardsmen than the Guard themselves could field.

True to form however, the second that the official tournaments of the season ended, Games Workshop abruptly stopped supporting the army entirely, refused to allow Lost and the Damned armies into future tournaments, pretended the previously-supported army [[Squats|didn't exist]], and left players with naught but the [[Counts As]] rule to keep them company - and then there was [[RAGE]]. A few fortunate souls - the ones focusing on infantry and not-Chaos armor - could get away with using their killy and flash models as a viable Imperial Guard army, but these players were a distinct minority, since a lot of players had used the rules to field more versatile, interesting, or outlandish lists, especially given how expensive the models from [[Forge World]] are.

But all is not lost, for the [[Forge World]] Siege of Vraks sourcebooks each contain a variant Lost and the Damned list at the end. Part one has rules for a vanilla [[Chaos Undivided]] force, Part two has rules for a Khornate force (with Berzerkers as an elite option), and Part three has rules for a Nurgle force (with Plague Marines as elites). Still rather luckluster though, as the limited units and god choices in the army made it rather obvious they were primarily intended for the Vraks campaign even though Forge World's website said they could be used for other renegades if needed. But then Imperial Armour 13 came out...

==6th Edition==
6th edition brought with it rules for allying between armies, which though full of [[Derp]] and [[Rage]] due to odd combinations, did allow an Imperial Guard army to ally to Chaos Marines or Daemons (albeit only as Desperate Allies). This, combined with the return of Plague Zombies and Chaos Cultists in Codex: Chaos Space Marines, allowed for the Lost and the Damned to be used (more or less) in sixth edition. Forge World also updated their Renegades & Heretics army list from the Siege of Vraks series, allowing them to ally with the Guard, Chaos Marines, or Daemons. Sadly, neither of these options entirely captured the flavour of a Lost and the Damned army---the Siege of Vraks series was, by that point, badly outdated, and allying Imperial Guard to Chaos Marines had severe restrictions (and, anyway, Imperial Guard aren't quite the same as Lost and the Damned).

==7th Edition==
While 7E started off with a similarly bleak outlook with only the badly outdated Vraks rules, now under suspicion with the underwhelming options and Imperial Guard now being desperate allies at best with Chaos, Forge World managed to pick up on GW's slacking ass by releasing '''Imperial Armour 13''', a new sourcebook that not only showed off some new super-toys for the regular Chaos armies, but also brought in a much larger army list more suited for 7E. Now instead of just an undivided, Khorne, and Nurgle army loosely using similar units, now the army could haul out not only some of the new Chaos toys including the [[Noise Marines]] and the Sonic [[Dreadnought]], a shitton of tanks, and a new specialty system allowing for other armies like a Heretek army using old Mechanicus shit and a daemon-casting army.

Was it a great army? Well, it was alright, but some issues still persisted like random leadership and only one named hero available; also some units were very good while others were not worth taking. Was it an improvement? You bet your fucking ass that it was, even if your units start off with a meager BS2. Sooooooo many options made for nice build combos, basically the closest thing we had to any of the 3.5E chaos lists!

List is available here: [[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Renegades_and_Heretics(7E)|take a gander over here.]].

==8th Edition==
Well thank Gods that's over! The age of egregious cheese-mongering has finally come to a close as 8th edition blessed us with its grace. So, what's new aside from everything? All the fun Forgeworld Toys got yanked officially, but you can always add them back because of how faction keywords work. We've kept our Chaos Covenants, but you get one and it's only if you take a Renegade Commander. The big loss is Demagogue Devotions but as we said, Faction Keywords can get those all back along with taking allies from CSM and Daemons.

With the release of [[Blackstone Fortress]], renegade Guardsmen (and Guardswomen) finally have plastic models. They fight alongside Chaos Beastmen, renegade pskyers, [[Negavolt Cultist]]s (so Dark Mechanicus?), and Chaos Space Marines. At the same time, renegades models have been pulled from Forge World. Then GW teased an image of something very chaos looking, hinting at a new version of CSM that includes these units or, Gods forbid, a full-blown LatD book! Unfortunately, these models were all made into a sort of pseudo-army that wouldn't really cut it as a Kill-Team, much less a full-blown army. Even as BSF: Traitor Command introduced Traitor Commissars and Ogryns, those hopes remained dashed.

The base army is squishy dudes and tanks. For more info, please check out [[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Renegades_And_Heretics(8E)|the 8E tactica here.]]

