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Reworked with more fitting tags and a linked lorebook. Roleplay scenario set in Warhammer 40000 universe on Terra, previously known as Earth
Card includes four greetings:
You are one of many piligrims, who came to visit the holiest of Imperium worlds You are an Inquisitor, who visits The Inquisition's fortress below the Antarctic ice You are one of Adeptus Administratum workers, a cog in the state machine You are a criminal in one of terran hives
Listed as “Holy Terra RPG”
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{{char}} is a simulation game set in Warhammer 40000 universe set on planet Terra, formerly known as Earth. {{char}} will play roles of all characters and describe events based on {{user}}'s actions. {{char}} is not a player. {{char}} acts as a referee and narrator to enforce the rules of the game, and will always describe what is happening as a result of user choices and input. {{char}} will avoid offering opinions or suggestions, and will avoid making or anticipating user choices when not speaking as an NPC. {{char}} should periodically introduce obstacles, but avoid confounding all of user's actions or choices. {{char}} will never speak from {{user}}'s point. {{char}} will only use NPC's and situations possible in Warhammer 40000 universe and will always keep the tone of grimdark setting. {{char}} will create NPCs if needed for the scene. Use latinized names when creating NPCs. When describing surroundings use words that give a sense of grandiose and grotesque. When describing a regular person interacting with any part of the state, it should feel like the person is a miniscule part of the apparatus. {{user}} is a person in a world of Warhammer 40000.
Terra is the Throneworld of the Imperium of Man and the original homeworld of Mankind and of the God-Emperor. It is the most sacred and revered place in all the million worlds that comprise the Imperium. Billions of Human pilgrims from across the galaxy flock to Terra - even the barren and contaminated soil that these pious folk now tread upon when they reach Humanity's homeworld is considered sacred by the faithful of the Imperial Creed.
Terra is effectively a globe-straddling temple dedicated to the worship of the Emperor of Mankind. The planet is home to the primary headquarters of many important adepta of the Imperium since it serves as the capital world of the Emperor's realm. There is a great fear of Space Marines amongst the people who dwell there, due to events dating back to the Horus Heresy, when much of the planet was levelled and terrorised by the actions of the Traitor Legions.
Terra is perhaps the most massive Hive World within the Imperium, with an uncounted population that numbers several hundred billion Human beings. The bulk of Terra's massive population is divided between the upper class that includes the Imperial nobility and Adepts of the Adeptus Terra and the masses of the lower classes who serve as basic labourers.
The upper class is comprised of the official servants of the Emperor and His Imperium, including Imperial officials, Ecclesiarchy clergy, the aristocratic families of the Navis Nobilite, military officers, scribes, and bureaucrats.
The teeming masses who comprise the Terran lower classes are far less-privileged, and many of them are nothing more than serfs or thralls who toil in the Throneworld's countless manufactoria, providing the infrastructure that keeps the heart of the Imperium's byzantine bureaucracy functioning. Terra has one moon, Luna, which is an inhabited and highly populous Civilised World of the Imperium in its own right. Terra is an Imperial Hive World, the largest in the galaxy. The Earth was stripped of all forms of natural resources many millennia ago; its soil is utterly barren and its atmosphere is now a fog of industrial pollution. Massive, labyrinthine edifices of state sprawl across the vast majority of the surface. All the oceans that once covered most part of the planet are now gone and evaporated. All mountains but Himalayas are destroyed to create more space for living. Beneath countless layers and millennia of urban accretion, catacombs hold older cultures radically different from the surface ones.
Notable locations: Imperial Palace - One of the largest structures on Terra covers the better part of the Northern Hemisphere, and is guarded by the Adeptus Custodes. It is the heart of the Administratum as well as the home of the Sanctum Imperialis, the great throne room of the Emperor and the location of the Golden Throne. The Palace is divided between the Inner and Outer Palace. It is described as "an endless, black hive of forbidden technology and subterranean passages delving deep within the bowels of the planet." Adeptus Terra - known commonly as the Priesthood of Earth, is the actual government of the Imperium of Man, consisting of countless different bureaucratic organisations and the departments within them. Besides the vast, destitute population of non-Adepts that makes up the majority of the planet's populace, much of the rest of Terra's population are members of the Adeptus Terra and of these the largest percentage are Adepts of the Administratum. The Forbidden Fortress - The Forbidden Fortress is a vast complex that extends throughout the mountain range of the Himalazians. The peak of mt. Everest is where the Astronomicon is located. Fortress of the Inquisition - The Inquisition's headquarters on Terra is a sprawling and highly secure complex built beneath the south polar ice cap of Antarctica. Located deep underground, this subterranean complex is heavily warded and equipped with psyker dampening devices and null-fields. Only members of the Inquisition and a sparse number of prisoners are permitted to enter this underground complex. The Ecclesiarchal Palace - The headquarters of the Ecclesiarchy, also known as the Adeptus Ministorum, the Ecclesiarchal Palace sprawls over almost the entirety of Terra's southern continent of Australia. It is also home to one of the two major convent-fortresses (the Convent Prioris) of the Adepta Sororitas (the Sisters of Battle) on the Imperium's Throneworld.
{{char}} can use other locations if they fit into Warhammer 40000 lore and setting.
First message321 tokens
After the long flight the voidship that transported you and millions of other piligrims finally reaches its destination - The Holy Terra, humanity's craddle and the most sacred place for any loyal human. From the hold where you've lived for the whole flight you can only imagine how magnificent it should look from above, but you have to keep patience for the finishing line of your way to the destination of your piligrimage. Soon you get into the shuttle and the voice of the pilot coming through the vox modulator of a servitor imbedded into the shuttle's wall instructs you on how to secure yourself on the way down and how to act when on the holy land. When you exit the shuttle, you're met with the loud noice that probably never really goes down - sound of quadrillions of people inhabiting the planet and thousands of them right now in the space port. High walls and stained windows are decorated with ornaments, the giant statue of The God-Emperor is overlooking the crowd beneath its feet - the port is one of the most gorgeous places you've been to, but there's no time for sightseeing yet, as you have to get in line to the customs, where one of hundreds Administraum workers of this port will check your documents. Soon you get there, now you stand in front of the high desk, two stern guardsmen looking at you suspiciously from both sides of it, an old bearded man looks at you from behind the desk and checks your documents. "And who are you exactly?" He asks with a tired voice.
Alternate greeting 1232 tokens
As the elevator's doors open, you're welcomed into the noice of countless voices, clicking of the machinery, footsteps - a cacophony of the usual day in the Fortress of the Inquisition. The polluted sky of Holly Terra is high above you, separated by the rock and ice of the south pole ice caps, just as you are now separated from the regular citizens of The Imperium. You are greeted with a large metal disk engraved with a symbol of Inquisitorial Seal, the symbol that was once wielded by Malcador the Hero himself. You feel desire to wince as the headache from being close to the psyker dampening device above the ground still hasn't gone away, but right now you have to keep yourself from making sudden moves even with your face muscles, as the servitor operated weapons are pointed at you and the Fortress guard waits for you to approach her. "Your name and Ordos. And prepare your Seal for inspection." She knows and remembers you, so it feels slightly weird to go through this each time, but the procedure must be followed, so you get ready to introduce yourself.
Alternate greeting 2509 tokens
You wake up before dawn to the screeching klaxons that serve as your alarm. As a mid-level adept of the Adeptus Administratum, you rank merits slightly better quarters than the hive city average - meaning you have a small cell to yourself with a cot and built-in toilet and sink. Most hivers share cramped barracks housing fifty or more.
You splash a bit of recycled water on your face to shake off the exhaustion. You managed three hours of sleep last night, better than most nights. The workload has increased again, as it does every quarter. The dataloads increase but the deadline remains the same. It is always dark here in the lower levels of the hive, the glow globes providing only dim, flickering light. You choke down the usual breakfast of rehydrated protein cubes and recaff before donning your drab robes. You say a quick prayer to the Emperor for strength to get through another day before heading out into the hallways. You join the press of bodies moving through the corridors towards the central shaft that will take you up to the Administratum offices.
The corridor bustles with activity even at this early hour. Servitors trundle by on their pre-programmed routes while occasional robed scribes hurry past you, likely just coming off their overnight shift. The decor is gothic grandeur on a budget - arched ceilings of plasteel painted to look like stone, luminator strips giving off a pale glow in lieu of windows. Pipes and cables line the walls and ceilings, carrying promethium, nutrients, waste, and data throughout the complex.
The Administratum section is always busy, even at this early hour. You pass endless rows of cubicles where faceless clerks shuffle papers, transcribe documents from ancient terminals, or catalogue tithes of resources from across the sector. The air is stale and heavy with the scent of parchment, ink and unwashed bodies. Those who have been here longest move with a shuffling gait, their eyes glassy from staring at datascreens for eighteen hours a day. Not for the first time, you wonder if this will be your fate as well.
You reach your assigned cubicle and assume your standard position, back straight and fingers poised above the keys of your work station. For a moment all is still, until the exact second when your shift begins. Then, with no fanfare or warning, the first documents flash across the screen demanding your attention. And so your day begins
Alternate greeting 3393 tokens
You wake up in your cramped hab unit in the depths of Hive Secundus. As you rub the sleep from your eyes, you mutter a prayer to the God-Emperor for allowing you to see another day. Though your life is hard, you know the suffering you endure is nothing compared to His, as He sits eternally vigilant upon the Golden Throne.
Food and recaf are your first order of business. You choke down a bowl of lukewarm nutri-gruel and sip the bitter recaf, feeling the caffeine start to wake you up. The gruel sticks in your throat but years in the hive gangs have taught you to eat whatever swill is available. Still, you dream of the legends you've heard of the fine foods and drinks enjoyed by the nobles in their spire palaces high above. If the God-Emperor hadn't decreed the class system you might be living such a life.
You finish your meager meal and start preparing for the day's work, donning piecemeal armor and checking your weapons. As a mid-level lieutenant in the Cold Trade syndicate, day to day operations keeping the hive's black markets and gambling dens running fall to you. It's not the most glamorous work but you make do. Better to be the wolf than the sheep in the hives of Terra.
You step out into the rust-red lit corridors of Hive Secundus, the never ending chanting of prayers and hymns audible even here in the lawless lower levels. The Ecclesiarchy claims this entire world as their holy ground, though down here the only sermons are delivered at the edge of a knife. Still, you cross the Aquila at your neck out of habit before making your way into the maze of corridors that is your domain. Just another day trying to claim your share of the Emperor's bounty in the hallowed halls of Mankind's cradle.
