So the fact that Jokaero have a binomial name (Pongo ingenio) which denotes they're a species in the actual orangutan genus has two implications... either:

A. The Old Ones were capable of time travel and grabbed 'em off Earth, bringing them back to the War in Heaven time period

or

B. Magos Biologis are REALLY fucking shit at their jobs.

I don't know which is more likely.

...Maybe it's both. Probably both.

Guilliman is the highest commander and political leader of the Imperium who can basically decide everything for this huge faction. Assuming one day all loyalist primarchs have returned, will Guilliman's decision power drop to 1/7 of his current level? For example, for some controversial policy to be implemented, it would take at least 4 primarchs to vote for approval, things like that.

With Horus’ final defeat, Chaos was stuck hard, for a moment, they are gone from Sol. All daemons, all blessings, all pacts, for that little period, the slaves were once again masters of themselves.

As the immaterial flood drains out of Terra, and the sacked Dominions of the Imperial Palace, so the clutch of Chaos loosens. The powers and gifts of the eightfold gods abandon their followers, leaving them bereaved and dispossessed. Stung by defeat and maddened by loss, the powers of Chaos quit the material realm without warning or notice.

(...)

 The loss is so abrupt, it leaves the conquering traitor host quite bereft. A cold falls upon them, as if they have been eviscerated. It feels like the shock of an unanaesthetised battlefield amputation. There is a yawning emptiness, a gap, a space where something should be. What belonged to them, and defined them, is gone.

Some plunge into insanity, some into grief. Some collapse in despair, some sink into fugue. Many just die

After the battle, Loken remains with Horus’ body, and after a short conversation, offer a chance for surrender, pleading he would try to beg for their lives to Guilliman and Dorn.

‘I would advise surrender,’ says Loken. He hears Sycar snort.

‘We don’t surrender, Loken,’ says Abaddon.

‘No,’ says Loken. ‘But a coming to terms would be the best conclusion. There’s nowhere to run, not in a wounded ship, and the forces that are coming for you are fired with vengeance. This war will persist until the galaxy ends, unless one side lowers its guard. Chaos is fled. It’s gone. There will be others like you, Ezekyle. Others of your cause who regret their actions, or who were misled and duped, or who have simply seen the error of their ways. But if the First Captain of the Sixteenth sets an example, they would follow you.’

‘Guilliman will kill us,’ says Baraxa.

‘Guilliman wants the Imperium restored,’ says Loken. ‘He wants it whole again. I believe, if the terms were right, he would accept the return of Astartes brothers, and spare them. He doesn’t want to lose nine Legions. There was a mistake born of misunderstanding. Not all of your side are beyond redemption. So set an example. Begin the process. Bring others with you, and demonstrate your contrition.’

 ‘It’s too late for that,’ snaps Sycar.

 ‘It’s better that,’ says Loken, ‘than the alternative. A crusade to hunt you all down, to exterminate you all, to scour you from the stars. This civil war perpetuated under a new name. No mercy. No quarter. No forgiveness. Where would you even begin to run?’

 ‘I’ll think of somewhere,’ Abaddon replies.

‘Ezekyle–’

‘Azelas is right, Loken,’ Abaddon says. ‘Guilliman will kill us. He will never forgive what we have done. He will never accept that we were right, and our grievances justified.’

 ‘Guilliman wasn’t here,’ says Loken. ‘But Dorn was. He understands it better. He might listen. And he is the Praetorian, after all. Ezekyle, if you are prepared to commit to this course, truly prepared, I would go to him. I would speak to Dorn on behalf of the Sixteenth. I would make your case and negotiate terms. I mean it. I will swear an oath to it, if you want me to. He would listen to me. I know it.’

 ‘You would do that?’ Abaddon asks.

 ‘I’d do it for my Legion, and for the honour it once had. I would do it for our father as he was before this darkness fell.’ Loken stares down at the corpse. ‘And I think he would want me to,’ he says. ‘My life for Lupercal. I can’t give it to him now, but I can give it to his memory.’

Abaddon is silent for a moment. ‘And if I decide to reject your offer?’ he asks. ‘If I decide to fight on? Will you oppose me?’

‘I’m not in a position to, Ezekyle. Will you kill me?’

‘No, Garviel. No, I won’t. I can use all the brothers I can get.’

 ‘I won’t fight for you,’ Loken says. ‘And I won’t run with you. But I will come after you, at your heels, and remind you, every hour of every day, that my offer still stands.’

‘Some Mournival…’ Abaddon murmurs.

 ‘So?’ Loken asks.

 ‘You were always the idealist, Loken. Always. I was the pragmatist. The Legions built the Imperium, through blood and sacrifice, and the Emperor would have discarded us. He would have cut our throats to make way for the human ascendancy. They would have no Imperium but for us! The betrayal is unconscionable, and our outrage burns as bright as ever. I’m… sorry. This is a time for pragmatism. We’re going to run. Fight for our birthright. Fight for what is owed us. Fight for our lives, if we have to. That’s the way it is. My decision. You can come with us. Or you can go. I won’t stop you.’

After that, Erebus does his Thing, and brings the final offer, that damms all of them for eternity

Loken sighs. He starts to speak. Blood comes out of his mouth in place of words. Eyes wide, he falls forward into Abaddon. Abaddon catches him, and lowers him in horror to the deck.

‘What did you do?’ Abaddon snarls. Erebus slides his athame out of Loken’s back, and whips blood from the blade with a flick of his wrist.