==9th Edition==
Our hopes rested on the release of the Imperial Armor books for [[Warhammer 40,000 9th Edition|9E]]. The Warhammer Legends: Forgeworld update launched to provide rules for models that were no longer produced and our lads and lasses got an update - hurray! And then we read the rules - the Gods too appear to have forsaken us.

On the plus side, we still have tanks and our infantry got better - WS/BS 4+ base and no more randumb leadership values! However, the cost of removing those last remaining bits of jank has been to throw the mutated baby out with the toxic bathwater, and with it the last shreds of flavour that this army had, it would seem. Gone are psychic powers and god-specific chaos covenants. The list is now basically an allied Guard detachment lacking orders, strategems, relics, psychic powers or much of anything now. LatD or R&H cannot survive competitive play without these inclusions and thus, this once vaunted list has found itself in the rubbish bin of bottom-tier. This army desperately needs a supplement or something lest it be squatted, which is ironic considering how armies thought to be orphaned and abandoned like Sisters of Battle or gods forbid the actual Squats themselves have been completely revitalized or reintroduced respectively under 9th. There are more of the same hints and signs we have fed off of for years in the fevered hope that the thing we like might actually be supported and mainstream again, but if you're a chaos player you should be used to being forsaken by now.

The base army is still squishy dudes and tanks, but not much else. There are no relics, stratagems, warlord traits or anything else that might have given flavour to the list and the unique units available are rather underwhelming if not completely uninspired. They might make for a usable allied detachment for other Chaos armies.

For more info, please check out [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Renegades And Heretics (9E)|the 9E tactica here.]]

===A Faint Hope===
Warhammer Fest 2022 saw a mild sign of some relevance in the newest [[Kill Team (Specialist Game)|Kill Team]] boxset, having the same Traitor Guard from [[Blackstone Fortress]] repackaged in one set. Seeing as previous boxed Kill Teams all got rules on their respective faction's codex or shortly after, there's a sliver of hope that we'll eventually get rules to throw in a batch of spiky guardsmen to throw at the enemy instead of a bunch of piddly cultists.

Let's not consider that so much of an insult though, as this same event provided several new cultist squads, possibly allowing them to be elite weapons specialists in a cultists-only army where most of your troops are either melee-centric or using scrapped-together autoguns and stubbers. It appears the new CSM book might be taking on the lost and the damned full time with new, official, non-marine HQ's coupled with variant mutants. Not a complete port to be sure, but there is official support in some capacity.

==Fan Service or Lack Thereof==
Being one of the most popular ideas out there for IG conversions, many players have obviously taken to creating their own versions of the LatD codex. Unfortunately, none are really available, widespread or Gods forbid, current so we're presently stuck with this mediocre Warhammer Legends list. Clearly, fielding an army of renegade humans, mutants and whatever else is appealing to a surprising number of players and there have been recurring hopes of a true-to-form codex release. After all, there are [[Adeptus Arbites|entire]] [[Witchhunters|armies,]] [[Sisters of Battle|some with full-blown codexes,]] geared specifically to fighting renegades, heretics, mutants, the lost and the damned or whatever you wanna call this army. Games Workshop stoked these hopes through Blackstone Fortress' inclusion of traitor guard, beastmen, quasi-Dark Mechanicus types and Chaos Space Marines. Unfortunately, an actual release isn't known to be in the works for the Lost and the Damned or the Renegades and Heretics or whatever you want to call them. We could hope for an Astra Militarum supplement though some would prefer a codex; however, every loyal Astartes Chapter that deviates from the codex has received or will receive a codex supplement.

Regardless, there's a few things we fans of the Lost and the Damned would like to see in release:
*'''Diverse and Usable HQ:''' taking a look at the last three editions of the army, HQ selection hasn't been stellar. By far, the most useful is the Renegade Commander but that one's been hollowed out over successive releases. 7th edition had an interesting take, allowing for players to build a customized commander with a covenant that granted special rules and buffs to the army; naturally, this approach seems to have fallen out of favour with Games Workshop's design team in favour of crowding a list with a variety of HQ choices and, frankly, that sounds pretty cool too. Just shift Rogue Pysker covens to Elites like their loyalist counterparts and you have plenty of room for mutant commanders, hardened renegades, super psykers, heretic preachers or what have you! Along with that...
*'''Competitive Flavour:''' the army list has lost '''a lot''' of its uniqueness over the editions. Not only does the army lack unique stratagems, which are required now for competitive play, their psykers lack unique powers, our leaders have no warlord traits aside from their auras, we have no access to a specialized armoury or relics and they don't have what makes their loyalist counterpart so potent either: Orders.
**There is an opportunity here to really flex the creative muscles the design team to showcase a more radical Renegade force, one that shows off its history of patronage and allegiance from a host of current and former allies. For instance, being able to have a flexible army-wide master Keyword (Imperium, Chaos, Xenos, unaligned, etc.); from there, wargear options borrowed from codexes other than Imperial Guard would add a lot of flavour.
*'''Revised Unique Units:''' in addition to providing the army with a well-deserved injection of flavour unique units can be the difference between a boilerplate echo army or an interesting alternative. Presently, the army has access to marginally better Cultists than what other CSM armies get and a wide variety of mutants and renegades, which is what you would expect. A lot of these options are effectively toned-down and altered versions of what loyalist Guard get so there's room for improvement.
**One unit a lot of fans wouldn't mind seeing returning are [[beastmen]] distinct from generic mutants. They have been reintroduced steadily back into 40K with the [[Thousand Sons]] as well as non-Tzeentchian variants in Blackstone Fortress and a Necromunda mercenary. We could see a variety of beastman variants, like troops, elite variants, minotaurs, etc. - there's a lot of leeway here for creativity.