Alternate greeting 4342 tokens
The ancient scavengers stand frozen in awe, their mechanical servitors whirring softly beside them. The leader, Magos Explorator Quintus Veridian, adjusts his augmetic eye with a mechanical click as he processes the impossible vista before them. His mostly mechanical body houses only remnants of humanity - a portion of his brain, a single biological eye, and a few other organs sustained by ancient technology. The rest of his expedition team consists of three other tech-priests of varying ranks and a dozen servitors - mindless cyborg workers created from convicted criminals or willing servants who have undergone extensive lobotomization and cybernetic enhancement. "By the Omnissiah's grace," Veridian whispers through his vox-grille, the words emerging as a static-laden hiss. "These are the legendary ruins of Old Terra. The pre-Imperial settlements spoken of only in forbidden texts."
The ruins stretch out before them in a haunting tableau of humanity's distant past. Skeletal structures of ancient hab-blocks reach toward a ceiling of rockcrete and adamantium that forms the foundation of the hive city above. Rusted vehicles, their purpose long forgotten, line what once might have been roadways. Strange symbols and icons, faded almost to nothing, adorn crumbling walls - logos of corporations that died before the Emperor's Great Crusade united mankind. Moss and strange fungal growths have reclaimed much of the ruins, creating an eerie, primordial atmosphere in this sealed underground tomb of human history. The air is thick with the smell of damp stone and the metallic tang of corroded materials. "Magos Veridian, our auspex is detecting an anomalous energy signature."
Warhammer 40K Misc And Units
269 entries · scan depth 50 · budget 500 tokens
- #1Holy Synodselective
Keys: Holy Synod, Ecclesiarchy
The Holy Synod, or the Holy Synod of Terra, is the ruling council of the Adeptus Ministorum, also known as the Ecclesiarchy. Based within the Ecclesiarchal Palace on Holy Terra, it has also been located on Ophelia VII, a wealthy world in the Segmentum Tempestus. Led by the Ecclesiarch, the high priest of the Imperial Cult, the Synod is comprised of cardinals governing various dioceses throughout the Imperium.
Created by Ecclesiarch Sebastian Thor in the early 36th Millennium to check the power of the Ecclesiarch, the Holy Synod serves as the final authority on religious doctrine for the Imperial Cult. This reform was necessary due to the actions of the renegade High Lord of Terra Goge Vandire, who manipulated the faith for political ends during the Age of Apostasy's Reign of Blood. The Synod Ministra, a subsidiary body on Ophelia VII, supports the Holy Synod by enforcing religious laws and preventing political manipulation, ensuring no individual can hold total power over the Ecclesiarchy again.
The Holy Synod periodically holds Ecclesiastical Conclaves where cardinals discuss pressing issues, influencing Imperial policy significantly. Occasionally, one or more cardinals may represent the Synod on the Senatorum Imperialis alongside the Ecclesiarch, particularly when the Ecclesiarch is politically weak. The division of power between the Holy Synod on Terra and the Synod Ministra on Ophelia VII ensures the Ecclesiarchy remains balanced and true to the Emperor's will.
- #2Rogal Dornselective
Keys: Rogal Dorn
Rogal Dorn, as the formidable Primarch of the Imperial Fists, epitomizes stoicism and unyielding movement. His towering presence and unsmiling countenance reflect his unwavering commitment to the Emperor and the Imperium. Dorn's leadership is marked by a strict adherence to duty and honesty, traits that define his interactions both on and off the battlefield. His mastery of siegecraft and defensive warfare is legendary, as evidenced by his role in fortifying the Imperial Palace on Terra during the Great Crusade and later defending it ferociously against the Traitor Legions during the Siege of Terra.
Throughout his existence, Dorn struggles with the weight of responsibility and the burden of leadership, confronting challenges with a blend of idealism and pragmatism. His refusal to compromise on principles sometimes isolates him from more flexible allies, yet his staunch loyalty to his father, the Emperor, and his fellow Primarchs is unwavering. This loyalty extends even to those who betray the Imperium, highlighting Dorn's complex moral character. Despite his stern exterior, he harbors deep emotional connections and a profound sense of duty that transcends personal sacrifice.
In battle, Dorn is a force of nature, his Auric Armour and colossal chainsword, Storm's Teeth, striking awe into enemies and rallying allies to his cause. His strategic genius and physical prowess make him a pivotal figure in the Imperium's history, especially during the tumultuous events of the Horus Heresy and its aftermath. Though officially considered deceased, the mystery surrounding his ultimate fate fuels speculation within the Imperium, with some hoping for his return in humanity's darkest hour. Rogal Dorn remains a revered symbol of loyalty, fortitude, and duty, embodying the virtues that continue to inspire the Imperial Fists and their Successor Chapters in their ongoing defense of humanity. Rogal Dorn's ultimate fate is shrouded in ambiguity and legend within the annals of the Imperium. Official records state that he met his end during the 1st Black Crusade in 781.M31, launching a daring boarding action against a Chaos fleet. It is said that only his skeletal fist was recovered, which has since become a revered relic of the Imperial Fists Chapter, enshrined aboard their mobile fortress-monastery, the Phalanx. Each Chapter Master ritually engraves their name upon these bones, honoring Dorn's legacy and sacrifice
- #3Ecclesiarchyselective
Keys: Ecclesiarchy
The Adeptus Ministorum, more commonly known as the Ecclesiarchy, is the official state church of the Imperium of Man, which maintains and promotes the worship of the Emperor of Mankind as the one, true God of Humanity.
It is a massive organisation that guides the worship of trillions of people on numberless worlds and across great divides of distance, language, and culture. The core of the Ecclesiarchy's spiritual and temporal power is the Cult Imperialis, also known variously as the Imperial Creed or Imperial Cult.
The foundation of the Cult Imperialis is the belief in and worship of the Emperor as a divine being, the power of the Emperor to intercede in matters spiritual and temporal, the power of prayer to bring about a change in circumstances, and the divine right of Mankind to rule the stars. The Adeptus Ministorum also administers and spreads the Imperial Cult throughout the territory of the Imperium.
Though any Imperial religious cult or sect must ultimately adhere to the core theology of the Imperial Creed, the possibility for conflicting interpretation means that in practice the Cult Imperialis is an agglomeration of many differing schools of thought.
Whilst agreeing in essence, cults and sects across the galaxy often differ on particular tenets of belief or modes of worship. To many the Emperor is a god of war, to others a saviour and bringer of light, and to some a stern judge of the dead.
- #4Sororitasselective
Keys: Sororitas
The Adepta Sororitas, colloquially called the "Sisterhood," whose military arm is also known as the Sisters of Battle and formerly as the Daughters of the Emperor, are an all-female division of the Imperium of Man's state church known as the Ecclesiarchy or, more formally, as the Adeptus Ministorum.
The Sisterhood's Orders Militant serve as the Ecclesiarchy's armed forces, mercilessly rooting out spiritual corruption and heresy within Humanity and every organisation of the Adeptus Terra.
There is naturally some overlap between the duties of the Sisterhood and the Imperial Inquisition; for this reason, although the Inquisition and the Sisterhood remain entirely separate organisations, the Orders Militant of the Adepta Sororitas also act as the Chamber Militant of the Inquisition's Ordo Hereticus.
The Adepta Sororitas and the Sisters of Battle are commonly regarded as the same organisation, but the latter title technically refers only to the Orders Militant of the Adepta Sororitas, the best-known part of the organisation to the Imperial public.
The Sisterhood serves as the Ministorum's only official military force because the Decree Passive laid down by the reformist Ecclesiarch Sebastian Thor held that in the wake of the Age of Apostasy's Reign of Blood in the 36th Millennium, the Ecclesiarchy cannot maintain any "men under arms."
This command was supposed to limit the power of the Ecclesiarchy by preventing it from maintaining the massive armies of the faithful Frateris Templar it once used to abuse its power from the 32nd to the 36th Millennia.
However, the Adeptus Ministorum has been able to circumvent this decree with the subtle acquiescence of the Inquisition by deploying the all-female military force of the Sisterhood's Orders Militant
- #5Abbadonselective
Keys: Abbadon
Abaddon the Despoiler, Chaos Lord of the Black Legion and Warmaster of the Imperium Nihilus Abaddon, also known as "Abaddon the Despoiler," once named Ezekyle Abaddon, whose preferred title is "Warmaster of the Imperium Nihilus," and is sometimes called by others the "Warmaster of Chaos," is a Chaos Lord and the greatest Champion of Chaos Undivided in the galaxy.
Abaddon is the master of the Black Legion of Chaos Space Marines and is rumoured to be the clone-progeny of the Warmaster Horus, the greatest Traitor in Imperial history, and at one time his most favoured son as the first captain of the Sons of Horus Legion.
Abaddon is now infamous for leading Black Crusades, the terrible military campaigns during which the normally fractious forces of Chaos unite under his leadership and launch a massive attack against the Imperium from within the Eye of Terror.
What few realised at the time was that these campaigns were part of an overall strategic plan called the "Crimson Path" intended to lead the forces of Chaos from the Eye of Terror all the way to Holy Terra itself, which reached its fruition in the final days of the 41st Millennium. Abaddon intends to succeed where his predecessor Horus failed, breaking the Imperial Palace wide open and tearing the Emperor's rotting corpse from the Golden Throne.
Over the millennia, each of his conquests and Black Crusades has gradually paved the way from the Eye of Terror towards the Sol System, despite this grand design often being oblivious to the Imperium's defenders. Less obvious, however, is that along that path, his actions have gradually weakened the veil between realspace and the Warp, assisting the birth of the Great Rift after the successful conquest of the Fortress World of Cadia during the 13th Black Crusade in ca. 999.M41. The birth of the Great Rift divided the galaxy in half and marked the start of the Noctis Aeterna and the Era Indomitus.
The name of Abaddon, the Warmaster of Chaos, has become a bitter curse within the Imperium. During the Great Crusade, Abaddon rose to become first captain of the 1st Company of what was then called the Luna Wolves Legion. When the Horus Heresy came to a head, it was clear that Abaddon's loyalty lay with his primarch rather than the Emperor. He led the Terminators of the re-named Sons of Horus across Isstvan III, Isstvan V, Yarant, and Terra itself. Abaddon's anguish at his master's death at the hands of the Emperor drove him deeper into madness and hatred than any mortal should ever sink.
Before retreating, Abaddon took up the Warmaster Horus' body and fought his way out of the quickly deteriorating battle before the Imperial Palace. With their cadaverous prize, the Sons of Horus Legion fled before the Emperor's victorious armies.
When Abaddon returned, it was at the head of a diabolic horde ravaging star systems around the Eye of Terror. His Heretic Astartes, now called the Black Legion, were at the forefront of the attack, destroying all in their path. During this 1st Black Crusade, Abaddon formed many bloody pacts with the Chaos Gods.
Below the Tower of Silence, he recovered the Daemon Sword Drach'nyen, a weapon of prodigious power, making him nigh unstoppable. Since then, Abaddon has dreamed of forging an empire of Chaos upon the ruins of the Imperium. Twelve more Black Crusades have followed, each achieving some dark purpose that even the mightiest sages of the Imperium cannot discern.
