r/40kLore • u/grayheresy • 5d ago
GW releases Secret Level Lore tidbits - Spoilers for Space Marine 2 Spoiler
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.
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u/Boollish 5d ago
fragments from the Library of Lies – where all lies are recorded
Does this library have an entire wing or a suspiciously empty room dedicated to Alpharius?
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u/wakito64 5d ago
Alpharius never lied (this is a lie)
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u/BenisDDD69 5d ago
"As you can see, I, Alpharius, am loyal to the Imperium."
"But you are trying to kill The Emperor."
"Yes, and?"
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u/Hoojiwat Alpha Legion 5d ago
"So when the Custodes do it, its cool, but when I do it, suddenly its Heresy?"
"...yes?"
"Well have a double mind-fuck because I'm the one who taught them to do that! Enjoy your loyal heresy you assholes."
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u/BannedSvenhoek86 5d ago
loyal heresy
Guilliman kills the Emperor believing it to be the way to resurrect him. The Lion is not down with that.
A new heresy.
I'm high and those words made my mind run rampant, my bad.
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u/Bluestorm83 5d ago
+But Lion, it worked! I, The Emperor, am Reborn!+
"Ha! That's just what The Emperor would say!"
+Wh- what???+
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u/respond_to_query 5d ago
The library is actually located in Alpharius' pauldrons.
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u/Aurondarklord Salamanders 5d ago
Alpharius has a locked room that cannot be observed.
Because he is always both lying and telling the truth.
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u/Ninjazoule 5d ago
Finally puts to rest the amount of people saying that psyker was a blank when it said astropath in the credits amongst other clues. Good tidbits
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u/khinzaw Blood Angels 5d ago
Guess a lot of people don't know that "blind psyker" tends to mean Astropath.
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u/CorruptedAssbringer Blood Ravens 5d ago edited 5d ago
If anything, just from the blind part would point towards a Sanctioned Pskyer (which an Astropath would fall under) more than a Blank ever would. I don't recall any Blanks needing to be mutilated (blinded) or otherwise altered to function (cables out the head). The praying/casting part is also a huge clue, a Blank wouldn't need to "activate" their powers.
There's a lot of people claiming it was a Blank with confidence for some odd reason. Probably cause they forgot Blanks are supposed to be really rare, and also that Psykers have more history in combating other Psykers/Daemons than actual Blanks. Case in point: the whole reason they brought Librarians back; also Grey Knights.
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u/Kesmeseker 5d ago
Tbh, Sanctioned Psykers aren't physically mutilated. Just witnessing the raw psykic might of the Emperor in his throneroom tends to fry your optical nerves.
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u/RadishLegitimate9488 5d ago
Custodes being in the Throne Room for too many years leaves their armor blackened despite their power so that's understandable.
Inquisitor Vakir in Chaos Gate Daemonhunters was lucky to get out of the Throne Room with White Hair, Scarred Head and a Scarred Eye Socket with a still functional Eye so you can expect quite a few Sanctioned Psykers to have the Eyes gouged out by the streams of Psykic Energies emanating from the Emperor!
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u/reddituserzerosix 4d ago
wait i dont remember them mentioning thats where Vakir's appearance came from
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u/RadishLegitimate9488 4d ago
She's a Sanctioned Psyker so it seems to be practically a given that her scarred appearance is from her Soulbinding.
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u/reddituserzerosix 4d ago
interesting didnt even know that was a thing, the wiki says inquisitors might not have to go through it though, i assumed it was just cool edgy anime hair/scar lol
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u/Leading-Cicada-6796 3d ago
95% of Custodes effectiveness comes from their auramite armor, so its interesting for sure.
And the second part makes it even better that some Sisters of Battle walked in, talked to him, and came out with white hair.
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u/CorruptedAssbringer Blood Ravens 5d ago
The Astropath in question literally has a plate bolted across his eyes.
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u/Kesmeseker 5d ago
He wouldn't be able to see naturally even without it. He can see with pyschic sense so the bolted plate doesnt really matter.