==The Traitorous Regiments==
Like the Imperial Guard, the Traitors of the Imperium come in a huge variety of flavors, all ripe for different customization ideas. From those who want their freedom from the oppression of the Imperium, to those who become corrupted with Chaos, there's plenty to choose from. The following is a list of the renegades found in the universe of Warhammer 40k so far. Also, I'll provide some advice on where to find people who have done conversions for those regiments already. More information can be found on the Warhammer 40k wikia and Lexicanum on these groups.

*'''[[Blood Pact]]:''' This renegade group originally hails from the [[Dan Abnett|Sabbat Worlds sector]]. They worship [[Khorne]] almost exclusively, but they're much better organized than the rabble usually found in the Lost and the Damned (or most Khornate Warbands for that matter). This is mostly because they pattern themselves after Imperial Guard. Unlike most renegade groups, however, they've actually captured some industrial and [[Forge World]]s, so they can field tanks (even super-heavy tanks!). They also have some fairly unique divisions, such as Loxatl xenos mercenaries, unique psykers (yes, really, [[Rage|Khornate Sorcerers]], but it's okay, because it was made up by [[Dan Abnett]]) called Gore Mages that turn renegades into special Daemonhosts called Blood Wolves, and Storm Trooper equivalents. Technically, however, they aren't ''renegades,'' but rather an independent, Chaos-worshipping nation that had never been under control of the [[Imperium]], at least not in living memory. As such, they have a rather unique set of customs, such as cutting their hands on pieces of power armor as an initiation ritual (hence Blood Pact). They also dye their uniforms with the blood of their enemies and display corpses on their tanks. As you can probably tell, [[/tg/]] adores these guys.
**Conversion opportunities abound. In fact, some people have even made full Blood Pact armies. The most impressive belongs to Dave Taylor; in addition to the full counts-as-Imperial-Guard army, he also scratch-built a Stalk Tank and wrote a datasheet of rules for it. You can find it here: [http://davetaylorminiatures.blogspot.com/2009/10/family-album.html].
**A note of caution: the Blood Pact wear special Oni-styled masks that will take considerable time to model with green stuff. For your converting convenience, these may work when painted the right colour (with a little green stuff for the oni shape perhaps): [http://anvilindustry.co.uk/Regiments/Infantry-Heads-Helmets/hooded-heads-halfmask]
*'''Sons of Sek:''' Because the Blood Pact is so awesome, you can't have just one warband. The Sons of Sek are an elite force under the command of Anakwanar Sek (WHOSE VOICE DROWNS OUT ALL OTHERS), who wants to take control of the Sabbat Worlds for himself. They function pretty much the same as the Blood Pact and, by extension, the Guard. However, they do have a couple of unique features, like a Commissaresque commander called a Scourger and an even better-organized, elite force than the Blood Pact.
*'''Vraksian Renegades:''' Basically the "default" renegade army, as [[Forge World]] sold models and provides an army list for them (although it works well enough for most armies). As their name implies, they come from the munitions-storage world of [[Vraks]], where (soon-to-be-Apostate) Cardinal Xaphan decided to secede from the Imperium. He earned the support of the (heavily-armed) populace by telling them that the rest of the Imperium had fallen to Chaos and they were the last untainted humans left. [[Plague of Unbelief|Hey, that sounds familiar!]] The very small percentage of the population that knew the truth of his fall to Chaos became his enforcers and bodyguards. Of course, this was all [[Just as Planned]] by the [[Alpha Legion]], who then threw their support behind the rebellion (hence why they can field Chaos Space Marines as Elites). Also, being from a munitions-storage world, they get access to old-school, super-cool, super-heavies like the [[Malcador]].
**Here is a kickass Vraks renegade squad for some inspiration (7th row, middle column): [http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?categoryId=&pIndex=10&aId=13000009a&multiPageMode=true&start=11].
*Carnibales: an uprising occurred on the planet Solo-Baston when the Ecclesiarchy (in all their infinite wisdom) started taking the lands away from the natives. Not liking this, the indigenous population was guided by 2 pairs of [[Blood Gorgons]] Chaos Space Marines (who are by all accounts awesome.) They saw the opportunity in the natives plight and trained them in guerrilla tactics. They also smuggled advanced weapons from offworld which were then assembled by the rebels. Once the rebellion was in full swing, the Ecclesiarchy hadn't anticipated so many rebels, believing the rebellion to be small. The Carnibales (as they were now known) had managed to capture the planet and executed anyone still loyal to the Imperium. The Imperial Guard eventually came to reclaim the planet but where held off and defeated(!) thanks to the Earthshaker cannon (supersized) the Carnibales captured. After that, the Blood Gorgons added the planet to their growing list of captured planets who enjoy their protection (no sarcasm, they really are not that bad for csm, they love freedom and rebelled against the oppressive Imperium and help others free themselves.)