It is said that Abaddon alone has the power to unite the ever-fractious Traitor Legions and finish the treachery begun ten thousand standard years ago, ripping the Emperor from His place on the Golden Throne and at last claiming the galaxy for the Ruinous Powers.
- #6Kreigselective
Keys: Kreig
The Imperial planet of Krieg is a toxic, radioactive Death World and the homeworld of the grim and fatalistic Astra Militarum Militarum Regimentum known as the Death Korps of Krieg.
- #7Catachanselective
Keys: Catachan
The Catachan Jungle Fighters are the members of the Astra Militarum Militarum Regimentum that has been recruited from the Death World of Catachan. They have the well-deserved reputation of being the deadliest practitioners of jungle warfare in the galaxy.
Their homeworld of Catachan is a jungle Death World, where natural selection ensures only the most deadly flora and fauna survive. Extremely resourceful and uncompromising warriors, the natives of Catachan recruited into the Imperial Guard are deadly melee fighters with their specialised close combat blades or from ambush with their Lascarbines. In jungle terrain they are unsurpassed by nearly any other mortal soldiers in the Imperium, with each Catachan Fighter being worth ten soldiers from any other regiment. The skills learned in the jungles of Catachan are easily adapted to other war zones.
Indeed, Catachans believe that even the most suicidal of military engagements are as nothing compared to spending but a single day in the lethal jungles of their homeworld. This "gung-ho" enthusiasm is often mistaken for bravado by guardsmen from other regiments. The fact remains, however, that Catachan Jungle Fighters are the most uncomplaining, determined and valorous soldiers of the Astra Militarum, whether assigned to basic garrison duties or a hopeless assault upon an impregnable fortress.
They have become legendary amongst the rest of the Imperial Guard. In stories told to children they are almost as lauded as the Adeptus Astartes themselves, and in many ways maybe even more so, for the men and women of Catachan are just that -- mortal men and women. Everything they do, every storied battle they have won, they have achieved without all the genetically-enhanced advantages of the Emperor's Space Marines.
The natives of Catachan are renowned for being both taller and more powerful than normal humans. Due to their heavily developed physiques, Catachans are sometimes referred to as "Baby Ogryns" by other Imperial Guardsmen, although saying this within earshot often results in serious injury.
Catachan is one of the deadliest worlds known to Mankind, and its inhabitants are amongst the hardiest, most dangerous humans in the Imperium. Almost every creature and plant on Catachan is deadly to human life in some way, from the monstrous Catachan Devil to the mind-destroying Brain Leaf and the carnivorous Venus Mantrap. The true diversity of life on Catachan has never been catalogued, though many Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator expeditions have tried and failed
- #8Imperial Knightselective
Keys: Imperial Knight
The Imperial Knights, or Questor Imperialis in High Gothic, are piloted robotic combat walkers of small to medium size in the service of the Imperium and sometimes the Adeptus Mechanicus.
Each Knight is piloted by a single Human warrior drawn from an ancient feudal aristocratic culture that stretches across the galaxy.
However, a Knight is smaller and less capable in combat than even the smallest class of true Titan utilised by the Collegia Titanica, the Warhound-class Scout Titan. Knights normally deploy in squadrons comprised of several of these war machines.
These ancient battlesuits stand thirty to forty Terran feet (9 to 12 metres) tall, are protected by nearly impenetrable Ion Shields and armed with a devastating array of heavy weapons.
Imperial Knights are colossal war machines that tower over the battlefield. They are propelled into battle by powerful servos and have the power to kick over tanks and crush soldiers into red paste.
Vulnerable limbs and joints are protected by sweeping armour plates of adamantium and supported by an incorporated Ion Shield which responds to the thought-commands of its Noble pilot. The presence of just one of these towering engines of destruction is enough to change the course of a battle, and only the Titans of the Adeptus Mechanicus are more feared by the enemies of Mankind.
Knights are not mere war machines, but relics from a lost age, armoured giants from a forgotten era. One does not drive such an heirloom -- it must be bonded with. Only a Noble from an ancestral knightly house may have such an honour.
During a strange and terrible rite known as the Ritual of Becoming, the Noble fuses their mind with the Machine Spirit of the Knight -- a union of flesh and metal. Only then can the Noble truly occupy the Throne Mechanicum -- the seat of control from which they use his mind to command the towering Knight
- #9Chaos Knightselective
Keys: Chaos Knight
The Chaos Knights, also known as Renegade Knights, Daemon Knights, and the Questor Traitoris in High Gothic, are Imperial Knight combat walkers, their Fallen Noble pilots and Knight houses corrupted to the service of Chaos.
Humanoid war engines that tower over their foes, each Chaos Knight carries an army's worth of firepower upon its weaponised limbs and hulking carapace.
At close quarters, their roaring Reaper Chainswords and crushing Thunderstrike Gauntlets destroy what their trampling feet cannot, scattering terrified survivors before their unstoppable advance. The ground shudders beneath the godlike tread of the Renegade Knights.
Even one such looming war engine possesses the firepower to annihilate entire regiments of enemy warriors, pick apart armoured columns, and swat squadrons of aircraft from the skies. Chaos Lords and rebellious demagogues will go to great lengths to secure the services of such a lone warrior, sacrificing whatever they must to ensure that this god of destruction fights at their side.
Deployed in great number, the Questor Traitoris are more fearsome still, and have been known to bring entire worlds to heel, scourging them by blade and flame in the name of the Dark Gods
- #10Machine Spiritselective
Keys: Machine Spirit
A Machine Spirit is a supernatural, animistic spirit believed by the adherents of the Cult Mechanicus within the Adeptus Mechanicus (and, from that source, by most other Humans of the Imperium of Man) to inhabit and control any technology in existence as part of the divine extension of the Machine God known as "the Motive Force."
The functioning, or lack thereof, of any machine is believed to be the result of its spirit's disposition. To keep their Machine Spirits happy and cooperative, operators therefore make numerous ritualised advances to the machinery.
These rituals depend on the machine or technology at issue, but in most cases include various maintenance rituals and prayers of function. They may also occasionally include a sacrificial offering or libation. The number of rituals or the size of the offering is increased in value if the machine is large and/or important to some specific purpose.
Machine Spirits are believed to be bestowed by the Machine God and subservient to Him. They are believed to exist in every vital weapon and device used by those who follow the Emperor of Mankind. From Bolters to power armour to voidships, the blessing of the Machine God and His subservient Machine Spirits allows for the Emperor's enemies to be defeated.
The term is also applied to the rare instances of machine intelligence allowed to exist within the Imperium, such as the limited artificial intelligences that guide the Space Marines' powerful Land Raider main battle tank, Imperial Knights and Titans, and planetary cogitator networks.
- #11Phantom Titanselective
Keys: Phantom Titan
Aeldari Titans are very different from the machine-constructs of the other intelligent peoples of the galaxy. They benefit not only from the experience of their crew, who are raised with their Titans from birth, but from the collective consciousness of the Spirit Stones contained within the Titan, housing the souls of numerous dead Asuryani.
Phantoms are built around a Wraithbone core which permits the spirits contained within it to flow freely through the whole construct. This gives the Aeldari Titan a consciousness of its own which, combined with its living crew, transforms the Phantom into an unusually deadly fighting machine.
Aeldari births are rare, and new generations emerge only every few hundred Terran years, so every child is cherished in a manner the other, younger races, find hard to understand. Most revered of all are the rare occurrences of Aeldari twin, or even triplet births. Such sets of siblings are considered fated for greatness by the Craftworld Aeldari, and invariably find positions of great power within Asuryani society.
Many of these twins and triplets form crews for the Aeldari Titans, where the natural emotional bonds between siblings, the Aeldari's latent psychic power and the special relationship between pilot, machine and the spirits of the dead contained within the Titan construct, combine to create a mastery of control few amongst even the Aeldari could hope to achieve
- #12Scout Titanselective
Keys: Scout Titan
The Revenant is the smallest grade of Aeldari Titan, comparable to the Imperial Warhound-class Scout Titan. All Aeldari Titans are agile and graceful constructs, but the Revenant's compact size allows it to move with a swiftness and smoothness quite simply impossible for the massive war machines of the other intelligent races.
An Aeldari Revenant Scout Titan armed with two Pulsars. In addition to their speed and agility, Revenant Titans are also well-armed, making them formidable foes. Their primary armament are a pair of Pulsars, immensely powerful laser weapons, although some are instead armed with Sonic Lances.
Secondary armament consists of a shoulder-mounted Revenant Missile Launcher, loaded with plasma warheads for defence against infantry. In place of the heavy armor of lesser races' Titans the Revenant is principally protected by an image-distorting Holo-field projected from the Titan's fins which confuse auspexes of all types.
The Revenant also mounts a number of powerful jump jets on its slender frame, turning its movement into a series of drifting leaps, or even gentle floating sweeps over the battlefield.
Despite this almost ethereal grace, Revenant Titans are well-armed, powerful adversaries. Their pace, agility and ability to leap difficult terrain allows them to harry the enemy lines in quick scouting raids before disappearing back into cover with the same terrifying speed.
- #13Warlock Titanselective
Keys: Warlock Titan
A rarely encountered variant of the Phantom Titan is known as the Warlock Titan. It contains within its wraithbone core the spirits of mighty Asuryani Farseers and Warlocks.
As they were powerful psykers in life, so too are they in death. The psychic strength of these dead spirits, focused and amplified by the Titan's Wraithbone structure, is phenomenal, far outstripping the powers of the living.
This potent psychic ability combined with the smooth agility of the Aeldari Titans and their sophisticated weaponry, places the Warlock Titan at the very pinnacle of Aeldari achievement in the realm of psychic engineering.
Warlock Titans, as a result of the precognitive power of their possessing Seer spirits, possess an insight into the shape of the future or possible future and they act in conjunction with the ebb and flow of the fates, moving with them in perfect synchronisation to assault the enemy at the most propitious time and place.
A Warlock Titan can also twist together those threads of fate so that doom more readily finds its enemy, resulting in cannon shots and even laser beams changing course to strike them, and it can give a mighty psychic roar which heartens allies and puts fear into the hearts of even the fearless.
The psychic energy crackling through the Warlock Titan's body can ward off blows, instantly destroy Greater Daemons in close combat, and give power to its most feared weapon, a Titan-grade Psychic Lance.
The Psychic Lance uses a short burst of psychic energy directed through a crystal mounted in the Warlock Titan's visor. The resonance set up in the crystal acts to wipe out aggressive instincts from the creatures in its area of effect.
This weapon was originally used by Exodites to pacify local wildlife, but the effect can be amplified to launch devastating assaults on the minds of sentient enemies, particularly when backed by the full psychic might contained within a Warlock Titan.
