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Tome Keepers - Deathwatch Service: Since the Chapter's inception, ninety-six battle-brothers have been seconded to the Deathwatch, their understanding of xenos races and their meticulous records on such subjects proving a massive boon to the alien-hunting elite.Their ongoing conflict with the Thokt Dynasty Necrons has already proven invaluable in the war for the Pariah Nexus.
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Tome Keepers - Notable Tome Keepers: Chapter Master Saargon bal Zakir - Current Chapter Master of the Tome Keepers, Keeper of the Truth and planetary governor of Istrouma.Chapter Master Sabium - Sabium was a former Chapter Master of the Tome Keepers. He took part in his Chapter's tradition of adding a strip of parchment to a Purity Seal that was inscribed with the names of those who have died fighting alongside him. It is said that Sabium had over 800 names hanging from his Purity Seals when he finally fell in battle.Chapter Master Caelus Viator - Patriarch and first Chapter Master of the Tome Keepers, Caelus Viator was formerly a captain of the Ultramarines 2nd Company and veteran of the War of the Beast in the 32nd Millennium. He was elevated to the rank of Chapter Master and given the command of his own Chapter during the 4th Founding. He was responsible for overseeing the initial creation and training of his Chapter's first initiates.Captain Nasiem bal Tergu, Keeper of the Key - Primaris Captain of the Tome Keepers' 3rd Company ("Godbreakers"). Born Nasiem of Istrouma's House Tergu, he later became the only aspirant of his cycle to pass the Tome Keepers' Trial of Pages. Captain Nasiem was a Firstborn Chapter Veteran who served for several standard centuries in various companies before rising to the rank of Terminator sergeant in the 1st Company. When the first Greyshields joined the Chapter, he was awarded the rank of captain and given command of the newly forged 3rd Company. To better understand his new Primaris Marine charges, he chose to cross the Rubicon Primaris and become one himself, emerging stronger and more powerful than ever before. Following his transformation he later took part in the Argovon Campaign as a part of the Indomitus Crusade's Battle Group Kallides' Task Force XI. As the war against the insidious Necrons raged, Captain Tergu served on the task force's senior command staff as a representative of the Space Marines. His armour includes the pauldrons he wore in the 1st Company, while his Crux Terminatus hangs from an aiguillette across his chest. His injuries have yet to be documented, but they clearly show that he often leads his warriors at the forefront of any battle. His axe is a Chapter heirloom crafted many thousands of standard years ago by his ancestors and held in the Chapter Armoury. The Tome Keepers put great stock in the work of their forebears, and bal Tergu's ancestors were clearly weaponsmiths of great renown. Due to their short lifespans, dozens -- perhaps hundreds -- of them helped forge this axe. Nasiem also carries a dog-eared book on his belt that recounts his life's work.Captain Abonidas, Master of Recruits - Abonidas is the current Master of Recruits for the Tome Keepers Chapter. He was on their homeworld of Istrouma when the Torchbearers fleet of the Adeptus Custodes Shield-Captain Jasek arrived. The shield-captain demanded to meet with the Tome Keepers' Chapter Master, Saargon bal Zakir, but as he was off-world at the time, Abonidas met with Jasek instead. Before he later left, Jasek gifted the Tome Keepers with the ability to create Primaris Space Marines and 120 Greyshields of Ultramarines descent that greatly helped the under-strength Chapter begin to rebuild.Captain Ilunae - A captain of the Tome Keepers.Captain Aneser - Aneser was the captain of the Tome Keepers' 5th Company when the Night of a Thousand Rebellions began. As whole swathes of the Segmentum Pacificus fell to insurrections by Chaos Cults, Aneser led his understrength company to put down a rebellion on Kaillic VI. Once there, they successfully destroyed the Pleasure Cult of Vorlak the Everblind. However the scent of the cultists' ecstatic deaths caused Slaaneshi Daemonettes and Fiends to appear through a Warp rift present on the world. Though the Tome Keepers were able to eventually seal the rift and banish the Daemons, Captain Aneser and over forty members of the 5th Company were killed in the process.Ancient Kae bal Zhune - Known as the Bearer of the Tome Empiricus, the 3rd Company Ancient Kae bal Zhune hails from the barren tundra world of Kastix on the outskirts of the Istrouma System. A man of few words, his dour appearance belies a paternal streak that has seen him take many of the newer members of the company under his wing, instructing them in the ways of the Chapter. Implacable on the advance and indomitable in defence, he was Nasiem bal Tergu's first and only choice for Company Ancient. Into his care was entrusted the Tome Empiricus, a book of valuable knowledge and tactical insights from which the Tome Keepers can draw great wisdom. Though Kae traditionally bears the book atop an Aquila standard, he has been known to carry it into battle so that Orator Sephax can read inspirational passages from it. Like his captain, Kae crossed the Rubicon Primaris during the Great Reordering. He still wears his Sternguard Veteran pauldrons, the Crux Terminatus a mark of his Veteran status within the company.Orator Sephax - Bombastic and full of righteous fury, Sephax, "The Young Fury," is the spiritual heart of the 3rd Company and the second-in-command of the company after Captain Nasiem bal Tergu. Drafted into the Chapter as a Greyshield Chaplain, Sephax is young by Space Marine standards at barely forty standard years of age, yet he quickly made a name for himself on the battlefield as both an inspirational rhetor and a brutal fighter. Indeed, Sephax's Crozius Arcanum takes the form of a huge double-handed mace that he wields with relative impunity, every swing pulverising the flesh and armour of his foes. It is little wonder that the Orator is often found fighting alongside the company's close-support elements, leading devastating charges to break the back of the enemy army, all the while bellowing out the tenets of the Tome Empiricus. Since joining the Chapter, Sephax has taken to writing his own battlefield journal, a practice that he has encouraged other Greyshields to adopt.Epistolary Lykandos, "The Truthseeker" - Where Orator Sephax is outspoken and voluble, the Epistolary Lykandos, known as "The Truthseeker," is quiet and sullen, a virtual recluse within the Chapter. Recognised as a latent psyker when he was a novitiate, Lykandos endured great pain and suffering during his training as a Greyshield Librarian, and he was left badly scarred by the experience. To this day his skin appears pale and waxen, his eyes forever haunted by things that no sane mind should witness. Yet with experience came understanding, and Lykandos undertakes his duty with great solemnity, for he knows that now, more than ever, Sanctioned Psykers are required to safeguard the security of the Imperium. As an epistolary, Lykandos is a gifted telepath primarily responsible for battlefield communications. However, his quiet demeanour is not to be underestimated. With a simple gesture he can shatter the mind of an unguarded foe, or even force them to do his bidding. Only the strong-willed have any hope of resisting his powers. Lykandos is attached to the Tome Keepers' 3rd Company.Lieutenant Sanduq bal Kudana - Lieutenant of the 3rd Company. He served in the Argovon Campaign with Task Force XI of Battle Group Kallides, which saw the Tome Keepers do battle with the Necrons.Lieutenant Gadatas bal Nurval - Lieutenant of the 3rd Company. He served in the Argovon Campaign with Task Force XI of Battle Group Kallides, which saw the Tome Keepers do battle with the Necrons. During the campaign, Nurval led the Tome Keepers forces that fought on Hishrea. He was among the forces that advanced upon the Necrons in order to topple the two Dolmen Gates the xenos were using to bring reinforcements to the world. However to do that, the task force had to pass through Hishrea's Nurtheos Shore, which was held by the Necrons. In the battle that followed, Nurval sighted the commanding Necron Lord and the lieutenant immediately led his Bladeguard Veterans against the xenos commander. The outcome of their battle is not known, but the Imperial forces succeeded in destroying the Dolmen Gates. However Hishrea was later ordered to be evacuated by the commanding Admiral Archibalda Tansk after a large Necron fleet arrived in orbit of the world.Apothecary Kelam bal Nureem - Apothecary of the 3rd Company.Techmarine Rabash bal Raetut - Techmarine of the 3rd Company.Eriba - Intercessor of the 3rd Company, 2nd Battleline Squad.Zerin - Vanguard Infiltrator of the 6th Company, 5th Squad.Venerable Dreadnought Dhumat, "The Shield Eternal" - Venerable Dreadnought of the 3rd Company.Dreadnought Kasaad - Ironclad Dreadnought of the 3rd Company.Dreadnought Inevah - Redemptor Dreadnought of the 3rd Company.Dreadnought Nadinusur - Redemptor Dreadnought of the 3rd Company.
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Tome Keepers - Chapter Fleet: Legerin Heqite (Excelsis-class Battle Barge) - The crowning glory of the Tome Keepers' fleet is the Legerin Heqite, an Excelsis-class battle barge that can trace its history back to the Great Crusade. It is rumoured that the Primarch Roboute Guilliman once walked its hallowed corridors, and it is hoped he will do so once again now that he has been reborn. The starship's Istrouman name roughly translates as "Seeker of Truth."Hariwok (Strike Cruiser) - The Hariwok is a strike cruiser that served as a base of operations for the Tome Keepers' 3rd Company during the Indomitus Crusade and took part in the Argovon Campaign of the Pariah Crusade.
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Tome Keepers - Chapter Relics: White Book - The so-called White Book is considered the most sacred and important relic of the Tome Keepers. This ancient tome is securely stored in the Chapter's collection of knowledge within their fortress-monastery. It is not guarded, but then neither is it easily accessible. In fact, it is impossible to get close to it at all, for it is contained entirely at odds with the design of the rest of the Chapter's Librarius. Where those cloistered halls are constructed out of granite and bedecked with carved wooden shelves, the stasis chamber containing the White Book is of dark metal, old and pitted. Scans reveal the temporal distortion of the stasis field containing the book to be approximately nine thousand standard years, which predates the creation of the Chapter. The White Book is visible through a small observation window akin to an armoured porthole. It floats above a suspensor lectern, held perfectly motionless by the stasis field inside the chamber. The book is roughly four hands tall by six wide (three hands per page) and the pages appear to be made of pseudo-paper as opposed to parchment or vellum. It lies open and faces towards the viewer, making it impossible to analyse the cover, which most assume is white given the name of the book. The clasp is visible, however. It is made of silver or a silver-like material, and chased with geometric patterns. The spine of the book seems to be broken by the way the pages fall open, and there are clear signs of fire damage, though nothing substantial. Bookmarks protrude from several pages, though there is no way of telling the significance of them. The book is open close to the centre on page one hundred and forty-four. It is not know if this was done deliberately to balance the book, or if there is a particular significance to those pages. The transcription is legible, written in High Gothic in a steady hand. It makes mention of discovering the truth in all things and that knowledge should be valued above all else -- nothing that a keen observer would describe as heretical. Indeed it is a maxim espoused by those who work for the Emperor's Inquisition. However, the knowledge contained on these visible pages ends on a monumental cliffhanger. One can only imagine the frustration of the Chapter's Librarians being unable to access the knowledge inside.Tome Empiricus - The Tome Empiricus is a relic of the Tome Keepers' 3rd Company and contains the records of its greatest military feats. The tome hangs from the company standard carried by the 3rd Company's Ancient and it accompanies them when they go to battle. Though copies of the Tome Empiricus exist, it is still treated with great reverence and is protected by a powerful coruscating force field.Relic Power Axe - Captain Nasiem bal Tergu of the 3rd Company carries a Power Axe that is a Chapter heirloom crafted many thousands of standard years ago by his ancestors and held in the Chapter Armoury. The Tome Keepers put great stock in the work of their forebears, and bal Tergu's ancestors were clearly weaponsmiths of great renown. Due to their short lifespans, dozens -- perhaps hundreds -- of them helped forge this axe.
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Tome Keepers - Chapter Colours: The Tome Keepers wear power armour the colour of ancient vellum with black shoulder pauldron trim. The Chapter symbol is proudly displayed on their left shoulder plate, while the black tactical specialty insignia -- battleline, close support, fire support, Veteran or command -- is displayed on their right shoulder guard.Company colours are the same as those prescribed in the Codex Astartes but displayed on the Aquila or Imperialis on the chest instead of as the shoulder guard trim.A small, white Low Gothic numeral is stenciled into the centre of the tactical specialty icon which indicates a battle-brother's assigned squad. Company squads number 1 though to 10. Additional units added to the company adopt the numbers 11 to 20 consecutively, with the first additional unit being 11, the second 12, etc.The Tome Keepers' black shoulder pauldron trim and tactical specialty symbols represent the ink used to record the Tome Keepers' experiences and accomplishments in their great tomes.Rank markings are shown on helmets, with the colour of the helmet displaying the rank of the battle-brother as shown below, though there are a few deviations from the Codex Astartes. Instead of white helmets, Veterans wear black faceplates.Veteran sergeants also possess black faceplates but with a red helmet, as laid down in the Codex.The most notable deviation from the Codex is the lieutenant's helmet, which is a reverse of the Veteran sergeant's colours.A Tome Keepers' captain typically displays the traditional bone of the Tome Keepers' armour, but with the addition of a skull or laurel.Personal heraldry is also allowed.The Astartes of the 1st Company wear white or silver.
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Tome Keepers - Chapter Badge: The Tome Keepers' Chapter badge takes the form of a stylised black tome with a white, four-pointed star in the centre, sitting upon a bone backdrop. Known as "The Tome Celestial," this symbol reflects two parts of the Tome Keepers' history -- their reputation as chroniclers and historians, and the special significance of the white dwarf star that their homeworld orbits.The star represents GB 6-77, the white dwarf star around which the Chapter's homeworld orbits. The book symbolises the acquisition and recording of knowledge. It sits open to show that knowledge is infinite and that understanding is more powerful than blind faith. A Tome Keepers book is never shown closed unless in memoriam.Sometimes a variation of the Chapter's main badge is worn. A bone or white skull is featured in lieu of the four-pointed star, which represents the Chapter's fixation with mortality. This symbol is usually worn by the Chapter's sergeants and Veterans.
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Tome Keepers - Trivia: Both the Tome Keepers and the Astral Hounds Chapters were created by the 2020 staff of White Dwarf as potential candidates for a staff-created mascot Chapter for the magazine. Ultimately, the Tome Keepers were chosen over the Astral Hounds, although many of the concepts created for the Astral Hounds were later re-used and incorporated into the Tome Keepers' lore.Another interesting fact is that the names of the characters for the Tome Keepers were drawn from the Royal Library of Ashurbanipal, named after the last great king of the Assyrian Empire.The Royal Library is a collection of thousands of clay tablets and fragments containing texts of all kinds from the 7th Century B.C., particularly from the Post Neo-Babylonian era.
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Tome Keepers - Sources: White Dwarf 453 (April 2020), "Founding of a Chapter," pp. 85-87White Dwarf 454 (May 2020), "History of a Chapter: The Mysteries of the Tome Keepers," pp. 62-66White Dwarf 455 (July-August 2020), "Organisation of a Chapter," pp. 80-81, 83-85White Dwarf 458 (November 2020), "Flashpoint: Argovon Campaign", pp. 23-25, "Assault on the Nurtheos Shore," pg. 26, "Index Astartes: Tome Keepers" by Dan Harden & James Gallagher, pp. 46-59Warhammer Community - White Dwarf Preview, Issue 453, "Founding of a Chapter"Warhammer Community - White Dwarf Preview, Issue 455, "Organisation of a Chapter" Warhammer Community - White Dwarf Preview, Issue 458, "Index Astartes: Tome Keepers" Warhammer Community - Index Astartes: The Tome Keepers!
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Tome of Fire - Tome of Fire: The Tome of Fire is the name given collectively to the writings of Primarch Vulkan of the Salamanders Space Marine Legion which contain clues to finding the nine Artefacts of Vulkan he crafted for his Space Marines.The collections of texts and other objects that comprise the tome itself are considered sacred artefacts of the Promethean Cult of Nocturne.
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Tome of Fire - History: The Tome of Fire is the collective named used by the Salamanders Chapter for the ancient collection of lore and prophecy left behind by their primarch Vulkan. Rumours held that the words themselves were inked partly in Vulkan's blood and shimmered like captured fire if brought up to the light. In truth, despite its name, the Tome of Fire was not one volume, but dozens, supplemented by scrolls, charts, artistic renderings, well-crafted arcana and other, even stranger, objects all arrayed in the stacks around the circular walls of the Pantheon in the Salamanders' fortress-monastery on Prometheus. And all had been wrought by the primarch's own hand.Deciphering the script of the Tome of Fire is not easy. There are secrets within, left by the primarch for his gene-sons to unlock. The volumes foretell of great events and upheavals for those with the wit to perceive them. But perhaps most pointedly, the Tome containes the history, form and location of the nine artefacts Vulkan had hidden throughout the galaxy for the Salamanders to unearth. The contents of the Tome, when properly deciphered, lead to the locations of Vulkan's hidden relics. The Chapter's legends say that only when the artefacts have all been recovered according to the clues laid down in the texts of the Tome of Fire will Vulkan return to lead his warriors in the final war against the enemies of Mankind.Of these nine relics, five have been discovered by the Salamander Space Marine charged with the search, a Chapter office given the title of "Forgefather."
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Tor Garadon - Tor Garadon: Tor Garadon is a Captain of the Imperial Fists Chapter and the longest-serving commander of the Imperial Fists 3rd Company, the "Sentinels of Terra."He is an unstoppable warrior in whom the lessons of the Primarch Rogal Dorn have been distilled to their most punishing form.Tested on a thousand worlds, he is a master of the battlefield, and an unyielding bulwark against those who would oppose Mankind.
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Tor Garadon - History: Garadon was recruited to the Imperial Fists from the orbitals of Callisto, a moon of Jupiter. His wealthy family were only too glad to see him depart. Fate had cursed the young Garadon with a straightforward and stubborn nature, ill-matched to the glittering societal circles his kin frequented.During his first solar decade of service, Garadon earned commendation after commendation. Despite his deeds, Garadon never sought promotion, nor was it ever offered to him.Yet his silence concealed a sharp mind, if one little given to revealing itself except when absolutely necessary. The first time this truly came to the fore was during the Nosfer Planetstrike, when the 3rd Company was stranded behind the Necron force's lines.Chapter Command had no contact with the 3rd Company for nearly two Nosferan weeks, until sixty battered Battle-Brothers appeared out of the sulphur mists and provided vital support in the battle against Majestor Zangeneb's Canoptek hosts.Brother Garadon submitted only the tersest of reports, but other survivors spoke of how he had taken command upon Captain Opara's death.When Captain Julius Vogen took command of the 3rd Company, he judged there to be more to Garadon than others had allowed themselves to see, and took it upon himself to unlock the potential of his junior Battle-Brother.By the time Garadon had earned a position in the hallowed 1st Company, he and Vogen shared an unbreakable friendship; one which would later see the younger Space Marine return to the Sentinels of Terra without hesitation to serve as a Veteran Sergeant.Vogen and much of the 3rd Company perished during First Captain Darnath Lysander's disastrous assault on Taladorn. That any survived at all was to Garadon's credit, for he defied Lysander's orders and requested assistance from other Chapters of Adeptus Astartes.The aftermath saw a change in fortunes for Lysander and Garadon, who had both come to dislike one another intensely; Lysander was angered by what he saw as the sergeant's presumption, while Garadon fumed at Lysander's obvious arrogance.Nonetheless, the wisdom of then-Chapter Master Vladimir Pugh saw them bound together in the Crusade of Thunder. A demoted Lysander became the 3rd Company's new Captain, with Garadon as his senior Veteran Sergeant.Garadon at this time cultivated alliances and ties with many famous Space Marines such as Cato Sicarius of the Ultramarines, Colvane Brasch of the Invaders, Erasmus Tycho of the Blood Angels, and Draco of the Black Templars.At that time, a desire to restore the 3rd Company was the only goal Lysander and Garadon shared. But in being forced to work together, each gradually came to see the other's strengths. Garadon at last glimpsed beneath Lysander's hauteur to recognise the driven and penitent hero he truly was.For his part, Lysander came to rely ever more on Garadon's knack for improvised warfare and unflagging determination. Though it would be an exaggeration to say that the two became friends, a warrior's bond was nonetheless forged. More often than not, Lysander ceded command of the company's Battleline Squads to his Veteran Sergeant while he himself led the 3rd Company's assault elements against the foe.By the time Lysander was at last permitted to reclaim command of the 1st Company, Garadon was unanimously acclaimed the new Captain of the 3rd Company, having proved himself beyond doubt on the battlefields of Taladorn, Drashin and the Magor Rift.For nearly three solar decades, Garadon led the Sentinels of Terra to victory after victory, forging a new legend for a company that had once teetered on the edge of destruction.In those years, he was ever Lysander's most trusted comrade, and to see the 1st and 3rd Companies fighting as one was no rare sight. But Garadon had learned more than leadership from the elder captain -- he had learned humility also, and the terrible price levied by unchecked pride.After the Siege of Hydra Cordatus in the final years of the 41st Millennium, the 3rd Company was slain to a man. Many veterans of the Crusade of Thunder arrived to be transferred into the rebuilt formation under the command of Garadon.Garadon remained on the Phalanx to rebuild the company while Lysander and Vorn Hagan left with 5 companies on an Imperial Crusade. However, the Iron Warriors Warsmith Shon'tu assaulted the Phalanx in its vulnerable state, leaving Garadon and only a small force of Imperial Fists to defend the vessel.Ultimately, Garadon's warriors were saved by the intervention of the Legion of the Damned. Garadon then ordered the Phalanx to Cadia and fought alongside its Imperial defenders against Abaddon the Despoiler's 13th Black Crusade.The Phalanx succeeded in an attack aided by a Space Wolves boarding assault on the Blackstone Fortress Will of Eternity that led to its deactivation, though the unpowered fortress was later used as an artificial meteor by Abaddon to end the defiance of Cadia.Garadon led the Imperial Fists and other Imperial survivors of the fall of Cadia back to Terra in the wake of Cadia's fall.Since the Era Indomitus began, Tor Garadon has crossed the Rubicon Primaris and become a Primaris Space Marine.Alongside Lysander he is now one of the last surviving Imperial Fists from before the formation of the Great Rift.During the Indomitus Crusade, Garadon nearly came to blows with the Iron Hands' Master of the Forge Malkaan Feirros at the Battle of Xalladin.