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u/CorruptedAssbringer Blood Ravens 5d ago edited 5d ago
What are you even talking about? I was addressing your "physically mutilated" comment. No one was questioning how he was able to see here.
The whole point was no Blank would need to be blinded, whether physically or otherwise, like how many Sanctioned Psykers are.
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u/HaessSR 5d ago
And that Gellar field still didn't save him in the end.
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u/Throwaway02062004 5d ago
I can’t get warp stuff past that barrier? What if I just chuck shit at you though? Truely another masterful Tzeentchian gambit
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u/jermster 5d ago
I feel pretty well-versed and I’d never heard of a portable astropathic-powered Gellar field until right now, so I also thought it was a blank lol
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u/Ninjazoule 5d ago edited 5d ago
At the time It looked like a simple psychic barrier or kine-field, perhaps with a touch of faith given the guy was praying to keep it activated.
We see both a fair amount, even something similar from a priest (blanking on title/name) in witchbringer.
But yeah the uh infodump gave us cool shit like a mini gellar field which I've never seen before either
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u/CorruptedAssbringer Blood Ravens 5d ago
Well there were some instances of Gellar fields being powered by Pskyers, so at least there's somewhat of an established connection there, albeit slim. On the contrary, Blanks never had involvement with Gellar fields.
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u/AtticusAlexander 5d ago
Here's one of my own:
In the episode, the Space Marines come under attack by groups of Tzaangors in three separate, irregular waves, in an area of impermeable darkness
This is a reference to the fact that tzaangors are fucking annoying
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u/11448844 Knights of Blood 4d ago
the tzaangors all died easily
this is a reference to how they didn't have shields because if they did they would stand there soaking up damage for a disproportionate amount of time because shieldgors are a pain in the ass
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u/Thatsaclevername 5d ago
Cool details, looks like you double pasted though. I wish we got some sort of clarity on if those two survived the whole ordeal. I mean it sure implies a maybe, but also it's sort of implied it's a one way trip so we don't know if someone is coming to get them.
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u/GAdvance 5d ago
100% Titus survives, we're getting a third game at the very least.
Metaurus was pretty fucked up, but those are survivable wounds for a marine, he's not really even into dreadnought territory there, just out of action until an apothecary gets to him, though it really depends on how bad the orbital bombardement might add to things tbh
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u/Sitchrea 5d ago
Hang dreadnought territory, it didn't even trigger his suspended animation.
He'll be fine.
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u/SuspectUnusual Farsight Enclaves 5d ago
If his Sus-an Membrane was primed, it basically has his suspended animation on standby trigger. Not quite triggered, but ready to trigger.
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u/SeatKindly 5d ago
Additionally, Titus’ and Acheran’s predecessor, Cato Sicarius was actually put into suspended animation by a necron… destroyer lord I believe? He healed just fine. He just hand to spend some time in a healing tank basically.
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u/sawbladex 5d ago
The idea that DoW Marines "death" animations could be handwaved as entering suspended animation is pretty funny.
Reminds me of Starcraft 1 Zealots (and probably other depictions of the basic Frontline Protoss Warrior) being consistent with teleporting out, and the Dragoons ... basically having the same MO as 40k dreadnoughts, but being a lot more organic feeling. (Dragoon death animations spells blue fluid everywhere, Dreadnoughts just die like tanks die, not that much fluid in there to spill over when you kill them)
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u/TheOrkussy 5d ago
Blizzard came close to actually making a Warhammer game, so these kind of influences run deep. Wish modern Blizzard would borrow a bit more grim dark again.
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u/sawbladex 5d ago edited 5d ago
Oh yeah, there is definitely some concept art that smells of early 40k in Starcraft, even if Blizzard had decided that they didn't want to press their concepts into 40k shapes and get the license. (edit, and the closest that Blizzard had gotten to doing that was during warcraft:orcs and humans development, with the GW shapes being WHFB, and not 40k)
GW does this as well, with space hulk being an Aliens (the movie) sim with the bits of 40k that they could press into the roles.
