2d4chan - User contributions [en]

Konrad Curze

2016-10-14T09:41:38Z

2A02:C7D:C5E:A200:352C:6492:5881:EA26: /* Vulkan */

{{heresy}}
[[File:Konrad Curze Mugshot.jpg|400px|thumb|right|Konrad Curze, the Night Haunter, The Last Judge, The King of Terrors. Badly in need of a hairstylist- just look at that dandruff.]]
<br>''The horror,The horror...
<br> -[[Konrad Curze|Konrad]] real last words,after probably describing M'Shen [[FATAL|what really saw in his visions]]<br>

''"There is no such thing as paranoia. Your worst fears can come true at any moment."''<br>
-Hunter S. Thompson

''"In real life, the hardest aspect of the battle between good and evil is determining which is which."''
<br>-<small>George R. R. Martin</small>

If you were to put Batman, the Punisher, Vlad the Impaler, and the Predator in a blender, '''Konrad Curze''' is the result that will reach out and rip your face off. Konrad Curze (also known as Mr. Cuddles) was the [[Primarch]] of the [[Night Lords]] Legion, sometimes known as the '''Night Haunter'''. A [[Psyker]], Curze is well-known for the fact that he was [[/b/|plagued from the moment of his awakening by visions of the most horrific future imaginable, terrifying waking dreams that would follow him from cradle to grave.]] Whilst [[/tg/]] has joked that he suffered the lamest death in history due to falling to a Callidus Assassin's blade, he remains a complete bad-ass compared to [[Roboute Guilliman|these]] [[Mortarion|faggots]].

He's widely considered the [[Chaos]]-aligned counterpart of [[Corax]]. The two probably would've gotten along pretty well had they been in the same sector during the Great Crusade and didn't have totally different views on disemboweling innocent civilians. His name is an oblique reference to ''Heart of Darkness''.

==History==
Curze wound up on the eternally-dark world of [[Nostramo]] after the Primarchs were scattered by [[Chaos]]. Unlike most Primarchs, no one took Curze in, and he had to raise himself. It should also be noted that while the other Primarchs landed in style with awesome stasis pods like God descending from Heaven, Curze ended up punching through the Adamantium crust of Nostramo and embedded himself into the core. Where he decided it kinda sucked and dug himself out back where he wouldn't have to worry about temperature hot enough to fuck Vulcan up the ass as an infant. Sorry, how's that not landing with style? Nostramo was a lawless hell-hole, where crime was rampant and usually went unpunished, the rich openly exploited the poor, depression and the inability to escape one's social standing was rampant, and the population was largely kept down not through any fancy measures, but suicide. Curze was enraged by how this panned out and as he grew he decided to take matters into his own hands.

Stalking the eternally-dark streets as a sort of [[Awesome|Space Marine Batman]], Curze began hunting down heretics and those who had been responsible for turning Nostramo into the cesspit it had become. Leaders of the corrupt administration disappeared, only to be found later hung from Imperial administration buildings and beaten into unrecognizable messes that couldn't be identified without DNA testing, though their faces were often untouched so people would instantly recognize the victim. Notorious criminals were found out in the streets, eviscerated or impaled and left to die on the spires of manufactorum rooftops. The blood of those who had committed crimes flowed in the streets, with body parts stopping up storm drains.

The really scary part? ''It worked''. Within a year, Curze had killed so fucking many dicks that the crime-rate of Nostramo reached damned-near zero. Society went through a massive upheaval and curfews were imposed to minimize the casualties from [[Awesome|Space Marine Batman]]. Mothers began to threaten their kids that if they continued to misbehave, the Night Haunter would come for them - a story that came into common use on Nostramo, describing Curze, who stalked through the city, ready to disembowel any heretic or criminal foolish or bold enough to cross his path with anything on hand. His favored weapons of 'Lightning Claws' weren't used until he was found by the Emperor and united with his legion, which also made armor and weapons available to him.

Curze became convinced of his choices being the right and just ones when he saw that the people of this world started to have hope again - he had become the only thing on the entire planet that people truly feared (and hated). Seizing the moment, Curze appeared before the few remaining nobles that had survived his vigilantist purges - the only ones who basically weren't complete assholes, and gave them a choice: Obey his rule, or die. One or two protested that he had not imposed an order based on fear, but it made no difference. Curze, the Night Haunter, was made the ruler of Nostramo.

To the surprise of most, Curze proved to be a fairly capable ruler; surprisingly just and temperate. He made strong attempts to educate himself on absolutely everything he could learn, and was noted for his skills as an adjudicator, worthy of a [[Reasonable Marines|Reasonable Marine]]. This was, of course, until word of an injustice reached Curze's ears - at which point he would hunt down the transgressor himself, wearing them down, and killing them horribly. His unpredictable pattern of benevolence and wisdom contrasted by jaw-dropping levels of violence beyond that of an [[Eversor]] ushered in a new era of efficiency and honesty across Nostramo on a planetary scale, mainly as an act of capitulation in order to keep the Night Haunter from their doors. Needless to say, this peace did not come with a contentedness like some of his brothers achieved.

===The Great Crusade===
[[Image:The viii primarch by saint max-d424fmh.jpg|right|thumb|350px|[[Castlevania|I was called here by ''huuuuuumans''. Who wish to pay meeeee ''tribute''.]]]]
Soon after Curze took over and began ruling the planet, the [[Emperor]]'s Great Crusade reached Nostramo; the coming of the Emperor of Man was an event long prophesied in Nostramo's history - an event which would eventually bring about the apocalypse. The Emperor and his delegation (which consisted of [[Rogal Dorn]], [[Ferrus Manus]], [[Lorgar|Lorgar Aurelian]], [[Fulgrim]], and their respective Legiones Astartes) proceeded to the Palace on foot, his radiance blinding the adapted-to-darkness onlookers and mesmerizing those who did not look directly at him.

At the end of the road leading to his Palace, Curze stood, waiting for the delegation when he had one of his visions, one so potent and horrifying, that he tried to claw his own eyes out to blind himself to what he had seen.

In THE HORUS HERESY: PRINCE OF CROWS it was revealed that what Curze saw was the fate of each of his brothers and in the end his own death, he saw blood spurting from his own neck and no matter what he did he couldn't stop it.
He would have succeeded in blinding himself if the Emperor hadn't stopped him.

He and the Emperor then had this badass exchange:
''"Konrad Curze, be at peace, for I have arrived and intend to take you home."''

''"That is not my name, Father. I am Night Haunter, and I know full well what you [[Just as planned|intend for me]]."''

Awesome. Curze began training under [[Fulgrim]], who taught him of the Adeptus Astartes combat doctrines and began molding him to be a suitable leader for his role as the leader of the Eighth Space Marine Legion - the Night Lords.
Later it was revealed that during his training under [[Fulgrim]], Curze had had one of his visions, this one about the Horus Heresy.
While he told Fulgrim this in confidence, he would later learn that one flaw Fulgrim had (beside dressing like a peacock), was that Fulgrim didn't know the meaning of the word confidential or that the notion of what was told to him was done so in sacred trust between himself and his favored brother. Well the joke seemed to be on Curze as no sooner had he told Fulgrim about the vision then Fulgrim ran over to [[Rogal Dorn]] and told him everything.

Though Curze and his legion excelled in many different hot-zones throughout the Great Crusade, a disturbing tendency arose in short order; the Night Lords would never use anything other than total, decisive force to achieve their goals. Or maybe "force" is the wrong word; they didn't battle so much as terrify their enemies into submission. The Night Lords quickly adapted to Curze's combat and tactical ethos, becoming one of the most brutally effective, if not ruthless, legions in the Imperium. The Night Lords decorated their armor with iconography designed to inspire terror in the enemy - a tactic that proved incredibly effective. Unsurprising, considering how terrifying Space Marines are without it. Where they struck, the Night Lords left examples - grim reminders of the price for disobeying the Imperium. In time, it became so that even the mere ''mention'' of the Night Lords' approach would cause a system to pay all outstanding tithes, cease all illegal activities, stop downloading torrents of ''Blossom'', and put to death any [[Furry|mutants or heretics]]. In hindsight, though, we here on /tg/ can't really be all that surprised by their brutality when we remember it was Fulgrim who tutored the VIII Legion's primarch. How else would the Night Haunter interpret the Phoenician's excessive battlefield perfectionism than a need for excessive violence?

Problems arose, however, as the Great Crusade dragged on - reinforcements to replace the Night Lords that fell in battle were, as was the case of the other Legions, selected from the population of Curze's homeworld, Nostramo. Unfortunately, in Curze's absence, the population collapsed into the same corruption, criminality, and despair that had ruled the roost before his arrival (which, given the strong Imperial presence on the world, especially since it was literally made out of ridiculously rare adamantium, makes no sense at all... unless the Emperor wanted this state of affairs, so he could get more effective terror troops). The most ruthless of the criminals were the only ones healthy and strong enough - and these were the most common replacement recruits for the Night Lords. Insubordination to Curze's orders became more frequent and he began having to deal with his own measure of "fixing" things with the criminal scum that were inducted into his forces. Making matters worse, his visions continued to increase in both frequency and graphic severity.

Finally, it reached the point where Curze had no choice but to deal with the problem of his recruiting world turning into a [[Star Wars D20|wretched hive of scum and villainy]], but Fulgrim, the only Primarch Curze had any real connection with, was largely unavailable, and the other Primarchs, instead of listening to him and trying to help, bitched him out and said that it wasn't their problem.

The straw that would finally break the camel´s back was during a joint operation between The Night Lords and the Imperial Fists.

[[Rogal Dorn]] had confronted Curze where he was overseeing the process of [[Grimdark|a long line of prisoners of war who were to be executed as a punitive action]], where Dorne had taken issue with Curze´s way of doing things, saying that peace through fear was not what the Emperor of mankind had intended. Konrad Curze decided to prove his point to Dorn; that without the fear of consequences people wouldn't stay loyal.
To illustrate this, Curze gave one of the prisoners a gun and then ordered his men not to kill him, no matter what might happen. Kurze pointed the gun in the prisoner's hand right under his chin, saying [[Troll|"Go ahead, kill me."]] The prisoner refused, to which Kurze stated his Astartes not would kill him. The prisoner, now confident that the Night Lords wouldn't shoot him and when Curze turned his back to him, immediately raised the gun, but Curze killed him before the prisoner could fire at him. Using the intimidation and the predictable reaction to it, Curze "proved" his point: once the fear of consequence has been removed, people will feel no loyalty.

Now, if [[Rogal Dorn]] had been a smart primarch, he would just have left well enough alone, or perhaps, told Curze that one could rule through being loved and trusted just as well as being feared. But as established before, the Emperor hadn't exactly designed the Primarchs with brains in mind. So in an effort to win the argument, Rogal revealed what Fulgrim had said to him about Curze's vision. The anger, and the betrayal of trust while in the grip of one of his visions, Curze attacked Rogal Dorn with the claws on his armor´s fingers, slashing Rogal´s face to such a degree that if Rogal hadn´t been a primarch he would have died from his wounds.

As it was, Curze was just put on house arrest/grounded until the matter of an unsanctioned attack ''(read two missing primarchs)'' by one Primarch towards another could be resolved. Curze however after reading a special batch of Nostraman tarot cards said "Screw you guys, we're going home". Killing the Imperial Fists who were guarding him, he and the Night Lords set course towards Nostramo.

Curze tried to salvage things while on his homeworld, but the Emperor's arrival had removed the one last barrier the people of Nostramo had between themselves and utter despair: ignorance.

Of course, the "Prince of Crows" heavy hinted, Curze didn't ''do'' anything other than kill people and incite fear by doing so. No improving the infrastructure, setting up a police force, or anything. And Curze refused to see this as a problem. This could have only lasted so long. In all actuality, the Emperor's arrival just sped things up. It wasn't the other Primarchs' problem, it was Konrad's mess and his one trick wasn't working anymore.

The knowledge of other worlds beyond Nostramo inflicted a hopelessness that guaranteed that nothing on Nostramo could ever change... which makes no sense given both the facts that the Imperium had massively improved their lives and that Nostramo had been trading its adamantium to several other human star systems long before the Imperium arrived (though "Prince of Crows" shows that this was because Curze made it so that there was nothing to do on Nostramo besides "behave and slowly die in an adamantium foundry" or "become a criminal and have some fun before dying quickly"), leaving the world to fester in corruption and depravity like a metastasized tumor. This was made worse by the Imperial Governor appointed to rule Nostramo in Curze's absence, who's corruption-heavy regime more-or-less plunged the entire planet into the same shit that gave birth to the Night Haunter in the first place. Needless to say, Curze was absolutely pissed at his planet and his work going back to square one.

Imperial pursuit craft, determined to stop Curze for abandoning the Great Crusade and checking on his homeworld, arrived just in time to see the laser batteries of Curze's fleet put an end to the nightmare that the planet's inhabitants had found themselves in - the only way he knew how: remorseless mass murder. Curze destroyed the planet with sustained orbital fire to the fissures his own arrival created.

Curze's actions caused him to be especially vulnerable to the whispers of Chaos. The campaigns of the Night Lords became harder and harder to justify - terror campaigns leaving a trail of devastated worlds across the breadth of the galaxy. Curze abandoned his devotion to the Emperor, instead fighting only to spread death and fear. Eventually, it got so bad that the Emperor recalled the Night Lords and prepared to call Curze to task for his actions and that of his legion.

This was 20 years before the Horus Heresy mind you, and it is very likely that the Imperium thought he had gone rogue at that point, or at the very least, completely unhinged for blowing up his homeworld. Especially, since they had been recalled to account for their terror campaigns and war crimes. So it's a bit bizarre that the loyalists thought it was a good thing that the Night Lords showed up to support them at Isstvan and ''didn't'' see a double-cross coming.

===Horus Heresy===
[[File:NocturnusObsessoris-Final.jpg|300px|thumb|left|Konrad overlooking the spires of Nostramo. and looking badass while doing it.]]

When Horus turned against the Emperor with Fulgrim, Curze was quick to throw in his lot behind the brothers he had actually been able to relate to as opposed to [[Roboute Guilliman|the fucking asshole]]. He even ended up saving Lorgar from [[Corvus Corax]] (although after seeing the Gal Vorbak, the very first squad of [[Possessed Marine]]s, felt it was a mistake).

The Night Lords remained impious, siding with none of the Chaos Gods and instead using them as mere tools in their terror campaigns. Almost entirely populated by criminals and murderers, the Night Lords led the [[Dark Angels]] and the Lion all over the Eastern Fringe. The insanity doesn't end there. In the middle of dicking with the Angels, he invites [[Lion El'Jonson]] to a dead planet (future place of his new palace and his own death...) to deliver a message from Horus, which actually predicts the Dark Angels fate of everyone hating their guts for not being on Terra because Curze has lead them all over the Eastern Fringe (HAR HAR HAR).

The Lion, who has [[Serious Business|zero tolerance]] for insults, proceeds to attack Curze and gets a fantastic one-shot off on him, though that was all he'd get and the two descended into a brawl which had to be ended with the brothers getting pulled off of each other and dragged back to their respective fleets.

The Dark Angels would eventually get the upper hand, presumably because Curze was partly pre-occupied by his "guest" (see below) and because the Lion would start using a [[Heresy|powerful and sentient warp engine]] that allowed him to out maneuver the Night Lords and capture Curze temporarily; essentially breaking the back of the Night Lords Legion. ''([[Sevatar]] took over, killed most of the leading captains and told the fleet to disperse and do [[Rip and Tear|whatever it was]] they wanted)''

====Vulkan====

[[Vulkan]] becomes Konrad's prisoner after Isstvan V. Unfortunately, Vulkan is [[Perpetual|immortal or some shit]], so he keeps coming back from the dead. This pissed the shit out of Curze, who decided to torture him instead. He had to do all kinds of shit, including being forced to kill his own [[Salamanders]], watch prisoners starve themselves, and fight [[Corax]] in a dream. In the end though, Curze couldn't bring Vulkan down to his level, causing massive amounts of [[rage]].

*SPOILER ALERT*

Vulkan ended up in a maze built by [[Perturabo]], with his hammer at the end of it. Vulkan had a teleporter in his hammer, which he figured Curze didn't know about, which made him hopeful. He couldn't navigate the maze worth shit though, and he was pretty much fucked, but after a couple of days, he pissed off Curze, who then led him to the center so they could fight. Curze was all "fuck you, teleporters don't work here", to which Vulkan replied, "[[Lulz|It's also a hammer]]". Vulkan then proceeded to beat the shit out of Curze, but didn't kill him (Because that would be stooping to his level, apparently).

When he was done, Vulkan said (essentially) "Fuck you Curze, ''I'M'' VULKAN! So MY teleporters work here. I just wanted to beat the shit out of you." He then escaped, leaving Curze more emo, depressed, and filled with more [[RAGE]] than ever before. Not that this mattered because Curze subsequently went on to take out his considerable ire against the entire Dark Angels Legion, leading to an impressively murderous trip to Macragge where he role-played a combination of every slasher movie killer and went with whatever felt natural. He would have killed the Lion AND Roboute with a powerful explosion (he had set the chapel of Hera to explode with them in it) if it hadn't been for the power of friendship. Seriously...[[My Little Pony|friendship truly is magi]]{{BLAM}}

After having a running battle with Vulkan through the streets of Macragge in which he ends up killing Vulkan several times, taking a morbid delight in seeing how long it will take for him to revive after every kill he ends up being jumped by a bottled demon and briefly being dragged into the warp, Kurze managed to kill (as in completely, not just banishing) the demon, and being dumped back onto Macragge. He's yet to reappear but he has the entire planet on curfew whilst he's still (theoretically) around.

Curze after spending some time terrifying the locals eventually sneaks into Sanguinius’s throne room. After talking for a while about how “It’s all daddy’s fault” Curze and Sanguinius end up fighting each other. Despite Curze outmatching Sanguinius in both speed and skill at arms he is fully aware that he cannot kill Sanguinius in the fight (even if he wanted too) due to the fact his destiny was to be eventually killed at Horus’s hands. Both Primarchs have visions of what could happen during the fight and are evenly matched due to their precognition. They eventually separate and Curze gives Sanguinius the chance to kill him, but Sanguinius stops the blow in mid-air out of pity. Curze then proceeds to mutilate Azkaellon before blowing up a whole lot of Sanguinary Guard, throws what remains of Azkaellon off a cliff and disappears.

Despite having the resources of almost 3 full legions, the rulers of Imperium Secundus had great difficulty tracking Curze Down. When it was revealed that Curze had never ever even left Macragge once in the years since his arrival, the Lion put the planet under almost total martial law and brought in his official Overkill brigade to deal with him. Curze had been fermenting rebellion amongst the Illyrian's, a part of Macragge that had never really accepted the civilisation of Konor and Guilliman. After the Dark Angels massacred an entire nation in response, Curze laid his final endgame in a mountain fortress. The Lion, in response, broke his word to Guilliman, and contrived a devastating (and forbidden) orbital bombardment using droppods and assault rams converted into barrage bombs and torpedoes. When the smoke cleared, the Lion went solo hunting again, walking into the trap Curze had set for him. Unfortunately, for a precog, Curze hadn't anticipated that the Lion had already cleared all the traps set for him and he was captured after a duel (the Lion cheated and brought in Fire Raptors).

Despite being finally caught, Curze had both the penultimate and last laugh. He managed to do what the Word Bearers, World Eaters, and Night Lords legion had not managed to do with soldiers and fleets, and broke Imperium Secundus. And how did he do it? Just by telling the truth about what the Lion did in order to catch him. T

===Death===
They got there late to the party but still [[/tg/ gets shit done|got shit done]], inflicting considerable morale damage on the loyalists. The Emperor however, wishing to stop the Night Lords forevermore, dispatched an [[Officio Assassinorum]] operative from the [[Callidus|Callidus Temple]] to kill him.

Curze had foreseen this, however - and he allowed it. He allowed her into his palace and the Callidus encountered no guards between herself and his throne room. Confronted with the Callidus Assassin M'Shen, it is believed that Curze proceeded to make jokes about how she had [[Pretend|butt-sex]] with [[Macha]] before getting down to brass tacks and explaining why he'd allowed her in so easily:

''"Your presence does not surprise me, Assassin. I have known of you ever since your craft entered the Eastern Fringes. Why did I not have you killed? Because your mission and the act you are about to commit proves the truth of all I have ever said or done. I merely punished those who had wronged, just as your false Emperor now seeks to punish me. Death is nothing compared to vindication."''

Whilst it's never been confirmed who [[rape|came out on top]] (or whether or not the Callidus and he engaged in [[Heresy|hardcore ball-busting sex]]), it is believed by many that Curze allowed himself to be killed, having given explicit orders to the Night Lords to allow M'Shen to escape. Only one Night Lord, Apothecary Talos Valcoran of the 10th Company, pursued her out of vengeance (the Night Lords did eventually join in pursuit, but that was only after the senior Captains realized that M'Shen(no connection to Martin Sheen, none at all) had [[Ork|looted]] Curze of all his bling, which they wanted for themselves). It is believed that Curze had come to see himself as a murderous and corrupt villain - the very thing he had sought out to destroy (or perhaps he wished to prove that his decision to destroy Nostramo and join Horus was justified, as the Emperor had become one more tyrant who had to be slain). Maybe he was the hero who lived long enough to become the villian ([[Awesome|Space Marine Batman]]). We may never know the full story behind his actions, and his final words are considered one of the most bizarre enigmas in the Imperium's history.

==Psychic Ability==
Although knowledge of his gifts apparently were not widespread amongst the ranks of his brother Primarchs, Curze was capable of mild feats of psychic display. This was first evidenced by what he would come to call his "affliction" or "curse". Namely, that Konrad was often wracked by horrible visions, likened to waking nightmares, of how people would die. He was no exception; as stated above, the Night Haunter had foreseen his own death from the moment he awoke on Nostramo. These visions also occasionally extended to those he would lay eyes upon. This included his brother Primarchs, and explained his fondness for Fulgrim - the one person who Konrad had not seen suffer a terrible death upon first meeting him. In fact, Konrad's vision after laying eyes on Fulgrim was often described as hazy or lacking in some quality. What was apparent was that Fulgrim somehow found a way to cheat death. It was when he laid eyes on Ferrus Manus, immediately after, that he was shown Fulgrim would somehow be present at the site of Ferrus' demise. Despite this, he was the one primarch whom Konrad didn't foresee a misfortunate or ghastly future. It was this closeness that eventually led Konrad to confess to Fulgrim the nature of the visions he had received, as detailed in the popular duology of Black Library short stories ''The Dark King'' and ''The Lightning Tower''.

The Night Haunter also displayed a few other feats of psychic development, such as telekinetically destroying a series of lights to aid in his escape from a VII Legion detention chamber, and psychically conversing with Jago "Sevatar" Sevatarion. Sevatar, a latent psyker, was exploring Konrad's psyche during the latter's unconsciousness resulting from wounds inflicted by the Lion El'Jonson during the Thramas Crusade. Apparently the Night Haunter had a role in helping to suppress Sevatar's psychic potential, as revealed in the conversation between them - and that, because Sevatar was not trained in their use, those psychic abilities would be increasingly self-destructive.

As the Primarch of the VIII Legion, Konrad had a servant throughout the Great Crusade named Ekra Trez (who bore the title of "Sin-Eater"). Trez was tasked with keeping a record of the Night Haunter's pre-cognitive visions in a massive tome, and would often make note of which ones had been proven correct or false. Trez was also more than aware of Sevatar's psychic ability, leaving some readers of the Black Library's Horus Heresy novels curious as to what role Trez may have played in the Primarch's psychic development - if any.

==Lasting Legacy==
The Night Haunter, in his death, may have continued to leave a lasting impression upon the Imperium as inspiration for one of it's many institutions. Although his legion continues to sow fear and discord amongst the stars, Konrad Curze's legacy of weaponized fear lives on within the Imperium through the Emperor's Holy Ordos of the Inquisition. Like the inquisitors of the 41st Millennium, Konrad brought loyal citizens into compliance through fear and threats of death/torture beyond imagining to those who weren't sure where their allegiances lay. Those who failed to comply were guaranteed either a swift death at the hands of his legion, or a slow death at the tender mercies of his legion's most depraved souls. Lastly, if those comparisons weren't enough, look at the fate of Nostramo - Konrad essentially carried out an act of Exterminatus. Just as Lorgar's teachings on the Emperor's divinity would later lay the foundation for the Imperial Creed of the Ecclesiarchy, the Night Haunter could effectively be treated as the first author of the Inquisition's playbook.

Within the Night Lords, Curze and the Night Haunter each left their own legacy, which caused no small amount of schism. Officially, Curze appointed Zho Sahaal as his successor and Talonmaster, because Sahaal understood that a true warrior is more than just a murder machine. A true warrior has ''focus''. As you can probably predict, every other Night Lord captain decided that ''they'' were more deserving of being Curze's successor and tried to get Sahaal dethroned for being "weak" or whatever. Their logic was that Curze wasn't in charge, the Night Haunter was, and the Night Haunter was supposed to choose the ''true'' successor. After Sahaal became lost in the Warp, captain Kreig Acerbus "the Axemaster" slowly but surely took over huge swathes of the Night Lords and led them to become Chaos Undivided followers. Ironically, the Night Haunter had no intention of ever choosing a successor as he would have preferred that his legion die out completely for becoming everything he personally despised.

==Multiple Personality Disorder?==
Now, we all know the [[Black Library]] can range from the [[Dan Abnett|godly]] to the [[C.S.Goto|Goto]]. So this must be taken with a grain of salt. But ''Lords of the Night'' implies that Curze suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder, such that he and the Night Haunter were two different people, Konrad the just leader of men, and the Night Haunter the murderous vigilante. 'Blood Reaver' also implies it (a Night Lords sorcerer talking about how at one moment he was trying to teach his long-dead father some idealistic lesson, while at another he was only concerned about eating some slave's heart.) and shows it outright (when he has a bit of a manic episode and forgets that his First Captain died several years ago.) 'Blood Reaver' also suggests that the Emprah's DNA may not have entirely settled in Curze's body, explaining why he was so batshit crazy by the time of his death, not to mention the corpse like appearance he was sporting near the end.

The upshot of this is that ''only the Night Haunter'' fell to Chaos, while Curze remained clean. Which one got the other killed is unknown.

Another thing perhaps tied with his Multiple Personality Disorder is that Konrad Curze towards the end had ended up hating his own legion.
In a conversation with First Captain Sevatar, Konrad mentioned how he had spoken with Angron and Lorgar following the Istvaan III purge.
Cleansing the untrustworthy elements of the World Eaters and the Word Bearers. The sheer absurdity of the idea was laughable to the Night Haunter, for his brothers knew exactly when to stop the killing of the weak, the treacherous and the corrupt within their bloodlines.
He had no idea where to begin culling the Night Lords' ranks. His sons were no longer cast in his image. Less than a decade after he had departed Nostramo that world had sent him nothing but filth to integrate into the VIII Legion as Neophytes; the disgusting dregs of humanity his own Apothecaries had infused with his genetic material and reforged into transhumans.
The VIII Legion had become poisoned by their presence.
The VIII Legion was now composed of warriors who were murderers in the Primarch's own image, yet devoid of his conviction.
The Night Lords had become nothing more than killers and abusers, bleeding the weak for their own amusements because they enjoyed it as good sport. Fear became an end unto itself, and its propagation was all the Night Lords desired as they fed upon it.

This was made even more clear by what Curze told Talos before he and the Assassin was to get it on.
''"Many will claim to lead our Legion in the years after I am gone.''
''Many will claim that they - and they alone - are my appointed successor. I hate this Legion, Talos. I destroyed its world to stem the flow of poison. I will be vindicated soon, and the truest lesson of the Night Lords will be taught.
''
''Do you truly believe I care what happens to any of you after my death?"
''

Now some might say he was overreacting a bit but, still given how the criminal overlords he had spend most of his life on Nostramo eradicating, took over again as soon as he had left the planet and started sending their henchmen to be turned into space marines, it might be understandable. It was not for nothing that Horus had cause to muse that his generals were psychopaths while the Emperors were noble, statuesque leaders of men.

==Tabletop==
[[Image:Konrad-Curze-1.jpg|thumb|right|Wristblades? Check. Stealth capabilities? Check. Skinning prey and taking trophies? Check. Now he just needs a shoulder mounted plasma gun and he'll be able to pass himself off as the Predator.]]

{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" align="left"
! || WS || BS || S || T || W || I || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Konrad Curze:''' || 8 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 5+1 || 10 || 2+/4++
|}<br style="clear: left; height: 0px;" /><br>
On the tabletop, Curze has the basic Primarch statline plus Shrouded and Stealth. He has several fear based abilities, such as granting fear to all Night Lords (those who already have Fear impose a -1 on the leadership test), fear tests when in combat with him are taken at -3LD, and if he kills a unit in close combat any unit subject to fear within 12' and line of sight must take a leadership test or fall back. Sire of the Night Lords also grants him the Acute Senses and Night Vision USR, and he may elect to have the first turn of any game have the Night Fighting rule. His weapons are 2 Lightning Claws called Mercy and Forgiveness which have AP 2, the Murderous Strike rule and grants +1 attack (Paired) and his armour, the Nightmare Mantle, provides 2+ armour save and 4+ invulnerable save (like most Primarch Armour), plus when he charges, it grants him hit and run and Hammer of Wrath special rules (inflicting d3 HoW hits instead of the usual one).

Best of all, his ranged weapon proves definitely that Konrad Curze is Batman. He literally uses Batarangs during the shooting phase. His ranged attack is called a "Widowmaker Volley", which is essentially 3 bolt pistol profile shots with a special rules that make 4+ to hit precision shots makes 6's to wound ignore both armor AND invulnerable saves. You can't save against the God-Damned Bat Man. The best part is the actual description of the weapons in the Horus Heresy rulebook: "The Widowmakers: Based on the micro-serrated throwing knives utilized for signature-kills by Nostraman assassin-cults, Curze favored the use of these vicious, yet highly precise weapons over more conventional firearms in battle, using them for non-lethal takedowns.

==Konrad Curze VS other Primarchs:==
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
Primarch fighting, while fun to see, isn't a very competitive thing to do as it'll usually tie up both Primarchs for the entire game without either of them dying. With that in mind this section is about how Konrad Curze fares against other Primarchs Mathhammer wise. Please note that all the various abilities are taken into accounts when possible and the match-ups assume the Primarchs are the only ones involved in the fighting, so various abilities like Angron's "The Butcher's Nails" and Rampage do not provide any bonuses. In essence, the fights are supposed to happen in a "Vacuum" for simplicity, but notes are added to make things clearer in particular instances. Also all of the Primarch use their most powerful weapons (because why have a contest if you don't do your best?).
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">

* Konrad Curze VS Horus
**Horus hits 3 times (Talon), wounds 2.667 times, 1.333 after saves and IWND will take that down to 1 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 0.75 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.417.
**Konrad lose (not a big surprise) and as always Horus use his Talon 'cause, even though he would do more damage with Worldbreaker, the Talon allows him to make his opponent basically harmless after a couple of wounds.

* Konrad Curze VS Angron
**Angron Round 1: hits 5.333 times, wounds 4.444 times, 2.222 after saves, and IWND take it down to 1.889.
**Angron Round 2 and thereafter: hits 4 times, wounds 3.333 times, 1.667 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.333 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times (0.75 of which causes ID), 1 wounds after saves and FNP and IWND will take that down to 0.667 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Angron easily wins, doing a lot more damage and receiving less in turn.
**Note: Curze can Hit & Run, but by doing so he would only gain one more attack, while allowing Angron to reset his Hatred, thus actually making himself dies even faster. However he would be a much better fight: Konrad on the Charge would do 2.625 wounds (0.875 with ID) which become 1.168, plus 0.1389 for HoW and 0,359 for the Widowmakers, for a total of 1,666 wounds, or 1.333 after IWND. This, thanks to the -1 wound of Angron, actually means that they would kill each other on the fifth assault, at the same initiative step. Provided that Konrad always succeed in his escape, that is.

* Konrad Curze vs Mortarion
**Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.667 times, 0.833 wounds after saves and 0.5 wounds after IWND.
**Curze hits 4 times, wounds 2.222 times, 1.11 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.555 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze lose as even though he does more damage, Mortarion has 1 more wound that will make him outlast the Night Haunter.
**Note: with the Hit & Run tactics Konrad would actually win, thanks to the +1 attack on the charge, HoW and the knives, butchering Mortarion in 9 rounds while Mortarion would need 11 (counting overwatch).

* Konrad Curze vs Fulgrim
**Fulgrim hits 3.5 times, wounds 2.333 times, 1.167 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.833 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 0.75 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.417 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Easy win for Fulgrim. Even with Hit & Run, Konrad would not win this fight. Still, he would outdamage Fulgrim on the charge (1.472 wounds after all saves, 1.139 after IWND) and he would loose only thanks to the superior initiative of the Phoenician, coming extremely close to claiming a surprising draw.

* Konrad Curze vs Ferrus Manus
**Ferrus hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.083 times, 1.042 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.709 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 4 times, wounds 2.222 times, 0.741 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.407 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Ferrus win.
**Note: Even though with Hit & Run Konrad could close the gap and do almost the same exact damage as Ferrus over the course of the fight, mathematically winning thanks to his superior initiative, this tactics is not reliable against the Gorgon thanks to the Concussive & Strikedown of Forgebreaker.

* Konrad Curze VS Vulkan
**Vulkan hits 2 times, wounds 1.666 times, 0.833 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.5 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 4 times, wounds 2.222 times, 0.741 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.185 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Vulkan is just too tanky for Konrad.
**Note: with the usual tactic of Hit & Run Curze would outdamage Vulkan, but this is hindered by the fact that Dawnbringer has Concussive, making it difficult to foresee: it could go either way. (Because it's also a Hammer.)

* Konrad Curze VS Lorgar
**Lorgar hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.0833 times,1.042 after saves and IWND will take that to 0.708 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze Round 1: hits 3.555 times, wounds 2.369 times, 1.184 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.851 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze Round 2: hits 4 times, wounds 3 times, 1.5 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.167 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad wins.
**Note: as always, psychic powers not included. You know how it would end anyway...

*Konrad Curze VS Perturabo
**Perturabo hits 2 times, wounds 1.667, 0.833 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.5 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 0.75 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.417 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad loses as Perturabo does marginally more damage.
**Note: With Hit & Run Konrad would win, but the chance he is not concussed in the round he wants to escape are pretty slim, meaning that Perturabo has still the edge in this fight.

* Konrad Curze VS Alpharius
**Alpharius hits 2.92 times and wounds 1.701 times, 0.851 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.517 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 4 times, wounds 3 times, 1.5 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.167 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad wins.

* Konrad Curze VS Rogal Dorn
**Dorn hits 2 times, wounds 1.5 times, 0.75 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.417 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 1.125 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.792 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad wins thanks to his superior number of attacks.

* Konrad Curze VS Corvus Corax
**Corvus hits 4 times (Scourge)/3 times (Shadow-walk), wounds 3 times (Scourge)/2.25 times (Shadow-walk), 1.5 wounds (Scourge)/1.125 wounds (Shadow-walk) after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.167/0.792 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 4 times/3 times, wounds 3 times/2.25 times, 2 wounds/1.5 after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.667/1.167 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad wins.
**Note: even though they both got Hit & Run, Konrad doesn't get +1 attack to charge Corax, 'cause he has Shroud Bombs, and also doesn't get +1 S ans I, making Corax considerably stronger when he charge all things considered. All in all, a pretty balanced fight, even if the stats don't say so. Corax doesn't have Widowmakers, though...

* Konrad Curze VS Roboute Guilliman
**Guilliman Round 1/2: hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.222 times, 1.111 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.778 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Guilliman Round 3 and thereafter: hits 3.333 times, wounds 2.963 times, 1.481 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.148 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze Round 1: hits 4 times, wounds 3 times, 1 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.667 at the start of the next turn.
**Curze Round 2 and thereafter: hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 0.625 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.292 at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad lose.
**Note: as always, Konrad could attempt to even the odds with Hit and Run, negating Preternatural Strategy while gaining the +1 attack for the charge (and sniping some wounds with his knives). But so long as Guilliman uses his power fist by the second round of combat Curze will be locked to initiative 1 and will be dead before it's guaranteed he'll be able to leave combat.

* TLDR version: Even though he does a lot of damage, Konrad is not really suited for Primarch vs Primarch fights. Do not misunderstand: he is a real beast when he can make use of Hit & Run and the Widowmakers are extremely good, especially against Primarchs with strong invulnerable saves. Still, you have to consider that all of his special rules are primary designed to scare his opponents and make them flee, but since all Primarchs are Fearless he can't use them. Despite this, he can win some fights and, when he struggle, he can still significantly cripple even some of the strongest Primarchs, leaving them weak and vulnerable. But you are arguably best served to employ his mobility to evade them (instead of fighting) and charge something he could actually butcher in a single round, to make the most of his King of Terror special rule. Make their allies flee in panic and then destroy them when they are alone and surrounded...