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Tor Garadon - Wargear: Mark X Gravis Power ArmourSpartean (Relic Bolt Pistol) - The Spartean is a relic Bolt Pistol of the Imperial Fists. Since its forging in the 35th Millennium, it has slain enemies of Mankind in the hands of hundreds of warriors. Every wielder has said the same of the weapon; if their eye is true, the Spartean 's shot will be too, regardless of what obstacles are in the way. Tor Garadon wielded this weapon before crossing the Rubicon Primaris and becoming a Primaris Marine.Armour-mounted Grav-GunHand of Defiance (Relic Power Fist)
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Torchbearers - Torchbearers: Torchbearers were the specialised task forces of the Indomitus Crusade whose mission was to give the genetic engineering technology and Adeptus Mechanicus Tech-priests required to create Primaris Space Marines -- known as the "Primarch's Gift" -- to the already extant Firstborn Space Marine Chapters.Early during the muster of the Indomitus Crusade fleets, specialised task forces were assembled and sent racing out into the galaxy. Known as "Torchbearers," they were tasked to make contact with specific Firstborn Space Marine Chapters and to furnish them with the "Primarch's Gift" -- the name given to the genetic technologies and Magi Biologis required for those Chapters to create their own Primaris Marine battle-brothers from new recruits.Torchbearer task forces typically comprised small, fast, heavily armed voidcraft and were garrisoned with a mixture of Sisters of Silence, Adeptus Custodes of the Emissaries Imperatus, and Greyshield Primaris battle-brothers of the same genetic line as the chosen Chapter to be reinforced. These escorts ensured that their precious cargo reached its destination regardless of threats and impediments and was put swiftly to use by its recipients.Some Chapters were assigned Torchbearers because they were known to be nearing -- if not already past the brink of -- extinction. Task forces despatched to these so-called "waning" Chapters had first to locate them and determine if they still fought on in the Emperor's name, then begin the replenishment of their strength if they did.If tragedy had already overtaken the waning Chapter then a new Chapter Master was selected from amongst the Greyshields and the Chapter was reestablished with only Primaris Marines, their first duty often to exact vengeance upon whatever foe had laid their forebears low.Many Torchbearer task forces were assigned to those Chapters simply too far distant, or else too mobile in nature, for the main thrust of the Indomitus Crusade fleets to reach. Many such Chapters had homeworlds that lay beyond the roiling mass of the Great Rift in the Imperium Nihilus.Others, including such illustrious names as the Ultramarines, the Black Templars, and the Raven Guard, inhabited regions far from Terra or were scattered across the void aboard crusading fleets.Torchbearers assigned to these Chapters employed every asset that might lend them speed and efficacy. Most boasted multiple cadres of Silent Sisters, their presence intended to quell the most ferocious of Warp Storms and aid their comrades in weathering an often-desperate passage through the madness of theCicatrix Maledictum.Some further augmented their ranks with Rogue Traders whose voidcraft and knowledge of hidden routes was invaluable, especially potent astropaths to aid in making contact with their quarry, and brotherhoods of Grey Knights to stave off the perils of daemonic interference with the Torchbearers' vital mission.
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Torchbearers - Formation: The creation of the first Primaris Space Marines by Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl was nothing short of a miracle in the eyes of many among Terra's halls of power. In an age when Mankind stood closer to the precipice of extinction than perhaps at any other time in ten thousand standard years, Cawl's technological genius provided an opportunity for the Imperium not only to survive but also to strike back againstthe numberless legions of Heretics and xenos that assailedthe Emperor's realm.The archmagos' design and manufacture of the advanced weapons, armour and war engines with which the Adeptus Astartes would wage war in this dark epoch were visionary. Yet such strength meant nothing if those in most need of it were beyond reach. What use is a newly crafted blade hung above a smith's forge when the questing knight fights empty handed?The task of deploying tens of thousands of Primaris Space Marines, fully matured with all of Cawl's genetic bio-science, fell for the most part to many of the initial task forces and battle groups of the Indomitus Crusade. But such a burden was never their primary objective. Where the fleets' scheduledmission to throw back the onslaught of invaders and usurpers took them into contact with established Chapters, their armadas would deliver intakes of Primaris Space Marines, already blooded on the dangerous journey.Thus did Roboute Guilliman's own vast forces from Fleet Primus supply what became known as the "Primarch's Gift" to the Space Wolves and the Blood Angels, amongst many notable others. So too did elements of Fleet Tertius reinforce the Verydian Hawks and the Hammers of Dhrex, while Fleet Secundus delivered to the Selenarchs the strength with which to retake the Garredes Cluster.From the very inception of the Indomitus Crusade, Guilliman understood that many successors to his and his primarch brothers' genetic legacy would never be reached with such coincidental logistics. So the primarch formed specialised fleets that would seek out those Chapters that might not be contacted by the Indomitus Crusade for many standard years, if at all.These smaller naval formations were initially identified only through ciphers and cryptological ident runes. In time, these and their successors who followed their lead became known -- at least among those few aware of their presence -- as the "Torchbearers."The Torchbearer fleets are tasked with searching the war and Warp-ravaged Imperium for specific brotherhoods of the Adeptus Astartes. It was intended that each Torchbearer fleet would be assigned a single, definitive target, though there are authorised exceptions and mission improvisations that cause some to contact more than one in a single expedition.Torchbearer fleets are designed to seek out many of those Chapters whose home world lies beyond the Cicatrix Maledictum, those who are known to be stretched most thinly and in danger of being ground into extinction, those whose home world no recent record can even locate and those whose crusading, isolationist or nomadic modus operandi mean their current location is uncertain.A Torchbearer fleet would take on its infinitely precious cargo at one of a number of shadowy operations hubs in the Sol System or in certain neighbouring sub-sectors. The majority of these fleets embark strike forces of fully matured Primaris Space Marines bearing the specialist organs andgenetic markers devised by Cawl, alongside armoured containers of weaponry and carefully laden squadrons of battle tanks.Differing fleets carry varying amounts of these physical specimens and materiel, but all Torchbearer fleets carry sealed canisters shrouded in wards and wreathed in anti-empyric stasis loops. Inside are cryogenically preserved genetic material and tissue samples, along with thrice-blessed crystalline wafers.These encrypted data wafers store the arcane methods by which to use these biological specimens. This is the most precious knowledge, the means by which the target Chapter would create Primaris Space Marines for themselves.Depending on where a particular Torchbearer fleet is laden and which specific Chapter it has been assigned to locate, the nature and complexity of the technological and arcane wards around these canisters could vary widely. Embedded also in a shrine-tended cogitator core, utterly divorced from any ship systems, are the encrypted engrams that would enable the Chapter's Techmarines, vehicle crew and battle-brothers to maintain and operateadditional marks and patterns of new wargear and armoured vehicles.A senior Apothecary from the recipient Chapter would often co-monitor the transfer of this data closely, as it would form a key component of future hypnoindoctrination procedures.The safe delivery of this genetic and technological knowledge is the primary overriding imperative for the Torchbearer fleets, and the majority of their duties are inextricably linked to this goal. As a secondary imperative, many are also tasked with gaining an understanding of what lies beyond the Great Rift (if anything) and with finding a way through.The smaller size of Torchbearer fleets enables them to more easily gather intelligence without drawing attention either from local authorities or roving fleets of enemies. The stability of Warp channels, the integrity of a system and its society, the presence (or lack) of enemy and allied assets, the alteration of established stellar phenomena -- all of these and more fill the databanks of the Torchbearer ships.When it comes time to call an end to their mission, whether successful or not, the fleet's commander would return to a designated star system. There, in addition to a rigorous debriefing and a thorough purification of the ships and crews in body and spirit, any intelligence gathered is passed through a series of psycho-osmotic screenings before being passed on to Guilliman's logistical priesthood known as the Officio Logisticarum.
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Torchbearers - Saving the Angels Revenant: For the Torchbearers task force sent to locate the Angels Revenant it appeared at first as though the Chapter was extinct and their duty was to reestablish it in whole. The Chapter's homeworld of Libethra had been cracked open by the Necrons of the Maynarkh Dynasty in order to engulf the original Angels Revenant in lava.No trace could be found of those scattered Battle-Brothers who had avoided the tragedy. Yet even as Torchbearer forces set down upon the riven, airless carcass of Libethra and prepared to declare the waning Chapter extinct, their auspex and vox networks picked up faint signs of ferocious battle taking place deep beneath the planet's surface.Tales are told elsewhere of the subsequent battle for dead Libethra against the Necron menace, of the alliance between the Torchbearers and the last vengeful remnants of the Angels Revenant, and of that Chapter's rebirth amidst the furnace of war -- suffice to say that the Primarch's Gift ushered in a new era for the Angels of Libethra.
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Torchbearers - Sons of Medusa: Some Torchbearer task forces were assigned to Chapters who, for reasons of doctrine, genetic heritage, or historical circumstance, were expected to resist the bequest of the Primarch's Gift. It was unacceptable, but not unbelievable to Roboute Guilliman and his advisors, that the most traditionalist or headstrong Firstborn Chapters might wholly reject the Primaris Marine gene-tech or the intrusive presence of the Adeptus Mechanicus magi who accompanied it.In such cases the task force's complement of Adeptus Custodes was typically larger than average. Their presence left no doubt that this boon came by the grace of the Emperor Himself and that to resist its implementation was to deny the will of the Master of Mankind. Just such Torchbearer forces were dispatched to locate the tripartite fleet elements of the Sons of Medusa.Resistance was predicted from their three War Clans: Lachesis, Mageara, and Atropos. The gene-seed used to fashion their Primaris Marine reinforcements came from that of their parent Chapter, the Iron Hands, and the internecine savagery of the Moirae Schism had left no love lost between them and the Sons of Medusa.In the event, the task force sent to locate the Lachesis War Clan had the easiest duty; by the time they had rushed to aid the Sons of Medusa in their battle against the Orks of the Dravus Cluster and fought alongside them for a full Terran year the martial bonds they forged superseded all other barriers.Those Torchbearers assigned to the Mageara and Atropos fleets, however, faced much greater challenges that went far beyond resistance from the Sons of Medusa themselves.
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Torchbearers - Organisation: The task forces and battle groups of the Indomitus Crusade bear to war immense and often extremely varied armies capable of subduing entire star systems and even sub-sectors. By contrast, the armed forces of Torchbearer fleets are commonly more compact, elite and focused.The Emperor's bodyguards of the Adeptus Custodes are found amongst the majority of them. Of all the Custodians' Shield Hosts, the Emissaries Imperatus are the most commonly represented, although Custodians belonging to other shield hosts are not unknown. The presence of the Adeptus Custodes serves to enforce the receipt of the Primarch's Gift and is seen by some Chapters as a guarantee of its bonafide or even divine nature.The Adeptus Mechanicus maintains a widespread tech-priest presence aboard Torchbearer ships, though there are relatively few martial or zealous followers compared to the retinues of Tech-Priests Dominus who accompany crusade fleets. The expertise of numerous creeds oftech-priests is essential to the safety of the Primarch's Gift throughout transit and the successful transfer of their priceless cargo should the mission be successful.Many Torchbearer task forces are joined by an Inquisitor and their retinue of Acolytes. Some of these investigators oversee security and sequestration protocols of the sensitive technology. Others provide local knowledge of the star systems the fleets travel through, their reputation and clearances helping to secure passage through suspicious planetary governments.Astra Militarum forces do not often see service with the Torchbearers. Those that do are typically elite special forces such as Tempestus Scions. Otherwise, they are hardy veterans skilled in defending against boarding actions, the requisitioned retinue of some senior officer, or perhaps a regiment whose past dealing with the target Chapter might engender some goodwill towards theunusual Primarch's Gift.Other forces known -- at least to the Officio Logisticarum and certain Inquisitors -- to travel within or alongside a Torchbearer fleet are cadres of Sisters of Silence, demi-brotherhoods of Grey Knights, Adepta Sororitas missions as well as Rogue Traders and their diverse, colourful retinues. Sleek warships, redirected from their usual commissions to serve Torchbearer fleets, often carry small armies of experienced Navis Imperialis boarding parties, many of whose members are brutal, Voidborn veterans.The Torchbearer fleets comprise small numbers of fast, powerful and resilient warships. They typically boast more than enough firepower to dissuade piratical raiders from attacking. They require the belligerent muscle to break out of enemy encirclements and the speed to outpace more dangerous fleets. The Office of the Paternoval Envoy selects expert and adaptable Navigators under a discreet accord Roboute Guilliman brokered with the Paternova himself.Specialist local knowledge of the Warp in those regions the fleet passes through is no longer the boon it once was -- having become more unpredictable -- and only those Navigators able to guide voidships through the most hazardous Warp Storms and rift quakes are sequestered for Torchbearer service.Command of a Torchbearer fleet is commonly vested in the highest ranking officer aboard. Usually, this would be the senior Custodian, though some fleets are commanded by a sinister Sister of Silence, the lordly Noble of a Knight household or the ranking Navis Imperialis officer. Among the Adeptus Astartes being transported by the fleet to their intended Chapter, their senior officers offer advice and tactical expertise, usually only taking up acommanding position during rare battles the fleet becomes embroiled in.On occasion, some fleets are accompanied by small contingents of Space Marines hailing from Chapters other than that sought out. These are often representatives from brotherhoods known to have established ties with their target, and they act as another way of reassuring their allies once found.
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Torchbearers - Operations: Torchbearer fleets could spend solar months or standard years seeking the Space Marine Chapter whose future they are entrusted with. The tormented state of the Warp in the Era Indomitus makes any interstellar travel a deadly proposition, even within the Imperium Sanctus.The successful conclusion to a Torchbearer fleet's mission comprises the identification and location of the Chapter, the safe arrival of the precious cargo at their homeworld and the peaceful handover of the Primarch's Gift before returning via the same dangerous tides and undertaking a new mission.Yet so much hangs in the balance, and catastrophic failures blight many Chapters' legacies.With the desperation, greed and warmongering furore that permeates the galaxy, especially beyond the Great Rift in the Imperium Nihilus where the light of the Astronomican is still only a memory, even the superlative warriors of the Space Marines face frequent annihilation. A Torchbearer fleet that has the good fortune to find the Chapter they have searched for may have come upon them in what might be those Space Marines' last gasp.The targeted Adeptus Astartes might be deployed in Chapter strength to one particular war zone where their foes have swelled in numbers and threaten the Space Marines with extinction, or their homeworld itself may be under invasion.In such circumstances, the Torchbearers' own forces do not hesitate to commit to the fray, allying their full resources to the defence of the Chapter. Should the Space Marines fall in battle, or if the Torchbearers arrive to find evidence that the Chapter was in fact long since destroyed, the fleet's specialists would endeavour to re-found the brotherhood using only Primaris Marines. The Primaris Space Marines of the Ultima Founding intendedto reinforce their new Chapter would establish themselves on the fallen Chapter world if safe, or they would select a new one.The Torchbearer ships would often serve as the reformed Chapter's initial fleet, enabling them to undertake early missions while helping to set up communications with nearby Forge Worlds that would continue to supply the nascent Chapter.The successful reinforcement or re-founding of Space Marine Chapters is not always the outcome for the Torchbearer fleets. The task forces find some Chapters, embattled but surviving, and yet who dare to query or even refuse the offered technology. Some may fear a loss of independence, even the erosion of their identity. Many Chapters are deeply suspicious when confronted by unknown warriors claiming to share their genetic lineage, a Gift seemingly offered by a primarch -- a figure of legend -- whose influence and power reflects unknown intentions.Their duty as defenders of Mankind, and the technology's status as being ultimately from the hand of the Emperor, is impressed upon such wayward Chapters. The Torchbearers may brand those who steadfastly maintain their refusal as Heretics and then take on the mantle of the Chapter's executioners.Other Chapters may already be so far down the dark path of heresy that the fleet does not enter into any dialogue with them. Accompanying forces ofGrey Knights or Sisters of Silence may deploy in strength to exterminate such stains upon the Imperium's roll of honour.In either case, the pristine Primaris genetic material held in suspension may be deemed to be tainted somehow and may never be used to found a Chapter.Most disheartening of all outcomes for a Torchbearer fleet is being unable to find the targeted Chapter at all. The galaxy is unthinkably immense, and it is almost impossible to find worlds or fleets unless one knows already where to locate them. Finding such information, thanks to the Imperium'sbyzantine bureaucracy, is already difficult, though Roboute Guilliman ensured that his Torchbearer fleets have the most trustworthy reports available and are barred from few datasources.Some Chapters are known only by a name and the region of Imperial space they guard. Some might have become little more than legend, their deeds known onlyby an account of a single battle -- perhaps standard centuries or millennia ago -- whose location is uncertain. Some may have relocated to a different homeworld, the notification either never having been made or else buried in a sealed office, slowly fossilising beneath the weight of countless centuries of paperwork.There have also been Torchbearer missions where the outcome itself was not certain. The Gladius Ad Umbra Fleet could not locate the Lions Azure in the Afqal Sub-sector, but they did unexpectedly contact the Wardens of the Philae. The Wardens' history over the last three standard millennia so closely matched the fleet's records of the Lions Azure that the commander could not be certain if they were one and the same or not.Conversely, there have been narrowly avoided catastrophes involving the genetic material for one Chapter nearly being handed over to another founded under the same name and near identical-heraldry. Such errors could have long-lasting and horrific consequences for a Chapter if it mixed its own carefullymaintained genetic material with that of another Chapter from a different lineage.The resulting Chapter might never be stable, risking insanity, psychosis and mutation, its warriors' forms as roiling as the Warp rift that now splits the galaxy.
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Torchbearers - Naming Conventions: Roboute Guilliman was conscious of the dangers of prescribing a standardised naming convention for the Torchbearer fleets. Many unorthodox fleets dispatched on sealed orders with the highest clearance risk drawing unwelcome attention if they also bear unusual patterns in their fleet identity signals. He thus left each fleet commander to determine his or her own signifier.Many of these shadowy flotillas acquire names born of the commander's inspirational faith in their endeavour, such as Task Force Hopelight and the Beacon Angelis Task Force. Some bear the name or title of their commander. The Mahj of Cironis' Fleet was led by the ruling Noble of House Th'arkone, a Knight house hailing from the rad-blasted world of Cironis.Task Force Aggarmenus, meanwhile, was formed from the twenty-third name inscribed inside the golden armour of its commanding Custodian, Shield-Captain Graentis.Others brazenly identify their target Chapter. Torchbearer Task Force White Sentinels did not know when they launched whether the eponymous Chapter survived due to their affinity for dangerous close assaults. The task force became unavoidably engaged in a number of fierce void battles against Aeldari Corsairs, Heretic Astartes raiders and bands of greenskin privateers. Their commander, Admiral al Pre'golsa, inflicted such stinging defeats upon all he came across that the fleet's name came to be feared by pirates across the Karenna Sub-sector. When he finally encountered the doggedly surviving White Sentinels, al Pre'golsa had inadvertently secured a deadly new reputation for his fleet as expert naval tacticians to be avoided in void combat at all costs.Torchbearer fleets built around a core of Adeptus Mechanicus vessels typically include alpha-numeric sigils alongside more prosaic elements, while those captained by especially zealous commanders may be named for specific miracles, saintly heroes or holy worlds.