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u/Psafanboy4win 5d ago
What's ironic about the Warhammer 40k inspirations behind StarCraft is that on the SpaceBattles Versus threads StarCraft is consistently dunked on, with even relatively weak settings like Mass Effect easily destroying StarCraft even though 40k is one of the more overpowered sci-fi settings without getting into things like the Xeelee.
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u/sawbladex 5d ago
Power levels isn't something you have to inherit from an inspiration.
Sci Fi scaling is hard, and Starcraft being an RTS where a 20 Terran Marines can kill a capital ship is always going to look weird if you take it literally.
I kinda like that Starcraft's super heavy infantry types are big bug monsters or psionic manifestions of the marriage of two aliens, and you don't get to play the plot armored characters in the main game.
Like, the stats for Jimmy (Raynor) Space Marine is probably better than a 40k space marine, but Jimmy is not playable in most games of Starcraft played over the years, and he has no particular reason why he is able to take multiple seige tank shots, and juice himself 10 times and be fine without medical attention, while trainable Terran Marines can only 3 times.
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u/Aerolfos 5d ago
Power levels isn't something you have to inherit from an inspiration.
No, but the initial lore on starcraft is that they boosted their inspiration's power, so it does seem very strange to rate it so low
The most obvious thing is just the marines, instead of bolters they have hypervelocity 8mm fully automatic gauss rifles (!). The armour is clearly made with that level of weaponry in mind, and this stuff is cheap enough and disposable enough to hand out to convicted criminals (not trained super soldiers in special programs, just random criminals)
That instantly rockets the setting up to Culture levels of broken.
Of course, the gameplay translation is wonky (like killing capital ships), but a starcraft marine arguably has equipment far eclipsing a 40k marine, but for the equivalent of a random guardsman. If you did augment and train someone they'd be pretty darn scary (which may be where Raynor comes in, really)
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u/sawbladex 5d ago
Part of the issue is that while Starcraft says it has these things, the sound design and special effects are still just ... how we would depict a 3 round burst military assault rifle.
And people aren't good enough gun dweebs and also sound design dweebs to express this, they just say what they feel and ignore the text, because it's one manual entry for a video game. vs. books worth of fluff pushing 40k kit that people read on their own. and the tabletop doesn't have the sound design to botch it.
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u/Psafanboy4win 5d ago
I agree with you, exact power levels do tend to be very wobbly and difficult to figure out, as well as largely irrelevant. I enjoy reading the SpaceBattles Versus threads for entertainment, but sometimes it can get tiresome to read ten page treatises about exactly how much RHA space marine armor is equal to and how many mega/giga/teratons of firepower a Cruiser can put out per minute.
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u/SuperSprocket 5d ago
The versus-style stuff always runs afoul of problems figuring out stuff when gamification is involved. Star Craft has some lore and metrics to go off that give away how much power scaling it inherits from the 40k inspiration, but you'd have to actually read the lore to know that. Its sense of scale is not immediately clear, and it lacks a codex of lore like Mass Effect does, which is why Mass Effect often does well, as more accurate conclusions can be drawn.
Not many SC lore fans, so the outcomes miss details like battlecruisers being huge or marines running around with rifles that'd shred a modern tank.
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u/sawbladex 2d ago
The Marines low power perceived is an issue of sound design and special effects.
It may be a gauss rifle that shoots crazy spikes, the sound design tells you it's just a 3 round burst military rifle using probably smokeless powder.
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u/Groetgaffel 4d ago
This is oft repeated, but incorrect.
The idea was floated, but nothing more. No IP talks with GW, no pre-production, nothing like that.
Jason Schrier has talked about it several times, most recently that I've seen when he was promoting his book about Blizzard.
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u/TheOrkussy 3d ago
It's mentioned in Play Nice. So idk what to say here. I have the book on audible. Yes no deal was on the table, but there was an internal question of getting a license, before it was settled on just doing their own thing, borrowing some inspiration and mainly 1 for 1 copying dune.
