2d4chan - User contributions [en]

Ferrus Manus

2017-01-14T21:23:38Z

2A02:C7D:CA0:8500:F575:216B:C57B:8758: /* In 40k? */

[[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]].]]

''"Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking."''<br>
— William Butler Yeats

''"By turns our purity inspires and our impurity casts us down."''<br>
— Henry David Thoreau

''"As iron is eaten away by rust, so the envious are consumed by their own passion."''<br>
- Antisthenes

''"Metal is like flesh. Both carry potential in their veins. When tempered with heat and pressure, the potential surfaces."''<br>
- Coaxmetal

'''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 [[Magnus|dishonored]] and [[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. A projection of his soul was summoned by the Emperor during the final battle in the Webway, where it proceeded to wreck greater demon shit.

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 reality as possible. The following is taken from the preface to a novel where the Iron Hands are portrayed as emotionless, flesh-hating, misanthropes:

''"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."''

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]]

The God-Emperor of Mankind

2017-01-14T21:20:35Z

2A02:C7D:CA0:8500:F575:216B:C57B:8758: /* Great Crusade */

[[File:Lord of Mankind.jpg|400px|right|thumb|Liberating the galaxy is one thing, but he was so powerful he never once stopped looking ''fabulous'' while doing it.]]
<div style="text-align:center;font-size:1.10em;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;font-family:serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:1em"><span style='color:gold;font-size:100%'> I have come to eradicate Religion as it is the bane of Man, warped in superstition, ignorance and fear! - The Emperor before the Treason of Horus'''</span> </div>

<blockquote><i>We believe in one Lord, the Emperor, the Almighty, ruler of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen. We believe in one Lord, Emperor of Mankind, the only Lord of creation, eternally begotten of Humanity, Human from Human, Light from Light, true Lord from true Lord, begotten, not made, of one Being with Humanity; through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and came among us. For our sake he has faced down Chaos; he withstood death and was enthroned. To this day he lives on in accordance with the Scriptures; he resides upon Mother Terra and is seated upon the throne of Humanity. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Emperor, the giver of life, who proceeds from Humanity and from Terra, who with Humanity and upon Terra is worshiped and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets. We believe in one holy true and divinely guided Ecclesiarchy. We acknowledge one path for the defense against Chaos. We look for the justice for our dead, and the life of the worlds to come.
<br>++ Ayhmen ++</i><br>
-- the [[Imperial Cult|Creed]] of the Mankind's Council of Nicene of Holy Terra</blockquote>

''"Wars begin when you will, but they do not end when you please."''<br>
— Niccoló Machiavelli

''Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.''<br>
- Proverbs 16:18

''Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.''<br>
''Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.''<br>
''Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?''<br>
''Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?''<br>
- Epicurus

The '''God-Emperor of Mankind''', also known as '''The Emprah''', '''Emps''', '''Big E''', '''E-Money''', '''Augustus Imperator''', '''Master of Mankind''', '''Space Jesus,''' and also sometimes called '''The Anathema''', '''The Carrion Lord''', '''The False Emperor''', '''The Immortal Emperor''' or '''The Corpse on the Throne''' is the figurehead ruler of the [[Imperium of Man]] in the [[Warhammer 40k]] universe and is the only sustaining [[Tzeentch|Hope]] for Humanity as Faster than Light Travel is [[Astronomican|entirely dependent on Him]]. The [[Administratum]] He established, continues to govern the [[Imperium]] in His name, but it is generally accepted that the absence of the Emperor's proper guidance is what has turned the Imperium into the [[/b/|hellish mess]] that it is. In the [[Imperium]], questioning whatever your superior yells at you, is "moronic" and [[heresy|heretical]], and is typically punished by [[blam|peace]] (at least in the material realm). He created the 20 primarchs, who viewed him as their "father". However, he saw them more as tools, and instead of names, referred to them by numbers. *Dick*. It goes without saying that would The Emperor be up and about in the 41st millennium He would be very disappointed. Most fa/tg/uys expect Him to [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0191520/bio speak in a generic deep, stentorian voice].

Also wrote Pinocchio, which would make Carlo Collodi one of his aliases, He also began life as a two-bit undertaker in an obscure Middle-Eastern village.

==The Entire History of the Emprah==
===Early life===
[[File:Majestica.jpg|250px|left|thumb|Big E gets all the bitches.]]
The Emperor is a [[Perpetual]]; an immortal psyker with countless lifetimes' worth of knowledge and power and the ambition to use it. According to the fluff, the being that would eventually become known as The Emperor was born in 8000 BC in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) on the banks of the Sakarya river to a tribe of proto-[[Wikipedia:Hittites|Hittites]]. From his own account, his path towards greatness was spurred on when his uncle murdered his father; so kid-Emps did the responsible thing and gave his uncle a myocardial infarction. Kid-Emps then realised that humans needed laws, and good laws needed to be given by good leaders: setting him on the (xeno/geno)cidal path of self-righteousness and conquest that would continue for the next 38,000 years.

Allegedly, ''(according to 1st & 2nd edition fluff)'', his birth was the result of hundreds of human shamans committing ritual suicide to be reborn as a single individual capable of protecting humanity from the [[Chaos Gods]]. However, [[Skub|the validity of this fluff is frequently questioned]], given it hasn't been "official" since second edition. However, this theory seems unlikely, especially given that other Perpetuals are known to exist, [[Ollanius Pius|some of which]] may be even older than the Emperor, and they don't have godlike powers. The Chaos Gods apparently view the Emperor as an equal/rival due to his acquisition of powers at a later point ''(see below)''. Yet other fluff tidbits imply that he is some sort of flesh-construct from the Dark Age of Technology run amok and aping human affectation. This one seems to have some level of truth to it, as Constantin Valdor neither confirmed nor denied it when a shit-kicking Nord Afrikan minister mentioned it to him.

The 1st & 2nd edition fluff also mentions that He guided humanity throughout history under a number of guises, such as Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, Randy 'the Macho Man' Savage etc. And, it ''has'' to be assumed, [[Conan the Barbarian]]. ''(It is also possible that He was Russian emperor Peter I, purely based on the fact that imperial Russia's symbol was the two-headed eagle, and Peter I was considered huge (or great, depending on translation))''

Sometime around the 11th or 12th century, He battled a shard of the [[Void Dragon]] in modern-day Libya. He eventually defeated it and locked it on [[Mars]], allowing the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] to control machines... eventually. Of course, it's not entirely clear whether this is true or not -- it's entirely possible that ALL of the Emperor's history is a lazily-crafted lie He throws around because no one can debunk it. Although given how [[Awesome]] it sounds, we're going to say it is. Either that, or it's just another example of how [[Games Workshop|Geedubs]] can't be bothered to keep their stories consistent even about the most important parts of the setting.

Whatever his actual origins might have been, for the most part He more or less stayed out of the way of humanity's progress during the next 30,000 years of history, including the [[Dark Age of Technology]], though hot-off-the-press fluff indicates He might have been traversing outer space in old-style NASA rockets with the other Perpetuals, to eventually coming to find the planet '''Molech''', where He passed through a gateway that led ''directly'' to the fortresses of the four [[Chaos Gods]]. Here He either challenged, bargained, or stole portions of power from a source claimed by the gods as their own. This would earn Him the ire of the duped/defeated Ruinous Powers, who consider him as some sort of usurper or that he reneged on some kind of undisclosed deal we haven't been made aware of yet.

===Unification Wars===
He returned to Terra at the closing years of the [[Age of Strife]]. With Terra cut off from the rest of the Human empire and the Terra itself ruled by warring "techno-barbarians", in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, the E-money decided to reveal Himself, using His mastery of genetic engineering to create the [[Adeptus Custodes|Custodians]] and cheaper, easier to make [[Thunder Warriors]] ''(the predecessors of the Space Marines)''. Using "join-me-or-die" tactics, He managed to conquer the entirety of Terra during the event called Unification Wars. Then, He made contact with the Mechanicum of Mars and calling Himself the [[Omnissiah]], convinced them to build Him weapons and space-ships. Around this time, He also created a doctrine, the [[Imperial Truth]], which states that religion, faith, and superstition must be all banned, because they have never succeeded in unifying the human race during all of Emp's lifetime. Simply put: the whole "Peace, Love, and Religion" mumbo-jumbo has never worked and now must be eradicated.

Exception where's He's not a perfect badass? [[The Last Church]]. It is permissible to substitute the voice of whatever angry militant atheist appeals to you most/least for the duration of this one (short) story. Also, according to that same story, this asshole wiped out Scandinavia, [[Viking|right when Scandinavia was getting fun again]]. According to the Horus Heresy books that mention the Unification Wars, He burned down a lot of things on a partially recovering Terra.