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Torchbearers - Torchbearer Relics: Stalker Helm - Elements of this artificer-wrought sensor-net are thought to date back to the Dark Age of Technology. Data stacks deep below Mars' surface record that it has been fitted into the helmets or wired into the face masks of the greatest hunters of every age. Within its node-lattice, sigil-etched lens arrays and auto-blessed ocular scanners allow the wearer to analyse their prey's every movement, detect their frailties and predict the fatal misstep that seals their doom with more accurate fire from the wielder's ranged weapon.Blade of Bonding - Fashioned by a dozen master artisans in reverent similitude of the legendary blade of the Emperor now wielded by Roboute Guilliman, this finely balanced power sword was designed to be taken by a Torchbearer fleet into the darkness. At the mission's end, should the fleet find the Space Marine Chapter they sought, this sword is to be gifted to their commander. It symbolises the Chapter's reforging, alloying advanced power field technology and nano-razor regeneration alongside traditional artifice that recalls the heroes of legend.Helix Pattern Narthecium - This surgical multi-tool is an enhanced version of the Narthecium commonly used by the Apothecaries of the Adeptus Astartes. Fitted with multi-spectral analysers, cocktails of bio-engineered nerve-stimms and flesh catalysts, as well as cortical augurs and fulcrite-toothed nanosaws to shear through the toughest armour, the bearer is able to drag even mortally wounded battle-brothers back from the brink of death.Orb of Cleansing - First gifted to the commander of the Torchbearers task force assigned to locate the Silver Phoenixes Chapter, this arcane sphere of unknown origin is able to push back malignant psychic energies. In the darkest regions of the Imperium Nihilus beyond the Cicatrix Maledictum, its pulsating waves of purity have been seen to cloud psykers' control of their powers and even burn away the minds of witch-spawn.
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Torias Telion - Torias Telion: Torias Telion is a Veteran sergeant in the Ultramarines Space Marine Chapter, assigned to the Chapter's 10th Scout Company. Telion is an incomparable instructor of new Ultramarines recruits.No less than four currently serving Ultramarines captains rightly attribute their skills and success within the Chapter's hierarchy to the peerless tutelage of this esteemed warrior when they were neophytes.Telion is most famous for his unparalleled skill as a marksman and sniper amongst the ranks of the Astartes.
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Torias Telion - History: Telion has served under the command of three successive Chapter Masters and has trod more battlefields across the width and breadth of the galaxy than most senior Captains within the Chapter.Despite having earned the honour of serving within the Chapter's Honour Guard several times over, as well as the Iron Skull, the Imperial Laurel and a dozen Marksman's Honour badges, Telion has, nevertheless, elected to remain with the Novice Scout Marines of the 10th Company. In this way he is able to lead by example and experience, forging future warriors and matchless leaders for the Ultramarines Chapter.The Veteran Sergeant has mastered all of the martial disciplines of the Space Marines over his many Terran years of service. Having fought eye-to-eye and blade-to-blade with Mankind's most fearsome enemies, Telion has taken the measure of each and found them wanting.He is a master of brawl, parry and fluid stance. Few gambits of brute strength or elegant skill can penetrate Telion's guard, and fewer opponents can hope to defend themselves against the Sergeant's precise and controlled blows.He can take account of environmental interferences, such as wind or gravity, like few others and use a Bolter to deliver a killing shot far beyond the official range.Two of his many Marksman's Honour badges were earnt for such feats as occurred during the Siege of Pallia, where Telion removed both the T'au Commander and the member of the T'au Ethereal Caste leading an invasion force of T'au with a pair of shots from his Bolter at extreme long range. With the death of their leaders, the invaders lost all resolve and were easy prey for the oncoming Ultramarines.Though much of this skill is innate, a blend of Telion's own talent with the power of the gene-seed, under his expert guidance even the rawest Novice Scout Marine's marksmanship abilities can reach a level of expertise that is on a par with that of the most experienced Captain.Indeed, Telion's admonishments and precepts on the subject of war at a distance have become legendary far beyond Ultramar, and the sergeant has been seconded to several Chapters with close ties to Macragge so that his knowledge and unique skills can more widely benefit the Emperor's cause -- following the emergence of the Great Rift, these skills have never been needed more.
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Torias Telion - The Beast of Calth: It was Telion who answered the call for assistance from the people of Calth when "Old One Eye," a unique Tyranid Carnifex who had assaulted the world alongside other bioforms of Hive Fleet Behemoth during the First Tyrannic War, was released from its frozen slumber in Calth's surface ice and went on to slaughter whole populations across the world.Telion tracked the beast down, but found it difficult to pierce its heavily armoured hide. As Telion's warriors were cut to pieces by the beast, Telion made an extraordinary shot that struck the creature's ruined eye-socket, the same wound which had ended its earlier rampage on Calth centuries before.Old One Eye was overcome with pain and stumbled into a cavernous ravine. Telion led a search for the body, but the Tyranid once again seemingly eluded its final end.As of 999.M41, at least one soldier of the Ultramar Auxilia PDF forces present on Calth was named "Telion" in the Scout Sergeant's honour for his deeds on that world.
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Torias Telion - Assault on Black Reach: Telion was seconded to Captain Cato Sicarius and the Ultramarines 2nd Company in 855.M41 during what became known as the Assault on Black Reach. After the initial liberation of Ghospora Hive from the Orks of WAAAGH! Zanzag, Telion was instrumental in tracking down the Warboss' hidden submarine base in an underwater cavern, where Sicarius launched the final victorious assault of the campaign.
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Torias Telion - Trenor Uprising: In 929.M41, during the Trenor Uprising, a force of three dozen Scout Marines under Telion's command suppressed a rebellion against the Emperor's rule on the world of Trenor in less than a single solar day.
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Torias Telion - Invasion of Ultramar: During the Invasion of Ultramar in 854.999.M41 by M'kar the Reborn and the Daemon Prince's Bloodborn, Telion led a force of sixty Scout Marines from the 10th Company to the Agri-world of Quintarn, where the Ultramarines' 5th and 6th Companies under Captains Galenus and Epathus were in battle against the forces of the Dark Mechanicus Adept Votheer Tark.Although Galenus demanded that Telion and his Scout Marines attach themselves to the main body of the Ultramarines force, Telion refused, and Chaplain Ortan Cassius eventually convinced Galenus to let Telion and his Neophytes for their own way.Telion took up position in the desert with his Scouts, watching over his fellow Astartes and sniping without warning at the Chaos forces. Telion realised that Tark's great advantage was his ability to manufacture war machines at an alarming rate, and thus replace his combat casualties rapidly and with impunity.To gain the strategic upper hand, Telion led his Scout Marines on a series of missions to infiltrate and destroy Adept Tark's Dark Mechanicum manufactoria.This included the largest and most important forge located atop the Maidens of Nestor, Quintarn's largest mountain, named after the thousand priestesses of the Imperial Cult who committed suicide there during the War of the Beast in the 32nd Millennium rather than be taken prisoner by the greenskins.With the loss of his manufacturing capacities, Tark's forces were swiftly routed and destroyed by the superior tactics and martial capabilities of the Ultramarines.
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Torias Telion - Plague Wars: During the Plague Wars that stained Ultramar in the Era Indomitus, Telion was forced to lead his entire Scout Company to hold off a Death Guard attack upon the Ultramarines Chapter's training academy.To the selfless Telion it was just another action borne of duty, but the tale of his victory has become well known to every battle-brother of the Ultramarines.
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Torias Telion - Wargear: Telion makes use of all the wargear appropriate for a Veteran Scout Marine Sergeant, including Scout Armour, a Camo Cloak to enhance his stealth abilities when sniping, a Bolt Pistol, and Frag and Krak Grenades.However, his preferred weapon is a Stalker Pattern Bolter called Quietus that has been loaded with Stalker Silenced Shells so that he can make use of his extraordinary marksmanship skills at any time.
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Tormented, The - Tormented, The: The warband of Chaos Space Marines known as The Tormented regroups all the Possessed Chaos Space Marines counted amongst the Black Legion's ranks into one formation.Those members of the Black Legion who take further steps on the road to power and merge their soul with a daemon, inviting a Warp-entity into their flesh and drinking deep of the Neverborn's corrupted power, forsake their allegiance to their former warband and join the ranks of The Tormented.Since their cataclysmal inception during the defence of the corpse of Horus on the Daemon World of Maeleum after the Horus Heresy, the ranks of The Tormented have swollen and their influence grown. Each battle-brother of The Tormented has a dark reflection in the Warp, the twinned sentience of the daemon sharing the corrupted Astartes' mind.These daemons, unsurprisingly, have their own agendas and will act upon those when the opportunity arises, making the warband as a whole a rather unstable and unpredictable tool of war, yet none can deny their horrific viciousness in battle.The most powerful of the Possessed Legionaries are granted the honour of serving as Navigators on the warships of the Black Fleet, as the blasphemous mingling of Materium-and Immaterium-born minds grants a Possessed the perspective to guide a ship through the Warp with a speed and precision no other can hope to match.
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Tormented, The - Notable Campaigns: Me'kallar the Insane (899.M34) - Me'kallar the Insane was considered by Imperial scholars to be one of the most ferocious Defilers ever created. In 899.M34 it was at the forefront of a savage attempt to destroy the Blood Tigers Chapter's fortress-spire on the jungle moon of Tryjon II. A warband fleet belonging to The Tormented erupted out of the Warp in a rapid deployment. Twenty Defilers were among the spearhead on the ground, including Me'kallar the Insane. The Daemon Engine burned great swathes through the forest so that the Tormented could bring their war to the foot of the Fortress-Monastery's outer walls. While the Blood Tigers were forced to focus their efforts on the horror below, Heldrakes tormented the structure further up the fortress spire. Gunfire raged through the skies while great gouts of blood and flame soaked the humid jungle down below. Only one foe from the Warp managed to breach the armored walls, and that was Me'kallar the Insane. The Defiler wreaked havoc inside the fortress-monastery, crushing whole squads of Blood Tigers. Dreadnoughts finally reduced the Daemon Engine to smoldering wreckage, but not before it had caused significant damage. Only after Me'kallar's fall did the forces of the Tormented finally retreat into the Immaterium, and the Blood Tigers were left to count their dead.
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Tormented - Tormented: The Tormented are a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter of unknown Founding and origin. Almost nothing is known about this Chapter in Imperial records.
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Tormented - Chapter Colours: The Tormented's Chapter colours are not listed in current Imperial records.
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Tormented - Chapter Badge: The Tormented's Chapter badge is not listed in current Imperial records.
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Tormentor Cannon - Tormentor Cannon: The Tormentor Cannon is a large, long-range Warp energy weapon that is used by the Subjugator Scout Titan Daemon Engine as the creature's primary ranged weapon.The Slaanesh Subjugator is a large Daemon Engine that is completely dedicated to the service of Slaanesh, the Chaos God of pleasure and excess.As befitting the Dark Prince of Pain and Pleasure, the Tormentor Cannon is a psychically-charged Warp energy cannon that kills the Subjugator's victims with unbearable agony, leaving a trail of charred wrecks and ashen corpses wherever it is fired.The Tormentor Cannon is used in pairs by the Slaanesh Subjugator Scout Titan, one mounted atop the machine's scorpion-like tail, and the other mounted dorsally along the daemonic war machine's back.It is unknown if the Tormentor Cannon is used by any other Chaos war machines or Daemon Engines.
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Tormentor Helm - Tormentor Helm: The Tormentor Helm is a type of helmet worn by the mercenary warriors of the Drukhari Incubi.Tormentor Helms are easily recognisable by the scorpion tail-shaped firearm protruding from the top of the helmet. This weapon is a miniaturised Splinter Pistol, allowing the Incubus a ranged attack, as well as allowing for increased ability in their favoured melee combat.While the Tormentor Helm's firearm functions the same as a normal Aeldari Splinter Pistol, the method with which the gun is fired has been replaced by a neural sensor embedded in the helmet. This sensor monitors the thoughts of the user, and triggers the firing of the weapon once the command is thought.This mechanism allows for the completely hands-free operation of the Incubus' firearm, a necessary requirement due to the sect's focus on close combat with their infamous great weapons like Klaives and the halberd-like Punishers.
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Tormentors - Tormentors: The Tormentors is a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter of unknown Founding and origin.
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Tormentors - Chapter Colours: The Tormentors' Chapter colours are not listed in current Imperial records.
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Tormentors - Chapter Badge: The Tormentors' Chapter badge is not listed in current Imperial records.
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Torquemada Coteaz - Torquemada Coteaz: Torquemada Coteaz is a Puritan Inquisitor Lord and psyker of the Ordo Malleus who gained his reputation for being a fearsome Daemonhunter through solar decades of action against the forces of Chaos. He is now known as the High Protector of the Formosa Sector.With his power and popularity, he is served by literally thousands of Acolytes and Throne Agents, and he arms himself with rare weapons and wargear like his Anointed Daemonhammer, Artificer Armour, a twin-headed Glovodan Psyber-eagle familiar, and various potent relics of the Inquisition.
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Torquemada Coteaz - Origins: Torquemada Coteaz has ever been driven by a single consuming passion: to destroy Daemons wheresoever they manifest. Unlike many of his fellow Inquisitors of the Ordo Malleus who pursue the Radical path, Coteaz always refused to contemplate harnessing the power of the Warp for his own ends, and aggressively prosecuted those who lacked his purity. So perished Coteaz's mentor, Inquisitor Lord Laredian, an old man executed at his own student's hand for dabbling in forbidden arts.He became infamous for this betrayal of his former master. During one of the Inquisitorial conclaves on the planet Varoth, Coteaz's erstwhile mentor, Inquisitor Lord Laredian, presented a Warp-tainted crystal to the conclave, which he claimed was a potential useful item to track and root out other, similarly-tainted items. He hoped to harness similar Chaos relics in the name of Mankind, and pleaded for the Ordo Malleus to study the artefact. As Laredian finished his plea, Coteaz stood up, and brought down his Daemonhammer on the crystal, shattering it utterly while levelling an accusation of Extremis Diabolus against Laredian, denouncing him as a blasphemer and trafficker with abominations.The conclave erupted and castigated Coteaz for his disrespect of proper protocol, but the unfazed Coteaz merely produced a small hourglass, and stated he would prove his accusation in only the time necessary for the small device to empty. Coteaz proceeded to bring to light multiple occasions where Laredian had used Daemonhosts or other Warp magicks in order to fight the Archenemy.Coteaz ended his demonstration of guilt by executing the Heretic himself on the spot. This decisive act, combined with his absolute intransigence against using anything ever touched by the Archenemy, ensured that Coteaz was promoted to the rank of Inquisitor Lord himself to fill the place of the man he had just executed by the shocked conclave.After Laredian's death, Coteaz assumed his responsibilities as High Protector of the Formosa Sector. Through alliance, coercion and outright intimidation, Coteaz formed a spy network of contacts, henchmen and infiltrators throughout the sector's inhabited worlds. Not for Coteaz is the way of the Inquisitorial Mandate, of requisitioning Imperial troops when need presents itself; instead, he sought to build an army of his own, ever at his beck and call.As its High Protector, Coteaz has thousands of followers in the Formosa Sector, of many different dispositions. His base of operations is the Inquisitorial fortress of Nemesis Tessera. It is not known how many of the Formosa Sector's Planetary Defence Forces are as much Coteaz's sworn men as they are those of their commanders. Or how many hive city gangs act under Coteaz's control, given license to pursue their own petty activities so long as they act as his eyes. People disappear easily in Formosa, and its citizens know better than to inquire.At first glance, Coteaz's stranglehold on the sector would seem merely another cautionary tale concerning the temptations of absolute power, yet he does not seek to rule, and the sector's planetary governors are left to oversee their duties largely without oversight or interference.Coteaz's network of informants exists only to provide warning of any threat overtaking Formosa. It is a most efficient form of protection; after all, in a sector where any gathering of three citizens contains at least two of Coteaz's informants, it is nearly impossible for a Traitor to gather a following. Thus has Coteaz's domain prospered in an age when the Imperium is increasingly brought to ruin by the enemy within.Few other men could hope to replicate this success, for Coteaz is a man consumed by his chosen task. He seldom sleeps, and spends every waking hour sifting through reports delivered by his faithful Glovodan Psyber-eagle, or personally leading his forces against Daemons, Heretics or xenos foolish enough to trespass on his realm.Lately, Coteaz has cast his pall of influence over worlds bordering the Formosa Sector, bringing yet more planets under his protection. Yet even as his borders expand, Coteaz's worries grow. He is now an old man, and like all old men he fears leaving his work undone without a successor to continue it; of all the many Acolytes Coteaz has cultivated, none have had the necessary drive or strength of will. Thusly, Coteaz has begun a search for forgotten fragments of cloning lore and alien rejuvenation technology, any means of extending his life, or rather, any means bar one.Coteaz knows that the boon he seeks could easily be granted by a Daemon, should he summon and bind it according to the proper rituals. Part of him longs to embrace this small evil, that it may firm up the foundations of his righteous work. It is a temptation that grows stronger with every passing solar day, but one that Coteaz has stalwartly resisted, at least so far.
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Torquemada Coteaz - Deeds of Coteaz: Inquisitor Lord Coteaz's career is long and filled with incident. Most notable amongst his many persecutions of the Daemon and the Heretic are the following: the extermination of the Xethorites during the Lorgamar Rebellions (for which Coteaz was later known as the "Scourge of the Xethorites"); the purging of the Medarean Nebula; the cleansing of the hive cities of Opridia of the taint of the Plaguelord Nurgle (known as the Great Cleansing of 972.M41), and the destruction of the Daemon-engineers of Forge World Glovoda, for which the Adeptus Mechanicus gifted him the Glovodan Eagle, a twin-headed psyber-eagle, to serve as his familiar.During the Cleansing of Opridia in 972.M41 Coteaz cast out Daemons from a million Daemonhosts and killed the Daemon Prince Karpathi the Occludor with the aid of the Exorcists Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes. In this conflict he used a Chimera of Inquisitorial Storm Troopers, which was enscribed with a line from the Exorcism Deus Abominatus.During the 13th Black Crusade in ca. 999.M41, Coteaz led multiple strike forces of Grey Knights against Daemon outbreaks in the Agripinaa Sector as well as on Kasr Holn and Xersia.After the birth of the Great Rift in the Era Indomitus, during the Indomitus Crusade Coteaz received a mysterious message from the Craftworld Aeldari about the threat posed by the Arks of Omen now in the possession of Abaddon the Despoiler as a result of his alliance with the Daemon Vashtorr. Though Coteaz did not trust the xenos due to their well-known reputation for duplicity, Coteaz nonetheless began to investigate the recent Chaos invasions that had made use of the Arks of Omen and try to piece together the truth of the matter.
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Torquemada Coteaz - Wargear: Artificer Armour - Coteaz has a specially-adapted suit of Adeptus Astartes Artificer Armour that has been specially crafted and modified to be worn by an unaugmented Human of normal stature who lacks the Black Carapace. It also incorporates a defensive refractor field.Bolt PistolMaster-crafted Nemesis Daemonhammer - Coteaz is one of the few Inquisitors to wield an anointed Daemonhammer, blessed by the Holy Order of the Sacred Thorn, a devotional order of the Formosa Sector and coated in sacred oils inimical to Daemons. Its power is anathema to Daemons, beyond that of even a normal Daemonhammer.Glovodan Psyber-Eagle - Coteaz is accompanied by a Glovodan Psyber-Eagle Familiar, a gift from the Adeptus Mechanicus for ridding the Forge World of Glovada of Daemonic taint. Through it, Coteaz can channel his potent psychic energies. Such is the link between it and its master that Coteaz can tap into its senses and achieve greater awareness of his surroundings.Frag GrenadesKrak GrenadesPsyk-Out Grenades
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Torquemada Coteaz - Notable Associates: Interrogator DuGrae (KIA) - Interrogator DuGrae was a former Thunderbolt-pilot of great talent who participated in the Third War for Armageddon against the Orks of Warboss Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka. Obtaining ace status against the flying heaps of junk that pass as aircraft amongst the Orks, DuGrae was noticed by Torquemada Coteaz, who made her part of his retinue as an Acolyte. Quickly rising through thne ranks of the Inquisition, the trusted acolyte was soon granted Interrogator-status and permanently despatched to the Conclave of Encaladus in the Sol System. DuGrae's skills as a fighter-pilot were put to good use as a messenger in service of the Ordo Malleus, delivering sensitive messages that were deemed too sensible to be misinterpreted or too dangerous to be sent by astropath. To ensure total security of these messages, Interrogator DuGrae had received multiple cortical cybernetic enhancements to ensure that she had no knowledge of the message she conveyed and that would fry her brain instantly if anyone tried to pry her mind open by psychic means. To complete her missions, DuGrae was granted command of a swift, Warp-capable messenger ship, a nimble and agile vessel that handled almost like a fighter and which was merely crewed by herself and her Navigator. Interrogator DuGrae was killed on a mission to the Trail of Saint Evisser.
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Torsion Cannon - Torsion Cannon: The tri-sectional barrel of the Torsion Cannon is amongst the holiest of Mars' weapon technologies. When energised, it sends out three synchronous graviton gaol-fields that hold sections of the target in place.As the sections of the cannon's barrel turn counter to one another, the matter grasped in the gravitic fields is mercilessly twisted, subjected to an impossible torque that rips, buckles and ruins alien monstrosities and enemy war engines alike.It is normally deployed on the Kataphron Breacher Battle Servitors of the Adeptus Mechanicus' military forces.