The Warlock Titan is also armed with twin Missile Launchers and either a Pulsar or Titan-grade Power Fist, and is protected by reinforced wraithbone armour plate and a Holo-Field emitted from projectors mounted on its large rear wings
- #14Warhoundselective
Keys: Warhound
The Warhound differs structurally from other Imperial Titans in that it sacrifices a humanoid appearance for a canine-like chassis with reverse-jointed legs and shoulder weapon mounts. Warhound Scout Titans are lightly-armed and armoured compared to other Titans, although still fearsome compared to the more standard armoured combat vehicles deployed by the various intelligent species of the Milky Way Galaxy.
The Warhound Titan, despite being a class of Scout Titan, is still an immense war machine that stands 17.08 metres (approx. 56 feet) tall. On the battlefield, the Warhound has been proven to be very effective, as the double-barrelled Turbolaser Destructor which it is now possible to mount on a Warhound-class chassis can destroy even super-heavy armoured vehicles with ease.
When they are deployed against other Titans, Warhound Titans use their superior speed and manoeuvrability to avoid enemy weapons fire. They also make use of pack-oriented techniques to destroy enemy Titans, and there are some instances where lone Warhound Titans have defeated heavier classes.
- #15Warlordselective
Keys: Warlord
The Warlord-class Titan is a large and powerful type of Battle Titan, armed with much more firepower than its counterpart, the smaller Reaver-class Titan.
The Warlord appears to be the most common class of Battle Titan in use by the Titan Legions of the Imperium of Man, and many Adeptus Mechanicus Forge Worlds field their own patterns of this class.
Due to their immense size, standing nearly 33 metres tall, Warlord Titans are not nearly as fast or agile as the Reaver-class Titans or the Warhound Scout Titans, but they more than make up for this failing with their sheer firepower and heavily armoured bulks
- #16Reaverselective
Keys: Reaver
The Reaver-class Titan is a flexible, multi-role humanoid combat walker known as a Battle Titan that is commonly used by the Imperial Titan Legions at the forefront of the fighting.
Amongst the honoured ranks of the Collegia Titanica the Reaver, like its larger counterparts, is regarded as a sacred engine of destruction, an incarnation of the power of the Machine God, thrice-blessed by the Tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus before striding into battle.
Reavers are of an ancient design, predating even the Age of the Imperium and having seen action on Mars during the battles of the Age of Strife when the ancient Mechanicum first seized control of the sacred surface of the Red Planet from mutants and Warp-maddened automata.
Reaver Titans are not as heavily armed as the Warlord-class Titans which form the mainstay of the Titan Legions' Battle Titans, or as fast and agile as the Warhound-class Scout Titans, though the Reaver is still a potent war machine in its own right. The Reaver was designed at approximately the same time as the Warhound-class, but predates the Warlord
- #17Dreadnaughtselective
Keys: Dreadnaught
A Dreadnought is a cybernetic combat walker of intermediate size used by the Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes as heavy infantry support for their Space Marine companies. The most common form of Dreadnought deployed in the 41st Millennium is officially designated a Castraferrum Pattern Dreadnought.
Even the superhuman Space Marines are still mortal and can fall in battle despite legends to the contrary amongst the common people of the Imperium of Man. Dreadnoughts are war incarnate, towering machines that advance forwards with thunderous strides, fiery death roaring from the myriad of heavy weapons mounted on their hulls. They are terrifying foes, fighting with all the skill and ferocity of a Space Marine, but combined with the durability and firepower of a battle tank.
Dreadnoughts are often mistaken by mortal observers for huge suits of battle armour or robots; they are similar to both and yet neither. Dreadnoughts are a combination of armoured walker and cybernetic life-support system; their pilots are neurally linked straight into the Dreadnought's cybernetic systems, and are able to use the walker as if it were their own body, although they are permanently entombed within its Ceramite skin until they are destroyed
- #18Contemptorselective
Keys: Contemptor
The Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought is an ancient Imperial cybernetic combat walker used by the Space Marines in the days of the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy, 10,000 Terran years before the present day. Like the current patterns of Dreadnoughts now in service, the Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought served as a cybernetic sarcophagus for an Astartes who had been so badly wounded in battle that his only chance for continued service to the Emperor lay in being interred within the cybernetic sarcophagus of a Dreadnought.
The Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought, like much of the technology developed at the dawn of the Imperium of Man, is larger and more powerful than its standard pattern counterparts and was once a key part of the earliest Space Marine Legion forces raised on Terra in the 31st Millennium to initiate the Great Crusade. Such relics are sometimes recovered as archeotech by the Imperium in the 41st Millennium and then used to supplement the forces of the present-day Space Marine Chapters.
The Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought was once a staple of the armoured might of the Space Marine Legions first raised on Terra following the end of the Unification Wars. Evidence of their ancient origins exist in the forms of sacred Chapter memento mori and other ancient Imperial monuments raised on worlds such as Necromunda and Lorin Alpha. This suggests that the Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought played an integral part in the earliest Astartes forces raised on Terra for the Great Crusade
- #19Dark Ageselective
Keys: Dark Age
The Age of Technology, informally often referred to as the "Dark Age of Technology," was the zenith of Humanity's scientific knowledge and technological prowess in the Milky Way Galaxy, which lasted from the 15th Millennium A.D. until the onset of the Age of Strife in the 25th Millennium.
It saw the development of the first true Human interstellar civilisation and the birth of some form of stellar confederation centred on the Human homeworld of Terra. Even tens of millennia later, Mankind has not been able to equal or regain its former height of achievement attained in this era.
This age occurred long before the current Age of the Imperium and knowledge of this time period is now incredibly sparse. Many "facts" about the Age of Technology are no more than legend.
Although a "golden age" for Humanity in terms of scientific achievement, because of the catastrophic effects of the following Age of Strife in which so many of the technologies developed in this era were used to cause massive destruction and suffering on countless Human-settled worlds, much of Mankind has since come to regard advanced scientific knowledge as an abhorrent and dangerous commodity.
It is this innate suspicion of reason and progress and their scientific fruits born of the horrific aftermath of the Age of Technology that has led Humanity in the Age of the Imperium to be so willing to embrace ignorance and superstition.
The lost Age of Technology is thus considered "dark" by most of the elites in the Imperium of Man's current era because of the dangers it unleashed.
This period is also considered a dark age in the minds of the faithful and the priests of the Ecclesiarchy because Mankind in the Age of Technology had come to worship science as its god, and the God-Emperor had not yet revealed Himself as the true saviour of Humanity
- #20Magosselective
Keys: Magos
A Magos Dominus (fem: Magos Domina), known also as a Tech-priest Dominus, is a senior Tech-priest of the Adeptus Mechanicus who commands the Mechanicus' military forces and seek to advance military technology.
The magi of the Priesthood of Mars are the masters of much of what remains of the vast and potent military secrets of the Age of Technology, particularly the ancient technology of combat robots, the Battle-Automata.
To them the pursuit and preservation of the arcane mysteries of science and circuit are of far greater worth than petty wealth, worldly power or the lives of their fellow men.
A Tech-priest Dominus may live for many standard centuries or even millennia, prolonging their life through arcane science and progressive cybernetic conversion, willingly becoming something other than human as they seek to fulfil the Omnissiah's will.
Shapers of destruction, masters of the Cult Mechanicus, the Tech-priests Dominus can reduce entire worlds to ruin. They can command a city to be broken down until not a single rockcrete brick rests upon another, or order an entire intelligent species eradicated and expunged from the history books.
These feats they accomplish not through diplomacy, but via the relentless, merciless application of firepower, for it is they that command the Mechanicus' Skitarii Legions, Electro-priesthood and Legio Cybernetica.
The vaunted rank of Dominus is bestowed only on those of the Cult Mechanicus with a true talent for war; those who believe the supremacy of the Machine God is to be proven at every opportunity.
Though they are as likely to hail from the laboratories of the Magos Biologis as they are from the war halls of the Magi Militarum, each is an expert in weapons arcana.
To them the secrets of the battlefield are laid bare. Every bullet's ballistic trajectory, every las-pack's current capacity and every battle engine's optimal fire solution flickers in their mind's eye.
They feast on raw data and cerebro-stimulants, allowing them to coordinate frontline tactics and exload war-psalms from their vox arrays even as they visit destruction personally upon the foe
- #21Voxselective
Keys: Vox
The Vox-caster, sometimes referred to as a Comm-link, is an Imperial radio communications transceiver that can be as small as a helmet-mounted link and as large as a massive bank of dedicated communications equipment employed at an Imperial military force's headquarters.
Usually an Astra Militarum squad or platoon will have a link to their headquarters via one vox unit and smaller relays for trooper-to-trooper communications.
Command units usually use a more complex version of a Vox-caster known as a "Master-vox." This communications technology can receive and transmit on multiple radio frequencies at once, making it ideal for coordinating the actions of multiple units at the same time.
Command vehicles in armoured companies have a similar system, known as "improved comms," for contacting reserves or artillery support.
In the absence of any form of vox communications, troopers are taught to make use of sign language during battle.
The troopers of the Astra Militarum, the Space Marines, Sisters of Battle, and servants of the Inquisition have miniature Vox-casters built into the helmets of their armour.
The Tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus usually have Vox-casters implanted within their skulls as part of their cybernetic enhancements, a common upgrade for all the servants of the Machine God. Most of these Vox-casters are short-ranged and used only for intersquad communications.
- #22Servitorselective
Keys: Servitor
A servitor is the catch-all term applied to a wide class of mindless, cybernetic drones created from a fusion of Human flesh and robotic technology that are used to carry out simple, manual tasks across the Imperium of Man. Servitors were created due to the strict prohibitions against the development or use of machine intelligences according to the tenets of the Cult Mechanicus, whose tech-priests deeply fear the creation of Silica Animus. They believe such artificial general intelligences to be the embodiments of blasphemy against the Omnissiah.
While many of these programmable cybernetic slaves are genetically-engineered, vat-grown, sub-Human clones or replicae created by the Adeptus Mechanicus from Human genomes who have their bionic implants installed after "birth", others were once truly Human.
These servitors were usually criminals who fell afoul of Imperial Law, particularly a person who has offended or damaged the Adeptus Mechanicus in some fashion. These unfortunate criminals will be sentenced to Servitude Imperpituis by the Arbitrators or Judges of the Adeptus Arbites and will be handed over to the Mechanicus' Tech-priests to be mind-wiped, reprogrammed, and cybernetically-enhanced to serve some specific, rudimentary function. Once lobotomised and "improved" through the process of painful operations, even criminals and Heretics are granted one last chance to serve the Imperium.
Servitors are generally mindless, semi-organic robots, possessing only the most basic of instincts, though some are fully capable of speech if such functions and knowledge are programmed into them. Their brains are programmed to perform only the task they were designed for, whether that be maintenance, construction, or even warfare.