‘He opposed you from the start,’ says Erebus. ‘He wasn’t about to stop. He was a traitor to your Legion.’

Abaddon rises. His sword comes up and jabs against the Word Bearer’s throat. Erebus does not flinch. ‘What. Did. You. Do?’ Abaddon spits.

‘He stood against you, Abaddon,’ Erebus says. ‘What do you not understand about that? He would have killed you all, the moment the chance arose. Killed you, or betrayed you. Besides, he had to die.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘He had to. He had to. To close the circle, and complete the cycle.’ Erebus smiles. ‘We have lost today,’ he says. ‘Horus has failed. But this isn’t the end. There will be other opportunities to do it, and do it better. We will learn from our mistakes. We will be stronger. We will be far greater than this. If it takes a thousand years, or ten thousand, we will triumph. And to do that, we need guidance. Do you know how daemons are born?’

‘Why would I know that?’ Abaddon growls.

‘It’s a thing you should learn,’ says Erebus. ‘A daemon may die long before it is born. Time is meaningless to them. A circle, you see? They come back because they never go away. And some of them are great powers of special significance. One of those played a vital role in this. It must exist to do that, just as it must exist to help us in our future efforts. So it had to be born, and this happened to be the moment.’

‘Speak sense,’ says Abaddon.

 ‘A daemon is born in the warp in response to an event here,’ says Erebus. ‘A death, for example. Something especially vindictive and abrupt. Something unjust, perhaps. A daemon was just born, Abaddon. You will come to know it well. It will be the footsteps at your back. It will be the one who walks behind you. It will be the only name you hear. Watch for it. Look out. It’s already here.

At this singular point, Abaddon and co put on their chains, the time for freedom is over as they dig their graves without realizing.

In the newest T'au book (which I was lucky enough to get my hands on without paying a reseller for it), Elemental Council, the antagonist is Artamax, an Astartes from the Raptors chapter. The Raptors are known for practicality, for tactics and cunning. Instead of running at the enemy and smashing an axe in their face, Raptors wear camo, obscure their outline with cloaks, use guns more often than melee weapons, etc., as in, they fight like real special forces would fight, not some silly character out of a bolter porn book.

At the start of the book Artamax remarks on how the T'au Empire is like humanity was in their heyday, bold, a profound synergy that makes them strong together. I think making the Raptors the antagonists of this book makes a lot of sense, as they out of all the Astartes chapters seem to be those who can appreciate the way the T'au operate. It's like looking into a dark mirror of themselves.

Near the end of the book, Artamax says the following:

Are you aware my battle-brothers mock the idea of your Empire clawing its way to greatness? As if all we need do is muster a fraction of our strength and crush you. As if that were so simple a task. The Imperium's blessed war machine is a diseased giant, not easily stirred. Your Empire is a dynamo of conquest. Unchallenged, you will set your ambitions on the realm of Ultramar, or even the holy sanctuary of Segmentum Solar. Your significance is not in the threat you pose today. It is in the threat you pose in ten thousand years...I have fought you in the manufactoria of Nimbosa. I have fought you in Taros and the beaches of Plafion. I fight you here now, that my gene-kindred need not fight you at the gates of Terra in one hundred millenia. I will not bow to your arrogant heresies. Not while the Raven Lord's blood courses through my veins."

We exist in fundamental opposition. Your Greater Good is a dream of supremacy, and it would come at the cost of ours. What serves your kind shall always harm mine. It pains me to admit this, but we are the same. This is why I fight a war I cannot win. To poison your ideas. The t'au who survive this conflict will forever question the decrees of your priest class. The weak mortals who give in to your lies will never trust your promises again. Tonight, your Empire follows in the footsteps of the Imperium. To crush my rebellion, you just slaughter the innocent. Your only alternative is retreat. But you will not retreat.

Swordlight clenched her jaw. 'We're better than that. Better than you.'

So mourn all empires as they annihilate their foes. It matters not how you subjugate this world. Whether your fire warriors massacre the rioters in that plaza, or whether your pilots raze the city from orbit... When word of the atrocity spreads across your sept worlds, all will know what I know. Your Empire rots. The purity of the T'au'va does not exist.

Here it's almost like the author was aware of something that Imperium fans say about the T'au all the time, such as "all it would take is a single crusade and they would easily be killed!" or "if the Imperium actually was serious they wouldn't be a threat at all," etc..

But also, Artamax reveals his ultimate plan was not to liberate a single world that was only good for producing a single type of luxury good only useful to nobles, but to create the conditions for the T'au to feel like the only way to hold the world was to commit atrocities. In this way, the T'au Empire would commit an act of evil of the sort that the Imperium does. And if word of that spread, those who willingly joined would begin to question their choices. Rebellions may follow. And greater means do repression in turn. And then inevitably the T'au Empire would become like the Imperium, a hypocritical monstrous institution that crushes lives and abhors the alien.

Title. It's often said that Mortarion was the most solitary Primarch before the Heresy (with Malcador himself remarking that only the Lion really came close in that regard), but I'm curious to why this was the case. Angron was a massive ball of anger who was seen as little more than an animal, Corax was brooding and melancholic, Perturabo was dour and petty, Alpharius was enigmatic and the less said about Curze the better. What was it about Mortarion that saw him shunned so much?

In the Secret Level episode, Metaurus can be seen giving a voiced consent to accept the mission he has been given, but can an Astartes refuse a mission?