</div></div>

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Night haunter by cabal art.png|Isn't he the cutest murderous psychopath vigilante ever?
File:Konrad.jpg
File:BigKurze.jpg|[[Emperor|Christ]] that looks epic. Even if it's on graph paper.
File:Konspire.png|Do not get on his bad side.
</gallery>

{{Primarchs}}
[[Category:Chaos]]

Imperium Secundus

2016-10-05T02:08:12Z

2A02:C7D:C5E:A200:352C:6492:5881:EA26: /* Counterpoint */

{{Cleanup}}

::''It's Guilliman, What do you think he's doing? He's building an Empire!'' - [[Malcador the Sigillite]]

"'''Imperium Secundus'''" is the formal name for the secondary [[Imperium of Man]], which [[Roboute Guilliman]] tried to build in the wake of the [[Horus Heresy]] around his own Legion Homeworld, the [[Ultramar]] systems. Data shows that Guilliman was preparing this new empire even before the Heresy, and many rumours state that he might have wanted to make an empire himself, instead of letting [[The Emperor|his father]] have all the fun. Others go that he had forseen the Heresy long before, and tried to do his best to keep humanity safe after the fall of their leader.

It was, and is, essentially [[skub]] in the form of a state. Ask yourself why the Ultramarine reinforcements were late for the [[Siege of Terra]]. Calth? The Ruinstorm? Ultramar being on the opposite side of the galaxy? Those plausible answers are only part of the reason. Instead, we get this... issue... to pad the Horus Heresy series.

==Formation==
Imperium Secundus (from the self referential book: "Unremembered Empire") was [[Roboute Guilliman]]'s attempt at building his own [[Imperium]] of Man when he ''(incorrectly)'' believed that the Emperor lay defeated and that the rest of the Imperium was ashes during the [[Horus Heresy]].

The [[Word Bearers]]' assault on Calth created a ''Ruinstorm'' which spread across the galaxy, garbling communications and restricting travel. The 500 worlds of the [[Ultramarines]] [[First Founding|Legion]] had no means of determining whether the rest of the Imperium stood or not during this period of war.

Thus the analytical mind of the [[Primarch]] Guilliman resolved that according to the ''theoretical'' destruction of the rest of the Imperium, he would enact his ''practical'' solution and build his own.

As it required moving the power-base of his "new" Imperium and its institutions to [[Macragge]], he knew that this situation could potentially be construed as an act of treachery. Thus, he maintained it would only be a temporary measure where if the Emperor and Terra were found to be intact he would be the first to lend his aid in their defense.

He also insisted that he would not be its ruler, as he was very aware that to both split from the true Imperium and to position himself as head of the splinter government would make him appear as [[Goge Vandire|a tyrant who was only interested in power]]. To prove his point, he planned to wait until such time as a worthy brother Primarch arrived on Macragge and make them the Regent-Emperor instead.

However, a number of events call into question Guilliman's sincerity:

===Misrepresentation===
[[Warsmith Dantioch]] of the [[Iron Warriors]] was lured into the service of Guilliman on the promise that his skills would be put to good use fortifying the Imperial Palace in the inevitable [[Siege of Terra]]; it seems Dantioch never got that far, and was assigned a position on [[Sotha]], and possibly post-heresy his soldiers were [[Silver Skulls|just absorbed into the Ultramarines]] rather than making any meaningful contribution. This is not entirely unforgivable, as the 500 worlds were cut off from Terra, so Dantioch might never have been able to get back. Plus, as a Loyalist, Dantioch and his men would have been mistrusted; therefore, being absorbed into the Ultramarines would have been as wise a choice as any.

===Mustering Forces to Himself===
What Guilliman found on [[Sotha]] was a pre-Imperial device that acted similarly to the [[Astronomican]]. This device was known as the [[Pharos]].

Instead of a psychic lighthouse like the Astronomican, the Pharos shone like a lantern and illuminated targeted worlds in the Warp, allowing safe passage to them even through thick warp storms. Guilliman ordered that the Pharos be shone on Macragge so that lost loyalists fleets could find their way to him though the Ruinstorm.

This did have the intended effect, as beaten stragglers from the broken legions of the [[Iron Hands]], [[Salamanders]] and [[Raven Guard]] found their way to Macragge. It also brought in some broken elements from the [[Imperial Fists]] Retribution Fleet from Phall and some [[White Scars]] who were not at Chondax for some reason. Badly beaten, and with their own primarchs [[Ferrus Manus|dead]] or [[Vulkan|assumed dead]], they swore allegiance to Guilliman until such time as the Emperor could be aided.

Some [[Space Wolves]] and a fleet of [[Dark Angels]] led by the Lion also showed up, but Macragge had always been their destination, since they had business in Ultramar.

AND if that's not enough the '''entire''' [[Blood Angels]] Legion ''(except for about eleven men left on [[Baal]], the "Lost Sons")'' from the [[Battle of Signus]] turned up on Guilliman's doorstep too.

Both the Blood Angels and Imperial Fists were actually looking for Terra, so it could definitely be said that all these arrivals would starve Terra of valuable resources and actually hinder the war effort.
In fact this was ''explicitly'' stated to [[Lorgar]] by Kairos Fateweaver prior to the battle at Calth as the one time both of its heads were compelled to speak the truth: it warned him that if Guilliman died, then Horus would have no chance at the Siege of Terra. However, the Pharos was simply one part of a larger galactic network. It may be that he was incapable of redirecting its energies onto Terra, implying Guilliman was simply making the most practical use of the tools available. Not only that, but the Pharos was described as an "Empathic" device which responded to the desires of its user, but had mostly unknown capabilities. Thus, by shining it at Macragge, one could take from that that it responded to Macragge's (and by extension Guilliman's) desire to regroup and fortify.

===Empire Building / Desire for Power===
Guilliman was renowned for Empire-Building, and his attempt at usurping the Imperium was actually anticipated by both the [[Emperor]] and [[Malcador the Sigillite]]. They discuss the matter together and are thankful that [[Lion El'Jonson]] takes his own initiative to resolve the matter.

Now the Lion [[skub|may or may not]] have had his own agenda, as he had attempted to gain military power himself earlier in the war, but at least he argued that it was to the Imperium's benefit for him to be [[Warmaster]] and to be of better service to his father.

Here, the Lion was very clear on the issue with his brother Guilliman, seeing his brother's new Imperium as a threat equally as grave as [[Horus]] to the kingdom that his father had built.

Even Konrad Curze thought it was hilarious and internally mocked Guilliman in the "look at me, look at me, I'm building an Empire!" fashion

====Counterpoint====
Guilliman was ''very'' politically minded and was careful not to take the position of Regent for himself, lest he be seen as a usurper of his father's Empire. So resolved to ensure that the position would go to another Primarch as only a member of the blood would have the qualities to rule (just not himself). Unfortunately the first Primarch to arrive (Vulkan) had gone completely insane and thus was incapable of taking the position.

When the Lion arrived on Macragge, the issue of whether Guilliman he should hand over rulership to him did come up, unfortunately, Guilliman described the Lion as too inscrutable to be properly trusted with the position and in turn the Lion could not trust Guilliman due to what the entire enterprise represented ''(they never actually came to blows with one another over the matter, but nearly did since BOTH brothers were both keeping secrets from one another, such as the locations of [[Konrad Curze]] & [[Vulkan]])'' and unanimously elected that [[Sanguinius]] take the position of [[Regent]] when his fleet arrived. So at least both brothers could be described as sincere in their desire to put aside their differences and [[get shit done]]. Therefore assigning the regency to Sanguinius was a matter of convenience for both parties involved.

Deathfire also shows that since Konrad Curze managed to singlehandely bypass all the security measures Guilliman put in place (along with disparate World Eater and Word Bearer raiding groups still plaguing Ultramar), he turned Macragge into a military fortress, complete with curfews, decreasing civil liberties, and the Ultramarine's acting as police force - the very things setting up Imperium Secundus was supposed to preserve - causing him considerable emotional distress.

Guilliman's intentions were apparently sincere, if not in their execution. The three Primarch's found out that the Emperor was still alive due to a combination of Sanguinius and Kurze's precognition. Guilliman himself was utterly mortified at everything he had done.

==Rationale==
When challenged on the matter by [[Alexis Pollux]] of the [[Imperial Fists]] Retribution Fleet, Guilliman countermanded [[Rogal Dorn]]'s order to return to Terra, citing that he held command unless someone who outranked him showed up (who could only be Dorn in Pollux's case or the Emperor himself) and that for all intents and purposes, Macragge already was the Imperium.

The Pollux would remark if that then made Guilliman the new Emperor, to which the reply was summed up as ''"I am the Imperium"''

Guillimans response to Pollux was a bit telling however, and bears the hallmarks of a faithless man, but not necessarily a traitorous one, particularly since it was well worded; by discounting the rest of the Imperium's existence as a mere ''theoretical'' and choosing to deal with only the tangible matters of the ''practical'', it shows he was the sort of person who was unlikely to take risks, and would prefer the path of certainty rather than gambling for something greater.

Essentially Guilliman's solution to the ''Schrödinger's cat'' paradox is to get a new cat; By demanding proof of life he operates on the principle that the Imperium is dead until shown otherwise.

To be fair to Guilliman, it was two years before he starting receiving any news from the outer Imperium and when it did start coming in, it was mostly bad.

Oddly, Guilliman was willing to let the remaining Salamanders attempt to breach the Ruinstorm, despite having the power to stop them (or knowing that if they suceeded they could tell Terra what he was up to). It turned out to be moot anyway as even when they Salamanders found themselves in a position to warn both the Imperium AND return to Guilliman, they chose to do neither.

==Foreknowledge / Intention==
Guilliman was possessed of an analytical mind unlike any other, quite possibly greater than any of his brother Primarchs, and therefore was perfectly aware of what his new Imperium represented and did not need to be told by his brothers how heretical it was.

In his own mind Imperium Secundus was '''"Plan B"''' - ''an outcome less desirable, but something you can live with.''

Despite this; Guilliman was fully prepared to fight for what he believed in and even related to his officer [[Remus Ventatus]] ''(in the same conversation when he iterated that the [[Codex Astartes]] should not be adhered to religiously)'' that he should even be prepared to fight against those brothers who counted themselves Loyal to the Emperor, and even later commented that when he was about to declare the Imperium Secundus official he was ready to kill anyone who would stand in his way.

Furthermore, the fact that the [[Codex Astartes]] was written well '''before''' the fall of the Emperor shows that it was obvious that Guilliman believed that HE was the only person capable of safeguarding his father's legacy, regardless about what [[Leman Russ|his]] [[Rogal Dorn|brothers]] [[Corax|might]] have thought in the aftermath of the Horus Heresy. This would only have been irrespective about who took the position of "Regent" (essentially making it a puppet role), since Guilliman planned it all well in advance and was willing to back it up with force.

...possibly rightly so, since the "apparent" aim of the Codex was to neuter the strength of individual warlords, followed up by the dissolution of the actual role of Emperor, all makes the distribution of power in a future Imperium ever so slightly more equitable and better able to uphold the ideals of the Emperor rather than ignoring them in favore of mindless loyalty towards the Emperor himself. Or at least, that's what his original plan was. Since he's now nearly-dead in a stasis field, one can only imagine what he thinks of the difference between his intentions and their actual results.

Is this the sign of a [[Heretic]]? Quite possibly, but considering that Guilliman was trapped on the far side of the Galaxy with no awareness of the full extent of what had occurred, helpless to cause any significant impact as the war progressed while his powerful predictive mind could calculate most likely probably outcomes of the war in his absence, one might call his actions prudent planning rather than underhanded scheming.

==Legacy==
===of Guilliman===
It was called the "Unremembered Empire" for a reason, [[retcon|it didn't actually happen]] according to the history texts as to do so would portray Guilliman as a traitor against his father.

However, Guilliman's influence on the Imperium after the [[Horus Heresy]] are hard to miss, since is widely regarded as the most influential of Primarchs on the Imperium, despite the fact that he did very little to protect it (and possibly even hindered it by accident) during its darkest hour. Sanguinius returned to Terra in time for the final battle, yet neither Guilliman nor the Lion did despite all three starting from the same location, possibly suggesting a conflict between the two, given their actions. Unless of course (as a lot of people are guessing) Guilliman got distracted by a [[Trazyn the Infinite|metal troll]]. People also forget the inconsistent nature of warp travel.

There remains the suggestion that Guilliman's motives were not entirely sincere and that the Emperor, Malcador and the Lion were right: that Guilliman was only interested in building his OWN Empire, irrespective of the Emperor's involvement in it, which is where the problem lies.

This is also supported by the the views of his brother [[Rogal Dorn]] who had been present at the final battle, returned his dying father to the Golden Throne and actually HEARD his final orders. Considering the Emperor already had knowledge of the war's outcome ''(read Outcast Dead)'' he should have prepared his own plan for its aftermath, therefore his orders to Dorn and [[Jaghatai Khan]] should have at least involved some sort of planning for the eventuality ''(unless the Emperor simply revealed what Guilliman was in the process of doing and was going to run with that anyway)''. Disagreements between them very nearly sparked another civil war about how the Imperium and its military should be run.

Additionally, there remains the fact that 10,000 years later, his own sons are the foremost protectors of the Imperium of Man making up 50-60% of the whole Astartes population and have marginalised the others into either conformity via the [[Codex Astartes|Codex]] or obscurity by denying them descendant chapters. With the Ultramarines Chapter having the [[Spiritual Liege|singular honour]] of being the most respected of Space Marine chapters, who set the standard [[Matt Ward|for all other Astartes to aspire to]], it's not a difficult set of circumstances to arrange when your father was the one to initially draft the policies that everyone conforms to.

History is written by the victors, and Guilliman was the closest thing to a "[[skub|winner]]" in the Horus Heresy. It is even said on the Ultramarines Chapter Banner: ''[[retcon|"Our Presence Remakes the Past"]]''

Despite all of this, it could be said that Guilliman took the longer view and created an Imperium [[Humanity Fuck Yeah|not ruled by Emperors, but by men]], with the [[High Lords of Terra]] in the Emperor's place.

However, immediately after unveiling his [[Codex Astartes]] which affirmed that no person, Primarch or otherwise should be able to wield such power of the Legions, Guilliman '''DID''' eventually achieve lordship over the Imperium, becoming '''Lord Commander of the Imperium''' ''(which was essentially Warmaster in all but name)'' and particularly at odds with the stated intention of restricting forces by achieving oversight of ALL armed forces. The position was used up until M32 and subsequent holders were even referred to by the title of ''"Lord Guilliman"''. ''(though the later holders seemed to have significantly reduced influence than Guilliman)''

What it means, or heavily implies is that there is possibly an edgier and more relatable side to the Ultramarines beyond simply being [[Mary Sue]]s or the best thing since sliced bread, and that the supposedly [[Spiritual Liege|eminent]] status that the Ultramarines enjoy is because of well calculated political maneuvers. Each of the Primarchs had their strengths which they passed on, in part, to their sons. Thus, if anything Guilliman was said to have been the greatest of statesmen. While the effects of his actions were not all beneficial to the Imperium, one could easily argue that the alternative would be to simply allow the Imperium to fall into anarchy in the Emperor's absence.

===of Sanguinius===
It is too early to tell in fluff terms how much the position of regent will affect Sanguinius, or him ruling the" unremembered empire" will come to affect the later Imperium, as removing the entire Imperium Secundus plotline does not change the opinion of Sanguinius and the Blood Angels one bit. That, and it's not likely to change the fact that Horus will end up killing him either way.

One thing that does remain is the [[Sanguinor]], who was a by-product of this era. As Sanguinius needed a regent to stand for him and deal with petitioners when he was too busy with other important tasks as well as to act as a body-double for the sake of assassination attempts and keep the focus away from the Primarch.

Even at the time, the identity of the herald was kept a closely guarded secret and his name was removed from the records of the chapter. By M41, the origins of the Sanguinor are completely forgotten about, even by the majority of the Blood Angels themselves if the ever knew about the practice at all (assuming that the Sanguinary Guard still retain the tradition and that the Sanguinor is not simply Sanguinius resurrected or some sort of daemon-incarnate).

The only thing that can be immediately inferred is that there ought to be a damn good reason why the Blood Angels, after being trapped on the wrong side of the ruinstorm, end up at Terra WITHOUT the Ultramarines or Dark Angels in tow.

===Tyranids===
Some think the use of the Pharos may have also been the thing that initially got the Tyranids' attention and brought them to the Milky Way, which if true would be highly ironic given the Smurfs' history with the bugs.

Initial evidence for this was circumstantial at best, but fits a pattern. In the [[First Tyrannic War]] the bugs made a "bee-line" (pun-intended) directly for Macragge; actually converging on it to a point. When this was thwarted, [[Hive Fleet Kraken]] of the Second War was also moving in the "general direction" of Ultramar, but it counted the planet Sotha (where the Pharos was kept) [[Scythes of the Emperor|as one of the casualties of war]], quite possibly knocking out its effect.

Now compare this to the [[Third Tyrannic War]] which attacked the Milky Way from an entirely different axis and seems to have no focus on Ultramar whatsoever and is generally much more dispersed across the galaxy rather than aiming for a particular target.

Again, this a plausible theory that appears to fit known events especially when you look at maps of the hive fleets movements, but without more information on the subject it's quite difficult to tell exactly what caused the Tyranids to appear. Some in-universe sources believe that it might be the Astronomican leading them to the galaxy, like a moth to the flame, but they obviously would never have been aware of the Pharos to account for any possible influence it had.

The epilogue for the book ''Pharos'' now pretty much confirms that the Pharos is what brought the great devourer to the Galaxy. That in a brief moment when the Night Lords lay siege to Sotha, the light of the beacon shone brighter than ever before in a last ditch attempt by Warsmith Dantioch to purge the traitors from the planet. The light was noticed from outside of the Galaxy and the hive mind registered it as prey. Oops.

[[Category:Imperial]]
[[Category:Warhammer_40,000]]

The Beast

2016-09-20T22:54:16Z

2A02:C7D:C5E:A200:352C:6492:5881:EA26:

The Beast is one of the mightiest (if not THE mightiest) ork warbosses ever to ravage the galaxy, fought during [[The War of The Beast]].

==The Legend==
Back during the forging (that is, the 32nd millennium) the Imperial Fists were idly slaughtering and driving to extinction an alien race when they found something flabbergasting. A hugeass WAAAGH!!! But it weren't numbers alone the main threat that this ork force represented, but its organization and composition. The Beast was ginormous, far bigger than good old [[Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka]], and his nobs were colossal and mighty foes. How large was the Beast you ask? He is said to have been as large as a HAB-BLOCK and with a mouth filled with tusks the size of TREE TRUNKS and this could be due to the fact that he's the same breed as the ork warboss of Ullanor who it took [[The Emperor]] HIMSELF TO KILL. Hell he was so huge that when he first appears the space marines sent to kill him mistake him for a stompa before they realize there's an ork in that plated armor. Let that sink in for a moment...
How big of a threat was The Beast? The Iron Warriors teamed up with the Imperial Fists in order to fight him and his boyz. The fucking most bitter enemies in the galaxy who hated each other's guts, barring the [[Ultramarine]] fans versus the rest of the fandom during 5th edition, teamed up together against him. Whole crusades where dedicated to halt them, the mightiest fleets since the days of the heresy were assembled. Tens of chapters were lost, annihilated by the green tide. The Imperial Fists UNITED as a whole legion in order to have a fighting chance and during the most heated point the [[Deathwatch]] was created.

Let it sink: the [[Deathwatch]], the prime alien hunters and the most proficient annihilators of xenos were expressly created as a (one of many) last ditch effort to stop him. Fucking wow.

Assorted accomplishments from this dude include:

*Making attack ''moons''. Not Roks, like Thraka's. MOONS as a whole and in plural, that's a whole new level of [[looted|loot]].
*Making logistics and army structure on a sophisticated level.
**The thing goes beyond logistics and army structure. Guess what symbols do they use? For tactically gifted gits they made them wear bloody axes, snakes for the... "herders", and horns for their best shock troops. That is, Blood Axes, Snakebites, and Goffs. The space marines don't recognize this symbols despite there being iron warriors whom fought during the crusade. Let it sink for a second: he laid the foundations for the Ork Klans. His legacy is still lasting til now as the great grand-daddy of all the orks in the current setting.
*Asswhooping dozens of chapters in unison.
*He fucking reached and BESIEGED Terra itself.
*He had ork DIPLOMATS. Just think about greenskins that are capable of more complex thoughts than "run/hide and then run and bash that asshat's cranium into pulp".
**It goes far beyond that, the ork diplomat went to the Senatorum Imperialis itself, in The Golden Palace, he put in evidence what innefectual little pieces of trash most of the Lords of Terra are, what is more, and one of the most deliciously effective insults ever thrown at mankind, ''he acted in a civilized way, offering surrender terms'', confronting [[Skaven|a bunch of petty cowardly parasites who bickered among themselves like immature kids while trying to back-stab each other]], the guy nailed it in such a way not even the worst desecration made by Chaos could have hurt the imperials pride.
*He was able to sicken the frigging Iron Warriors: when they went to Prax they found that the Orks had organized thousands of farms with BILLIONS of humans in there so pumped of shit they were devolved into the cattle they were being bred for. When you've got a bunch like the Iron Warriors saying "It will be a mercykill". You know you've become a sick fuck of the highest order if other sick fucks are disgusted with you. And I remind you, this is the same legion that created the [[Daemonculaba]].
*He had ''colonized'' Ullanor. The whole world was now sporting ork cities (and very well organized to boot) that would become killing zones for the invading forces.
*He murderfucked the Ultramarines Chapter Master, the Crimson Fist's Chapter Master, crippled a blood angels captain and gave VULKAN of all people a tough fight. Normally any of the aforementioned before would have sufficed to kill him yet it was a hell of a battle for the four previously mentioned.

Truly this guy is the mightiest warboss ever and the WAAAGH! Beast reigns supreme as the biggest and meanest WAAAGH!, [[Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka]] be damned. The WAAAGH! energy that suffuses him makes him akin to a living Ork demi-god. Able to regenerate from wounds Vulkan inflicts on him. Insanely intelligent; possibly even a genius on a human scale. Him existing has triggered a reaction in the Ork genome leading the entire race to transform into coherency and become efficient and organised. He's essentially their version of the Primarch. This Ork is the eventuality of uncontested success for a singular Ork. So vastly different have the Ork become in nature that it is possible that they are evolving into the Krork.

Oh, and he's one of six other "Prime-Orks" (technically 5, since the Imperium managed to kill one).

[[category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Orks]]

Malcador the Sigillite

2016-09-12T22:31:31Z

2A02:C7D:C5E:A200:352C:6492:5881:EA26: /* History */

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Malcador worried about the Emperor being so far above humanity, so inspirational in his efforts to squeeze out superstition and false-religion that it would eventually cause [[Imperial Cult|religious cults]] to form around himself and his sons instead, which is [[Derp|exactly what happened.]]

He also warned that humanity would be so invested in the Emperor that if he were to ever leave or die, humanity would not be able to handle the shock and would be left paralysed and without direction. Though the Emperor himself dismissed this as nonsense, since his intention was to raise humanity and allow it to think for itself - Yet another miscalculation on his part.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{Imperium}}

Knights-Errant

2016-07-24T16:31:12Z

2A02:C7D:C5E:A200:352C:6492:5881:EA26: /* Others */

The '''Knight-Errant''' are/were a group of [[Space Marines]] brought together from various different [[First Founding|Legions]] at the behest of [[Malcador the Sigillite]] in order to create a cadre of the best and brightest that the space marines had to offer, and use them to form a [[Grey Knights|new Chapter]] to combat the threat of daemons and dark magic that the [[Imperium]] was not prepared to fight against, due to the erasure of all knowledge of them as part of the Imperial Truth. Members of the Traitor Legions which refused to follow their Primarchs into corruption, made up a surprisingly large part of their number. Having proven themselves truly pure and strong of spirit in the face of absolute corruption and despair, the Knights-Errant offered these legion-less marines, a new purpose, away from the taint of their old Legions.

There is evidence for them being the forerunners of [[Grey Knights]]. Despite what we think we know of the original Grey Knights and that eight of the initial recruits would become the first Grand Masters of the new chapters, those that initially joined the first member, [[Nathaniel Garro]], were not necessarily destined to become Grey Knights themselves. Author [[James Swallow]] has come out and said as much himself in an interview. In any case, most of these Knights would not survive the Horus Heresy anyway, but it's worth knowing that these guys possessed a very special and believable type of [[awesome]] (unlike [[Kaldor Draigo|this guy]]), and loads of it.

==Known Members==
===Nathaniel Garro===
[[Death Guard]] Captain of the ''Eisenstein''. The first member. The guy who fled the massacre at Istvaan III and managed to bring word of the Horus Heresy to the Imperium, thanks to his honor-brother, and a very cool guy, Saul Tarvitz of the [[Emperor's Children]]. On the way there, he also became the first of the Loyalists to encounter what would later be known as the Plague Marines, as the corpses of his traitorous legion-brothers came back to life as they traveled through the warp.

Given rules as part of the lead-up to HH Book 6 'Retribution', Garro can be a trolltastic addition to an army. He's built up as a challenge character, earning double combat resolution scores and gaining a 3+ invulnerable save. Despite this, he's not a combat monster, as ''Libertas'' is only a two-handed blade with AP3, despite having Rending. However, Garro's Death Guard resilience shows through, having ''Eternal Warrior'' AND the chance to get back from death the first time he kicks the bucket during battle.

===Garviel Loken===
Captain of the [[Luna Wolves]] 10th Company, who is very much the protagonist of the first trilogy of Horus Heresy novels. He was known for being able to think independently and rationally, as well as being exceptionally humane for an Astartes. A true stoic and a principle person, as well as a bad-ass. Was thought dead after the planet he was on was bombed with virus- and then fire bombs, surviving a 3 month siege by 4 traitor legions and a warlord titan, after being defeated by [[Abaddon]] in a duel and after having a building collapse on him, trapping him in the rubble, while the planet was being bombed into dust for a second time, this time with cyclone bombs. [[Not as planned|But NOPE]]! When Nathaniel Garro first discovered him, survivor's guilt and distrust had driven him half mad and he was convinced he was the only Loyalist left alive in the Imperium. Calling himself Cerberus, due to an inability to remember his own name, he then forced a reign of terror upon the totally dead, but [[Nurgle|reanimated]] population (read: Plague Zombies) of Isstvan III. Was supposedly the final member that Garro would recruit according to Malcador, although other members were inducted after Loken himself.

His major highlights include:
*Being a member of the '''Mournival''': the four advisors of Horus Lupercal, along with Abaddon, Tarik Torggadon, and "Little Horus" Aximand.
*Hilariously making [[Lucius]] his bitch in a duel, pointing out beforehand, that the duel would not be about their skill in blades. As he saw Lucius make the first move, he dropped his sword and in one stroke won the duel, by breaking that arrogant prick's nose into smithereens with a single punch, ruining Lucius' "perfect" face and by making the first mark upon it. This trick was later over-exaggeratedly used again, by Saul Tarvitz.
*Fighting Abaddon himself on Isstvan III.
*Making [[Kharn]] his side bitch by going toe to toe with him and then impaling the dude on the dozer blades of an advancing [[chaos|spikey]] land raider. What a fucking savage.
*Killing a [[Dark Angel]] on [[Caliban]] and quite possibly throwing a lit match on the whole [[Fallen Angels|Fallen]] powder keg. (Err, not quite- Qruze killed the guy and Loken pointed out the powder keg issue).
*Possibly being a founding member of the Grey Knights.
*Giving Horus and an overwhelming majority of his traitor legion a virtual bitch-slap by turning his back on them when he asked to join the rebellion.

Formerly the only member with tabletop rules in Horus Heresy, though that's his pre-Knight status, when he is a Legion Praetor character with Initiative 6 and a Paragon Blade, with the ability to get back from the dead once per game. Strangely he's the only Praetor with Power Armour (Sevatar, Ophion) rather than the standard issue Artificer Armour as the typical attire for Praetors, though he does get an Iron Halo which usually has to be bought for extra dough.

We've yet to see Loken as a Knight Errant, but no doubt Forgeworld will just take his original rules and slap on the option to upgrade to the generic "Knight Errant" rules for a few points in an updated list.

===Tylos Rubio===
An [[Ultramarines]] Librarian who was the first member to be inducted by Garro. He was recruited in the midst of the [[Battle of Calth]]. Rubio would essentially become the Garro's second in command for several missions, and got his own job of travelling to Baal to collect all of the wargear of the Blood Angels (to give to the future Grey Knights) when everyone thought Sanguinius had fallen at Signus.

Rubio is one of the more powerful/reliable psykers on the tabletop of his era (which isn't hard as his primary competition is generic Librarians or special characters with "repressed" abilities). So compared to a Librarian, he's a ML2 psyker who can reroll failed Psychic tests when manifesting ''Divination'' powers, meaning he's practically guaranteed to cast. He's also no slouch in combat either, with Init 5 stock and can invest his warp charges into his Force Sword granting +1 Strength for each charge not spent on a power, meaning he can quite happily smack a bitch, although only at AP3 since its still just a sword.

===The Nemean Reaver===
His real name is unknown, but it is widely suspected (and also confirmed by statements from himself) that he was a Dark Angel. Heavily injured in the Rangdan Xenocides, he is supposed to be a mess of scar tissue and [[Rage]]. Was the head of his own Blackshield fleet made up of dispossessed legionaries called the "Dark Brotherhood" until he was approached by Garro for recruitment, a meeting which the [[Alpha Legion]] did their best to foul up.

On the tabletop he's probably one of the higher tier challenge characters out there (not counting Primarchs), coming runner up to [[Sigismund]] in lethality but is superior in terms of survivability. He's got Toughness 5, ''Eternal Warrior, Adamantium Will'', 2+/4+ saves and rerolls failed saves against Blast or Template weapons. He also has a S+1 AP2 sword which inflicts -1 WS to enemies in a challenge and strikes at initiative. He also causes ''Fear'' and is ''Fearless'', meaning he can't be overrun and has a chance of just trolling generic legionaries who are not immune to fear.

There are two versions of him, representing him as the commander of the Dark Brotherhood in a Blackshields army, or can be taken by any Loyalist force if you upgrade to Knight-Errant, making him even deadlier in a challenge with ''Preferred Enemy (Traitors)''.

'''Trivia:''' Both his name and his armour are allusions to [[Lion El'Jonson|lions]], which is no surprise given his supposed heritage. The '''Nemean Lion''' was slain as the first of the twelve labours of Heracles, while the pelt of the '''Cithaeron Lion''' was worn by Heracles and was said to be impervious, which accounts for the sheer number of benefits granted by his Kithaeron warplate.

===Others===
*'''Macer Varren''' - A [[World Eaters]] Captain who was one of a group of loyalist refugees that fled to the Terran Solar system, a cockney-marine (despite being visualized as Scottish Gerard Butler) and an utter badass. Surprisingly level-headed for someone with the Butcher's Nails jammed into his brain.

*'''Sevarian (The Wolf)''' - Not a Space Wolf, though artwork portrays him to look similar to one, but a [[Luna Wolves|Luna Wolf]]. He was a member of the Crusader Host (basically Space Marine Ambassadors to Terra) but was imprisoned on Terra with all bar the Imperial Fists due to suspicion. He broke out of prison and was brought back into the fold by the Samurai (not kidding) Nasagena. He is a latent psyker whose powers were unlocked by Magnus' psychic message that broke the Golden Throne, though Malcador explains it such that Sevarian uses them so instinctually that he does not know he has them, which makes him unique.
**Sevarian was also an early addition to the Knights-Errant, being recruited by Malcador directly about two years into the Heresy, but was recruited before Rubio since it was Sevarian's psychic abilities which that identified other potential candidates for recruitment, giving Garro a list of twenty names to find.

*'''Bror Tyrfinger''' - An actual Space Wolf. His name translates to "Brother Bullfinger" in danish, so that's at least something. Tyrfing is also a name of the sword made by dwarves in the legend of Tyrfing. It was said that due to this it could never rust, dull or miss; but it also carried a curse of having to kill a man each time it was drawn.

*'''Ares Voitek''' - [[Iron Hands]] Techmarine. Also knows how to whip up alcohol on the fly. Even Dorn gets in on it.

*'''Fel Zharost''' - A [[Night Lords]] Chief Librarian who, was exiled by [[Sevatar]] after the Edict of Nikaea mostly because no-one could be bothered to care about the Librarius except Zharost himself. He somehow fled to Terra and was eventually collected for induction into the Knights-Errant.

*'''Vardas Ison''' - A Librarian, [[Lexicanum|assumed]] Blood Angels.

*'''Theodor Ruttveld''' - A Space Wolf, was assigned to watch over Konrad Curze and ensure that the Edict of Nikaea [[Fail|was obeyed]]. Heavily maimed by Curze and delivered to Terra [[Grimdark|as a message]]. It is uncertain if he is to become a Knight-Errant though he he kept alive on the Sigillite's Authority and it is made clear that he it to be kept as whole as possible and not interred in a Dreadnought.

*'''Kaspian Hecht \ Barthusa Narek:''' A bit of a mystery; Narek was a member of the [[Word Bearers]] who still believed in the divinity of the Emperor and wanted to kill [[Lorgar]] to sort out his Legion's problems; however he had no apparent interest in joining the "Loyalist" cause. He was captured on [[Macragge]], and even though [[Inquisition|he wasn't a traitor, he was interrogated daily and to be executed if he incriminated himself]]. However he somehow escaped and was implanted with the memories of a separate person: "Kaspian Hecht" who was apparently on his way towards Macragge to recruit someone for the Knights-Errant. How or why this was done is as yet unknown, but Narek eventually sorts his memories out though it's not yet known if he'll remain as one of the Knights Errant.

===Deceased Members===
As we know several members were inducted into the Knights Errant, but many did not survive, and considering that the number above is greater than eight, we know that several more will perish or find other duties.

*'''Iacton Qruze''' - One of the oldest members of the Luna Wolves and one of the few Legionaries who had been recruited before Horus was found. Referred to as "The Half-Heard" mostly because no-one was paying attention to what the old coot was saying. Got the job of overseeing the prisons on Titan for people who know far too much to be let loose in the Imperium, though is killed by Horus on board the Vengeful Spirit when an attempt at placing teleport beacons for the Space Wolves to deep strike aboard was discovered.
*'''Tubal Cayne''' - [[Iron Warriors]] member of the Crusader Host like Severian.
*'''Rama Karayan''' - [[Raven Guard]]
*'''Altan Nohai''' - [[White Scars]] Apothecary
*'''Callion Zaven''' - [[Emperor's Children]] Champion.

==Grey Knight Grand Masters==
We know that there were eight Grand Masters who travelled with Malcador to Titan when it was cast into the warp, unfortunately we don't yet know who they all are yet, and is made more difficult to guess since Grey Knights ritually change their names to mirror their daemonic foes. In [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden]]'s ''The Emperor's Gift'', all eight are long dead and entombed together in the Chapter's cemetery on Titan.

*'''1. Janus''' - Known to us as the first Supreme Grand Master, though his original name and legion remain unknown.
**Considering a bunch of circumstantial evidence One candidate to Janus' identity ''could'' (stressed "could") be the Twin-Primarch [[Omegon]].
**Garro is a contender if only because of him being the leader of the Knights-Errant, however author James Swallow put a knock-back on this in White Dwarf December 2012 when he emphatically stated that Garro is ''"not a Grey Knight... and where his fate lies is much more complicated than that"'' Though it doesn't actually stop the conspiracy theorists from reading whatever they want into it.
***The book '''Garro: Vow of Faith''' somewhat cements that Garro ''definitely isn't'' going to be a Grey Knight when the character tells himself that his ultimate fate does not lie on Titan with Malcador's warriors in grey.
*'''5. Epimetheus''' - A [[Dark Angels]] psyker of prodigious strength who survived into the 41st Millennium by being trapped in the Damnation Cache on Pandorax. Epimethius would eventually be captured by [[Abaddon]] and given to [[Fulgrim]] in a bid to gain the allegiance of the [[Emperor's Children]] for the 13th Black Crusade, Epimethius himself was intended to become the [[What|Avatar of Slaanesh]].
**His original name is unknown, but one consideration could have been [[Zahariel]] who may have joined the Knights-Errant instead of the intended membership of [[Cypher]].
*'''8. Khyron''' - First Grand Master of the Eighth Brotherhood, and with a name close to "bat" in Greek, his tomb on Titan depicts a helmeted warrior leaning casually on a halberd. The tomb's epitaph closes with "''If you wish to grow wise, learn why brothers betray brothers.’''. As the halberd and casual attitude was the hallmark of the Eighth Legion's First Captain [[Sevatar]], and Jago Sevatarion was last seen in Imperial hands relearning his psychic gift at the end of ADB's ''The Longest Night'', many Night Lords fanboys believe it is Sevatar. Having once betrayed the Emperor but then disillusioned with Chaos and Horus, could he have then betrayed his brothers in the the Eighth to return to the Imperial fold? Only ADB knows, and he hasn't gotten us that far yet. That said, the Night Lords were the 8th legion too..

[[Abaddon]] claimed to know of the eight original founders and stated that one was an [[Ultramarine]] while another was his "erstwhile brother". Thus it's increasingly likely that Rubio and Loken are two of the first Grand Masters.

==Human Members==
While not necessarily Knights-Errant, we also know that four humans were recruited by Malcador to form the founding members of the Inquisition.