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Torture-class Cruiser - Torture-class Cruiser: The Dark Eldar Torture-class Cruiser is the larger of the two primary types of spacecraft that commonly comprise Dark Eldar fleets. As with all Eldar vessels, the Torture-class is frequently confused with other craft, yet Torture-class Cruisers show a wide variety of armaments, including weapons batteries, torpedo tubes, Phantom Lances, Impaler Assault Modules, and launch bays for Dark Eldar Attack Craft. Many are also equipped with Mimic Engines, and all are protected by Shadow Fields and have as much speed and manoeuvreability as Escort-sized spacecraft.Outwardly, the Torture-class shares many characteristics with the Eldar Shadow- and Eclipse-class Cruisers, leading to many cases of mistaken identity and even the experts of the Imperial Navy's Fleet Institute of Alien Studies mistakenly classified the Torture-class as a variant of those vessels. Some accounts do indeed seem to indicate that Torture-class starships are some sort of amalgam of these Eldar starship classes, while other encounters reveal characteristics so divergent in both configuration and armament that it only becomes more difficult to properly classify these vessels. Accounts of Eldar vessels of slightly differing configurations attacking one another adds even more confusion to Imperial attempts to clarify the truth.Whatever the case may be, the Dark Eldar use these apparent similarities to their advantage, and at least thirty attacks upon Imperial targets previously attributed to Eldar craft are thought to actually have been committed by Dark Eldar vessels. One notable instance came in the form of an attack on the Imperial monitoring station Adecca, where three hundred technicians were captured and then hurled from attack craft making low orbit runs over the planet Bladen in an unsuccessful attempt to invite Imperial retribution upon the wrong party.All these similarities are only skin-deep, however. Unlike their Eldar cousins of the Craftworlds, the Dark Eldar care little for practicality or aesthetics in their starship design. Instead, the Dark Eldar create their starships to be as horrifying and destructive as possible, designed purely for sating their perverse lust for brutality. Ships often bear corridor upon corridor of torture chambers and "arboretums" filled not with trees, but with bloody rows of still-living impaled victims whose life is slowly sucked out by the void.
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Torture-class Cruiser - Dimensions: Hull - Varies; 4.2 kilometres long approx., 1.3 kilometres approx. abeam.Class - Torture-class Cruiser.Mass - Approximately 18 megatonnes .Crew - Unknown.Acceleration - 8 gravities max sustainable acceleration
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Torture-class Cruiser - Sources: Battlefleet Gothic Armada, pg. 56Rogue Trader: The Soul Reaver (RPG) pg. 137
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Tower of Hegemon - Tower of Hegemon: The Tower of Hegemon is a tower located deep within the Inner Palace of the Imperial Palace on Terra that served as the operations command centre for the Adeptus Custodes in carrying out their duties for security within the Palace complex.The Tower of Hegemon houses many datafeeds and surveillance systems that allows it to oversee nearly all traffic within the nation-sized Imperial Palace complex which stretches across Terra's Himalazian (Himalayan) Mountains.Within the tower lies the "Watchroom" -- the nerve-centre for security operations for the Adeptus Custodes and the Imperial Palace complex. The central cogitation consoles stream constant divergent data elements and run comparison/contrast programs. The Watchroom's codifier assembly trawls and pans the global data sea and the Unified Biometric Verification System, grouping together reams of disparate elements, making connections and following traces.With this elaborate security system set in place, every day, a billion clues and a million secrets are analysed and examined by the Custodes watch, sifted with acute, painstaking precision through the ever-shifting, fluid levels of Terra's information sphere for any internal threats to the Emperor's personal security. Every sixty solar minutes, the Watchroom prioritises a dozen of the most sensitive findings for special attention.An adjacent fortified building that serves as an annex of the Tower of Hegemon is known as the "Blackstone Prison," and is built from the eponymous ebony stone of noctilith mined from Cadia. The anti-psychic properties of the tower's negatively-charged material allowed it to be used as a prison for dangerous captured rogue psykers and prevents them from using their powers.The Tower of Hegemon is primarily manned by the serfs of the Adeptus Custodes, proud, unaugmented Humans who wore the bones of their ancestors upon their person in homage to their sacred duty. They served in their positions for life, and upon death their offspring would add their remains to those of their forebears.Following the fall of the Bhab Bastion during the Siege of Terra, the Tower of Hegemon briefly became the acting command centre for the small numbers of remaining Loyalists engaged in the final defence of the Inner Palace.
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Tower of Skulls - Tower of Skulls: The Tower of Skulls is a massive Daemon Engine used by the forces of Chaos that is dedicated to the service of the Chaos God of war and bloodshed, Khorne.The Tower of Skulls is hammered out of arcane Warp-forged brass and black iron at the very foot of the Blood God's mighty throne located within the Realm of Chaos and infused with the essence of countless damned souls.Each and every Tower of Skulls is the equivalent of a small and terrible army in its own right. There are sixty-four Towers of Skulls, each one named for an aspect of Khorne's beloved bloodletting.Legend tells that they roam the great arid wastes before the Blood God's citadel, unleashing their bellowing cannons to reap enemy and ally alike in Khorne's unholy name.It takes a slaughter on a truly cataclysmic scale to draw a Tower of Skulls forth into the Materium. To the worshipers of the Blood God, a Tower of Skulls' arrival is tangible proof of Khorne's favour. To the enemies of the Blood God, it is a sign that an already terrible battle is about to descend into carnage on an unimaginable scale.The only hope of victory for those facing a Tower of Skulls is to fell it in battle, yet this no simple task. Each and every soul claimed by the Tower of Skulls infuses it with unholy power, allowing the machine to reknit even the most catastrophic damage.The war engine is powered by a Warp-spawned device known as a Doomsday Engine, a form of Daemon-forged Chaos technology that generates tremendous amounts of power for a Daemon Engine by burning the souls of the victims trapped within the war machine's mass of collected skulls located within its tower.
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Tower of Skulls - Armament: The Tower of Skulls is one of the most heavily armed Daemon Engines ever encountered by the forces of the Imperium. The great and terrible war machine is armed with with an armament befitting a small army, and its gargantuan chassis and massive tower bristles with weaponry.The vehicle's main weapon is its great, forward-firing Balemaw Cannon, a ballistic weapon of extreme power.Further up the tower's height are two hull-mounted Skullreaper Cannons, large hexa-barrelled weapons. The engine is also armed with two top sponson-mounted Doomfire Cannons and two sponson-mounted twin-linked Skullshredder Cannons for anti-infantry defence.In addition to its potent firepower, the Tower of Skulls is capable of crushing infantry and vehicles with its considerable bulk and bladed hull.The Tower of Skulls normally takes advantage of its formidable armaments and armour by plunging directly into the midst of enemy formations -- blasting away with its cannons and crushing foes under its blood-smeared treads.The Tower of Skulls, like many other Khornate Daemon Engines, is inscribed with the Runes of the Blood God, granting it added defence against psychic powers, acting as a reflection of the hatred that Khorne and his followers display for those who practise such arts.
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Tower of Skulls - Known Tower of Skulls: The following is a list of all Tower of Skulls Daemon Engines known to the Inquisition:Lord of Murder - The Lord of Murder is a Tower of Skulls that has been sighted on many battlefields in the galactic southwest, namely on Chirea, Starlois V, and in the Forsalkios asteroid belt.
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Tower of Skulls - Ordo Malleus Departmento Analyticus Technical Specifications: The technical specifications of the Tower of Skulls have not yet been determined by the Ordo Malleus of the Inquisition.
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Toxiferran weapons - Toxiferran weapons: Toxiferran weapons were dangerous Psi-reactive weapons deployed by the Space Marine Legions during the events of the Horus Heresy and Great Crusade.Improvised chemical combustion mixtures were tested by the Dusk Raiders during the first Xabian War, tainting the earth under the feeding tentacles of that world's monstrosities.Most deadly among these concoctions was the Toxiferran composition. This was a highly volatile mixture of chemicals laced with horrific toxins and psi-reactive particulate matter which earned a reputation to rival even the dread phosphex and molecular acids in its destructive capacity.This mixture was later developed into bespoke weapons which were shared with the other nascent Legions, from replacements for promethium fuel tanks to the Toxiferno cannon which utilises a multichemical injection system to accelerate the combustion process, resulting in billowing clouds of scalding psi-reactive smoke.
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Toxiferran weapons - History: A vast panoply of the arcane exists within the galaxy, spread far and wide on the worlds and in the fleets of Mankind and the Outsider. Attempting to apply a classification or category based on a single shared property of all of these relics, tangible and intangible, is a nigh-on impossible task, for they are myriad in form and use. The term 'psyarkana' is used in lieu of such a classification, and is considered to be a catch-all term to refer to ill-understandable and ill-definable items or practices, often of ancient or mysterious provenance. Broadly though, psyarkana fall into two groups: techno-arcana and esoterica.Techno-arcana are usually strange relics and devices based upon what can be loosely understood to function through technological and scientific means, though rarely can these means be reproduced. Such items, be they human or xenos in origin, are recovered from lost civilisations, discovered in the darkest reaches of space or, under the rarest circumstances, created by the artifices of the Imperium. They can be potent archaeotech stamped from those STCs which survived the Age of Strife or alien artifices which predate the evolution of Mankind entirely. Esoterica, however, often refers to intangible rituals, practices and powers as found in ancient manuscripts which are not easily understood. Often these are wielded through psychic or arcane means, and are suggested to interact in some respect with the currents of the Warp, though this is not confirmed to be true in all cases. Whatever the truth behind such arcane articles, all produce effects contrary to our grasp of the order of nature.Many arcane technologies and strange devices were recovered during the Great Crusade, both relics of Mankind's lost endeavours from the Dark Age of Technology and the product of alien minds and cultures now lost to history. Of these relics few now remain, most were destroyed by the Legiones Astartes as they advanced across the galaxy, deemed too dangerous or profane to remain in human hands. However, some yet survive, either taken as trophies or consigned to the vaults of the Legions or the laboratories of the Mechanicum. In particular, the Iron Hands and their master, Ferrus Manus, proved prolific in their acquisition and subsequent interment of powerful and dangerous relics, a number of which would reemerge after their keeper's death.During the Horus Heresy, desperation led many to wield psyarkana they little understood or could scarcely control. Those organisations previously forbidden from making use of dangerous techno-arcana, particularly amongst the Mechanicum and Iron Hands Legion, would continue to covet these strange technologies. Those who had once searched for proscribed esoterica, experimenting with their knowledge in secret would go on to openly embrace it. Many would wage their own campaigns contrary to the orders of both the Warmaster and the Emperor to take possession of psyarkana at the height of the Age of Darkness. The use of these psyarkana relics carried with it the risk of terrible consequence, or else irrevocably tainted the user. Regardless, such rituals and devices were sought after by every faction of the Horus Heresy and frequently changed ownership; pried from the lifeless hands of the vanquished.
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Toxin Grenade - Toxin Grenade: A Toxin Grenade is a type of grenade used by both the military forces of the Imperium and the forces of Chaos that emits a lethal cloud of chemical gas that can be absorbed via the skin or when breathed in. Highly poisonous, Toxin Grenade gas is essentially fatal to most forms of organic life, though it has no effect on the bioforms of the Tyranids. Toxin Grenades are a favoured weapon of the Death Guard Traitor Legion.
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Toxin Injector - Toxin Injector: A Toxin Injector is a device used by Genestealer Cult Primuses. The tubes of a toxin injector coat a Primus' claws in deadly poisons -- a mere scratch from such a talon can quickly prove fatal.
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Trail of Saint Evisser - Trail of Saint Evisser: Located on the western edge of the Segmentum Solar, the Trail of Saint Evisser is a deeply neglected part of Imperial space, a frontier realm that has been all but forgotten by the wider Imperium. The Trail itself consists of a loose collection of star systems, which were visited in ancient times by the pilgrimage of one of the Ecclesiarchy's most obscure Saints, an individual known under the name of Kelkannis Evisser.The Trail's official status remains somewhat of a mystery, as it does not count enough worlds to warrant the status of a Sector Imperialis and yet is not listed as a Sub-sector. Its days of glory long gone, the Trail of Saint Evisser has fallen in a deep state of neglect, which has lasted for several thousand standard years and which has left the Trail a mere shadow of its former self.More recently, during the 13th Black Crusade of Abaddon the Despoiler, the Trail came under investigation by both the Grey Knights Chapter and the Inquisition. Led by the notorious Alaric, then a mere Justicar, this investigation uncovered a series of interlinked Chaos Cults dedicated to bringing the Greater Daemon Ghargatuloth, the Prince of a Thousand Faces, one of the most powerful lieutenants of the Chaos God Tzeentch into the material realm.
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Trail of Saint Evisser - History: The Trail of Saint Evisser spans a dozen inhabited star systems, winding its way around nebulae and asteroid fields and marking the lengthy pilgrimage of Saint Evisser. Little is known of the Trail's history and historical data before the Age of Apostasy is at best unreliable or at worst entirely absent. For all intents and purposes, the Trail had no real existence before the famed pilgrimage of Saint Evisser, which marked the beginning of the Trail's golden age. Born on the backwater world of Sophano Secundus, the tale of the future Saint Evisser began on Solshen XIX, a planet then only recently colonised and designated as an Agri-world. Kelkannis Evisser was a simple novice Adept of the Administratum, who toiled for most of his life in the small Administratum office on Solshen XIX until the planet was ravaged by an Ork WAAAGH! that killed most of its population.Virtually left as the lone survivor of a massacred world, the Administratum saw nothing special in Kelkannis, just a simple Adept to be reassigned elsewhere while the settlement on Solshen XIX was rebuilt. Many tales and mythologies have sprung into life around such individuals. To some they were portents of doom, men and women that had used up all their luck and that of those around them, figures to be shunned, for disaster would surely come in their wake. But for others they were lucky charms, protected by the Emperor's grace.Seeing the touch of the Emperor's Hand in his own survival, Kelkannis Evisser refused to be drawn back into the wheels of the vast machinery that was the Administratum. The fact that he succeeded made him special. Evisser was a nobody, and it was this single fact that made him immensely popular, for it showed the countless billions of Imperial citizens that even the lowliest of them could be touched by the Emperor, that He had a plan for them. Evisser saw it as his duty to remind the Imperium of this simple truth. Many thought him mad, but Evisser was careful to prove them wrong. Evisser was more than a simple messiah, he was hope itself, hope that even the single life of a humble man or woman was ordained by the Emperor and could have a part in the Emperor's grand plan for humanity.The populace of entire worlds called for Evisser to visit them, and every visit drew larger crowds to him. Both Planetary Governors and the Adeptus Arbites were powerless to disperse these crowds, and soon the simple folk began to talk of future Sainthood. When a virulent and unknown plague befell one of Treyptos' port hives, Evisser went into the heart of the quarantine zone and for six entire solar months, he prayed for those sick and abandoned citizens, easing their passing without contracting the disease. On the great Forge World of Magnos Omicron, the world's mutant slave-caste had risen up in arms to overthrow the Imperial yoke and threatened to take over the planet. Evisser walked unharmed through the firefight and upon meeting with the rebellion's leaders convinced them to lay down their arms and voluntarily return to work. These and many other deeds became Evisser's first miracles.Evisser's presence also affected the Warp itself, calming the tumultuous seas of the Immaterium and easing the passage of those starships that followed his pilgrimage. Wherever Evisser went, more miracles occurred. According to legend, the moment Saint Evisser set foot on Farfallen -- on the very same spot where the great Hall of Remembrance would be built -- every flower on the world suddenly blossomed. The voyages of Saint Evisser would last for many Terran decades and ultimately forge the Trail, from the dark towers and subterranean geothermal forges of Magnos Omicron, to the great oceans of Solshen XIX, the fertile fields of Vitrix Sorona and the great fortresses of Treyptos. In the wake of Saint Evisser’s pilgrimage, the Trail became a centerpiece of the Imperial Cult, worlds building gold-domed cathedrals, countless chapels and great museums in his honour. Yet, Kelkannis Evisser was never officially canonised by the Ecclesiarchy. The title of Saint that had been awarded to Evisser had been attributed by popular acclaim, but never fully recognized by Imperial authorities.So it came to pass that when Evisser eventually died, the Adeptus Ministorum secretly buried Evisser on Volcanis Ultor where he rested for thousands of standard years. Benefitting from the relative proximity to the Ecclesiarchy's powerhouses of Gathalamor and Chiros, the Trail became a shining beacon of faith, allegedly only surpassed by the relic-trail established by the legendary Sebastian Thor himself. Every settled world harboured cathedrals or shrines dedicated to the veneration of the God-Emperor. Each world competed in works of devotion until the festivals of the Adeptus Ministorum became week-long celebrations with processions that snaked around entire continents, but this golden age could not last eternally.By the time the Rubicon, a Strike Cruiser of the Grey Knights Chapter entered the region, the Trail of Saint Evisser was in a state of deep neglect. The signs of this neglect were many. For instance, the former Paradise World of Farfallen was by now overrun by deep forests, as were many of the Trail's Agri-worlds. The hive cities which had haboured the uncounted millions of the Trail's population were likewise deserted and now stood almost empty. It is estimated that by the 41st Millennium, the population of those worlds which comprised the Trail had decreased by 75%. The religious fervor which had once brought prosperity to its worlds had finally burned low, and even the name of Saint Evisser was now almost forgotten.