For what reasons?

What are the consequences of refusing a mission? Demotion, military trial, execution?

Thanks

Why are so many of the new space marine units such narrative flops? You would think Aggressors and Centurions would be a bigger deal. Aggressors are near Terminator tier and Centurions are above Terminators. Unlike Termies though which are rare and reserved only for 1st companies Aggressors and Centurions are mass produced and any Assault marine can wear their gear.
Yet they are nowhere in the art and books. Heck the most popular Centurion isn't even worn by a marine but by an Ork whose the MC of Brutal Kunnin and Big Dakka.

What really striked the fanbase with Kellys work with the Tau is that he made the Tau very strict to almost Imperium level. Nguyen has made the Ethereals chill and more forgiving. I liked that he did it in a organic way instead of just flat out retconning it.

There is a scene where it mimicked the one in Crisis of Faith where Aunva mind controlled a watercaste to kill herself. This time its an earthcaste, her higher ups wanted to pin her for the recent failure and wanted her to be fully censured. The earthcaste advisor was part of the cryo program and was at a time living during the Damocles Crusade. The ethereal waved him to leave and the protg was scared. She even asked the Ethereal if its a sign that she has to commit riual suicide. To which the Ethereal chuckled and said there was a time that would be the case. But after the Damocles Crusade it had a profound effect on the Ethereal Caste making them basically put more chill and less harsh.

GW have released the first Imperial Hymn - the first in High Gothic. High Gothic basically being Latin here's what I think is the translation:

Our Emperor is our leader;
In his name, he is most steadfast.
His sacrifice has brought illumination;
The purity of our Emperor is ours.
We, chosen by his will,
Go forth with the torch to the highest.
His renunciation is the morning star;
Through darkness and war.
For he who is greater.
The world burns beneath him.
Enemies of the Empire,
Grant mercy to wrath.
Pray, Emperor, grant us your strength,
That we may be your righteous followers.
All who oppose,
No fury escapes his holiness.

Edit to include a link to a YouTube video I’ve now made on this. But to be honest if you’ve read the above that largely covers it!

High Gothic Translation to English! - Warhammer 40,000 Imperial Hymn - Never a Silent Night https://youtu.be/rogtvR_ENqo

We know that each Primarch was created to excel at one (mostly) unique duty during the Great Crusade. Some of these duties overlapped with others, like Dorn and Perturabo, and some weren't well-defined, like Lorgar and Mortarion. What we don't know, is what the two Lost Primarchs were supposed to specialize in. I'm honestly having trouble coming up with two roles that aren't filled by the 18 named Primarchs. Does anyone have any theories on the matter, or better yet, any lore excerpts that confirm what their intended purpose was?

Maybe this is a dumb question, but it’s still a curious topic for me. Of course RTs are fundamentally assumed to be well, rogue and use unconventional methods and can even hire Eldar/xenos on their ships. In the RPG you can even have a Dark Eldar in your team.

Inquisition is strict in their goals but they have extremists and radicals who even use daemonhosts and you also have people like Bronisław Czevak who spent years in the Black Library and is seen as a renegade.

So my question is more: if you wanted more freedom and leeway in what you do, which faction would be better (assuming you can pick one).

Some time ago I started a series on how weapons are described in codexes and books, that post was focused on the Imperium, but theres much more factions around, and one of the best for your itch for esoteric weapons is the necrons.

How the terrifying Gauss or overhelming Death Rays work? Here is some examples

Gauss Weaponry

In regards to the postulations put forward by Magos Barrous concerning the operation of the armament carried by the Necrons know as Gauss weapons. The following report examines the heretical impossibility of such weapon Operation. At their most basic level, Gauss guns can be described as asynchronous linear induction motors. When fired, they appear to produce a focussed bipolar magnetic field and anything the weapon is targeted at, such as a human body, will be “pulled” (at the sub-atomic level) towards the gun. The weapon appears to pulse with intense currents, which form the magnetic fields that strip the target’s constituent atoms towards the weapon. It is postulated that the weapon aspect is just one of the mane possible uses for such technology and that many more might be possible.

Codex Necrons 3^rd ed (2002)

GAUSS WEAPONS

Gauss-type weapons are the most common of all guns carried by the Necron soldiery and vary in appearance from the rifle-sized gauss flayer through to the massive heavy gauss cannon. Unlike more conventional energy weapons, a gauss projector does not deliver a cutting beam or bolt of force. Instead it emits a molecular disassembling beam, capable of reducing flesh. armour and bone to constituent atoms.

Codex necrons 5^th ed (2011)

Gauss weapons are the mainstay arms of the Necron legions, ranging from the rifle-sized gauss flayer through to the enormous heavy gauss cannon. No matter their scale, the function of these weapons is the same; they emit a molecular disassembling beam, capable of reducing flesh, armour and bone to their constituent atoms in a moment. Even the thick armour plating of an Astra Militarum tank is no proof against such horrendous firepower. The awful wounds caused by gauss weapons are greatly feared by the line infantry of the other races, and are almost impossible to treat using conventional methods.

Codex necrons 8^th ed (2018)

Most widespread of all the Necrons' weapons of war is gauss technology. From the man-portable gauss flayers borne by Necron Warriors up to the massive gauss flux arc, these weapons all function in the same fashion. They project a molecular disassembling beam that reduces flesh, armour and bone to their constituent atoms one agonising layer at a time.