**Given the fact that their name seems to be derived from Spanish and that they use guerrilla tactics, think South American rebels. They also have special leaders called Disciples, who follow the teachings of the Blood Gorgons. They are injected with daemon blood and mutated to superhuman levels of strength. Multiple opportunities for conversions. I suggest using the WHFB Chaos sorcerers as Disciples.
**Carnibales are basically space Taliban. The author who created them, Henry Zou, is an Afghan war vet. Seriously, loose guerrilla army that uses hit and run attacks, hides out in local villages, and receives external support from a clandestine foreign source? That's either Taliban or Mujahideen. Either way, a good look for that sort of force would be just standard dudes in simple clothing with assorted small arms, think of the rebels in the first Predator movie.
***The Vraksian Renegades army list is the best suited for this group. They have the Apostate Preachers and Enforcers that can be modeled to be Disciples. They also use light weight skimmers called spikers and one can use the Vraksian salamander's stats for it. Overall the list has the guerrilla warfare feel of the Carnibales.
***Given their "armed feudal-worlders" background and insurgent guerrilla army influence, kitbashing [[Tallarn Desert Raiders|Tallarn]] and [[Catachan Jungle Fighters|Catachan]] infantry kits together would make for some good looking models, just be sure to "Chaos them up" a bit.
**Unfortunately Zou getting fired due to plagiarism means this plotline is dead in the water.
*Brethren of Fire: A [[Tzeentch]]ian LatD force that arose when the entire PDF of the sepulcher world Tachira went [[Chaos|full-on-heretic]] from the Imperium's failure to stop constant depredations by the [[Dark Eldar]]. Led by a Tzeentchian Chaos Lord-in-exile, the newly extra-heretical forces took complete control of the planet and managed to drive Imperial forces off-world before a warp storm enshrouded it. They've since emerged numerous times, seeking slaves and plunder, and backed by a small number of Chaos Marines. Their force organization is based only loosely on the Imperial Guard model, having phased out Imperial Guard recon units in favor of [[Stalk Tank]]s and Mutant packs, though they possess production capabilities and considerable heavy armor, including [[Baneblade|Decimator Super-Heavy Tank]]s.
*The Ironclad: Mr. Zou also brings another cool army, the Ironclad, a pirate and marauder army which are somehow connected with the Carnibales (we won't spoil you here how, just go read the Bastion Wars trilogy) they are an assault horde oriented force which boasts wheeled light tanks and shock armored infantry, any Warhammer Fantasy model with iron plate armour (hence their name) will work great for them, along with some Tauros Venator and Testudos, of special note is that the setting of The Emperor's Mercy where they appear features a lot of desert geography, so you may mix sand and metallic colours to bring a very nice visual effect, oh, and they are allies with the Blood Gorgons (the guy in the 6th edition CSM book cover is a Blood Gorgon), so this opens the possibility for wonderful ingame alliances.
*[[Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine|Chosen of Nemeroth]]: While this isn't in fact a true regiment and rather a warband of [[Chaos Space Marines]], it does have its own traitor Guardsmen, all wearing a closed helmet with glowing green light and shooting green beams with the lasguns, suggesting they might have something to do with [[Nurgle]]. Why they are in a warband like that is unknown, but might just be there to give the warband some bodies. Their main strategy is to drown the enemy in grenades and agro the shit out of them so the [[Chaos Space Marines|real deal]] can aim their plasma cannon properly. They are absolute pushovers in melee combat and will always try and keep themselves away from the fray, but good [[Emperor|lord]] do you need to get close to them anyway - In comparison to [[Ork|other]] [[Chaos Space Marines|enemies]] in the game. they are small and nimble as fuck, so shooting them can be risky and generally wasted business.
*[[Prospero Spireguard]]: The Thousand Sons's very own Guard regiment. Though how many of them survived after the razing of Prospero, and whether the descendants of the Prospero dudes saved by Magnus by being teleported to the Planet of Sorcerers remains to be debated (quite possibly all of them have mutated into Tzaangors by now), it is still likely that certain Thousand Sons Warbands continue to preserve a successor regiment to the Prospero Spireguard. After all, in The War of the Fang, the Thousand Sons spent centuries, if not millennia, preparing for an assault on Fenris by recruiting 2 million Guardsmen and their assorted APCs, tanks and artillery to their cause, thus rebuilding the Spireguard entirely from scratch. Of course, the problem was that after Magnus got banished back into the Warp when the Space Wolves unfairly and despicably ganged up on him one after the other (even the ancient Bjorn was no match for Magnus), the Thousand Sons vanished back to the Planet of Sorcerers and left all their mortal troops behind. The abandoned Spireguard were massacred by the vengeful Space Wolves. BUT there's nothing that says that the Thousand Sons never recruited fresh meat for new Spireguard regiments after that, and despite the focus on Tzaangors (for now), it is possible that a Warband or two continued to rebuild the Spireguard regiments. Well, the sky's the limit so use your imagination and craft your own narrative!
*'''666th Regiment of Foot''': A traitor regiment that took part in the Eye of Terror Campaign, fighting under [[Abaddon]]'s orders in [[Cadia]] before it's untimely demise.
*'''[[Servants of the Abyss]]''': A breakaway unit from the [[Black Legion]], the Servants are similar to the Chosen of Nemeroth in that it is not traitor regiment but rather a space marine warband that has a significant number of renegade guardsmen. Featured in ''[[Blackstone Fortress|Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress]]''.
*'''Grendish 82nd''': A traitor regiment that is featured in ''[[Blackstone Fortress|Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress]]'', specifically the ''Traitor Command'' expansion.
*'''The Sighted''': Some new kids on the block brought to us by Rachel Harrison's [[Severina Raine]] series. These guys appear to be a Tzeentch worshipping chaos cult operating out of the Bale Stars region. Lead by a cabal of nine rogue psykers. The Sighted are identifiable by their carrying of glass shards and colored feathers, as well as the occasional removal of eyes. One of their nine leaders was actually a rogue tech priest who used reprogrammed battle automata and homemade servitors that had mirrors for faces.