*'''Amendera Kendel''' - ''Agentia Tercius'' to Malcador (after Garro himself) and a former [[Sisters of Silence|Sister of Silence]]. She is still a Pariah of course, but she gave up her vow to become one of the first members of Malcador's [[Inquisition|band of merry travellers]]. She is quite possibly the first "True" Inquisitor, by virtue of her background as a Witch-Hunter and the later development of her character which shows her radically using the authority granted to her by the Sigillite to get shit done: Co-opting Space Marines from the survivors of the ''Eisenstein'' into her retinue, and later ordering a battle-barge to enact ''[[Exterminatus]]'' on a planet turned renegade, despite the fact that <u>no-one</u> other than a Primarch or the Emperor himself had ever ordered such an act before her.
*'''Yasu Nagasena''' - the Last Samurai and expert tracker who was tasked with finding the Outcast Dead, then chasing down and killing Sevarian. He was only stopped from doing so by Malcador who wanted them both for his [[Inquisition|new project]]
*'''Hassani Sabbyat''' - A Stormtrooper who was into the Sigillite's employ to collect an artefact from Egypt, despite being told not to look into the box, he did and was brought before Malcador to explain himself. It turns out that the artefact was the ''Rosetta Stone'' and Malcador was part of an order that kept history and learning safe and intact. He also gets shown the doorway to the Emperor's Webway.
*'''Katanoh Tallery''' - a scribe who discovered that someone was using galactic scale tax avoidance schemes to fund and build a legion sized force under the Imperium's nose and within their territory. She was aided by Garro in finding who was diverting Imperial equipment in such an underhanded manner. Turns out it was Malcador and he was pissed at Garro for uncovering the Grey Knight fortress on Titan before it was finished, but was convinced to keep Tallery in order to better manage the bookkeeping. It's unlikely she is going to end up being an Inquisitor though. (Although, looking for funny spending would be an excellent way to find heretics... In fact, Eisenhorn uncovers a coven of heretics due to unusual accounting).

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]][[Category: Imperial]][[Category:Space Marines]]

Knights-Errant

2016-07-24T16:30:30Z

2A02:C7D:C5E:A200:352C:6492:5881:EA26: /* Others */

The '''Knight-Errant''' are/were a group of [[Space Marines]] brought together from various different [[First Founding|Legions]] at the behest of [[Malcador the Sigillite]] in order to create a cadre of the best and brightest that the space marines had to offer, and use them to form a [[Grey Knights|new Chapter]] to combat the threat of daemons and dark magic that the [[Imperium]] was not prepared to fight against, due to the erasure of all knowledge of them as part of the Imperial Truth. Members of the Traitor Legions which refused to follow their Primarchs into corruption, made up a surprisingly large part of their number. Having proven themselves truly pure and strong of spirit in the face of absolute corruption and despair, the Knights-Errant offered these legion-less marines, a new purpose, away from the taint of their old Legions.

There is evidence for them being the forerunners of [[Grey Knights]]. Despite what we think we know of the original Grey Knights and that eight of the initial recruits would become the first Grand Masters of the new chapters, those that initially joined the first member, [[Nathaniel Garro]], were not necessarily destined to become Grey Knights themselves. Author [[James Swallow]] has come out and said as much himself in an interview. In any case, most of these Knights would not survive the Horus Heresy anyway, but it's worth knowing that these guys possessed a very special and believable type of [[awesome]] (unlike [[Kaldor Draigo|this guy]]), and loads of it.

==Known Members==
===Nathaniel Garro===
[[Death Guard]] Captain of the ''Eisenstein''. The first member. The guy who fled the massacre at Istvaan III and managed to bring word of the Horus Heresy to the Imperium, thanks to his honor-brother, and a very cool guy, Saul Tarvitz of the [[Emperor's Children]]. On the way there, he also became the first of the Loyalists to encounter what would later be known as the Plague Marines, as the corpses of his traitorous legion-brothers came back to life as they traveled through the warp.

Given rules as part of the lead-up to HH Book 6 'Retribution', Garro can be a trolltastic addition to an army. He's built up as a challenge character, earning double combat resolution scores and gaining a 3+ invulnerable save. Despite this, he's not a combat monster, as ''Libertas'' is only a two-handed blade with AP3, despite having Rending. However, Garro's Death Guard resilience shows through, having ''Eternal Warrior'' AND the chance to get back from death the first time he kicks the bucket during battle.

===Garviel Loken===
Captain of the [[Luna Wolves]] 10th Company, who is very much the protagonist of the first trilogy of Horus Heresy novels. He was known for being able to think independently and rationally, as well as being exceptionally humane for an Astartes. A true stoic and a principle person, as well as a bad-ass. Was thought dead after the planet he was on was bombed with virus- and then fire bombs, surviving a 3 month siege by 4 traitor legions and a warlord titan, after being defeated by [[Abaddon]] in a duel and after having a building collapse on him, trapping him in the rubble, while the planet was being bombed into dust for a second time, this time with cyclone bombs. [[Not as planned|But NOPE]]! When Nathaniel Garro first discovered him, survivor's guilt and distrust had driven him half mad and he was convinced he was the only Loyalist left alive in the Imperium. Calling himself Cerberus, due to an inability to remember his own name, he then forced a reign of terror upon the totally dead, but [[Nurgle|reanimated]] population (read: Plague Zombies) of Isstvan III. Was supposedly the final member that Garro would recruit according to Malcador, although other members were inducted after Loken himself.

His major highlights include:
*Being a member of the '''Mournival''': the four advisors of Horus Lupercal, along with Abaddon, Tarik Torggadon, and "Little Horus" Aximand.
*Hilariously making [[Lucius]] his bitch in a duel, pointing out beforehand, that the duel would not be about their skill in blades. As he saw Lucius make the first move, he dropped his sword and in one stroke won the duel, by breaking that arrogant prick's nose into smithereens with a single punch, ruining Lucius' "perfect" face and by making the first mark upon it. This trick was later over-exaggeratedly used again, by Saul Tarvitz.
*Fighting Abaddon himself on Isstvan III.
*Making [[Kharn]] his side bitch by going toe to toe with him and then impaling the dude on the dozer blades of an advancing [[chaos|spikey]] land raider. What a fucking savage.
*Killing a [[Dark Angel]] on [[Caliban]] and quite possibly throwing a lit match on the whole [[Fallen Angels|Fallen]] powder keg. (Err, not quite- Qruze killed the guy and Loken pointed out the powder keg issue).
*Possibly being a founding member of the Grey Knights.
*Giving Horus and an overwhelming majority of his traitor legion a virtual bitch-slap by turning his back on them when he asked to join the rebellion.

Formerly the only member with tabletop rules in Horus Heresy, though that's his pre-Knight status, when he is a Legion Praetor character with Initiative 6 and a Paragon Blade, with the ability to get back from the dead once per game. Strangely he's the only Praetor with Power Armour (Sevatar, Ophion) rather than the standard issue Artificer Armour as the typical attire for Praetors, though he does get an Iron Halo which usually has to be bought for extra dough.

We've yet to see Loken as a Knight Errant, but no doubt Forgeworld will just take his original rules and slap on the option to upgrade to the generic "Knight Errant" rules for a few points in an updated list.

===Tylos Rubio===
An [[Ultramarines]] Librarian who was the first member to be inducted by Garro. He was recruited in the midst of the [[Battle of Calth]]. Rubio would essentially become the Garro's second in command for several missions, and got his own job of travelling to Baal to collect all of the wargear of the Blood Angels (to give to the future Grey Knights) when everyone thought Sanguinius had fallen at Signus.

Rubio is one of the more powerful/reliable psykers on the tabletop of his era (which isn't hard as his primary competition is generic Librarians or special characters with "repressed" abilities). So compared to a Librarian, he's a ML2 psyker who can reroll failed Psychic tests when manifesting ''Divination'' powers, meaning he's practically guaranteed to cast. He's also no slouch in combat either, with Init 5 stock and can invest his warp charges into his Force Sword granting +1 Strength for each charge not spent on a power, meaning he can quite happily smack a bitch, although only at AP3 since its still just a sword.

===The Nemean Reaver===
His real name is unknown, but it is widely suspected (and also confirmed by statements from himself) that he was a Dark Angel. Heavily injured in the Rangdan Xenocides, he is supposed to be a mess of scar tissue and [[Rage]]. Was the head of his own Blackshield fleet made up of dispossessed legionaries called the "Dark Brotherhood" until he was approached by Garro for recruitment, a meeting which the [[Alpha Legion]] did their best to foul up.

On the tabletop he's probably one of the higher tier challenge characters out there (not counting Primarchs), coming runner up to [[Sigismund]] in lethality but is superior in terms of survivability. He's got Toughness 5, ''Eternal Warrior, Adamantium Will'', 2+/4+ saves and rerolls failed saves against Blast or Template weapons. He also has a S+1 AP2 sword which inflicts -1 WS to enemies in a challenge and strikes at initiative. He also causes ''Fear'' and is ''Fearless'', meaning he can't be overrun and has a chance of just trolling generic legionaries who are not immune to fear.

There are two versions of him, representing him as the commander of the Dark Brotherhood in a Blackshields army, or can be taken by any Loyalist force if you upgrade to Knight-Errant, making him even deadlier in a challenge with ''Preferred Enemy (Traitors)''.

'''Trivia:''' Both his name and his armour are allusions to [[Lion El'Jonson|lions]], which is no surprise given his supposed heritage. The '''Nemean Lion''' was slain as the first of the twelve labours of Heracles, while the pelt of the '''Cithaeron Lion''' was worn by Heracles and was said to be impervious, which accounts for the sheer number of benefits granted by his Kithaeron warplate.

===Others===
*'''Macer Varren''' - A [[World Eaters]] Captain who was one of a group of loyalist refugees that fled to the Terran Solar system, a cockney-marine and an utter badass. Surprisingly level-headed for someone with the Butcher's Nails jammed into his brain.

*'''Sevarian (The Wolf)''' - Not a Space Wolf, though artwork portrays him to look similar to one, but a [[Luna Wolves|Luna Wolf]]. He was a member of the Crusader Host (basically Space Marine Ambassadors to Terra) but was imprisoned on Terra with all bar the Imperial Fists due to suspicion. He broke out of prison and was brought back into the fold by the Samurai (not kidding) Nasagena. He is a latent psyker whose powers were unlocked by Magnus' psychic message that broke the Golden Throne, though Malcador explains it such that Sevarian uses them so instinctually that he does not know he has them, which makes him unique.
**Sevarian was also an early addition to the Knights-Errant, being recruited by Malcador directly about two years into the Heresy, but was recruited before Rubio since it was Sevarian's psychic abilities which that identified other potential candidates for recruitment, giving Garro a list of twenty names to find.

*'''Bror Tyrfinger''' - An actual Space Wolf. His name translates to "Brother Bullfinger" in danish, so that's at least something. Tyrfing is also a name of the sword made by dwarves in the legend of Tyrfing. It was said that due to this it could never rust, dull or miss; but it also carried a curse of having to kill a man each time it was drawn.

*'''Ares Voitek''' - [[Iron Hands]] Techmarine. Also knows how to whip up alcohol on the fly. Even Dorn gets in on it.

*'''Fel Zharost''' - A [[Night Lords]] Chief Librarian who, was exiled by [[Sevatar]] after the Edict of Nikaea mostly because no-one could be bothered to care about the Librarius except Zharost himself. He somehow fled to Terra and was eventually collected for induction into the Knights-Errant.

*'''Vardas Ison''' - A Librarian, [[Lexicanum|assumed]] Blood Angels.

*'''Theodor Ruttveld''' - A Space Wolf, was assigned to watch over Konrad Curze and ensure that the Edict of Nikaea [[Fail|was obeyed]]. Heavily maimed by Curze and delivered to Terra [[Grimdark|as a message]]. It is uncertain if he is to become a Knight-Errant though he he kept alive on the Sigillite's Authority and it is made clear that he it to be kept as whole as possible and not interred in a Dreadnought.

*'''Kaspian Hecht \ Barthusa Narek:''' A bit of a mystery; Narek was a member of the [[Word Bearers]] who still believed in the divinity of the Emperor and wanted to kill [[Lorgar]] to sort out his Legion's problems; however he had no apparent interest in joining the "Loyalist" cause. He was captured on [[Macragge]], and even though [[Inquisition|he wasn't a traitor, he was interrogated daily and to be executed if he incriminated himself]]. However he somehow escaped and was implanted with the memories of a separate person: "Kaspian Hecht" who was apparently on his way towards Macragge to recruit someone for the Knights-Errant. How or why this was done is as yet unknown, but Narek eventually sorts his memories out though it's not yet known if he'll remain as one of the Knights Errant.

===Deceased Members===
As we know several members were inducted into the Knights Errant, but many did not survive, and considering that the number above is greater than eight, we know that several more will perish or find other duties.

*'''Iacton Qruze''' - One of the oldest members of the Luna Wolves and one of the few Legionaries who had been recruited before Horus was found. Referred to as "The Half-Heard" mostly because no-one was paying attention to what the old coot was saying. Got the job of overseeing the prisons on Titan for people who know far too much to be let loose in the Imperium, though is killed by Horus on board the Vengeful Spirit when an attempt at placing teleport beacons for the Space Wolves to deep strike aboard was discovered.
*'''Tubal Cayne''' - [[Iron Warriors]] member of the Crusader Host like Severian.
*'''Rama Karayan''' - [[Raven Guard]]
*'''Altan Nohai''' - [[White Scars]] Apothecary
*'''Callion Zaven''' - [[Emperor's Children]] Champion.

==Grey Knight Grand Masters==
We know that there were eight Grand Masters who travelled with Malcador to Titan when it was cast into the warp, unfortunately we don't yet know who they all are yet, and is made more difficult to guess since Grey Knights ritually change their names to mirror their daemonic foes. In [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden]]'s ''The Emperor's Gift'', all eight are long dead and entombed together in the Chapter's cemetery on Titan.

*'''1. Janus''' - Known to us as the first Supreme Grand Master, though his original name and legion remain unknown.
**Considering a bunch of circumstantial evidence One candidate to Janus' identity ''could'' (stressed "could") be the Twin-Primarch [[Omegon]].
**Garro is a contender if only because of him being the leader of the Knights-Errant, however author James Swallow put a knock-back on this in White Dwarf December 2012 when he emphatically stated that Garro is ''"not a Grey Knight... and where his fate lies is much more complicated than that"'' Though it doesn't actually stop the conspiracy theorists from reading whatever they want into it.
***The book '''Garro: Vow of Faith''' somewhat cements that Garro ''definitely isn't'' going to be a Grey Knight when the character tells himself that his ultimate fate does not lie on Titan with Malcador's warriors in grey.
*'''5. Epimetheus''' - A [[Dark Angels]] psyker of prodigious strength who survived into the 41st Millennium by being trapped in the Damnation Cache on Pandorax. Epimethius would eventually be captured by [[Abaddon]] and given to [[Fulgrim]] in a bid to gain the allegiance of the [[Emperor's Children]] for the 13th Black Crusade, Epimethius himself was intended to become the [[What|Avatar of Slaanesh]].
**His original name is unknown, but one consideration could have been [[Zahariel]] who may have joined the Knights-Errant instead of the intended membership of [[Cypher]].
*'''8. Khyron''' - First Grand Master of the Eighth Brotherhood, and with a name close to "bat" in Greek, his tomb on Titan depicts a helmeted warrior leaning casually on a halberd. The tomb's epitaph closes with "''If you wish to grow wise, learn why brothers betray brothers.’''. As the halberd and casual attitude was the hallmark of the Eighth Legion's First Captain [[Sevatar]], and Jago Sevatarion was last seen in Imperial hands relearning his psychic gift at the end of ADB's ''The Longest Night'', many Night Lords fanboys believe it is Sevatar. Having once betrayed the Emperor but then disillusioned with Chaos and Horus, could he have then betrayed his brothers in the the Eighth to return to the Imperial fold? Only ADB knows, and he hasn't gotten us that far yet. That said, the Night Lords were the 8th legion too..

[[Abaddon]] claimed to know of the eight original founders and stated that one was an [[Ultramarine]] while another was his "erstwhile brother". Thus it's increasingly likely that Rubio and Loken are two of the first Grand Masters.

==Human Members==
While not necessarily Knights-Errant, we also know that four humans were recruited by Malcador to form the founding members of the Inquisition.

*'''Amendera Kendel''' - ''Agentia Tercius'' to Malcador (after Garro himself) and a former [[Sisters of Silence|Sister of Silence]]. She is still a Pariah of course, but she gave up her vow to become one of the first members of Malcador's [[Inquisition|band of merry travellers]]. She is quite possibly the first "True" Inquisitor, by virtue of her background as a Witch-Hunter and the later development of her character which shows her radically using the authority granted to her by the Sigillite to get shit done: Co-opting Space Marines from the survivors of the ''Eisenstein'' into her retinue, and later ordering a battle-barge to enact ''[[Exterminatus]]'' on a planet turned renegade, despite the fact that <u>no-one</u> other than a Primarch or the Emperor himself had ever ordered such an act before her.
*'''Yasu Nagasena''' - the Last Samurai and expert tracker who was tasked with finding the Outcast Dead, then chasing down and killing Sevarian. He was only stopped from doing so by Malcador who wanted them both for his [[Inquisition|new project]]
*'''Hassani Sabbyat''' - A Stormtrooper who was into the Sigillite's employ to collect an artefact from Egypt, despite being told not to look into the box, he did and was brought before Malcador to explain himself. It turns out that the artefact was the ''Rosetta Stone'' and Malcador was part of an order that kept history and learning safe and intact. He also gets shown the doorway to the Emperor's Webway.
*'''Katanoh Tallery''' - a scribe who discovered that someone was using galactic scale tax avoidance schemes to fund and build a legion sized force under the Imperium's nose and within their territory. She was aided by Garro in finding who was diverting Imperial equipment in such an underhanded manner. Turns out it was Malcador and he was pissed at Garro for uncovering the Grey Knight fortress on Titan before it was finished, but was convinced to keep Tallery in order to better manage the bookkeeping. It's unlikely she is going to end up being an Inquisitor though. (Although, looking for funny spending would be an excellent way to find heretics... In fact, Eisenhorn uncovers a coven of heretics due to unusual accounting).

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]][[Category: Imperial]][[Category:Space Marines]]

Knights-Errant

2016-07-24T16:27:45Z

2A02:C7D:C5E:A200:352C:6492:5881:EA26: /* Grey Knight Grand Masters */

The '''Knight-Errant''' are/were a group of [[Space Marines]] brought together from various different [[First Founding|Legions]] at the behest of [[Malcador the Sigillite]] in order to create a cadre of the best and brightest that the space marines had to offer, and use them to form a [[Grey Knights|new Chapter]] to combat the threat of daemons and dark magic that the [[Imperium]] was not prepared to fight against, due to the erasure of all knowledge of them as part of the Imperial Truth. Members of the Traitor Legions which refused to follow their Primarchs into corruption, made up a surprisingly large part of their number. Having proven themselves truly pure and strong of spirit in the face of absolute corruption and despair, the Knights-Errant offered these legion-less marines, a new purpose, away from the taint of their old Legions.

There is evidence for them being the forerunners of [[Grey Knights]]. Despite what we think we know of the original Grey Knights and that eight of the initial recruits would become the first Grand Masters of the new chapters, those that initially joined the first member, [[Nathaniel Garro]], were not necessarily destined to become Grey Knights themselves. Author [[James Swallow]] has come out and said as much himself in an interview. In any case, most of these Knights would not survive the Horus Heresy anyway, but it's worth knowing that these guys possessed a very special and believable type of [[awesome]] (unlike [[Kaldor Draigo|this guy]]), and loads of it.

==Known Members==
===Nathaniel Garro===
[[Death Guard]] Captain of the ''Eisenstein''. The first member. The guy who fled the massacre at Istvaan III and managed to bring word of the Horus Heresy to the Imperium, thanks to his honor-brother, and a very cool guy, Saul Tarvitz of the [[Emperor's Children]]. On the way there, he also became the first of the Loyalists to encounter what would later be known as the Plague Marines, as the corpses of his traitorous legion-brothers came back to life as they traveled through the warp.

Given rules as part of the lead-up to HH Book 6 'Retribution', Garro can be a trolltastic addition to an army. He's built up as a challenge character, earning double combat resolution scores and gaining a 3+ invulnerable save. Despite this, he's not a combat monster, as ''Libertas'' is only a two-handed blade with AP3, despite having Rending. However, Garro's Death Guard resilience shows through, having ''Eternal Warrior'' AND the chance to get back from death the first time he kicks the bucket during battle.

===Garviel Loken===
Captain of the [[Luna Wolves]] 10th Company, who is very much the protagonist of the first trilogy of Horus Heresy novels. He was known for being able to think independently and rationally, as well as being exceptionally humane for an Astartes. A true stoic and a principle person, as well as a bad-ass. Was thought dead after the planet he was on was bombed with virus- and then fire bombs, surviving a 3 month siege by 4 traitor legions and a warlord titan, after being defeated by [[Abaddon]] in a duel and after having a building collapse on him, trapping him in the rubble, while the planet was being bombed into dust for a second time, this time with cyclone bombs. [[Not as planned|But NOPE]]! When Nathaniel Garro first discovered him, survivor's guilt and distrust had driven him half mad and he was convinced he was the only Loyalist left alive in the Imperium. Calling himself Cerberus, due to an inability to remember his own name, he then forced a reign of terror upon the totally dead, but [[Nurgle|reanimated]] population (read: Plague Zombies) of Isstvan III. Was supposedly the final member that Garro would recruit according to Malcador, although other members were inducted after Loken himself.

His major highlights include:
*Being a member of the '''Mournival''': the four advisors of Horus Lupercal, along with Abaddon, Tarik Torggadon, and "Little Horus" Aximand.
*Hilariously making [[Lucius]] his bitch in a duel, pointing out beforehand, that the duel would not be about their skill in blades. As he saw Lucius make the first move, he dropped his sword and in one stroke won the duel, by breaking that arrogant prick's nose into smithereens with a single punch, ruining Lucius' "perfect" face and by making the first mark upon it. This trick was later over-exaggeratedly used again, by Saul Tarvitz.
*Fighting Abaddon himself on Isstvan III.
*Making [[Kharn]] his side bitch by going toe to toe with him and then impaling the dude on the dozer blades of an advancing [[chaos|spikey]] land raider. What a fucking savage.
*Killing a [[Dark Angel]] on [[Caliban]] and quite possibly throwing a lit match on the whole [[Fallen Angels|Fallen]] powder keg. (Err, not quite- Qruze killed the guy and Loken pointed out the powder keg issue).
*Possibly being a founding member of the Grey Knights.
*Giving Horus and an overwhelming majority of his traitor legion a virtual bitch-slap by turning his back on them when he asked to join the rebellion.

Formerly the only member with tabletop rules in Horus Heresy, though that's his pre-Knight status, when he is a Legion Praetor character with Initiative 6 and a Paragon Blade, with the ability to get back from the dead once per game. Strangely he's the only Praetor with Power Armour (Sevatar, Ophion) rather than the standard issue Artificer Armour as the typical attire for Praetors, though he does get an Iron Halo which usually has to be bought for extra dough.

We've yet to see Loken as a Knight Errant, but no doubt Forgeworld will just take his original rules and slap on the option to upgrade to the generic "Knight Errant" rules for a few points in an updated list.

===Tylos Rubio===
An [[Ultramarines]] Librarian who was the first member to be inducted by Garro. He was recruited in the midst of the [[Battle of Calth]]. Rubio would essentially become the Garro's second in command for several missions, and got his own job of travelling to Baal to collect all of the wargear of the Blood Angels (to give to the future Grey Knights) when everyone thought Sanguinius had fallen at Signus.

Rubio is one of the more powerful/reliable psykers on the tabletop of his era (which isn't hard as his primary competition is generic Librarians or special characters with "repressed" abilities). So compared to a Librarian, he's a ML2 psyker who can reroll failed Psychic tests when manifesting ''Divination'' powers, meaning he's practically guaranteed to cast. He's also no slouch in combat either, with Init 5 stock and can invest his warp charges into his Force Sword granting +1 Strength for each charge not spent on a power, meaning he can quite happily smack a bitch, although only at AP3 since its still just a sword.

===The Nemean Reaver===
His real name is unknown, but it is widely suspected (and also confirmed by statements from himself) that he was a Dark Angel. Heavily injured in the Rangdan Xenocides, he is supposed to be a mess of scar tissue and [[Rage]]. Was the head of his own Blackshield fleet made up of dispossessed legionaries called the "Dark Brotherhood" until he was approached by Garro for recruitment, a meeting which the [[Alpha Legion]] did their best to foul up.

On the tabletop he's probably one of the higher tier challenge characters out there (not counting Primarchs), coming runner up to [[Sigismund]] in lethality but is superior in terms of survivability. He's got Toughness 5, ''Eternal Warrior, Adamantium Will'', 2+/4+ saves and rerolls failed saves against Blast or Template weapons. He also has a S+1 AP2 sword which inflicts -1 WS to enemies in a challenge and strikes at initiative. He also causes ''Fear'' and is ''Fearless'', meaning he can't be overrun and has a chance of just trolling generic legionaries who are not immune to fear.

There are two versions of him, representing him as the commander of the Dark Brotherhood in a Blackshields army, or can be taken by any Loyalist force if you upgrade to Knight-Errant, making him even deadlier in a challenge with ''Preferred Enemy (Traitors)''.

'''Trivia:''' Both his name and his armour are allusions to [[Lion El'Jonson|lions]], which is no surprise given his supposed heritage. The '''Nemean Lion''' was slain as the first of the twelve labours of Heracles, while the pelt of the '''Cithaeron Lion''' was worn by Heracles and was said to be impervious, which accounts for the sheer number of benefits granted by his Kithaeron warplate.

===Others===
*'''Macer Varren''' - A [[World Eaters]] Captain who was one of a group of loyalist refugees that fled to the Terran Solar system, a cockney-marine and an utter badass. Surprisingly level-headed for someone with the Butcher's Nails jammed into his brain.

*'''Sevarian (The Wolf)''' - Not a Space Wolf, though artwork portrays him to look similar to one, but a [[Luna Wolves|Luna Wolf]]. He was a member of the Crusader Host (basically Space Marine Ambassadors to Terra) but was imprisoned on Terra with all bar the Imperial Fists due to suspicion. He broke out of prison and was brought back into the fold by the Samurai (not kidding) Nasagena. He is a latent psyker whose powers were unlocked by Magnus' psychic message that broke the Golden Throne, though Malcador explains it such that Sevarian uses them so instinctually that he does not know he has them, which makes him unique.
**Sevarian was also an early addition to the Knights-Errant, being recruited by Malcador directly about two years into the Heresy, but was recruited before Rubio since it was Sevarian's psychic abilities which that identified other potential candidates for recruitment, giving Garro a list of twenty names to find.

*'''Bror Tyrfinger''' - An actual Space Wolf. His name translates to "Brother Bullfinger" in danish, so that's at least something. Tyrfing is also a name of the sword made by dwarves in the legend of Tyrfing. It was said that due to this it could never rust, dull or miss; but it also carried a curse of having to kill a man each time it was drawn.

*'''Ares Voitek''' - [[Iron Hands]] Techmarine.

*'''Fel Zharost''' - A [[Night Lords]] Chief Librarian who, was exiled by [[Sevatar]] after the Edict of Nikaea mostly because no-one could be bothered to care about the Librarius except Zharost himself. He somehow fled to Terra and was eventually collected for induction into the Knights-Errant.

*'''Vardas Ison''' - A Librarian, [[Lexicanum|assumed]] Blood Angels.

*'''Theodor Ruttveld''' - A Space Wolf, was assigned to watch over Konrad Curze and ensure that the Edict of Nikaea [[Fail|was obeyed]]. Heavily maimed by Curze and delivered to Terra [[Grimdark|as a message]]. It is uncertain if he is to become a Knight-Errant though he he kept alive on the Sigillite's Authority and it is made clear that he it to be kept as whole as possible and not interred in a Dreadnought.

*'''Kaspian Hecht \ Barthusa Narek:''' A bit of a mystery; Narek was a member of the [[Word Bearers]] who still believed in the divinity of the Emperor and wanted to kill [[Lorgar]] to sort out his Legion's problems; however he had no apparent interest in joining the "Loyalist" cause. He was captured on [[Macragge]], and even though [[Inquisition|he wasn't a traitor, he was interrogated daily and to be executed if he incriminated himself]]. However he somehow escaped and was implanted with the memories of a separate person: "Kaspian Hecht" who was apparently on his way towards Macragge to recruit someone for the Knights-Errant. How or why this was done is as yet unknown, but Narek eventually sorts his memories out though it's not yet known if he'll remain as one of the Knights Errant.

===Deceased Members===
As we know several members were inducted into the Knights Errant, but many did not survive, and considering that the number above is greater than eight, we know that several more will perish or find other duties.

*'''Iacton Qruze''' - One of the oldest members of the Luna Wolves and one of the few Legionaries who had been recruited before Horus was found. Referred to as "The Half-Heard" mostly because no-one was paying attention to what the old coot was saying. Got the job of overseeing the prisons on Titan for people who know far too much to be let loose in the Imperium, though is killed by Horus on board the Vengeful Spirit when an attempt at placing teleport beacons for the Space Wolves to deep strike aboard was discovered.
*'''Tubal Cayne''' - [[Iron Warriors]] member of the Crusader Host like Severian.
*'''Rama Karayan''' - [[Raven Guard]]
*'''Altan Nohai''' - [[White Scars]] Apothecary
*'''Callion Zaven''' - [[Emperor's Children]] Champion.

==Grey Knight Grand Masters==
We know that there were eight Grand Masters who travelled with Malcador to Titan when it was cast into the warp, unfortunately we don't yet know who they all are yet, and is made more difficult to guess since Grey Knights ritually change their names to mirror their daemonic foes. In [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden]]'s ''The Emperor's Gift'', all eight are long dead and entombed together in the Chapter's cemetery on Titan.

*'''1. Janus''' - Known to us as the first Supreme Grand Master, though his original name and legion remain unknown.
**Considering a bunch of circumstantial evidence One candidate to Janus' identity ''could'' (stressed "could") be the Twin-Primarch [[Omegon]].
**Garro is a contender if only because of him being the leader of the Knights-Errant, however author James Swallow put a knock-back on this in White Dwarf December 2012 when he emphatically stated that Garro is ''"not a Grey Knight... and where his fate lies is much more complicated than that"'' Though it doesn't actually stop the conspiracy theorists from reading whatever they want into it.
***The book '''Garro: Vow of Faith''' somewhat cements that Garro ''definitely isn't'' going to be a Grey Knight when the character tells himself that his ultimate fate does not lie on Titan with Malcador's warriors in grey.
*'''5. Epimetheus''' - A [[Dark Angels]] psyker of prodigious strength who survived into the 41st Millennium by being trapped in the Damnation Cache on Pandorax. Epimethius would eventually be captured by [[Abaddon]] and given to [[Fulgrim]] in a bid to gain the allegiance of the [[Emperor's Children]] for the 13th Black Crusade, Epimethius himself was intended to become the [[What|Avatar of Slaanesh]].
**His original name is unknown, but one consideration could have been [[Zahariel]] who may have joined the Knights-Errant instead of the intended membership of [[Cypher]].
*'''8. Khyron''' - First Grand Master of the Eighth Brotherhood, and with a name close to "bat" in Greek, his tomb on Titan depicts a helmeted warrior leaning casually on a halberd. The tomb's epitaph closes with "''If you wish to grow wise, learn why brothers betray brothers.’''. As the halberd and casual attitude was the hallmark of the Eighth Legion's First Captain [[Sevatar]], and Jago Sevatarion was last seen in Imperial hands relearning his psychic gift at the end of ADB's ''The Longest Night'', many Night Lords fanboys believe it is Sevatar. Having once betrayed the Emperor but then disillusioned with Chaos and Horus, could he have then betrayed his brothers in the the Eighth to return to the Imperial fold? Only ADB knows, and he hasn't gotten us that far yet. That said, the Night Lords were the 8th legion too..

[[Abaddon]] claimed to know of the eight original founders and stated that one was an [[Ultramarine]] while another was his "erstwhile brother". Thus it's increasingly likely that Rubio and Loken are two of the first Grand Masters.

==Human Members==
While not necessarily Knights-Errant, we also know that four humans were recruited by Malcador to form the founding members of the Inquisition.

*'''Amendera Kendel''' - ''Agentia Tercius'' to Malcador (after Garro himself) and a former [[Sisters of Silence|Sister of Silence]]. She is still a Pariah of course, but she gave up her vow to become one of the first members of Malcador's [[Inquisition|band of merry travellers]]. She is quite possibly the first "True" Inquisitor, by virtue of her background as a Witch-Hunter and the later development of her character which shows her radically using the authority granted to her by the Sigillite to get shit done: Co-opting Space Marines from the survivors of the ''Eisenstein'' into her retinue, and later ordering a battle-barge to enact ''[[Exterminatus]]'' on a planet turned renegade, despite the fact that <u>no-one</u> other than a Primarch or the Emperor himself had ever ordered such an act before her.
*'''Yasu Nagasena''' - the Last Samurai and expert tracker who was tasked with finding the Outcast Dead, then chasing down and killing Sevarian. He was only stopped from doing so by Malcador who wanted them both for his [[Inquisition|new project]]
*'''Hassani Sabbyat''' - A Stormtrooper who was into the Sigillite's employ to collect an artefact from Egypt, despite being told not to look into the box, he did and was brought before Malcador to explain himself. It turns out that the artefact was the ''Rosetta Stone'' and Malcador was part of an order that kept history and learning safe and intact. He also gets shown the doorway to the Emperor's Webway.
*'''Katanoh Tallery''' - a scribe who discovered that someone was using galactic scale tax avoidance schemes to fund and build a legion sized force under the Imperium's nose and within their territory. She was aided by Garro in finding who was diverting Imperial equipment in such an underhanded manner. Turns out it was Malcador and he was pissed at Garro for uncovering the Grey Knight fortress on Titan before it was finished, but was convinced to keep Tallery in order to better manage the bookkeeping. It's unlikely she is going to end up being an Inquisitor though. (Although, looking for funny spending would be an excellent way to find heretics... In fact, Eisenhorn uncovers a coven of heretics due to unusual accounting).

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]][[Category: Imperial]][[Category:Space Marines]]

Knights-Errant

2016-07-24T16:26:24Z

2A02:C7D:C5E:A200:352C:6492:5881:EA26: /* Human Members */

The '''Knight-Errant''' are/were a group of [[Space Marines]] brought together from various different [[First Founding|Legions]] at the behest of [[Malcador the Sigillite]] in order to create a cadre of the best and brightest that the space marines had to offer, and use them to form a [[Grey Knights|new Chapter]] to combat the threat of daemons and dark magic that the [[Imperium]] was not prepared to fight against, due to the erasure of all knowledge of them as part of the Imperial Truth. Members of the Traitor Legions which refused to follow their Primarchs into corruption, made up a surprisingly large part of their number. Having proven themselves truly pure and strong of spirit in the face of absolute corruption and despair, the Knights-Errant offered these legion-less marines, a new purpose, away from the taint of their old Legions.

There is evidence for them being the forerunners of [[Grey Knights]]. Despite what we think we know of the original Grey Knights and that eight of the initial recruits would become the first Grand Masters of the new chapters, those that initially joined the first member, [[Nathaniel Garro]], were not necessarily destined to become Grey Knights themselves. Author [[James Swallow]] has come out and said as much himself in an interview. In any case, most of these Knights would not survive the Horus Heresy anyway, but it's worth knowing that these guys possessed a very special and believable type of [[awesome]] (unlike [[Kaldor Draigo|this guy]]), and loads of it.

==Known Members==
===Nathaniel Garro===
[[Death Guard]] Captain of the ''Eisenstein''. The first member. The guy who fled the massacre at Istvaan III and managed to bring word of the Horus Heresy to the Imperium, thanks to his honor-brother, and a very cool guy, Saul Tarvitz of the [[Emperor's Children]]. On the way there, he also became the first of the Loyalists to encounter what would later be known as the Plague Marines, as the corpses of his traitorous legion-brothers came back to life as they traveled through the warp.

Given rules as part of the lead-up to HH Book 6 'Retribution', Garro can be a trolltastic addition to an army. He's built up as a challenge character, earning double combat resolution scores and gaining a 3+ invulnerable save. Despite this, he's not a combat monster, as ''Libertas'' is only a two-handed blade with AP3, despite having Rending. However, Garro's Death Guard resilience shows through, having ''Eternal Warrior'' AND the chance to get back from death the first time he kicks the bucket during battle.

===Garviel Loken===
Captain of the [[Luna Wolves]] 10th Company, who is very much the protagonist of the first trilogy of Horus Heresy novels. He was known for being able to think independently and rationally, as well as being exceptionally humane for an Astartes. A true stoic and a principle person, as well as a bad-ass. Was thought dead after the planet he was on was bombed with virus- and then fire bombs, surviving a 3 month siege by 4 traitor legions and a warlord titan, after being defeated by [[Abaddon]] in a duel and after having a building collapse on him, trapping him in the rubble, while the planet was being bombed into dust for a second time, this time with cyclone bombs. [[Not as planned|But NOPE]]! When Nathaniel Garro first discovered him, survivor's guilt and distrust had driven him half mad and he was convinced he was the only Loyalist left alive in the Imperium. Calling himself Cerberus, due to an inability to remember his own name, he then forced a reign of terror upon the totally dead, but [[Nurgle|reanimated]] population (read: Plague Zombies) of Isstvan III. Was supposedly the final member that Garro would recruit according to Malcador, although other members were inducted after Loken himself.