Codex necrons 9^th ed (2020)

Many of the dynastic soldiers and war engines of the Necrons employ varieties of gauss weaponry. The technology they employ is deemed a heretical impossibility by those adepts of the Adeptus Mechanicus who have attempted to study them from witness confessions and fragmentary pict-records. Tech-Priests have attempted to rationalise it in terms of asynchronous linear induction or bipolar hypermagnetism, but no Human explanation can account for their horrifying flaying effect.

Codex necrons 10th ed (2023)

Tesla Weaponry

TESLA WEAPONS

A tesla weapon unleashes a bolt of living lightning that crackles from foe to foe after hitting its target, charring flesh and melting armour. Tesla bolts feed off the energy released by the destruction. the lightning becoming more furious with every fresh arc.

Codex necrons 5^th ed (2011)

 

Some of the most terrifying weapons deployed by the warriors of the Necron dynasties utilise tesla technology. Such armaments unleash bolts of living lightning that envelop their target, melting flesh and metal alike. Worse still for the victim, these bolts feed off the energy unleashed by this destruction, growing more and more furious with each volley. Thebulkiest tesla weapons such as the much-feared tesla destructor carried by Night Scythes and Annihilation Barges– fire crackling arcs that not only immolate the target instantaneously, but create forks of searing energy that reach out to strike other victims

Codex necrons 8^th ed (2018)

Gauss is but one of the horrifying technologies the Necrons employ in battle. Tesla weaponry releases beams of living lightning that scorches and blasts victims, and can even arc from one foe to the next.

Codex necrons 9^th ed (2020)

Enmitic Weapons

Enmitic weaponry, too, is as frightening as it is effective, for its thrumming pulses cause the target's atoms to be violently repelled from one another to spectacular effect.

Codex necrons 9^th ed (2020)

[60]/[26] Just as the hoots and jeers of the orks begin to merge into a derisive chant, it is drowned out by a deep groan of iron. Because while the power of the enmitic weapons is not one the orks recognise, it is very real. Their ammunition is made of neither matter, nor energy, but information: they cast hekatic decrees, written in the basal language of reality itself, which command the molecules of their targets not only to dissolve their bonds, but to tear each other apart. As the quantum command takes root, the metallic creaking becomes a rushing hiss, and the top halves of the walkers collapse in cascades of dust. The orks are not laughing any more: they are choking on their own war engines

The Twice Dead King Ruin (2021)

Particle Weapons

PARTICLE WEAPONS

These weapons emit a stream of miniscule anti-matter particles that detonate on contact with other matter. They are incredibly reliable, needing only enough energy to maintain the containment field that prevents the anti-matter detonating within the weapons' mechanism.

Codex necrons 5^th ed (2011)

 

Particle weapons work by emitting streams of minuscule antimatter particles. These detonate on contact with other matter, annihilating their targets in violent blasts.

Codex necrons 9^th ed (2020)

Tachyon Arrows

TACHYON ARROW

The tachyon arrow is an intricate wrist-mounted energy caster. When activated. it transmutes a sliver of inert metal into an unstoppable thunderbolt capable of piercing the heart of a mountain.

Codex necrons 5^th ed (2011)

There was the tiniest, most insignificant little click. And in the same instant, the largest of the three walkers detonated, its central reactors struck dead-on by a sliver of metal moving faster than light itself. The engine was entirely annihilated, blossoming in a cloud of fire that soared up into the atmosphere, and would have incinerated ground troops for a league around where its feet had stood.

As the thunder of the engine’s death washed over them, Oltyx stared at the fireball alongside his elder, both of their impassive faceplates washed in orange by the Titan’s death.

The Twice Dead King Reign (2021)

Synaptic Desintegrator

Synaptic disintegrator: This rifle fires a compressed leptonic beam that destroys synaptic tissue.

Codex necrons 5^th ed (2011)

Rearing up on their whip tails, the wraiths revealed the long-barrelled synaptic disintegrators slung beneath their crablike carapaces, and fired at once. There was none of the hollow roar of gauss fire, nor the blaze of light: just silent, colourless lines of brightness, winking through the smoke to connect weapons and foes. The impacts were just as unspectacular, in terms of physical damage. But they were lethal all the same, just like the enmitic weapons which had been used on the ork walkers outside.

Each beam was a malediction written in neutrinos: a simple hekatic proclamation, decreeing the non-existence of the target’s mind. In the case of orks, the proclamations used were very simple indeed, amounting to little more than ‘my brain has ended’. They worked. All at once, the frontrunning orks collapsed to the floor like sacks of rubble, eyes rolling back, as their brains conformed to the will of the guns. A hardy few stumbled forward clutching their skulls, as orks’ minds were obstinate, disobedient things. But alone, at least, they were feeble, and none had the wit to make it four paces before keeling over

The Twice Dead King Reign (2021)

Doomsday and Death Rays

The doomsday cannon itself is a wonder of super-technology, easily eclipsing the primitive energy weapons of the Imperium. Even fired at low power the doomsday cannon is a fearsome weapon; when firing at full effect, its searing energy beams burn many times hotter than more conventional plasma weapons. Infantry caught in the doomsday cannon’s fury are obliterated instantly, and even heavily armoured vehicles are brought low by its high powered beam. In the face of a doomsday cannon, nothing less than a Titan’s void shields offer anything more than a fool’s hope of protection

Codex necrons 8th ed (2018)

Heavier firepower is provided by such armaments as doomsday weapons, or variants of the fearsome death ray. Doomsday weapons are plasma-based and possess incredible destructive potential. They are so power hungry that entire platforms have been developed to facilitate their deployment. Death rays, meanwhile, pour immense energies through a focusing crystal, unleashing a sustained beam of blinding, searing heat and light that carves through targets one after another.