===Great Crusade===
But, before He set out to conquer the stars with the newly-formed Imperial Army (which contained both [[Imperial Guard|ground forces]] and [[Imperial Navy|space-borne fleets]]), He decided to create the twenty [[Primarch]]s, using Himself as the genetic template, while splitting the additional power He ''stole'' from the Gods into 20 portions, infusing each piece with a fragment of His own personality, to allow them, in turn, to congeal and gestate (just like how daemons are born!) into the indomitable souls of His future Primarchs. Then, He bound each such vessel/soul to their godlike bodies/shells as they formed in their gestation capsules. Let this sink in: each primarch is basically a unique daemonic soul, bound to a super awesomely tough material body. Though with this power ''apparently'' stolen, The Big Four will inevitably and continually be pissed at Him for using their power for His own ends. So the Chaos Gods snatched the primarchs away (via time-travel-as-a-vision shenanigans, don't even try to explain it here, just read ''The First Heretic''), inside their incubator pods and all, from the secret lab underneath the Himalayas, to scatter them away across the galaxy. Luckily for the Emperor, some genetic code was left over from each primarch, so from that He created 20 Legions to serve as the elites of His army: The [[Space Marine|SPEHSS MEHREENS]]. So, with His armies and space-ships complete (minus the Primarchs, which He hoped to find), He embarked upon the [[Great Crusade]], to once again make humanity great again.

However, the Emperor himself states to Arkhan Land ''(the guy who discovered Land Speeders/Raiders)'' that he never considered the Primarchs to be his literal sons and saw them as well-crafted tools so he could get his work done. Likening himself to Geppetto ''(from 'Pinocchio')'' in that it is only natural for 20 wooden boys to think of their creator as "Father". Whether He felt any kinship between all of them or only some of them is not entirely known. But it seems like He was all like, "Yall think I'm a bad dad, but look, shit I just made these kids in a lab! I'm not really their dad!". Then again He puts on personas for every occasion (during the meeting, Land saw him as not as a gold armoured god, but as an utterly logical scientist and the Emperor had the whole shtick of people interpreting his words in the manner that made the most sense to them personally) who really knows when He's being genuine or not or how He feels.

As He found each Primarch, He assigned them command of their respective Legions and to act as His generals, warlords and pantheon of heroes that humanity were meant to emulate, in the quest to unify humanity in the Great Crusade ''(although, at some point, one of them was executed and the other disappeared, leaving only 18 Primarchs and Legions after 100 years of the Great Crusade).''

A military campaign of a grand scale, this is also when the SPESS MEHREENS were most awesome and at their peak. [[just as planned|Just when things seemed to be going well]], the [[Horus Heresy]] took place, where 8.5 of the Primarchs and their respective legions rebel against the Emprah. In the end, the Emperor fought and slew [[Horus]] (who was daddy's favorite) but at a great cost. The Emperor was mortally wounded to the point that He had to be put permanently on a life support system known as the [[Golden Throne]]. On that day, an untold amount of manly tears was shed.

==="Modern" Day===
Subsequently, 10 thousand years later, without the Emperor's leadership, the Imperium eventually degraded into the theocratic, [[grimdark]] empire we all know and love today, in the 41st millennium. In the 500th year of the 41st Millennium (the exact middle of the millennium), which is a few centuries before the Time of Ending began, visions and signs reach out to all walks of life and social status to the Imperium of the Emperor crying, whether it's to lowly denizens of an underhive having dreams about it, to respected sanctioned psykers reading it from the Imperial Tarot, to shamans on feral planets instinctively knowing that the extra rain pouring down lately are tears of sadness from their "sky god".

While interred on the Golden Throne, the Emperor's psychic-essence prevents [[daemon|daemon kind]] from directly assailing [[Terra]], while additionally sustaining the psychic-beacon known as the [[Astronomican]], that makes warp travel within 50,000 light years around Terra possible.

It is common knowledge, that the Emperor is the most powerful psyker alive, humbling even the [[Eldar]]. It is also suggested that He has guided humanity in a guise of people like Julius Caesar, [[Conan the Barbarian]], [[meme|Chuck Norris]], Christopher Lee and Jesus. It is uncertain as to whether or not His internment on the Golden Throne is a good thing. Some believe that if He were to die, the [[Imperium]] would be truly fall into darkness, whereas others believe that if allowed to finally die, He would reincarnate and return to unify the galaxy once more, stronger than ever. Whatever the truth, [[Games Workshop]] are probably never going to advance the story, so speculation has little worth. Unless you take Warhammer Fantasy as an example, where the time-line ended. Badly.

==The Emprah Himself==
[[File:Climax.jpg|250px|right|thumb|A typical father-and-son chat between Empy and Horus.]]
:''"The Emperor was a brilliant scientist, a powerful warrior, and great psyker, but he was a terrible [[Venus' Burn|father...]]"
:- [[Roboute Guilliman]], giving a short, yet accurate biography of the Emperor. Though on the other hand, he was actually a terrible father because he never actually saw himself as their father.
.

After He shaved his goatee, His chin radiated [[Astronomican|a brilliant light]] through the [[Warp]]. The [[Imperial Navy]] uses this light as a beacon to guide them through that beautifully terrible place. He is sometimes referred to as the Emprah, a joke derived from the voice acting in the ''[[Dawn of War]]'' game, ''[[Dawn of War: Soulstorm|Soulstorm]]'', specifically [[Indrick Boreale]]'s final speeches.

The Emperor is said to be so powerful that He could [[C'tan|destroy suns with ease]], though He has never actually done so (he however, ''made'' a golden sun which he put in the middle of his broken Webway gate to prevent daemons from spilling through, albeit needing to concentrate on powering it for the next ten thousand years. This would indicate that the Emperor does indeed have the power to destroy stars.). The [[Chaos Gods]] are scared as fuck of the guy, calling him respectively "The Anathema", as in the polar opposite to [[Chaos]]. The [[Eldar]] fear that if the Emperor were to die, a new [[Eye of Terror]] would pop out with Terra at its center and possibly a new Chaos God would be born.

He was also capable of summoning what can only be called an army of human souls (including every soldier who had died for him, Ferrus Manus included) to fight for him; an ability utterly unseen in the 40k universe and suggesting that he has some fundamental connection to human souls in the afterlife - a comforting thought compared to dissolving into the Warp to be eaten by daemons and giving some credence to the 40k era theory that when the Time of Ending...ends..the Emperor and all loyal human souls will join in one final battle against Chaos.

After He was nearly killed by His son, He was placed upon the Golden Throne and hasn't moved for the past 10 millennia. Most of the fluff maintains that His existence on a day-to-day basis since then is a living hell (by comparison, the torture astropaths go through when becoming one, would be like a trip to the dentist). It's the mother/father/uncle/2nd Cousin of all mindfucks, so bad that even an Inquisitor would likely go insane as a result (or anybody else for that matter) and yet He carries on. Why? He may be the universe's most powerful vegetable, but that doesn't mean that He will just take a sit and die. Oh no, it's exactly the opposite. It gives Him a fuckton of work to do, and along with being THE lighthouse in the Warp, guiding the Imperial Navy, He also needs to make the aforementioned astropaths, as well as keeping all the [[daemon|nasties]] of the Warp where they're supposed to be (i.e. not invading realspace to make the lives of all living things miserable). He also does it for the good of humanity (sounds kinda familiar, doesn't it?). In the last year of M41, tech-priests discovered that the Golden Throne is failing and the Emperor is dying. There is a chance of the Emperor returning to life, as well as the risk that He will die forever. If the latter would be the case, then everyone in the galaxy will become a Chaos sex toy/punching bag/plague vector/science experiment. Note that if the Emperor recovers, He'd be several hundred times more powerful. Emps was born of a group of psykers combining their might and souls in one ritual act. Maybe. Since then, Empy has probably gained about 365 gigafucktrillion souls since he got put on that Throne (see: leveling in Dark Souls), as he ''is'' the afterlife now, provided one excludes the veritable Hell that is the Warp. And all that stuff the Eldar get up to.

:''"He's been up to all sorts of things, our beloved father. Consorting with Xenos, resurrecting ancient technology. Don't believe that he is blameless in this...''
:- Magnus the Red

His desire to guide and protect humanity, in addition to His power, made the Emperor as close to a farseer as humanity was ever going to get. He declared humanity to be superior to all Xenos which was fair enough considering the collapse of the Eldar, planned to destroy every shard of religion by force of arms if needed in order to protect them from the whispers of Chaos (fantastic idea anyway), planned to reunite humanity under His rule no matter what anyone else wanted/thought of that (again by force of arms if needed), cared little for the Primarchs being His actual sons (thinking of them as generals and tools rather than biological offspring, and screwing over several of them in His efforts to recruit them / making them follow orders (hence causing some of their later betrayals)), carried out many unorthodox, morally questionable experiments and much much more... All because this was the only way He could foresee humanity surviving the threats to come. Also known as the "Golden Path". Any other action He ever partook in, no matter how unorthodox or morally questionable or just outright horrific was secondary to the one and only goal: survival. For a being that's lived millennia, having foreseen as much as is possible to do so whilst not being an actual god, His way was the only way lest we all face extinction. Those were the options with the context of the universe He found Himself in. Time was against Him, and expediency was the order of the day; secure the physical safety of Mankind in the galaxy then safeguard their minds and souls. Everything else was a tool to be utilized in pursuit of that single purpose. It didn't matter how the godlike princelings felt, or how they were raised; it only mattered that they performed their allocated tasks as swiftly and efficiently as possible so that He could move on to the next phase of His Great Work.