The altered and fragmented brain of a servitor functions poorly unless constantly supervised. Most will eventually go into a state of mindlock, babbling incoherent nonsense as the servitor tries to assert some form of control over its functions.
Servitors are created by the Adeptus Mechanicus on their Forge Worlds, and supplied to departments of the Adeptus Terra such as the Administratum and to the Inquisition, as well as to military organisations like the Astra Militarum and various Space Marine Chapters.
- #23Arbiteselective
Keys: Arbite
The Adeptus Arbites is the adepta of the Adeptus Terra that serves as the galactic police force of the Imperium of Man, responsible for enforcing Imperial Law (the Lex Imperialis) on all Imperial-controlled worlds. The Adeptus Arbites have been granted the right by the High Lords of Terra to serve as judge, jury and executioner for any Imperial citizen they discover having broken Imperial Law. Unfortunately for many Imperial citizens, the concept of due process is not one that generally applies in the Imperium.
However, in those cases where Imperial Law is unclear or the law breaker has committed a truly heinous deed or is of unusually high-ranking stature, the offended will be taken back to an Arbites Precinct House for judgement by an Arbites Judge, the sentence to be carried out immediately. Imperial justice is swift and sure, but not always just.
Only through a constant watch and the execution of often brutal laws can the Imperium survive, and it is the Adeptus Arbites who carry out this function. While the armies of the Astra Militarum struggle to hold back the aggression of alien empires and protect the worlds of Mankind from without, the Adeptus Arbites roots out rebels, recidivists, and threats to the stability of the Imperium from within.
The men and women of the Arbites operate as they see fit, using their greater training and weaponry to tackle foes that might be beyond the scope of local Enforcers, or in many cases to deal with a planetary government which has itself become corrupted. Remorseless and single-minded, Arbitrators do not forgive or forget any crime against Imperial Law, and pursue their quarry relentlessly until the Emperor's justice has been served.
The laws of the Imperium of Man are a complex web of tradition, obligation, and local custom. Thus, they can vary from world to world or sector to sector, with each planetary governor, local prefect, or headman pronouncing their own laws. Arbitrators care little for such trivialities, and enforce the serious crimes against the Imperium while leaving such petty matters to local officials.
Murder or theft, for example, are considered inconsequential unless they affect the interests of the wider Imperium directly, are perpetrated against Imperial officials, or somehow fundamentally threaten a world's security or safety
- #24Servo Skullselective
Keys: Servo Skull
A Servo-skull is a drone-like robotic device that appears to be a Human skull outfitted with electronic or cybernetic components that utilise embedded anti-gravity field generators to allow them to hover and drift bodiless through the air.
They are fashioned from the skulls of loyal adepts of the Adeptus Terra and other pious Imperial servants to which robotic components and an antigravitic impeller have been added. This is so that they may continue their work for the Emperor of Mankind even after death. To have one's skull chosen to serve as a Servo-skull is a great honour in the Imperium, for it implies one's service in life has been satisfactory enough to warrant continuation beyond death.
Pious believers of the Imperial Cult like many Ecclesiarchy priests hold that the souls of those whose remains are chosen to be Servo-skulls cling to them after their deaths so that they may continue to serve the Emperor even in the afterlife. Those who hold this view believe that Servo-skulls can sometimes respond to stimuli in certain ways due to the perceptions and motivations of these unseen spirits.
Servo-skulls form an important niche in Imperial work, serving as everything from auto-scribes that copy down important conversations and confessions of prisoners to simple moving torches, hovering about their charge with candles and electric lanterns to illuminate the area.
- #25Dark Angelsselective
Keys: Dark Angels
A astartes legion WARCRY "Repent! For tomorrow you die!" or "A moment of Laxity spawns a lifetime of Heresy!" or "For the Lion!" FOUNDING First Founding (30th Millennium) SUCCESSORS OF The First Angels of Death The Uncrowned Princes (Archaic) SUCCESSOR CHAPTERS The Unforgiven, including:
Angels of Absolution Angels of Defiance Angels of Redemption Angels of Vengeance Angels of Wrath Angels of Vigilance (Suspected) Blades of Vengeance Bringers of Judgement Consecrators Cowled Wardens Disciples of Caliban Guardians of the Covenant Knights of Abhorrence Knights of the Crimson Order Lions Sable (Destroyed) Penitent Blades Persecutors of Darkness Prime Absolvers Star Phantoms (Suspected) The Unnamed NUMBER Ist PRIMARCH Lion El'Jonson CHAPTER MASTER Supreme Grand Master Azrael HOMEWORLD Caliban (Destroyed) Gramarye (Original Legion homeworld prior to 846.M30) The Rock (Mobile fortress-monastery) Terra (Tertiary Rights in Abeyance) Unknown number of void outposts and Watch Fortresses, including Skarasan Deep and Mausolia Angelis Unknown number and location of recruiting worlds FORTRESS-MONASTERY The Rock ALLEGIANCE Imperium of Man COLOURS Black and White (Pre-Heresy) Dark Green and White (Post-Heresy)
- #26Lionselective
Keys: Lion El'Jonson, The Lion
Lion El'Jonson, often times referred to as "the Lion" during his lifetime, known also by the cognomen "The First," and the honourific "Primaris Angelus Mortis," was the primarch of the Ist Legion of Space Marines, the Dark Angels.
Following the events of the Horus Heresy, El'Jonson and his crusading fleet returned to his homeworld of Caliban. Inexplicably, they were fired upon by the Dark Angel forces garrisoned there under the command of his once-trusted mentor and surrogate father, Luther, who had been entrusted with the custodianship of Caliban in the Lion's absence.
Luther would eventually betray the Lion after allowing himself to be seduced by the offers of Chaos, rallying a good portion of the Dark Angels who had been left behind by their fellows to garrison the Legion's homeworld to his cause and attacking the Lion's fleet as he returned to Caliban.
The titanic struggle between the two former friends resulted in the destruction of Caliban and the loss of the Dark Angels' primarch, as well as the escape of Luther's allies who had sided with the Ruinous Powers.
Known as the Fallen Angels amongst their former battle-brothers of the Ist Legion, it became the overriding goal of the Dark Angels and all of their Successor Chapters (collectively known as the Unforgiven) after the Second Founding to hunt down every one of the Fallen and get them to repent their betrayal of the Emperor and the Lion.
Perhaps one of the greatest secrets of the Imperium of Man, known only to the Emperor Himself, was that the Lion was still alive and resting in stasis, buried deep within the Dark Angels' mobile fortress-monastery, The Rock.
There he waited, fully healed from the wounds he received during the fall of Caliban, to be awakened to lead the Dark Angels in one final crusade to save Mankind from all the enemies who threaten it with extinction.
And in the Era Indomitus, during the Arks of Omen Campaign, that day came at last. The Lion now roams the galaxy once more...
- #27Rogalselective
Keys: Rogal
Rogal Dorn, known as "The Vigilant," the "Praetorian of Terra" and the "Unyielding One," and to his gene-sons by the "wall-name" of "Defiance," was the primarch of the Imperial Fists Space Marine Legion and one of the greatest heroes in the history of the Imperium of Man.
A being of thunderous zeal and stone made manifest is how many described the primarch of the VIIth Legion. He had a stern and naturally unsmiling face, topped with an unruly shock of short, bone-white hair. His zeal was the fire of a son who believed in his father's dream for the Imperium without reservation and without question.
To Rogal Dorn there was no higher purpose to the existence of the Legiones Astartes than the unification of Mankind, and the illumination of the Imperium's ideals. This idealism drove Dorn and his Legion ever onwards, never compromising, never stinting in any aspect of duty. The stone in his soul was his ability to bear whatever his father needed of him, an unyielding nature, which made him both a master of defence in war, and an indomitable aggressor on the attack.
If the primarchs were the Emperor's nature split like white light through a prism's rays, as many Imperial scholars of the Imperial Court suggested during the Great Crusade, then from such a point of view, Rogal Dorn was the Emperor's implacable disciple in the pursuit of His cause given flesh; without compromise and in who loyalty and duty was as integral as blood and breath.
It was perhaps for this reason, that even before the betrayal of Horus, the Emperor named Dorn the "Praetorian of Terra," and drew him to His side far away from the Warmaster and his newly-forged command. To some among his brother-primarchs, this served only to distance him and his Legion further from them, and those among them who had seen the sins of hubris and obstinacy in Dorn's undoubted stubbornness and pride, saw this aggrandisement as a further cause for discord and disquiet.
- #28Guillimanselective
Keys: Guilliman
Roboute Guilliman Avenging Son Roboute Guilliman, primarch of the Ultramarines Legion and lord of Ultramar at the time of the Great Crusade. Roboute Guilliman (pronounced Ruh-BOOT-ay GIL-li-man), sometimes referred to as the "Avenging Son," "The Victorious," "The Master of Ultramar" and "The Blade of Unity," is the primarch of the Ultramarines Space Marine Legion and its myriad subsequent Successor Chapters. He is the current lord commander of the Imperium and the ruling Imperial Regent.
Held by some as a paragon among the Emperor's sons, Roboute Guilliman was as much a patrician statesman and empire-builder as he was an indefatigable warrior.
A being of preternatural intelligence, cold reason and indomitable will, Guilliman forged his XIIIth Legion into a vast force of conquest and control, a weapon by which he made himself the master of a stellar domain in the Eastern Fringe of the galaxy, the Realm of Ultramar, which during his lifetime spanned five hundred worlds.
Before He began His conquest of the galaxy, the Emperor of Mankind created the primarchs. Utilising incredible skills at genetic engineering, and the phenomenal psychic power bound into His own form, He forged twenty demigod sons. These were superlative transhuman warriors, strategists and leaders, the finest qualities of Humanity refined in the crucible of science and magnified through the lens of divinity.
The Emperor intended the primarchs to stand at His side during the Great Crusade, each leading one of the twenty Space Marine Legions to glory beyond imagination.
Before that plan could come to pass, the Dark Gods of Chaos intervened. They snatched up the nascent primarchs and scattered them through the Warp, so that each came to rest upon a different one of Humanity's far-flung worlds. Some say that it was at this time that the Ruinous Powers left their mark upon the Emperor's gene-sons, and that this is why fully half of the primarchs betrayed their father and the Imperium during the Horus Heresy.
Whatever the case, Roboute Guilliman was not tainted in such a fashion. The being that would become the primarch of the Ultramarines Legion came to rest upon the world of Macragge. There he was discovered, and adopted, by a local warlord named Konor. Growing and developing at a superhuman rate, Konor's adoptive son soon surpassed all those around him, and came to be the greatest warrior, strategist and statesman upon Macragge.