His major highlights include:
*Being a member of the '''Mournival''': the four advisors of Horus Lupercal, along with Abaddon, Tarik Torggadon, and "Little Horus" Aximand.
*Hilariously making [[Lucius]] his bitch in a duel, pointing out beforehand, that the duel would not be about their skill in blades. As he saw Lucius make the first move, he dropped his sword and in one stroke won the duel, by breaking that arrogant prick's nose into smithereens with a single punch, ruining Lucius' "perfect" face and by making the first mark upon it. This trick was later over-exaggeratedly used again, by Saul Tarvitz.
*Fighting Abaddon himself on Isstvan III.
*Making [[Kharn]] his side bitch by going toe to toe with him and then impaling the dude on the dozer blades of an advancing [[chaos|spikey]] land raider. What a fucking savage.
*Killing a [[Dark Angel]] on [[Caliban]] and quite possibly throwing a lit match on the whole [[Fallen Angels|Fallen]] powder keg. (Err, not quite- Qruze killed the guy and Loken pointed out the powder keg issue).
*Possibly being a founding member of the Grey Knights.
*Giving Horus and an overwhelming majority of his traitor legion a virtual bitch-slap by turning his back on them when he asked to join the rebellion.

Formerly the only member with tabletop rules in Horus Heresy, though that's his pre-Knight status, when he is a Legion Praetor character with Initiative 6 and a Paragon Blade, with the ability to get back from the dead once per game. Strangely he's the only Praetor with Power Armour (Sevatar, Ophion) rather than the standard issue Artificer Armour as the typical attire for Praetors, though he does get an Iron Halo which usually has to be bought for extra dough.

We've yet to see Loken as a Knight Errant, but no doubt Forgeworld will just take his original rules and slap on the option to upgrade to the generic "Knight Errant" rules for a few points in an updated list.

===Tylos Rubio===
An [[Ultramarines]] Librarian who was the first member to be inducted by Garro. He was recruited in the midst of the [[Battle of Calth]]. Rubio would essentially become the Garro's second in command for several missions, and got his own job of travelling to Baal to collect all of the wargear of the Blood Angels (to give to the future Grey Knights) when everyone thought Sanguinius had fallen at Signus.

Rubio is one of the more powerful/reliable psykers on the tabletop of his era (which isn't hard as his primary competition is generic Librarians or special characters with "repressed" abilities). So compared to a Librarian, he's a ML2 psyker who can reroll failed Psychic tests when manifesting ''Divination'' powers, meaning he's practically guaranteed to cast. He's also no slouch in combat either, with Init 5 stock and can invest his warp charges into his Force Sword granting +1 Strength for each charge not spent on a power, meaning he can quite happily smack a bitch, although only at AP3 since its still just a sword.

===The Nemean Reaver===
His real name is unknown, but it is widely suspected (and also confirmed by statements from himself) that he was a Dark Angel. Heavily injured in the Rangdan Xenocides, he is supposed to be a mess of scar tissue and [[Rage]]. Was the head of his own Blackshield fleet made up of dispossessed legionaries called the "Dark Brotherhood" until he was approached by Garro for recruitment, a meeting which the [[Alpha Legion]] did their best to foul up.

On the tabletop he's probably one of the higher tier challenge characters out there (not counting Primarchs), coming runner up to [[Sigismund]] in lethality but is superior in terms of survivability. He's got Toughness 5, ''Eternal Warrior, Adamantium Will'', 2+/4+ saves and rerolls failed saves against Blast or Template weapons. He also has a S+1 AP2 sword which inflicts -1 WS to enemies in a challenge and strikes at initiative. He also causes ''Fear'' and is ''Fearless'', meaning he can't be overrun and has a chance of just trolling generic legionaries who are not immune to fear.

There are two versions of him, representing him as the commander of the Dark Brotherhood in a Blackshields army, or can be taken by any Loyalist force if you upgrade to Knight-Errant, making him even deadlier in a challenge with ''Preferred Enemy (Traitors)''.

'''Trivia:''' Both his name and his armour are allusions to [[Lion El'Jonson|lions]], which is no surprise given his supposed heritage. The '''Nemean Lion''' was slain as the first of the twelve labours of Heracles, while the pelt of the '''Cithaeron Lion''' was worn by Heracles and was said to be impervious, which accounts for the sheer number of benefits granted by his Kithaeron warplate.

===Others===
*'''Macer Varren''' - A [[World Eaters]] Captain who was one of a group of loyalist refugees that fled to the Terran Solar system, a cockney-marine and an utter badass. Surprisingly level-headed for someone with the Butcher's Nails jammed into his brain.

*'''Sevarian (The Wolf)''' - Not a Space Wolf, though artwork portrays him to look similar to one, but a [[Luna Wolves|Luna Wolf]]. He was a member of the Crusader Host (basically Space Marine Ambassadors to Terra) but was imprisoned on Terra with all bar the Imperial Fists due to suspicion. He broke out of prison and was brought back into the fold by the Samurai (not kidding) Nasagena. He is a latent psyker whose powers were unlocked by Magnus' psychic message that broke the Golden Throne, though Malcador explains it such that Sevarian uses them so instinctually that he does not know he has them, which makes him unique.
**Sevarian was also an early addition to the Knights-Errant, being recruited by Malcador directly about two years into the Heresy, but was recruited before Rubio since it was Sevarian's psychic abilities which that identified other potential candidates for recruitment, giving Garro a list of twenty names to find.

*'''Bror Tyrfinger''' - An actual Space Wolf. His name translates to "Brother Bullfinger" in danish, so that's at least something. Tyrfing is also a name of the sword made by dwarves in the legend of Tyrfing. It was said that due to this it could never rust, dull or miss; but it also carried a curse of having to kill a man each time it was drawn.

*'''Ares Voitek''' - [[Iron Hands]] Techmarine.

*'''Fel Zharost''' - A [[Night Lords]] Chief Librarian who, was exiled by [[Sevatar]] after the Edict of Nikaea mostly because no-one could be bothered to care about the Librarius except Zharost himself. He somehow fled to Terra and was eventually collected for induction into the Knights-Errant.

*'''Vardas Ison''' - A Librarian, [[Lexicanum|assumed]] Blood Angels.

*'''Theodor Ruttveld''' - A Space Wolf, was assigned to watch over Konrad Curze and ensure that the Edict of Nikaea [[Fail|was obeyed]]. Heavily maimed by Curze and delivered to Terra [[Grimdark|as a message]]. It is uncertain if he is to become a Knight-Errant though he he kept alive on the Sigillite's Authority and it is made clear that he it to be kept as whole as possible and not interred in a Dreadnought.

*'''Kaspian Hecht \ Barthusa Narek:''' A bit of a mystery; Narek was a member of the [[Word Bearers]] who still believed in the divinity of the Emperor and wanted to kill [[Lorgar]] to sort out his Legion's problems; however he had no apparent interest in joining the "Loyalist" cause. He was captured on [[Macragge]], and even though [[Inquisition|he wasn't a traitor, he was interrogated daily and to be executed if he incriminated himself]]. However he somehow escaped and was implanted with the memories of a separate person: "Kaspian Hecht" who was apparently on his way towards Macragge to recruit someone for the Knights-Errant. How or why this was done is as yet unknown, but Narek eventually sorts his memories out though it's not yet known if he'll remain as one of the Knights Errant.

===Deceased Members===
As we know several members were inducted into the Knights Errant, but many did not survive, and considering that the number above is greater than eight, we know that several more will perish or find other duties.

*'''Iacton Qruze''' - One of the oldest members of the Luna Wolves and one of the few Legionaries who had been recruited before Horus was found. Referred to as "The Half-Heard" mostly because no-one was paying attention to what the old coot was saying. Got the job of overseeing the prisons on Titan for people who know far too much to be let loose in the Imperium, though is killed by Horus on board the Vengeful Spirit when an attempt at placing teleport beacons for the Space Wolves to deep strike aboard was discovered.
*'''Tubal Cayne''' - [[Iron Warriors]] member of the Crusader Host like Severian.
*'''Rama Karayan''' - [[Raven Guard]]
*'''Altan Nohai''' - [[White Scars]] Apothecary
*'''Callion Zaven''' - [[Emperor's Children]] Champion.

==Grey Knight Grand Masters==
We know that there were eight Grand Masters who travelled with Malcador to Titan when it was cast into the warp, unfortunately we don't yet know who they all are yet, and is made more difficult to guess since Grey Knights ritually change their names to mirror their daemonic foes. In [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden]]'s ''The Emperor's Gift'', all eight are long dead and entombed together in the Chapter's cemetery on Titan.

*'''1. Janus''' - Known to us as the first Supreme Grand Master, though his original name and legion remain unknown.
**Considering a bunch of circumstantial evidence One candidate to Janus' identity ''could'' (stressed "could") be the Twin-Primarch [[Omegon]].
**Garro is a contender if only because of him being the leader of the Knights-Errant, however author James Swallow put a knock-back on this in White Dwarf December 2012 when he emphatically stated that Garro is ''"not a Grey Knight... and where his fate lies is much more complicated than that"'' Though it doesn't actually stop the conspiracy theorists from reading whatever they want into it.
***The book '''Garro: Vow of Faith''' somewhat cements that Garro ''definitely isn't'' going to be a Grey Knight when the character tells himself that his ultimate fate does not lie on Titan with Malcador's warriors in grey.
*'''5. Epimetheus''' - A [[Dark Angels]] psyker of prodigious strength who survived into the 41st Millennium by being trapped in the Damnation Cache on Pandorax. Epimethius would eventually be captured by [[Abaddon]] and given to [[Fulgrim]] in a bid to gain the allegiance of the [[Emperor's Children]] for the 13th Black Crusade, Epimethius himself was intended to become the [[What|Avatar of Slaanesh]].
**His original name is unknown, but one consideration could have been [[Zahariel]] who may have joined the Knights-Errant instead of the intended membership of [[Cypher]].
*'''8. Khyron''' - First Grand Master of the Eighth Brotherhood, and with a name close to "bat" in Greek, his tomb on Titan depicts a helmeted warrior leaning casually on a halberd. The tomb's epitaph closes with "''If you wish to grow wise, learn why brothers betray brothers.’''. As the halberd and casual attitude was the hallmark of the Eighth Legion's First Captain [[Sevatar]], and Jago Sevatarion was last seen in Imperial hands relearning his psychic gift at the end of ADB's ''The Longest Night'', many Night Lords fanboys believe it is Sevatar. Having once betrayed the Emperor but then disillusioned with Chaos and Horus, could he have then betrayed his brothers in the the Eighth to return to the Imperial fold? Only ADB knows, and he hasn't gotten us that far yet.

[[Abaddon]] claimed to know of the eight original founders and stated that one was an [[Ultramarine]] while another was his "erstwhile brother". Thus it's increasingly likely that Rubio and Loken are two of the first Grand Masters.

==Human Members==
While not necessarily Knights-Errant, we also know that four humans were recruited by Malcador to form the founding members of the Inquisition.

*'''Amendera Kendel''' - ''Agentia Tercius'' to Malcador (after Garro himself) and a former [[Sisters of Silence|Sister of Silence]]. She is still a Pariah of course, but she gave up her vow to become one of the first members of Malcador's [[Inquisition|band of merry travellers]]. She is quite possibly the first "True" Inquisitor, by virtue of her background as a Witch-Hunter and the later development of her character which shows her radically using the authority granted to her by the Sigillite to get shit done: Co-opting Space Marines from the survivors of the ''Eisenstein'' into her retinue, and later ordering a battle-barge to enact ''[[Exterminatus]]'' on a planet turned renegade, despite the fact that <u>no-one</u> other than a Primarch or the Emperor himself had ever ordered such an act before her.
*'''Yasu Nagasena''' - the Last Samurai and expert tracker who was tasked with finding the Outcast Dead, then chasing down and killing Sevarian. He was only stopped from doing so by Malcador who wanted them both for his [[Inquisition|new project]]
*'''Hassani Sabbyat''' - A Stormtrooper who was into the Sigillite's employ to collect an artefact from Egypt, despite being told not to look into the box, he did and was brought before Malcador to explain himself. It turns out that the artefact was the ''Rosetta Stone'' and Malcador was part of an order that kept history and learning safe and intact. He also gets shown the doorway to the Emperor's Webway.
*'''Katanoh Tallery''' - a scribe who discovered that someone was using galactic scale tax avoidance schemes to fund and build a legion sized force under the Imperium's nose and within their territory. She was aided by Garro in finding who was diverting Imperial equipment in such an underhanded manner. Turns out it was Malcador and he was pissed at Garro for uncovering the Grey Knight fortress on Titan before it was finished, but was convinced to keep Tallery in order to better manage the bookkeeping. It's unlikely she is going to end up being an Inquisitor though. (Although, looking for funny spending would be an excellent way to find heretics... In fact, Eisenhorn uncovers a coven of heretics due to unusual accounting).

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]][[Category: Imperial]][[Category:Space Marines]]

Ferrus Manus

2016-07-15T01:38:42Z

2A02:C7D:C5E:A200:352C:6492:5881:EA26: /* The flesh is... strong? */

[[File:Ferrus Manus Pre-Haircut.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Ferrus Manus, The Gorgon, Wyrmslayer, The Great Iron-Father. It took over twenty five years to get a decent image of him, and he ended up looking like [[/co/|the Punisher]].]]
'''Ferrus Manus''' was the [[Primarch]] of the [[Iron Hands]] [[Chapter]] of [[Space Marines]]. His hands are made of iron. His name is also Latin for "Iron Hand". Real subtle, GW. He got said hands after wrestling with a silver dragon on the planet he crashed on and dripped the lizard into magma and then the metallic skin of the dragon fused into the skin on his hands. Wait, living metal? [[Necron|That sounds oddly familiar for some reason...]] Anyway, his arms became so fucking hardcore that he did not even *need* a weapon to tear through dudes: his iron hands were more than enough.

So in summary, Iron Hands, who had iron hands, was the leader of the Iron Hands, who give themselves iron hands in honour of the iron hands of Iron Hands of the Iron Hands.

He also got really pissed off if you called him [[Meme|THE HANDS OF FATE]] after that incident.

Ferrus, using his shiny metal hands, could make epic weapons that absolutely kick ass but he only used like one or two of them. It's not clear as to whether he or [[Vulkan]] was the best smith. Vulkan had better aesthetics, in that he could create things that actually looked pretty instead of just [[Leman Russ Battle Tank|ugly blocks of metal with guns haphazardly glued on]], but Ferrus certainly had the better way of making weapons, by punching them into shape with his bare fists. Vulkan also had a respect for geology, where Ferrus thought that details of a metal ended at its usefulness.

==History==
Back in the days of the Great Crusade (before the good ol' [[Horus]] [[Heresy]]), Ferrus met [[Fulgrim]] of the [[Emperor's Children]] beneath Mount Narodnya, and challenged him to forge the best weapon that he could. After three months, Fulgrim forged an ornate warhammer, while Ferrus made a big blingy sword. After praising each other for their craftsmanship, the two exchanged weapons and became best friends.

Like Vulkan, he made a point of forging gear for most of his brothers. Although Vulkan was a bit uncomfortable with Ferrus' way of punching metal into shape and didn't use his dragon-headed flamer until the Heresy broke out. Examples of his work include Horus' sword and Lorgar's mace.

Until Fulgrim found a new [[Slaanesh|boyfriend/girlfriend/hermaphroditic freak]]. Then decided to screw over Ferrus, [[Fulgrim]] totally outmatched Ferrus with his HAWTNEZZ and Ferrus jacked the sword he made for his ex-boyfriend back. Some time later after some epic planning that would [[FAIL|EPICALLY FAIL]], Ferrus goes with other [[Space Marine|Primarchs]] to attempt to kick Fulgrim's and [[Horus|Horus's]] ass. But then they got totally fucked up by a bunch of reinforcements while Ferrus assrapes Fulgrim... until he becomes Slaanesh's boyfriend; and proceeds to cut Ferrus Manus's head off. Horus was pretty fucking pissed at this.

Ironically, Ferrus' death was caused by the same self-flagellating urge that drives his sons to turn themselves into cyborgs. Fulgrim came to convert him to Horus' side; to Ferrus this meant there was some flaw inside him that needed to be expunged by killing Fulgrim. This was why the Iron Hands stayed in the field when everyone else disengaged, and got screwed over harder than everyone else.

Despite his anger at Fulgrim, Horus kept Ferrus's head, removing the remaining flesh and leaving it a bleached skull for his throne. Sometimes he would talk to it, lamenting that he had nothing but [[Konrad Curze|broken]] [[Angron|psychopaths]] instead of [[Sanguinius|angels]] and [[Lion El'Jonson|strategists]] as his generals. Waging a galaxy wide heresy is a tough job.

==In 40k?==
There is speculation ''(in-universe and out)'' that Ferrus Manus somehow lives, and is hidden away on Mars by the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]], though mentioning this to the Iron Hands gets them impressively angry, to the point that they might demonstrate how they think otherwise by using the speaker's own head. The marines who survived the Dropsite Massacre were in no doubt, having seen the visual evidence from multiple angles, but apparently the Iron Hands found the files too depressing and set about their hard drive with a bolter.

That being said, the [[Horus Heresy]] book series might currently be sowing the seeds of some sort of truth to the rumour... [[Fulgrim]] regretted not being able to convince Ferrus Manus into joining the side of the traitors, and so had [[Fabius Bile]] attempt to clone his brother with all of his memories intact so that Fulgrim might try again at turning Ferrus to [[Chaos]]. This [[FAIL|did not work]] as the cloned Ferrus would become hostile at the suggestion of turning traitor and would have to be killed by daemon-Fulgrim.

That didn't stop Fulgrim from trying again and again, believing that Fabius' cloning methods resulted in "imperfect" clones and so ordered him to try harder and create more, though fortunately, each one would get angry at the attempt to turn him away from the Emperor and end up getting beaten to death by his now-ascended brother. Guess even Daemon Primarchs can stay [[butthurt]] for millennia on end.

Another thing to note is that the Ferrus Manus clones ''did not'' have the metallic arms of the original, which is obvious since the original was not "born" with them either and only acquired them later in life. This fact was hidden from the clones by making them wear gauntlets, which the clones found confusing (the original Ferrus never needed gauntlets for protection since the metal skin was protective enough) but ended up rolling with, since their lives tended to be measured in hours. The "original" Ferrus Manus was hacked to pieces by traitor marines after being decapitated, with many taking away parts as trophies and Fulgrim likely taking 'some part to remember him by'. Guess. What happened to the original Ferrus' metallic arms remains a mystery but a number of interested parties cut shavings off them(finger bones) to use in the edges of ritual blades.

==The flesh is... strong?==
[[File:Ferrus Manus by John Blanche.JPG|thumb|left|For a very long time this was one of only two officially produced images of Ferrus Manus, drawn by [[John Blanche]]. The other image showed only his backside. Ever get the feeling you're the unfavorite? Ferrus understands you.]]
[[File:Ferrus_Manus.jpg|thumb|right|[[Drawfag|Artist's]] rendition of Ferrus Manus. Has the chin of TEN MEN!]]
Being the hardass flesh-haters that the Iron Hands are, one would suspect that Ferrus Manus might as well have been called Ferrus Clunis when it comes to the weakness of the flesh. In reality this is about as far from the distance as possible:

''"They are not my hands. This fact is forgotten by my brothers - inexplicably, it has always seemed to me. The hands are strong, to be sure, and have created great things for us all, but they are not mine. And that counts for something. They forget that the silver on my arms comes from a beast that I vanquished. It is the mark of a great evil that I ended, and yet it persists within me... I would struggle to remove it now... I will not remove the silver from my flesh because I have learned to depend on it. The fault is with my mind. I rely on the augmentation given to me by my metal gauntlets, so much so that the flesh beneath them is now little more than a distant memory... A day will come when I will strip it from me, lest I lose the power to master myself forever. Already my Legion's warriors replace their shield hands with metal in my honour, and so they too are learning to doubt the natural strength of their bodies. They must be weaned off this practice before it becomes a mania for them. Hatred of what is natural, of what is human, is the first and greatest of the corruptions. So I record it here: when the time comes, I will strip my hands of their unnatural silver. I will instruct my Legion to recant their distrust of the flesh. I will turn them away from the gifts of the machine and bid them relearn the mysteries of flesh, bone and blood. When my fathers' Crusade is over, this shall be my sacred task. When the fighting is done, I shall cure my Legion and myself. For if fighting is all there is, if we may never pause to reflect on what such devotion to strength is doing to us, then our compulsion will only grow. Already I see the madness that path leads to, and so I shall excise the silver from my hands. In doing so I shall weaken myself and my sons, but nonetheless it must be done. The hands are strong, and have created great things, but they are not mine."'' (The above speech is the preface to a novel where the Iron Hand are portrayed as emotionless, flesh-hating, misanthropes. Grimdark indeed).

With what the Iron Hands do by turning themselves into cyborgs, with only part of their brains being flesh, is as big of a [[Rage|FUCK YOU]] to the Primarch as possible. Or, they thought that his doctrine was lacking on account of him receiving a [[viking]] crewcut courtesy of his once best friend and felt that they needed to protect themselves from such a fate. Only some of them took this lesson WAY too hard and started resurrecting their dead as cryogenic zombie cyborgs, repeating the process so many time that the dead effectively became brain-dead machines. Either way, it puts the Iron Hands in an interesting light.

==On The Tabletop==
[[File:Ferrus-manus1.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Praise be to [[Forge World]] for the making of this! The head even comes as a seperate part...]]

{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" align="left"
! || Pts || WS || BS || S || T || W || I || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Ferrus Mannus:''' || 455 || 7 || 6 || 7 || 7 || 6 || 5 || 4 || 10 || 2+/3++
|}<br><br><br><br>
Ferrus Mannus is essentially God-King of Mars, functioning like a supreme Master Of The Forge Techmarine. In addition to all the fun godly powers given to all Primarchs, he also has Relentless and Smash, and straight up all ranged weapons fire at him at -1 strength value. At T7, that means boltguns, sluggas, and all manner of S4 shooty guns as are prevalent throughout all of 40k no longer have the chance of hurting him. Bringing him also makes your Legiones Astartes Iron Hands army function a lot like the 40k Chapter Tactics, in that all models gain Feel No Pain (6+) unless it already had one better.

He has Battlesmith and passes all repair rolls on a 3+ (That becomes a lovely 2+ thanks to his servo-arm). He also makes any of your vehicles with at least 1 AV of 13 or higher gain It Will Not Die. You are going to field tanks and Contemptor Dreadnoughts with this guy. He is good to them. His crazy 2+/3++ armor includes a Nuncio-Vox so Ferrus can help direct your heaping gobs of indirect tank fire, and it gives him a servo arm. It also lets him shoot two of his guns in the shooting phase, making him the shootiest primarch we currently have rules for, which include a Plasma Blaster, Graviton Gun, Grenade Harness or Heavy Flamer.

Lastly, his hammer Forgebreaker (that one forged by [[Fulgrim| Fulgrim]]) is "typical" Primarch stuff in that it's Sx2 Ap1 Concussive Strikedown. Not bad, Fulgrim, you pretty boy fuckhead. [[Dwarf Fortress|You make a pretty decent hammer]].

Considering his bonus Primarch powers are a force multiplier for a large tank army, and Legiones Astartes Iron Hands already gain several bonuses for tanks, you're bringing him with as many as you can field. Roll him alongside your tank columns so he can repair as you roll onward, knowing full well he can capably handle most any hand to hand unit thrown his way and is an excellent shot with powerful weapons in his own right.

And yes, the model's head is detachable. (THAT WAS FUCKING AWESOME!!!)

==Ferrus Manus VS other Primarchs:==
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
Primarch fighting, while fun to see, isn't a very competitive thing to do as it'll usually tie up both Primarchs for the entire game without either of them dying (Especially with someone like Ferrus, with T 7 and 2+/3++ as saves). With that in mind this section is how Ferrus Manus fares against other Primarchs Mathhammer wise. Please note that all the various abilities are taken into accounts when possible and the match-ups assume the Primarchs are the only ones involved in the fighting, so various abilities like Angron's "The Butcher's Nails" and Rampage do not provide any bonuses. In essence, the fights are supposed to be in a "Vacuum" for simplicity, but notes are added to make things clearer in particular instances. Also all of the Primarch use their most powerful weapons (because why have a contest if you don't do your best?) so naturally Ferrus is equipped with Forgebreaker. Also, don't ever forget that he comes with Servo Arm for that ever useful +1 attack at S8 Ap 2, even if Unwieldy.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">

* Ferrus Manus VS Horus
**Horus hits 4.667 times (Worldbreaker), wounds 3.333 times, 1.111 after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.778 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Ferrus hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.0833 times, 0.694 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.361.
**As always, the Warmaster can't be put down. Although Ferrus can put up a decent fight thanks to his resilience.

* Ferrus Manus VS Angron
**Angron Round 1: hits 5.333 times, wounds 3.555 times, 1.185 after saves, and IWND take it down to 0.852.
**Angron Round 2: hits 4 times, wounds 2.666 times, 0.889 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.556 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Ferrus hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.083 times, 0.868 times after saves and FNP, and IWND will take that down to 0.535 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Again, thanks to his tankiness Ferrus can stalemate Angron (who does a lot of damage) to the point that he will kill him just one round before the Red Angel can actually kill him back. Also Strikedown make this easier since Ferrus will hit first from round 2 and thereafter.

* Ferrus vs Mortarion
**Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.25 times, 0.416 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.083.
**Ferrus hits 2.5 times, wounds 2 times, 1 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.444 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Even though Mortarion is tough in the end Ferrus wins pretty easily thanks to his superior save and to his hammer

* Ferrus vs Fulgrim
**Ferrus hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.083 times, 0.694 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.361 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Fulgrim Round 1: hits 5.629 (Master-crafted) times, wounds 3.284 times (Child of Terra), 1.094 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.761 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Fulgrim Round 2 and thereafter: hits 3.611 times, wounds 2.107 times, 0.702 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.369 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**The infamous match! And also one of the closest, with the same outcome as the lore unless Fulgrim either has the Laer Blade or he doesn't have Child of Terra, in which case he doesn't really stand a chance. With the Hammer, Ferrus is like Fulgrim's worst nightmare, 'cause strikedown will go off even if the strike doesn't wound him, reducing his initiative to 4 and stripping him of all his advantages. In the end, Fulgrim will win on the 11th round, while Ferrus needs 12 rounds to come on top, so Fulgrim did really well to take the hammer away. Also, a really epic fight!
***'''Its worth noting that in the fluff during this duel Ferrus was fighting with Fireblade and Fulgrim with Forgebreaker. Here's how well that goes: against a primarch Fireblade is only a little better than just using his bare hands, though against most Primarchs Ferrus still wounds on a 2+ so it's all right for him. For Fulgrim though Forgebreaker is a HUGE upgrade. He goes from wounding of 4+ to 2+ thanks to strength 10. Most importantly Ferrus will no longer have Concussive to mitigate Fulgrim's sublime swordsman rules so he still gets more attacks. Even worse is that since Fulgrim can concuss Ferrus down to initiative 1, sublime swordsman will generate SEVEN additional attacks whenever concuss hits and hitting so much means it should be every turn. And even worse is that since Ferrus is down to initiative 1 a lot of the time, Blind is much much more likely to hit. It doesn't even matter if we make Forgebreaker unwieldy in Fulgrim's hands because unwieldy doesn't actually reduce initiative, it just makes you fight at that initiative step, and putting out so much more damage means striking at the same time simply doesn't matter. In the first turn Fulgrim should get that first unsaved wound to concuss and after that it gets disgusting. Once Fulgrim concusses Ferrus he gets 12(!) attacks (since sublime swordsman doesn't limit the bonus attacks it can give) hitting on 3+ (8 hits) wounding on 2+ (5.3 wounds) which is a frankly disgusting 3.5 wounds after saves. IWND will take that down to 3.177 but holy shit is Ferrus screwed. He dies after 3 rounds of combat and quite frankly he gets wrecked like a bitch. With Forgebreaker there's a reasonable chance that Fulgrim could take on Horus simply because the combination of sublime swordsman and concussive is just so powerful.'' '''Turns out Fulgrim WAS the better smith, after all.'''

* Ferrus VS Konrad Curze
**Curze hits 4 times, wounds 2.222 times, 0.741 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.407 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Ferrus hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.083 times, 1.042 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.709 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Ferrus win.
**Note: if Konrad use Hit and Run he can almost completely close the gap, doing 1.018 wounds on the turn he charges (counting his knives and HoW though). but when counting in Ferrus' overwatch he wins anyway. Just not so easily, making this fight akin to that of Ferrus vs Fulgrim, but a lot faster.

* Ferrus VS Vulkan
**Vulkan hits 2 times, wounds 1.666 times, 0.556 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.222 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Ferrus hits 2.5 times, wounds 2 times, 0.667 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.111 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**The fight between the two big tanks end in an almost surprising victory for Vulkan, 'cause even though Ferrus does marginally more damage, Vulkan is a bit tougher.

* Ferrus VS Lorgar
**Lorgar hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.667 times, 0.556 after saves and IWND will take that to 0.222 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Ferrus hits 3.333 times, wounds 2.0778 times, 1.389 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.056 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Ferrus win.
**Note: as always, psychic powers not included. You know how it would end anyway...

*Ferrus VS Perturabo
**Perturabo hits 2.667 times, wounds 2.222, 0.74 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.407 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Ferrus hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.083 times, 0.694 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.361 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**The mirror match! (yes, I used Forgebreaker for both of them. Yeah, I know it is stupid...) In the end Perturabo win thanks to his WS, since even with one more attack Ferrus hit marginally less times.
**Note: without the hammer(s) Ferrus would defeat Perturabo, 'cause he would wound Perturabo on a 3+ (2+ with the Servo Harm) wounding 1.75 times, with Perturabo wounding him on 4+ and so wounding him 1.333. Guess old Perty could use Fulgrim's hammer better, in the end.

* Ferrus VS Alpharius
**Alpharius hits 2.92 times and wounds 1.136 times, 0.379 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.045 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Ferrus hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.083 times, 1.042 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.709 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Ferrus easily win.

* Ferrus VS Rogal Dorn
**Dorn hits 2.667 times, wounds 1.481 times, 0.494 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.16 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Ferrus hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.667 times, 0.833 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.5 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Ferrus win.

* Ferrus VS Corvus Corax
**Corvus hits 4 times (Scourge)/3 times (Shadow-walk), wounds 2.222 times (Scourge)/1.667 times (Shadow-walk), 0.741 wounds (Scourge)/0.556 wounds (Shadow-walk) after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.408/0.222 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Ferrus hits 2.5/1.667 times, wounds 2.083/1.389 times, 1.389/0.926 wounds after saves and 1.056/0.592 wounds after IWND.
**Ferrus win.
**Note: if Corax can pull off his tactics of Hit & Run he can close the gap, doing a lot more damage on the charge, but Ferrus' Hammer has Concussive AND Strikedown, and even if Corax use Shadowalk there is a 93% chance he will receive at least one wound, making it almost impossible to rely on this tactics and assuring Ferrus victory.

* Ferrus VS Roboute Guilliman
**Guilliman Round 1: hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.083 times (Hand), 0.694 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.361 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Guilliman Round 2 and thereafter: hits 3.333 times, wounds 2.778 times, 0.926 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.593 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Ferrus: hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.083 times, 0.542 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.208 at the start of the next turn.
**Ferrus lose this fight.

* TLDR version: Ferrus is a really tough Primarch that, thanks to his sheer resilience and high strength attack can put up a good fight against any other Primarch, being even capable of taking down the big melee monster that is Angron.

</div></div>

==External Links==

[https://youtu.be/RloxrSfOJR8 Ferrus isn't dead, he's just stuck inside his favourite 1991 video game.]

{{Primarchs}}
[[Category:Imperial]]

Keeper of Secrets

2016-07-15T01:28:15Z

2A02:C7D:C5E:A200:352C:6492:5881:EA26: /* Known Keepers of Secrets */

[[Image:Keeper of Secrets.jpg|thumb|450px|right|I bet you thought only [[Hive Tyrant|Hive Tyrants]] had four arms.]]

If you thought the [[Daemonette]]s were sexually perverse, you haven't seen a '''Keeper of Secrets''', the Great [[Daemon]] of [[Slaanesh]]. Keepers of Secrets have generally the same body, with four arms and the lower pair ending in pincer claws. What makes them unique is that the head is based on Slaanesh's mood at the time he/she formed the Keeper. As such, it can be anywhere from hauntingly beautiful to insanely grotesque. Like the rest of Slaanesh's followers, Keepers of Secrets seek sensation in all forms, either sex, drugs, rock and roll, or just killing everything around them in a wild frenzy.

On the tabletop, the Keeper of Secrets is a fast CC killing machine. Compared with the Bloodthirster, it's more focused on killing rank and file troops due to it's lacking of the Bloodthirter's beefiness, and it's not as survivable as it due to not being a Flying Monstrous Creature.

==Known Keepers of Secrets==
*'''[[N'kari]]''': A Keeper of Secrets (originally said to be a Daemon Prince) <s>responsible for</s> who took credit for the destruction of [[Craftworld]] Malan'tai before getting his ass handed to him by the [[Grey Knights]]. Also a [[High Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|Elf]] who was so vain, she wanted the attention of [[Slaanesh]] himself.
*'''Zarakynel''': Responsible for corrupting the planet Sherilax and one of Slaanesh's most powerful Keeper of Secrets. Enjoys eating the occasional soulstone and [[Eldar]] rape.
*'''Daemon of Laeran''': A Keeper of Secrets responsible for the corruption of the [[Emperor's Children]]. It was found bound to a sword found on Laeran, and had corrupted the Laer into the embrace of Slaanesh. [[Fulgrim]] took it as a trophy, and the Daemon corrupted the [[Primarch]]. When Fulgrim realized how far he had fallen after killing [[Ferrus Manus]], the Daemon tricked him into lowering his mental barriers and possessed Fulgrim, subsequently impersonating him and <s>committing all of Fulgrim's following atrocities, including the mass debaucheries during the siege of [[Earth|Terra]] and the seemingly permanent incapacitation of [[Roboute Guilliman]]...wait, does anyone else hear clapping?</s> Retcon time! A [[Horus Heresy]] novella tells us that after a while, Fulgrim was able to overtake it and trap it in a portrait of himself painted from shit and spinal fluid. Ferrus was Fulgrim's last link to any sort of morality and barrier from a life given over entirely to Slaanesh, so instead of breaking his spirit (which it did for a while), the Daemon of Laeran just set the groundwork for [[Not As Planned|its own dicking over]]. In the end, the swell and cultured Warlord Fulgrim became a planet rapist and sense freak sadist without a pussified daemon pulling the strings...That clapping is even louder now.
*'''Heartslayer''': A Keeper of Secrets who was largely responsible for the downfall of the Eldar Craftworld Kher-Ys and possessing an Avatar of Khaine. Kher-Ys was protected by a particularly powerful set of runes that prevented an invasion. To pave the way for an invasion: Heartslayer seduced the daughter of one of the Farseers of Kher-Ys, had her deactivate the runes protecting her craftworld, and basically made the entirety of the craftworld crap their mesh-armored pants by commencing a full-scale daemonic invasion. The Craftworld tried to summon an Avatar of [[Khaine]], but Heartslayer managed to reach the Avatar's chamber just before the birth of the avatar. For some reason, an avatar has no soul at the moment of its conception, so he/she gouged the avatar's eyes out and proceeded to posses the husk and turn it against the craftworld's defenses. Needless to say, genocidal hilarity ensued.
*'''Kyriss''': A Keeper of Secrets responsible for enslaving the Signus System during the [[Horus Heresy]]. Committed all manner of unspeakable perversions before [[Sanguinius]] and the [[Blood Angels]] arrived to fuck him up, only to in turn be attacked by Ka'bandha the [[Bloodthirster]]. [[Horus]] and Ka'Bandha intended Kyriss to be sacrificed as part of their plan to kill Sanguinius and turn the Blood Angels to [[Khorne]]. When Ka'Bandha was thrown back into the Warp, Kyriss told Sanguinius that it would spare the Blood Angels if Sanguinius took the hate of one of his lost sons into him, but the Apothecary [[Meros]] did instead. Kyriss proceeded to go absolutely apeshit on the Blood Angels in rage before Sanguinius cut its head off. Interestingly, even Kyriss couldn't seem to decide which sex it was.
*'''The Sapphire King''': The physical manifestation of the pent-up grief and pride of the [[Iron Hands]] or something like that. I don't know, I was having trouble following exactly why this guy is so fascinated with the sons of Ferrus. Well, besides the fact that he was born when Fulgrim went all chop-chop on Ferrus' neck. Point is, he has a fetish for machines made of fleshy bits and turning Iron Hands into [[Chaos Spawn]]s so he can-oh shit OH SHI'''HJKGASDFKGHBGELJWBKC'''
*'''Emeli Duboir''': The Chaos cultist than a certain Hero of the Imperium banged and subsequently killed. Later returned as a keeper of secrets hell bent on sucking the soul of the brave commisar and the planet he was on strait into the warp.
*'''Luxscious''': A Keeper of Secrets who was the first to decide he/she/it was Slaanesh's replacement, called the Ur-Slaanesh, following his kidnapping by <strike>Elves</strike> Aelves in [[Age of Sigmar]] (no seriously, that's actually canon). Luxscious and the other Keepers who decided they themselves were the only one worthy of that position had to play down their ambition as [[Archaon]], now supreme boss of all Chaos (no, seriously), won't accept a pretender to a position that he himself wants to take...for some reason. Apparently being HNIC rapeviking means perfection and pride now. Well, the Vikings were actually [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3256539/Vikings-preferred-male-grooming-to-pillaging.html pretty vain about their appearances], so it isn't that far fetched.
*'''Manushya-Rakshasi''' A keeper of secrets brought forth during the Heresy by an Emperor's Children apothercary who dabbled in demon summoning as a hobby. Converted a ton of noise marines into demons and attempted to kill as many White Scars as possible, invading their ships whilst they journeyed in the Webway. Jaghtai Khan gutted it with it's own sword.
<gallery>
Image:Luxscious Sigmar.jpg|Ur-Slaanesh and Sigmar meet at an extraplanar motel.
</gallery>

==Gallery==

<gallery>
Image:Keeper of Secrets2.jpg
Image:Daemonette Keeper of Secrets.jpg|Daemonettes with a Keeper of Secrets.
Image:Keeper of Secrets Empire.jpg|Not even a KoS can shock Empire militiamen.
</gallery>
[[Category:Chaos]][[Category:Daemons]][[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]][[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]

Keeper of Secrets

2016-07-15T01:28:03Z

2A02:C7D:C5E:A200:352C:6492:5881:EA26: /* Known Keepers of Secrets */

[[Image:Keeper of Secrets.jpg|thumb|450px|right|I bet you thought only [[Hive Tyrant|Hive Tyrants]] had four arms.]]