His reign eventually [[Inquisition|killed more humans]] (not even counting those who were innocent) than the entire total of humanity's dictators in history. Even during the Unification Wars, several Terran cultures were wiped out completely (Orioc on Antarctica, for example, was razed to the ground for being religious, just to make a point, even after its forces were defeated and its people ready to surrender), while simultaneously being pretty terrible at incorporating non-Terran elements. Because THAT is just how damn important and dire the circumstances were. An entire galaxy spanning empire needed to be constructed in little under two centuries when the cataclysm was foreseen to occur and ain't no one got time to fart arse about with treating people the way they deserve if the species won't survive.

Contrary to popular belief, he really did think the post-Ullanor phase through to some degree, Horus was the right choice as Warmaster for no other could command the respect of nearly all his brother better than Lupercal the First. And Dorn as Praetorian was as correct a decision as was possible to make considering that his talents were put to good use throughout the Heresy that followed. There was no need to put a Primarch in charge of the Council of Terra for the Primarchs were not made to rule, but to serve as generals in retaking the galaxy. Humanity was to be governed by humanity. Primarchs like say, Guilliman, though perfect as an administrator, was better suited and needed as a general for the Great Crusade. Honestly, it's bewildering that no one in the military saw the need for human administration. Having godlike Primarchs in charge at the top only serves to increase superstition in a secular galaxy when the idea was to rid humanity of religion and superstition in order to better protect it from warp predation.

To be fair, the whole reason humanity (and the Emperor) hates aliens is because during the Age of Strife numerous Xenos races exploited humanity's trust and either raided, lollygagged, looted or all of the above and were generally a nuisance the entire time. Then the Emperor comes along and decides that the best way to stop all that from happening again is to wipe out all Xenos that might even think to pose a threat to the fledgling Imperium. However, those few Xenos species that did not pose an immediate threat to humanity were usually made protectorates similar to the Tau government (unless they resisted, were in the way, possessed a planet, influenced human culture at all, or were intelligent at all, in which case [[Exterminatus|the results]] were predictable). Ever since His ascension, the Imperium forgot about the part where harmless aliens could be tolerated. But on the other hand, [[Orks|the]] [[Necron|most]] [[Tyranids|common]] [[Tau|xenos]] [[Dark Eldar|are]] [[Eldrad|dicks]] and aren't exactly willing to buddy up with the Imperium themselves. Plus, at least according to ''Horus Rising'', the idea of letting Xenos exist and then eventually grow stronger is wrong on every level to the Imperium (hence the whole mess with the Interex/Diasporex).

To be even more fair (and meta), the triumvirate of Horus Heresy authors tend to have their own interpretation of the Big E. Graham McNeill generally portrays Him as competent and benevolent (if flawed), Dan Abnett portrays Him as competent but bloodthirsty, while Aaron Dembski-Bowden portrays Him as a vicious, needlessly cruel imbecile (and even this is counterbalanced by his portrayal in Master of Mankind, where he's interestingly a mixture of all the previous portrayals at once - which is kinda of appropriate really). Chris Wraight, as far as he has portrayed Him, has done so through the eyes of Jaghatai Khan, showing Him as deeply flawed and distant from His own sons, but also countering that He was working towards goals even the Primarchs couldn't fully grasp. Even in Path of Heaven, where the Khan gets close to learning the secrets of the Webway project, he's shown to not have all the cards (the Emperor's knowledge that humanity is evolving into a psychic race, for example).

===His Goals and Flaws===
*Lead and shape Mankind into a psychic race and surpass the Eldar by learning from their mistakes.
*Unite Humanity under one aegis and allow for instant communication and travel across all human inhabited worlds, thereby uniting the species in a way that it had never been before.

In order to achieve this He had to:
*Reclaim every single human inhabited world, spacecraft or station;
*Purge all humans that had deviated from the normal strain of humanity (because they would not evolve into the predicted psychic species and threatened the Plan with their deviancy);
*Remove alien influence or control from human worlds;
*Eliminate external Xenos threats throughout the galaxy that might challenge or become a threat to Mankind's supremacy.
*Shelter and protect Humanity from the fell hand of [[Chaos]].

To achieve those secondary goals He had to:
*Create [[Primarchs|superhuman generals]] to bestride the galaxy and lead men to innumerable victories;
*Create [[Space Marines|superhuman soldiers]] powerful enough to retake the galaxy beneath the banners of said generals from any enemy;
*Remove the influence of religion from the collective psyche of the human species in order to protect them from the insidious whispers of Chaos (often mistaken for something supernatural and hence a gateway to disaster).

So in the pursuit of those tertiary goals, the Emperor undertook the Great Crusade. Once it was over, all the Primarchs were to have their place Lorgar was to be the Emperor's Herald and shelter mankind from superstition through enlightenment so that if ever they heard whispers in the dark; they knew it was not natural and to be feared by it, thus denying its embrace. Magnus was to assist the Emperor in sitting on the Golden Throne of earth, thus powering the human Webway (somehow), becoming a key figure in Humanity's ascension. Horus was to protect Mankind from [[Tyranids|external]] [[Necrons|physical]] [[Orks|threats]] throughout the Galaxy as Humanity's general. Konrad was to be the enforcer of the Emperor's Laws. Mortarion, His watchguard of wayward deviancy etc.

But the Imperium was only one half of the Plan. The other was the Webway, allowing nigh-instantaneous travel and communication, limiting Mankind's reliance on the warp to almost nothing in the form of Warp travel and thus protecting them against the influence of Chaos. Therefore allowing Mankind to evolve in relative safety and security under the direct guidance and control of the Emperor. When Mankind would be ready, we'd be protected from the warp naturally. That was the final crowning achievement that would bring all the Emperor's plans to fruition and pull all the wayward goals into one singular perfect Great Work. All the sacrifice, all the death, all the heartache, the glory, the battles, the trials and tribulation, 48,000 years of history was culminating into that one Plan. And it all would've been worth it because Mankind would've been saved for all time. Worth any price, where the ends justified the means, or so he claimed.

And yet at the same time, it was this very same pragmatism that ultimately led to his downfall:

*Though his pragmatism made him a superb ruler in wartime, the ultra-militarized society He had [[First Founding|created]] was entirely dependent on war to function properly. Even if the Great Crusade had proceeded exactly as the Emperor expected, it would have run out of enemies eventually. And when you have a whole lot of newly unemployed soldiers with no other skills beyond killing on your hands...well, they tend to get rowdy.
*The Emperor's concern for humanity belied the fact that humanity was little more than an abstraction in his eyes, and one which could only exist if ''he'' was ruling it all. The fact that other human civilizations such as the Interex had already found ways to fight against Chaos on their own and were just as advanced as the Imperium (if not more so) meant very little to him (or at least, to his Plan). In his mind, he alone knew what was good for humanity and anything short of total submission to the Imperium was grounds for destruction. Any sign that his Plan might have been flawed was either explained away or destroyed outright, lest it seem like He might have made a mistake.
*He not only made a critical mistake in thinking the Chaos Gods were empowered by religious worship, but also failed to understand that trying to erase religion was actively counterproductive to his goals. Lacking the immortality and inhumanly grand perspective of the Emperor, it's a basic part of human nature to look for meaning and purpose in a cause greater than oneself, especially in the harsh and grimdark universe that was [[Age of Strife|Old Night]]. The Imperial Truth tried to do this, but it didn't take into account that "reason", "logic", and "humanism" were by definition too mundane to be suited for the replacement of the old religions. The fact that the Imperial Cult took off so quickly after the Emperor's internment on the Golden Throne (and is arguably the only thing keeping the Imperium a remotely unified entity in the present) is proof that the Emperor was once again either too stubborn for his own good or too divorced from the "normal" human condition to understand the value of faith. In either case, all it accomplished was giving all four of the Ruinous Powers a reason to get rid of him, while also giving them an invaluable tool to do so in the form of Lorgar. And all while he was telling the Primarchs that daemons were just another xenos race, ensuring that none of them would be on the lookout for Chaotic corruption among themselves or their legions.
*For a guy who says he's trying to avoid the same mistakes the Eldar made, his obsession with human supremacy and the supposed "purity" of the human form (as defined by what, his own opinion?) are almost indistinguishable from the pre-Fall Eldar's certainty that they were the rightful rulers of the galaxy. Even if humanity did become a purely psychic race, nothing would stop it from making ''another'' Chaos God by accident. (It's not a stretch to hypothesize that this was itself a ploy for him to use the collective psychic power of humanity to elevate himself to the status of godhood, where he could truly rule with infinite power.)
**The only beings who knew how to create new parts of the Webway were the Old Ones, and they're all dead. At best, the Webway project would've delayed the inevitable before the fact that nobody can figure out how to keep it working became obvious. And since the Warp already bleeds into the Webway at the best of times...well, the whole thing would've been rendered pointless.
*Most damningly of all, his total disregard for the possibility that the Primarchs might actually have their own thoughts and feelings ended up being one of the key reasons why so many of the Legions ended up falling to Chaos:
**Lorgar's case (and the entirety of the Horus Heresy for that matter) would have been entirely avoidable if the Emperor acted like a genuine father figure for once in his lifetime and explained to Lorgar why his Emperor worship had to stop (which the Emperor, with all his undeniable charisma could have achieved). Instead, he had to act like a total dick and utterly humiliate his son by having his grandest city utterly ransacked and ruined, all to prove a point (and just to be an even bigger dick; he had one of Lorgar's own [[Roboute Guilliman|brothers]] do his dirty work.).
**Angron's case is self-explanatory; honestly, if it weren't for Emps sending him into battle so often he would have rebelled sooner. Sure, he couldn't just let one of his Primarchs get himself killed in a slave revolt, but you'd think he'd send down some of the War Hounds or something instead of warping him away and earning Angron's undying hatred.
**[[Fulgrim]]'s road to damnation started because he decided to loot a Slaaneshi-possesed sword. Knowing nothing about Chaos, Fulgrim had no idea he was using an incredibly dangerous warp artifact that that would lead to untold consequences. It didn't help that his strict xenophobic teachings prevented Fulgrim from taking [[Eldrad]]'s advice about the Laer Blade into account.
**Even with the Webway fuckup (which itself could have been prevented had the Emperor not kept it a secret from the most important people in his plans) Magnus might have remained a loyalist if the Emperor had been more concerned with the news of Horus's betrayal and fall to Chaos than with Magnus breaking his edicts. Of course, Magnus being nigh-possessed by [[Tzeentch|that one cuttlefish]] at the time means no one could really blame the Emperor for maybe thinking Tzeentch was pulling something.
**Similarly to Angron, [[Mortarion]] always resented the Emperor for not letting him get to kill his adoptive father, and when the Emperor refused to give him an answer about the obvious piece of Warp-tech that was the Golden Throne he concluded that the Emperor was a hypocrite and the Imperial Truth was bullshit.
**The Emperor, being the wisest and most powerful human Psyker in the galaxy of all people, should have been able to see that [[Konrad Curze]] was an unstable psyker who was on the fast road to devolving into insanity due to his uncontrolled talents.
**Completely ignoring that [[Perturabo]] needlessly had one in ten men in his legion killed by Decimation. Coupled with the fact that Perturabo was originally a peaceful, diplomatic soul; these two should have triggered some alarm bells about his mental stability.
**Horus himself was only pushed to fall because the Chaos Gods played on his worries that he wasn't fit to be Warmaster combined with the unrealised, greater fear that the Emperor never cared for him as a person and that he and the other Primarchs would have no place in the Imperium after the Great Crusade's conclusion. You'd have thought the Emperor's most beloved son would at least have been shown the special rooms in the Imperial Palace the Emperor made specifically for the Primarchs to live in after the Great Crusade ended, or at least discussed what he had planned for them when they weren't needed as generals any longer.
**Perhaps the biggest kicker to this is that if we're going to take all of Black Library into account, the Emperor never truly cared for the Primarchs at all (loyalist and traitor included), viewing them as nothing more than powerful but ultimately expendable tools to further his ambitions. What fatherly image he's been projecting to them has been nothing more than a facade to placate his sons. Hence, even if the Horus Heresy either never happened or had a better outcome; its likely that his indifference to his own superhuman children's well-being would have spelled even more problems for him down the line, as it would've been only a matter of time for them to realize how little their "father" cared about them. Although one can always argue that the remaining Primarchs stayed loyal either because they believed in his vision for humanity or were too loyal to be turned, there's no telling exactly how long that might have gone on after the Great Crusade's end - some of them showed signs of disloyalty to the Emperor even during the Heresy, only staying on his side either out of loyalty to Mankind as a whole (like Guilliman), by recognizing the other side as an even greater evil (like Jagatai), or only because the Imperium is on the winning side (if Curze's trolling was true; The Lion).

==Worship of the Emperor==
[[File:646545.jpg|thumb|300px|What the Emperor looked like before Horus decided to [[Rip and tear|bitchslap]] Him. Notice the giant skull. How did that skull get so big? Is it a plastic faux-skull, or is it an alien skull? (What He doesn't want you to know is that The E is actually a midget, the armor is a mech and that that's a regular-sized skull) Anyway, back to the topic. You don't get to see the Emperor out of armor very often.]]

The Imperium advocates worship the Emperor as the one true God through the [[Imperial Creed]]. This creed is propagated and its adherence is enforced by the [[Ecclesiarchy|Adeptus Ministorum]] and the [[Inquisition]]. All citizens and fighters of the Imperium have little-to-no say about their choice in faith (or lack thereof); they ''must'' worship the Emperor through the various Ministorum-approved faiths throughout the galaxy (due to varying cultures, many planets have their own way of worshiping the Emperor. Although these are heavily regulated by the Ministorum to weed out any heretical influences.), there is no middle road or compromise that doesn't involve the apostate being on the receiving end of a state-sponsored public lynching. Anyone who defies or deviates from the teachings of the Imperial Creed, whether willingly or unwillingly (after all, incompetence is inexcusable in the eyes of the Emperor), is condemned as a heretic and is executed (whether its going to be fast or excruciatingly slow is dependent on the person judging the condemned). Forgiveness for one's sins is possible, although these cases are exorbitantly rare (atleast the ones that doesn't end with the accused being condemned to a glorious death.).

Now, the only reason the Imperium worships the Emperor is that after His fight with Horus and His internment into the Golden Throne, they pretty much forgot what the Emperor taught them when He preached the Imperial Truth. Ol' Empy did not actually tell anyone of the Chaos Gods, withholding the information even from the Primarchs in hopes of protecting them from corruption by hoping that ignorance is bliss. Unfortunately, this became part of why the Horus Heresy happened in the first place. Some saw that the Emperor [[Mortarion|lied to them by holding the truth hidden]], some did [[Magnus|not know how to handle the temptation]] the Gods conveyed, some did [[Fulgrim|not even know that they were manipulated]] all this time and by whom, some would [[Lorgar|try to seek out something to place their faith upon]], not realizing what would needed to be done to become chosen in the eyes of the Gods. Plus, it's pretty damn hard to fight against something if you don't know that it exists. The Horus Heresy novels also mentioned the [[Interex]], another atheist empire who understood that threat of Chaos, but treated that information secularly and scientifically: they told every citizen everything that was known about "Kaos", and thus resisted the taint altogether.

In the Emperor's long game, he knew that humanity was evolving into a psychic species with even more potential than the Eldar, and look what happened to them? E-money wanted mankind to be [[Star Trek|a utopia of science and reason]], by eliminating religion (and thus preventing the temptations of daemons), controlling psykers (and thus preventing random daemonic possessions), and eliminating warp travel by creating the Human Webway (and thus eliminating all human contact with Chaos when traveling through the Warp). He wanted to isolate humanity from the Chaos Gods, cause who gives a shit about the Ruinous Powers if they're stuck in the Warp with no way of getting out?

Regarding the religion angle: the Emperor very much realized that Chaos runs off emotion, all everyday emotion, and not ''just'' worship; the stronger the emotions, the stronger the Gods get. The problem with religion is that it allows too many avenues for Daemons to exploit: a whisper here and a miracle there, then you get people praying to them, then shortly afterwards you get a planet turned inside out. His plan was not to starve the chaos gods of sustenance and ultimately defeat them, he knew it was impossible, his plan was just to prevent them from touching humanity ever again.