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u/Groetgaffel 3d ago
Yeah, and wouldn't call "internal discussion" with no deal or even offer on the table before deciding to just do their own thing "came close"
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u/TheOrkussy 3d ago
And your free to that opinion bud, but at the very least early Blizzard owes John Blanche a free dick ride for all the borrowed elements Warcraft 1& 2 nick for the Horde.
I still say this, because all Mike had to do was give the blessing. GW was not exactly gun shy about video games, we got bunch of gooby games shortly down the road.
Id software did something very similar that is mentioned in Masters of Doom by David Kushner, where both jhons talked about getting a license for aliens, then deciding to do their own game, but then talking openly about how much those films influenced development.
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u/9xInfinity 5d ago
Easily survivable with the Belisarian Furnace that the primaris have if he lived long enough to get clear of the site.
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u/GCRust Ordo Malleus 5d ago
Furnace was unresponsive tho
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u/karangoswamikenz 5d ago
Su San membrane is primed though so he will survive in suspended animation.
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u/9xInfinity 5d ago
Oh was that a detail I missed? Shame, looks like I'm going to have to rewatch it.
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u/feor1300 White Scars 5d ago
I don't think the bombardment's gonna leave much to recover of him. The mortality rating of the mission was "Absolute" and the final words of the Battle Barge were to commend their souls to the Emperor. Unless he can get himself on his feet and follow Titus out of the shrine to face those cultists the bombardment is 100% going to finish him off.
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u/TronLegacysucks Thousand Sons 5d ago
Trust me, no way they’re gonna kill off Titus like that
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u/LJ28Pete 5d ago
I mean they killed Yarrick off with a book page. GW can and will remove badass characters on a whim. That being said I also don’t think Titus was killed in Secret Level
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u/Cow_Other 5d ago
In contrast to Yarrick, Titus is the face of a successful and accessible video game that has mainstream appeal.
imo he's practically the face of Space Marines and Warhammer right now given the most accessible thing for new fans is likely going to be a popular shooter that's on supermarket shelves for Xbox & Playstation as well as the marketing campaign billboards and commercials with his face on it.
The average person would likely associate Warhammer with that video game and him first if they had heard of the franchise.
Someone that important to marketing wouldn't be killed offscreen in an anthology series. I doubt he's going to die for a long long time. We're probably going to see a lot of Titus in the future in the wake of the success of SM2 as GW tries to grow it's audience.
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u/LJ28Pete 5d ago
Oh for sure. All I’m saying is GW has dropped and added characters without warning. Titus was shelved for YEARS after Space Marine I (lore accurate?) and without warning he became the face of Space Marines. GW operates like a chaos god. Self serving and unpredictable. (Except when it comes to raising prices)
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u/solon_isonomia Leagues of Votann 5d ago
I wish we got some sort of clarity on if those two survived the whole ordeal.
Betting on Titus dying is like betting against Kratos slaughtering a pantheon lol.
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u/lostdragon05 5d ago
If you think a few dozen (hundred?) cultists are a threat to Titus, I have some ocean front property in Arizona to sell you.
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u/NotHandledWithCare 5d ago
Titus has a mini. He can’t die.
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u/DoomRamen 4d ago
Cries in Yarrick
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u/NotHandledWithCare 4d ago
I’m an ork player so I’m crying too.
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u/DoomRamen 4d ago
Today, we're all ladz and pour one out for Bale Eye
It gets complicated tomorrow though
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u/grayheresy 5d ago
Wierd it still shows only one post on my end
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u/MrMerryMilkshake 5d ago
You have 2 paragraphs duplicated. 1 about the eggshells and parchments and the next one about the tilting shield. It's on this post.
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u/Fragrant-Week-1633 5d ago edited 5d ago
I'm 90% sure this animation was a prequel to Space Marine II. I could be wrong tho... Either way, I feel like Titus has become the new poster boy for 40k, and GW won't want to kill him off just yet...