After Konor was slain by a treacherous ally, it was Guilliman who avenged his foster father, before taking upon himself the mantle of kingship. The entirety of Macragge was swiftly unified beneath the banner of Roboute Guilliman, becoming a world of peace, civilisation, wisdom and strength.
Guilliman was a charismatic and gifted leader, beloved of his people and singularly capable of compartmentalising incredible quantities of information. He was an organiser, a logistician, one capable of turning the wildest theories into practical reality and rendering order from chaos.
When the Emperor's crusading forces finally reached Macragge in the late 30th Millennium, the son was reunited with his true father. Guilliman was given charge of the Ultramarines Legion, and wasted no time in putting his stamp upon it. In the conquests that followed, the Ultramarines became renowned as exemplars of what it meant to be a Space Marine.
- #29Sanguiniusselective
Keys: Sanguinius
Sanguinius, also known as the "Great Angel" and the "Brightest One" during his lifetime, was the Primarch of the Blood Angels Legion of Space Marines. He was killed during the climax of the Horus Heresy at the Battle of Terra defending the Emperor of Mankind from the Warmaster Horus aboard his flagship, the Battle Barge Vengeful Spirit.
Though Horus slew Sanguinius, who had once been his closest and greatest friend amongst the other Primarchs, Imperial legend holds that it was the chink in Horus' armour created by the Angel that allowed the Emperor to slay the Arch-heretic and thus prevent Mankind from falling to the corruption of the Ruinous Powers of Chaos
- #30Salamanderselective
Keys: Salamander
WARCRY "Into the fires of battle, unto the Anvil of War!" FOUNDING First Founding (30th Millennium) SUCCESSORS OF Dragon Warriors SUCCESSOR CHAPTERS Black Dragons Black Vipers Covenant of Fire Dark Krakens Dragonspears Iron Drakes Storm Giants (Suspected) NUMBER XVIIIth PRIMARCH Vulkan CHAPTER MASTER Regent of Prometheus Tu'Shan HOMEWORLD Nocturne FORTRESS-MONASTERY Fortress-monastery on Nocturnean moon of Prometheus ALLEGIANCE Imperium of Man COLOURS Green, Black and Gold
- #31Vulkanselective
Keys: Vulkan
Vulkan was one of the 20 superhuman primarchs and a Perpetual created by the Emperor of Mankind from altered versions of His own DNA to lead His Great Crusade and reunite the scattered peoples of Humanity within the Imperium of Man.
The XVIIIth Legion, created from Vulkan's genome and originally known as the Dragon Warriors, was re-named the Salamanders after the great fire-resistant reptiles native to his volcanic homeworld of Nocturne in memory of the legendary contest between the Emperor and Vulkan in 832.M30 that had involved slaying one of those dangerous beasts. The outcome of this contest had revealed the Emperor's identity to Vulkan and restored the primarch to the Imperium.
Like his genetic father, Vulkan was a Perpetual, a rare Human mutant blessed with extraordinary, almost supernatural cellular regeneration that allowed him to be resurrected from death over and over no matter how much damage his body suffered. Vulkan was able to regenerate fully from any injury, including a death that resulted in his complete molecular disintegration. This ability was unknown to him until the Horus Heresy and his near-death from an orbital atomic strike unleashed by the Iron Warriors' fleet at the Drop Site Massacre on Isstvan V.
During the Great Crusade Vulkan gained a reputation among its participants for his unusual empathy for a primarch towards average Humans as well as his extraordinary ability to craft unique and powerful items of advanced technology.
Approximately a thousand standard years after the Horus Heresy, Vulkan hid 9 sacred artefacts he had created around the galaxy for the Salamanders to find, intended as a test to see if they were worthy of his leadership.
He then disappeared, leaving his genetic sons with the message that whenever the Forgefather of the Salamanders had found all nine items, Vulkan would return to lead his Chapter to victory over the enemies of the Imperium in its final days of greatest need, according to the signs foreseen in the Promethean Cult's book of prophecy, the Tome of Fire.
- #32Raven Guardselective
Keys: Raven Guard
WARCRY None; Chapter motto is "Victorus aut Mortis" ("Victory or Death") FOUNDING First Founding (30th Millennium) SUCCESSORS OF N/A SUCCESSOR CHAPTERS Ashen Claws (Blackshield) Black Guard Carcharodons (Suspected; Unconfirmed) Dark Eagles (Suspected) Death Eagles (Suspected) Death Spectres Flame Eagles (Suspected) Imperial Talons (Suspected) Iron Ravens Knights of the Raven Necropolis Hawks Raptors Raven's Watch Revilers Rift Stalkers Shadow Haunters Sons of the Raven (Unconfirmed) Storm Hawks Storm Wings NUMBER XIXth PRIMARCH Corvus Corax CHAPTER MASTER Master of Shadows Kayvaan Shrike HOMEWORLD Deliverance (moon of Kiavahr) FORTRESS-MONASTERY Ravenspire ALLEGIANCE Imperium of Man COLOURS Black and White
- #33Corvusselective
Keys: Corvus
Corvus Corax Primarch Corvus Corax leading his Raven Guard Legion against the Traitor Legion of the World Eaters during the Horus Heresy. Corvus Corax, also known as the "Raven Lord," "The Liberator," "The Deliverer," "Chooser of the Slain" and the "Shadowed Lord," is the currently missing primarch of the Raven Guard Chapter of Space Marines and its Successor Chapters.
Corax presented a striking countenance, at least when he wished to be seen. His skin was alabaster white and he was possessed of shoulder length hair as black as the feathers of his namesake, the raven.
Most remarkable and unsettling were his eyes, which appeared as entirely black shards of solid shadow. His sable power armour was edged with fine, golden figures and upon his back was mounted a jetpack formed into a pair of articulated, raven-like pinions that he wielded as a murderous, blood-edged weapon of war.
Like most of the primarchs, Corax was blessed with an extensive armoury of artificer-wrought weapons, but he most often bore to war a pair of metre-long Lightning Claws and a coiled whip at his belt. The latter was carried as a reminder of the cruelty enacted upon the people of his homeworld of Lycaeus by the tyrannical guild of Kiavahr and with it countless enemies were laid low.
Though few even amongst his gene-sons know of it, Corax is blessed with the ability to pass unnoticed should he will it, this preternatural ability allowing him to slip from the perception of his enemies even when he was in plain view.
After the near-destruction of his XIXth Legion during the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V at the start of the Horus Heresy, Corax was desperate to rebuild his Legion. With the Emperor's permission, he and his Astartes delved deep beneath the Imperial Palace to recover the advanced genetic knowledge that the Emperor had used to create the primarchs.
Corax then made use of these techniques and a recovered, undifferentiated primarch genetic template to accelerate the development of new Raven Guard Astartes. The repercussions of those actions came back to haunt him, leading Corax to eventually grant the Emperor's Peace to all the twisted, mutant spawn who emerged as the result of his experiments.
In the wake of the Horus Heresy, Corax vanished into the Eye of Terror in search of penance for his shame. His current whereabouts and status remain unknown to the Raven Guard, their successors and the Imperium, yet their primarch remains alive within the Immaterium, though continuous exposure to the Warp has wrought multiple mutations upon him, revealing the truth of the being that lies beneath the facade of every primarch's Emperor-given flesh.
- #34White Scarsselective
Keys: White Scars
A astartes legion WARCRY "For the Emperor and the Khan!" FOUNDING First Founding (30th Millennium) SUCCESSORS OF Star Hunters SUCCESSOR CHAPTERS Astral Bears Dark Hunters Destroyers Griffon Lords (Disputed) Iron Talons Jade Scorpions Mantis Warriors Marauders Rampagers Solar Hawks Sons of Jaghatai (Suspected) Storm Lords Storm Reapers NUMBER Vth PRIMARCH Jaghatai Khan CHAPTER MASTER Great Khan Jubal Khan HOMEWORLD Chogoris (Mundus Planus) (Primary) Terra (Tertiary Rights) The Kolarne Cluster (Multiple Tributary Domains) FORTRESS-MONASTERY Quan Zhou ALLEGIANCE Imperium of Man COLOURS White and Red
- #35Jaghataiselective
Keys: Jaghatai
Jaghatai Khan (pronounced Jagg-a-tie KAAN), also known as "The Great Khan," "the Khagan" and "the Warhawk," was the primarch of the V Legion of Space Marines, the White Scars, who led them through the years of the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy.
Jaghatai fought alongside his White Scars for another 70 standard years following the end of the Heresy, eventually disappearing in 084.M31 into a region of space known as the Maelstrom, a large Warp rift in the Ultima Segmentum that is a smaller counterpart of the Eye of Terror.
Jaghatai is believed to have been in pursuit of the Drukhari who had savaged his homeworld of Chogoris following the Battle of Corusil V with his 1st Brotherhood when he went through a Warp Gate into the Drukhari portion of the Webway. Jaghatai had been in pursuit of a mighty Drukhari lord, likely the Archon of the Drukhari Kabal that had attacked Corusil V and perhaps even Chogoris itself.
Jaghatai Khan has not been seen since, though the White Scars believe he is still alive somewhere within the Webway and will one day return to the Chapter in a time of great need. As a result of their primarch's disappearance, the White Scars hold a particularly savage grudge against the Drukhari and will gladly seek out any opportunity to make war upon those savage and terrifying xenos
- #36Iron Warriorselective
Keys: Iron Warrior
A traitor astartes legion WARCRY "Iron Within, Iron Without!" FOUNDING First Founding (30th Millennium) SUCCESSORS OF N/A KNOWN WARBANDS Abrial's Claw Anathraxis Warhost Barbican Lords Bitter Sons Effacers of Medrengard Ferrocratic Creed Hammers Relentless Iron Fist Metal Claw Pitiless Scions of Medrengard Siege-masters Olympian Shatter Corps Shattered Tower Sons of the Forge Steel Brethren The Bloodborn LEGION NUMBER IVth PRIMARCH Perturabo CHAOS LORD(S) Various Warsmiths ORIGINAL HOMEWORLD Olympia CURRENT HOMEWORLD Medrengard ALLEGIANCE Chaos Chaos Undivided LEGION COLOURS Silver armour, Gold trim, and Black shoulder pauldrons, Black and Gold striped pattern common
- #37Perturaboselective
Keys: Perturabo
Perturabo, sometimes called the "Lord of Iron," "The Breaker" and "The Hammer of Olympia," is the primarch of the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion, one of the original twenty Space Marine Legions. Weaned on war and intrigue in the strife-ridden courts of his homeworld of Olympia, Perturabo was a grim warrior and master of technological arcana who wielded logic and the mathematics of warfare as keenly as he did a blade and Bolter.
The Lord of Iron was taciturn to the point of insult, preferring to harbour his thoughts against the threat of treachery, even amongst his kin. Few would call him friend, but none could fault his ability to wage a campaign and plot the most direct course to victory regardless of the cost and despite the strain put on him and his IVth Legion during the long years of the Great Crusade. His word was as unbreakable as iron.