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Trail of Saint Evisser - Notable Planets: Farfallen - In the Trails' days of glory, Farfallen was a Pleasure World famed for its beauty, a lush garden where many of the Trail's most influential people held secondary residences and palaces. As well as the most powerful officials of the Ecclesiarchy, many ruling noble houses had estates on Farfallen, the planet being used as a preferred hunting retreat where game was imported from all across the Imperium to please the desires of its wealthy patrons. It was also during this golden age that the Adeptus Ministorum erected the gigantic Hall of Remembrance to serve as the Trail's most extensive archive and repository of knowledge, especially in religious matters. Farfallen has perhaps fared the worst since the wane of the Trail's influence. With the economic decline, all patrons either abandoned or sold their luxurious mansions and estates, while the exodus in local population meant that Farfallen's carefully maintained gardens were soon overrun by wilderness. The exotic and often dangerous imported species of game and predators present on the world now roamed wild and established a new ecosystem. Farfallen's inhabitants proved too few in numbers to effectively hunt them down. By the dawn of the 41st Millennium, Farfallen had almost become a Feral World, with only the Hall of Remembrance standing defiantly amongst the thick forest that now covered the former Garden World. Unknown to Imperial authorities, a new and highly aggressive indigenous population had grown strong in the dark forests. Obviously tainted in some way by Chaos, these savage tribes massacred Farfallen's remaining population and laid siege to the Hall of Remembrance, hurling boulders at the great building with primitive siege-engines of timber and cord. With all contact lost and no Imperial forces to spare, it is generally believed that Farfallen has fallen under the sway of these barbaric heathens.Magnos Omicron - The only Forge World located on the Trail of Saint Evisser, the world of Magnos Omicron is an island of prosperity and industry in a much neglected landscape. Being entirely independent from the influence of the Adeptus Ministorum, or indeed the Adeptus Terra, the Forge World's fortune has continued to grow, its industrial output considered far too valuable a resource to let it decline. Magnos Omicron's output includes ammunition, weapons and armoured vehicles for the Imperial Guard, which are always needed in greater quantities. As an independent domain of the Adeptus Mechanicus, information regarding Magnos Omicron is scarce within Imperial archives, yet it would seem that the Forge World was also affected by the machinations of the Daemon Prince Ghargatuloth that roughly occurred at the same time as the 13th Black Crusade. An unknown prophet mysteriously appeared on the Forge World at the same time as the Grey Knights deployed to Sophano Secundus, claiming that the Mechanicum should turn its back on the veneration of the Omnissiah and the rigid dogma it perpetuated to embrace innovation. In short order, three forge-fanes of the world followed this highly heretical new doctrine, causing Magnos Omicron to descend into civil war. The Inquisition has confirmed several cases of infighting within the Omicran Magi but their impact seems not to have been enough to endanger Imperial control. The subsequent reduction in productivity, however, had far-stretching repercussions on ongoing Imperial wars.SalthenSolshen XIX - Solshen XIX is both an Ocean World and one of the Trail's most important Agri-worlds. In the distant past, before even the rise of Saint Evisser, Solshen XIX was invaded by Orks who butchered almost the entirety of the planet's population. In the wake of this invasion, Solshen XIX was repopulated with colonists drawn from elsewhere within the Imperium. The Agri-world had fared better than most planets invaded by Greenskins, but quickly fell to Chaos when an unknown Chaos Cult led by the Planetary Governor's own son overthrew the local government. The Governor was hanged on the cliffs above his villa by a noose made of his own flesh while the cult summoned forth daemons and soon the entire planet was deemed lost. The loss of Solshen XIX's agricultural output also meant that thousands of inhabitants of the Trail's hive cities were condemned to starve to death.Sophano Secundus - Sophano Secundus is a Feudal World located on the Trail of Saint Evisser. Discovered so long ago that no archive contains the world's entire history under Imperial rule, human civilisation on this drab and barren world resolves itself around a few feudal kingdoms that formed on Sophano Secundus' only habitable continent. Apparently, the Missionaria Galaxia has maintained a presence on Sophano Secundus since the late days of the Great Crusade, when the Emperor was already worshipped as a god, which was the only reason why there were any records at all of this remote world. Somehow overlooked by the Administratum, no colonisation effort was made to further civilise Sophano Secundus, and thus the planet remained in the custody of the Adeptus Ministorum, which kept only a small mission on the world. Given the native population's reluctance to accept new technologies, Sophano Secundus was deliberately kept at the level of a Feudal World, ruled over by a selected nobleman who took the title of Allking and held court in the planetary capital of Hadjisheim. Official records indicate that the Adeptus Ministorum deemed the faith of Sophano Secundus' people stable, but the Imperial Creed had failed to totally evict the heretical practice of ancestor worship. Yet even this was revealed to be a lie when the acting Allking Rashema the Stout tried to murder Inquisitrice Ligeia, who had come to Sophano Secundus to investigate the presence of a dangerous daemon, Ghargatuloth, the Prince of a Thousand Faces. However, not only the Allking himself, but also his entire army as well as the Missionary Polonias –- who proved to be a powerful Chaos Sorcerer –- had been entirely corrupted by Chaos. This scale of corruption warranted a swift counterattack, and so the Grey Knights deployed to the surface. Ambushed by the Allking's army, the Grey Knights had to fight their way clear, Grey Knights Terminators charging and defeating Tharr-mounted cavalry. In the end, mere numbers could not hope to stand against the vastly superior firepower of the Grey Knights, their Power Armour and Terminator Armour proving almost impervious to the Secundian weapons. Slaughtering their way into Hadjisheim, Alaric and his Battle-Brothers confronted Missionary Polonias and the daemons he had summoned, while Ligeia's Death Cultists slew the Allking and his mutant bodyguards. The thorough corruption of Sophano Secundus was inexplicable, until it became evident that Polonias was in fact Crucien, the original Missionary who had settled on Sophano Secundus in the 30th Millennium and corrupted it to the service of Chaos from the very beginning. This meant that Ghargatuloth had laid the foundations of his plan ten thousand standard years before, before he was even banished by Grand Master Mandulis. The purge of Sophano Secundus marked the beginning of a period of turmoil that soon engulfed the entire Trail of Saint Evisser. Chaos Cults affiliated with the Prince of a Thousand Faces unleashed their wrath simultaneously on almost every world of the Trail, heralding Ghargatuloth's rebirth. Sophano Secundus was subsequently purged by local troops and Hadjisheim destroyed by orbital bombardment.Treyptos - The Civilised World of Treyptos has always been the ancestral seat of power within the Trail of Saint Evisser. At the height of its might, Treyptos had been an exclusive Fortress World, reserved for the wealthy and mighty of the Trail's aristocracy. It was then no surprise that the Inquisitorial Representative on the Trail would choose Treyptos as its principal base of operations to watch over the ranks of the Imperial Navy, the Imperial Guard and the Ecclesiarchy. The Trail's decline hit Treyptos hard, as the fortified suburbs were gradually abandoned until the only site of activity was the Inquisitorial Fortress in the hands of the Ordo Hereticus. The keep took the form of an impressive granite fortress whose thick battlements hid planetary Defence Lasers and orbital missile bays, but even there the signs of abandon and neglect were many: large parts of the fortress had been left to decay, especially the fortress' archives, which gradually succumbed to rot and humidity. In the 41st Millennium, a single Inquisitor, Lamerrian Klaes, still held court on Treyptos, his agents spread across the Trail, but even the fortress' staff had gradually dwindled. The fortress' infrastructure was also beginning to crumble, Cogitators breaking down and lumen globes burning out. However, in the wake of the events on Volcanis Ultor, it is quite possible that the Inquisitorial Fortress may be restored to its former glory.Villendion (Agri-World)Vitrix Sorona - Located within the Vitrix System, Vitrix Sorona was once a prosperous Agri-world until the Trail's decay set in. Crime soon flourished on Vitrix Sorona, and the Arbites gradually had to relinquish control of the entire planet to focus their efforts on the Imperium's most valuable possessions. In itself this evolution was utterly unremarkable, until Vitrix Sorona came under closer scrutiny by the Inquisition in the wake of a Chaos-related insurrection within the city of Theograd, Vitrix Sorona' second largest settlement. While the insurrectionists had already been trapped within Theograd's Administratum complex by the local Adeptus Arbites, the Arbites were lucky to receive off-world reinforcements in the form of the Grey Knights of Acting Captain Alaric. Storming the building and having to confront Tzeentchian daemons, the Grey Knights discovered that the insurrectionists were in fact a full-fledged Chaos Cult. Worse yet, by their attire, the cultists had obviously once been Administratum clerks. Further investigations would confirm that the Cult's activities stretched back several decades, having used its hold on Vitrix Sorona's criminal elements to loot places of worship and steal Imperial relics. The Cult had even conducted murders and harvested body parts from their victims, but their actions had appeared too random to make for a comprehensible plot until the involvement of Inquisitrice Ligea, who was able to confirm Ghargatuloth's influence on the Cult.Volcanis Ultor - Volcanis Ultor was once the Trail's most prominent Hive World, second in authority only to Treyptos. While nominally independent, the Adeptus Ministorum has always shown much interest in this world and effectively ruled it as part of its domains. Since the rediscovery of its existence, many scholars have suggested that the Ecclesiarchy's interest may be traced back to the burial of Saint Evisser on Volcanis Ultor. However, since the Trail's decline, Volcanis Ultor's fortunes have waned. By the 41st Millennium, Volcanis Ultor was a strange mix of abandoned and overcrowded hive cities, the remaining inhabitants huddling together for security. In the wake of the destruction of Sophano Secundus, a hidden sect took control of Hive Tertius' geothermal heatsinks and overloaded them, engulfing many of the hive's underlevels in nuclear fire. This act of open aggression motivated Cardinal Recoba, an esteemed figure within the Trail's clergy, to declare the Planetary Governor, Livrianis, unfit to rule and seize power for himself. Calling for reinforcement, the Ecclesiarchy acted with atypical rapidity, despatching a Preceptory of Sisters of Battle from the Order of the Bloody Rose to Volcanis Ultor as well as rerouting two entire regiments of Imperial Guardsmen –- the Methalor 12th Scout Regiment and the Balurian Heavy Infantry -- to reinforce the struggling Hive World. For the most part, these reinforcements were deployed in defence of Hive Superior, although some forces were also detached to contain the civil unrest within Hive Tertius, where some popular messianic movement had taken over many of the hive's lower levels. Unfortunately for the Imperium, the Cardinal would let himself be duped by the Renegade Inquisitor Gholic Ren-Sar Valinov. Following Valinov's counsel, Recoba deployed his best troops and the bulk of Volcanis Ultor's Planetary Defence Forces on the shore of Lake Rapax, which also was the burial site of Saint Evisser. Ghargatuloth would need to possess the Saint's body to enter the material realm. Unable to prevent the mighty daemon's rebirth, the Grey Knights under Acting Captain Alaric succeeded in banishing the daemon back to the Immaterium through great sacrifice, thus thwarting Ghargatuloth's plans to open a second front for Chaos at the rear of the Cadian Gate.
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Traitor's Bane - Traitor's Bane: Traitor's Bane is a potent master-crafted two-handed Force Sword wielded by the Dark Angels Chapter's Grand Master of Librarians, Ezekiel, in battle. Radiating fell power, this sword was made to slay those who dared turn their back on the Emperor. Phased crystalline patterns along the force sword's blade coil iridescent psychic energy around it like a snake.This fell blade is rumoured to possess the trapped spirits of those Fallen Angels it has slain in battle. The rage of those betrayed is bound within this blade and, from the shrieks emitted by the traitors slain by it, their end is painful indeed. It is said that the blade grows darker in aspect, the shadows drawing in around it, whenever one of the Fallen are near.
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Traitor General (Novel) - Traitor General (Novel): Traitor General is the eighth volume in the Gaunt's Ghosts series of novels by Dan Abnett.
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Traitor General (Novel) - Synopsis: An Imperial General has defected to the enemy, and the secrets he carries could spell the end of the Sabbat Worlds Crusade. Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt and a small team from the Tanith First-and-Only must infiltrate an enemy-held world and gain the trust of the local underground, all the while trying desperately to avoid the ever-present taint of Chaos. Their mission: to stop the Traitor general from revealing his secrets -- by any means necessary.
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Traitor Titan Legions - Traitor Titan Legions: The Traitor Titan Legions are those Legios of the Collegia Titanica that repudiated their oaths of loyalty to the Emperor of Mankind and willingly embraced the fickle blessing of the Chaos Gods.Driven by hatred towards the False Emperor and the Adeptus Mechanicus, these towering, warped monstrosities are now an horror to behold, possessing immense firepower that can only be matched by their Loyalist counterparts, and an insanity that allows them to happily partake in indiscriminate slaughter.They are now counted as a part of the Dark Mechanicum, and those Hereteks maintain these terror-inspiring war machines and offer their aid to various Chaos Lords, Chaos Sorcerers and Daemon Princes in exchange for slaves, souls, raw materiel and other services.The Traitor Titans are often warped and mutated beyond recognition, their once-noble and resplendent figures, revered for their connection to the Machine God's divinity, turned into a cruel, menacing mockery of their former selves. Now they are entirely corrupted, their forms twisted by the powers of the Warp, their Machine Spirits replaced by possessing Daemons and their crews' minds driven to madness by endless torment -- traits that only serve to mold them into even more fearsome adversaries.The Adeptus Mechanicus harbour a deep-seated hatred of the Traitor Titans, particularly of their crews, as their actions have damned the once-divine god-engines, something that the Tech-priests hold as a great sacrilege. This enmity is entirely mutual, as the loathing the Traitor Titans have for the Mechanicus of Mars and the Collegia Titanica may very well exceed the rancour felt towards the Emperor Himself.
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Traitor Titan Legions - History: Most of the Traitor Titan Legions turned to Chaos during the Horus Heresy, when Titan elements attached to the Great Crusade expeditionary fleets of the Space Marine Legions decided to support the Warmaster's cause by virtue of their devotion to Horus and their commanding primarchs, and because of their fading loyalty towards the distant Emperor.Other Legios supported the Heresy on Mars due to their affiliation with the subversive schemes of the Fabricator-General Kelbor-Hal and the Dark Mechanicum, who were increasingly ambivalent towards the Imperium and the unfulfilled provisions of the Treaty of Mars.Not all these seditions, however, occurred as a direct result of Horus' ferment, as Titan Legions are known to have fallen to Chaos long after the Horus Heresy ended. Regardless of the reasons for betrayal, each and every time a Titan Legio or individual Titan has been lost to the Ruinous Powers, it represents a distinct threat to the Imperium, as well as a stain on the Collegia Titanica's honour. And this is a stain that can only be washed away by the blood of the Traitors.
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Traitor Titan Legions - Horus Heresy: At the height of the Great Crusade in the early 31st Millennium, the Warmaster Horus came under the sway of the Ruinous Powers and began to plan his betrayal of the Emperor. When the first fratricidal shots were fired, those members of the Collegia Titanica that would become known as the Traitor Titan Legions had already chosen their sides and eagerly engaged in the internecine conflict that would change the galaxy and shape the Imperium for millennia to come.The Traitor Titans aided Horus' forces from the beginning of the revolt against the Emperor, most notably the infamous Legio Mortis which had battled the Traitor Legions' remaining Loyalist Astartes during the Battle of Isstvan III following the virus-bombing of the planet, and took part in the Drop Site Massacre on Isstvan V.Other Titan Legions that had been attached to the expeditionary fleets of the Great Crusade also sided with the Traitors, amongst them the Legio Argentum (who were attached to the Primarch Perturabo's forces), and the Legios Vulcanum, to name but a few.
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Traitor Titan Legions - Schism of Mars: It is not entirely clear how Horus managed to turn such a significant percentage of the armies under his command against the Emperor, but he was known to be a very skilled and persuasive leader who commanded immense personal loyalty amongst his subordinates. But even before the opening stages of his planned insurrection occurred, he knew he would have to secure the support of the Mechanicum and their superior technology and weapons if he was to defeat the Emperor and conquer the galaxy.Horus won over the loyalty of many of the Mechanicum's Tech-priests after promising them the lost secrets of ancient Standard Template Construct (STC) technology that had been recovered from the worlds of the recently subjugated Auretian Technocracy by the Sons of Horus Legion.The political climate on Mars was full of discontent during this tumultuous time. There were tense relations between the various Techno-magi with sporadic outbreaks of espionage and violence being committed against the various forge cities that represented the primary sociopolitical units of Mars. There were even unconfirmed suspicions that the Titan Legions had already secretly chosen sides in case of a potential civil conflict.Regulus, the Mechanicum's representative to Horus' 63rd Expeditionary Fleet who had already thrown in his lot with the Warmaster's cause, was sent to the Red Planet to secure the tentative support of the fabricator-general of Mars and the overall leader of the Mechanicum, Kelbor-Hal. Regulus convinced the fabricator-general of Horus' resolve to support increased autonomy for the Mechanicum against the autocratic rule and technological restrictions of the Emperor.As a show of his appreciation for the fabricator-general's support, Horus provided information to Kelbor-Hal that allowed the Mechanicum to open a repository of forbidden knowledge known as the Vaults of Moravec, which had been sealed for nearly a thousand Terran years.The Emperor Himself had decreed that the vaults never be opened, for they contained innumerable artefacts of ancient technology that had been fashioned or corrupted by the malign power of Chaos in ages past. But the deal was struck, and the fabricator-general accepted Horus' proposal and joined forces with the Warmaster, assisting the Traitors with all of the most advanced technology of Mankind at his disposal.When this repository was reopened, there was all manner of forbidden arcane knowledge and weaponry that had obviously been tainted by the corrupting influence of Chaos stored within. Soon the corruption spread throughout the forge cities and temples across the Red Planet as scrap code -- Chaos-contaminated digital source code that was infected with an arcane computer virus -- infested the logi-stacks and cogitator (computer) archives of the Mechanicum, causing literal Chaos to emerge in any cogitator system that was networked to one of its infected counterparts.The fabricator-general and his Dark Mechanicum allies used this disruption to marshal the strength of their forces, intent on bringing the rule of Mars firmly under their control. Infected by this vicious scrap code, the Titans of the Legio Agravides and the Legio Fortidus met their end when their reactors went critical and exploded, destroying their fortresses and eliminating these once-proud Titan Orders from the roster of Loyalist forces. In later years, this night would become known in Mechanicum legends as the "Death of Innocence."Later histories would record that the first blow of the Martian civil war was struck against Magos Mattias Kefra, whose forge city in the Sinus Sabaeus region was housed within the Madler Crater. Titans of the Legio Magna marched from the southern Noachis region and within solar minutes had smashed down the gates of Kefra's forge.Howling engines daubed in red, orange, yellow and black, decorated with flaming horned skull devices, ran amok within the high walls of the crater, crushing everything living beneath them and destroying thousands of standard years of accumulated wisdom in a fury of fire. Vast libraries burned and weapon shops that served the Imperial Army troops of the Solar Guard were reduced to molten slag as the indiscriminate slaughter continued long into the night, the Legio Magna's trumpeting warhorns sounding like the atavistic screams of primitive savages.Amid the Athabasca Valles, the war machines of the Legio Ignatum and the Burning Stars Titan Legion fought in bloody close quarters through the teardrop landforms caused by catastrophic flooding in an earlier, ancient age of the Red Planet. Neither force could gain the advantage, nor could either claim victory, so after a night's undignified scrapping, both withdrew to lick their wounds.Along the borders of the Lunae Palus and Arcadia regions, what previously had been simply a heated debate between the partisans of the Emperor and Horus erupted into outright civil warfare as Princeps Ulriche of the Death Stalkers unleashed his war engines upon the fortress of Maxen Vledig's Legio Honorum.Caught by surprise, the Legio Honorum lost nineteen Titans in the first solar hour of battle, before withdrawing into the frozen wastes of the Mare Boreum and seeking refuge in the dune fields of Olympia Undae. Their calls for reinforcement went unanswered, for all of Mars was tearing itself apart as the plague of civil war spread across the planet in a raging firestorm, a conflict known as the Schism of Mars by later generations.The fabricator-general's betrayal had only begun to unfold, and would soon see the Dark Mechanicum and the Traitor Titans of Mars joining Horus in open war against the Emperor on Terra itself.
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Traitor Titan Legions - Siege of Terra: The Siege of Terra by the Traitor forces of Horus began in 014.M31 with an orbital bombardment by the Warmaster's fleet as the prelude to invasion. After solar days of shelling, the Astartes of the Traitor Legions landed on the surface of Terra in Drop Pods and advanced on the two spaceports nearest the location of the Imperial Palace to secure them in preparation for the main landings of the Traitor forces.Elements from five of the Traitor Legions participated in the battle, aided by Traitor forces already on the surface. Despite the brave efforts of the Loyalists, the Eternity Wall and the Lion's Gate Spaceports fell within solar hours to the forces of Chaos.With them secured, Horus' remaining troops in the Traitor Legions and their Traitor Imperial Army and Dark Mechanicum support forces landed en masse, and the hulking transports carried thousands of troops each. They also brought to the battlefield the terrible Traitor Titans that served Horus' cause and had been infected with the daemonic spirits of Chaos.The transports' immense size made them prime targets for Terra's Defence Lasers. Although many of the Traitor landing craft were destroyed in-atmosphere, notably the transport vessel carrying the Legio Damnatus, many more made it to the surface, disgorging yet more soldiers, main battle tanks and Traitor Titans to add to the besiegers' strength.They met stiff resistance from the Loyalists as the Imperial defenders knew that the survival of their homeworld, their Emperor, and the entirety of the human race rested on their shoulders.The siege of the Imperial Palace then began in earnest. Three times the forces of Chaos scaled the walls, and three times were hurled back by the defenders. Frustrated at this lack of progress, Horus granted the Legio Mortis the singular honour of breaching the walls of the Imperial Palace, amongst whose defenders were the Loyalist Titans of the Collegia Titanica and their hated rivals -- the Legio Ignatum.Using the many powerful weapons at their disposal, they eagerly set about the task. By virtue of their insane fury they accomplished this near-suicidal endeavour, despite suffering the losses of over thirty Titans in one evening of fierce fighting. The Chaos Warlord-class Titans broke the outer walls and let inwards a flood of Traitors.It was also during the Siege of Terra that the Traitor Warhound-class Titans, acting on Horus' orders, roamed the planet in packs and terrorised the civilian population. The massacres perpetrated by these murderous behemoths caused the High Lords of Terra, during the later reorganisation of the Imperium following the Heresy in the Time of Rebirth, to order the Collegia Titanica to never again allow Warhound-class Titans to operate in squads larger than two war machines, so that such horrors might never again be visited upon Mankind. Obviously, the Traitor Titan Legions do not feel bound by this rule.Regardless of their efforts, Horus was ultimately laid low by the Emperor, and the remaining Traitor forces, facing defeat, hastily retreated from Terra and sought refuge in the Eye of Terror.
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Traitor Titan Legions - Post-Heresy: Following the failure to take the Imperial Palace on Terra, the Traitor Legions were driven to the Warp realities of the Eye of Terror after the Heresy. The Titan Legions that had followed the Warmaster Horus' cause fled with them, and the price they paid for their treacheries was heavy indeed.The powers of Chaos were quick to bestow the full extent of their dark blessings upon these peerless machines of war, working upon them to make them more pleasing in their sight. The heads of some were reshaped into daemonic visages, or mounted with massive blades or cannons, while many grew long sinuous tails tipped with wrecking balls or still more cannons or blades.From the Eye of Terror, as well as from other vantage points like the smaller Warp rift known as the Maelstrom and now from the wider breach of the Great Rift, the Traitor Titan Legions continue to wage the Long War against the Emperor, taking part in raids on outlying Imperial worlds, supporting Black Crusades which strike out into Imperial-held space, as well as engaging in battles between the various Chaos factions themselves.Though somewhat similar to their Imperial counterparts, the Traitor Titan Legions' long exposure to the warping influence of Chaos has changed many of them. In some cases, the crew has merged with the systems of their god-engine, making it impossible to tell where the flesh ends and the machine begins.Other crews have given themselves and their weapons over solely to the service of one of the four great Ruinous Powers of Chaos. The Titan's Machine Spirit and its damned crew become possessed by Daemons and are doomed to serve the will of the Chaos Gods in battle for all eternity.Yet Chaos can corrupt Titan Legions at any time, and the ranks of the Traitor Titan Legions have grown over the millennia since the Heresy. There are two known Titan Legions that have, much to the Collegia Titanica's eternal shame, repudiated their oaths of fealty to the Emperor and willingly betrayed Mankind in more recent times -- the Legio Lacrymea and the Adamant Fury Legio.