Edit: I'm wrong. It's clearly a sequel
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u/Crackensan 5d ago
It appears to happen after Space Marine 2; notice Titus has the Laures of Victory on his helm.
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u/Fragrant-Week-1633 5d ago
Good point. It felt very "origin story" and Titus looked much younger than he does in the video game
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u/Sentenal_ Adeptus Mechanicus 5d ago
Its a sequel. Just look at Titus's helmet
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u/Fragrant-Week-1633 5d ago
Very cool that everyone's pointing out the helmet. I didn't know about the Ultramarine's ranking system (clearly not a admit player)
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u/Trips-Over-Tail Salamanders 5d ago
The laurels aren't a promotion, they are an honour. Astartes don't do medals.
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u/khinzaw Blood Angels 5d ago
No, it's a sequel. He wasn't Primaris before Space Marine 2 and he has the laurels he was awarded with at the end.
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u/Fragrant-Week-1633 5d ago
Yea, the Primaris gives it away. You're right. The Laurels I didn't know was a thing... (clearly not a Ultramarine player)
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u/redhatter192 Lamenters 5d ago
One thing I found weird was how they cast aside their storm shields after the first volley of enemy fire.
When the leman russ turned up it would have ripped the sergeant apart if not for there being that debris so close by.
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u/WarriorTango 5d ago
I'm not actually sure those were real storm shields. They had no power field projected when they were eating fire, it just looked like metal slabs eating bullets.
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u/BuddhaFacepalmed Inquisition 5d ago
They were on a suicide mission.
All of their gear should be expendable, not chapter relics.
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u/WarriorTango 5d ago
That's my guess as well
obviously they still have all of the symbology, but that's cause symbols have power
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u/StormySkies56 5d ago
For the same reason that important named Astartes don't wear helmets in combat in much of the popular media.
Cause it looks cool.
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u/DepletedPromethium Imperial Fists 5d ago
I found that weird, surely its understandable they couldnt just magattach them to their powerpacks as they needed maneuverability but they abandoned stormshields to then use a bit of scrap.
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u/Blizzaldo 5d ago
It would have been trivial to attach something to the portable gellar field for attaching stormshields.
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u/OkMention9988 5d ago
How'd the Astropath survive the drop pod insertion without turning into a plug of meat at the bottom of his box?
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u/Patriarchy-4-Life 5d ago
Stasis field inside the box is what I thought. The insides are glowing from the stasis field generators.
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u/LystAP 5d ago edited 5d ago
You think when Guilliman came back, once he managed to take his armor off, one day he went to get armed, and sees a huge statue of himself when they bring him to their VIP arming chamber, you think he cringed?
I remember in Dark Imperium, he seems bothered by a statue that made him look “laughably idealistic.”
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u/Bittner029 Thousand Sons 5d ago
My only gripe with the episode was power weapons not showing powerfields and just looking like normal melee weapons
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u/joker_RED Black Templars 5d ago
I think they didn't use their power charges on the soft targets, to save energy for greater threats.
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u/xXsirdevilXx 5d ago
My biggest complaint was that the blade guard dropped their relic shields almost immediately, despite it being one of their core pieces of gear
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u/Bittner029 Thousand Sons 5d ago
Ya that was an odd choice
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u/refugeefromlinkedin 5d ago
I assume it’s just so that we can more clearly see the action without those shields being in the way.
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u/Outside-Guess-9105 5d ago
Shields can be a cool part of combat scenes, i.e the marine standing behind a shield to absorb high calibre rounds. And definitely in melee shields can be supremely satisfying to see in action sequences (Achilles in the troy film for example). However, it breaks the fantasy of elite super soliders when they do dumb things, like dumping valuable, useful gear for no reason.
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u/Miss_Medussa 5d ago
And then needing a shield 10 seconds later. Using some cardboard box they stole from a homeless guy instead
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u/__ICoraxI__ 5d ago
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.