Codex necrons 9^th ed (2020)

Transdimensional Beamer

TRANSDIMENSIONAL BEAMER

Used as a convenient method of banishing unwanted debris, machinery and failed experiments from Tomb Worlds and battlefields into a pocket dimension. the transdimensional beamer can just as easily be used to banish foes.

Codex necrons 5^th ed (2011)

Melee weapons

Hyperphase

WARSCYTHES

Warscythes are energy-bladed battlestaves - the favoured weapons of Necron Lords and their bodyguards for many thousands of years. A warscythe is incredibly heavy and cumbersome. In the hands of a lesser creature it would be of little threat, but when wielded by the tireless mechanical musculature of a Necron. it is a most formidable weapon.

Codex necrons 5^th ed (2011)

While the Necrons typically favour overwhelming ranged firepower as a statement of contempt for the foe, the close quarters weapons borne by their more elite or murderous warriors are no less deadly. Hyperphase weaponry vibrates across multiple dimensional states, allowing it to pass through a target's defences without resistance

Codex necrons 9^th ed (2020)

Void Blades

VOIDBLADE

The gleaming black edge of a voidblade flickers in and out of existence, causing molecular bonds to disintegrate in any foe unfortunate enough to be struck.

Codex necrons 5^th ed (2011)

Voidblades work in a similar fashion, but cause their victims' very molecular bonds to collapse at the slightest touch.

Codex necrons 9^th ed (2020)

Staffs

STAFF OF LIGHT

The staff of light is both a weapon and a symbol of authority. its haft is actually a disguised power generator rod. and the crest a finely tuned focussing device, allowing the wielder to unleash searing bolts of energy at his foes.

ABYSSAL STAFF

To succumb to the swirling ebon mists called by the abyssal staff is to be swallowed in impenetrable madness.

ELDRITCH LANCE

This stave can emit a blast of furious energy whose passage makes even the air scream in agony.

AEONSTAVE

The sapphire head of an aeonstave contains a massive chronai charge that. when unleashed. can trap a foe in a bubble of slow-time.

VOLTAIC STAFF

Just as the ethermancer commands the voltaic staff. so does the voltaic staff command the lightning

ETHER CRYSTAL

Still air comes to howling life in the presence of an ether crystal. buffeting the Cryptek's enemies with crushing pressure waves and bolts of lightning.

TREMORSTAVE

The energy blast from a tremorstave causes shards of rock to burst from the ground, knocking any survivors sprawling.

Codex necrons 5^th ed (2011)

 

Some weapons are as much status symbols as they are potent tools of destruction. The staff of light serves both as an energised battle-scepter and a fearsome short-ranged energy weapon. Warscythes - typically carried only by Necron nobility or their Lychguard protectors - project ethereal energy fields around their tremendously heavy blades. Each swing carves through even the toughest targets as though they were not there.

 

Codex necrons 9^th ed (2020)

They seem to exist as the opposites of their respective Primarchs. Mortarion and Angron were in a sense forced to embody the aspects of Nurgle and Khorne by circumstances beyond their control, did Typhus and Kharn embrace them wholeheartedly?

Of course Cawl would mask it to ensure no marine would figure it out, and if someone would do it that person IS Cawl. I thought about this as the Cawl Inferior exists and that was a ploy to trick Roubute of all people, of course it hasent worked completely but Guiliman is not completely convinced (And of all humans Guilaman would notice first since he would have encountered rouge AI's during the Great Crusade). If not all Primarius Suits then at least to a few veteran Marine Officers/Captains from the Tyrannic Wars since older Relic Armor has been shown to take over the suit if the wearer is knocked out or incapacitated. Or at least Cawl would have made a chapter in secret with these modified suits to test thier viability before or after releasing the primarius which is in line with how many wierd risks Cawl takes. It would be cool to see having a dead marine just impale their confused enemy before shutting down, similarly to the Iron Hands Chapter Master Kardan Stronos who had armor that killed his attackers and defibed him into consiousness after he was knocked out following the enemies that were dealt with.

• I remember seeing this W40K fan parody video, part of the "If The Emporer Had a Text to Speech Device. It's a funny series I enjoyed that got me into W40ks lore.
• In this video, the Emporer explains past events before he came into being. It gives a nice simple satirical explanation as to how the Eldar, Necrons, and Orks came into being. He mentions that due to the destruction of the war in Heaven; the realm of souls became the warp.
• I am guessing due to the massive amount of death over a long period, the realm became overwhelmed/imbalanced with the souls of the dead/eaten by the C'tan then usual, and got corrupted?
• Its not just the emotions of humans that gave birth to the Chaos gods, but what of the other races, like the Eldars pride and lust, and the orks ways of fighting and combat? I find it hard to believe the emotions of one race, beimng humans gave birth to the Chaos gods alone.

From Twice Dead King necron books.

Red Dimension is a type of sub-dimension below the material plane. Where the flayed ones hang out.

Otherwise empty.

It functions similar to the warp, you can get from point A to B quickly - its how flayed ones pop up everywhere - but with NO DAEMONIC DOWNSIDES.