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Traitor Titan Legions - Horus Heresy: Battle of Isstvan III (005-006.M31) - The Warmaster Horus revealed the terrible scale of his treacherous ambition and the destruction wrought by the battles of the Horus Heresy to come when he engineered the betrayal of the Loyalist Space Marines at Isstvan III, purging his own and three other Space Marine Legions of those Astartes who could not be relied upon to swear to his cause to overthrow the Emperor of Mankind. The slaughter is made all the more terrible by the Warmaster's alliance with the Legio Mortis ("Death's Heads"), the Legio Audax ("Ember Wolves") and the Legio Vulpa ("Death Stalkers"), whose god-engines are impervious to the Life-Eater virus unleashed against the betrayed Astartes, and which stride through the firestorms that result from the virus-bombing of that world as if they were the towering and vengeful giants of ancient legend.Schism of Mars (005-006.M31) - Kelbor-Hal, the fabricator-general of Mars, declared the secession of Mars from the Imperium and the ancient Mechanicum's rejection of the Emperor of Mankind as the Omnissiah in a planet-wide betrayal co-aligned to that of the Warmaster Horus at Isstvan III. Led by the Legio Mortis ("Death's Heads"), the Traitor Mechanicum, later called the "Dark Mechanicum," scoured the surface of the Red Planet of those still loyal to Terra, plunging the first and most important Forge World of Mankind into a bitter civil war that saw the extinction of several ancient Collegia Titanica Legios and dozens of Knight houses. The last to fall were the Loyalist hold-outs of the Legio Tempestus ("Stormlords"), who, perhaps mercifully, died unaware that the bulk of their Legio off-planet had renounced their oaths to the Emperor and declared for the Warmaster.Drop Site Massacre of Isstvan V (006.M31) - After word of his actions at Isstvan III had reached Terra thanks to the escape of a handful of Loyalists aboard the captured Death Guard frigate Eisenstein, the Warmaster Horus conceded the advantage of surprise and was unable to launch an immediate assault on Terra. Instead, he lured three Space Marine Legions -- the Iron Hands, Raven Guard and Salamanders -- into a trap at the nearby world of Isstvan V, slaughtering hundreds of thousands of Astartes in less than three solar hours of fratricide. Though primarily a matter of honour to be settled between the Legiones Astartes, both sides are bolstered by the presence of allied Titan Legions, the Loyalists by the Legio Atarus ("Firebrands") and the Traitors by the well-blooded Legio Mortis ("Death's Heads"). By the slaughter's end, the Death's Heads are victorious, the burning wrecks of the Firebrands' god-engines now added to the vast fields of Space Marine corpses.First Battle of Paramar (006.M31) - Participating in an operation by the primarch of the Alpha Legion, Alpharius, in the immediate aftermath of the Isstvan battles intended to capture the Mechanicum provender world of Paramar V, the Traitor Alpha Legion and the allied Legio Fureans ("Tiger Eyes") god-engines anticipated a quick capture of the Paramar Nexus. After pressing towards their final objective, however, the Traitors were surprised to encounter not just an entire Grand Company of Iron Warriors still staunchly loyal to the Emperor, but a large force of the Loyalist Legio Gryphonicus ("War Griffons"). The First Battle of Paramar proved a victory for the Traitors, albeit a more costly one that they had anticipated, but it is just the first in a series of battles fought during and after the Horus Heresy for control of this strategically vital star system.Battle of Calth (007.M31) - Their Space Marine Legions united in dark purpose, the Primarchs Lorgar of the Word Bearers and Angron of the World Eaters voyaged the length of the galaxy and fell upon the Five Hundred Worlds of the Realm of Ultramar. Unaware of the outbreak of a galactic civil war, the Ultramarines Legion welcomed the Word Bearers as brothers, only to be betrayed at the moment the hand of friendship was extended. Calth was made by Lorgar's forces into a dark offering to the Chaos Gods that he and his Legion had long served since the Pilgrimage of Lorgar forty standard years before. The galaxy was split asunder by the massive Warp Storm known as the "Ruinstorm" that the Word Bearers used the bloodshed on Calth to summon. During the conflict on Calth, the Legio Suturvora ("Fire Masters") betrayed its oath to Terra, while the Legio Praesagius ("True Messengers") and Legio Oberon ("Death Bolts II") remained staunchly loyal. Mustered together at the moment of treachery, the Fire Masters' god-engines opened fire on a heavy conveyor within which dozens of True Messengers god-engines were embarked, a bitter battle erupting to free the surviving god-engines from the downed wreckage of the spacecraft. Later still, a force of True Messengers martyred themselves to their Fire Masters foes during the battle for the Calthian city of Ithraca, fighting to the last against the unleashed forces of Chaos rather than retreating from the city and falling prey to the enemy's orbital artillery.008.M31 Ruin of Maerdan - In the third standard year of the Horus Heresy, the Imperial colony world of Maerdan on the edge of the Segmentum Solar became a savagely contested frontline between the forces of Loyalists and Traitors. Maerdan's cities became flaming ruins and its once verdant plains were turned to barren wastes, crushed and scoured by the fury of the battle as the Loyalist Titans of the Legio Gryphonicus ("War Griffons"), Legio Metalica ("Iron Skulls") and the Legio Destructor ("Beasts of Stell") clash with the Traitors of the Legio Mortis ("Death's Heads"), Legio Argentum ("Dread Lances") and the Legio Vulturum ("Gore Crows"). The Ruin of Maerdan, as the campaign comes to be known to later Imperial historitors, is one of the largest Titan battles of the early Horus Heresy, when more than 200 Titans took to the field against each other. Heavy losses were incurred by both sides and as the war moved on, it left a shattered world behind, with neither Loyalists nor Traitors able to claim a true victory. The flames of hatred between the War Griffons and the Death's Heads, once staunch allies, burn bright after Maerdan and their enmity would lead them to seek each other out time and again on the fields of battle in the dark years that followed their first clash.Battle of Molech (009.M31) - The Traitor hosts marching towards Terra under the command of the Warmaster Horus reached the Knight World of Molech, the scene of a great Imperial victory during the Great Crusade and heavily garrisoned for reasons known originally only to the Emperor Himself and later discovered by the Warmaster -- that the world hosted an ancient Warp Gate that allowed entry into the Realm of Chaos for discourse with the Ruinous Powers themselves. This was knowledge that the Emperor had psychically erased from the minds of His primarchs after their participation in the original battle that had brought Molech into Imperial Compliance. The Traitors committed an enormous invasion force, including the bulk of the Sons of Horus and Death Guard Legions, and Titans of the Legio Mortis ("Death's Heads"), Legio Vulcanum II ("Lords of Ruin"), Legio Interfector ("Murder Lords"), and Legio Vulpa ("Death Stalkers"), which were opposed by elements of the Ultramarines and Blood Angels Legions, Titans of the Legio Gryphonicus ("War Griffons"), Legio Fortidus ("Dauntless"), and Legio Crucius ("Warmongers"), and hosts of Knights from almost a dozen houses, with both sides bolstered by hundreds of thousands of allied mortal troops. At the height of the battle, House Devine revealed that its true allegiance was to the Warmaster, its treachery unveiled at a pivotal moment, heralding a slaughter from which only a handful of Loyalists escaped. The Warmaster went on to claim the world and enter the Warp Gate, from which he emerged fully empowered as the chosen champion of the four major Chaos Gods in the guise of Chaos Undivided.Battle of Tallarn (010-012.M31) - Perturabo, primarch of the Iron Warriors Legion, launched an all-out planetary invasion of the verdant Imperial staging world of Tallarn, his Legion bolstered by dozens of allied Traitor Imperial Army regiments, the Titans of the Legio Krytos ("God Breakers") and the Knights of House Caesarean. Both the Loyalist and the Traitor high commands are taken by surprise by Perturabo's actions and the invasion quickly escalated after he ordered an Exterminatus action upon the world, scouring its surface of living matter by way of a voracious Life-Eater viral barrage. While the population is all but wiped out, many defenders survived thanks to the existence of extensive subterranean shelters. The ensuing campaign is fought between vast formations of Imperial Army and Solar Auxilia tanks, the Titans of the Legio Gryphonicus ("War Griffons"), the Knights of House Megron, the indentured automata of the house army of the Rogue Trader Sangrea as well as armoured forces of the Iron Hands, Imperial Fists, White Scars and Ultramarines Legions. No infantry can survive in the poisoned wastes of Tallarn, and the war quickly drew in other forces from across the region. The Battle of Tallarn is now considered the largest armoured engagement in the know history of Humanity, and while counted as a victory for the Loyalists, millions of warriors and war machines on both sides were left scattered across the lifeless, deadly surface of the planet.Cataclysm of Iron (010.M31) - Across the border sectors of the Segmentum Tempestus and Segmentum Pacificus are located numerous lesser Forge Worlds known collectively as the "Belt of Iron." Since the sundering of the Imperium, many declared for the Traitor cause at the engineering of the fabricator-general of Mars, while others have remained loyal to Terra or sought to remain as aloof as possible from the conflict. Strife and tentative conflict between these once-aligned worlds erupted into full-scale war in 010.M31, which pitched the Mars-aligned Dark Mechanicum Forge Worlds of Incunabula, Urdesh, Valia-Maximal and Kalibrax against the forces of the Loyalist Forge Worlds of Graia, Arl'yeth and Atar-Median, while Arachnis and Jerulas Station both fall into civil war. The resulting conflict, that later became known as the "Cataclysm of Iron," saw the forge lords, their armies and allied Titan Legions and Knight houses turn on each other in protracted warfare, while scores of Human-inhabited worlds in the region suffered as they became the battlegrounds upon which they fought.Battle of Nyrcon (010.M31) - Under the direction of Rogal Dorn, a Loyalist battlegroup led by elements of the Salamanders Legion, and supported by thirty regiments of Solar Auxilia and a strike force of Legio Astorum ("Warp Runners") Titans, engaged the Emperor's Children millennial assigned to garrison the Beta-Garmon System on the edge of the Segmentum Solar. The Emperor's Children contingent is surprised at Nyrcon City on the world of Beta-Garmon II and after a hard-fought battle, the Emperor's Children forces, along with their Legio Mortis ("Death's Heads") allies at Beta-Garmon III, are driven out, placing the system into Loyalist hands and triggering within the standard year the first in a escalating series of Traitor counter-attacks.Second Battle of Paramar (011.M31) - Paramar V had fallen to the Warmaster Horus' hosts in the opening moves of the Horus Heresy. In response, a mixed force of Loyalists launched an assault against the strategically vital supply nexus with the intent of denying it to the Traitors' war effort. The Traitors numbered a substantial combined forces of Legio Fureans ("Tiger Eyes") and Legio Mortis ("Death's Heads") god-engines that were in the system re-arming and re-supplying after several standard years of intensive campaigning, and a large presence of Sons of Horus and Word Bearers Heretic Astartes. The Loyalists committed a large Titan force drawn from the Legio Atarus ("Firebrands"), Legio Ignatum ("Fire Wasps") and Legio Solaria ("Imperial Hunters"), with ground assault units of the Blood Angels and White Scars Legions. The Loyalists conducted a series of diversionary attacks across the Paramar System in order to draw Traitor forces away from their true target, before they conducted a full-scale planetstrike against Paramar V's primary spaceport, capturing it intact and then pressing outwards to begin the destruction of the mass-provender silos that sprawled across the plateau beyond. It was soon revealed, however, that the Traitors had seen through the Loyalist ploy and prepared a huge counter-attack force. Though the Loyalists inflicted heavy damage on the provender silos before the counter-attack hit home, the vast majority of the Loyalist invasion force was surrounded and destroyed without mercy.Battle of Ice World Tralsak (011.M31) - The shallow, frozen oceans of the Ice World of Tralsak were flash-boiled to steam by the fury of god-engine war as the Loyalist Titans of the Legio Atarus ("Firebrands") and the Legio Agravides ("Battle Scourges") clashed with the Traitors of the Legio Magna ("Flaming Skulls") and Legio Victorum ("Foe Slayers") as Loyalist Shattered Legions and Traitor World Eaters Astartes fought across the disintegrating landscape of ice floes. Ultimately, outright victory eluded both sides, and each used the cover of the world-enveloping fog thrown up by the destruction to extricate their forces and redeploy them elsewhere. Nevertheless, numerous supporting Knights of both sides remained to fight a war in which neither side conceded defeat.Tarren Suppression (011.M31) - The world of Tarren IV declared for the cause of Horus, its rulers having fallen for the honeyed words of the Warmaster's emmisaries. A Loyalist Retribution Fleet moved quickly to crush the treachery, and its forces occupied Tarren IV's capital city of Brandstat and stamped out anti-Imperial sentiment in a brutal mirror of the Traitors' so-called "Dark Compliance" of conquered worlds. The key to the suppression were the Titans of the Legio Defensor ("Nova Guard"), who bestrode the surface of Tarren IV, the mournful dirge of their war sirens demanding submission to the Emperor and making examples of those cities that refused to do so by blasting them into flaming ruins. As if to mock the expected order of things still further, later on, it was an allied force of the Emperor's Children Legion, the Legio Cybernetica and the Legio Mortis ("Death's Heads") that conducted a heavy planetary landing and "liberated" the world from the Loyalists during the campaign known to the people of Tarren IV as the "Relief of Brandstat."Balthor Sigma Intervention (012.M31) - A blood-maddened pursuit force of Traitor World Eaters Astartes engaged in hunter-killer operations against defeated Loyalist forces was counter-attacked by a Legio Osedax ("Cockatrices") demi-legio at the world of Balthor Sigma. The World Eaters are supported by numerous super-heavy tanks and therefore are able to hold the Cockatrices Titans at bay until, in quick succession, the Traitor tanks are engaged from an unexpected quarter and destroyed in short order. Entirely unheralded, a force of xenos Titan-analogues, later determined to belong to the Eldar, intervened to devastating effect. It was only when Traitor-aligned Titans of the Legio Fureans ("Tiger Eyes") fought their way through to reinforce the Traitors' lines that total defeat for the Warmaster's servants was averted. At the conclusion of the battle, the xenos Titans disengaged and vanished into the ash-shrouded depths of Balthor Sigma's equatorial magma wastes.Founding of the Adeptus Mechanicus (012.M31) - A long-running deadlock within the Imperial Council on Terra was finally broken, which facilitated the formal establishment of the Imperial Adeptus Mechanicus, now separate and distinct from the ancient Mechanicum of Mars which had fallen to the service of Horus. Fabricator-General Zagreus Kane is appointed as the Adeptus Mechanicus' new representative to the council and is named a High Lord of Terra. Final judgment is enacted upon the captive followers of the Dark Mechanicum's Fabricator-General Kelbor-Hal, who are executed in their thousands by Imperial authorities. Immediately after, the union of the the Loyalist Titan Orders, under the umbrella of the reformed Adeptus Titanicus (Collegia Titanica), is formed by the grand masters of several major loyal Titan Legions, although the future of other loyal former Mechanicum divisions such as the Legio Cybernetica" and the Taghmata remained unclear.Imperial Muster at Beta-Garmon (012.M31) - For reasons only understood later in the war, the Ruinstorm that had been summoned by the Primarch Lorgar's servants among the Word Bearers Legion several standard years before during the Battle of Calth began to abate across vast swathes of the galaxy, reopening astropathic communications and transport routes to Terra. Loyalist high commanders were able to utilise the potent astropathic relay located in the Beta-Garmon System to contact and recall formerly lost or stranded Imperial forces from across the wartorn reaches of the northern Imperium. The Imperial muster at Beta-Garmon raoidly escalated into the largest gathering of Loyalist might since the early years of the civil war, a concentration of force so mighty that the Traitors were forced to respond in kind. The resulting clash of arms, the Battle of Beta-Garmon, would also become known as the "Great Slaughter," a theatre of war of such scale that it would encompass the Titandeath and the Sea of Fire campaigns, each major battles in their own right. By its end, both sides were so badly bled that their only remaining option for ultimate victory was to force a final, decisive confrontation. As history relates, that final battle would be fought at Terra, but only after the weighty butcher's bill of the Great Slaughter was paid in full...Scouring of the Ollanz Cluster (012.M31) - The Warmaster Horus' advance on Terra eventually reached the Ollanz Cluster, where he encountered Loyalist reinforcements bound for Beta-Garmon rearming and refuelling at the Borman System. The Loyalist fleet rapidly redeployed to oppose the Traitors' advance and to protect the valuable resource worlds of the stellar cluster. The turning point of the brief but intense conflict came at Borman IV, when a Legio Astorum ("Warp Runners") demi-legio launched a daring offensive towards the world's beleaguered capital city. The crucial Titan battle took place in the volcanic Yrevendi Desert immediately to the north of the capital, as Princeps Senioris Varr Harax led a surprise thrust through rough terrain at a weak point in the Legio Fureans ("Tiger Eyes") lines, accompanied by Astartes ground forces drawn from the Iron Hands Legion. The Tiger Eyes, having been drawn away by a bold diversionary attack, were annihilated by the Warp Runners, who were able to break through the Traitor Emperor's Children Legion's lines and reinforce the beleaguered planetary capital. Ultimately, Borman IV and the entire Ollanz Cluster were delivered from the Traitors' possession, which allowed the Loyalist forces to be redeployed to their original destination at Beta-Garmon.