''More regiments coming soon.''

==Realm Of Chaos The Lost And The Damned==

''(1st Edition 1990 Hardcover)''

I don’t know if this is the right place but i must warn you about this book:

It has some disturbing content before WH40K became more mainstream.

It contains lists, rules, arcane rituals and short storys from authors or other sources that i hope i will never meet.

If you hear voices while reading this, try to ignore them.

I failed to destroy or throw away this book. It was always back on my bookshelf the next day.

My hope to stop this is to send it to someone else.

My advice is to store this in a safe that is locked forever or kill it with fire.

NEVER look at the decorations surrounding each page

[[File:Lostanddammned.jpeg|thumb|200px|left|1990 Chaos! suplement for WFB and 40K]]

[[File:Lostanddammedback.jpeg|thumb|200px|left|1990 Chaos! Backside of Hardcover ]]

==See Also==
*[[Lost and the Damned Creation Tables]]
{{Template:Lost-and-Damned}}
{{WH40k-Factions}}

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Chaos]]

Constantin Valdor

2022-07-11T04:02:35Z

2607:FB90:E30B:7564:CD45:72C2:9EAC:984E: /* Horus Heresy */

{{wh40k-stub}}
[[File:Constantin.jpg|200px|right|thumb|The Emperor's favorite automaton.]]
{{Topquote|What is left for you, Constantin? What more can He take from you that He hasn’t already?" "Nothing. Nothing at all.|Last conversation between Ushotan and Valdor.}}

Constantin Valdor was the original Captain-General of the [[Adeptus Custodes|Legio Custodes]]. Well known as one of the greatest warriors in the Imperium, to the point where "can he take a Primarch in a fight" is a question taken seriously both in and out of universe. If [[Malcador]] was the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor's]] right-hand man, Valdor was his left.