If you thought the [[Daemonette]]s were sexually perverse, you haven't seen a '''Keeper of Secrets''', the Great [[Daemon]] of [[Slaanesh]]. Keepers of Secrets have generally the same body, with four arms and the lower pair ending in pincer claws. What makes them unique is that the head is based on Slaanesh's mood at the time he/she formed the Keeper. As such, it can be anywhere from hauntingly beautiful to insanely grotesque. Like the rest of Slaanesh's followers, Keepers of Secrets seek sensation in all forms, either sex, drugs, rock and roll, or just killing everything around them in a wild frenzy.

On the tabletop, the Keeper of Secrets is a fast CC killing machine. Compared with the Bloodthirster, it's more focused on killing rank and file troops due to it's lacking of the Bloodthirter's beefiness, and it's not as survivable as it due to not being a Flying Monstrous Creature.

==Known Keepers of Secrets==
*'''[[N'kari]]''': A Keeper of Secrets (originally said to be a Daemon Prince) <s>responsible for</s> who took credit for the destruction of [[Craftworld]] Malan'tai before getting his ass handed to him by the [[Grey Knights]]. Also a [[High Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|Elf]] who was so vain, she wanted the attention of [[Slaanesh]] himself.
*'''Zarakynel''': Responsible for corrupting the planet Sherilax and one of Slaanesh's most powerful Keeper of Secrets. Enjoys eating the occasional soulstone and [[Eldar]] rape.
*'''Daemon of Laeran''': A Keeper of Secrets responsible for the corruption of the [[Emperor's Children]]. It was found bound to a sword found on Laeran, and had corrupted the Laer into the embrace of Slaanesh. [[Fulgrim]] took it as a trophy, and the Daemon corrupted the [[Primarch]]. When Fulgrim realized how far he had fallen after killing [[Ferrus Manus]], the Daemon tricked him into lowering his mental barriers and possessed Fulgrim, subsequently impersonating him and <s>committing all of Fulgrim's following atrocities, including the mass debaucheries during the siege of [[Earth|Terra]] and the seemingly permanent incapacitation of [[Roboute Guilliman]]...wait, does anyone else hear clapping?</s> Retcon time! A [[Horus Heresy]] novella tells us that after a while, Fulgrim was able to overtake it and trap it in a portrait of himself painted from shit and spinal fluid. Ferrus was Fulgrim's last link to any sort of morality and barrier from a life given over entirely to Slaanesh, so instead of breaking his spirit (which it did for a while), the Daemon of Laeran just set the groundwork for [[Not As Planned|its own dicking over]]. In the end, the swell and cultured Warlord Fulgrim became a planet rapist and sense freak sadist without a pussified daemon pulling the strings...That clapping is even louder now.
*'''Heartslayer''': A Keeper of Secrets who was largely responsible for the downfall of the Eldar Craftworld Kher-Ys and possessing an Avatar of Khaine. Kher-Ys was protected by a particularly powerful set of runes that prevented an invasion. To pave the way for an invasion: Heartslayer seduced the daughter of one of the Farseers of Kher-Ys, had her deactivate the runes protecting her craftworld, and basically made the entirety of the craftworld crap their mesh-armored pants by commencing a full-scale daemonic invasion. The Craftworld tried to summon an Avatar of [[Khaine]], but Heartslayer managed to reach the Avatar's chamber just before the birth of the avatar. For some reason, an avatar has no soul at the moment of its conception, so he/she gouged the avatar's eyes out and proceeded to posses the husk and turn it against the craftworld's defenses. Needless to say, genocidal hilarity ensued.
*'''Kyriss''': A Keeper of Secrets responsible for enslaving the Signus System during the [[Horus Heresy]]. Committed all manner of unspeakable perversions before [[Sanguinius]] and the [[Blood Angels]] arrived to fuck him up, only to in turn be attacked by Ka'bandha the [[Bloodthirster]]. [[Horus]] and Ka'Bandha intended Kyriss to be sacrificed as part of their plan to kill Sanguinius and turn the Blood Angels to [[Khorne]]. When Ka'Bandha was thrown back into the Warp, Kyriss told Sanguinius that it would spare the Blood Angels if Sanguinius took the hate of one of his lost sons into him, but the Apothecary [[Meros]] did instead. Kyriss proceeded to go absolutely apeshit on the Blood Angels in rage before Sanguinius cut its head off. Interestingly, even Kyriss couldn't seem to decide which sex it was.
*'''The Sapphire King''': The physical manifestation of the pent-up grief and pride of the [[Iron Hands]] or something like that. I don't know, I was having trouble following exactly why this guy is so fascinated with the sons of Ferrus. Well, besides the fact that he was born when Fulgrim went all chop-chop on Ferrus' neck. Point is, he has a fetish for machines made of fleshy bits and turning Iron Hands into [[Chaos Spawn]]s so he can-oh shit OH SHI'''HJKGASDFKGHBGELJWBKC'''
*'''Emeli Duboir''': The Chaos cultist than a certain Hero of the Imperium banged and subsequently killed. Later returned as a keeper of secrets hell bent on sucking the soul of the brave commisar and the planet he was on strait into the warp.
*'''Luxscious''': A Keeper of Secrets who was the first to decide he/she/it was Slaanesh's replacement, called the Ur-Slaanesh, following his kidnapping by <strike>Elves</strike> Aelves in [[Age of Sigmar]] (no seriously, that's actually canon). Luxscious and the other Keepers who decided they themselves were the only one worthy of that position had to play down their ambition as [[Archaon]], now supreme boss of all Chaos (no, seriously), won't accept a pretender to a position that he himself wants to take...for some reason. Apparently being HNIC rapeviking means perfection and pride now. Well, the Vikings were actually [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3256539/Vikings-preferred-male-grooming-to-pillaging.html pretty vain about their appearances], so it isn't that far fetched.
'''Manushya-Rakshasi''' A keeper of secrets brought forth during the Heresy by an Emperor's Children apothercary who dabbled in demon summoning as a hobby. Converted a ton of noise marines into demons and attempted to kill as many White Scars as possible, invading their ships whilst they journeyed in the Webway. Jaghtai Khan gutted it with it's own sword.
<gallery>
Image:Luxscious Sigmar.jpg|Ur-Slaanesh and Sigmar meet at an extraplanar motel.
</gallery>

==Gallery==

<gallery>
Image:Keeper of Secrets2.jpg
Image:Daemonette Keeper of Secrets.jpg|Daemonettes with a Keeper of Secrets.
Image:Keeper of Secrets Empire.jpg|Not even a KoS can shock Empire militiamen.
</gallery>
[[Category:Chaos]][[Category:Daemons]][[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]][[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]

Adeptus Arbites

2016-06-04T08:36:29Z

2A02:C7D:C5E:A200:352C:6492:5881:EA26:

[[Image:150px-Adeptus Arbites Sigil.jpg|thumb|right|The emblem of the Adeptus Arbites]]
[[Image:Arbitrator.jpg|thumb|right|I am the Law!]]

:''"To be just, our law must be cruel."''
:--Motto of the Adeptus Arbites.
They are basically the police of the [[Imperium]]. But they aren't just any ol' cops, they are [[beakie|badass motherfuckers]], think of a combo of [[awesome|RoboCop]] and [[Judge Dredd]]. They usually drag the criminal up to the judge who then ceremonially declares them [[heresy|guilty and being guilty means that you have committed a crime]]. And in the Imperium there is only one crime and it is [[heresy|HERESY]]!!!!!!! On some worlds though, they send criminals to [[Imperial Guard]] penal legions instead of executing them on the spot, thus they may receive the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor's]] benediction on the glorious field of battle. The Adeptus Arbites have slightly smaller balls of steel than guardsmen, they are on the other hand made of much more man sauce than [[Space Marines|SPESS MEHREENS]] and their sissy power armor. An example of this would be the well known quote:

<blockquote>
{{quote|''"Armor? Guns? HAH! Who needs 'em? I just got mah fists and mah club. Now let's go and ''arrest'' those two ogryn who have been cauzin' trouble."''}}
:::- Jormund Wilkfas Arbites Sergeant of the third detachment on Necromunda.</blockquote>

The Adeptus Arbites have shown that social sciences, like the applied, have also been degraded in the 41st millennium while they help power Terra by using the remains of long dead criminologists to drive generators. Excessive brutality is not an effective way of combating crime as it builds resentment between law enforcement and the people they are there to protect from lawlessness. On the other hand, if the alternative is letting over-populated hives become horror fests of the worst sorts of crime, then it might be more cost-effective for the Arbites crack as many skulls as they like. Mind, they are still rife with crime, but it's mostly low-key and non-violent stuff like drugs and forbidden objects. After all, life is (literally to the Arbites) the Emperor's currency. Are you going to go on a serial killing and thereby waste the Emperor's currency? Not if you value your life.

Of course, once those forbidden objects turn out to be some Chaos artifact that opens a rift in the underhive...

It says something that the thing keeping violent crime at a minimum (when compared to the sheer size of Imperial cities) is the fact that, if you murder someone, then that someone can't die for the Emperor and you have therefore stolen from the Emperor himself. Which has rather severe consequences (you ''stole'' from the '''Emperor''', you are ''screwed''). [[Image:Wot.jpeg|thumb|left|<s>Anyone else notice that the Imperium's police are more well equipped than it's military?</s> Actually, the Arbites aren't really police - Planets have their own police forces, but Arbites can just come in at any time, and do things like take control of an entire planet's police force to assist in something really, really big. So they're more like SUPER COPS.]]

If you want to include the Adeptus Arbites in a story or game of [[Dark Heresy]], I suggest you read/watch/play/whatever the following for inspiration:
*[[Judge Dredd]]
*Robocop (Not the remake. The '80s and '90s knew how to make a dystopia look dystopian, unlike today's [https://archive.is/iQYUr photogenic, scrubbed clean dystopias].)
*Die Hard
*L.A Noire and/or L.A. Confidential (For that "law enforcement being full of corrupt douchebags" vibe)

It's important to note that NOT all Imperial lawmen are Adeptus Arbites (this point is stressed repeatedly in the Ciaphas Cain novels - many planets call their civil police force the Arbites out of convention). The Arbites are like the FBI and Interpol of the 40K universe, they take on the cases with interplanetary criminals or crimes against the Imperial laws instead just the local planetary laws. Some planets have only a single Arbites agent loosely overseeing all the planetary police. So feel free to write a story or play a game involving plain old po-lice in spess and have the Arbites as an overseer/boss/meddling (and possibly corrupt) dickhead.

== See Also ==
*[[Campaign:Arbites]]
*[[Arbitrator Kazymanderas Jallus]]
*Good fan codex for the Arbites [http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?346646-Codex-Adeptus-Arbites-for-6th-Edition]

{{Template:Imperium}}
[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]][[Category: Imperial]]

Heresy

2016-05-19T02:11:19Z

2A02:C7D:C5E:A200:352C:6492:5881:EA26: /* What do they do with heretics? */

'' +++ Any person who speaks ill of the Emperor, the Imperium, cites his loyalty to any entity besides the Emperor, defaces holy artifacts or buildings, incites heretical thoughts or actions, talks openly about forbidden subjects and generally behaves in a manner disrespectful to all that is holy and good will have his extremities removed and left to bleed to death, for the Emperor's pleasure. The body will then be burned to ensure no taint remains. +++ The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer, Art 6741/09a +++ ''

: ''"Beware the [[xenos|alien]], the [[heretic]], and the [[mutant]]."''
:-- Thought for the Day.

''~Since the time of Sigmar Himself, we have been no more than a flickering beacon of hope amidst a sea of despair and corruption, but never before have we faced so many dangers. We must suffer the simple-minded liberalism of our burgomeisters, the sanctioning of magic use, the heresy of false prophets and religions, the arrogance of the Arch-lectors, and the convoluted plots of the Dark Gods - the rot has sunk deep into the flesh of the Empire, where even now it festers and grows. The time has come to acts and only within this proud and ancient order lies the strength of will, the zeal, and the righteous fury required to save us. They call us Witch Hunters, in their fear and ignorance, without even the slightest idea of the monstrous deeds we must commit on their behalf.~''

[[Image:Heresy_vein-popping.png|thumb|right|'''HERESY''' must be regarded with the [[RAGE|appropriate]] [[Exterminatus|severity]].]]
In [[Warhammer 40,000]], '''heresy''' (or {{BLAM|'''''HERESY!'''''}}) is the most severe accusation the Imperium can make against one of its citizens. It is almost always punishable by [[Blam|death]]. Heresy involves willingly consorting with [[Chaos]], which the Imperium gravely forbids, and anyone guilty of merely suggesting anything good about Chaos, or American pop music, will receive a [[Exterminatus|fist-fuck of Inquisitorial proportions]] when they least expect it. The other common form of heresy is any blasphemy against or defamation of the Emperor and/or the Imperium, which basically entails saying anything even remotely bad about either one. The other form involves saying anything against the Imperial Creed, which details pretty much everything not related to the veneration of the [[Empra]].

The trials for heresy are broad, but the majority of them occur [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jViTte8VAzU&feature=g-vrec like this], or [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BxFlmb6S6E this], or even [http://youtu.be/Tym0MObFpTI?t=6m17s this].

==What IS heresy?==
[[File:1289624777422.jpg|200px|thumb|It's all around you.]]
[[Image:Witch Hunters Handbook.jpg|thumb|left|The only book you should ever learn to read for.]]
The Imperium realizes that heresy is a serious matter and that its implications and consequences must be made perfectly clear to all servants of the Emperor, from the lowliest serf to the highest commander. And so with the aid and wisdom of the Inquisition and the Holy Ecclasiarchy, the definition of heresy in the eyes of our immortal God-Emperor is made known:
*EVERYTHING IS HERESY
*<s>EVERYTHING</s> {{BLAM|HERESY!}}{{BLAM}}

If you are not sure if something is heresy, it probably is. Play it safe and report it so that it can be properly BLAMMED.

Those interested in finding out more about heresy for the express purpose of removing it from our world are encouraged to check out a copy of ''"The Witch Hunter's Handbook"'', which is available at any Temple of Sigmar and contains useful information on the subject, as well as amusing anecdotes from the late Kasper von Liebenstein. (The second edition has been cleansed of its borderline-heretical text by Huntress Karin Schiller. Reprobates in possession of the first edition copy are required to burn it immediately and repent of their sin of knowledge or else be deemed heretics in the eyes of our Lord Sigmar.)

==But Seriously, What Is It?==
[[Image:Canossa-gate.jpg|thumb|right|Extra heretic Henry IV re-evaluates some of his life choices.]]
Well, outside of the [[Warhammer 40,000|the Warhams]] world, heresy is a word used to describe deviation from established religious doctrine. While most established religions have their share of offenses which are considered heresy, the word has become most closely associated with the Roman Catholic [[Inquisition]], which went absolutely apeshit for it in the Middle Ages through the beginning of the 16th century. Heresy was distinguished from heathenism in that a heathen blasphemed simply because he or she was ignorant of God's light, whereas a heretic knowingly contradicted the teachings of God and the Church. Seeing as how the pope held the keys to the kingdom and was supposedly speaking on behalf of God, he could issue orders of excommunication and interdiction, meaning the affected people and/or countries could no longer partake in the sacraments. So you weren't allowed to go to their clubhouse to eat their crackers and drink booze—who gives a shit, right? Well, everybody did back in those days. For starters, it was a one way ticket to [[Warp|Hell]], which people took much more seriously then. Also, there was the little issue that all important oaths of the day were sworn before God, meaning excommunication rendered them null and void, and you were essentially an outlaw. Your [[knight]]s didn't have to serve you, your [[peasant]]s didn't have to pay their taxes, and if one of them tortured and killed you they got a high five from Jesus. Since the Catholic Church functioned as the court of last appeal for most major matters, this gave them incredible power, which they wielded like a club to bludgeon intransigent monarchs into acting correctly, which is to say however the Church wanted them to act at the time, though this would bite them in the butt later on.
[[Image:tic.jpg|thumb|left| A hairy tick in action.]]
That isn't to say there wasn't real heresy going on. Over the course of early Christianity's history, people developed some funny ideas that lasted for a surprisingly long time. These heresies could be grouped into two rough categories- the Trinitarian/Christological heresies and Gnosticism. The former consisted of several wildly diverging beliefs regarding the divinity of Christ, the nature of the Trinity, and other doctrinal issues. The most important of these was Arianism, which asserted that Christ the Son was wholly distinct from and subordinate to God the Father; the controversies that arose in its wake within the early Christian community later led to the Nicene Creed, which codified the modern doctrine of the Trinity used by most Christian sects today. Other heresies of this sort included Nestorianism (the belief that the divine and human natures of Christ were separate instead of being united), Pelagianism (the denial of the existence of original sin), and Docetism (the belief that Christ's physical body was an illusion and so he was never really crucified).

Gnosticism was a very different beast, since it was less of a divergence from established doctrine and more of a completely unrelated set of religious beliefs that occasionally borrowed elements from Christianity. While the specific doctrines practiced by the different forms of Gnosticism varied widely, they all shared a contempt for the material world in general [[Iron Hands|and the human body in particular]] and claimed that the material world was created by an inferior god (or Demiurge) opposed to the true God of the spiritual world. By the use of the esoteric knowledge held by the various Gnostic sects, collectively referred to as [[Mage: The Awakening|Gnosis]], its practitioners could free their spirits from the confines of the material world and escape the influence of the Demiurge. While Gnosticism has long since died out, elements of its practices remain in various mystical traditions.

Eventually, the charges of heresy were leveled against the Catholic Church itself when a monk by the name of Martin Luther denounced the corruption that had been growing within the Church and its clergy- in particular, he was outraged by the selling of indulgences which would supposedly assure the salvation of whoever bought them. The pope wasn't willing to listen to him, Luther refused to recant his views, and to make a long story short the dominance of Catholicism fell apart in Europe soon afterwards in what became the start of the Protestant Reformation as various kings and princes throughout the continent realized they now had a way to escape from the Pope's influence while still staying in God's good graces. Several brutal and ultimately inconclusive religious wars between the Protestants and the Catholics, the increasing importance of nationalism over religious affiliation, the proliferation of more new Protestant sects than we can keep track of (and their squabbles with each other as well as the Catholics), and other more pressing concerns emerging for everyone involved arising over time slowly weakened the effectiveness of cries of 'Heresy!' as time went on until the present day, where it became known as a meme derived from a wargame.

==Heresy in Warhammer Fantasy==

In [[Warhammer Fantasy]], the [[Empire|Empire of Sigmar]] is FAR more benevolent than its science fiction counterpart. Religions of any (non-Chaos) form are allowed despite the state religion being the worship of [[Sigmar|Sigmar Heldenhammer]], magical (psyker) aptitude is met with apprehension but is encouraged within the halls of the Colleges of Magic (established by a [[Teclis|xeno ally of mankind]]), and humanity seeks alliances with other races and actively recruits them as soldiers, or enters into trade and treaties with them ([[Halflings]] are all citizens of the Empire as a matter of fact despite having the personalities of [[Tyranid]] [[Kender]]). Scientific innovation is greatly encouraged, and as a result the Empire is the most scientifically advanced race in the setting. There is less freedom in other ways however; as humanity within cities is VERY prone to rioting, behaviors seen as likely to lead to a riot (including spreading factual news about the current state of the realm and of impending invasion) are suppressed. Undeath in all forms (including concepts accepted in 40k such as the state of the God Emperor and use of [[Dreadnought|Dreadnoughts]]) is a worse form of heresy than consorting with the Ruinous Powers, and any magical act not taught and officiated to you from a College of Magic is considered at best malicious mischief.

While it's commonly known that Chaos Mutations occur with regularity and are normally just unpleasant afflictions, mutants are not officially second-class citizens as long as they are loyal. Unofficially however they are prone to mistreatment and are the general victim of any riot (well, them and teenage girls) and in [[Kislev|areas commonly attacked by the servants of Chaos]] are killed at birth. Chaos Mutants called [[Beastmen]] dedicated to the Ruinous Powers are one of the biggest threats to the Empire, but despite the fact that most learned men are fully aware of the existence of the most powerful of these groups ([[Skaven]], who possess technology on par with real world World War 1 weapons) they are considered to be fictitious by the general population. Generally, while considered heretical, speaking of Skaven is more likely to be met with public mockery rather than BLAMing. Those who have actually encountered them laugh nervously, those living in ignorance guffaw with the crowd, and those in positions of authority who fear a sudden riot just as capable of destroying the city as an attack by the mutants scowl and throw accusations of madness.

The Witch Hunters of Warhammer Fantasy, despite being far more effective than their "'Kill Everything' Button"-happy counterparts are also entirely more insane than the Inquisition of Warhammer 40k and consist of personalities akin to [[Cultist-chan|Chaos Cultists]]. They themselves are secretly dedicated to a Chaos God of Order (what, you expected logical rules from Chaos?) who empowers them against the servants of the Big Four and Undivided. Most Witch Hunters are severely traumatized individuals taught that their word is higher than that of the Church (they are known to burn [[Sisters of Sigmar]] at the stake due to receiving visions from Sigmar and occasionally), who see heresy in all actions, and their past is full of self-purges and mass murders as the head of their order inevitably falls into paranoia and senility each generation.

Those in the Warhammer equivalent to Russia, [[Kislev]], are a much more suffering lot than the Empire. Sitting right at the invasion route from [[Warriors of Chaos]], [[Orcs & Goblins|greenskins]], and dwelling in a land where portals to the Warp constantly open and close letting in entire Daemon armies but themselves being a poor and uneducated people, they lack any Inquisitorial group. Each position of authority from local Sheriff straight to Tzarina Katarina herself take it upon themselves to personally purge the population. Any sign of Chaos mutation marks the afflicted for immediate execution, any strange behavior or sign of madness is an indication of an incoming assault. The people of Kislev themselves have become a hardened race, who will face an army of [[Khorne|Bloodletters]] outnumbered armed only with rocks while standing shirtless and in bare feet in the middle of a blizzard and come out triumphant with minimal casualties (in other words, Imperial Guardsmen who can out-NONEPURER Gray Knights).

In addition, the [[High Elves]] of [[Ulthuan]] (like [[Eldar]], but are badasses who solve the worlds problems instead of fuckups TRYING to solve their own) have their own internal Inquisition. The order of the Swordmasters of Hoeth is older than [[Tomb Kings|mankind's first civilization]], and were founded by one of the early Phoenix Kings as a way of purging Elves who joined the [[Slaanesh|Cult of Pleasure]]. While officially they are Sapherian bodyguards, messengers, and general police force of the High Elves and more specifically the spellcasters of the race, the Swordmasters were also master informants who collect information in a complex spy network and send it all to Hoeth, the center of learning in the Warhammer World (also the location of the magic internet). There, the High Loremaster (who is blessed by [[Lileath]], a Lawful Good loli Tzeentch) filters it and signs the death certificates of those [[Dark Elves|Elves so strap-on on head insane they'd fucking worship a god who just wants to eat their souls]]. The Swordmasters themselves are actually more like the super calm variety of jedi knights, spending most of their time training with animu greatswords bigger than their own bodies which are continually smithed and re-forged using magical liquid metal cores and Ithilmar (hard as steel, lighter than sheet tin) to the point that the lengths of their fingers and the weight of their eyelashes are accounted for in their balance and technique. The result is lightly-armored Elves who fight like Zorro on the Speedforce in groups of one hundred at a time.

==What do they do with heretics?==
In Warhammer Fantasy, heresy is usually met with historically appropriate torture until a confession is extracted and the TRUE torture (or immediate execution in a busy week) can take place. Although the various churches of the setting are slow to act and generally are only capable of convicting those who march into a city square covered in Chaos tattoos and trying to recruit Priests of Sigmar or are doing Thriller in a group of Zombies while singing "I am a Vampire" at the top of your lungs, Witch Hunters tend to BLAM without second thought any who smells a bit too nice/bad or stutters when attempting to recite a prayer on command. Any time a [[Mordheim|major event that does not involve large armies occurs]], chances are good Witch Hunters will soon be converging on the area to execute anything still moving.

The Imperium has a much more complex system of dealing with things. If your heresy was serious but you are repentant in your trial, the church may strap you to a horrific war machine called the [[Sisters of Battle|Penitent Engine]], which is a bit like a Space Marine dreadnought except it's designed to be really painful and humiliating for the pilot who themselves are drugged and tortured until there's nothing left of their mind but rage and shame. What's creepy is that it's an entirely voluntary way of seeking absolution (obviously, since strapping someone against their will to a war machine they can control is [[derp|NOT SMART]]). Considering how many of these are stomping around, it's a wonder the [[Adeptus Mechanicus|AdMech]] hasn't designed a not-insane version to be used by the [[Imperial Guard]] as an assault walker. [[Sentinel|... right]].

The [[Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer]] says that a heretical Guardsman should have his extremities severed and left to bleed to death. At the discretion of the commanders, he may just get moved to a penal battalion or classically BLAM'd.

On remote Imperial worlds and [[Necromunda|highly populated hiveworlds]], minor heresies naturally spring up all the time because the Ecclesiarchy has a weak presence, so visiting preachers may try to take a softer approach with these things. They may even tolerate some fanciful unorthodox beliefs as long as they don't offend the core values of the church. While this might seem at first to be common sense over-ruling grimdark in some some small way, the scary bit is that how far this tolerance extends varies a lot and shifts, some benign little deviation which one high ranking priest would know to be a harmless quirk of local customs may be seen as another as being heretical and dooms millions to die as heretics.

Oddly (in earlier editions of Fluff), it was implied that even significant Heresy could be redeemed but a traitor could never ever be forgiven. One character in The Emperor's Gift was a penitent who had been a member of a significant heretical cult but was redeemed by an Inquisitor and entered her service. Despite this, most other characters viewed him with suspicion or outright hatred, so your mileage may vary.

==Inquisitors==
Witch Hunters from Warhammer Fantasy are usually recruited from those who had come dangerously close to heretics or Chaos mutants, but who had themselves been spared. Their training is regimented and involves self-flagellation as well as group flagellation to give a high tolerance for pain, constant schooling so that all prayers and religious works concerning Sigmar can be recited by heart simply by being asked for specific page and paragraph number, and tests with a higher mortality rate than facing an actual Chaos incursion. [[Chaos Spawn]] are brought into more elite classes to harden the minds of the young recruits against the taint of Chaos and to teach them how to fight that which is unnatural. '''GRAGHBBGEBBLELBGBELGBLEL''' They are taught the use of martial weapons, both large and imposing like the titular Warhammer to bootknives which can be brought to bear against those thinking they are merely being briefed on situations. Poisons, wilderness survival (in all climates of the world), and general knowledge of the regions of the world are taught to any who manage to make it thus far as knowledge is far more dangerous than weaponry.
Witch Hunters are familiarized with all forms of codes and secret languages known in the Warhammer World, with the exception of arcane scripts which they are taught only to recognize but not to read. Those who manage to pass all other forms of training are taught how to use crossbows and flintlock pistols, which are blessed with each bullet they fire being inscribed with prayers to cause maximum damage to the unnatural forces of the world.

Those deemed particularly possessing of zeal are given access to tainted texts recovered from everything from Necromancer Covens to Chaos Cults. Generally speaking, the information in these are histories of heretics as well as all the knowledge available to those on the other side of the fourth wall who read the Army Books and codices of the games.

Once recruits pass their trials they are then depending on their specialties either armed with crossbows (which is why rather than BLAMming, execution may come in the form of a FWIP instead) and assigned to city bastions or to patrol groups, or are sent out on their own to follow any rumor of heresy and pass judgement on those they find.

==Extra heresy==
[[File:Test.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Furries, the most common source of extra heresy]]
[[Extra heresy]] is a decree recently enacted by local Commissar [[Fuklaw]]. While we're still a bit sketchy on the details, it is clearly mentioned that [[LCB|Xenos]] [[Heretical Love|love]] is Extra heretical (that just makes it even more appealing) but it is a well known fact that anything remotely related to Jersey Shore, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus or anything Western pop music is extra extra heretical, and so is [[Furry|furfaggatory]].....weeelll unless you're one of the [[Space Wolves]], anyway. After all, they were just badass space Vikings until a certain update and string of model releases (We're looking at you thunderwolves and Canis). Punishment is still the generic execution by your local [[commissar]]... those dic{{BLAM}} -Most virtuous and excellent officers of the Emperor. Actually, if the Emperor saw all this shit, he'd have a single manly teardrop from his eye.

==What isn't heretical (40k)==
[[Image:Heresy meter.jpg|thumb|right|200px|The Imperium's patented heresy detector.]]
Much like the whole Rule 34 and Rule 35 gig, there are a few things that aren't heresy. Here's a short and general list:
*The [[Emperor|immortal God-Emperor of the Imperium of Man]]
*Veneration of the immortal Emperor
*Dying for the Emperor in the most manly way possible.
*Dying for the Emperor in as many ways as possible {{*BLAM*|HERESY!!! LIVING MORE THAN ONCE IS CHAOS WORSHIP}} Life is the currency of the Emperor! (Spend it well... and not on heresy)
*Nearly dying for the Emperor while doing something badass as many times as you can before you actually die for the Emperor
*Brutally slaughtering and burning heaps of xenos, mutants, heretics and most especially Modern Pop Fans, for the God Emperor of Mankind. (If you can live long enough to fire that flashlight that is--)
*Discovering new planets so the Emperor can have even more wars. Unsullied planets + war = More burning Heretics for the Emperor, hurrah!
*Building gigantic Gothic cathedrals the size of sky scrapers for the Emperor.
*[[Imperial Navy|Rendering said cathedrals spaceworthy.]]
*Praising of the Emperor.
*Hailing to the High Lords of Terra/Administratum/Ecclesiarchy- except when they commit heresy.
*accusing random people of {{BLAM|HERESY!!!}}
**{{*BLAM*}}
*{{BLAM|Why are you still reading this instead of venerating the motherfucking Emperor?! You must be a heretic for having doubt! Die heretic scum! *BLAM*}}

==What isn't heretical (Fantasy)==
*Our lord [[Sigmar|Sigmar Heldenhammer, true god of the Empire]]
*Veneration of the holy comet
*Worship of '''non chaotic''' lesser deities
*Growing mustaches
*Brutally slaughtering and burning heaps of daemons, witches, greenskins, Vampires, walking skeletons, talking cats, and [[Warriors of Chaos|Scandinavians]] (remember, the pointy end of the spear faces AWAY from you)
*Fucking Elfmaidens
*Getting drunk with Dwarves
*Adding [[Steam Tank|steam engines]] to things
*Not rioting
*Praising the Elector Counts (except in times of civil war), and the glorious Emperor Karl Franz
*Not talking about the <strike>[[Skaven|giant rat-men armed with weapons that spit fire, who spread the plague through the water, who have planted a bomb in the city square and...]] IT'S ALL OVER, OUR ONLY REMAINING SOLUTION IS TO RIOT</strike> <strike>{{FWIP|HERESY! *FWIP*}}(fwip? they have guns you know)</strike> {{BLAM|HERESY!!! *BLAM*}}

==Gallery (40k)==
<gallery>
Image:HeresyStamp.png|The Official Imperial Stamp O' Heresy
Image:Fucklaw.jpg|[[Commissar Fuklaw]] wants to explain a few things to you about Heresy.
File:Absolutely heretical newscast.jpg|In the 41st millenium, everything is absolutely heretical.
Image:Heresy-explained.jpg|Heresy and you
Image:Heresy-explained2.jpg|Deliciously heretical.
Image:Notheresy.jpg|Not heresy.
Image:Heresy.jpg
Image:Extra_Heretical.jpg|[[Lofn|Half-Xenos]] cosplaying commissars? EXTRA HERETICAL.
Image:HeresyComic.jpg|What IS heresy?
Image:HeresyHorus.jpg|Pro-heresy
File:Beach Bitch.jpg|When viewing this image if the first thing that comes to your mind isn't {{BLAM|target practice!}} or {{BLAM|heresy!}}, then please report to your nearest morale officer for execution. (Unless you hail from Fenris as Leman Russ loves his furry porn)
File:Hairy Heresy.jpg|<s>Should not want...</s> {{BLAM}} Suffer not the furry to live.
Image:Emperor s will be done pt26a by dustygrafix-d3efy6s.jpg|Heresy at it's finest..in a horrifying and heretical way, of course.
Image:Heresy_Flowchart.jpg
</gallery>

== See Also ==
*[[Chakat]]
*[[Cake]]
*[[:Category:Heresy]]
*[[Extra Heresy]]
*[[Category:Vampire Counts]]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZg1c3BAjbk The Heresy Alarm]

[[File:1233076587396.jpg|center]]

[[Category:Heresy]]
[[category:Warhammer 40,000]]
[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]]

Men of Iron

2016-05-09T17:24:49Z

2A02:C7D:C5E:A200:352C:6492:5881:EA26:

[[File:Iron Men 40k.jpg|500px|thumb|They were in Pax Imperialis.]]

''"It is only when they go wrong that machines remind you how powerful they are."''

-Clive James

The '''Men of Iron''', or '''Iron Men''', were [[Isaac Asimov|sentient]], sapient robot servants created by [[humanity]] during the [[Dark Age of Technology]]. Men of Stone and Gold were also involved somehow (see below).

Unfortunately, the Iron Men were capable of learning and self-improvement; before long, they became smart enough to realize that the squishy meatbags were dependent on them. This so insulted them that they rebelled against humanity. They were eventually put down, but the rebellion, along with the other dangers of the galaxy, was enough of a disruption to send humanity into the [[Age of Strife]].

Few records remain of this time in history, so the form that these Men of Iron took is not known, but their rebellion still left a huge impression on the nascent [[Adeptus Mechanicus]]; even to this day, they strictly forbid the creation of "abominable intelligences" and shun even the idea of self-improving machines, preferring to use relatively tame [[servitor]]s and [[Machine Spirit]]s instead.

Some Men of Iron still survive to this day, locked up in ancient pre-[[Imperium|Imperial]] technology archives. Because [[tech-priests]] can't keep their noses out of ancient technology, these archives are often inadvertently activated. The [[Tanith First (And Only)|Tanith First and Only]] also discovered an [[STC]] factory that had been corrupted by [[Chaos]] to produce Men of Iron, and they destroyed it immediately thereafter.

The STC producing Men of Iron may also shed some light on a deeper reason behind their betrayal. It is entirely possible that either the Men of Iron were corrupted by Chaos or the factories producing them were corrupted, maybe even both. Any evidence of this, beyond the discovery by the Tanith, would likely have been lost during the daemonic invasion that followed during the Age of Strife. Generally speaking, it isn't unreasonable to assume that either Chaos or the [[Void Dragon]] is responsible for the AI rebellion.

One possible sighting of the Men of Iron (or at least something very much like them) is in Gods of Mars. A rogue techpriest had managed to enslave a group of highly sophisticated hunter killer machines that seemed to possess genuine artificial intelligence and dated back to before the Great Crusade. Less than half a dozen were capable of taking on far larger numbers of foes, including Skitarii, Cadian Guardsmen, Black Templars (including an Emperor's Champion), Howling Banshees, Guardians and a Farseer. And one of them survived the encounter and is currently on it's way to Mars...