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Traitor Titan Legions - 41st Millennium: Siege of Vraks (813-830.M41) - The Siege of Vraks was an Imperial military campaign fought over the course of 17 standard years to retake the Imperial Armoury World of Vraks Prime from the heretical Forces of Chaos led by the Apostate Cardinal-Astra Xaphan of the Scarus Sector. Vraks was besieged by the forces of the Imperium of Man in 813.M41, after the attempted assassination by an agent of the Officio Assassinorum of the heretical and traitorous Xaphan. The Imperial Guard's 88th Siege Army was raised from line regiments of the Death Korps of Krieg to undertake the Siege of Vraks and bring the Renegade Cardinal down in a campaign of attrition that the Administratum's Adepts calculated would take 12 standard years to successfully conclude. At the conclusion of what became a 17-year-long campaign of attrition requiring 34 regiments of the Imperial Guard to re-take the planet for the Emperor of Mankind in 830.M41, 14 million Imperial Guardsmen had been lost and Vraks Prime's entire original population of 8 million souls had been consumed in the violence or exterminated after they fell to Chaos corruption. This campaign was, amongst other things, a prime example of the deployment of Traitor Titan Legions in support of Heretic forces in the 41st Millennium, as well as a clear display of their value to the Forces of Chaos. The Traitor Titans sought to arrive on Vraks along with the other Forces of Chaos on the transport vessel Aharon's Bane. Although the Imperial Navy managed to damage the ship, the vessel survived planetfall and crashed west of the Chaylia Plateau, tearing a great gouge into the surface of Vraks and leaving its remains scattered across kilometres of the planet's surface. The Imperial naval force's commanders had hoped that the damage inflicted would see the craft destroyed, but this was not to be. Although many died as a result of the landing, far more survived, and warbands disgorged from the ship's ravaged hull were soon preparing for battle -- amongst them the dreaded Titans of the Legio Vulcanum I. From there, the Chaotic reinforcements moved to engage the Imperial Guard corps besieging the defensive lines surrounding the Citadel of Vraks. The Titans soon proved their worth once they engaged the Imperial forces of the 101st Death Korps of Krieg Regiment, opening fire at long range and devastating the Krieg armoured columns sent to face the Traitor onslaught. Clouds of brown dust stirred by the advancing tanks turned to blue-black smoke as the vehicles were smitten by the fury of Turbo-Lasers, Gatling Blasters and Volcano Cannons mounted on the massive war machines. The attempts to retaliate were all for naught, as the armour-piercing shells deflected off the Titans' Void Shields with electric blue flashes. Even repeated blasts of an Imperial Shadowsword super-heavy tank's mighty ordnance flickered harmlessly off the Titans' shields. For all its efforts, in response the great tank was disarmed by a single shot of a Turbo-Laser, and its crew immolated by a successive blast. Ultimately, the Imperial force sent to halt the Heretics' reinforcements failed. The defeat of the 101st Krieg Regiment meant that the Death Korps could no longer maintain a ring surrounding the fortress. The 19th Krieg Regiment had been ordered to relocate and face this grim threat alone to buy the time needed by Imperial forces sieging the eastern side of the fortress to abandon posts and move to a defensible position. These manouvres would see the regiment cut off. In such circumstances, the 19th could not have hoped to last long, especially if the Archenemy made use of their Titans. Such desperate measures were required just to save the Imperial campaign from complete failure. <a href="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/2/27/Legio_Vulcanum_Chaos_Reaver.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120607182443" class="image"><img alt="Legio Vulcanum Chaos Reaver" src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/2/27/Legio_Vulcanum_Chaos_Reaver.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/250?cb=20120607182443" decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="250" height="189" class="thumbimage" data-image-name="Legio Vulcanum Chaos Reaver.jpg" data-image-key="Legio_Vulcanum_Chaos_Reaver.jpg" data-relevant="1" data-src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/2/27/Legio_Vulcanum_Chaos_Reaver.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/250?cb=20120607182443" /></a> A Reaver-class Titan of the Legio Vulcanum I on Vraks. These defeats prompted the commanding Lord Militant Obscurus to replace the 88th Siege Army's command staff. The Imperial Guard officer eventually chosen for this task was Marshal Arnim Kagori. His first action, after assembling his staff, was to gather help for the beleaguered Krieg regiments on Vraks. In addition to securing the aerial support of the Imperial Navy and more manpower from Krieg, Kagori sought to be able to counter enemy Titans, and to this end petitioned the Legio Astorum -- the Warp Runners -- for help. The venerable lords of Lucius, the Legio Astorum's home Forge World, agreed. A battlegroup of Titans was deployed to support the 88th Siege Army, as only they could hope to match the firepower of the Traitor Titans. After their rites of battle were complete, they embarked upon their transport vessels and set off for Vraks. Soon, Kagori's reinforcements arrived on the planet, and amongst them was the Legio Astorum battlegroup, comprising 10 Reaver-class Titans and 12 Warhound-class Titans led by the venerable High Princeps Rand Drauca, ready to face the Traitors on the battlefield and resume the war that had been ongoing for ten thousand standard years. The Warp Runners supported the Marshal's new offensive to great effect, and very soon the Legio Vulcanum I took to the field to face them. Both sides were initially evenly matched, and the Legio Astorum suffered its first loss of the campaign -- the Reaver-class Titan Invigila Alpha. The Vraksian Renegades were heavily battered by Kagori's fresh forces, and were only able to hold the tide owing to the assistance of the Traitor Titans. However, as the fighting progressed, the Legio Vulcanum I found itself outmatched by its Collegia Titanica counterparts, and was eventually forced to pull back and regroup after -- according to the Warp Runners -- losing 12 war machines, a feat for which the Legio Astorum paid with the disabling of 11 of its own Loyalist Titans. <a href="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/b/b2/Rhino009.png/revision/latest?cb=20120415002847" class="image"><img alt="Rhino009" src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/b/b2/Rhino009.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/250?cb=20120415002847" decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="250" height="170" class="thumbimage" data-image-name="Rhino009.png" data-image-key="Rhino009.png" data-relevant="1" data-src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/b/b2/Rhino009.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/250?cb=20120415002847" /></a> Legio Vulcanum I Warhound-class Titan supporting Chaos Space Marines on Vraks. The Titans clashed once more at the Red Scorpions Space Marine Chapter's first landing site. The Space Marines arrived on Vraks heeding Marshal Kagori's plea for aid following the Departmento Munitorum's unfavourable review of the campaign and its subsequent downgrading in reinforcement and resupply priority. The Red Scorpions opted to descend upon the planet's surface into the breach located in Sector 57-44, where they deemed their assistance would be put to best effect. A plan was agreed upon, which would see a special battlegroup from the 88th Siege Army's 11th Assault Korps supported by Legio Astorum Titans exploiting the breach once the Red Scorpions succeeded in securing the area. The enemy had contingency plans for assaults on the breach, and moments after the Space Marines' arrived they were already fighting the forces of the swarming Heretics, including Traitor Titans. Guardsmen rushed to aid the beleaguered Red Scorpions and trailing behind them were the Warp Runners, who eagerly engaged the Legio Vulcanum I, seeking to repeat their previous success. The great war machines engaged in vicious duels as the fighting continued around them, and despite suffering the loss of even more machines, the Legio Astorum triumphed, forcing the Traitor Titans to retreat. High Princeps Rand Drauca could celebrate another victory over the despised Legio Vulcanum I on his Titan's honour banner. Imperial records bear no mention of further actions undertaken by the Traitor Titans on the battlefield, though, it can be presumed that they continued the fight, as they are known to have defended the Citadel of Vraks itself. The number of Titans deployed by the Traitors on Vraks is unknown, although the Legio Astorum claims to having destroyed fourteen, losing nine of theirs in the process. If this is true, then the Legio Vulcanum I paid a heavy price for their involvement. How the remaining Traitor war machines -- if there were any -- escaped from Vraks following the eventual Imperial victory is also unknown. Of the Legio Vulcanum I's actions during the campaign perhaps only one thing is certain -- they sowed destruction and terror wherever they went.Badab War (912-913.M41) - The Chapter Master of the Astral Claws, Lufgt Huron, the "Tyrant of Badab," sought to have the Badab Sector secede from the Imperium in protest against the Imperium's continued attempts to use the resources of the Badab Sector outside the region rather than dedicating them fully to the defeat of the forces of Chaos and xenos threats that emerged constantly in the Maelstrom Zone. This major rebellion involved several Space Marine Chapters who turned Renegade and sided with the Tyrant in his mad cause. The world of Angstrom was a highly militant minor Forge World containing a significantly independent Adeptus Mechanicus presence situated at the edge of the Maelstrom Zone, and by this web of kinship the Legio Crucius became involved in the Badab War's savage closing campaigns. The Legio Crucius forces deployed to the siege of Badab Primaris itself, comprised of three full maniples of Titans, some fifteen war machines in all, commanded by the Warlord-class Titan Hell's Daughter and High Princeps Cadmon Krom. The Titans' principal task in the battle was to smash heavy defence points in Badab Primaris' hive cities and industrial zones and crush major pockets of resistance when encountered, a mission they undertook with great relish, fully living up to their Legio's long-standing reputation as savage city-breakers and world burners. The Legio Crucius accounted for untold casualties and devastated the remaining Secessionist heavy armoured forces. The Titan Legion suffered only three losses during the engagement despite the heavy resistance they encountered, and managed to recover all but one of their wrecked Titans in the anarchic retreat from the planet by the Loyalist forces.Third War for Armageddon (998.M41) - Ork Warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka launched a second and even more massive Ork WAAAGH! to conquer the Imperial Hive World of Armageddon in 998.M41. As the battles raged on the planet, Ghazghkull unleashed another of his carefully prepared surprises. Incredibly, dozens of Ork Roks (asteroid fortresses) began to descend from orbit. The Roks made landings in the verdant equatorial jungles of the world and across the continents of Armageddon Primus and Secundus. Many were lost to ground fire or accidents but each one that survived became a bastion for the Orks, a rallying point and a ready-made fortress. Besides their formidable armaments, the Roks contained giant teleport arrays. These were employed to teleport down Ork reinforcements, including Gargants and Greenskin heavy artillery, in an endless stream. Commissar Yarrick personally led attacks by regiments of Cadian Shock Troops supported by the Titans of the Legio Ignatum and Legio Metalica, which destroyed several of these fortresses. During a ten-day battle that raged over the Diabolus manufactorum complex and proved to be one of the most fierce of the Third War for Armageddon, Titans from the Legio Crucius engaged the Gargants of the Warlords Burzuruk and Skarfang. Six Titans and eight Gargants were utterly destroyed in the fighting and many others needed many solar months of repairs before they could fight again. The Diabolus complex was wrecked during the battle, its foundries and machine shops blasted apart or crushed underfoot by the giant fighting machines.13th Black Crusade (ca. 999.M41) - When the forces of Chaos assaulted the world of Cadia during the 13th Black Crusade in ca. 999.M41, the Titan Legions stationed on the worlds surrounding the Eye of Terror helped in the defence of that beleaguered Imperial Fortress World. Many other Titan Legions, a number of them unleashing their entire strength, were transferred there to face the Chaos onslaught.
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Traitor Titan Legions - Organisation: Due to the very nature of Chaos, the united force that Horus commanded during the Horus Heresy split into bickering and warring factions following the Great Scouring. This was also the case with the Hereteks and Traitor Titan Legions of the Dark Mechanicum who supported the Warmaster.They took residence on a number of dark Forge Worlds known as "Hell-Forges" and divided themselves into different sects and cults, each pursuing their Quest for Knowledge in fields and ways which they deemed most appropriate. The Traitor Titan Legions did not have the same liberty to serve the Ruinous Powers as the other forces of Chaos did.As the Traitor Titans became warped into forms more pleasing to their new masters and possessed by Daemons, they were still at least partly machines, and thus required the tending and maintenance only the Hereteks could provide, as well as ammunition produced by slaves on the Hell-Forges. Because of these logistical realities, the Traitor Titan Legions are invariably tied to the Dark Mechanicum and are effectively at their command.They protect the Hell-Forges, aid the Hereteks in their expeditions searching for archeotech and in essence act as mercenaries whose services can be obtained by various Chaos Lords, Chaos Sorcerers and Daemon Princes in exchange for slaves, souls and raw materiel granted to the Dark Tech-priests.Many of these war machines are ancient and irreplacable relics of the Horus Heresy, and although the Hereteks supply the Legios with new machines crafted in their Hell-Forges, these are not always enough to replace the battlefield losses they sustain.However, the Traitors can replenish their numbers in other ways. One of them, predictably, is betrayal. Some Titan Legions of the Collegia Titanica are known to have embraced the blessings of Chaos long after the Horus Heresy, and it is likely that such occurrences are more common, but all notions of them are struck from Imperial records.Dark Mechanicum Tech-priests also seek to salvage Loyalist Titans from the battlefield, repair them and subject them to bloody rituals in order to consecrate them in the service of Chaos whenever possible, much to the shame and outrage of their former masters and the Cult of Mars.The number of Traitor Titan Legions and the number of Traitor Titans remaining to them is unknown, however, bearing in mind that at the outset of the Horus Heresy fully half of the Collegia Titanica declared for Horus, and considering the fact that the Adeptus Titanicus currently deploys over 100 Titan Legions to watch over the Eye of Terror alone, one can estimate the figures to still be significant.
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Traitor Titan Legions - Crew: In many cases, the fate of the Titan crews that entered the Eye of Terror following the Siege of Terra was a dark one. Once, Titans were controlled by their crew -- the princeps, moderati, Tech-priests and servitors -- via a hard-wired Mind Impulse Unit that translated every thought into a concomitant deed by the Titan.Having turned to the service of the Ruinous Powers, these crews are now possessed by Daemons, as one flesh with the god-engine, their bodies and souls sacrificed on the altar of battle and merged in eternal damnation. They are destined to battle forever for the pleasure of their baleful gods and are driven to ever-greater depths of destruction by the ceaseless hatred they bear for those they once called brothers.Not all princeps succumbed to madness and daemonic possession, however, for a few have ascended to a new tier of existence entirely. These are the incarnate avatars of the Ruinous Powers, wielding their god-engines as an extension of their own bodies and lording over the puny creatures that crawl upon the ground at their feet.They are the tyrants of worlds, yet the concerns of kings and rulers are not theirs. They care only for bloodshed and conquest, and will never rest until all the worlds of the Imperium are crushed beneath their tread.Other Titans are presumed to be operated by the Chaos Daemons which possess them, their original crews either dead or now possessed themselves. This occurs most commonly when Greater Daemons fuse with an Imperator-class Titan, transforming these great war engines into towering leviathans of Warp-corrupted steel and adamantium, a true incarnation of the power of Chaos in the material realm.
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Traitor Titan Legions - Weapons of Damnation: Chaos Titans carry weapons of awesome firepower capable of laying waste to vast swathes of the battlefield and slaying enemies by the score. Scout Titans such as the Warhound generally carry two weapons, one on each shoulder mounting point, and these are almost always ranged weapons, for their role is to locate enemy ground forces and harass enemy Scout Titans rather than to launch close assaults against other Titans.The larger Battle Titans, such as the Reaver and the Warlord, mount a weapon at each shoulder and still more atop their armoured carapace. Battle Titans can be outfitted for a range of roles, and as such some are equipped with one or even two Titan close combat weapons, allowing them to engage rival Titans in apocalyptic duels that consume not just the defeated Titan, but potentially hundreds of troops unfortunate enough to be caught in its death throes.To witness such a fight to the death is to watch demigods of legend engaged in epic confrontation, the sight so awe-inspiring that entire armies of lesser mortals have on occasion been rendered senseless and mute by the spectacle, ceasing their own mutual struggle until it is concluded.Many, though by no means all, Battle Titans carry a close combat weapon, often taking the form of a massive Power Fist or claw, but sometimes a mighty Chainsword able to slice a super-heavy tank in two in a single sweep.Being blessed by the Ruinous Powers, Chaos Titans are known to sport a range of less classifiable melee weapons, such as multi-headed flails, scourges and even huge, spiked wrecking balls at the end of enormous chains. There are numerous other classes of weapons, each optimised for a specific battlefield role and used in combinations defined by the nature of foe the Titan is to face.Multi-barrelled Laser Blasters fire intense beams of energy able to cut through the heaviest of armour in a single strike.Gatling Blasters fire a torrent of shells so dense they can tear entire formations of enemy vehicles to ragged scrap.Plasma Blastguns unleash the power of an exploding star in a blast so fierce even the most heavily armoured infantry are rendered to ash scattered to the winds.Melta Cannon are used to melt entire sections of fortress wall to molten slag, cooking alive any defenders foolish enough to remain within.The Inferno Cannon fires a cascade of ravening flame that sets entire battlefields alight and turns the skies black with ashen clouds, while their Apocalypse Missile Launchers blot out the sun with volley after volley of high explosive missiles so dense the result is a carpet of blossoming detonations that consumes the entire battlefield.Perhaps rarest and most potent of all are the Vortex Missiles, deployed only upon the orders of the very highest authority -- the Segmentum lords in the case of the Imperium, the most favoured warlords in the case of the servants of Chaos -- weapons that unleash the power of the Warp itself, creating a briefly-lived portal through which any foe can be sucked into, and from which none can ever return.
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Traitor Titan Legions - Traitor Titan Orders: Many Titan Legions -- or "Titan Orders" as they are alternatively known -- can trace their legacy to the all-but-forgotten ages before the Emperor united Humanity and founded the Imperium of Man.Very little is known outside of the sealed archives of the Adeptus Mechanicus, but some within the Inquisition hold the Titans were first conceived so that rival Martian fortress-foundries could protect themselves from one another and from the ravening mutant hordes and feral, Warp-tainted automata that infested the red wastes of Mars during the dark millennia of the Age of Strife.If such claims are true, there is a grim irony in the fact that, even in the 41st Millennium, these mighty "god-engines" continue to wage war upon one another, unleashing weapons only accessible to the Tech-priests -- or former Tech-priests -- of the Cult Mechanicus.Each Titan Order was founded to defend one of the many Forge Worlds throughout the galaxy, though in truth not every Forge World had the requisite lore or resources to do so, while conversely, some were so blessed in this regard they could raise more than one Legio.As many Forge Worlds predate the Great Crusade, so many Titan Orders have pasts so obscured by the passage of time their deeds during the Age of Strife are matters of legend to all but the most senior of magi. Some Titan Orders were established as the Great Crusade swept ever outwards from Terra and the Mechanicum of old claimed ownership of those worlds that met their particular needs.Though expansion turned largely to stagnation during the Age of the Imperium, occasionally new Forge Worlds were founded, and some were able to raise their own Titan Legios in order to protect themselves and their interests against the numerous foes that haunt the void.The majority of the Traitor Titan Legions fell to the service of the Ruinous Powers during the calamitous age of the Horus Heresy, though a few more have fallen in the ten millennia since. The causes of their fall were as varied as those of the Traitor Marines, some being laid low by bitter hubris, others by malignant intent, and some by the vagaries of capricious fate.What accounts remain state that over half of the Titan Legions renounced their oaths to the Emperor and declared for the Warmaster Horus, and fought alongside the Traitors across the length and breadth of a galaxy torn apart by a civil war the likes of which had not been seen before.The Traitor Titan Orders were to share in the damnation of the Traitor Legiones Astartes, and while their names might not be as well-known or reviled as Traitor Legions such as the Sons of Horus, the World Eaters or the Death Guard, for many amongst the upper echelons of the Imperium they represent a force every bit as dangerous.Traitor Titan Orders such as the Legio Fureans -- colloquially known as the "Tiger Eyes," the Legio Vulcanum I -- so-called "Dark Fire," and the Legio Mortis -- the "Death's Heads" -- have caused untold devastation the length and breadth of the Imperium since the dark days of the Great Betrayal.Others have fallen since, including those known as the Adamant Fury and the Helldogs, suggesting to some that a new and unheralded doom is stalking the Imperium and warriors once counted amongst the most loyal prove themselves nothing more than base betrayers.The annals of the Imperium list numerous other Traitor Titan Orders, some not heard of for centuries and assumed extinct before returning to inflict death and misery upon the Imperium once more. Some are known only to legend -- such as the "Death Stalkers" and the "Flaming Skulls" -- but the wise refuse to count them as a spent force given the sheer number of foes arrayed against the Imperium of Man.
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Traitor Titan Legions - Daemon Titans: All Chaos Titans are towering effigies of blasphemy and terror, walking altars to the Ruinous Powers before which the bloodiest of sacrifices are made. Yet still there exists in the galaxy things even worse than this, a class of Titan so steeped in the corruption of the Warp that it has mutated into a "Daemon Titan."These are the ultimate expressions of the corruption of the machine. Like all Titans, each was once a mechanism of steel and ceramite, controlled by a mortal princeps and their moderati, and driven by a plasma reactor harnessing the power of a star.At some point, however, the touch of Chaos has so tainted the machine that it has been transformed into something else entirely. The savants and daemonologists of the Ordo Malleus know little of the true nature of the Daemon Titans, for to contemplate such things is to court damnation and madness, but all appear to agree on one thing -- Daemon Titans are driven not by the will of a mortal princeps, but by that of a Daemon called forth from the Sea of Souls, and a powerful one at that.Invested with an infernal malignance as potent as a Greater Daemon, Daemon Titans are relentless engines of destruction. Though clad in metal, they have no need of fuel or ammunition. The maintenance rituals required to keep other Chaos Titans operational are meaningless to such an engine of war, though they make other demands upon those who would call upon them to make war against the Imperium. It is said that in between battles, a Daemon Titan must be constantly supplicated with blood and blasphemy, its unholy thirst slaked by offerings of suffering and murder.In battle, Daemon Titans are Chaos incarnate. Their eyes rage with the ravening madness of the Warp, the air about them distorting as reality itself is tortured by their presence in the mortal realm.Daemon Titans rarely heed the strategies of those who call upon them, fighting according to their own unknowable drives and desires. In truth, the Daemon bound within the Titan's metal form appears concerned only that it reaps the highest possible toll of souls to the glory of those few powers higher than itself in the pantheon of the Warp.Of all the foes a Daemon Titan might encounter upon the field of battle, of all the deaths it might claim in the name of the Ruinous Powers, enemy Titans in the service of the God-Emperor of Humanity are sought above all others.Having sighted an Imperial Titan, there is little in the galaxy that can stop a Daemon Titan from engaging it, and woe betide any who stand in its path as it charges its foe, cannon blazing, chainblade screaming, Power Fists crackling and a daemonic howl of savage rage stunning or even slaughtering all in the vicinity.In appearance, a Daemon Titan might be taken for a gargantuan manifestation of a Greater Daemon of the same patron Ruinous Power and indeed, Ordo Malleus savants have debated the difference to, and sometimes beyond, the point of sanity in a vain effort to quantify the unfathomable permutations of Chaos.Those Daemon Titans dedicated to Khorne are beasts of burning brass and steaming blood, their heads wrought into snarling beast faces.The Daemon Titans of Nurgle are lumbering masses of decay and corruption, metal tarnished and surrounded by a black storm cloud of plague flies so thick they foul enemy guns and vehicles, and force themselves down the throats of enemy troops.Daemon Titans dedicated to Tzeentch are clad in impossible colours and reality itself is bent out of kilter by the sorcerous power radiating from their form.Those dedicated to Slaanesh are lithe and incongruously fast, their forms surmounted by wicked blades and surrounded by a haze of psychoactive mist.These and a thousand other blasphemous manifestations of the infernal are a relentless curse upon the Imperium of Man, a curse that only intensifies as the Era Indomitus grows bloodier with each passing year.
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Traitor Titan Legions - Reverence: Although the Chaos Titans are effectively subordinate to the Hereteks, the Dark Mechanicum do not view them as servants, but revere them, depending on the beliefs they hold, as the perfect amalgam of Daemon and machine, a fusion of technology and the power of the Warp, or as the incarnations of the Machine God embodied in the power of Chaos Undivided.The latter is a perversion of the Adeptus Mechanicus beliefs concerning Titans as the physical avatars of the Machine God in realspace, and holds true for those Hereteks that have not fully scorned their faith in the Omnissiah.Fittingly, many amongst the lesser servants of Chaos view these towering war engines as gods of fire and death in their own right, giving obeisance to them much as they would to the Greater Daemons. They are known to offer captives as sacrifice to the Chaos Titans, as well as their own lives to slake these behemoths' thirst for blood.On the battlefield they are always encouraged by the manifest presence of the power of Chaos represented by Chaos Titans and fight even more fiercely to prove their worth to the Ruinous Powers.There have been known instances where the mere presence of Traitor Titans on the field has kept Chaos forces from routing and has emboldened them to hold the line and fight back.