==History==

===Unification Wars===

Not much is known about Valdor's origins.
It is stated that the Emperor spent a lot of time and effort searching for him, suggesting he was somehow special even before his transformation into a Custodes. Although widely believed to be the first of his kind, Valdor himself isn't sure if he was the Emperor's first creation, or merely the first one that actually survived.

One of the first major conflicts that Valdor would take part in was the infamous Battle of Maulland Sen. One of the first major pushes by the budding Imperial forces, it would see the deployment of an entire legion of the newly created Thunder Warriors, alongside the Emperor, Constantin, and thirty of the Custodian Guard.

The Emperor would eventually give Constantin the Apollonian Spear. Although it is one of the deadliest melee weapons in the Imperium, this was meant to serve as a check on his power. The Spear would give him glimpses of the "truth" of the enemies he slew with it, and it was the Emperor's hope that this would prevent Constantin from becoming too callous in regards to killing.

He would also oversee the eventual death of the Thunder Warriors at battle of Mount Ararat. One last, final stand of Thunder Warriors in defiance against their enemy and certainly not a friendly fire massacre in the name of cold ethics of practicality.

To underscore just how fucking important this guy is - during an attempted Coup d'état he would also command battle ready First Legion Astartes, so there at their birth too.
Oh, just as a side he was also there to oversee the creation of their fucking Primarchs and present when they were eventually taken from the facility and scattered.

Guy has been fucking BUSY.

Of note is the fact that since its inception Valdor was incredibly skeptical of the [[Primarch]] project. This is quite telling as he himself thinks his greatest weakness was being unable to question the Emperor, so when the Emperor makes a decision he's unsure about that's a big deal. This got worse when the Primarchs were scattered by Chaos, with Valdor thinking that they must've been tainted and that they should just scrap the whole thing right there, suggesting that instead of Legiones Astartes the Emperor should've gone with Custodes generals leading unaugmented human armies. Thus started the long historical trend of the Custodes mistrusting the Adeptus Astartes.

===Great Crusade===
[[File:Blogger-image-2099845834.jpg|frame|Valdor at Terra]]
Not much is known about the shit he would get up to at this point other that he was probably present at the ulanor crusade. Presumably he then made a B-line back to terra with the Emps to help oversee the webway project.

===Horus Heresy===
Valdor is busy overseeing the webway project when a giant red faggot called [[Magnus]] broke through multiple dimensional wards to warn his father of his brother's imminent betrayal - in doing so he broke a hole in the webway that can never (read fucking never) be fixed and is filled by an infinite amount of demons. They even manifest on Terra itself and a battle ensues. Needless to say, the big E and Valdor were mighty pissed. Valdor and a cadre of fellow Custodians were subsequently dispatched to Prospero to drag that silly asshole back to Terra for sanction (and to ascend the golden throne) while his father went in to figure out how to get a handle on it.

Valdor was summoned, and with a contingent of Custodes and Sisters of Silence was he sent to accompany Leman Russ to Prospero. They were to prosecute the Thousand Sons for their crimes and bring Magnus back to Terra in chains.

Chaos had already struck however, and Horus turned Russ against his brother. No longer was his task to arrest the Sorcerer-King, claimed the Warmaster, but to execute the warlock. Though Valdor argued with the Space Wolf as to his task as he was already far too skeptical of the Primarchs at this point, his force was small to really object. He possessed no authority to overrule the Wolf-Prince once his
mind had been determined due to the nature of his role and the Primarchs. This didn't go incredibly well as you will see and I'm sure he would agree if he was able to.

The Thousand Sons were not willing to roll over and fucking die however, and in response to orbital bombardment and artillery strikes they fully break the Edict of Nikea and the city became a battlefield of the worst kind, as the true power of the Sorcerer's Apprenti were unleashed.

Against the Space Wolves full legion and aided by the elite guard of the Emperor, the Thousand Sons stood little chance. Some of the greatest psykers in the Legion were hunted down by the Custodes, executed carefully as the Sisters smothered their psyker talents with their null veil.

Valdor himself was said to have fought against the elite Khenetai "Blademasters" whose powers allowed them to predict each blow before they landed. None of them survived, and Valdor walked away from the conflict sporting a single wound, as he tried to regain control of the annihilation unleashed around him.

It was too little and too late however, Magnus had to flee with his sons, leaving the Space Wolves grievously injured, and a possible ally now forced into the traitor side without choice.