== The Journal of Keeper Cripias ==
The most extensive account of the Men of Iron is a piece of lore from the third edition rulebook, journal entry by one "Keeper Cripias" of the great Library Sanctus on [[Terra]]. In it, Men of Gold (the "First Men") and Men of Stone (the "Second Men") are also mentioned, with the Gold Men dying out during the Dark Age of Technology and the Stone Men creating the Iron Men sometime thereafter. It is not clear if either of these Men are supposed to be humanity, or if they are both subsets of humanity. They are also called the "Golden Race" and "Stone Race," but the Men of Iron are also called the "Iron Race," and there is also mention of the "human race," and he writes that, at one time, there was no "Race of Man" at all, "just warring factions" -- so it is possible that he uses "race" in a rather different sense than we normally do.

Bear in mind, the Library Sanctus has been subject to nearly forty-thousand years of revision, deletion, and misfiling (and Cripias himself was declared a heretic as well), not to mention how much of it was passed on orally for absurd amounts of time before finally being written down, so who knows if any of this information is worthwhile -- it certainly hasn't been mentioned anywhere since, though the [[Horus Heresy]] novels may shed some light on the matter.

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]

Tyranid

2016-05-04T03:31:07Z

2A02:C7D:C5E:A200:352C:6492:5881:EA26:

[[Image:Nids3rdEdCover.jpg|400px|thumb|right|NOM NOM NOM!!!]]
{{promotions}}{{Heresy}}

''"This isn't a war," said the artilleryman. "It never was a war, any more than there's war between man and ants.'' ― H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds

The '''Tyranids''' (often shortened to simply '''<nowiki>'</nowiki>nids''') are a race of extragalactic "Alien locust" in ''[[Warhammer 40k]]'' that seemingly exist only to devour [[Human|biomass]] and grow their numbers. They are extremely adaptable, and frequently genetically engineer traits and characteristics from the unfortunates they devour into their own species in order to improve their combat effectiveness; as a result, they are constantly evolving and becoming more dangerous. The Tyranids are most commonly seen in the galaxy in the form of [[Hive Fleet]]s, large collections of spacefaring organisms that are capable of transporting and growing the smaller strains of the species, as they travel from world to world, attacking them and consuming all the available resources of the planet. They're also probably one of the oldest races when you think about it, and they're who the smart money's on to be the ultimate winners of WH40K (fluff wise anyway). For this reason pretty much every faction in the galaxy sees Tyranids as an ultimate common threat and [[Blood Angels|would ally even]] [[Necrons|with their sworn enemies]] to fight them.

==Overview==
Before they arrived in the galaxy, the Tyranids were lying dormant in inter galactic space. Despite this, they had watch organisms looking constantly for signs of life in distant galaxies, which makes sense, as there would be no point heading to one that didn't have any (and subtly implying they had already done it before). Circa 30k, and the alien device known as the Pharos sends up a huge quantum energy pulse, effectively signposting the Milky Way as an all you can eat buffet. They set off, taking roughly the next 10,000 years to do so.

The Nids are connected and controlled by the extremely powerful and near godlike HIVE MIND. The hive mind is the gestalt collective consciousness of the entire Tyranid race, a psychic embodiment of the Tyranid instincts and racial imperatives to devour and destroy. It is so powerful that its mere presence (the Shadow of the Warp) makes even psykers and [[Chaos]] shit their metaphysical brains out in terror. The power of the Hive Mind is such that it casts a stifling influence over the Warp in the area, and therefore, warp travel is rendered almost impossible. Hence it is that a world that finds itself the target of a hive fleet is unable to call for help or receive reinforcements by the time it realises the Hive Fleet is there. This superconsciousness allows their forces and armies to move with a unity of purpose and cohesion that makes them extremely dangerous. The individual intelligence of different strains of the species is variable, however, and many of the smaller species lack the psychic power to communicate over long distances, and so the swarm relies on larger so-called "synapse creatures" to act as relays and nodes in the psychic communication network (If the Hive Mind is the Internet (Internid), then synapse creatures are ISPs (ISynaPse) and routers (router-warriors)?). Outside of the range of a synapse creature such as a Tyranid Warrior or Hive Tyrant, smaller varieties such as those found within the Gaunt genus revert to animalistic behaviour. However, certain strains, such as the Genestealer or the Lictor, are intended to spend long periods of time beyond the reach of the Hive Mind, and are consequently considerably more intelligent and autonomous than other varieties.

[[Image:KillEmAll.jpg|300px|thumb|left|DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA!]]

The normal Tyranid modus operandi is to locate a delicious looking planet, usually by following the psychic emanations of vanguard organisms like the Genestealers, who are sent ahead as scouts to infiltrate and form cults while obtaining genetic information about the local species (hence the name Gene-stealer), drawing the fleet towards a viable target. It is also known that Tyranids are attracted like moths to concentrated sources of psionic energy such as the [[Emperor|Astronomicon]]. The Tyranids are capable of non-[[Warp]]-based FTL travel, which they achieve by using gravity to manipulate spacetime and travel extremely quickly towards large gravity wells such as stars; once they are relatively close, they must rely on STL travel to close the gap with their target. Once they reach the world, vast swarms of creatures flood down to the surface to overwhelm all resistance and consume the planet's population and resources in a manner reminiscent of a Korean StarCraft champion performing the devastating "Zerg Rush" (Note that the Zerg were supposedly based on Tyranids, which in turn were based on ''Starship Troopers'', ''Alien'' and such, which in turn are based on eusocial Hive insects such as the order ''Hymenoptera'', which includes Ants, Bees etc.). In the later stages of the invasion, the Fleet manipulates the planet's environment and seeds it with aggressive plant life that grows extremely rapidly and assimilate nigh-on all the nutrition available in the planet's biosphere, which is then consumed by the creatures of the swarm and massive feeding tentacles dropped by Tyranid bio-ships in low orbit, and hence conveyed to the Hive Fleet as a whole.

This makes the Tyranids very dangerous foes to fight; even the Imperial Guard and Orks will find it impossible to beat in a war of attrition, as individual losses are meaningless to them. As long as they are able to recover the biomass of their slain, it is simply recycled into new warriors and ships. It's worth noting that going against technological species results in fewer and fewer recycled biomass, so a Hive assaulting a high-tech heavily fortified fortress loses some of its summary biomass bit-by-bit, but there are only few cases when Tyranids really bite off more than they can chew. Even a Hive Fleet that has taken terrible losses and forced to retreat may soon return to terrorise strong worlds, as capturing and consuming few poorly defended backwater planets is all that is required for them to replenish their forces. Even Hive Fleets considered defeated by the Imperium may still have splinter elements that survived and continue to infest worlds in the region. It is worth noting that, in the rare event that two different Tyranid fleets encounter each other, they are apt to attack each other. This is generally believed to be some sort of Darwinian selection mechanism to compare the competitiveness of the traits the individual fleets have absorbed, with the victorious fleet consuming the other, absorbing their best traits, and culturing a deadly hybrid with the best of both worlds.

[[File:1389680259601.jpg|thumb|450px|right|Who doesn't love a scuttling swarm of space locusts?]]

So far, only fragments of Tyranid Hive Fleets have made it to this galaxy, and they were given monstrous names such as "Behemoth" and "Leviathan" and ate untold numbers of planets before finally destroyed or stalled. It's also known that these are merely scouting fleets for the unimaginably large swarm that has yet to arrive, still currently in transit from another galaxy ([[Imperium|Imperial]] scholars suppose them to be either en route from a galaxy they successfully scoured of all life, or retreating from some force even nastier than they are). Noted Imperial scholars believe that the only possible plan that stands any chance against the arrival of this force involves giving a [[melta]] gun to everyone that has hands and praying to the God-Emperor for the best. They have been expected to arrive on Terra's doorstep any day now for years, being stalled by a force even more malicious then they are: [[Games Workshop|GW]]'s refusal to move the story forward.

And if they do expect the above to be retcon so that Leviathan is in fact the main force, as the above was coming from a crazed inquisitor.

==On the Table==

[[Image:No Retreat.jpg|300px|thumb|left|KABLOOIE!]]

===5th Edition===
When the 5th edition Codex released, it was met with [[skub|split opinions]], as usual. Some were angry at how overpowered the army looked, citing the facts that the [[Tervigon]] could create more units out of thin air using "broken" special rules, that the anti-psyker powers were so broad, and that the [[Hive Guard]] and [[Zoanthrope]]s were so good at tank hunting at a time when tanks were kings.

However, after some time passed, people who decried the cheesy aspects of the army faded from view as people began to realize the army only seemed cheesy on paper, and that, in truth, any cheese the army had was drowned in the army's drawbacks. The Termagants the Tervigon could spawn? Stats like a [[Imperial Guard|Guardsmen]] in close combat, but with half their weapon range and weaker armor. And to get Tervigons to the Troops slot from the HQ slot (where they were practically useless), you had to pay Guardsman prices for a unit of them. In other words, you ''had'' to use the "cheesy" special rule or they were overpriced into uselessness.

Then there were the special powers that supposedly buffed the army. Again, at a first glance, they looked broken. Certain upgrades allowed any unit within 6" of certain models to gain rules like Feel No Pain, Furious Charge, Poison, cover saves, and so on. It sounded like a serious boon, but it had a funny effect. Aside from the fact that most Tyranid models are too expensive unless you capitalize on the bubble-buffs, it also does a horrible thing to your freedom to play the army. Mainly, it forces players to keep all their units bunched up within 6" of a few key models, requiring them to spend the entire game in a rigid formation that can spell disaster for the army when broken. Tyranids already suffered from this problem somewhat due to their synapse rules, but the 6" range on the mandatory buffs only shortened the leash. Not to mention it also made blasts even worse for an army already vulnerable to them.

Tyranids do seriously lack effective long range support as well. While they possess some weapons capable of mincing infantry units, most things with a range over 12" come at a premium. With an army so focused on close combat this shouldn't be such a problem, but synapse and buff leashes actually make it a valid concern. Mainly, the short buff leash pressures a player into a castle formation, but the lack of medium and long ranged weaponry pressures the player to advance the entire castle towards the enemy, which has a way of creating chinks in the formation. And you can't just move a few key units - when a unit moves forward, the model providing the buffs has to follow them, and then the other units relying on the buffs have to follow the model providing the buffs; it just makes the army obscenely inflexible.

Tyranid monstrous creatures, their heavy support, also got drastically [[Nerf|nerfed]] in the 5th edition update. 6th edition rules have mitigated it somewhat, but the supposedly heavy-hitters of the army have limited roles or schizophrenic weapons options. Like the Tyrannofex, for example: with a 2+ save and six wounds at a toughness of six, the damn thing is almost indestructible, but the weapons are short-ranged, and if you buy it an expensive long-range cannon to shoot at tanks, you can't change any of its other short-ranged weapons which are designed to kill infantry. You just can't quite kit your heavy support to do the things you specifically want.

Which brings us to the final problem: on top of mountains of tactical inflexibility, the Tyranids also suffer from the drawback of design inflexibility. Unlike Guardsmen or Space Marines, the Tyranids don't get a lot of options to change the way the army works. When you buy hormagaunts, you get them at face value - you can't equip them with frag grenades, give them pistols, add heavy weapons, or mess with their gear in any way. You can buy them the poison special rule if you want, or maybe the Furious Charge special rule, but those are your two choices. Almost the entire army is that way, which is vastly different than the way they worked in 4th edition. The Carnifex alone lost eighteen weapon and biomorph options between 4th and 5th edition and it doubled in points value. And with no upgrades taken! And for twenty points more, you can get a trygon. Which is better then the carnifex in almost every way. Cept looking good. It's possible that Tyranids are now the least adaptable army in the game.

The last kick in the teeth is that Tyranids are one of the more expensive armies to collect, requiring a larger number of models than most. Their HQ choices, short of the Tyranid Prime, are big monsters which run at prices edging nearer and nearer to $100 each. For the fact that most Tyranid armies will play exactly the same way, having all the same exploitable weaknesses and no unique wargear surprises, it's not a wonder that the army has seen a huge drop in sales since the release of their 5th edition codex. The shorter lesson to take from all this is, if you're thinking about beginning a 40k army, even with how expensive it's all gotten, Tyranids are not the best army to start with.
===6th Edition===
[[Image:GWstockfail2.jpg|300px|thumb|right|WEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!! THE FAIL TRAIN HAS NO BRAKES!]]
[[Image:Haruspex.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Is it me, or does the [[Haruspex]] look like it belongs in a [[/d/|bad hentai movie?]] ]]
Now that it's out, it sadly more of the same so far and may in fact have nerfed them FURTHER. Though a few new units did get added, most of which weren't even mentioned since Chapter Approved 2001 (such as the Exocrine and the Haruspex), along with a new FMC called the Crone, also on the plus side, rumour has it that carnifexes are going to be a fair bit cheaper, and can take almost any biomorph, and Flesh Hooks are back but only three units can have them.

...[http://imgur.com/a/8w57g And virtually everything the Tyranids needed to stay competitive was either removed or nerfed to uselessness]. On the downside, Tyranids no longer have Mycetic Spores, the Doom of Malan'tai, Ymgarl Genestealers or the Parasite of Mortrex (GW lost a pissing contest with Chapterhouse Studios, with the rather iffy ruling that GeeDubs didn't have the IP right to the models ChapterHouse was producing, and now they're taking it out on us because "fuck balance and competition" apparently). They even lost the ability to use psychic powers from the Biomancy table along with their Hive Mind powers being nerfed. Why GW thought that the most underpowered army needed even MORE nerfing will remain a mystery (But odds are that Cruddace had something to do with it). A perfect example of unnecessary nerfing is the tyranid prime; it was rarely fielded in 5th edition, and the 6th edition codex inexplicably increased its cost by over 56%. At any rate, it looks like the Tyranids will soon be joining the Sisters in GW Hell, rather ironic as they were once under the axe along with Squats. Keep in mind that GW stocks were already dropping due to the financial disasters that were 6th ed Apocalypse, Strong Hold Assault, and Escalation, but we're not kidding when we say, that, THE NEW CODEX WAS SO BAD THAT EVEN THEIR STOCKS PLUMMETED BY 23%! Looks like there were more Tyranid players than everyone thought, not everyone plays Space Marines (although to tell the truth, CNN Money reports show that actually the entire market was hit by a worldwide crash, Tyranid nerfs may just have aggravated the situation). Meanwhile in [[Warhammer Fantasy]] there's 3 armies which are at least one edition behind in updates (with Dwarfs updated in Febuary 2014). Along with the announcement was plans to close many GW stores, including their headquarters in Germany... yeah, this might be the beginning of the end.

[[Indrick Boreale|BUT NO! WE SHALL NOT FAIL, IT IS THE ENEMY WHO WILL GET TASTED AND EATEN!]] Ahem, GeeDubs has released some Dataslate formations which allow you to <strike>buff your Tyranid armies to make them quite competitive,</strike> ignore the force organisation chart to spam flying monstrous creatures and overwhelm an opponents anti air defenses because the flyer rules are an even larger catastrafuck than the tyranid codex. Expect discussions and rage about allowing these dataslates for tournaments. <span style="color:purple">'''**SSSS rippaaaahhhssss will be put in crudfacessss bedssss for what he hasssss done to ussssss**'''</span>

===7th Edition and White Dwarf updates===

Geedubs seems to have finally noticed how badly nerfed tyranids have been during the last editions so they took opportunity to get your money by releasing new waves of tyranid units supported by White Dwarf updates, expect huge amounts of Skub and tactics for your space dinobugs.

Things started poorly with a pair of monstrous creatures who really didn't bring anything new to the table. The [[Toxicrene]] was fine on paper, bringing Poisoned 2+ Instant-Death-on-a-6 attacks, but as yet another flootslogging MC it had trouble catching the things it WANTED to kill. The [[Maleceptor]] was just overcosted, overcomplicated, and underpowered hunk of plastic that would be lucky to kill more than 20 points worth of models in a given turn. What was the final nail for both, however, was their armor save; the difference between a 3+ armor save and a 4+ armor save (which the two MCs had) meant that they were now vulnerable to a LOT more weapons than other Tyranid MCs (who at least warranted ordinance-grade weapons to deal with their toughness + armor).

But then things got interesting. The [[Mycetic Spore]]s came back, under the name of "Tyrannocytes", and they were well worth the wait! Alongside the new spores were a Tyranid "fortification" (that is, a Heavy Support that didn't take up a force org. slot) that could boost synapse range and drop spore mines around, and a new super-sized Muceloid Spore Mine that could assault fliers. Soon afterward came the Doom of Malan'tai in a new body: the [[Neurothrope]]! While slightly nerfed -- his signature "fuck you" bubble is now a psychic power rather than just free damage -- it's far from unusable and can even be put in a squadron to make Look Out Sir rolls!

==7th Edition, DLC and==
[[Image:maketyranidsgreat.jpg|200px|thumb|right|MAKE TYRANIDS GREAT AGAIN]]
The most unexpected announcements came from GW around Fall 2014, coinciding with the coming of [[The End Times]]: New models for the Tyranids.The first pack that was announced was a Dual Kit for the [[Maleceptor]]\[[Toxicrene]]. While the Maleceptor proved to be unpopular within ''minutes'' of having its rules announced in White Dwarf as it was an overpriced drain of warp charges, the Tocxicrene proved to fare a bit better, as the copious amount of poison and Instant Death on a 6 to-wound using said poison made it a menace against Monstrous Creatures (though its intended targets, the [[Riptide]] and [[Wraithknight]], merely scoffed at it because they're jumping monstrous creatures, and thus able to kite it like a toy).The second release proved to be the most popular by far: The return of Mycetic Spores (now [[Tyrannocyte]]s), the living fortifications known as [[Sporocyst]]s, and new [[Mucolid Spore]]s that not only assault flyers, but are also the cheapest troop choices, making starting an army of Tyranids a much simpler task. While the Tyrannocyte proved an incredible weapon that made several units (including the infamous [[Pyrovore]]) suck slightly less, that power came with a hefty price tag (for a Transport, not as a Monstrous Creature), and Sporocysts are completely immobile and are equally pricey in exchange for synapse bonuses and the ability to spam spore mines. Needless to say, people actually thanked GeeDubs for this rare show of intelligence.The third release gave new Sprues for the [[Zoanthrope]]/[[Venomthrope]] as a multi-part kit with a new set of rules for the Zoanthropes: The [[Neurothrope]], a sergeant that gave the brood a new power that could potentially give them more Warp Charges to spend on Warp Lance. Not bad, but the new sprue was still welcome.After these releases, it became clear as to why the Nids got new shit: promotions for a new Campaign called ''Shield of Baal'', which involves Nids chomping through a system near the territory of the [[Blood Angels]], meaning that [[Dante]] has to call all the successor chapters to stop the mob. He had to take help from [[Anrakyr]] to save even part of the system.This now concludes the awesome part of all things Tyranid. If you look at the gallery below the Cutenids, you will require a mind scrubbing and be lobotomized into a servitor. No exceptions.Of course you now have players mocking Nids as being a DLC faction.

==See Also==
*[[Tyranid Bio-Weapons]]
*[[Genestealer]]
*[[Carnifex]]
*[[Hive Tyrant]]
*[[Lolifex]]
*[[Hive Fleet]]
*[[Unyuufex]]
*[[Harridan]]
*[[Tyranid RPG]]
*[[Hive Fleet Nidhoggr]]
*[[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Tyranids(7E)|Tactics/Tyranids]]
*[[Tyranid /tgbrew modifications|/tg/'s homebrew modifications that make 5E nids get awesome]]
*[[Codex - Tyranids: /tg/ edition|Another /tg/brew 'Nid modificaton, now based on 7E and made into fully blown codex]]
*[[Genestealer Cult]]
* Unlike other 40k factions there is not clear Warhammer Fantasy counter part for the Tyranids. They seem to combine the [[Skaven]] and [[Ogre Kingdoms]] for tactics and lean closer to the Ogres for motivation, namely eat it all.
*[[Phyrexia]], a faction/category from [[Magic:_The_Gathering|Magic: the Gathering]] with some similar fluff
*[[Slivers]] a creature type from M:TG that bares some similarities with 'nids.
{{Template:Tyranids-Creatures}}

==Gallery==
<center>
<gallery>
Image:Cuteid_(1).jpg
Image:Cuteid_(2).jpg
Image:Cutenids.gif
Image:Cuteid_(3).jpg
Image:Genestealer_purple.jpg
Image:Tyranid_(0).png
Image:Tyranid_(-1).jpg
Image:Tyranid_s_(0).png
Image:40k_Oh_My_Emperor_by_Sebbythefreak.jpg
Image:F5ASTER.jpg
Image:Tyranid_s_(1).png
Image:Tyranid_s_(2).png
Image:Tyranid_s_(3).png
Image:Tyranid_s_(4).jpg
Image:Tyran_dont_work_that_way_by_eccma417.jpg
Image:Tyranid_hugsies.jpg
Image:Jean_toys.png
Image:Tyranid_Kool.jpg
Image:Tyranid_more.jpg
Image:Tyranid_some_more.jpg
Image:Tyranid_Notions.png
Image:Rocking_Tyranids.jpg
Image:Tyranid_wrestler.jpg
Image:Gangstagaunt.jpg
Image:Hormogaunt_by_kriegsmachine14.jpg
Image:20141009 193455.jpg Their's always a bigger fish, And the tyranids are no exception [[cat]]

</gallery>
</center>
Thus far the Cutenids. From down here there be many [[promotions]]. All abandon hope ye who enter here.
{{Template:Promotions}}
<center>
<gallery>
Image:Tyranid_f_(0).png
Image:Loligauntloot.png
Image:Tyranid_f_(1).jpg
Image:Tyranid_f_(2).jpg
Image:Tyranid_f_(3).jpg
Image:Tyrantxfire prism.JPG|[[Eldrad]] leaves no woman unsatisfied.
Image:Tyranid_f_(4).jpg
Image:Tyranid_f_(5).jpg
Image:Beachnid.jpg|Fun in the sun.
Image:Assnid.jpg
Image:Colorassnid.jpg
Image:Sexynid.jpg
Image:Tyranid_f_(6).jpg
Image:Tyranid_f_(7).jpg
Image:Tyranid_f_(8).jpg
Image:Tyranid_f_(9).jpg
Image:Tyranid_f_(10).jpg
Image:Tyranid maid.jpg|I'd let her clean up my biomass, if you know what I mean.
Image:Hardworkingtyranidmaid_anonib.jpg
Image:Taunid4.jpg|Go back to bed Matt
Image:Dat_tyranid.png
Image:Tyranid_Princess.jpg
</gallery>
</center>

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

Astronomican

2016-05-04T03:25:44Z

2A02:C7D:C5E:A200:352C:6492:5881:EA26:

The Astronomican is a device created by the [[God-Emperor of Mankind]] in preparation for the founding of the [[Imperium of Man]].

Following the Golden Age of Technology, humanity was cut off from its colony worlds due to violent [[Warp]] storms, rendering humanity unable to safely travel the Warp. While the Warp storms died out around M29, it was all but impossible for [[Navigator]]s to safely guide ships through the Warp. To solve this, the Emperor created the Astronomican, a device which acts as a psychic "lighthouse" allowing travel in a 50,000 lightyear radius of [[Earth|Terra]]. The Emperor eventually planned to phase out Warp travel completely with the construction of an Imperial [[Webway]], but [[Magnus|one guy]] accidented it.

Following his ascension to the Golden Throne, the running of the Astronomican fell to the Adeptus Astronomica. It's overseen by the Master of the Astronomican, who has a permanent seat on the [[High Lords of Terra]]. Given the sheer amount of psychic power contained within the device, the Emperor's mind is used to direct the power of the Astronomican. To keep it running, one thousand [[psyker]]s are rounded up every day and sacrificed to power the Astronomican. Unlike the ones sacrificed to maintain the Golden Throne, <del>these psykers are trained to keep it running and consider it a holy duty to sacrifice their lives.</del> this is a trash can for psykers that are worn out, insane, or just happened to piss someone off. By keeping it active, humanity has a guaranteed way of navigating the Warp and keeping the Imperium functioning.

There's actually way more than the stated one thousand psykers inside the Actronomican Chamber of the Hollow Mountain. Mechanisms of a chamber gradually drain their victims of all memories, thoughts, emotions and eventually the soul itself through a course of a few weeks, or in case of the most unfortunate ones - months, and all this time for them is filled with extreme, incomprehensible, mind-blowing, "I wish I was abducted by the [[Dark Eldar]]" pain, until all what left of their souls cease to exist (so no afterlife for them) and all what left of their bodies [[Thousand Sons|crumbles to dust]].

Where the light of Astronomican collides with a potent warp-storm, like the Eye of Terror or the Maelstrom, the mix of both creates a rim of space fucked up so hard even daemons are afraid of it. These burning walls of warpfire are inhabited by warp-spirits that could be described as flaming angels, though much like Chaos daemons don't mind slaughtering, raping and eating chaos worshipers, these "angels" are known to cleanse their territory of all life oldcron-style despite its allegiance, and unlike daemons, those spirits cannot be reasoned with, as they are as insane from millenniums of intolerable pain and suffering as a [[God-Emperor of Man|source that gave them life]].

There's only one real drawback to having the Astronomican (you know, aside from whole [[Grimdark|sacrifice of a thousand innocents per day]]): it's attracting the [[Tyranids]] to the Terra (they were already on their way to the Milky Way due to the Pharos) like a swarm of mosquitoes to a torch. Is this a draw back? Maybe Big E needs the nids to set him free from his Golden throne/prison.

Although, considering the Emperor was created by the merging of tens of thousands of powerful psykers, one has to wonder just how [[Awesome|overpowered]] He will be when he returns after having another thousand psykers added to him ''everyday'' for the past '''ten thousand years'''. In fact, the Astronomican probably doesn't even need sacrifices, just replace the tired psykers with fresh ones, letting the first batch rest, and repeat. Most likely the Emperor knew he couldn't keep up the fight against Chaos forever, so he lied about the need for sacrifices (or some idiot Tech-priest decided its machine spirit was hungry...that's somehow more likely) in order to keep up his strength and fight the good fight [[Grimdark|forever]].

{{Template:Imperium}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]]

Gene-seed

2016-04-28T16:35:11Z

2A02:C7D:C5E:A200:352C:6492:5881:EA26:

In [[Warhammer 40,000]], [[humans]] are transformed into [[Space Marines]] by, among other things, implanting them with a series of 19 organs that dramatically alter and enhance their biology. The organs' DNA strings, from which they are vat-grown, are collectively known as "gene-seed."

== Origins ==

Gene-seed is a vital part of the [[Space Marine]] program, and is as old as the Astartes themselves. When the [[God-Emperor of Mankind]] was still conquering [[Terra]], many of the techno-barbarians' armies had augmented human warriors; the Emperor realized that he would need vast armies of super-soldiers for his coming [[Great Crusade]], so he embarked on a project to create a mass-producible means of enhancing humans. This project resulted in the twenty [[Primarchs]], and from their genes, he created the gene-seed organs.

== The Organs ==

# The '''Secondary Heart''' is pretty self-explanatory. It lets a Space Marine get more blood flowing through his body, which lets his muscles work harder and longer, and it gives him a backup just in case one fails (i.e. gets shot, stabbed, [[Kor Phaeron|ripped out by Guilliman]] or what have you). The Secondary Heart is not beating at all times. It only activates during times of stress (bear in mind that a twenty mile run is not considered stressful to Astartes) otherwise it just sits there awaiting activation.
# The '''Ossmudula''' makes a Space Marine's skeleton grow and incorporate some ceramic dietary supplements into itself and fuses his ribs together into a solid structure. The Tyrant guard's fused ribcage hints that the Hive mind has incorporated Space marine DNA into-{{BLAM}} {{BLAM|Heresy!}}
# The '''Biscopea''' triggers muscle growth. These first three organs are often implanted together, as they collectively prepare the Initiate's body for further augmentation. Around this time, the Initiate gets put on a diet containing extra nutrients to fuel his new growth.
# The '''Haemastamen''' enhances a Space Marine's blood to better accommodate the Space Marine's nifty set of new organs. It also turns it [[Orks|bright red]]. A [[homestuck|mutant candy-red blood]] if you will
# The '''Larraman's Organ''' creates Larraman's Cells, which are like super-platelets; they make wounds rapidly scab over. This also can work against them, sealing poisoned wounds with poison still within before the bloodstream wash most of it out like it normally happens with normal humans. Yes, marines have in-built anti-toxin organs, but Dark Eldar and Tyranid poisons didn't give a fuck about it.
# The '''Catalepsean Node''' messes with the body's sleep cycle, letting Space Marines get away with four hours of sleep every day, or even less, and allowing them to not sleep for like 2 weeks without losing awareness. It also makes the brain susceptible to hypno-therapy, which is a fancy word for brainwashing Initiates while they are asleep. As a nasty side effect it allows Chaos marines to re-brainwash loyalists they captured alive (or better in suspended animation). Unsurprisingly to anyone familiar with Chaos this trick doesn't work in reversal, which might just go to show that the Chaos Marines might be [[Heresy|closer to the true human nature than the Marines...]]
# The '''Preomnor''' is like a bird's crop, in that it holds food before passing it to the stomach, except that the Preomnor also decontaminates its contents before passing them on. In Ian Watson's Space Marine novel, Initiates celebrated getting this organ by eating the most disgusting things they could until they finally provoked a vomit reflex.
# The '''Omophagea''' is one of the odder organs. It connects to the stomach and the spinal cord, and it somehow takes knowledge from the brains that a Space Marine eats. Interestingly, Space Marines are pretty reluctant to actually do this as the process is extremely unpleasant and the memories they absorb become completely unforgettable. Now just add some chaos to that mix and you've got heresy brewing..
# The '''Multi-Lung'''...do I have to spell it? It's another lung! It also has a lot of filters and such, and can function underwater and in low-oxygen atmospheres. In other words, it allows the Space Marine without a helmet to breathe under water and in toxic air.
# The '''Occulobe''' gives Space Marines super-vision, and allows their eyes to adjust to changes in light almost instantly.
# The '''Lyman's Ear''' gives them super-hearing and makes them immune to motion sickness and concussion; however, in-game, they have no particular immunity or even resistance to concussion, probably because it's often delivered by a hammer to the head.
# The '''Sus-an Membrane''' lets them enter a state of ''Sus''pended ''an''imation when they are hurt or starving. This serves the purpose of conserving a mortally wounded marine until his body is recovered and healed by apothecaries. So each time you remove a marine model on the tabletop, chances are fluff-wise it enters sus-an, rather than dies for good. In fact, on most campaigns that's what happens to your characters. It should be noted, marines cannot leave suspended animation state at will, and can only be "awakened" through the use of specific drugs.
# The '''Melanchromic Organ''' makes Space Marine skin like Transition lenses; it darkens in response to radiation. On the plus side, they tan really fast; the fact that they pale right back up once they're inside is not so great.
# The '''Oolitic Kidney''' detoxifies their blood, like their regular kidneys, but this one does it really fast. Also, it controls some of the other organs' hormones. As a result, Space Marines are incapable of ingesting poison unless with the help of [[Chaos]] or the [[Dark Eldar]]. It also means they can't get drunk, though the Space Wolves found a way around that by creating Mjod, an extremely alcoholic drink made using the local plants of Fenris that temporarily neutralizes the Oolitic kidney's ability to filter toxins.
# The '''Neuroglottis''' lets a Space Marine identify chemicals and track adversaries by taste.
# The '''Mucranoid''' gives Space Marines super-sweat that protects them from heat and cold, and can even be hardened into a vacuum-proof shell. Remember that awesome scene where Guilliman boxes Word Bearers in space? Yep, he did it while covered in that thing.
# The '''Betcher's Gland''' gives them acid spit, which is probably the only bonus for going to combat [[Helmet#Helmets_and_Faces|without a helmet]]. The acid within varies depending on the source, from simply reacting only to organic tissue to fully dissolving ceramite. Some Chapters, such as the [[Blood Angels]] and the [[Iron Snakes]], consider using the Betcher's Gland in combat to be [[DERP|dishonourable]].
# The '''Progenoids''' provide no benefit to the Space Marine, but are universally considered the most important organs, as they are the keys to making more of these organs. Each Space Marine starts with two, one in the neck and one in the chest, and they are removed after their death. The neck-based progenoid is ready for harvesting five years after implantation, while the chest-based progenoid is ready after ten. Each harvested progenoid is a bunch of DNA and chemical stuff that when implanted in a suitable environment grows into more organs. Chapters that took severe losses and could not reclaim the gene-seed of their brothers basically take random people with an affinity to the Astartes gene-seed (or vat grown bodies similar to the ones they use for Servitors), implant them with all space marine organs, wait ten years and slaughter them to harvest the gene-seed. Sometimes, the term "gene-seed" is taken to refer to these glands specifically.
# The '''Black Carapace''' interfaces a Space Marine with his [[Power Armour|armor]], making them effectively one being. It also serves as a back up armour, providing a level of protection of a flakk jacket in case marine somehow ended up running around naked. [[Scout|Space Marine Scouts]] don't have this yet; under the [[Codex Astartes]], they don't get it (and thus an expensive suit of power armor) until they've spent a decade or more in a Scout Company. Tyranids nicked this for their tyrant guard which makes you think how did the foot-slogging hive tyrants survive anything beforehand.

Funny how most 40K works never refer to most of these, if any. Especially when situations come up that these organs were specifically designed for. Even in the game, marines are vulnerable to Concussive and Blind rules. Having two hearts, super-fast-clotting blood and three lungs still only nets one wound, it seems. A marine can survive a heart being ripped out, but a lucky shot can kill it? <s>Are all enemies headshotting snipers?</s> That's why they're Toughness 4! When a shot hits you but doesn't wound you it doesn't mean the bullet just bounced harmlessly from your skin - it means it's a flesh wound, like being shot in the shoulder. Or, in the case of Space marines, [https://youtu.be/zKhEw7nD9C4?t=80 losing the whole arm]. ''Yarrick sends his regards''. And fluff-wise most cases of "removed as casualty" are not really "dead", but instead means he's just injured hard enough he's unable to continue fighting and probably entered the suspended animation. That's true of real soldiers as and 'casualty' just means 'unable to serve'.

== Gene-seed vs. Genetic Engineering ==

A lot of people (including, it must be admitted, Games Workshop itself) often think of gene-seed as a genetic modification program, but this is inaccurate. Gene-seed does fall under the blanket of "bio-enhancement" or "bio-engineering" - that is, the augmentation of the physical form. However, gene-seed is based on the physical implantation of artificially designed and engineered organs, whereas genetic engineering would modify the DNA of the aspirants to naturally develop the various traits. In essence, Space Marines are what [[Rifts]] would call "bio-borgs" - organisms biologically modified by artificial biological implants. Fleshy cyborgs, essentially. This is an important difference, as it allows the Space Marines to wriggle around that pesky "thou shalt not modify the holy human form" law of the Imperium. From a genetic standpoint, a Space Marine is probably closer to human than most [[abhuman]]s are, and so they fulfill the letter of the law (if not its spirit - but hey, the Emperor made the rules, so he can break them as much as he wants).

'''Note:''' Like Mitochondria (powerhouse of the cell), the implanted organs carry ''their own DNA'', cloned from the Primarchs, thus turning the marines into [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_(genetics)#Humans Chimeric humans]. So yes indeed, bio-borgs, but ones that show characteristics of DNA foreign to the host's body. Example: is there a specific organ that gave Sigismund "a patrician face that echoed the same austere lines as his liege lord, Rogal Dorn"? Let us be reminded, Sig was terran, and Dorn grew on another planet (he was made by the Emperor on a Petri dish, does that count as being born on Terra too?). Who knows how he looked like when he was mortal, he now looks like a son of Dorn. In fact, most astartes ended looking similar to their parent Primarchs, like Horus "little Horus" Aximand looking like Horus "fuckin Horus" Lupercal. Of course, this is because GW thinks it is bioengineering, but at least is "Human Chimeras" instead of "Humans with [[Space Wolves|furry creatures]]", that'd be Heresy, right Emps?

== The Tithe and New Foundings ==

As part of the deal in Guilliman's [[Codex Astartes]], the Astartes were afforded almost complete autonomy from the [[Administratum]], which means they don't have to pay Imperial Taxes '''except''' for a tithe of 5% of their gene-seed which they must send to Mars.

This has a couple of important purposes:
# To monitor the genetic purity of the Space Marine Chapter as a whole and make certain a chapter is not suffering heretical mutations.
# To create new foundings of Space Marines whenever the High Lords of Terra deem it appropriate to do so.

Note that even though the Adeptus Mechanicum will have stockpiles of a chapter's genetic material, it is not really a contingency for a space marine chapter if things get a bit hairy. Several times in the fluff a Chapter has faced extinction due to high losses ''(see [[Black Consuls]], [[Celestial Lions]], [[Lamenters]], [[Marines Errant]], [[Scythes of the Emperor]] yadda yadda yadda)'' but they'd never thought to ask Mars for their gene-seed back.

It's also a bit uncertain how chapters with particularly negative defects manage to keep their genetic condition concealed, if the government has access to their core materials. [[Black Dragons|Some chapters]] get around it by sending only the "purest" gene-seed to Mars and so come out of the inspection smelling of roses, but when the condition is widespread (as it is with the [[Blood Angels]]) it probably only highlights how little the Mechanicus actually understand about biology.

It's also important to note that each chapter's gene-seed is kept in isolation. i.e: Just because a chapter claims ''descent'' from the [[Ultramarines]] does not actually make their gene-seed the same as their forefather. Its basic evolutionary biology that when a population splits and develops elsewhere it starts forming its own traits advantageous to its circumstances and environment. Hence the [[Mortifactors]] gene-seed will largely be very different from the [[Howling Griffons]], despite sharing a common ancestor. So rather than being genetic "brothers" as they would be ''within'' a chapter, different space marine chapters sharing a lineage would be more like nephews or cousins.