However, He made a critical mistake in disregarding the human need to believe in something greater than oneself, and despite His best efforts, nothing was enough to fill the place of religion in human society. Ironically, the best solution would be not to suppress faith but to redirect it towards something else, but because of his natural awesomeness, unmatched psychic powers and enigmatic nature, that "something else" ended up being the Emperor himself. After He went off being the most powerful psychic cucumber in the universe, and lost direct control of the Imperium, belief in Him sort of helped the Imperium stand together against all odds, even if it basically dropped 99.9% of humanity's IQ in the process. With the Warp being what it is, the act of worshiping the Emperor supercharged His power in the Immaterium to the point of being truly godlike, even while His body is still stuck in it's current physical state of near-death. The Imperium's faith in the Emperor is basically their biggest anchor of bravery and perseverance in a universe where humanity is constantly beset by:

*[[Tyranids|Unimaginably massive swarms of voracious space locust who exist only to feed and multiply it's biomass]]...
*[[Necron|Older-than-Chaos-itself zombie-terminator robots set on culling all life from the galaxy]]...
*[[C'Tan|Diabolical celestial beings literally as old as the stars, whose single desire is harvesting all living souls]]...
*[[Orks|A race of nigh-unkillable barbarians, genetically engineered to have pastimes, ambitions, job skills, and dreams only be about rip and tear]]...
*[[Tau|Technologically superior space communists wanting to assimilate everyone in their quasi heirarchical-Communist empire and who take after Billy Mays]]...
*[[Eldar|Snooty and uncaring space elves that can read minds and who eat, sleep, and to have Heterosexual Sex in the Missionary Position in planet-sized battle cruisers]]...
*[[Dark Eldar|Psychotic, hedonistic space elves who routinely torture others to the point of death for sheer amusement before grinding their remains into refined cocaine]]...
*[[Chaos|Fanatical zealots that knowingly devote themselves to all that is insane]]...
*[[Daemon|Nightmare horrors made real who will rape and eat, usually simultaneously, any sentient being they get their goat-hooves on]]...
*[[Chaos Space Marines|Deformed, demented traitors clad in power armor and aided by the evilest forms of weaponry and sorcery ever conceived]]...
*[[Rak'gol|Homicidal alien, lizard, insect, cyborg type monster-pirates that horribly kill you for fun]]...
*[[Slaugth|Giant Swarms of Worms in cloaks who might be older than The Old Ones who are more sadistic that the Dark Eldar and More Manipulative than regular Eldar and Feed on Humans in the Most Disgusting and Painful way imaginable (Hint it Involves Maggots.)]]...
*[[Q'Orl|Massive insectoid hive mind filled to the brim with heavy firepower and has a slow but growing empire that is one of the largest in the galaxy, dwarfing the Tau several hundred times over and is seen as the next successor of galactic domination after humanities potential fall]]...
*[[Games Workshop|Malignant, omnipotent intelligence from beyond the cosmos, exerting all the power at their disposal to prevent any faction from breaking the stalemate or upsetting the dreadful status quo]]...
*[[Sly Marbo|And fuck knows who the guy in the cardboard box is]]...

Without their faith in the Emperor after His internment into the Golden Throne, the fragments of the Imperium would have fought against each other again like in the pre-Great Crusade days and subsequently devolved into what they were before the Emperor revealed Himself. So yes, much like IRL religion, it gives them hope and courage to fight on and survive in a universe that leaves the [[grimdark]] faucet running everyday and night.

It's worth noting that good ol' Empy wouldn't have had nearly as much of a problem with all this unwanted worship if He hadn't, just as a quick example, insisted on wearing horrifyingly ornate solid gold armour and a big glowy halo at all times. Or on carrying a flaming sword of righteousness. Or on building continent-sized monuments to His vanity. Or on decking all His personal troops and favored genetic experiments in as much bling as they could possibly carry. Or on being eleven fucking feet tall. Or on creating a functional pantheon of genetically engineered demigods, one of whom looked like and was referred to as a literal Angel. If you look like space-Jesus and act like space-Jesus, people are going to take those observations to their extreme conclusions, like what Lorgar did when he wrote the ''Lectitio Divinitatus'', which can be summarized as "Ordinary men can't blow up suns and carry big glowy halos at all times, only a God can, therefore the Emprah is God." This is made even more relevant given that the fluff very strongly implies that the Emperor '''was''' Jesus.

That said, to Games Workshop's credit His being [[Ultramarines|buttfucked by His own hubris and disregard for the humanity He claimed to be guiding]] in this manner was probably [[Grimdark|intentional as a classic tale of Greek Tragedy]].

==The possible death of the Emperor==
[[File:Emperor of mankind flaming sword armor.jpg|500px|right|thumb|Badass and glorious.]]
With the Golden Throne being consistently worn out, and the Tech-priests too power-armor-on-head rebooted to do anything about it, it is certainly possible that the Emperor may die one day, which will obviously result in all of the Imperial worlds and factions to cry tears of disappointment and subsequently devolve into chaos (maybe even with a capital "C"). There are however, 3 possible outcomes of what can happen if the Emperor eventually dies:

===The new Eye of Terror===
Conventional wisdom and the [[Eldar]], says that in the event that the Emperor dies, a new Eye of Terror will be created with Terra at it's center, plunging Holy Terra and all nearby planets/systems(?) into the Warp. The current main rulebook says that all of reality will be plunged into the warp if the Emperor dies. Even the [[Ecclesiarchy]] agrees that if the Emperor were ever to die, humanity would be FUCKED at the barest minimum.

This is supported by the fact that the '''Golden Throne''' ''(itself a portal to the Webway)'' was broken by [[Magnus]], causing a warp tear to open on Terra, which the Emperor has had to spend every second for the last 10,000 years concentrating on to keep from getting any bigger (while the [[Adeptus Custodes]] have spent the same amount of time chopping up daemons that slip through the crack). They will not be able to stop a full daemonic invasion if the rift would open fully.

Additionally, a new Chaos God could be created (just like with the Eye of Terror and the Eldar), which will most certainly be a God of all the Grimdarkness in the galaxy, ensuring that it would eclipse all of the powers of the other Gods, as the Emperor would finally be the God of all. This is especially true, since nearly everything that is grimdark stems from Chaos and the entire WH40K setting is itself a massive pile of it... That or Malal would burst back into existence, which does have some possibility of happening, since Malal was/is the Chaos god of Atheism, which was the "truth"-part of the Emperor's "Imperial Truth" doctrine.

Some also fear that a fifth Chaos God's presence would just crush reality by merging the Materium (reality) and the Warp into a singular dimension. But that's unlikely, since the birth of the latest Chaos God, Slaanesh, did not destroy reality and he/she/it/xe was fueled by the near extinction of a race far more psychically powerful than humanity. On the other hand, Slaanesh was forced to battle Khorne and most of the Eldar Gods during it's first birth moments. That would not be the case if the 5th Chaos God would be born.

===Regeneration===
No, not the [[Doctor Who]] kind. The Horus Heresy novel 'Vulkan Lives', heavily implies that the Emperor is a [[Perpetual]], just like John Grammaticus, Vulkan, Oll Persson and [[Anval Thawn]], all of who were able to survive multiple deaths that completely obliterated their bodies in the process. So all He simply needs to do is for his current material body to die normally, and wait a couple of hours/days and He'd be reborn again (in the "get up off the ground and dust Himself off" sense (Though one has to wonder why the Emperor would have had Himself interred in the Golden Throne in the first place if He thought He'd heal. Probably to power the Astronomican?)). All of this is still speculation (duh). Vulkan, for instance, was driven mad by the torturous experiences he had endured thanks to Night Haunter, and they were child's play, compared to sitting in unthinkable agony, unable to move or speak for ten thousand years while feeling Himself rotting away. And don't you forget [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|that nose itch]]. However, a more commonly held belief is that He will get up, re-establish the [[Imperial Truth]], and [[Great Crusade|just be]] [[Commissar|a cool guy]].

In fact, a whole faction of the [[Inquisition]]: '''Thorianism''' exists to investigate this possibility; looking for possible signs that the Emperor's consciousness can be transferred elsewhere, allowing Him to walk among his children once more. (That said, they don't know about the existence of Perpetuals and would rather look for a new body to place the Emperor's soul into.)

Opponents to Thorianism generally see that encouraging this is a terrible idea, as having the Emperor rise in a physical form would only cause a schism in the Imperium, as many people would not believe it to be true, having been ruled and brainwashed by the Ecclesiarchy over thousands of years, which would lead to another major [[Horus Heresy|civil war]].

But think about it: when Malcador took up the Throne so that the Emperor could fight Horus, the device consumed his vitality; and Malcador was not as blessed as the Emps with regen abilities to recover. Now imagine a weakened, crippled being, who's top priority immediately after killing His son is to stop the Webway gate from spilling forth. You don't have time (and nor does the galaxy) to recover from your wounds. So you sit upon the Throne and it consumes you slowly from that point onwards. The chair is stopping any sort of healing factor.