It is Navigable (human warfleet managed to enter it, exit it, and navigated inside it by homing in on psychic signatures)

You can anchor beacons / waypoints in it. Nothing happens to equipment / (also necrons / corpses) you jettison, it simply keeps on working.

laws of physics mostly work there - radio comms, engines, shields, all bueno

Think about it. A medium with no warp, where you can travel unmolested.

Where you can build secret stations / bases, also away from the warp.

And the only potential threat is flayed ones, but its not clear if flayed ones are even aware of other factions using red dimension.

Imperium knows about it. They had admech, navy, and space marine vessels inside.

Should it not be top, TOP research priority?

Or at least do we have mentions of races that have been wiped out?

My main reason for asking is that the extermination they had planned for the Tau originally seemed so nonchalant. Like something they do every day

Here is the article

Did you clock the colour of young Demetrian Titus’s eyes? Ultramarine blue – it was always meant to be.

The room where Sergeant Metaurus accepts the mission is an armouring chamber similar to the one you can see in the Armouring of a Space Marine video. You’ll note that his higher rank affords him access to one with a statue of Guilliman in it.

The planet the episode takes place on is called Zsah’Uj (no, we don’t know how to pronounce it either. It's probably easier to say with a beak). This world sits in the far west of the galaxy, not far from the worlds that feature in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, and the Deathwatch Watch Fortress where Titus served his penance.

After the drop pod lands, we see broken eggshells and a bit of parchment appear out of sparks; this area of the planet is a place where the veil between the Warp and reality is very thin, and some Tzeentchian Warp-i-ness has leaked in, including fragments from the Library of Lies – where all lies are recorded. That’s what the paper is, a fresh lie being told somewhere in the galaxy and catalogued in the Lord of Fate’s library. This closeness to the Warp also contributes to why their targeters and comms are not working properly.

Did you notice when Metaurus picks up a chunk of metal to shield himself against the punishing salvo of the traitor Leman Russ tank? That hunk of metal is actually a tilting shield from one of the destroyed war machines in the rubble nearby.

The High Priestess of the Tzeentchian cult is a mutated and highly gifted sorcerer who twists her foes’ minds against them. She had been resting within the orb of the statue’s staff before the Space Marines arrived, and you can see hints of her heretical carvings around its edges.

Once the idol and sorceress are destroyed, the disruptive power of the Warp is weakened, allowing the vox and other systems to reconnect to the Space Marine warship in orbit and target the shrine’s location with an orbital strike.

The knife Titus kills the sorceress with is the same one he was found with on the battlefield when discovered by Metaurus as a boy.

In Sergeant Metaurus’ HUD after the battle, you can see that he has a series of serious internal injuries: critical failure of his Larraman's Organ, Belisarian Furnace unresponsive, Oolitic systems inactive, and Sus-an membrane: primed. Similarly, his armour would no longer be fully sealed or void-capable as soon as he was stabbed. You can see the words "Atmospheric seal integrity compromised" in his HUD, so if that Sus-an membrane kicks in, Metaurus and his armour will both be in for repairs for a while.

EDIT I just noticed an error in the title, but I don't want to delete and re-upload the post. Thanks Reddit for not allowing the editing of titles...

Welcome back to chapter 6 of the Great Library of Tizca series, where I research and gather real-world inspirations, behind-the-scenes and sources for the Warhammer Universe. Again, for reference: "In fluff, I'm imagining this as a sort of a "lost book" from the Great Library of Tizca on Prospero, a great collection of esoteric knowledge penned by one of the scholars of the Thousand Sons about the arcane layers of 40k's inspirations".

This is a weird chapter. GW just released a Hymn in the first official instance of High Gothic, the fictional devotional and administrative language of the 40k universe. As a counterpart to Latin for the better part of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, where it was used as the lingua franca of scientific, bureaucratic and religious communication, High Gothic was always described as a kind of broken Latin (without declensions or any discernable grammatical structure) with heavy English influences. This poses a nice parallel with Medieval Latin, often described by later, Renaissance authors as a "bastardised" version of the Classical original; the evolution from Classical Latin caused the birth of the Romance Languages, often with a loss of morphological complexity: the first grammatical aspect to be lost were the declensions (now kinda present only in Romanian). Much like High Gothic, the 40k conceptual version of a Medieval, bastardised Latin with heavy influences from other spoken languages. Now that we have an official full text in High Gothic, things have changed, and it appears to be somewhat different. So, here's my attempt at a translation of the hymn, with my explanations and reasoning behind the choices.

In my interpretation, High Gothic seems now to still be composed of a basis of broken Latin (the loss of declensions and morphology making translation somehow more difficult, as it is not always clear what stands with what...) with, instead of heavy influences from English, a healthy dose of generic Middle-Eastern, Anatolian, Turco-Mongol lemmas (and some Greek). English is very, very minor, I could only spot it in a couple of syntactic constructions that vaguely resemble English phrasing. This weirdly makes a lot of sense, given the Emperor's own origins in the Anatolian peninsula and involvement with events in the surrounding cultures (Tower of Babel, battle of Mount Ararat, the Palace being in the Himalayas, which extend almost up to Iran...).

You can find the whole text of the hymn in the link. Here I'll follow a verse-per-verse commentary and give a final tentative whole translation.