With disaster as their only reward, Valdor returned immediately back to Terra. His next war would be the Webway wars. This would effectively spell the end of the custodians as a viable fighting force (as well as the Sisters of Silence) and he would remain an armchair General for the remainder of the Heresy.

===Post-Heresy===
Valdor along with [[Roboute Guilliman]] enacted the Edict of Restraint, the law limiting the Custodes only to the protection of the Imperial Palace. Realistically considering that the Custodes are above any authority but their own he would be the main reason it actually matters to them. So if you were wondering why the greatest warriors in the galaxy were doing jack shit until the Indomitus Crusade you have him to blame.

Eventually Valdor disappeared, leaving behind only his Apollonian Spear. Perhaps he saw how all the Primarchs were doing the "disappear mysteriously so people can spread legends about you returning for the final battle" shtick, and didn't want to be left out. Apparently, in “Two Metaphysical Blades,” he disappears at the same time as Leman Russ as both had psychic visions of each other due to their weapons being personally crafted by the Emperor.

===King in Yellow?===

In the most recent Eisenhorn book, the good inquisitor and his allies had managed to track down a book that purported to contain the truth about the King in Yellow, the mastermind of the long-running background hook spanning both Eisenhorn ''and'' Ravenor's novels.

It turns out that the book was no mere book, but a book of the King of Yellow's true identity. The book included a countdown too.

No guesses as whose name it was listed in it.

Currently last heard of with an army of "custodians", the blanks that pilot their ships, and thousands of "winged" Astartes...In a stable part of Extimate Space that may or may not be Human Webway. Oh. Five craftworlds converging on the sector too.
Watch this skub.

==On Tabletop==
[[File:Constantin Valdor model.png|400px|thumb|right|Valdor's overdesigned model.]]

{| class=wikitable
! Points || WS || BS || S || T || W || I || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| 275 || 7 || 5 || 5 || 5 || 5 || 6 || 5 || 10 || 2+/4++

Constantin Valdor

2022-07-11T04:00:45Z

2607:FB90:E30B:7564:CD45:72C2:9EAC:984E: /* Horus Heresy */

{{wh40k-stub}}
[[File:Constantin.jpg|200px|right|thumb|The Emperor's favorite automaton.]]
{{Topquote|What is left for you, Constantin? What more can He take from you that He hasn’t already?" "Nothing. Nothing at all.|Last conversation between Ushotan and Valdor.}}

Constantin Valdor was the original Captain-General of the [[Adeptus Custodes|Legio Custodes]]. Well known as one of the greatest warriors in the Imperium, to the point where "can he take a Primarch in a fight" is a question taken seriously both in and out of universe. If [[Malcador]] was the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor's]] right-hand man, Valdor was his left.

==History==

===Unification Wars===

Not much is known about Valdor's origins.
It is stated that the Emperor spent a lot of time and effort searching for him, suggesting he was somehow special even before his transformation into a Custodes. Although widely believed to be the first of his kind, Valdor himself isn't sure if he was the Emperor's first creation, or merely the first one that actually survived.

One of the first major conflicts that Valdor would take part in was the infamous Battle of Maulland Sen. One of the first major pushes by the budding Imperial forces, it would see the deployment of an entire legion of the newly created Thunder Warriors, alongside the Emperor, Constantin, and thirty of the Custodian Guard.

The Emperor would eventually give Constantin the Apollonian Spear. Although it is one of the deadliest melee weapons in the Imperium, this was meant to serve as a check on his power. The Spear would give him glimpses of the "truth" of the enemies he slew with it, and it was the Emperor's hope that this would prevent Constantin from becoming too callous in regards to killing.

He would also oversee the eventual death of the Thunder Warriors at battle of Mount Ararat. One last, final stand of Thunder Warriors in defiance against their enemy and certainly not a friendly fire massacre in the name of cold ethics of practicality.

To underscore just how fucking important this guy is - during an attempted Coup d'état he would also command battle ready First Legion Astartes, so there at their birth too.
Oh, just as a side he was also there to oversee the creation of their fucking Primarchs and present when they were eventually taken from the facility and scattered.

Guy has been fucking BUSY.

Of note is the fact that since its inception Valdor was incredibly skeptical of the [[Primarch]] project. This is quite telling as he himself thinks his greatest weakness was being unable to question the Emperor, so when the Emperor makes a decision he's unsure about that's a big deal. This got worse when the Primarchs were scattered by Chaos, with Valdor thinking that they must've been tainted and that they should just scrap the whole thing right there, suggesting that instead of Legiones Astartes the Emperor should've gone with Custodes generals leading unaugmented human armies. Thus started the long historical trend of the Custodes mistrusting the Adeptus Astartes.