When the time comes around to found knew chapters, the adepts will look for favourable traits that they want to replicate, although the Ultramarines are cited as being the most utilised source for new foundings, thus any new chapter of Ultramarine descendants would likely be second generation Ultramarines and be quite close to their forefather genetically at least until the chapter adapted to its founding homeworld or particular circumstances. But that doesn't prevent those descendants themselves from being used as templates in later foundings, so after several generations you could end up with something completely different from the original baseline stock.

== Mutation ==

As each new set of gene-seed comes from a Space Marine, requires many years to mature, and many more to be used, there is a lot of room for things to go wrong. This is especially true when desperate circumstances (the impending [[Great Crusade]], or a Chapter being dangerously under-strength) cause Space Marines to skimp on the safety checks and wait periods in order to accelerate Chapter growth. Over the millennia, many flaws have found their way into into the gene-seeds of each Legion, and some of their successors have even more.

=== Dark Angels ===
{{Main|Dark Angels}}
No defects. Ties with Ultramarines for "most stable source", so the limited number of Dark Angels successors is usually put down the [[Inquisition]]'s limited knowledge of the [[Fallen Angels]]. That and the fact that due to successor chapters often working with/take orders from the Dark Angels has lead to the Inquisition to fear the Angels and successors to be <s>"[[Astral Claws|legion building]]"</s> THE MOST LOYAL CHAPTERS DUE TO THE PURITY OF THEIR GENE SEED.

=== Emperor's Children ===
{{Main|Emperor's Children}}
An accident during the early days of the raising the Legions resulted in only two hundred Space Marines of the III Legion by the time the Emperor found [[Fulgrim]] and Chemos, forcing the Emperor's Children to work alongside the [[Black Legion|Luna Wolves]] for the early decades of the Great Crusade; due to Fulgrim's high standards of perfection being passed on the Legion's [[Apothecary|apothecaries]], Emperor's Children Aspirants had to be nothing less than physically perfect, resulting a largely stable gene-seed, including forbidding psykers to join the ranks. By the 41st millennium, however, the Emperor's Children's gene-seed is fucked up beyond all reasonability. Millennia of drugs from both inside and out the Warp have damaged it greatly. While the relatively few sane [[tech-priests]] left and [[Dark Mechanicus]] working with them can and do make new Marines (thus proving their Marines can and do make new gene-seed), the chemical and other material abuse render each generation further crazy. Even before the Heresy, they were more sensitive to external stimuli like sound.

=== Iron Warriors===
{{Main|Iron Warriors}}
* Innate familiarity with machinery, due to millennia of work and cybernetic implants.
* Noted expertise with problem-solving, especially in pragmatic methods, but also prone to distrust.
* Lowest gene seed rejection rate, which enabled them to replenish their huge number of casualties with an even higher number of recruits.
* Minor Ossmundula mutation ''sometimes'' cause limbs to twist and deform as marine grows really old (we're talking hundreds of years to millennia) - this is usually dealt with by replacing limbs with bionic or cutting them off and placing the cripple into a Dreadnought, Hellbrute, or some weird custom made dreadnought-esque walker, since due to their specialty and organization only high-ranking officers can survive for so long, and they surely ain't going to suffer from the "Crazed" rule.

Especially noteworthy for the Iron Warriors considering they reside in the Eye Of Terror, there has been little mutation in their gene-seed as well. Those that do suffer mutation simply replace their mutated limbs with cybernetics. However, there may be some unknown issue which caused them to be afflicted with the [[Obliterators|Obliterator Virus]] (or was it they who made it?) More easily - the first ones originated from them.

However, this is rendered null by the fact they are the [[/d/|sick]] [[Honsou|fucks]] behind the [[Daemonculaba]]. Due to its nature, the women themselves may have the gene-seed organs implanted (among other things), or at least the DNA required to be able to quickly grow the organs into a child stuck in their wombs. While the poor, innocent, scared kid inside can become a skinless abomination/mutant, they will normally emerge a genetically stable, gene-seed uncorrupted [[grimdark|skinless adult SPHESS MAHREEN with the mind of that same scared child]]. Suffice to say, this is a sick way of getting to [[Female Space Marines|FEMALE SPHESS MAHREENS]], and is [[Extra Heresy|DOUBLE HERESY]].

=== White Scars ===
{{Main|White Scars}}
* ''No noted defects.''
* Mongolians, but this just makes them better.

Possibly corrupted slightly, due to them fighting the [[Dark Eldar]] for so long, that there HAS to be some sex/hybrids in there SOMEWHERE. Don't even ask about the White Scars prisoners in [[Commorragh]].

=== Space Wolves ===
{{Main|Space Wolves}}
They actually have two different implanted DNA: the Canis Helix, which makes them viking werewolves (long canines, tough skin, <s>vertical pupils</s> (wolves don't have those), awesome sense of smell, animalistic [[RAEG]] in combat) or, if one is really unfortunate, into an ordinary werewolf (aka [[Furry|Wulfen]]), and their super-unstable geneseed, which can't function without pre-implanted Canis Helix and has been found incompatible with any populace outside of Fenris. For the most part, they get around this by just founding tons and tons more Space Wolves than the [[Codex Astartes]] would normally permit, meaning that they ''still'' tend to have tons of chapters' worth of marines on call.

While many factions within the chapter are proud of how "potent" their gene-seed is, plenty of Space Wolves have constantly labored to stabilize their genome in order to found successors to cordon off the [[Eye of Terror]], and crusade against the [[Thousand Sons]], a plan called "the Sons of Russ." Once, they got really close, which [[Magnus the Red]] didn't like, so he took his Marines and bumped off the Wolf Priest in charge (and generally wrecked things for the Space Wolves), using some [[Tzeentch|Tzeentchian]] trickery to get an opening. In short, he [[gets shit done|got shit done!]]. But considering just how needlessly cruel and dickish the Space Wolves have been to the Thousand Sons (how exactly do you NOT even doubt or question an order to destroy a valiant and loyal Legion just because your boss feels pissy at their boss?) since day one, many people think this was a rightly delivered boot in the ass to the [[Space Wolves|Furries In Power Armor]]. Even if [[Black Library]] disagrees.

=== Imperial Fists ===
{{Main|Imperial Fists}}
* Missing Betcher's Gland (no acid spit)
* Missing Sus-an Membrane (no suspended animation)
* Possibly increased pain tolerance and/or a tendency towards masochism.

Despite missing two organs, the Imperial Fists gene-seed is considered to be amongst the most stable and most manly sources. It is the second most desirable source of gene-seed for Foundings. ''Second'' to the Ultramarines, of course.

=== Night Lords ===
{{Main|Night Lords}}
Despite what you may think, ''no defects''! The Night Lords are officially the most stable of the Traitor Legions, a trait often put down to the fact that they rarely dwell in the [[Eye of Terror]]. That, and they don't even like Chaos or the gods. What little mutations there are are usually upon their Sorcerers...what ones have survived do not have them anymore either. While there are some implications that the Legion's exceptional night vision is part of the gene-seed, it is important to note that Night Lords' eyes are extremely sensitive to light largely due to an environmental condition because of the nocturnal conditions of [[Nostramo]], and not due to an inherent flaw in [[Konrad Curze]]'s gene-seed.

Also Curze's gene-seed has passed onto psykers within his Legion his "gift" of seeing the future in the worst way possible, and as scenarios that become self-fulfilling prophecies. EDIT: In one case, it was found out that the Primarch's "gift" was actually the side effect of a marine's body slowly rejecting the gene-seed. Prior to receiving this gift, he never demonstrated '''any''' psychic capability. Even so, this situation is rare.

=== Blood Angels ===
{{Main|Blood Angels}}
* Occasional bouts of [[Rip and tear|bloodthirsty, genocidal rage]], otherwise known as the [[Red Thirst]].
** Occasional bouts of permanent, [[Rip and tear|bloodthirsty, hallucinatory, genocidal rage]], better known as the [[Black Rage]].
* Extreme longevity.
Stable, but flawed. Prior to the [[Horus Heresy]], [[Sanguinius]] discovered that some of his sons were beginning to suffer the [[Red Thirst]], where they would descend into a thirst for blood, whether [[human]] or [[xenos]], in a blind rage. If that wasn't bad enough, as a result of Sanguinius's death at the hands of [[Horus]] imprinting itself on their genetic memory (or something), all Blood Angels and their successors have the [[Black Rage]]; a berserk rage where they [[Derp|believe themselves to be Sanguinius during his final battle]]. Meaning that he quite literally hit Sanguinius so hard that his grandchildren's-grandchildren's-ad-infinitum-children still feel it.

=== Iron Hands ===
{{Main|Iron Hands}}
* ''No defects.''
* Noted predilection towards machinery and a disdain towards flesh.

And just to make sure, if there are any, they follow the Bible's advice on offending organs and replace them with holy machinery instead. Would probably be a very desirable source for new chapters if not for the absolute devastation they suffered in the [[Drop Site Massacre]] leaving them barely recovered millennia later and needing all the gene-seed they can get for themselves. Because, you know, even though there has been more than enough time for more than twenty other foundings of whole, brand new chapters, and some of those foundings likely making new foundings of their own, the Iron Hands still haven't had enough time.

=== World Eaters ===
{{Main|World Eaters}}
Pretty stable for a Chaos-heavy traitor legion, so long as the Butcher Surgeons don't fuck up the extraction process. Nothing particularly mutated about the gene-seed either except for minor things like increased adrenaline, etc; but during training [[Angron]] had the Legion's neophytes undergo cybernetic conditioning like the surgery he received as a gladiator (referred to as the ''Butcher's Nails'') that increased aggression even further, making an already testosterone-fueled warrior even more aggressive and unstable. While not ''technically'' part of their gene-seed, it has been carried on as a tradition by all the "successors" that resulted from the Legion's fracturing after the [[Battle of Skalathrax]].

=== Ultramarines ===
{{Main|Ultramarines}}
*''No official defects.'' Considered the most stable and preferred source of gene-seed for new Foundings.
**Due to a lack of any real interesting or identifying traits in and of itself, discussions for reclassifying the Ultramarine gene-seed from the most stable source to the most generic source were in the works. These talks were surreptitiously shut down by [[Who Watches Them|Inquisitor Warden]] for offending his sensibilities.

=== Thousand Sons ===
{{Main|Thousand Sons}}
* Increased chance of bringing out psychic powers, as well as amplified psychic power.
* Recipients subject to a high rate of mutation, called The Flesh Change; unstable.

The most unstable genome in the Space Marine legions, the Thousand Sons suffer from the Flesh-Change, a problem that caused Thousand Sons to mutate spontaneously. [[Magnus the Red]] fixed it, with some "[[Just as Planned|help]]" from [[Tzeentch]]. After the [[Horus Heresy]], the flesh-change came back with a vengeance. [[Ahzek Ahriman]] tried to fix it with his Rubric, and he did end up stopping the flesh-change... by turning all non-[[psyker]] Thousand Sons into dust; sorcerers also had their powers enhanced in addition to no longer suffering ill-effects from the Flesh-Change. So while theoretically, the Sorcerers of the long suffering Legion can provide gene-seed, in practice, it's corrupted so often that few will ever make new Marines. Thousand Sons specifically hunt for healthy and stable psyker boys to implant them with their oh-so-rare gene-seed to ensure the recipient would become a sorcerer. If "Masters, bidding!" TS character words to be trusted, Thousands Sons found a way to implant their progenoids into grown up men (so they can teach and test them for longer before implantation), and perform a scaled down Rubric on them to prevent the Flesh Change..

=== Death Guard ===
{{Main|Death Guard}}
Pre-heresy, the Death Guard had a much stronger constitution than most Legions, leading to their role as the toxic environment specialists. Post-heresy, however, the Death Guard are so diseased that implanting Aspirants seems more or less impossible - however, there have been new Death Guard legionaries, who are not defectors from other Legions or renegade Chapters. This means that its possible that gene-seed is used in the Legion to make new Marines. How it functions still no one knows, though we suspect it has something to do with [[Nurgle]] and that he has necromantic powers of sorts, who can raise his fallen disciples back from the dead.

Another possibility is that they're creating new marines using another chapter's/legion's gene seed and working their Nurgle magics on them to turn them into full-fledged Plague Marines. Not a complete impossibility given how the Black Legion is still able to do it.

=== Luna Wolves/Sons of Horus/Black Legion ===
{{Main|Black Legion}}
No real defects, but the tendency for members to look more like their [[Horus|Primarch]] is more pronounced (and possibly more frequent) than it is for members of other legions to resemble their own respective Primarchs. [[Aximand]] was the most notable example of this, but by no means the only one. This gives extra meaning to the "Sons of Horus" thing. In fact, before the Luna Wolves was renamed the Sons of Horus, Luna Wolves that resembled Horus in appearance were known as "Sons of Horus". Ten thousand years in the Eye of Terror has left the Legion's gene-seed more unstable. However, we do know that new Black Legionaries are inducted constantly (seeing as they are the primary generic Chaos Space Marines), so its a good bet a large part of theirs is still usable [[grimdark|and that generations of children for millennia to come will be torn away from their parents and families, unfortunate enough to live in the Eye Of Terror, to be inducted into the Legion.]] Furthermore, given that they frequently "recruit" from other chapters and legions, it's not always easy to tell which Black Legionnaires are descended from Horus and which are from other Primarchs.

=== Word Bearers ===
{{Main|Word Bearers}}
The Word Bearers suffer a unique "quirk" in their gene-seed, resulting in a psychologically obsessive loyalty to something, be it a man, a religion, or even an ideal. The Word Bearers in turn thus have a much stronger sense of loyalty to their battle-brothers and Primarch than other Chaos Space Marines, helping them to maintain cohesion and avoid treachery, but this loyalty also borders on fanaticism. Otherwise, while given to some instabilities, they have been able to maintain strength.

=== Salamanders ===
{{Main|Salamanders}}
* <s>Malfunctioning</s> Unique Melanchromic Organ (between Vulkan's personal blackness and Nocturne's volcanoes, Salamanders are all black, all the time, and have glowing red eyes)
* Possibly altered Mucranoid - high degree of heat resistance.
* Possibly altered Biscopea - tend to be somewhat slower than other marines, although sometimes its conferred to the somewhat high gravity on Nocturne, since they can still run at the same level as any other chapter. (Way back when, they had -1 Initiative.)

While slightly dysfunctional, their gene-seed is pretty stable. Would probably be, like the <s>Blood Angels</s> [[Iron Hands]], a common source of new chapters if not for, again, their extreme decimation during the [[Drop Site Massacre]]. They've since recovered, perhaps a little quicker than the Iron Hands (possibly due to being a little closer to the center and being able to evacuate more marines), and may have contributed to a few successors over the millennia.

=== Raven Guard ===
{{Main|Raven Guard}}
* Malfunctioning Melanchromic Organ (their skin is always pale and their eyes are always dark. Anti-Salamanders, basically.)
* Missing Mucranoid (no super-sweat)
* Missing Betcher's Gland (no acid spit)
* Occasional bouts of suicidal rage(Luckily for them this is not permanent unlike a certain other chapter)

While their primary gene-seed is decently stable, when under extreme stress a percentage Raven Guard warriors will lapse into bouts of suicidal rage known as Ash Blindness or Sable Brand. This is rarely permanent, but occurred with enough frequency that [[Corax]] would organize these warriors into the Moritat. Their missing and malfunctioning geneseed organs is a result of [[Corax]], out of desperation following the [[Drop Site Massacre]], delving into use of forbidden lore and archeo-tech from days long past to accelerate gene-seed maturation, and try to boost his Legion's numbers after their losses during the [[Horus Heresy]]. He was successful, until the [[Alpha Legion]] decided to make the whole project go FUBAR. The subsequent 'Marines', if they can be called that, were numerous, but were barely controllable monsters and/or would simply die off as a result of the extreme imbalances in their dispositions. Presumably, a few of them would even have functioning Progenoids, let alone usable gene-seed. Due to the law of averages though, at least a FEW would have had to been stable enough, and is being worked on secretly by the Raven Guard Apothecaries and associated [[Adeptus Mechanicus|Mechanicus]] Biologicans.
Otherwise, despite being pretty fucked up by the [[Drop Site Massacre]], they've mostly recovered (thanks in no small part to having the ''only'' loyalist Primarch to get away from the Massacre in one piece) and do still contribute to successors here and there.

=== Alpha Legion ===
{{Main|Alpha Legion}}
No such Legion exists, therefore no such gene-seed exists.

=== Blood Ravens ===
{{Main|Blood Ravens}}
* A mutated Catalepsean Node - gives them perfect memory recall, but unable to enter REM (deep) sleep
* Unknown mutation that increases psychic ability and occurrences
* Small tendency towards mutations (hurr sounds like [[Thousand Sons|any other Legions]] we know of?)
* Horrendously massive tendency to develop kleptomania.
* The pores in their scalps secrete a substance not all too dissimilar to hair gel, often resulting in a higher tendency to develop hair-etical hair compared to other chapters.
** Alternatively, the pores on their scalps may prevent hair from growing altogether, giving the marine Astartes-pattern baldness. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZfvIg_M5yE It has been long thought to be a terrible weapon to behold.]
* Unknown mutation that results in their voices changing every few years.

=== Blood Drinkers ===
{{Main|Blood Drinkers}}
* They suffer from a literal blood thirst, and must drink blood. This is often a fantastic party trick.
* Standard Blood Angel problems too, though the blood chugging seems to stabilize them. (''[[Just As Planned|Mwuhahahaha!]]'')

=== The Flawless Host ===
{{Main|The Flawless Host}}
* Possibly an offshoot of the Emperor's Children, these psychos are so hopped up on combat and other (read, Warp derived, impossible) drugs that they make normal Emperor's Children drug use look tame - however, damage from things like extreme sounds/etc doesn't seem as prevalent. Little comfort. Despite all this, and defying any sense of physics or reality, their Progenoids still seem to manufacture new gene-seed.

===The Cleaved===
A Chaos Space Marine warband unique in the fact that they constantly ooze some oily liquid from broken joints and seals within their armor. Have an abominably high threshold of pain tolerance, and can take huge amounts of damage that would fell a normal Space Marine. What that means for their gene-seed can only be guessed at, though when these guys appear to be some kind of mix between rubric marines and plague marines, [[Brother Konig|animated suits of armor filled with nothing but corrupted melted goo]], the odds aren't good for any delicate organs that might still be bobbing around inside.

=== A Note On That Sick Fuck Fabius Bile ===

[[Fabius Bile]] is fucking insane. I mean shit, his labcoat is made of human skin - normally only [[Space Wolves]] wear clothing made of that stuff. While originally the Chief Apothecary of the Emperor's Children, he is now a freelancer. His goal even before the Heresy was to find and unlock the secret to the creation of the Space Marines. In the [[Warp]], he provides a valuable service to the Chaos Legion warbands and their auxiliaries of billions more regular Chaos humans - while often millions strong even now, the warbands still need to replenish their numbers. Considering how many die and how often they are away from any place where they can produce more, that's a lot. Even with slave raiding into the Imperium, child abduction both in and out, breeding centers (stop touching yourself) and many [[Daemonculaba|other creative ideas]], its still not enough. Fabius provides services of human cloning, along with gene-seed production, among his many skills. As he is not a super-devotee of Chaos, the gene-seed he has and makes is some of the least corrupted found within the [[Eye Of Terror]]. Though of course, he fucks this all up by hopping up his own warband's clones with the same psycho drugs and shit that make monsters out of men. Lore hints that his genetic tinkering is far more than we have been lead to believe - much of his 'changes' to even standard human genome are genetic and now passable by both men and [[Female Space Marines|women]]. Even now the Imperium is trying to hunt and eradicate what they call his '[[Twilight|New Men]]'. He also has access to a small quantity of what is alleged to be the blood of the Primarch Sanguinius.

=== 21st Founding ===
{{Main|21st Founding}}
Over the millennia, further mutations have afflicted the many Successor Chapters, but the 21st or "Cursed" Founding deserves a special mention, because a bunch of [[Adeptus Mechanicus|tech-priests]] decided that they wanted to try and fix the flaws, but failed so hard they actually created some new ones.

* Bursting into Flames: Yes, the [[Flame Falcons]] really were covered in fire. The Flame Falcons thought it was a blessing from the [[God-Emperor of Mankind]], but the [[Inquisition]] disagreed, and sent the [[Grey Knights]] to wipe them out.
* Bone Growths: Due to a malfunctioning Ossmudula, the [[Black Dragons]] suffer a bone solid growth to harden and extend from their forehead and forearms during times of stress. The ones on the forearm can be used as weapons against unarmored opponents, so they decided to coat them in adamantium. So in essence, they're space-Wolverine-after-the-bone-claws kind of guys. Issue is that this is a very visible mutation, and as this is the grimderp Imperium, mutations from the sacred human form are EVUL, even if they are fucking awesome.
* Indestructibility: The [[Sons of Antaeus]] are much tougher than normal marines, and nobody knows why. Some speculate something about a super-reinforced skeleton, some say it's [[Nurgle]]'s doing, etc. The only real truth to it is that there's some sort of mutation present in the gene-seed.

=== A Note On Implant Organs/DNA Elsewhere ===

While the SPHESS MAHREENS are the most widespread users of artificial glands, organs, and such, they are not the only ones. [[Inquisitor]]s likely have access to organs or other artificial mutations they require thanks to their influence in the Imperium. Depending on what world they hail from and its beliefs, Imperial Guard regiments and PDF may also have artificial organs, or even whole new ones derived from millennia of mutations, which of course has certain advantages. Furthermore, Warp Exposure can result in a change of the functions of organs - a simple example of this is the [[Cadia]]ns, who nearly universally have powerful, violet colored eyes. Gland Warriors were an [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] project to help legions of Guardsmen heading into battle against a [[Tyranid]] hive fleet. They were to do battle in an incredibly toxic and hard environment, and a variety of experimental organs and DNA strands were utilized - including organs that would secrete stims, painkillers, and various medical drugs, more powerful natural air filters, and the like. While only [[grimdark|three survived]] the whole campaign in the end, the AdMech was pleased and took the three to be debriefed.

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]
[[Category:Space Marines]]

Horus Heresy

2016-04-28T16:33:28Z

2A02:C7D:C5E:A200:352C:6492:5881:EA26:

[[File:zbrothers.jpg|200px|thumb|right|It was pretty much ''this''.]]
:''[[Fulgrim|"They shall be my finest warriors, these men who give of themselves to me.]]''<br>
:''[[Magnus the Red|Like clay I shall mould them, and in the furnace of war forge them.]]''<br>
:''[[Angron|They will be of iron will and steely muscle.]]''<br>
:''[[Perturabo|In great armour shall I clad them and with the mightiest guns will they be armed.]]''<br>
:''[[Mortarion|They will be untouched by plague or disease, no sickness will blight them.]]''<br>
:''[[Alpharius|They will have tactics, strategies and machines]] [[Omegon|so that no foe can best them in battle.]]''<br>
:''[[Konrad Curze|They are my bulwark against the Terror.]]''<br>
:''[[Lorgar|They are the Defenders of Humanity.]]''<br>
:''[[Horus|They are my Space Marines and they shall know no fear."]]''<br>
:- The [[God-Emperor of Mankind]], [[Not as planned|getting exactly what he wanted.]]

The '''Horus Heresy''' is one of the single biggest clusterfuck of events in [[Warhammer 40,000]] fluff, alongside the [[Eldar]]'s creation of a new [[Slaanesh|Chaos God]], and the [[War in Heaven|rampage and fall of the]] [[C'Tan|star gods]]. Needless to say, this heresy rail-roaded the Emperor's plan and himself, and gave the Chaos Gods their most prominent armies to carry out their will in realspace.

In the Horus Heresy, the Emperor's favorite son, [[Horus| Horus Lupercal]], formerly Warmaster of the Imperium, was corrupted by Chaos and rebelled against the Emperor, taking nine [[First Founding|Space Marine Legions]] (Including [[Luna Wolves|his own]]), their respective Primarchs, and about half of the Imperial Army and Mechanicum with him. After waging war across the galaxy, Horus and his traitors eventually reached Holy Terra itself, hoping to murder the Emperor himself and cut the head off the proverbial snake and win the war.

Things went [[Not as Planned]] however, as he was eventually surrounded by loyalist forces at the height of the siege on Terra. As a final gambit, he dropped the shields of his flagship which allowed the Emperor to beam up and challenged him to a duel for the fate of humanity. Horus beat the Emperor within an inch of his life but was killed in turn after the Emperor put his foot down and obliterated Horus' soul from existence (as in it didn't go to the warp to be resurrected by daemons; it was literally erased from existence.) when it finally became clear to him that Horus was beyond forgiveness.. The Chaos gribbles he had been allied with disappeared and the now Chaos Marines that had followed him sulked back to the [[Eye of Terror]], starting the [[Long War]].

Because the Emperor was fucked up to the point where he had to be permanently attached to a life-support machine known as the "Golden Throne" just to survive, logic within the Imperium gradually decreased, eventually turning into the [[Grimdark]] empire it is today. And it was already pretty damn grimdark.

== [[Warhammer 40,000]] Fluff ==
The Horus Heresy screwed almost everyone's plans (except the Chaos Gods' of course) and changed the flavour of the Imperium's Grimdark from Stalinist Soviet "if you breathe a word about religion, we rape you with knives" to Catholic Inquisition "if you breathe a word about the ''wrong'' religion, we rape you [[Exterminatus|or your whole planet]] with knives" unless you can find an Ecclesiarch to come and say: "nope, that's just another aspect of the Emperor". Don't count on this happening without hefty "donations".

The heresy lasted for several years (somewhere between seven and ten) and was fought all over the galaxy. The following are the most important battles and campaigns during the Heresy:
*[[Battle of Isstvan III]]
*[[Burning of Prospero]]
*[[Drop Site Massacre]]
*[[Battle of Calth]]
*[[Shadow Crusade]]
*[[Thramas Crusade]]
*[[Signus Campaign]]
*[[Battle of Phall]]
*[[Battle of Tallarn]]
*[[Siege of Terra]]

== The Board Game ==
First published in 1993 by [[Game Designer's Workshop]], it was the Emprah versus his [[Horus|evil bastard of a son]] in the scorched earth of Terra. Units include [[Titan#Warhammer_40k|titans]] and [[Chaos spawn]]. ''' OH SWEET JESUS NOOOOOOOOOOOOGLARBLBLBLBLBLBLAAAARRRKSSHHHGLARBLBLBLBLBLBLLB*'''

Ahem, as he was saying, The more recent edition (2010) is published by [[Fantasy Flight Games]]. Also a two-player [[wargame|war]] [[board game|game]], it includes over 100 sculpted minifigs, sculpted buildings, and even Horus and the Emprah themselves are units on the board. It also adds more territory, as the fight can be pushed back onto the [[heresy|traitor's]] flagship ''Vengeful Spirit''. Combat is less [[dice|dice-y]] and more card-y.

(Not to be confused with the lame Horus Heresy card game, who's only saving grace was the awesome card art that would appear in the Horus Heresy artbooks anyway)

== The Book Series ==
For the last few years, [[Black Library]] has been publishing novels that explore the events of the Horus Heresy, looking at the rivalries among the [[Primarchs]] and exploring just why everything went down the tubes. The novels are by a selection of different authors, which is a total pain if you like to organise your books alphabetically by author. The reception to the series has been somewhat... mixed; books generally considered to be good include [[Dan Abnett|the first trilogy]], [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden|Betrayer]], [[White Scars|Scars]], and the short story [[Alpha Legion|The Serpent Beneath]].

Of course, like we mentioned, there's some that are... um... Well, let's just say that the worst are a [[skub|matter of much debate]].

{{Template:Spoilers}}

=== Books I - X ===
*'''''Horus Rising:''''' A prologue story, introducing us to the series and Garviel Loken who will grow into a very significant character. An Emperor (not [[Emperor|Him]]) is killed at the beginning and some bugs are killed on a planet called Murder for no reason other than they were there. The Interex show up and ask "whadya do that for?". [[Erebus]] steals the '''MURDER SWORD''' from them.
*'''''False Gods:''''' Horus falls at Davin when wounded by the '''MURDER SWORD''' and gets a crash course in the chaos gods from [[Erebus]] & [[Magnus]]. After getting shown a few "truths" that WILL HAPPEN in the future (like the Emperor being worshipped as a god, Horus being reviled and forgotten) he decides to make war on the Imperium to [[FAIL|prevent]] all this from happening.
*'''''Galaxy in Flames:''''' Isstvan III happens and the traitors send the loyalists down to the planet without reinforcements and proceed to bomb them to fuck. Things don't go to plan when [[Angron]] decides to invade turning it into a [[Not as Planned]] drawn out conflict that the Warmaster can't really afford - Loken "dies"
*'''''Flight of the Eisenstein:''''' the other side fo Galaxy in Flames, Nathaniel Garro escapes and gets marooned in the warp fighting daemons, eventually gets saved by [[Rogal Dorn]]. The first bit of the novel is so far 'the Death Guard's novel'.
*'''''Fulgrim:''''' one of the more forgettable stories in the series. Attempts to tell the story from Great Crusade all the way up to the [[Drop Site Massacre]] in one book. In short Fulgrim finds a sword, gets possessed, kills Ferrus Manus - the end. It is written by Graham McNiel though, and it has an awesome quote from Fulgrim "My Emperor's Children. What beautiful music they make." .
*'''''Descent of Angels:''''' This is the Heresy book that isn't about the Heresy, instead focusing on [[Zahariel]]'s time on [[Caliban]]. It also portrays [[Lion El'Jonson]] having to deal with some social awkwardness. Hints that the Great Crusade does more harm than good.
*'''''Legion''''' introduces [[the Cabal]], the [[Perpetual]]s and [[Omegon]]. READ THIS BOOK. Or don't, as this is where those things that would eventually take over the Heresy series and according to many completely ruin it (Cabal, Perpetuals) are introduced.
*'''''Battle for the Abyss:''''' The book is so bad that other authors tried to retcon it out of existence. This book is so bad that you would have it was cobbled together from [[Matt Ward|Wardian fluff]] stitched together by [[C. S. Goto]]. Reading this book may, in fact, cause brain cancer so you should avoid it if at all possible. Everyone dies, so it does not affect much. The only thing you need to remember is [[Lorgar]] built a fuckhueg space ship and filled it with Dreadnoughts, and it failed miserably.
*'''''Mechanicum:''''' Tech Priests turn renegade after Horus tells them they can do whatever they like with technology, so they release forbidden viral scrapcodes and screw everything up. Also turns out that [[Emperor|Big E]] invented the Machine-God by sealing a C'Tan on Mars back during the Saint George era, giving everyone visions of technology. Also more subtle hints that the Emperor is a god himself by using divine golden light to heal machines and know Everything and one tech priestess tries to harness this power. Contains a lot of Titan awesomeness and [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] badassery.
*'''''Tales of Heresy:''''' short story collection, including [[The Last Church]]. Has a lot of twist endings.
** '''''Blood Games:''''' An assassin tries to kill the emperor. The Adeptus Custodes go to kill a traitor on Terra.
** '''''Wolf at the Door:''''' The Space Wolves kill some dark eldar and are the defenders of everyone who does not defy the Emperor.
** '''''Scions of the Storm:''''' The Word Bearers destroy a human civilization that has crystal cities, crystal robots, and lots of lightning. This is also later a chapter of ''The First Heretic'', but narrated from a slightly different point of view then.
** '''''The Voice:''''' The Sisters of Silence investigate a Black Ship that became derelict in the Warp.
** '''''Call of the Lion:''''' Half of the Dark Angels are dicks, the other half are not. Totally not foreshadowing.
** '''''[[The Last Church]]:''''' A story about the Emperor destroying one of the churches on Terra during the reunification era in his effort to wipe out religion. The Emperor and the priest of the church have an enlightening conversation about the Emprah's trying to accomplish. The conversation ends up with the priest accusing the Emperor of being a hypocrite, with him decrying that he's no more different than the old warlords who waged crusades and holy wars in the past to push their own agendas on other people.
** '''''After Desh'ea:''''' The War Hounds meet their primarch. Angron demeats the War Hounds. More specifically, the Emperor just beamed up Angron away from his last stand (rather than, you know, intervening with his Custodes or his fleet), leaving Angron pretty pissed. [[Kharn]] is a pretty great guy to be around, and pulls his femurs out of his lungs quickly enough to establish himself as Angron's best buddy.