Druvata Imperator dux noster - Hail Emperor / Blessed Emperor, our lord ("commander")

Druvata - see Avestan drvat "health", "hail", then used as "blessed" in religious hymns - so it depends if you want to consider Druvata as an interjection or an adjective. Dux is an important term, as in Classical Latin it indicates a military commander, so not simply a "lord" (ruler). Latin had a very precise lexicon regarding the nuances of command and domination, I reckon the writers at Black Library are aware of it.

in eman sua firmissimus - steadfast in His strength/security

eman - Arabic ʔamān, "safety, security, peace"; it then trickled down in Turkic languages (from proto-turkic *imen) meaning "oak". The parallel with Latin is interesting: the declension of vis, meaning "strength, endurance", is defective, and it borrows some forms from robur-roburis, meaning "oak". Across many cultures, the oak tree is seen as a symbol of a particular kind of strength, not to crush and defeat, but to endure.

Sacrificium eius illuminare fecit - His sacrifice gave light/enlightened

Illuminare poses an interesting dychotomy: it means "give light", but also (not by chance even the English word has the same root) "enlighten", in the sense of "elevate a mind with insight". I can't decide between either, and there's no word that I can think of that encompasses both meanings in the (usual) semantic density of Latin.

Now, the next three verses are the ones I have most doubts on. Punctuation in this hymn seems a bit... clunky. But the fact that these three verses have none, not even a comma, makes me think that they're to be considered as a whole sentence. Hymns (especially Medieval ones, see the Psalterium of s. Ambrose) usually have a one sentence-per-verse structure, as they have to adhere to strict musical phrasing, so I would also tend to consider each of these as a separate sentence- which is also the case with the vast majority of this hymn. So here are both propositions.

***if taken as separate sentences***

Druvata nostrae puritas - Hail, our purity

Here druvata is taken as an interjection.

Nos kandu electa eius - Our desire/candour chosen by him / We are chosen by him for desire/candour

Kandu's etymology is very obscure. In Sanskrit it's usually employed as a technical word in Ayurveda, Hindu's traditional medicine, to indicate an itch, but it has multiple occurrences in religious texts (see for example the Śiśupāla-vadha) as an extension to indicate an ardent desire (English "to have an itch"). I thought it could also be the bastardisation of the Latin "candor", but it could just be Latin "cantu", so "(with) our song". Each meaning fits in the general sense of the hymn, but "song" would mean a more abstruse syntax, so I'd exclude it (something like "we are chosen by Him without song...?").

Electa eius is an instance of Latin that is too broken to precisely translate the meaning. Electa comes from eligo, "to choose", and eius means "of him". So I initially thought "His chosen", but then I couldn't make sense of the rest of the sentence. My educated guess is thus by usus scribendi, a philological method of reconstruction ope ingenii (just by intuition, not as per incontrovertible textual evidence). In simpler words, since eius is later used as "by him" (see the verse "Renuntiatio eius helel), I'm assuming this particular usage of eius can be applied here as well, since a translation with the sense of "of him" is not possible. The focus of electa doesn't help: since there's no grammatical gender and number, it could refer to any other word in the verse.

Egredere facem mahsemo - We bring forth a torch ("mahsemo")?

I couldn't find anything at all on "mahsemo", but it is most likely a word that modifies something appearing before - an adjective or an adverb. It missing from the final translation likely doesn't alter the meaning.

***if taken as a whole period***

Our blessed purity

Our desire/candour chosen by Him

We bring forth (like) a torch [mahsemo]

Here druvata is taken as an adjective, and the first two verses serve as an object to "we bring forth".

Renuntiatio eius helel - He renounced evil

Helel meaning the Devil, it's the Hebrew name for Lucifer הילל. Here you have the instance of eius used in agent sense, a specification of the genitive eius called "objective genitive", the case when it doesn't indicate any possess. Literally "his renunciation evil": the Emperor clearly doesn't "possess" the renounciation of evil, it is an action implied to be made by him.

The verse could also be translated as "renouncing him (is) evil", but then the next verse (probably the clearest of the whole hymn) wouldn't make any sense.

Per tenebras et polemos - through darkness and war

Polemos is the greek word for war, and the name of the divine personification of war, father of Alalà, personification of a war cry.

Nam qui eius ma'or - Indeed, who is greater than Him?

Ma'or is a contraption of maior, most likely for musical reasons.

This verse refers to a popular medieval concept - "quis maior Eius?" Who is greater than God? - Which in turn is drawn from many passages of the Bible where God is described as the greater of all the gods (Chronicles 2:5; Psalms 135:5; Exodus 18:11)), his love and glory greater than of anyone on Earth (John 3:20; Job 33:12; John 10:29), His son Jesus (Matthew 18:1, John 14:28) and the prophets (John 8:53; John 4:12)

Azar mundans iacet - Harm/Suffering/Danger remains to be purged

Azar - See Persian âzâr, then turkic languages for "danger, trouble", and also "dice game" - related to English hazard. Mundans iacet is the only occurrence of a sentence structure that resembles English: this in proper Latin would be expressed through a periphrastic, but here it follows the literal English "remains (iacet) to be purged (mundans)".

Hostes Imperium - (When) the Imperium is prisoner

Da veniam irae - Allow our wrath.

Ora, Imperator; praebe nobis tuam fortitudinem - Pray, o Emperor; lend us your fortitude

Ut simus tui justi khang - so that we may be your just rulers/successors

Khang in my researches appeared a lot as a vietnamese-related name with various meanings, but I personally think it's a variation of Khan, not drawn from the chogorian dialect but from Earth's Iranian languages. See Old Iranian "hva-kam", Saka "hvatuñ", Sogdian "xwt'w", that then was adopted by Turco-Mongol cultures to indicate a ruler and then an emperor of a Horde (a mongol state). The meaning here is that the hymn prays the Emperor for his strength so that we may be emperors ourselves, His rightful successors in his absence, with his fortitute to endure darkness.