===The Star Child===
Although years of GW-marketing and [[retcon|fluff "upgrades"]] have made the third claim rather dubious, many fa/tg/uys and optimists still hold out on the theory stating that when the Emperor screwed Horus's soul to the wall, part of the Emperor's soul was also cast into the Warp. This Soul Fragment is called the Star Child, a god waiting to be reborn, or perhaps be reincarnated back into a human body (anyone call for one scout Mkvenner). If the remains of the Emperor were ever to die, the tiny spark of soul left in his body would re-unite with the greater whole within the Warp, and according to [[fluff|prophecy]], for the four Chaos Gods into stalemate, while the races of the galaxy would be left to battle it out in one last great Ragnarök scenario (called the End Times).

This theory is tied closely to the Illuminati, a group of either supremely enlightened individuals or dangerous mutant heretics (depending on which side of the [[Inquisition]] you're on). The Illuminati plan to catch all of the Sensei and sacrifice them upon the Golden Throne at the moment of Emperor's death.

In a bizarre fusion of new and old fluff, it has been revealed that the Illuminati were a minor Tzeentch cult and the Sensei were effectively brainwashed soon-to-be sacrifices in an attempt to bring Tzeentch to the materium. Needless to say, they have been purged by the Inquisition. The fluff in the Jac Draco books revealed that the Ordo Hydra (a small splinter faction of the Illuminati who seek to turn humanity into a psychic hive-mind) is a Tzeentch cult, but that the general Illuminati population - including many Ordo Malleus Inquisitors and the Exorcists [[Chapter]] (as well as their unknown successor chapters) are genuinely incorruptible by Chaos and are freely permitted to access the Black Library along with Harlequin Solitaires. The Inquisition Trilogy was retconned away.
It's just like that frustrating moment you experience when you don't know if the Squats have been nommed by Tyranids or have never existed in the first place.

== Gallery ==
<center><gallery>
File:Golden Throne-Imperial Webway.jpg|The Big E upon the Golden Throne (before the decay set in)
File:Emperor of Mankind Classic Portrait face.jpg|The guiding light in the Imperium of Man shines forever bright. He's also Arnold Schwarzenegger. Try unseeing that now.
Image:1220179589932.jpg|The Emperor protects man from all.
Image:Horus and the Emperor.jpg|<s>Son, I am disappoint.</s> Empy's disappointment occurred well before this moment.
Image:Wh40k-emperor.jpg| Yearbook photo.
Image:When you ruin his groove by Lutherniel.jpg| His groove, do not ruin it.
File:Emperor_Decree.jpg| Emps laying down some rules, mid combat from the looks of it
File:Go Ahead Make My day Emperor.jpg|That is EXACTLY the same look that's on Batman's face when he's about to put the beatdown on someone!
File:Emperor of Mankind model action figure.jpg|He makes for one helluva action figure
Image:8.jpg|The Em-purr-or of all Catkind! Nyah!
Image:God-Emperor_Goldlich.jpg|Death is no excuse to stop bein' pimp.
File:God_Emperor_Interred_On_Golden_Throne.jpg|Thinking to himself, "I really, REALLY hate Horus!"
Image:The Immortal Emprah.jpg
Image:Emperor_miniature.jpg|Roll d6; stays on the field on seven or less
Image:emperor_old.jpg|A real man never dies, even when he's killed.
Image:emperor.png|Down but not out.
Image:Emperormini.jpg|In all His miniature glory
Image:Carrionlord.jpg|<strike>The Carrion Lord with his two left arms.</strike> {{BLAM}} how the fuck did that heretic get past the custodes?
File:Painting.jpg|This painting sold for $900, that lucky ca/tg/url...
Image:Emperor_model.jpg|Probably the best model of him yet
Image:slowemperor.jpg|Oh God-emperor, how did this get here? I am not good with computers.
Image:Emperor_Sagan.jpg|Search your feelings, you know it to be true.
Image:EmpsVSigmar.jpg| You all know you wanna see how this pans out!
Image:Emprasque3.jpg|How do you kill what can not die?
Image:Slavegirl Emperor.jpg|Emperor [[Rule 63]]! NO EXCEPTIONS!
Image:Femprah.jpg|Not actually the God-Emperor; besides it is Heresy to believe that The Immortal God Emperor looks like Cher.
Image:Femprah_by_Mr-Culexus.jpg|Oh, give it a fucking rest...
Image:GodEmpress.jpg|On second though... this one is... nice.
Image:Emperor_upon_his_other_throne.jpg|Yeah. We get it. The Emperor sits upon the Golden 'Throne'.
Image:1377291976783.jpg|Unbeknownst to many 40k fans, ol'Emps is fairly amicable when he meets an elf/eldar who isn't a complete failure.
Image:First_Founding_Problems.jpg|Perhaps with a better armor design, Emps might not have been late for [[Horus]]'s after school soccer games and things might have turned out differently.
File:Rainbow Emperor.gif| The Emperor in Rainbow Form
Image:Konya.jpg|The symbol of the town Konya in Turkey. In Central Anatolia. Emprah's birthplace. CONNECTION, BITCHES!
Image:Hittite eagle large.jpg|The symbol of ancient (1600BC) Hittite Empire from Anatolia, which, unknown to many, is Emperor's first try at conquering the world. CONNECTION, BITCHES!
Image:Emperor mao.jpg|In alternate universe 32-B, Mao Zedong rules the People's Republic of Mankind
Image:NotSureIfWant.jpg|The Emperor has just discovered [[Rule 34]].
Image:Emperuh.jpg|The Emprah is watching you Masturbate!
Image:Emperor blackwhite.jpg|He might be the most powerful psychic vegetable in the universe but the Custodes can't give him a decent hygiene program.
Image:1271118030729.jpg|Just imagine if the Chaos Gods didn't scatter the primarchs through out the galaxy... Wait where's that little scamp Omegon? (just off picture, sneaking up behind Guilliman)
File:Emperor of Mankind Contemplation.jpg|"Why IS IT that hot dogs come in packs of 8, and hot dog buns come in packs of 12? So people will have to buy 3 packs of hot dogs and 2 of hot dogs buns, hereby promoting imperial production of course!"
</gallery></center>

==See Also==
* The [[Imperium]], for the empire he founded.
* [[Sigmar]] Unbroken, his [[Warhammer Fantasy Battles]] counterpart.
* [[Emperor's To-Do List]]
* [http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/25959559/ This thread] which makes the Emperor even cooler.
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_2nM1GEllg/ A series on Youtube, it shows what would happen if the Emperor had a Text to Speech device.]
* [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device]] article in 1d4chan.
* [[Heresy from the Emprah’s point of view]]
{{Imperium}}

[[Category:Gods]]

Broken Aquila

2017-01-14T21:17:19Z

2A02:C7D:CA0:8500:F575:216B:C57B:8758:

{{stub}}
The Warband of the Broken Aquila, formerly the [[Night Lords]] 10th Company, is a warband of Chaos Space Marines, of the Night Lords Legion if we still had to point that out. They're the guys you see in [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden]]'s Night Lords trilogy.

It was known as the Warband of the Exalted when it was headed by the Exalted/Vandread. Its name was changed informally to the Warband of the Broken Aquila when [[Talos]] took over, because his breastplate has an Aquila that was broken with a hammer to signify that they piss on their old ties to the Imperium. It was originally inspired when Talos took a bolt shell to the chest on Isstvaan and his friend Cyrion said it looked good.

==Members==

Talos : The leader of First Claw and former apothecary. His main schtick is that he has part of the Night Haunter's precognition, which is occasionally useful, but is also breaking his body down. Is oddly principled for a traitor marine and spends a lot of his time looking for some purpose other than just terror murdering. A notable part of his character is that he isn't the most powerful or even the best fighter ; instead he's the best at keeping a cohesive squad together and focused, which considering how dysfunctional the Night Lords are is saying something. He's also notable for being the one who hunted down and killed Curze's assassin, although she got away with the relics first.

Xarl : The beatstick of First Claw. Talos's childhood friend (less so now) and regarded as the best fighter in the company. He's used as a threat by Talos to make anyone trying to edge for command by murdering their superiors. Apart from being an abrasive snarker, there isn't a lot else to say about him. Dies after headbutting a loyalist marine champion to death through his HELMET - Xarl wasn't wearing one.

Cyrion : The snarky, witty one. The closest thing to a friend Talos has and would appear to the be most normal of the claw. Unknown to everyone, he has a Slaaneshi curse that lets him sense the fear of everyone around him. This would normally be considered an absolute chaos-godsend for a Night Lord but has the rather drastic drawback of not being able to turn it off and being horribly addictive, forcing him to go on secret serial-killing spree's of the ships crew. Luckily for Cyrion, he has an eminently suitable patsy in..