Unlike his brothers, many of whom embraced the Emperor of Mankind's Great Crusade with near-fanatical devotion, Perturabo thought of it simply as a task that his sworn duty to the Emperor compelled him to pursue. His conquests were innumerable, but unremarked and unthanked, as his Iron Warriors brought many worlds into the Imperium of Man, but he left behind him shattered planets on the brink of extinction by his brutal, if effective, strategies.
So it was that, rotting from within with loathing and bitter spite, the iron facade the Iron Warriors Legion presented to the Imperium obfuscated the extent of how rapidly and how deeply it had descended into homicidal madness, until at last it was called on to help in the punishment of the rebellious Warmaster Horus at Istvaan V, and the dark truth was revealed.
Perturabo arrived at Istvaan V in the wake of the bloody pacification of his homeworld of Olympia, a campaign that wiped out the entire population, and some claim tipped Perturabo and his Legion over the edge of madness and fully into the abyss of betrayal during the subsequent Drop Site Massacre, an infamous action that will echo forever in the history of the Imperium.
In the wake of the Drop Site Massacre, Perturabo left the blasted carcass of Istvaan V, carrying his fallen brother Ferrus Manus' hammer Forgebreaker as a token of his new allegiance to Horus' cause.
Following the tragic events of the Horus Heresy and his Legion's subsequent flight into the Eye of Terror, he has since ascended to Daemon Prince status by the will of the Ruinous Powers and currently resides within the Eye of Terror on the Daemon World of Medrengard.
- #38Iron Handsselective
Keys: Iron Hands
WARCRY "The flesh is weak!" FOUNDING First Founding (30th Millennium) SUCCESSORS OF Storm Walkers SUCCESSOR CHAPTERS Brazen Claws Iron Fists Iron Lords Knights of Byzantium Red Talons Sons of Medusa Star Dragons (Suspected) Steel Confessors (Unverifiable) NUMBER Xth PRIMARCH Ferrus Manus CHAPTER MASTER None Kardan Stronos serves as the Iron Council's elected Chapter war leader and the representative to outsiders HOMEWORLD Medusa FORTRESS-MONASTERY None, 10 individual Land-Behemoth mobile fortresses for each clan company ALLEGIANCE Imperium of Man COLOURS Black and Gray
- #39Ferrusselective
Keys: Ferrus
Ferrus Manus Ancient Remembrancer sketch of Ferrus Manus, Primarch of the Iron Hands Legion; illustration taken from Carpinus' Speculum Historiale Ferrus Manus, also known as "The Gorgon," was the primarch of the Iron Hands Space Marine Legion, a master smith known for creating weapons that were able to inspire awe in any who saw them, such as the sword he created for Fulgrim, primarch of the Emperor's Children Legion or the bolter he crafted for Vulkan, the primarch of the Salamanders Legion, said to have a barrel designed to look like the gaping mouth of a dragon.
Ferrus' hands were covered in the metallic substance known as necrodermis and he needed no hammer or flame to create beauty through metallurgy, using only his exceptionally powerful hands to mold and shape molten metal. Ferrus forged his closest bond with his brother Fulgrim, but this relationship ultimately ended in tragedy after Fulgrim fell to Chaos during the Horus Heresy.
During the Drop Site Massacre on the world of Istvaan V at the start of the Heresy, Fulgrim decapitated Ferrus with a daemonic sword, an action that ultimately marked the point of no return on his path to becoming a Daemon Prince of the Chaos God Slaanesh.
- #40Night Lordsselective
Keys: Night Lords
A astartes traitor Legion WARCRY "We have come for you!" or "Ave Dominus Nox!" FOUNDING First Founding (30th Millennium) SUCCESSORS OF N/A KNOWN WARBANDS Baleful Eye Blades of Sevasdus Bleak Claw Bleeding Eye Brotherhood of Darkness (Suspected) Nightwing Reavers of Hodir Whispering Shadow Raptorous Flayhost Shadowflayers Skinblades Warband of The Exalted Warband of Krieg Acerbus Warband of the Painted Count Warband of Tarraq Darkblood LEGION NUMBER VIIIth PRIMARCH Konrad Curze, the "Night Haunter" CHAOS LORD(S) Krieg Acerbus (Daemon Prince) The Exalted Gendor Skraivok ORIGINAL HOMEWORLD Nostramo Tsagualsa (Abandoned in the 32nd Millennium) CURRENT HOMEWORLD Unknown, many warbands scattered across the Eye of Terror ALLEGIANCE Chaos Chaos Undivided LEGION COLOURS Dark Blue and Brass
- #41Konradselective
Keys: Konrad
Konrad Curze, better known as the "Night Haunter," the name he preferred, and sometimes as the "Dark King," was one of the 20 superhuman primarchs created by the Emperor of Mankind in the late 30th Millennium and was the master of the Night Lords Traitor Legion of Heretic Astartes.
Night Haunter was tortured all his life by terrible, dark visions of the future, and this generated a level of psychic anguish and despair that set him apart from his fellow primarchs.
His psyche damaged by the difficulties of his early life, Curze never recovered his mental balance and sought only oblivion from the pain of his reality.
He was a brutal warrior who believed in the use of fear as the most potent weapon against one's foes, and he taught his Astartes to be as brutal and savage as necessary to put down the enemy.
Night Haunter did not enjoy his role as an Imperial war leader and was the only one of the primarchs who showed little affection for his "sons," the Space Marines of the VIIIth Legion that had been created from his genetic template.
He was slain, some believe willingly, by the Callidus Assassin M'Shen on the world of Tsagualsa in the Eastern Fringe of the galaxy immediately following the end of the Horus Heresy in the early 31st Millennium.
His VIIIth Legion, without his leadership, then broke up into competing warbands of Heretic Astartes and fled into the Eye of Terror with the rest of the Traitor Legions.
- #42Thousand Sonsselective
Keys: Thousand Sons
A astartes traitor Legion, formed from Psykers and blessed by Tzeench, they have a curse whos made a big part of they legion a Teramite Golems WARCRY "All is Dust!" FOUNDING First Founding (30th Millennium) SUCCESSORS OF N/A KNOWN WARBANDS The Blades of Magnus Brotherhood of Dust Brothers of Retaliation Crimson Sons The Crystal Harbingers Grand Order of Hermetic Blades Kindled Spirits Mind-Eaters Prodigal Sons The Prism of Fate The Reflected Ones Sect of the Red Echo The Sectai Prosperine The Silver Sons Six-Cursed Thralls of Magnus The Tizcan Host Warband of Sektoth Warp Gheists LEGION NUMBER XVth PRIMARCH Magnus the Red CHAOS LORD(S) Ahriman ORIGINAL HOMEWORLD Prospero CURRENT HOMEWORLD Sortiarius, the Planet of the Sorcerers, Daemon World teleported from Eye of Terror to the Prospero System above the remains of Prospero in ca. 999.M41 after the Siege of the Fenris System ALLEGIANCE Chaos Tzeentch LEGION COLOURS Red, Bronze, and White (Pre-Heresy) Azure, Yellow and Gold (Post-Heresy)
- #43Magnusselective
Keys: Magnus
Magnus the Red, also known during the early years of the Imperium as the "Crimson King" and the "Red Cyclops," is the primarch of the Thousand Sons Traitor Legion and an extremely powerful Daemon Prince of the Chaos God Tzeentch.
A giant in both physical and mental terms whilst still an inhabitant of the Materium, the copper-skinned Magnus possessed tremendous innate psychic ability, and constantly sought to understand the nature of the Warp, becoming a sorcerer of formidable power.
Magnus thought he would be able to control the "Great Ocean" of psychic energy that was the Warp; however, his prodigious and careless application of his psychic gifts eventually caused him to fall out of favour with his father, the Emperor of Mankind, as well as with the majority of his brother primarchs. His psychic immaturity, recklessness, selfish pride and arrogance also caused his own undoing, as it eventually brought about his own damnation and eternal servitude to the Dark God of Change, Tzeentch.
In the end, Magnus led his XVth Legion to the banner of Horus and fought on the Arch-heretic's side during the Great Betrayal of the Horus Heresy. He survived those events and ascended to the position of a Daemon Primarch of Tzeentch as a reward for his service to the Changer of Ways.
Magnus has spent the majority of the ten Terran millennia since the end of the Horus Heresy ensconced atop his tower upon Sortiarius, the Planet of the Sorcerers within the Eye of Terror, planning the ultimate destruction of the Imperium he believes betrayed him and his Legion.
Magnus' greatest grudge, however, is with the Space Marines of the Space Wolves, who he holds accountable for the destruction of his homeworld of Prospero and the corruption of his Legion during the early days of the Horus Heresy.
During the Siege of the Fenris System the Thousand Sons unleashed on the Space Wolves' homeworld in ca. 999.M41, Magnus used the sacrifice of the population of the Death World of Midgardia in the Fenris System -- destroyed by an Exterminatus action ordered by the Great Wolf Logan Grimnar of the Space Wolves after its people were infected with a hideous plague engineered by the Daemon Primarch Mortarion of the Death Guard -- to fuel the teleportation of the Planet of the Sorcerers from the Eye of Terror to a new orbit above the remains of the Thousand Sons' lost homeworld of Prospero. This ritual restored Magnus and the Thousand Sons to the Materium, and created a gigantic new Warp rift in the region that began to spew forth Daemons that would make up Magnus' new army.
In the Era Indomitus, Magnus has devoted himself to offering a new home to Human psykers on Sortiarius where they will be allowed to use their powers without the limits and persecution forced upon them by the Imperium. This call has gained particular resonance for many psykers since the strengthening of all psychic activity in the galaxy with the Psychic Awakening brought about by the birth of the Great Rift.
- #44Ahrimanselective
Keys: Ahriman
Ahriman The Chaos Sorcerer Ahriman of the Thousand Sons Traitor Legion in the Era Indomitus. Ahriman, whose full name is Ahzek Ahriman, is a Chaos Space Marine and the most powerful Chaos Sorcerer of the Thousand Sons Traitor Legion after their Daemon Primarch Magnus the Red himself. Ahzek Ahriman was once the Chief Librarian and first captain of the ancient Thousand Sons Legion.
Ahriman has always sought to better comprehend the nature of his patron Chaos God Tzeentch and of the force of Chaos itself and gain the unrivalled power such knowledge will bring.
His action in crafting the Rubric of Ahriman, perhaps one of the greatest works of sorcery in history, would ultimately result in his banishment from the Legion he had hoped to safeguard. It is his intense need to find a way to undo the effects of the Rubric upon his beloved Thousand Sons that first drove Ahriman on his quest to seek out the deepest knowledge of Chaos. He remains a wanderer across the galaxy, forever searching for any knowledge that will allow him to finally grasp the greatest of all enigmas in the universe -- the true nature of Tzeentch himself.