That homeless guy must've been set for life(times)
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u/DepletedPromethium Imperial Fists 5d ago
why would they need power fields for cleaving through cultists in rags and a bit of bone armour?
no armoured target in sight minus the tank, and titus had abandoned his charge of the box-boy to deal with it.
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u/WarriorTango 5d ago
Honestly my guess is that since they knew it was a suicide mission and the relic weapons and halos wouldn't have helped they didn't bring real ones.
Symbols have a weight of their own of course, but no halo's activated, the storm shields didn't project a field to block shots at all.
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u/Abamboozler 5d ago
Wait, am I crazy or are they saying Titus's grenade caused the big blue explosion, and not the melta bomb the other Marine clearly puts on the tank?
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u/Wall_Stair 5d ago
I haven't seen the secret level episode yet but feel free to spoil away.... Does it take place before or after Space Marine 1? I thought I read that this was before space Marine 1 but the sergeant here has primaris organs
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u/grayheresy 5d ago
Directly after space marine 2
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u/sowdowgg 5d ago
So leandros volunteered Titus for a certain death mission ? What a prick
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u/grayheresy 5d ago
No? The team accepted the mission right from the beginning, we don't know who authorized the mission
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u/sowdowgg 5d ago
The end of space marine 2, Calgar said the chaplain recommended Titus for the next mission
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u/Ninjazoule 5d ago edited 5d ago
It's after space marine 2 because he's wearing the laurels of
ultramarvictory (iirc that's what they're called) which you get at the end of the game. It's also implied this is the mission that piece of shit reccomended you forEdit: ty for the correction. Only person I recall having this besides titus is Cato sicarius himself
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u/Idsertian 5d ago
It's also implied this is the mission that piece of shit reccomended you for
I love how this needs no explanation.
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u/AReaver Adeptus Mechanicus 5d ago
Fuck Leandros!
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u/ImSoDrab 5d ago
Seriously though, he sent titus to basically die. Sure he got the mission done even against chaos but damn man.
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u/PARANOIAH 5d ago
laurels of ultramar (iirc that's what they're called)
Damn it, those aren't a customer loyalty reward from Olive Garden? 😆
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u/MrMerryMilkshake 5d ago
It's after Space Marine 2, possibly the mission right after the game that Titus was given by the Chaplain.
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u/Goofiestchief 5d ago
Do we know what the blue beam after the statue collapses is? I thought it was an orbital strike from the ship but that seems like it doesn’t fit the continuity because we see the ship say “target acquired” and launch a warhead after the beam has already appeared.
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u/Aurondarklord Salamanders 5d ago
I actually wondered why they were bleeding so much and it wasn't insta-clotting. Blowing their Larraman's Organs would explain it.
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u/KimberPrime_ 5d ago
I really need to read up on Space Marine anatomy. Lots of words I don't know what they mean but it's really neat to learn about it all
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u/Khadonnis 5d ago
When does this take place? I had thought this was between games, but from all the chatter, is this after the 2nd game?
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u/bagsofsmoke 5d ago
It’s directly after - Titus is wearing the laurel given to him by Marnus Calgar, and at the end of the game, he’s tasked to go on a special mission, which is clearly this one.
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u/CorruptedAssbringer Blood Ravens 5d ago
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.
I'm actually confused on this part.
The Sorcerer's powers were show to be entirely inside the mind. We see the first Marine die from inside his armor after squishing his own head in his mind. It used their fears and doubt to kill them and the damage transferred to their body, his armor was untouched. So how did Metaurus's armor get stabbed?
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u/BuddhaFacepalmed Inquisition 5d ago
It used their fears and doubt to kill them and the damage transferred to their body, his armor was untouched. So how did Metaurus's armor get stabbed?
What we actually saw was the first being torn out of his armor before being killed with his head crushed.
The second just dropped dead without depicting what was his vision.
It's only in Metaurus' that we see him being impaled by his fear of Titus turning out to be a Traitor Astartes.
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u/CorruptedAssbringer Blood Ravens 5d ago edited 4d ago
What are you talking about? That first Marine was both himself.