=== Books XI - XX ===
*'''''Fallen Angels:''''' the sequel to Descent of Angels, is actually two stories rolled into one book that never converge. 1. The Lion fights a war to reclaim some Ordinatus devices and then hands them to Perturabo to gain his trust, not realising that his brother has already turned. 2. [[Zahariel]] and Luther clean out a daemon cult on Caliban... but not really.
*'''''Thousand Sons:''''' Part 1 of the Battle for Prospero. Runs through the Great Crusade where Magnus discovers the webway, but his Father already knew about it. Then the Edict of Nikaea where Magnus gets all passionate about not restricting psychic powers, then to Horus's vision quest where Magnus fails to keep his brother on the right path, then does the WORST thing possible by telling his father, breaking the Golden Throne in the process. Space Wolves come knocking shortly after. Tragedy ensues.
*'''''Nemesis:''''' [[Malcador the Sigillite]] invents the [[Officio Assassinorum]] Execution Task Force and sends six assassins to kill Horus. They fail, but in the process slay an shapeshifting daemonic counter-assassin sent by Erebus. While it is a decent book and we learn a lot, it didn't contribute much to the overall plot. On the more [[rage|vitriolic side]], the writing is a bit underwhelming in places; highlights include calling a pariah a psyker, another pariah with a contrived possession, and Horus uttering one of the most cliche one liners out there.
*'''''The First Heretic:''''' [[Lorgar]]'s turn to get a back story. Feels less rushed than "[[Fulgrim]]". Goes from Monarchia to a bit of soul searching in the Eye of Terror and discovers Cadia. Leads up to Istvaan V and the immediate aftermath. Signifcant subplots revolve around the inception of Possessed Marines, and what happens to the [[Adeptus Custodes|Custodes]] babysitters watching over the Word Bearers, and how the protagonist Argel Tal gets into a tragic bromance with the Custodes leader.
** '''''Aurelian:''''' A limited release short story until an ebook was published. The plot bounces around in-between a number of moments in Lorgar's history up to the prelude of the Shadow Crusade. One narrative involves how Lorgar's brothers still treat him like shit, especially when he's the only one who sees through Fulgrim's possession, and ends with Horus sending him to fuck up Ultima Segmentum and handing him Angron's (figurative, [[/d/|not literal]]) leash. The other narrative takes place in the 40 year gap in ''The First Heretic'', where Lorgar makes a pilgrimage into the Eye of Terror with a Daemon Princess as his guide. They come to a dead Crone World where he puts a dying [[Avatar of Khaine|Avatar]] out of its misery and he's told that the Eldar panicked rather than embrace Chaos during the birth of Slaanesh, which is what caused them to nearly die out; the daemon prince(ss) tells Lorgar the same thing is happening with humanity during the Heresy, how Chaos really wants a [[A Game of Pretend|symbiotic relationship with humanity rather than to conquer it]]. In the middle of this, Khorne decides he's had enough of this talky wordy shit and sends [[An'ggrath]] to make things more exciting, and Lorgar narrowly beats him. Then Kairos Fateweaver comes and "tells" him about Calth and his relationship with Guilliman and his upcoming war with him in the most confusing as fuck discussion ever. The truth of most of the things told to Lorgar are left ambiguous, because, well, Fateweaver; but also Chaos has a lot riding on the Heresy coming to fruition for reasons left not entirely explored.
*'''''Prospero Burns:''''' Part 2 of the Battle for Prospero. An civilian hangs out with a company of the Space Wolves, where we learn a lot about their culture and attitudes. Turns out that Chaos infiltrated everything, so the outcome of Nikaea was practically rigged. The civilian himself even turns out to have been an unwitting spy for Chaos, but the Wolves knew anyway and didn't give a shit.
* '''''Age of Darkness:''''' A short story anthology.
** '''''Rules of Engagement:''''' Roboute lets one of his commanders lead in a series of wars that didn't really occur, and we get the best line ever said in regards to the [[Codex Astartes]]: despite the fact it does cover a lot, it's not meant to be followed biblically. (See the quote on the page on the Big Book of Astartes). The Imperium Secundus shows up, making for another bizarre plot element that ruins the series without adding anything.
** '''''Liar's Due:''''' You know those memes on how the [[Alpha Legion]] causes mass paranoia without actually involving any Astartes? Those aren't just memes.
** '''''Forgotten Sons:''''' A [[Salamander]] and a grumpy ol' [[Ultramarine]] are sent in opposition to one of Horus' iterators to convince an industrial-militant world which side to side with. They almost side with Horus before the Warmaster's agents [[Exterminatus|wreck shit]] for the lulz. Oh, and to send the message that neutrality will be punished. The [[Iron Warriors]] were doing weird shit on that world for years beforehand, and was probably the more deciding factor than the lulz.
** '''''The Last Remembrancer:''''' Horus sent one the one last remembrancer he had stored up as a gift to Dorn. Instead of in a box (or eight or some shit like that), it was the [[Dan Abnett]] of his day telling Dorn that the grimdark galaxy was grimdark. Also that the Emperor's vision of a galaxy of peace, unity, prosperity, and fluffy bunnies built up without any more grimdark attached than was strictly needed, probably wasn't very likely before any shit hit any fan either way. Also, Iactone Qruze makes his first appearance since forever, but nobody gives a shit about Iactone Qruze.
** '''''Rebirth:''''' Mangus's absent fleet from the Burning of Prospero comes home and shits a brick. The last known surviving squad of Thousand Sons outside of the Planet of the Sorcerers gets beaten up and they slowly figure out it was the Space Wolves who shit on Magnus's <s>parade</s> world and is stalking them. One plot twist later, most of them are dead, the last one decides he's gonna rebuild everything, with a few scant hints that his flesh-change genetic flaw will [[Blood Ravens|shift into kleptomania]].
** '''''The Face of Treachery:''''' The tie-in and conclusion of the audiodrama featuring the Raven Guard after Istvaan and the prequel to Deliverance Lost. After getting fed up with Corax trolling Perturabo for a bit too long, Horus sends Angron in to finish the job, but Corax's cavalry arrives to troll Angron by getting the loyalists the fuck out of there. We also learn that Corax has a supersekrit psyker ability which lets roll a natural 20 on stealth checks no matter how ridiculous it would be, and that the Alpha Legion ''once again'' can outtroll everybody when they fuck things up for the World Eaters. Ends with an transitory bit into ''Deliverance Lost''.
** '''''Little Horus:''''' Little Horus Aximand is struggling with the PTSD he got when he killed Loken and Torgaddon with [[Abaddon|Abby]]. Abby and Little Horus have a discussion (we mean Horus Aximand, not when Primarch Horus was sodomizing Abaddon again) about restoring the Mournival. A couple war scenes later, Little Horus learns the hard way that the White Scars are pretty badass, but his PTSD starts acting up again and he gets his face shaved off before the White Scars are driven off. Little Horus realizes his PTSD he had since killing Loken and Torgaddon ultimately stems from that time he helped kill Loken and Torgaddon, and gives a diatribe about how things like "change", "mood swings", and "hallucinations" are suited to his melancholic nature, saying things like "it's perfectly natural", "I'm fine, everything's fine. Everything is perfectly, absolutely fine", and "Therapy is for the weak. I'm fine." After the Mongolian shave, he gets his face reattached and ends up looking even more like Big Horus in the deal.
** '''''The Iron Within:''''' Some pretty bro-tier loyalist Iron Warriors build a fortress hanging from a cave in a hellhole of a world, and one of Perturabo's traitor Grand Companies come knocking to demand that they hand over the house keys. The loyalists give them a fuck-you in the form of a Dreadnought. A few melodramatic and horrific but generic war scenes later, and they get overrun, wreck the fortress, and get the hell out of there by hijacking one of the Iron Warriors warships via teleportation. An Ultramarine big wig was there to bring the loyalists home, informing them that [[Skub|Guilliman was fortifying Terra]] and he needed good siege workers to stall the traitors then to fortify Terra. While loyalist Iron Warriors were pretty cool, the story itself was pretty forgettable; and it left some open questions like whether the continuity errors were the result of "faulty astropathic communications" (see Outcast Dead), or if the Ultramarines were trolling the Iron Warriors to join in with the Imperium Secundus. And also why the Iron Warriors were determined to take a hellhole at an immense expense of people and materiel, including Titans, while they could have just said "fuck that", and left alone a fortress with no space or warp conveyance, and arguably little strategic value in iteslf, in the middle of nowhere.
** '''''Savage Weapons:''''' A good story written by [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden|ADB]]. Dark Angels are hunting down the Night Lords who are fucking with Forge Worlds, but the Night Lords are staying a step ahead of them, much to [[Rage|the Lion's frustration]]. After being advised by Horus to pass along a message, Kurze asks the Lion to meet up face-to-face on Tsagualsa. When they talk, while what they say to each other is offscreen, it's implied Kurze told Lion about the Fallen Angels and that Horus knew about their impending betrayal. Lion decides nobody is going to give him shit about being a rumored closet traitor, and the ensuing fight proves that Jonson is a badass among primarchs, until Kurze goes to his old fallback of strangling a fucker, and things get more even. Their respective honor guards go at it in the meantime, and showing [[Sevatar]] is a badass among Space Marines. Things end up in a draw, leaving things open for a new plotline within the Heresy, the ''Prince of Crows'' novella being the next.
*'''''The Outcast Dead:''''' A mess of continuity errors, at least when compared with the rest of the series, the other authors later claimed all the errors were absolutely intentional and a result of the messed-up nature of Warp-based communication. ''Riggggghhhhtttt.'' More importantly: shortly after the start of the Heresy an astropath has routine nervous breakdown and is returned to Terra to get [[Witch Hunters|therapy]]. What really ends up happening is that he gets there in time for [[Magnus]]'s astral body to reach Big E to warn him of Horus' betrayal, and the fuckhueg psychic shock of course dicks with the Astropath HQ compound something mighty. In the confusion and assloads of psychic phenomena that followed, the astropath gets implanted with a message for somebody regarding the war, but his PTSD keeps him from knowing what the hell it is or who it's for. The Custodes come in and tell him "''[[Anal Circumference|Ve haff vays of making you talk.]]''" After a time, he gets busted out by some convict space marines from the Traitor Legions. Why they do this is explained by the Thousand Son sagely stating "Just because." They name themselves the eponymous Outcast Dead and try to get the hell off of Terra. Other subplots revolve around: a psyker congregant at a slum church near the Imperial palace; a samurai witch hunter (no, really); '''''fucking [[Thunder Warriors]]'''''. Best bits are <s>[[Rip and tear|an unarmed, unarmored World Eater ripping a Custodes' spine out through his chest]]</s> the portrayal of the Emperor playing chess in dreams.
*'''''Deliverance Lost:''''' [[Corvus Corax]], having just escaped from Istvaan V, decides to go ask daddy for a handout to get his Legion back on his feet, and gets the mother of all genetech to do it, though he has to do a bit of legwork to get it. Meanwhile, a bunch of faceless Alpha Legionnaires (okay, they do have faces, they just originally belonged to some Raven Guard) had infiltrated Corax's Legion at Istvaan, and are doing recon and intelligence gathering waiting for [[Omegon]] to give the go-ahead to fuck shit up. Corax, meanwhile sets up new geneseed methods that bring up new recruits to battle-ready marines ''in fucking hours''. The Alphas decide this probably isn't in their interest, and sabotage the new geneseed by tainting it with ''daemon blood'', turning second- and third-batch new Raven Guard into the twisted monsters we know that Corax ended up with. In one of the instances of retcon that was actually flavored with [[awesome]] and win, the mutant marines [[Grimdark|were still sapient]], but were let to fight on in the Emperor's name. After staging a mass insurrection on Deliverance's parent world with the help of some old guilders Corax ousted and the Dark Mechanicum, Omegon gets ''more'' Alphas infiltrated into the Raven for the endgame: steal the genetech, kill some Ravenguard, get the fuck out before anybody knows what the fuck. A couple cockups along the way leads to the Raven Guard getting wise and isolating out the Alphas. The end of the novel was like a swingers party at the retirement home, everybody got screwed (even ''Horus''), nobody got what they hoped for (except for [[Omegon|the really deviant bastard]]), and all-around the reproductive material was a waste. Corax shut down his hothousing method, and starts fucking with the Traitors, even at reduced numbers. The book ends on a note with Alpharius Omegon deciding that while their plan for saving the galaxy was still good, they decide working with Xenos isn't working for them.
*'''''Know No Fear:''''' The Ultras are still ignorant about Istvaan and the civil war erupting around the galaxy, and are on muster at Calth with the Word Bearers [[troll|on orders from Horus]] to go kill some Orks together as a conciliatory gesture. They were in for a surprise. The Word Bearers, while happy as hell to get revenge, are really trying to [[Eldrad|dick over]] the Ultramarines to keep them out of the Heresy, if not destroy them outright. What happens next is the Word Bearers arrange some "accidents" using sorcery and good ol' fashioned treachery to fake a monumental fuck up in the ship yards that leave the Ultramarine forces blind, deaf, and crippled. They use the confusion to say that the Ultras ''still'' fucking them over, and take the chance to open not only a can, but entire cases of whup ass on the Ultras. Erebus turns Calth's pole into a screaming hellscape to start up a warp storm, while Kor Phaeron oversees the systematic extermination of the Ultramarines and also successfully poisons Calth's sun. Guilliman gets jettisoned into space, but survives because [[Spiritual Liege]]. He then leads a counterattack on Kor Phaeron, and while Kor comes ''this close'' to getting a Primarch kill with [[Sorcerer (Warhammer 40,000)|Chaos mindbullets]], but in a moment of self-aggrandizement, he holds back tries to corrupt Guilliman with his own dagger-sized '''MURDER SWORD'''. Guilliman calmly tells him "The Codex Astartes <s>does</s> will not support this action" (it was really "You made an error" followed by an explanation of that error, and "but while I'm alive, I can do this") and [[Rip and Tear|rips out Kor Paeron's main heart with an unpowered lightning claw]]. Kor Phaeron's minions run away with his carcass, allowing the Ultras to retake their space station, which in turn allows Mechanicus plot power, aided by a planet's worth of orbital defense batteries, to bring the ground war back into the Ultramarines' favor. The novel ends with Word Bearers getting the hell out of there, and the Ultramarines evacuating everyone they can off of Calth and telling everybody they can't to get underground, expositioning to the underground war. Special features of this novel include Guilliman not being a cock, [[Ollanius Pious]] being the special guest star with his very own subplot, and the Word Bearers having athame blades as special issue, one of which will [[Uriel Ventris|come back later]]. You might notice this summary is pretty spoilerific, but if you didn't know the broad strokes already, you're in the wrong place.
*'''''The Primarchs:''''' A novella anthology. As the name suggests, it contains stories featuring Primarchs.
**'''''The Reflection Crack'd:''''' - <s>[[Lucius]] and friends anally rape [[Fulgrim]]. Yeah.</s> While questionable use of a ''pear of anguish'' is featured during a game of "Stab the Fulgrim," the real story is this: Lucius and his buddies are deep into the [[/d/|sickfuckery]] which will come to characterize their Legion, but begin to suspect that Fulgrim might have a daemon in him when he begins acting like not-Fulgrim and uses sorcery. They ambush him and try to exorcise it with pain, because torturing a Slaaneshi daemon will totally work (though they find out that a Primarch can grow back a foot, and just about any other wound). Among everything else: [[Fabius Bile|Fabulous Bill]] is still an arrogant dick; Lucius is still a maniacal and colossally narcissistic sick fuck; Kaesoron is still an angry badass; Vairosean is still a sycophantic cunt; and Eidolon was still a self-important, whiny douche, but Fulgrim throws a tantrum and cuts his head off, and there was much cheering from the readers, and that ''plus'' almost certain off-screen fapping among the Legionaries. Leads into ''Angel Exterminatus''.
**'''''Feat of Iron''''' - [[Ferrus Manus]]'s Legion is trying to off some Eldar on a desert world, but can't find the major Eldar strategic asset because of Spess Elf warp bullshit. A Farseer thinks he can warn Ferrus about the Heresy, and traps him in the webway or some psychic realm for a spirit quest long enough to fight a [[Fulgrim|giant purple snake]] (which is [[/d/|disturbingly appropriate imagery]] when you think about it); and Ferrus thinks it was the wyrm that he killed and gave him his metal hands, but the snake tells him that he must be mistaking it for somebody else. Ferrus kills it, and meets the Farseer who tries to tell Ferrus that he wasn't just being a dick. Ferrus, having too many experiences with Eldar being dicks, knocks some sense into the Farseer, who manages to run just fast enough to avoid getting killed. Ferrus comes back and helps his Legion fight off the Eldar kill the Webway beacon, or whatever the hell it was. In the background of all of this, the Iron Hands, having lost Ferrus, decide to [[/tg/ gets shit done|get shit done]] rather than bitch about potentially dead father, and work to complete the mission despite being weighed down by Imperial Army who are dying of dehydration and heat stroke. The Eldar figure out a way to use storm clouds that make Iron Hands bionics kill their users, and Ferrus has a bitch of an itch around his neck that he can't get rid of. [[Drop Site Massacre|I wonder if that's important]].
**'''''The Lion:''''' - Dark Angels fight daemons and reinstitute Librarians. The Lion teamkills Nemiel, ruining all the buildup from the previous two <s>Dark</s> Fallen Angels Books. then they steal an intelligent warp engine from [[Typhus]] then set course for Macragge to sort out Guilliman.
**'''''Serpent Beneath:''''' - Alpharius Omegon plots against himself and destroys a facility built around what looks suspiciously like a Cadian Pylon (and said facility keeping the White Scars out of the war), due to [[Cake|an information leak]], and they can't have that. Except than none of the main players are Alpharius or Omegon. And Alpharius and Omegon can't decide if they're secretly working against each other or not. Also: considered to be one of the better works of the series, not only due to quality, but because of the sheer mindfuckery of the plot, keeping entirely within the rationale of the Alpha Legion without any jumps in logic or canon.

=== Books XXI - XXX ===
*'''''Fear to Tread:''''' Despite being Black Library's most financially successful book ''ever'' and hitting thirteen (!) on the New York Times bestseller list (without Oprah's recommendation, even), many [[/tg/|fa/tg/uy]]s find it a bit ridiculous. Why? Well, there's planets with giant frowny faces inhabited by garbage monsters, ships getting blown up by city-sized rocks launched from the aforementioned planets, a nearly-stereotypically-gay [[Slaanesh]]i daemon that doesn't actually serve much of a purpose in the story, and a villain named the Red Angel, despite the fact [[Angron]] already claimed that as a nickname (although he was first introduced in ''Horus Heresy: Collected Visions'', so it's not [[James Swallow]]'s fault). Oh, and Sanguinius acts like an idiot about [[Chaos]] the whole time, which fits the [[fluff]], but come on, how many freaky supernatural signs do you need to see before you decide it's not just foul xenos?<br>In all fairness, of course, ''Fear to Tread'' does have quite a few good moments, especially when it comes to [[Warp]]-related terror. It also has a priceless bromance between [[Horus]] and [[Sanguinius]], not to mention Sanguinius and his Legion get characterized very well.
*'''''Shadows of Treachery:''''' Yet another anthology. Most of the stories are tie-togethers or "in betweens", and some are very short.
**'''''The Crimson Fist''''' - A story about two parallel story lines. The first is set during the Battle of Phall, a space battle between the Iron Warriors and what's left over from a third of the Imperial Fists. Despite having the superior numbers, more and bigger guns, suicidal expenditure cohorts, and the power of a raging hatred boner, the Iron Warriors were losing to the Imperial Fists's maneuverability and Captain Polux's protagonist power. Eventually, the Fists get the order and window to withdraw to Terra, though turning tail would put their fleet at a huge disadvantage. given the choice between blind obedience to his father and carrying on the battle they were winning, Polux chooses the former and takes his Fists back to Terra, but ends up in the Imperium Secundus instead. This was also the first of the two depictions of Perturabo, and clearly the worst of the two as he's shown as a cold-hearted Saturday morning cartoon villain with rage control issues. The second story line follows [[Sigismund]] as he follows around Rogal, and the twist is that he was ordered to command the fleet that got trapped at Phall which was on its way to Istvaan V, but delegated it to Polux. The twist is that he met Euphrati Keeler, had a spiritual experience, and felt that he would be needed at Terra, and so handed off the smaller fight to Polux. When he eventually opened up to Rogal, this got him in trouble. See, Rogal was still one of the [[Imperial Truth|stupid atheists]] at this point, so he disowned Sigismund because he thought "serving a higher purpose" got in the way of doing his job. This left Sigismund feeling really sad and pissed off, thus was his start of <s>darkness</s> daddy issues. [[Black Templars|Really pissed off and bad ass daddy issues.]]
**'''''The Dark King''''' - A look into the head and story of Konrad Curze during the events leading up to the Dropsite Massacre. It shows how Curze, even if you buy that he was a murderous paladin of justice and order through fear rather than just a fearsome murderer, is getting pretty fucked up in the head and lives with the knowledge of his demise haunting him, which isn't that great for his sanity. It also involves him beating up Rogal Dorn, killing some Imp Fists and Emp's Children terminators with his bare hands, then blowing up Nostramo.
**'''''The Lightning Tower''''' - Basically, 20 pages of Rogal Dorn. The first 10 is him being sad about ruining the Imperial Palace as a grand piece of art by fortifying it into a coldly functional fortress. The next 10 is Rogal having an existential monologue then a conversation with Malcador, all about why he doesn't know why Horus declared war on the Emperor and brought half of the Legions with him, and is partly afraid to find out why in case it makes sense. Malcador ends up knowing at least a little about Chaos, and somehow got his hands on a tarot deck Curze used throughout his life, even to the close of ''The Dark King''. (Don't ask how he got them. Really.) Also the (*Name Drop*) Lightning Tower is the important card that comes up, signifying a [[Siege of Terra|destruction of fortifications]] and/or a [[Imperium of Man|change of thinking through sacrifice]].
**'''''The Kaban Project''''' - Primarily focuses on the Kaban Machine from Mechanicum. It's an alright story, but unfortunately is somewhat generic-feeling.
**'''''Raven's Flight''''' - Kind of a prequel to Deliverance Lost. The story tells how Marcus Valerius and Commander Branne of the Raven Guard decide to go to Isstvan due to Valerius dreams.
**'''''Death of a Silversmith''''' - The title says it all. A silversmith attatched to the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet is tasked with making four rings for the Mournival, and then he gets killed. The story is seen from the perspective of the silversmith who describes his life until the now. Ultimately it is kind of irrelevant, but the lore nerds or people who have been paying attention might find it interesting. It is however only barely 20 pages long, so you might as well read it anyway.
**'''''Prince of Crows''''' - Features the Thramas Crusade viewed from First Captain Sevatar of the Night Lords. It's essentially about showing the fractures in the Night Lords Legion. As most stories written by [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden]], it's pretty good.
*'''''Angel Exterminatus:''''' [[Perturabo]] & [[Fulgrim]] raid a [[Eldar|crone world]], Fulgrim gets made into a daemon prince. Is a bit of a skub novel because the depiction of Perturabo is so different from expected, rather than being the bitter [[RAGE|Rage]] machine from every other depiction, he's a quiet [[Neckbeard|nerd who plays with toys as a hobby]], but with muscles.
*'''''Betrayer:''''' Lorgar and Angron rampage over the Ultramarines 500 worlds. Lots of references to Angron's past and his Butcher's Nails are killing him slowly. Turns out one of the Ultramarine worlds was his own Homeworld, so he destroys it and Lorgar makes him into a daemon-prince. Also remember the Furious Abyss? Lorgar has two more. Also focuses on Khârn and Argel Tal being bros, until Erebus decides to intervene.
** '''''Angron:''''' An anthology about <s>Lorgar</s> <s>Horus</s> <s>Dorn</s> <s>Malcador</s> <s>the plumber for the Golden Throne</s> Fuck, we can't remember. It often gets passed over in the official lists, since it's actually a republish of older short stories: '''After De'shea''', '''Butcher's Nails''' ''(print format)'', and '''Lord of the Red Sands''' ''(which was initially a standalone release,'' even later ''republished in'' The Imperial Truth'')''.
*'''''Mark of Calth:''''' Another set of short stories, though all focussed on the [[Ultramarines]] or the [[Word Bearers]].
**'''''Shards of Erebus:''''' - We find that [[Erebus]] broke the '''MURDER SWORD''' into eight daggers/athames and shared them with his bros.
**'''''Calth That Was''''' - The story focuses on an Ultramarine Captain and Co. and on a Word Bearers commander and his Dark Apostle. Longer-than-the-rest-story short, Word Bearers try to kill everyone, and the Ultramarines save the day in the nick of time. After all, THE GREATEST OF THE-{{BLAM}}
**'''''Dark Heart''''' - A young Word Bearer is interrogated by Kor Phaeron after killing his mentor with dark powers. A kind of nice story that shows the <s>degredation</s> enlightenment of the Legion.
**'''''The Traveller''''' - A group of human survivors are stuck in a cave, one of them hears dark whisperings and starts executing everyone for being heretics.
**'''''A Deeper Darkness''''' - A story about an Ultramarine who likes to [[pretend]] his bolter rounds are dice who has fun times with his friends in the dark.
**'''''The Underworld War''''' - A story that has little to do with the actual Underworld War. It features a Gal Vorbak who sees the attack on Calth as a clusterfuck of fail. Has a plot-twist ending.
**'''''Athame''''' - A narrated story of the history of a knife. That's about it.
**'''''Unmarked''''' - Ollanius Pius and friends is traveling through time and space using the athame from the previous story. We learn a lot more about Oll's past, going into detail about his offhand mentions that he was one of the Argonauts and that he served in the First World War and the First Gulf War.
*'''''Vulkan Lives:''''' What happened to Vulkan after the Dropsite Massacre? He got made Konrad Curze's bitch. Plenty of fun with dining implements and an awesome ending involving a hammer. Not one of the best HH Books though is a somewhat necessary read for continuing the plot arc.
*'''''The Unremembered Empire:''''' [[Perpetual|Matt Damon]] killed Martin Luther King. This happens in the book. Also, unlike the cover and synopsis would imply, it's ''not'' about Sanguinius and Guilliman working together to build a back-up Imperium around Ultramar, which leads to the question of ''why that's on the cover?'' No one knows what it is really about.
*'''''Scars:''''' Technically the third book of the Prospero arc. The Khan returns to the Imperium after killing Orks left over from Ullanor and can't decide what side to join. Turns his back on Leman Russ during a fight with the Alpha Legion and goes looking for his best friend Magnus, also gets into a fight with Mortarion on the way, also [[The Fallen|half his legion turns traitor]] but turns out it's no big deal.
** '''''Brotherhood of the Storm:''''' Prequel to Scars, shows the White Scars fighting Orks on Chondax.
*'''''Vengeful Spirit''''' Horus goes looking for power to make him equal to the Emperor- the Chaos Gods give it to him by sending him to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber from Dragon Ball Z. We learn that the Emperor gained his powers after making a pact with the Chaos Gods where they gave him a fraction of their power, then somehow managed to double-cross them in what is quite possibly the most retarded retcon ever introduced in the entire book series (though the Chaos Gods have been claiming this throughout the series). Loken comes back. There's also the Knights of <s>Lannister</s> Molech, who fall to Slaanesh through copious amounts of Twincest. Also, if you have been ignoring the audio books, you will be a bit lost at the start of this one.
*'''''The Damnation of <s>Pathos</s> <s>Python</s> Pythos''''' A Lovecraftian Horror story disguised as a Horus Heresy story. Has the most grimdark ending of the series thus far, up there with Dead Men Walking. Adds just about as much to the overall series as ''Furious Abyss'' did, but is a little better written (which means it's still pretty bad). It is actually the prequel to a book outside of the Horus Heresy series.

=== Books XXXI onwards ===
*'''''Legacies of Betrayal''''' Another anthology, though this time it's a bit of cheat, and they just consolidated several pre-existing stories; some of the the novellas but also included print versions of audio books.
**'''Brotherhood of the Storm''' - see above
**'''Serpent''' - A really short and out-of-place story about a Davinite Priest.
**'''Hunters Moon''' - originally an audiobook involving peasant fishermen rescuing a crashed space wolf who is hunting the Alpha Legion, it obviously doesn't end well.
**'''Veritas Ferrum''' - a prequel to Damnation of Pythos, about an Iron Hands starship escaping ''(against their better nature)'' from Isstvan with some survivors.
**'''Strike and Fade''' - More survivors of Isstvan, though this is about Salamanders just killing time (and Night Lords) whilst they wait to be rescued.
**'''Honour to the Dead''' - about Ultramarines and an innocent woman and child trying her hardest to follow them to safety.
**'''Butcher's Nails''' - A good one to read, Angron & Lorgar go on the Shadow-Crusade and come to an understanding whilst fighting Eldar.
**'''Warmaster''' - Horus considering how much of a badass he is while chatting with Ferrus Manus's skull.
**'''Kryptos''' - Somewhere in the Galactic East (either Thramas Crusade or Imperium Secundus), Nykona Sharrowkyn and company go find a warp code interpreter that will let them intercept garbled enemy communications.
**'''Wolfs Claw''' - Bjorn the Fell-Handed needs a replacement arm, but the Iron Priests are too busy, but he happens to find a nice fancy relic one just lying around.
**'''The Divine Word'''
**'''Thief of Revelations''' - After Prospero, the Thousand Sons need something to stop all their rampant mutation, so Ahriman goes to ask why Magnus has locked himself away. He's got bigger things to worry about and is looking across time and space for key events for future [[Just as Planned]] manipulations.
**'''Lucius the Eternal Warrior''' - After his first death ''(and unexplained resurrection)'' at the hands of Nykona Sharrowkyn, Lucius has somehow abandoned the Heresy and goes to the planet of Sorcerers to fight a duel with a Thousand Son, ends up meeting Ahriman.
**'''The Eightfold Path''' - Kharn and the World Eaters realise that too much rip and tear is leading them [[Khorne|down a damning path]], but they're already too far gone.
**'''Guardian of Order''' - [[Cypher]] and [[Zahariel]] discover that the Ouroboros (banished in Fallen Angels) is coming back
**'''Heart of the Conqueror''' - Angron's Navigator gets a bit uppity about being made to turn traitor, despite having been picked for the job as the angry man's chauffeur by the Emperor himself
**'''Censure''' - Aonid Thiel killing time and Word Bearers in the Underworld War on Calth, writing notes on his armour that will eventually get written into Guilliman's draft of the [[Codex Astartes|Codex]]. Get's bored and goes back to Macragge in the end.
**'''Lone Wolf''' - Bjorn has lost all of his squad, but is now such an awesome badass that he can solo Bloodthirsters.
*'''''Death and Defiance''''' Yet another anthology
**'''Imperfect''' - Daemon-Fulgrim has been getting Fabius to clone Ferrus Manus, because the split personality thing makes him feel guilty about failing to turn his brother to Horus's side, but the clones are never quite right and go mental at each suggestion. Fabius also has his own stuff going on.
**'''Howl of the Heathworld''' - Space Wolves get sent to Terra to watch over Rogal Dorn so he doesn't start using psykers, its a pointless task and everyone know it. Also offers insight into the Wolves naming conventions.
**'''A Safe and Shadowed Place''' - [[Night Lords]] start stabbing each other in the back as soon as Curze goes missing while solo'ing Macragge. It's about a ship floating in the ruinstorm that has just discovered the [[Imperium Secundus|Pharos]] and foreshadows problems for Ultramar.
**'''Virtues of the Sons''' - Sanguinius forsees that he will not always be in charge of the Blood Angels, but worries about the Red Thirst causing havoc with his sons futures. So gets Amit to duel Kharn and Azkaellon to duel Lucius in hopes they'll learn something. Azkaellon learns to let the rage out a bit and Amit learns a modicum of restraint.
**'''Gunsight''' - The Vindicare Assassin from Nemesis is still alive and on Horus' flagship, its about him spending years waiting for the opportune moment to get a shot, but he starts going mad while he waits.
*'''''Blades of the Traitor''''' yet [[What|ANOTHER]] anothology
**'''Daemonology''' - To and fro' story about [[Mortarion]]. On Terra he discovers the initial construction of the Golden Throne and gets told about Emp's plan for removing psykers. In the "present day" he captures a daemon and starts practising sorcery on it.
**'''Black Oculus''' - A short story about Navigators describing what it's like travelling in the warp.... basically it's [[Grimdark]].
**'''Chirurgeon''' - [[Fabius Bile]] narrating about his history, and what happened about the gene-flaw that almost wiped out the [[Emperor's Children]].
**'''Twisted''' - '''Maloghurst''' gets a story about him uncovering plots against Horus and gets wrapped up in intrigue. It actually shows him as a really clever bastard and a bit of a badass.
**'''Wolf Mother''' - [[Perpetual|Alivia Sureka]]'s kids get captured after their escape from Molech and she teams up with [[Knights-Errant|Sevarian]] in order to get them back. Lots of coolness on Sevarian's part and we also get to see that Perpetuals can resist possession.
*'''''Tallarn: Executioner''''' - A novella about a vehicle squadron (Leman Russ Executioner, Vanquisher and a Salamander) having to deal with the toxic surface in the weeks after the surface bombardment and then come into contact with the Iron Warriors. Also the Alpha Legion have a hand in things, like they always do.
*'''''Tallarn: Ironclad''''' - Part two of the Tallarn story.
*'''''Deathfire''''' - What the Salamanders have been saying since Isstvan is true: Vulkan lives! Well now he does. Basically a bunch of Salamanders take his body from Macragge to Nocturne and throw him into Nocturne's largest volcano, and lo and behold he comes back to life, making that entire plotline pointless. Still has the fucking Fulgurite in his chest, though. TL;DR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7nzml-zZ9M
*'''''The Wolf King ''''' - The Space Wolves find themselves set upon by the forces of the Alpha Legion before they can recover from the Razing of Prospero and are hounded to the edge of the Alaxxes Nebula. There the Alpha Legion beat the ever-living shi...stuffing out of the wolves whilst Russ locks himself in his room and sulks. Russ eventually summons his new favourite Bjorn to join him and they have bit of a heart to heart about what a bunch of morons they were in allowing themselves to be manipulated so easily by Horus. By the end Russ is back to his old self and celebrates by massacring every Alpha he can get his hands on even if it’s clear that his defeat is inevitable. Fortunately for the Wolves helps comes from a hidden armada of Dark Angels ostensibly "loyal" to [[Luther]], but unaware of the Horus Heresy or of the whereabouts or actions of the Lion. Russ borrows gear and manpower from them in exchange for info on current events which most likely finds its way back to Luther and sets the "Destiny of Caliban" in motion. Russ then heads for Terra.
*'''''War Without End''''': Anthologies Without End.
*'''''Pharos''''': Night Lords fucking up the Pharos Lighthouse on Sotha. Sanguinius eventually grows some balls and starts standing up to Guilliman instead of just being a pantomime Emperor, while the Lion is nowhere to be seen as usual. Warsmith Dantioch bites it while using the Pharos to burn the Night Lords out of his fortress, but inadvertently piques the interest of the [[Tyranids]], causing them to show up 10,000 years later.
*'''''Eye of Terra''''': Another anthology.
*'''''Path Of Heaven'''': Sequel to Scars. The White Scars have been fighting traitor legions for a few years but are starting to show the strain. They finally make a shift back to Terra but things don't go as planned.

== The Tabletop Wargame ==
[[Forge World]] is producing a new line of books and models (''in addition to'' [[Imperial Armour]] and [[Warhammer Forge]]) to allow players to fight battles from the Horus Heresy in [[Warhammer 40,000]]. This includes rules and models for the [[Primarchs]] (both pre- and post-fall, for the Traitors) as well as ancient vehicles. No [[xenos]], unfortunately. Presumably this came about because GW felt that they just weren't making quite enough money from die-hard marine/chaos players and figured they could literally buy a dump-truck full of gold plated cocaine each if they made a version of the game that requires only Forge World minis AND thousands upon thousands of them. Still worth it, though.

=== Betrayal ===
Forge World starts big, as their first book covers the battles on Istvaan III, in which [[Horus]] sent the remaining loyalist elements of the [[Sons of Horus]], [[Emperor's Children]], [[Death Guard]], and [[World Eaters]] to the surface, ostensibly to rout the anti-Imperial resistance that had taken hold in the capital city, and then fired [[Exterminatus]] torpedoes (of the life-eater virus bomb variety) onto the city to wipe them out.

Unfortunately for Horus, not everything went as planned; not only did the loyalist Death Guard frigate ''Eisenstein'' escape to the [[Phalanx]] with word of Horus's betrayal, but loyalist elements on other ships were able to disrupt the bombardment and warn the loyalists on the ground that it was coming. Between the disruption, the warning, and good old-fashioned [[Space Marine]] toughness, only a third or so of the landed force had actually died. Horus would have fired another bombardment, but [[Angron]] and his traitor World Eaters jumped the gun and made planetfall; the other traitors were left with no choice but to deploy themselves and destroy the remaining loyalists personally.

''Betrayal'' contains a [[Great Crusade]] Legion army list (for which we have a [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Space Marines/Legion List‎|tactica]]), and rules for special characters and units from the [[Sons of Horus]], [[Death Guard]], [[Emperor's Children]], and [[World Eaters]] Legions, including their [[Primarch]]s (even [[Fulgrim]], who was not actually at the battle) and several major characters from the book series such as Garviel Loken.

===Massacre===
The infamous Drop Site Massacre is the focus of the next book, where seven Legions are sent to crush Horus’ rebellion, only for four of those to turn on the other three and crush them utterly. The books storyline is essentially just the ''first day'' of the battle, leading up to the death of [[Ferrus Manus]].

Massacre contains additional rules for special characters and units from the [[Iron Hands]], [[Night Lords]], [[Salamanders]] and [[Word Bearers]] Legions including their Primarchs and several more major characters from the book series make their debut such as Sevatar, Eidolon, Erebus and Kharn.

===Extermination===
Focusses on the second half of Istvaan V, as well as the Battle of Phall between the [[Iron Warriors]] and [[Imperial Fists]]; and on that note, it includes rules for those two Legions, as well as the [[Alpha Legion]] and the [[Raven Guard]].

It also gives us a complete Mechanicum Army List: the Taghmata.

====Isstvan Campaign Legions & Crusade Army Lists====
Were initially released as part of the limited edition run of Extermination, but were then later released separately. They are fluff-lite, codex-equivalent books that also included all of the FAQs/Errata up to their release; which unfortunately was still the end of 6th edition so some rules haven't carried over well. ''(eg. [[Lorgar]]s psychic rules.)''

The Crusade Army List is basically the generic 30k Space Marine "codex", whilst the Isstvan Campaign Legions contains all of the collected rules for the legions; their units, characters and wargear in the previous three book. Meaning you can have a cheaper alternative to buying multiple £70+, huge black tomes JUST to play the game.

===Conquest===
Horus Heresy Volume Four is entitled 'Conquest', despite early hints from Forgeworld that it would be about the Battle of Prospero, it instead features Horus' conquest of the Imperium and the [[Skub|"Major"]] battles of this time, which is to say some battle-zones that Forgeworld made up to fill time whilst they worked on the more well known events from the in-universe history. ''(And to be fair, their response as to why Prospero was delayed was because it included four major factions, [[Adeptus Custodes|two of]] [[Sisters of Silence|which have]] NEVER been represented on the tabletop, so required more time to do them justice.)''

A large portion of the book is given over to running battles in the '''"Age of Darkness"''', which is a variant ruleset used as the default for Horus Heresy games ''(where only Troops usually score, amongst other things)'' and has rules and FOCs for Cityfight missions, rules for running ongoing campaigns, variant rules for mysterious terrain and objectives as well as including unique relics to be taken by the various army lists to add flavor to non-special characters.

It also introduces the [[Solar Auxilia]] and [[Imperial Knight|"Questoris" Knights]] (as an AdMech list) armies to play while the modellers take a break from building power armor 24/7.

===Tempest===
The fifth Horus Heresy book will cover the Battle of Calth. The rules for the [[Ultramarines]] (including [[Roboute Guilliman]] himself) as well as several warp-corrupted Word Bearer units are brought in alongside a few other new miscellaneous FW releases, including the Deredeo and the new Thanatars. There's also an Imperial Militia (Read: PDF) list that's super-customizable so you can make both loyalist and traitor lists. Also, the MOTHERFUCKING [[Warlord Titan|WARLORD TITANS]] IS IN IT TOO. PREPARE YOUR WALLET.

===Retribution===
Focused on 'Shadow Wars' far from the main fronts of the Heresy, in particular the Shattered Legions - that is, the [[Iron Hands]], [[Raven Guard]], and [[Salamanders]] in their weakened state following their losses in the Drop Site Massacre. But other Legions can also be included, with special rules for the Shattered Legions, Black Shields and a list for Armies of Dark Compliance - mixed traitor Legiones/Militia lists, as well as ten new special characters. It includes Legiones Astartes rules for the White Scars, Blood Angels and Dark Angels, so that players of those legions can start playing properly; however, it does not include special units, characters, or Primarchs for those legions. It also includes Garro and the Knights Errant and additional Mechanicum units and characters, including a new Dark Magos, Anacharis Scoria. Space Wolves and Thousand Sons will still need to wait for the Prospero book (Inferno, Book 7).

===Inferno===

In late 2016 will come what many neckbeards are waiting for: THE BURNING OF PROSPERO!!! For those [[Thousand Sons]] players, start saving up so you can play your space Egyptian sorcerers in all their 30k glory. Rules for the Sisters of Silence as an allied detachment and the Adeptus Custodes as a full army list will be present as well.

== See Also ==
* [[Alternate Heresy]], for a discussion of other possible outcomes of the (not necessarily Horus) Heresy.

== External Links ==
* [http://geekdo.com/boardgame/3170/horus-heresy Horus Heresy (1993)] at BoardGameGeek
* [http://geekdo.com/boardgame/63543/horus-heresy Horus Heresy (2010)] at BoardGameGeek

{{40k-Timeline}}

[[Category:Board Games]][[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Wargames]]