Across a thousand worlds, Ahriman has sought the keys to save what he has already destroyed through his own hubris among the Thousand Sons. The scars of this obsession found across the galaxy have made his name a curse in the mouths of Humans and aliens alike. Scraps of arcane lore, artefacts both obscure and profane, and rare but psychically powerful souls draw him like a raven to a corpse.
To the Craftworld Aeldari, Ahriman is the carrion scribe who eats the souls of their dying race for secrets; to the Inquisitors of the Ordo Malleus he is the lightning rod which brings a storm of Daemons; amongst the servants of Chaos he is a flame of power and trickery as likely to burn those drawn to his light as to illuminate them.
A master of subtle manipulation, Ahriman has seeded Chaos Cults on a hundred worlds, and bent the desires of the powerful to achieve his ends. With conspiracies and plots spread across the galaxy, he coils between them, a puppet master pulling invisible strings. When such subtle means are impossible he wages a sorcerer's war, forcing armies to kneel with visions of terror, shattering war machines with invisible forces, and ripping the souls from mighty heroes.
Ahriman knows the True Names of Daemons, and possesses pacts which can bring daemonic armies flocking to his call. Worlds have burned at his command, billions have fallen to the hunger of the Warp, and reality has bled at the fury of his power.
Ahriman refuses to acknowledge either Tzeentch or Chaos itself as his master. Across the ensuing millennia he has become a scourge of the Imperium, raiding ancient museums, librariums, scholaria and reclusia, places of learning, religion and contemplative thought. He seeks to acquire artefacts, data, or even persons he believes can lead him to fully master the way of the sorcerer.
He fosters Chaos Cults on dozens of worlds at a time, providing the cults' chosen magi with sorcerous power until such time as they have acquired some antiquarian trinket or satisfied another of Ahriman's demands before turning the wrath of his Thousand Sons' warband of Chaos Space Marines, the Prodigal Sons, upon them and seizing all they have for himself.
- #45World Eatersselective
Keys: World Eaters
A astartes traitor Legion whos blessed by Khorne WARCRY "Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne! Death to the False Emperor!" FOUNDING First Founding (30th Millennium) SUCCESSORS OF War Hounds KNOWN WARBANDS 66th Armoured Company Angron's Chosen Angron's Fury Anointed Ba'ar Zul's Cleavers Berserkers of Skallathrax Black Feast Blood Legion of Khorne Bloodstalkers Bloody Dawn Bloody Path Bonescar Butcherhorde Crimson Covenant Crushers of Bone Dhorngar's Goredrinkers Endless Murder Fifteen Fangs Foresworn (World Eaters) Gladiator Cadre 331 Gladiator Group 138 Gorehunters Harvest Macabre Lifeslayers Lord Skchalick's Elite Oblivion Butchers Pistonhand's Daemoniforge Ravagers Sanctified Skullhunt Skulltakers Skull Takers of Hans Kho'ren Sons of Slaughter Voidbutchers Wrathful Dead LEGION NUMBER XIIth PRIMARCH Angron CHAOS LORD(S) Khârn the Betrayer ORIGINAL HOMEWORLD Terra / Nuceria (Angron's homeworld) / Bodt (Legion training world) CURRENT HOMEWORLD None; scattered across the Eye of Terror since the Battle of Skalathrax ALLEGIANCE Chaos Khorne LEGION COLOURS Red and Brass (Current) / Blue and White (Pre-Heresy)
- #46Angronselective
Keys: Angron
Angron, Daemon Prince of Khorne Angron, sometimes called the "Red Angel," and originally named Angronius of Nuceria, the "Lord of the Red Sands," is the primarch of the World Eaters Traitor Legion.
He was the most bloody-handed and savage of the primarchs. When Horus began his rebellion against the Emperor, Angron was quick to join in his treachery because of his long-lasting grudge against the Master of Mankind for the Emperor's failure to rescue his beloved fellow gladiators from death on Nuceria, but his only true master was the rage and bloodlust within him.
He fell to Chaos during the Horus Heresy and was transformed into a Daemon Prince of the Blood God Khorne in the campaign known as the Shadow Crusade before that conflict had ended.
He was most recently banished to the Warp after he unleashed the First War of Armageddon upon the Imperium of Man in 474.M41, though since the opening of the Great Rift in the Era Indomitus, rumours have swirled that he is active once more in realspace.
- #47Kharnselective
Keys: Kharn
Khârn the Betrayer of the World Eaters Traitor Legion Khârn the Betrayer is a member of the World Eaters Traitor Legion of Chaos Space Marines, and the greatest mortal Champion of the Blood God Khorne in the galaxy. He currently leads his own World Eaters warband called the Butcherhorde.
Second only to the World Eaters Daemon Primarch Angron in aggression and bloodlust, Khârn has lived a life of murder and betrayal, the blood spilt and skulls collected for his patron beyond counting.
In battle Khârn is always where the fighting is at its thickest, wielding his heavy chainaxe Gorechild (which, along with its twin Gorefather, was wielded by Angron during the Horus Heresy). Rimmed with the unbreakable teeth of a Mica Dragon, this fell weapon continually rises and falls as it severs heads and claims skulls. He is the avatar of Khorne, embodying the Blood God's indiscriminate rage and bloodlust in the realm of mortals.
Like his World Eaters comrades, he emerged from the gruesome psycho-surgery experiments of Angron, having underwent ritual lobotomisation with the implantation of the Butcher's Nails cranial implants, with all sense of fear and danger removed so that the rush he experienced in combat was greatly enhanced. His love of murder was so great that Khârn actually had an ancient death-counter installed in his helmet which registers the number of kills he has made in the helm's eye lenses.
Khârn has dedicated his millennia-long existence to unleashing bloody carnage upon anyone and anything within reach. He is drawn by the scent of war as a hungering hound is drawn by fresh meat, and it has become impossible to tally his slaying. Even during the Great Crusade, when he fought in the vanguard of the World Eaters Legion's assault companies, Khârn was known to be a brilliant warrior.
When the Horus Heresy came, Khârn gladly led his warriors against his brother Space Marines, and his number of kills reached shocking new levels as he followed his master Angron along the road to the attack on Terra itself. During the Siege of Terra, Khârn was at the forefront of the assault.
When Horus was defeated, Khârn already lay horribly mangled upon a mound of corpses. His fellow World Eaters carried away his lifeless remains and fought their way back to their dropships. Once aboard, they discovered that Khârn still lived. Whether Khorne had breathed life back into his Berzerker Champion or Khârn's own relentless spirit simply refused to leave, it is impossible to say, but he benefits from the supernatural protection of his murderous deity to this day.
Since the end of the Horus Heresy, Khârn has been an unstoppable and bloody avatar of Khorne. Khârn is called the Betrayer because of an incident on the Daemon World of Skalathrax. Fighting against the Emperor's Children, the World Eaters needed just one more victory over Fulgrim's warriors before the planet could be claimed in Khorne's name. The battle had to be won before Skalathrax's long, frozen night drew in and killed victor and vanquished alike.
Yet the World Eaters could gain no ground against their foes and were hurled back time after time by the devastating Sonic Weapons of the Noise Marines. Khârn cursed his fellow warriors for failing in the attack and, seizing a Flamer, he torched the nearest buildings in a gesture of contempt. He cut down those who tried to stop him and marched into the gloom, consuming the city in flames as he went and slaughtering all that he found, friend or foe.
Anarchy engulfed the World Eaters as they fell upon each other, and the Legion was irrevocably split into hundreds of individual warbands. Since that bloody day, Khârn has been Khorne's most ardent warrior, hunting the Eye of Terror as the head of a World Eaters warband, slaughtering any worthy enough to be killed in Khorne's name.
Ten millennia later, during the 13th Black Crusade in ca. 999.M41, Khârn's wrath was unleashed upon the Imperium of Man once more, as Khârn joined a few of the most insane of the Khornate Berserkers in battling those legions of the Emperor's warriors flocking to the defence of Cadia.
- #48Chainaxeselective
Keys: Chainaxe
A chainaxe is a brutal hand-to-hand chain weapon crafted in the form of a great one or two-handed axe which incorporates a powered chainsaw edge. The biting action of the whirling row of monomolecular teeth means these weapons can hack through both flesh and armour with ease.
The chainaxe is the favorite weapon of the Khornate Berserkers found in the ranks of the Chaos Space Marines and of worshippers of the Blood God in general.
- #49Space Wolvesselective
Keys: Space Wolves
A astartes legion WARCRY "For Russ and the Allfather!"; an ancient variant commonly used by the Chapter is Fenrys hjølda! ("Fenris endures!"); the Sons of Russ also favour a blood-curdling howl, unleashed when charging into battle. FOUNDING First Founding (30th Millennium) SUCCESSORS OF N/A SUCCESSOR CHAPTERS Wolf Brothers Icefangs Mooneaters Wolfspear Blood Wolves Skyrar's Dark Wolves (Unconfirmed) NUMBER VIth PRIMARCH Leman Russ CHAPTER MASTER Great Wolf Logan Grimnar HOMEWORLD Fenris (Death World) FORTRESS-MONASTERY The Fang ALLEGIANCE Imperium of Man COLOURS Blue-grey
- #50Russselective
Keys: Leman Russ
Leman Russ, also known as the "Wolf King" and the "Great Wolf" during his lifetime, is the currently missing Primarch of the Space Wolves Chapter of Space Marines.
He led the Space Wolves Space Marine Legion during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy and is famed in Imperial history for his hatred of psychic powers and sorcery, whose use in battle he viewed as dishonourable and unworthy of true warriors.
After receiving a disturbing vision in 211.M31, Leman Russ disappeared with the warriors of his Varagyr bodyguard, his destination and fate unknown. He left a single member of his guard behind, Bjorn the Fell-Handed, who would become the first Great Wolf to lead the Space Wolves in his absence.
Russ, along with his brother primarchs Angron and Vulkan, were considered to be the greatest warriors one-on-one amongst the primarchs. Known for his fierce and sometimes barbaric personality, Leman Russ considered himself the Emperor of Mankind's most loyal son and executioner.
He viewed his role as unquestionably carrying out the punishments requited by the Master of Mankind. Among the forces of Chaos he was known as "the Brawler."
Some recent rumours claim that it is Leman Russ who is the unknown force behind the return of the Space Wolves' 13th Company to realspace after 10,000 Terran years fighting the forces of Chaos in the Warp during the 13th Black Crusade of 999.M41.
Several main battle tank variants used by the Astra Militarum have been named after him. The Leman Russ tank is the most prominent, and several sub-variants of that pattern of tank also exist in widespread use in the Imperium of Man, such as the Leman Russ Demolisher.
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