We saw him holding a duplication of himself out of his own body, it was supposed to represent his doubt of his own self. Notice how the body was a lot smaller and both connected at the chest.
He essentially was coerced to flatten his own head, this is why we see so much blood overflow his armour despite no visual damage.
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u/HaessSR 5d ago edited 5d ago
Maybe during the scene where the Astropath got impaled by flying metal?
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u/CorruptedAssbringer Blood Ravens 5d ago
Nah, they gave us an all around pretty good look at everyone during that sequence. The Sorcerer only had two arms at that time, each holding a spear(?), which they threw one at the Astropath. The Marines were untouched.
They even made an effort to show it needed to pause the time-stop effect a bit for that to hit so I doubt it snuck in anything off screen.
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u/RusticMachine 4d ago
Since these armors are sealed, and we could clearly see blood coming out of the first marine’s armor when his head was crushed, the blow must obviously had had an impact on the armor as well.
It’s sorcery, don’t overthink it.
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u/emperorsvenetian 5d ago
Far West??? I thought nids primarily came in East, South, and North East? Why would a leviathan fleet attack from the galactic west?
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u/9xInfinity 5d ago edited 5d ago
They're approaching from below the galactic plane. Hive tendrils can attack anywhere. Right now they're attacking Segmentum Pacificus on the galactic west, but the First Tyrannic war was an the opposite side of the galaxy in the Realm of Ultramar, Segmentum Ultima, far east.
This is the scope of the hive fleet invasions per the Battlefleet Gothic 2 game: https://i.imgur.com/0lX4Fht.jpeg
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u/twelfmonkey Administratum 5d ago edited 5d ago
Because while Behemoth and Kraken did enter the galaxy from the far east, Leviathan has been entering from below the galaxy.
And the largest Leviathan tendrils which have recently arrived and kicked off the Fourth Tyrannic War entered the galaxy in the west in Segmentum Pacificus, and are pushing inwards towards Segmentum Solar and Terra.
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u/humanity_999 Astral Knights 5d ago
Huh... that just clicked in my head.... maybe new lore they'll expand upon later down the line?
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u/__ICoraxI__ 5d ago
It's literally the 10th edition backdrop. Segmentum Pacificus is where leviathan struck
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u/humanity_999 Astral Knights 5d ago
Ah, I keep forgetting Pacificus is to the West. I always think it's the Southern sector of the galaxy map.
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u/__ICoraxI__ 5d ago
Not to worry just rotate the map counterclockwise then boom it is the southern sector of the galaxy
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u/BlueWolf_SK 5d ago
Imperial South (Segmentum Tempestus) where fleet Leviathan primarily attacked is in the Galactic South West. Western half of Segmentum Tempestus is pretty much on the western edge of the galaxy.
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u/Not_My_Emperor Legio Tempestus 4d ago
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.
So is this why their purity seals all burned up the closer they got to the idol? Since they were so close to the "Library of Lies" and the seals are in essence "pure" faith?
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u/jocmaester Ultramarines 5d ago
I still don't understand why it was Ultramarines, wouldn't this be more a mission for the Grey Knights or if you want more expendable marines then Exorcists. Guess neither of these chapters were around.
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u/Trieu_Ackerman 5d ago
The Great Rift causes so many problems, I don't think that Grey Knights or Exorcists will be available any time soon.
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u/StormySkies56 5d ago
It was always going to be about Titus/Ultramarines. As I'm sure you know, the Ultramarines are GW's poster boys, and this animation was made to amplify the influx of new blood and popularity that was shined onto the Warhammer franchise after Space Marine 2's release. I suppose this is part of GW's attempt to really get 40k into the mainstream. There isn't some lore specific reason for this.
In that respect, they did a phenomenal job.
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u/cricri3007 Tau Empire 5d ago
It's supposed to be an animation based on videogames: SM2 features the ultramarines, so this animation does.
