Editing Nobledark Imperium Notes (section)

= Other Information =

== Musings on the Nature of the Gods ==

Although they are typically referred to as male, it would be more accurate to say that none of the Chaos Gods or C'tan really have genders. Despite being referred to as male, most are probably better referred to as “it”, and are really only referred to as male out of convenience (much like [[Orks]]), with the notable exception of Slaanesh. Three of the four Chaos Gods (Tzeentch, Nurgle, and Khorne, also Malal) were created by the Old Ones, who treated their creations like supercomputers and didn't care at all about their personality or individual development as long as they did what they were built to do.

Nurgle was attracted to Isha because of her despair, being a fellow nature deity (which Nurgle technically is), and her status as one of the last of her kind (due to his nature as the Preserver) rather than being attracted to her physically. Khorne has no obvious gender, if he had a sexual orientation it would be violence. Tzeentch is Schrodinger's gender, as with all his other physical attributes his gender exists in a state of quantum superposition, and the very act of defining it will turn it into the exact opposite of what you expect due to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle.

Slaanesh, due to being the only Chaos God created by a distinctly non-Old One race (the eldar, whose gods are modeled after themselves and thus do have defined genders) is the only one to really have a permanent, definable gender. However, due to being the god/ess of pleasure Slaanesh is every gender. All of them. At the same time. Not just male and female, but even the ones that don't apply to humans, such as "Ork" or genders that are normally only found in fungi and bacteria on Earth.

The C'tan don't have any gender, because they don't reproduce. They can wax and wane in power or break off shards of themselves, but ultimately the C'tan can't be born or killed. Llandu'gor the Flayer is the only C'tan to be explicitly 100% dead, and killing him required Szarekh to essentially break reality.

Although the races uplifted and taught to create their own warp gods by the Old Ones (like the Eldar and the Hrud) were far from experts in the craft like the Old Ones were, their gods did have one major advantage over the ones the Old Ones made in that they were more stable as individuals. The uplifted races built their gods based on the stories and ideals of their own pantheons, which gave the gods a framework in which they naturally grow and change as individuals like mortals. Although they all popped into existence at the same time, the gods had all the old stories as memories in their head,  As a result, gods like Isha, Cegorach, and Khaine have more aspects to their personality than "waifu", "troll", and "murderhobo", respectively, and have an easier time changing as individuals.

The Old Ones' gods, on the other hand, lacked this and tend to be more cancerous and monomaniacal (hence CHAOS Gods). What do you get when you have growth without structure? Cancer. They have a hard time perceiving things outside their domain, as well as growing as individuals. They also have a hard time being consistent, because they have trouble doing things beyond "gets them more emotions to get high". As an example, Nurgle had the opportunity to develop as an individual beyond "the Preserver" when he rescued Isha, or when he experienced personal despair for the first time when she was rescued. But he rejected that opportunity, ironically because he is a god of stagnancy. It's not clear why the Old Ones allowed this. Perhaps, being the amoral space lizard wizards that they were, they planned to just turn gods off the in the event they became rampant.  Likely they expected they would always be there to maintain their gods from a place of collective superiority.

The personality of the C'tan in many ways is a result of their initial reaction to the experience of getting physical bodies. Before the Necrontyr came along the C'tan were essentially Boltzmann brains on the level of space cows, only concerned with eating. In some ways they are a dark mirror to the "tabula rasa" experiment of the Emperor. Aza'gorod was the first C'tan to be given physical form. When he was "born" he had no equal except for the Old Ones, and therefore no one to push back against him and say no when he went too far. Is it any wonder he turned into a narcissistic sociopath who believes the world is all about him and his needs? When Mag'ladroth got a body he realized "holy shit, there is so much of reality I've been missing out on", and became enthralled with reality. Mephet'ran, due to being named after the Hermes/Thoth equivalent of a divine messenger in the half-forgotten Necrontyr pantheon, was implicitly trusted by the Necrontyr due to cultural background. He soon realized he could say just about anything and he could get away with it because they would believe him, and it spiraled out from there. [[Nyadra'zatha]] was a pyromaniac, plain and simple.

Tsara'noga was one of the last C'tan to get a physical body, and as a result was domineered by his older, more willful "siblings", rejected agency, and never developed much of a personality of his own. It's debatable whether Szarekh was able to convince the Outsider to turn on the other C'tan because the Outsider was merely obeying what someone else told him to do like he always did, or he it truly wanted to kill his siblings in revenge for always pushing him around and telling him what to do and just needed a pretense. In the former case, the Outsider doesn’t actually feel guilt, because it rejects agency in its actions, and it’s just the objections of the other C’tan that’s are disturbing it, if the latter, its madness is a mix of guilt for its fratricidal rampage and terror at its own dark intentions that drive it in its recursive denial (and the voices in its head).

