Editing Thousand Sons (section)

===[[Rubric Marines]]===
[[File:1297640558332.jpg|250px|right|thumb|The Thousand Sons' custom/basic infantry unit:The Rubric Marine.]]
{{topquote|'''Just as planned!'''|Ahzek Ahriman, who'd never been so wrong in his life before (or after) that}}

''(Aka The Day Management changed all the employment terms and conditions and forgot to inform the workforce, not even a memo. The Unions were pissed.)''

As mentioned previously, the Thousand Sons' army was at one point 66% dust. This was primarily because of [[Ahzek Ahriman]]'s FML spell: The Rubric of Ahriman.[[File:1288054902571.jpg|right|thumb|They didn't take the news well...]] This rite damned everyone without psychic powers to be [[Grimdark|turned into ash and their soul to be sealed for all eternity into their permanently sealed armor unless the armor itself is broken]]; until [[Games Workshop]] gets its head out of its ass (which will probably never happen), it also damned those WITH psychic powers, as Gee Dubs [[Derp|is now claiming]] most of the Scarab Occult Terminators were psykers who got Rubricked, which also means that only the most powerful psykers lived through the spell.
Originally this was supposed to stop the mutations they were experiencing, as the Burning of Prospero had seen the Flesh Change return worse than ever before. Figuring out his own method from Magnus' spellbooks, Ahriman crafted a ritual that caused any Marines with mutations to either survive with their mutations cured and psychic powers augmented - or turned to dust if they weren't strong enough to resist the change. It's worth noting that Ahriman's plan was actually to cure the whole Legion of mutations, but the Warp being the Warp, [[FAIL|things got out of hand]]. Suffice to say Magnus was [[rage|fucking pissed]] and sought to kill Ahriman, but Tzeentch [[troll|applauded]] Ahriman and saved his ass. The spirit-armor Marines became known as Rubric Marines. Of course, in an ironically Tzeentchean sort of way, the spell did indeed cure the Flesh Change. No flesh, no Flesh Change after all. So it worked exactly as intended. Just... well, [[Not as Planned|not as planned]]

Rubric Marines are automatons - without a strong guiding presence, they lapse into a passive state - they are immortal beyond even a Space Marine's immortality and thus make the perfect guardians for the libraries and bases of the Thousand Sons. When guided by a Sorcerer or placed in the front lines against a foe, their old battle-hunger returns and they move with more of a sense of purpose. They obey orders without hesitation, and know no fear. Or much else for that matter. Making them far more fearsome, their Sorcerers equip them with modified bolter rounds that are enchanted to explode into bursts of white-hot warp-fire on impact, burning through armor with incredible speed. Additionally, since they're functionally animated suits of armor, they possess phenomenally strong supernatural protection due to their construction and are a bitch to kill as a result. They are, however, incredibly slow.

Whilst the current generation of Rubric Marines date back to the Thousand Sons' expulsion of Ahriman, it's believed they have the ability to make more by using altered and notably scaled-down versions of the rite that resulted in the Rubric. Even with this, however, the creation of them is lengthy and time-consuming, ergo guaranteeing that their enemies will slowly whittle down their numbers by drowning them in corpses, which is pretty much the tactic used by the Imperials against chaos marines constantly. Though, like all major Chaos Marine forces, the Thousand Sons have their own armies of lesser men: Surprisingly non-traitor Chaos Guard called Spireguard, which is used to drown their enemies in corpses or to tie up Imperial meatshields whilst Rubric Marines and Sorcerers do the jobs that matter. In editions past it was mentioned, that Thousand Sons Sorcerers can reanimate killed (broken?) Rubric Marines with a simple yet time-consuming ritual and Magnus himself can somehow bring back fallen Sorcerers in his super-awesome Black Tower on the Sorcerers Planet. All of this was possible due to how the Rubric made the souls of both Golems and Sorcerers all but immune to the powers of Warp so they cannot be nommed by daemons - although, as [[Erebus]] showed in "Betrayer", it is quite possible (though not easy) to resurrect even one whose soul "was torn apart and eaten by daemons". It was never retconned, so we can assume that this fluff is still valid, and no matter how many Thousand Sons you've killed, they'll always [[Commissar Yarrick|come]] [[Anval Thawn|back]] [[Lugft Huron|from]] the [[Necrons|dead]]. At least they wouldn't do it right the next second, just after you've killed them.

Tabletop-wise Rubric marines are of debatable use. Yes they're fearless, are fairly good at being shooty, especially if their bolters are enchanted, has a +4 invul save, so basically, they rape any kind of infantry that doesn't have the toughness of a Terminator. But on the downside, they're slow like termies and aren't necessarily as tough as them, they're nearly useless if the sorcerer leading them dies, they don't wow anyone in CQC, and overall they're hard to use for beginners. Overall, sort of a bridge between the shootiness of Slaanesh Noise Marines, toughness of Nurgle Plague Marines, and the fearlessness of Khornate Berzerkers. Throw them in a [[METAL BOXES|Rhino]] and let the games begin. You really have to know what you're doing with these guys. They CAN do quite awesome, but you need to use them right. And having Tzeentch smile upon you (in a way) never hurts.

The Thousand Sons have a distinctive battle cry [[Grimdark|''"All is Dust."'']] Only the relatively rare standard Marines they have however, scream it - instead, the sorcerers typically emit it [[Awesome|as a sonorous chant, accompanied by flickers of warp-light as the squad emerges from seemingly nowhere]].
[[File:All Is Dust by MajesticChicken.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Ahzek Ahriman, aka The One Who Psy-Bolts your Ass to Death.]]