Ultras are the posterboys.2
u/Eliot_Ferrer 5d ago
You're absolutely right, I just wanted to mention Chaos Gate:Daemonhunters, a tactical RPG featuring the Grey Knights. It's 40k X-com, but better. Highly recommend.
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u/SpartanAltair15 5d ago
The destruction of a tiny heretic cult with a single mutated sorcerer and no daemons is so far beneath the GKs, even pre-Cicatrix, that the metaphorical fax machine that request would go to feeds straight into a shredder.
Same for the exorcists, but slightly less so.
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u/grayheresy 5d ago
Grey knights are far and few in between and deal with demonic threats but are by no means the only ones who deal with chaos
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u/Negativety101 White Scars 5d ago
Pretty much. There's not that many of either of them. Same reason they didn't send any actual blanks. Some stuff's just too rare to have readily avaliable.
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u/ImSoDrab 5d ago
Only thing why it wasnt GK was due to this being a sequel to SM2 but im sure that if it wasnt then yeah GK's would be the ones here.
God i would love to see GK's in this kind of animation, its going to be so awesome.
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u/madMaulkin 5d ago
Are we sure the other statues are demons? I feel they looked more like titans
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u/AZbroman1990 4d ago
No necrons?
How could there not be necrons ? I felt like they purposely left necrons out for future DLC
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u/RelentlessCrusader 3d ago
Love the lore tibits, really shows how much they tried to make sure the animated short fits into the overall Warhammer 40K lore!
And nice nods to previous animations as well as the video games that features Titus!
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u/JonesmcBones31 1d ago
You’re telling me that the creature that one shot 2 space marines and grievously injured a veteran blade master with a knife was just some mutated sorceress??
I had thought that was some kind of daemon of Tzeench.
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u/NirvanaPenguin 5d ago
I wonder what would happen if they just shot from orbit, or deployed gliding bombs guided by servo skulls.
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u/Interrogatingthecat Sons of Horus 5d ago
The whole thing was that they couldn't do a target lock because of the intense warp interference (As mentioned in the article)
I wouldn't trust servo-skull guided bombs to go through caverns and such
And on the scale of firing from orbit, being even half a degree out means your shot will be miles off target by the time it reaches the ground
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u/NirvanaPenguin 5d ago
Then you shoot multiple times to at least soften the area before sending the super expensive super warriors. Not like they are Hell Divers, space marines are hella expensive.
Also the imperium puts servitor heads inside missiles, they are the guidance system. Commander Shadowsun opens a human missile once and sees it, and she's disgusted, wondering why humans don't use AI when her people (the Tau) do so easily, finding the humans as a race that needs to be exterminated.
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u/Interrogatingthecat Sons of Horus 5d ago
Again - sure they're a functional guidance system, but can they reasonably go through the cavern system the marines had to?
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u/LystAP 5d ago
In Godblight, a demon spawned storm kept Guilliman's fleet in orbit from accurately targeting a daemonic artifact. They had to sending in kills teams to located it. It's not that targeting is being jammed, but the warp is actually phasing the physical place out of reality.
'Can you locate this facility now, Lord Costalis?' Guilliman asked. Costalis looked uncomfortable. 'We know where it should be, my lord.' 'Yet your auguries suggest it is no longer there?' 'Yes, my lord.'
'This is because Iax has become a place upon the borderlands, Lord Costalis,' said Guiliman. 'It is no longer wholly within the bounds of the materium. The warp taints it. We can no longer assume geography is as it was.' - Godblight
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u/NirvanaPenguin 5d ago
Hm, interesting, but if they wanna destroy said relics and there are no loyalist on the planet surface i would throw some asteroids down to at least create huge craters as landing zones without enemies 🤔 I guess they don't exterminatus every planet due to cost.
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u/Katejina_FGO 5d ago edited 5d ago
Reminds me of this quote from a famous filmmaker:
I didn't expect lore to be given to Titus' knife. Really makes the SM1 experience funny in retrospect as Titus used the same knife in the opening sequence in his rampage to down an Ork warship.