== Tabletop Crunch ==

=== Imperial Army ===

NEW COMMANDING OFFICER OPTION
Psyker (3 points)

The regiment's commanding officer is some variety of skilled psyker. Though most commonly found in Cadian, Colchis or Tallarni regiments in the form of Eldar commanding officers, any world where psykers are sufficiently accepted might concievably have such a leader. As such, troops in these regiments quickly become familiar with the curious ways of the psyker and the tang of their powers, marching to war under orders borne of prognostication and assaulting enemy positions under literal covering fire.

Starting Skills: Psyniscience, Forbidden Lore: Psykers
Starting Talent: Warp Sense

=== Crone Eldar ===

==== Weaknesses of the Crone Eldar ====

As a faction, the primary weaknesses of the Crone Eldar are a lack of AP options and a reliance on fear and terror. Crone armies are heavily designed around tearing up light infantry and causing fear and terror. They eat factions like the [[Imperial Guard]] for breakfast. However, much like the [[Night Lords]], they run into the problem that a significant number of the armies running around the galaxy do not feel fear conventionally, including [[Space Marines]], [[tyranids]], [[Necrons]], and [[Orks]] (in the fluff, not so much in the crunch).

However, immunity to fear is not the biggest thing to worry about when running a Crone army. Armor-piercing is. From a thematic/fluff standpoint, Crone Eldar are bullies like Orks and Dark Eldar, and as a result they excel at fighting foes who are weaker than they are. The difference is that whereas [[Dark Eldar]] are hit and run attackers that run away when they hit a pocket of hard resistance the Crones bite back because they're a bunch of methheads, even though they're now out of their element. Additionally, while they are excellent at sowing fear and suffering, aside from the plotters like Lady Malys they often tend to not think far enough ahead to bring AP weapons. To the Crone Eldar killing your enemies in a pragmatic, straightforward manner that doesn't allow you to savor their screams of misery and despair sounds suspiciously like work. This makes Crone versus Space Marine matchups particularly hard, but again it makes sense with the fluff. The Crones perform well against conventional Imperium forces like Imperial Guard/Eldar Guardians and Tau Hunter Cadres as well as Orks, but while they struggle against Space Marines Astartes are much rarer in the galaxy, even accounting for greater numbers in this timeline.

That said the Crones do have options to deal with heavy armor, they just aren't as readily available as other factions. [[Nobledark_Imperium_Forces_of_Chaos#Phalanxes|Phalanxes]], [[Nobledark_Imperium_Forces_of_Chaos#Slaughtermen|Slaughtermen]] with AP rounds, and [[Nobledark_Imperium_Forces_of_Chaos#Meltheads|Meltheads]] on full blast are good options. [[Nobledark_Imperium_Forces_of_Chaos#Nightmares|Nightmares]] are an option, but all they can do is slug it out and bolters would make mincemeat out of them. The Crones also have access to nastier versions of D-weapons that teleport chunks of enemies into the Warp, and have much fewer reservations against using them than their Craftworlder or Commorrite kin for obvious reasons. However, these weapons are rarer than their fun torture toys. Against tanks or titans, the Crones like to use short range teleportation or other such methods to pop inside tanks and make them into cans of ground soldier. After several thousand years Imperial tank crews are pretty tough on the inside as well, but that wouldn't really discourage the Crones. Fluff-wise, the Crones will also compensate for their dearth of AP options by bringing in Fallen, summoning Daemons or bringing Daemon Engines, or manipulating Orks into acting as shock troops.

This is one good reason to bring [[Nobledark_Imperium_Forces_of_Chaos#Arrotyr.2C_Marshall_of_the_Scions_of_the_Old_Helm|Arrotyr]]. Arrotyr, as the holder of the largest collection of actually functional Old Empire weaponry, excels at killing enemy armor with superheated weaponry by melting enemies and the hills behind them with [[Melta|deathrays]], and if that fails attacking with demonic weapons of the Old Empire to carve up survivors. Arrotyr is the specialist tank-buster of the Crone Eldar.

Tl;dr: Crone Eldar, making AP values relevant again.

[[Category:Nobledark Imperium]]