Uzas : The one no likes. The most obviously corrupted member of the squad, openly worshipping Khorne and going into beserker furys. Whilst he usually targets crew serfs, he occasionally attacks his fellow Night Lords. Even Xarl has problems keeping him at bay during his rages. He's put on execution notice by Talos for his various transgression, though the sad part is that it's not entirely his fault - he doesn't remember anything he does when he loses control and Cyrion keeps getting him to take the fall for his own murder sprees. He's more than a bit tetchy when he finds out the truth.

Mercutian : The closest thing to a normal member of the squad, being First Claw's heavy weapons guy. Not originally a member of 10th Company but is adopted after the events of the first book. Unlike the others, who were typical gangsters on Nostromo, Mercutian was a spire born aristo, something the others don't let him forget.

Variel : A Red Corsair who joins the Night Lords because they're more his style (and the Red Corsairs are pricks). Former Apothecary Secundus, neat-freak, and medic / torturer extraordinaire. Comes across as borderline autistic; hates being touched and incapable of picking up on relevant social cues. Despite this, he and Talos have a bond of loyalty based on principle rather than friendship. Is the only member of the squad to survive the events of the books.

{{Template:Chaos-Official}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Chaos]][[Category:Space Marines]][[Category:Stubs]]

Broken Aquila

2017-01-14T20:41:03Z

2A02:C7D:CA0:8500:F575:216B:C57B:8758:

Night Lords

2017-01-14T20:36:26Z

2A02:C7D:CA0:8500:F575:216B:C57B:8758: /* Daily Rituals */

{{Infobox Traitor Legion
|Name = Night Lords
|Heraldry = [[File:Nightlordslogo.png|250px]]
|Battle Cry = "We have come for you!" or "Ave Dominus Nox!"
|Number = VIII
|Primarch = [[Konrad Curze]]
|Original Homeworld = Nostramo
|Current Homeworld = Unknown
|Champion = Krieg Acerbus (Daemon Prince)
|Specialty = Stealth, guerrilla warfare, and terror tactics
|Strength = Unknown
|Allegiance = Depends on the warband (at least with regards to the Ruinous Powers. Otherwise, it's mostly to themselves).
|Colours = Midnight Blue, with Brass trim. *Apply blood liberally, or as needed.*
}}

''"Because the Wolves kill cleanly, and we do not. They also kill quickly, and we have never done that, either. They fight, they win, and they stalk back to their ships with their tails held high. If they were ever ordered to destroy another Legion, they would do it by hurling warrior against warrior, seeking to grind their enemies down with the admirable delusions of the 'noble savage'. If we were ever ordered to assault another Legion, we would virus bomb their recruitment worlds; slaughter their serfs and slaves; poison their gene-seed repositories and spend the next dozen decades watching them die slow, humiliating deaths. Night after night, raid after raid, we'd overwhelm stragglers from their fleets and bleach their skulls to hang from our armour, until none remained. But that isn't the quick execution the Emperor needs, is it? The Wolves go for the throat. We go for the eyes. Then the tongue. Then the hands. Then the feet. Then we skin the crippled remains, and offer it up as an example to any still bearing witness. The Wolves were warriors before they became soldiers. We were murderers first, last, and always!"''

—[[Sevatar|Jago Sevatarion]]

''"Martha! Why did you say that name?''"
-Unofficial Warcry of the Night Lords

The Night Lords [[Space Marine]] Legion consists of some of the more batshit(HA!)-crazy emos, kind of like the Chaos version of the [[Raven Guard]]. [[grimdark|They get off to catching their enemies, skinning them alive and crucifying them, all the while recording it for later.]] Battle cries include "We have come for you!" or "Ave Dominus Nox" (translated as "Hail the Lord of the Night").

==History==
[[File:Oh shit the batmarines by sonicbrew-d2z88fe.jpg|200px|left|thumb|Masters of Ambush]]
Their Primarch called himself the Night Haunter (his IRL name was [[Konrad Curze]]). When [[Chaos]] abducted the infant [[Primarch]]s, they were scattered across the galaxy. Poor lil Konrad ended up on Nostramo, a world of perpetual darkness. And unlike the other Primarchs who were found by the inhabitants of a planet and taken care of, Konrad was left all alone to fend for himself, [[Grimdark|in a world that was a dark, lawless land]]. But who's to say it would've been better? So then he grew up, he became like the Batman of the 31st millennium, where he punished the corrupt and the evil. Only the difference from Batman is that he did it in the most gruesome manner possible, such as by hanging the guilty person's disemboweled corpse for all to see or beating the person to literally an unrecognizable pulp, to the point the sewers were clogged with bodies. [[Grimdark|Strangely enough, this was actually considered an improvement]]. So yeah, he became such a popular icon that the people of Nostramo basically fixed their shitty society because they feared that the "Night Haunter" would screw their asses to unimaginable levels, thus making him Vlad the Impaler IN SPACE!!! It says something about his world that, even as Vlad the Impaler, he was still clearly quite the good guy.

They also have an unhealthy addiction to flying and lightning. Known for scaring the hell out of civilians for shits and giggles. They are also known for being insanely giant fucking nutheads. Wherever the Night Lords strike, they leave corpses and signs of their assault on display and generally make it look like all the Segmentum's worst metal bands had a gig in the exact same area at the exact same time.

Despite being "traitors" they claim not to be terribly fond of the Chaos Gods and make little to no use of daemons, so they're more of a renegade legion than an unclean one. Which makes them less likely to (accidentally) become possessed. It won't matter though, because they are fucking insane anyway, not only because of their combat doctrines, but also because they have been around for a very long time.
Notable exceptions include Krieg Acerbus, a [[Daemon Prince]] currently leading the largest warband of Night Lords, who also happen to be hardcore, full-on '''bat'''shit chaos worshipers. There's also the first claw's Uzas, who's all about blood for the [[Khorne|Blood God]]. In fact, earlier incarnations of the background listed them as a Khornate Legion, and Khorne smiles upon those who murder for the sake of murder, even one's allies, which Night Lords do whenever they can. However, because they're in denial about their religion, they neither get the goodies of the Chaos Gods, nor the technology of the Imperium. So whenever loyalists show up with assault cannons, stormbolters, cyclone missile launchers, land speeders, drop-pods, and hunter killer missiles they silently cry in the night. Or take it out on them by kicking the shit out of the local chapter of [[Ultramarines|faggots]]. Accounts vary.

One time, after looking at a planet for a bit, they decided to go fuck it up. They fucked up the communication centers, which had only time to send out a tiny order for pizza and most importantly, a signal that included recordings of cruci-skinnin-fictions to everyone on the planet.
They have dropped bombs on planets to sink them into permanent darkness. [[Grimdark|It was so scary that 14% of the population died outright, a third killed themselves, and the rest were hunted down by the Night Lords.]] When the pizza finally arrived in the form of Imperial assist force, the Night Lords were already gone and the darkness still engulfed the planet. Oh yeah, and not a single building had been damaged in the whole affair, which would not be the case if those other [[Iron Warriors|guys]] were there.

== Tactics ==

Night Lord warbands, for the most part, are somewhat sensible in that they don't just send in their marines to die in droves. So they generally don't titty-rush the nearest Titan for the lulz unless said Titan is REALLY fucking their mojo up. When they do engage in direct combat, they generally prefer complete overwhelming force to ensure minimal losses, maximum carnage, and enough skulls to stick on their pauldrons. So they're pretty much a chaos version of [[Reasonable Marines]]. Including the Alpha Legion too, obviously.

'''ALTERNATIVELY:'''

They make use of their sneakiness and fuck shit up that way. Striking behind enemy lines, ambushes, sabotaging generators and command centers, etc. Knowing this, one considers them being pretty sensible. In one-on-one combat a Night Lord will do his best to make sure he has the upper hand, and thus resort to cheat tactics by breaking every rule possible and use every dirty trick to avoid being 'on equal footing' with the opponent. Just like [[Dark Eldar|certain slimy BDSM pricks]].
Basically what I'm trying to say is that they make good card/poker players.

They like unconventional shock-and-awe tactics. One of them, Talos, disabled a ship's bridge by doing a fifteen-second-long vox-amplified scream, which, thanks to his three lungs and super-humanly strong vocal chords, blew out every unprotected eardrum in the room and put many of the bridge staff in a coma.

If they can't use fear as a tactic, they will always resort to trying to break morale by sabotaging objectives of strategic import or executing leaders and commanders.

'''BUT:'''

This isn't to say that their tactics make them unstoppable. Terror-tactics work well on people who can be scared, meaning that their normal operations tend not to work well on Space Marines. Which means that [[Imperial Guard]] are one of their favorite targets, because [[Dark Eldar|some literally live off of fear]], [[Tyranid|some are just too numerous to be affected]], [[Necron|and some are simply immune to it]].