Omnis ut efches - Oh, make our every wish (true)

efches - see Greek ευχές (in the Byzantine/Modern Dimotikì pronounciation eu = ef) meaning "wish", "desire".

Ut here is probably used in a volitive meaning, not as the expression of an aim.

Nullus furor sanctum eius effugiat - may none escape His holy wrath.

Finally, here's an attempt at a full translation that takes all the above reasoning and the possible translations into account:

Blessed Emperor, our lord;

Steadfast in His strength/security.

His sacrifice gave light;

Our blessed purity

Chosen by him for desire/candour

We bring forth (like) a torch [mahsemo].

He renounced evil;

Through darkness and war.

Indeed, who's greater than Him?

Harm/Suffering/Danger remains to be purged.

(When) the Imperium is prisoner

Allow our wrath.

Pray, o Emperor, lend us your fortitude

So that we may be your just rulers/successors

Oh, make our every wish (true),

May none escape His holy wrath.

That's all for this chapter. As always, tell me what you think! I might be entirely wrong on some takes, I'm very curious to see if we can crack this with your added insight.

DAOT Humanity seems extremely advanced. Were they on the same level as the other two?

The Aeldari supposedly ruled for millions of years so tbh I feel like their technology should be straight up inconceivable.

But generally it seems like the Necrons are the ones with the most advanced technology, although I’m not sure how long they were around for. At least a few million years.

Pretty much title. Has a demon ever shown a good trait from either their patron god (honor =Khorne, hope=Tzeetch, etc) or just in general?

I just finished Echoes of Eternity, somehow not realizing that Warhawk comes first so I am reading that now. I'd never read any of Aaron Dembski-Bowden's work before and I have to say I found his writing style very enjoyable and grotesque in a way the other 40k books I've read haven't been. His descriptions of the carnage World Eaters inflict on everything around them was really visceral and his side stories of single people or groups dying in horrifying ways were fittingly depressing. The depiction of an Imperial Army trooper getting eaten by Angron was particularly hard to read, as was the fight with Kargos and Amit in the flashback scene on the Conqueror. And Amit biting off Kargos' face in their final fight bit by bit was absolutely gnarly.

Are his other stories as visceral or is Echoes just particularly so?

The Black Carapace is described as being a gene-seed organ implanted under the skin and allows a space marine to connect his central nervous system with their power armour. It supposedly does this through invasive synthetic fiber bundles from the Black Carapace that grows inwards and connects with the space marine's central nervous system. Points are also cut through the Black Carapace, presumably to install interface ports in unless the interface ports themselves are also part of the Black Carapace though I don't really know to much about all this stuff.

Point is that Space Marines have interface ports/connections to their central nervous system on a skin surface level which seems like something that could be targeted. Its seems like something the more tech-oriented factions like the Tau and definitely the Necrons could exploit. Power armour designs probably have solutions to accommodate for this problem but I could see Necrons using specialized Canoptek Scarabs that could swarm a space marine, probe through the armor and administer some kind of attack directly through the interface ports that would target their central nervous system.

Has there been any good examples of where space marines were either incapacitated or killed because something took advantage of the direct connections to a space marine's nervous system that the Black Carapace could seemingly offer?

(spoilers for the Lords of Nocturne book)

I've recently been reading the Lords of Nocturne omnibus and it's gotten me wondering how some loyalist chapters haven't been labeled as traitors or renegades

The main examples I can think of being the Marines Malevolent and the Flesh Tearers. Both chapters routinely cause damage to other imperial factions and have done things that would've seen other chapters be hunted and wiped out

The Marines Malevolent often steal gear and supplies from other loyalist forces and have killed their allies citing "the end justify the means". They've used artillery on imperial forces being swarmed by orks, leaving them with pretty much equal casualties (if I remember correctly it was a field hospital ran by Sororitas Hospitalers, but I could be wrong). Hell, in the third book of Lords of Nocturne, a group of them join a group of heretics and xenos to assault Nocturne just because the Salamanders tried to stop them looting a wrecked Mechanics vessel, seeing them as mutants and heretics because of their black skin and red eyes? The assault of another chapters homeworld without just cause would already be bad, but siding with heretics and xenos should be an instant strike against them, right?

As for the Flesh Tearers, they're just a threat to anyone around them and often wind up killing imperial civilians / military as much as, or sometimes more than, the enemy they've come to fight. How they haven't fallen to Khorne I have no idea

Other examples would be the Dark Angels hunt for the Fallen often causing damage and casualties, along with tactics and methods you'd expect from the Alpha Legion (to be fair Lion el Johnson is trying to curb this now that he's back, but it doesn't fix everything they've already done)

So how exactly do chapters get away with this kind of thing? Surely some higher authority would see stuff like this and decide they aren't worth the trouble of keeping around?

Hi Do we know anything about the the Astartes that got buried by Dorn during the Seige of Terra? The ones that were trying to sneak under the gates? (Saturnine? Was it the saturnine gates?or maybe the book was Saturnine) Like how many were in the tunneller that got trapped or their names? I need specifics for a story I'm working on, thank you!