===Great Crusade===
[[File:Blogger-image-2099845834.jpg|frame|Valdor at Terra]]
Not much is known about the shit he would get up to at this point other that he was probably present at the ulanor crusade. Presumably he then made a B-line back to terra with the Emps to help oversee the webway project.

===Horus Heresy===
Valdor is busy overseeing the webway project when a giant red faggot called [[Magnus]] broke through multiple dimensional wards to warn his father of his brother's imminent betrayal - in doing so he broke a hole in the webway that can never (read fucking never) be fixed and is filled by an infinite amount of demons. They even manifest on Terra itself and a battle ensues. Needless to say, the big E and Valdor were mighty pissed. Valdor and a cadre of fellow Custodians were subsequently dispatched to Prospero to drag that silly asshole back to Terra for sanction (and to ascend the golden throne) while his father went in to figure out how to get a handle on it.

Valdor was summoned, and with a contingent of Custodes and Sisters of Silence was he sent to accompany Leman Russ to Prospero. They were to prosecute the Thousand Sons for their crimes and bring Magnus back to Terra in chains.

Chaos had already struck however, and Horus turned Russ against his brother. No longer was his task to arrest the Sorcerer-King, claimed the Warmaster, but to execute the warlock. Though Valdor argued with the Space Wolf as to his task as he was already far too skeptical of the Primarchs at this point, his force was small to really object. He possessed no authority to overrule the Wolf-Prince once his
mind had been determined due to the nature of his role and the Primarchs. This didn't go incredibly well as you will see and I'm sure he would agree if he was able to.

The Thousand Sons were not willing to roll over and fucking die however, and in response to orbital bombardment and artillery strikes they fully break the Edict of Nikea and the city became a battlefield of the worst kind, as the true power of the Sorcerer's Apprenti were unleashed.

Against the Space Wolves full legion and aided by the elite guard of the Emperor, the Thousand Sons stood little chance. Some of the greatest psykers in the Legion were hunted down by the Custodes, executed carefully as the Sisters smothered their psyker talents with their null veil.

Valdor himself was said to have fought against the elite Khenetai "Blademasters" whose powers allowed them to predict each blow before they landed. None of them survived, and Valdor walked away from the conflict sporting a single wound, as he tried to regain control of the annihilation unleashed around him.

It was too little and too late however, Magnus had to flee with his sons, leaving the Space Wolves grievously injured, and a possible ally now forced into the traitor side without choice.

With disaster as their only reward, Valdor returned immediately back to Terra. His next war would be the Webway wars. This would Effectively spell the end of the custodians as a viable fighting force (as well as the Sisters of Silence) and he would remain an armchair General for the remainder of the Heresy.

===Post-Heresy===
Valdor along with [[Roboute Guilliman]] enacted the Edict of Restraint, the law limiting the Custodes only to the protection of the Imperial Palace. Realistically considering that the Custodes are above any authority but their own he would be the main reason it actually matters to them. So if you were wondering why the greatest warriors in the galaxy were doing jack shit until the Indomitus Crusade you have him to blame.

Eventually Valdor disappeared, leaving behind only his Apollonian Spear. Perhaps he saw how all the Primarchs were doing the "disappear mysteriously so people can spread legends about you returning for the final battle" shtick, and didn't want to be left out. Apparently, in “Two Metaphysical Blades,” he disappears at the same time as Leman Russ as both had psychic visions of each other due to their weapons being personally crafted by the Emperor.

===King in Yellow?===

In the most recent Eisenhorn book, the good inquisitor and his allies had managed to track down a book that purported to contain the truth about the King in Yellow, the mastermind of the long-running background hook spanning both Eisenhorn ''and'' Ravenor's novels.

It turns out that the book was no mere book, but a book of the King of Yellow's true identity. The book included a countdown too.

No guesses as whose name it was listed in it.

Currently last heard of with an army of "custodians", the blanks that pilot their ships, and thousands of "winged" Astartes...In a stable part of Extimate Space that may or may not be Human Webway. Oh. Five craftworlds converging on the sector too.
Watch this skub.

==On Tabletop==
[[File:Constantin Valdor model.png|400px|thumb|right|Valdor's overdesigned model.]]

{| class=wikitable
! Points || WS || BS || S || T || W || I || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| 275 || 7 || 5 || 5 || 5 || 5 || 6 || 5 || 10 || 2+/4++