Especially noteworthy is that the last time they really had to fight face-to-face, mano-a-mano, was right after the Heresy, when the [[Ultramarines|guys with a toilet seal as their insignia]] came looking for them on their fortress world of Tsagualsa . The Night Lords got slaughtered. Now, to be fair, by that time it was a while since they replenished their numbers after the Heresy. Additionally, in their stupidity, they chose to "bunker down" instead of using their typical hit-and-run tactics. Not to mention the fact that many warbands were not present, the Legion having started to split up after the death of Konrad and Sevatar. Also, the character recounting this, when challenged by another about "losing to the Ultramarines", points out that it wasn't JUST the Ultramarines chapter, but every successor chapter as well. He comments on Howling Griffons working side-by-side by Novamarines, while being supported by Genesis Chapter flanking maneuvers. He comments on how every single chapter involved was running by the same playbook (The Codex Astartes), in perfect unison, and pretty much without any dissension or rebellion (unlike the Night Lords). The result was that the Night Lords were pinned down, outflanked, bombarded, assaulted (or counter-assaulted), besieged and simply fucked over in every way in a textbook fashion. The Night Lords lost so badly that they fragmented, and were never united as a whole force ever again (although there were signs of a semi-reunification in the period leading up to the 13th Black Crusade). And before you cry some "Wardian bullshit", this was in the Night Lords own book, written by [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden|a pretty cool guy]] (actually it was Games-Workshop's fluff that limited the Night Lords.)

Bear in mind that upon returning to this fortress planet, the Night Lords proceeded to get revenge on the Ultramarine Genesis Chapter, defeating them with the time honored strategy of [[Awesome|blowing up the fucking moon]]. Why fight fair when you can has nukes?

[[Huron Blackheart]] worked out the best way to use the Night Lords: as an advance force for performing a crippling first strike on the enemy. When he assaulted the Marines-Errant in their home base, he asked for a detachment of Night Lords to find a way to let his main force into the Marines-Errant fortress. So a squad of Night Lords scaled into the fortress-monastery and drew off the Marines-errant and their serfs while a squad of Night Lords raptors went higher up the fortress and destroyed the actual shield generators.
So you offer them something they want, tell them what to fuck up, let them work out the details on their own and do their thing and, as Huron found out, don't expect them to help much in the actual fighting afterward.

==Fun Facts==
*It is believed they're linked to [[Scary Marines]].
*They are one of the few Astartes legions who actually think ambushing is a good idea, rather than standing in front of a gunline and charging it.
*NANANANANANANANANANANANANA BATMAN!
*They stick bats in their helmets to help them fly.
*They don't get Daemons or other warp dickery. So they always go to sleep with ease without all the voices in their heads (other than their own psychotic subconsciouses).
* [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden]] (AKA the newest edition to the Bald Brotherhood of Awesome 40K Writers) has made them fucking GREAT. 10th Company GETS SHIT DONE!
*When the [[Word Bearers]], [[Iron Warriors]], the [[Alpha Legion]], or [[Black Legion]] (the only four legions that really give two shits about [[Chaos Undivided]], and even then the Iron Warriors aren't the biggest fans of it and the Alpha Legion are closet loyalists(''or are they really?'')) try to recruit them for their next great Black Crusade, the Night Lords usually tell them to piss off and send the messengers back in a box(or several).
*They are also the origin of the Raptor and Warp Talon units, the Chaos version of assault marines.
*They're probably lucky that those other legions are typically too busy to deal with probably the least threatening of the Chaos Space Marine Legions.
*They are probably as old as you could normally count, because they don't hang around in the [[Warp]] so much. Sort of. The [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden]] Night Lords book mentions Talos remembering the defeat at Terra as being only a few decades from his perspective due to chilling in the Warp. He does mention his bestie is getting crows feet though from time outside of the warp.
*That's not to say that the Night Lords aren't pants shittingly terrifying. They know what they're good at and they stick to it.
*They've had enough common sense to survive for this long, despite having so many disadvantages compared to the other eight legions.
*Of course, this is relative, because when we talk about "sensible" in the context of Chaos, we mean "will hang you with your own intestines just for the hilarity of it", rather than "completely ignore the enemy army to attack a strategically worthless town to make sacrifices for the Dark Gods." It helps that their attacks are so low-key (except for the bombing a planet once and causing a MASSIVE psychic scream by torturing a bunch of astropaths and sending dozens of planets into psy-communicating-blank) that the Night Lords are not prioritized and actively hunted by the Imperium. Otherwise they'd likely be wiped out in short order (as mentioned above with the [[Ultramarines|guys that have a toilet seat as their insignia]] kicking their asses). DOWN WITH THE BLUE-TRDZ!(Ehem)I mean smurfs...
*Of all the Night Lords Warbands there are only three "Chaos" Lords that still lead based on their vision of The Night Haunter's Legacy. First there is Zso Sahaal, the "Talonmaster", former First Captain of the Legion. His flight from the rest of the Legion with the Corona Nox, which was the rightful crown of the Primarch's successor, earned him the title "The Betrayer" to some within the Legion, but he saw Curze's use of Fear as focused and controlled in its use. Next is Krieg Acerbus, also known as the Axemaster, a Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided. He leads the largest warband of Night Lords in the galaxy and claims Curze wished his sons to terrorize the Imperium and devour its fear. He and Sahaal battled for the Corona Nox; Sahaal kept the crown, but lost an arm. Lastly there is Talos Valcoran. Formerly he was an [[Apothecary]] carrying the titles "Prophet of the VIII Legion" and "Soul Hunter". He earned the title of Soul Hunter for pursuing and killing M'Shen, the Callidus assassin that killed the primarch, for vengeance and out of love for his father rather than greed. He was also known for his prophetic powers like his gene-father, earning him the title of Prophet of the VIII Legion. Eventually he came to succeed Vandred Anrathi in leading the Warband of the Exalted. It was renamed to the [[Broken Aquila|Warband of the Broken Aquila]] under the command of Talos. He later died on Tsagualsa at the hands of the Phoenix Lord Jain Zar of the Howling Banshees. He succeeded in "killing' her (though kill is a strong term when it comes to Phoenix Lords) with a belt of grenades in a suicide attack to avenge his slaughtered brothers that had died on the surface at the hands of the Howling Banshees. Talos believed that the Night Lords were betrayed by the Imperium and were its truest weapon of terror when called upon before the Emperor betrayed them. He is currently succeeded by Decimus who has inherited Talos and Curze's Prophetic powers--except Decimus's powers are controlled and sensible, rather than a seizure that comes upon him, like his predecessors.
*Does this sound familiar to you? --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2wzpfPFBlw

==Daily Rituals==
10:00 - The Night Lords awake in their morning roost. It takes them a while to safely get down from their caves.

10:30 - Midday Meal. The Night Lords have a light meal by drinking the blood of captured Civilians.

11:00 - Midday Firing Rites. The Night Lords conduct covert firing practice on unsuspecting Imperial Citizens or Chaos Worshippers. Often the Night Lord's serfs can't tell the exact period their masters strike as they often see a skinned and maimed body the moment they look away.

12:00 - Midday Terror Tactics. The Night Lords conduct covert terror tactics to scare the ever day lights out of the people of the Imperium via mutilated dead bodies. Again the serfs have no idea when or how their masters accomplish this without getting caught.

14:00 - Tactical Indoctrination. The Night Lords gather around on the latest planet to cause terror and which daemon to kick in the balls (Or pussy if its a Daemonette).

18:00 - Evening Firing Rites. This time the serfs try a little harder to see their masters actually kill someone. They fail yet again.

19:00 - Tactical Indoctrination.

23:00 - Nighttime Terror Tactics. Here the Night Lords test their true skill as hunters of the dark. Their serfs still try to find them only to get lost in the darkness.

01:00 - Morning Meal. A feast is prepared by the serfs. This time the Night Lords have given up on their act and sit and munch down on the food.

02:00 - Free Time. The Night Lords occupy their free time by watching and reading an antique and legendary proto-Night Lord who calls himself as 'Batman'. Night Lords are often inspired by this ancient Terran vigilante of justice and terror and often tries their best to mimic him (whilst selectively ignoring the foolish decision to avoid killing his prey).

05:00 - Rest Period. The Night Lords go back to their caves, hang upside down with their legs and prepares to sleep.

==Gallery==
<center><gallery>
File:Soul Hunter cover.jpg
File:Throne of Lies cover.jpg
File:Blood Reaver cover.jpg
File:Void Stalker cover.jpg|Definitely not in a Batman pose.
File:Bak3.jpg
File:Night Lords Champion by warp zero.jpg|'Sup, Darkclaw?
File:1174923365695wq1vj1.png|Masters of Stealth
</gallery></center>

{{Template:Chaos-Official}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Chaos]][[Category:Space Marines]]