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Traitor Titan Legions - Notable Traitor Titan Legions: Adamant FuryBurning StarsFestering DeathForsaken ReaversIronclastRiotous HostSilver ScythesSuns of DamnationLegio AbhorraxLegio AbominatorLegio Argentum ("Dread Lances")Legio Audax ("Ember Wolves")Legio CovenentiaLegio Damicium ("Unbroken Lords")Legio Damnatus ("Warped Dogs")Legio Damnosus ("Lords of Ruin")Legio Excruciatus ("Helldogs")Legio FrostreaverLegio Fureans ("Tiger Eyes")Legio Interfector ("Murder Lords")Legio Krytos ("God Breakers")Legio Kulisaetai ("Gatekeepers")Legio Kydianos ("Death Cry")Legio Lacrymea ("Harbingers of Grief")Legio Laniaskara ("Impalers")Legio Magna ("Flaming Skulls")Legio Metallum ArmaturumLegio MorbusLegio Mordaxis ("Deathdealers")Legio Mortis ("Death's Heads")Legio OnerusLegio PestisLegio PhasmaLegio ProditorLegio SerpentesLegio Suturvora ("Fire Masters")Legio Tempestor ("Stormlords")Legio UliconLegio UlriconLegio UrsaLegio VendetticaLegio Vulcanum I ("Dark Fire")Legio Vulcanum II ("Lords of Ruin")Legio Vulpa ("Death Stalkers")Legio Vulturum ("Gore Crows")Legio VulturusLegio Xestobiax ("Iron Vigil")
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Traitor Titan Legions - Sources: Adeptus Titanicus (1st Edition), pp. 2, 5, 6-7, 18, 29, 51Adeptus Titanicus - The Horus Heresy: Rulebook (Specialty Game), pp. 9-12, 14-17, 53-54, 57, 59, 61-62Adeptus Titanicus - The Horus Heresy: Titandeath (Specialty Game), pp. 60, 62, 64, 66Adeptus Titanicus - The Horus Heresy: Doom of Molech (Specialty Game), pp. 30-31Adeptus Titanicus - The Horus Heresy: Shadow and Iron (Specialty Game), pp. 40-43Adeptus Titanicus - The Horus Heresy: Crucible of Retribution (Specialty Game), pp. 6, 26-27, 30, 52-53Adeptus Titanicus - The Horus Heresy: Loyalist Legios (Specialty Game), pp. 18-165Adeptus Titanicus - The Horus Heresy: Traitor Legios (Specialty Game), pp. 18-161Codex Heretic Astartes - Death Guard (8th Edition), pg. 23Citadel Journal 9, "Legions of Chaos: Bubonis, Daemonic Plague Titan of Nurgle" by James Funnell, pp. 4-11Citadel Journal 10, "Skylok, Winged Titan of Tzeentch", pp. 31-37Citadel Journal 13, "Abominatus, Despoiler of Worlds Chaos Titan", pp. 41-44Citadel Journal 27, "Dok Butcha's Klinik: Bitz N' Tipz - Conversions: Chaos Banelord Titan of Khorne", pp. 91-96Codex: Eye of Terror (3rd Edition), pg. 16Gathering Storm - Book II - Fracture of Biel-Tan (7th Edition), pg. 84, "Opticon Sol" SidebarThe Horus Heresy: Collected Visions by Alan Merrett, pp. 354-362Titan Legions (1994), pp. 8, 12, 16, 39Imperial Armour Apocalypse (2nd Edition), pg. 104Imperial Armour Volume Six - The Siege of Vraks - Part Two, pp. 11-12, 23, 26-27, 34-35, 42-43, 48, 78-79, 83-84, 163, 182Imperial Armour Volume Seven - The Siege of Vraks - Part Three, pp. 51, 88, 161, 172Imperial Armour Volume Thirteen - War Machines of the Lost & The Damned, "Chaos Titans," pp. 136-146Warhammer 40,000: Rulebook (8th Edition), pp. 158-159Warhammer 40,000: Rulebook (5th Edition), pg. 127White Dwarf 142 (US), "Titan Weapons - Imperial Titan Weapons: Chaos Energy Whip, Chaos Titan Tails", pp. 48-59White Dwarf 164 (US), "The Banelord: Chaos Titan of Khorne", pp. 21-25White Dwarf 171 (US), "Chaos Armies: Chaos Titans", pp. 25-35White Dwarf 178 (US), "The Titan Legions: History", pp. 45-52White Dwarf 180 (US), "Fists of Death: Titans Tactics", pp. 27-36White Dwarf 188 (US), "Plague Engines of Nurgle: Chaos", pp. 23-26White Dwarf 190 (US), "Slaanesh War Machines: Chaos", pp. 27-34White Dwarf 194 (US), "Modelling Workshop: Abominatus, Despoiler of Worlds", pp. 39-43White Dwarf 267 (US), "A Clash of Titans: A battle report - Chaos vs Ulthwe Eldar"Fulgrim (Novel) by Graham McNeillMechanicum (Novel) by Dan AbnettAge of Darkness (Anthology), "The Iron Within" by Rob SandersStorm Of Iron (Novel) by Graham McNeillTitanicus (Novel) by Dan AbnettSoul Hunter (Novel) by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
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Trajann Valoris - Trajann Valoris: Trajann Valoris is the current Chief Custodian and 17th Captain-General of the Adeptus Custodes, the elite bodyguard of the Emperor of Mankind, and perhaps the deadliest individual warrior in the entire Imperium.Valoris' name is spoken of with nothing short of reverence, for many consider the Captain-General to be the personal representative of the Emperor Himself. Even the High Lords of Terra might be mocked, when in wine or in anger, but to do so with the captain-general was simply beyond imagination.For to mock Valoris was to mock the Emperor Himself. Such blasphemy would not go unpunished, and would inevitably result in a transgressor's untimely death.While the two Tribunes of the Adeptus Custodes are generally occupied with the many ritual purposes of the order, the captain-general has no set remit, but governs the forces under his command with complete freedom, to the extent that if the Ten Thousand had dealings with any part of the Adeptus Terra, they are carried out through him.
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Trajann Valoris - History: The office of Captain-General is one of the most powerful military appointments in the Imperium of Man. It confers full responsibility for the overall defence of the Sol System, Terra, the Imperial Palace and -- ultimately -- the Golden Throne and the Emperor Himself.The Captain-General is the master of the Adeptus Custodes, and, on many occasions during Imperial history, has stood amongst the ranks of the High Lords of Terra. He is further charged with leading the greatest military campaigns fought by the Ten Thousand, and must display a degree of warrior prowess that approaches that of the Primarchs of old.In the millennia since the Great Crusade, there have been just seventeen incumbents of this weighty mantle. Most have died in battle, either on the holy soil of Terra or whilst leading crucial campaigns amidst the stars. Several have become Eyes of the Emperor, while three -- including Constantin Valdor himself, the first and greatest of their number -- simply vanished, their disappearances wreathed in mystery even amongst their own comrades.The current Captain-General is Trajann Valoris. Many claim that he is the greatest warrior to hold the title since the Emperor bestrode the stars. Within his first solar decade of service, Valoris ran not just one, but two successful Blood Games, a record that remains unbroken.With his remarkable grasp of battlefield strategy and his naturally aggressive streak he earned a place for himself amongst the Allarus Custodians.There, Valoris won many names from deeds such as the destruction of the Space Hulk Mournful Siren, the defeat of the Genestealer Cult of the Emperor's Writhing Shadow, and his spearheading of the preemptive strike against WAAAGH! Krushfist.If Valoris showed a weakness, it was his reluctance to stand back and wait for his enemies to come to him. He lasted only twenty-two Terran years amongst the Companions before his desire to participate in a more proactive strategy of defence saw him reassigned.He gained the rank of Shield-Captain soon afterwards, and spent several standard centuries leading sorties against emergent threats throughout the Sol System and beyond. Valoris became well known for his tendency to observe his enemies carefully, predict their movements, then deliver a sudden and decisive blow.He cultivated networks of agents and informers across the Segmentum Solar, and even further out into the wider Imperium. Valoris recognised his own proclivity for aggressive action, and took constant steps to temper it with comprehensive foreknowledge. Thus his strikes always fell where they should, and no comrade was ever lost to reckless commands.Though the Captain-General of the Adeptus Custodes traditionally served among the High Lords of Terra only under the most dire of circumstances, such as during the War of the Beast in the mid-32nd Millennium, it was only the persistence of Lev Tieron, the Chancellor of the Senatorum Imperialis at the time of the 13th Black Crusade in 999.M41, that persuaded Valoris to assume the seat among the High Lords that had been left vacant for some time following the death of Lord Brach, the Chancellor of the Estate Imperium.It was the Chancellor's hope that Valoris would agree to serve as one of the High Lords, which would swing the vote to abolish the Lex Imperialis -- the binding legal code of the Imperium -- and allow for the Adeptus Custodes to finally leave Terra en masse, in order to take the fight to the Forces of Chaos.Trajann Valoris has proven a dynamic and effective Captain-General. Under his rule the number of Blood Games has increased tenfold, the defences of the stable Warp routes into the Sol System have been strengthened, and long-hidden cults have been purged from the Terran underhives.Little escapes the eyes of his ever expanding spy network and, armed with the certainty of the truly righteous, his covert strikes have annihilated dozens of threats to the Golden Throne.It was as if Valoris had foreseen Primarch Roboute Guilliman's return and the formation of the Great Rift long before they came, and laid all the groundwork required for the Adeptus Custodes to adapt to the new Imperium.Perhaps, some whispered, the half-understood power of the Moment Shackle, the unusual artefact of the Age of Technology that he wore at his belt, allowed him to do just that. Whatever the case, the Captain-General's many qualities make him ideally suited to lead in this age of unprecedented aggression.Following the destruction of the Fortress World of Cadia and the formation of the galaxy-wide Warp rift known as the Great Rift, a bow wave of the Immaterium swept over the worlds of the Sol System, including the Throneworld itself.This allowed a large host of Khornate Daemons to burst through the skein of reality to assail Terra itself, in a conflict that came to be known as the Battle of Lion's Gate or informally as the Second Battle of Terra.Enacting their Catastrophe Protocols, Valoris acted as the overall commander of the Imperial forces charged with the defence of the Imperial Palace. The Captain-General personally led a charge of four-thousand Custodians from the Lion's Gate to meet the invaders.They fought alongside the resurrected Primarch Guilliman and his forces, newly arrived from Luna in the wake of the Terran Crusade, and successfully managed to blunt the Blood God's attempts at striking the heart of the Imperium.Following this dire campaign, the High Lords voted to suspend the dictates of the Lex Imperialis, which allowed the Adeptus Custodes to sally forth from the Throneworld, to take part in Guilliman's subsequent Indomitus Crusade, and to take the fight directly to the servants of the Ruinous Powers.At the Battle of Gathalamor during the crusade, Valoris led a combined force of Custodians and Grey Knights under the command of Grand Master Aldrik Voldus against the Word Bearers Heretic Astartes and their summoned Daemon allies to cleanse that sacred Cardinal World of the Ecclesiarchy of the Chaos taint.
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Trajann Valoris - Notable Campaigns: The Years of Madness (Unknown Date.M41) - During the so-called "Years of Madness," a time of strange omens and ominous whispers engulfs Terra, beginning with the disappearance of the notoriously conservative Captain-General Galahoth. Battling the stagnation of Galahoth's rule, the Adeptus Custodes find themselves facing a shocking increase in cult activity -- both heretical and xenophile -- throughout the Sol System. Worse is to follow as possession is revealed amongst a sub-sect of the doomscryers themselves, though not until the false predictions of the fallen psykers send Captain-General Launceddre to his death at the Battle of the Gilded Pyre (later known as the Battle of Black Pyre). It is amidst this climate of spiralling paranoia and danger that Captain-General Trajann Valoris is elevated to command the Ten Thousand, and he wastes no time in taking steps to regain ironclad control of Terra's defences.To Stand Against the Storm (999.M41) - In the wake of Valoris' rise to power, the Adeptus Custodes enjoy their most proactive century of martial and covert action since the fall of Goge Vandire. They annihilate dozens of hidden cults, purge the polar underhives, eliminate a vermillion-classified xenos threat amidst the Plutonian void-fortresses, and launch thirty-two separate extra-solar interdiction strikes. Several, it is rumoured, even utilise shattered spars of the Webway to reach their targets. As word reaches Terra of ever increasing Warp Storm activity, and cries for help sweep in from every corner of the galaxy, Valoris assembles the High Lords of Terra to discuss their response to this gathering storm. Yet it is at that moment that word reaches their closed session of an incredible disturbance on the surface of Luna, of demigods battling through the airless void at the head of great armies, and of a Primarch restored by the strangest of roads. Roboute Guilliman has returned at the end of his successful Terran Crusade, and Valoris knows that nothing will be the same ever again.The Battle of Lion Gate (Second Battle of Terra) (ca. 999.M41) - Barely has Roboute Guilliman returned to Terra when the empyric bow waves of the Great Rift's birth sweep over the Sol System. Riding their boiling crests comes a horde of Khornate daemons, who burst through the skin of reality to assail Terra itself. Though this is the Adeptus Custodes' nightmare scenario, they enact their Catastrophe Protocols with unshakeable calm and self-assurance. Storming out to meet the invaders alongside Guilliman's Ultramarines and a sizeable complement of the Sisters of Silence, the Custodians successfully deflect the Blood God's attempt to behead the Imperium with a single strike. Victory is bought at a steep price in irreplaceable lives, but it is victory nonetheless.Battle of Gathalamor (Unknown Date.M42) - The Gathalamor System comes under sustained attack from the Heretic Astartes of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion. As their Dark Apostles summon creatures from beyond the veil, the fight turns viciously against the Imperial defenders. The Mordian 84th Regiment of the Astra Militarum and the Sisters of the Order of the Argent Shroud dig in to stage their last stand in the grim ruins of Gathalamor Prime's macro-cathedrum, their prayers for salvation ringing out to the screaming skies above. Sure enough, even as hordes of Traitors and abominations mobilise to attack, the Emperor answers the cries of His followers. Teleport flares erupt through the Heretic lines, gold and silver lightning leaping as a combined force of Custodians and Grey Knights storm into battle. Bolters roar and crackling blades tear through Heretic flesh, Trajann Valoris and Grand Master Aldrik Voldus leading an assault that sees the Traitor army shattered into battling warbands. Inpsired by the sudden arrival of vertible demigods, the Mordians and Sisters of Battle advance, hymnals rising from their ranks over the roar of Flamers and the scream of massed Lasgun fire. After three solar days and nights of unremitting savagery, the Chaos host is broken in the Battle for the Statue Steps. With fresh Imperial reinforcements flooding in to the wider Gathalomor war zone, the Custodians set course for Terra, leaving the Grey Knights to conduct a grim purge of the unfortunates that they rescued from the macro-cathedrum, for they had seen too much of Chaos to be trusted.
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Trajann Valoris - Wargear: When Captain-General Andros Launceddre fell at the Battle of the Black Pyre, Valoris was named his successor. As tradition dictated, he took up the armour and weapons of his former lord. These masterfully crafted artefacts were fashioned in the wake of Constantin Valdor's disappearance and passed on to each new Captain-General ever since:Watcher's Axe - Watcher's Axe is a master-crafted, relic Castellan Axe that takes the form of a huge polearm blade that crackles with golden lightning and can bisect the sarcophagus of a Chaos Helbrute with a single swing. The axe's haft incorporates a master-crafted Bolter known as the Eagle's Scream, which fires adamantium-tipped penetrator bolts at a ferocious rate.Castellan Plate -The Castellan Plate is an elaborate suit of powered armour which incorporates a heraldic tilting shield, an auramite halo, and a magnificent cloak woven with adamantium thread so that it flows like cloth but yields to neither blade nor blast.Moment Shackle - At the belt of the Captain-General, he carries a strange device known as the Moment Shackle. A relic of the Dark Age Technology released from the vaults beneath the Imperial Palace, this artefact allows Valoris to trap fragments of temporal energy and turn them to his use, excising split-second events from history or slowing the localised temporal flow enough to tip a desperate fight in his favour.Misericordia - The Misericordia (High Gothic: "blade of mercy") is a long dagger or short sword that was carried by the Custodians of first the Legio Custodes and after the Horus Heresy, the Adeptus Custodes. The blade was symbolic, intended to represent that the Custodes were beneficiaries of the Magisterium Lex Ultima which placed them above the reach of all Imperial Law save for the commandments of the Emperor of Mankind Himself. The Misericordia was designed to deliver a single, mortal blow, and despite their symbolic nature, were sometimes used by individual Custodians to carry out a death sentence or offer the Emperor's Peace to a mortally wounded and grievously suffering warrior.
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Tranch - Tranch: Tranch is a Hive World in the Calixis Sector. Even by Imperial standards, the war on Tranch has been a brutal and thankless affair. What started out as a simple mutant uprising on an unimportant minor Hive World quickly escalated into political collapse and a catastrophic civil conflict drawing in forces from all over the sector to contain it.Even though the war's heat has quelled now from the quarter-million strong troop landings six standard years ago that broke the insurrection's back, the slow-burning, bitter conflict has continued on a world tainted, twisted, and brutalised by centuries of malice and festering despair.Today the efforts to rebuild the world and re-establish order continue, and fresh regiments are continually cycled-in for tours of duty to brave the fire-blackened spires and the treacherous dark furnaces of the Soot Warrens. Their thankless and dangerous task is to defend the remaining citizenry, to bring Tranch slowly to heel and prevent the festering enemies of mankind from claiming the place again.
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Tranch - History: A grimy and relatively minor Hive World, Tranch's only lasting fame is a slow burning and vicious civil conflict that, despite countless lives lost, shows no sign of abating. Tranch's economy before the war was sustained in part by a sizable population of mutants utilised as slave labour in the Soot Warrens of the furnace levels. Its masters, the Oligarchs of Tranch, were pitiless and sadistic rulers with a history of brutal repression. When a portion of the mutant population rose up, few dreamed it would spark a conflict that would spread to engulf the entire planet and leave more than a billion dead.As initial policing actions by the Oligarchs' brutal local Enforcers failed, and battles boiled over from the warrens to the hab levels, it became clear that the mutants had powerful help and organisation on their side. Led by the Shrouds, a cabal of powerful rogue psykers and witches, the mutants' onslaught was further aided by the terrorist attacks of hidden Chaos Cults that struck without warning in the upper hives, sowing confusion and terror in the spires.As the situation rapidly worsened, the Oligarchs' grip on power began to slip and, giving in to fear, they redeployed troops away from the mid-hive levels in order to protect their own interests -- with disastrous results. The mutants surged up from the depths and slaughtered thousands. Soon the Oligarchs faced a second popular revolt by the masses they had all but abandoned. Tranch descended almost overnight into anarchy, and as news and lawlessness spread, nearby worlds, many long suffering from woes of their own, threatened to do the same.Seeing a world under his domain slipping unexpectedly into chaos and with others threatening to follow suit, a bloody lesson was clearly needed and the Sector Governor Marius Hax himself personally gave the order to raise regiments to "Crush this foul and treacherous vipers' nest in our blessed Emperor's dominion."Regiments were raised from Scintilla, Malfi, Iocanthos and elsewhere to descend upon beleaguered Tranch, accompanied by elements from the Holy Ordos of the Inquisition who sought to decapitate the tainted rebellion's Warp-twisted leadership. The war that followed is considered to be the most brutal in living memory in the Calixis Sector. Although the grip of the Shroud Council was swiftly broken and the mutants' unity shattered, the war did not end, and, instead of a single mutant army to face, there were now countless numbers of rebel factions, mutant bands, cults and scavengers picking over the burned out and shattered hives to contend with -- with no easy victory in sight.The purging campaign took nearly five standard years of inglorious and dirty warfare. Afterward, Tranch was left a seething pit of conflict and discord, and many of those "saved" were now relegated to the status of empty-eyed refugees eking out what living they could in the ruins.Now classified as "officially pacified," the Calixian Astra Militarum regiments who are routinely rotated through deployments on Tranch still take the brunt of the slowly simmering conflict and must face a thankless guerrilla war of ambushes, desperate victims, booby traps, atrocities and ever-present terror.Tranch today is still a militarised zone, administered as a fiefdom of the powers of the Malfian Sub-sector. Large-scale efforts to recolonise and restart the world's industry have only been partially successful, and whole hive spires, not to mention much of the Soot Warrens, are still lawless battlegrounds -- the domain of rogue mutants and worse.
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Tranch - Departmento Cartographicae Planetary Database: Galactic Position: 16/17/CS/WEquatorial Circumference: 11,500 Miles Population: approximately 7,712,000,000Society: The Haal-Lorden are a trade guild from Tranch.Contact with Other Worlds: There is a stable Warp tunnel between Tranch and the sector capital world of Scintilla. There are also Warp tunnels connecting Tranch to Spectoris and 88 Tanstar.
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Tranq - Tranq: The term Tranq covers an array of synthetic, alcoholic chemdistillates made by the low-hive masses of the Golgenna Reach Sub-sector of the Calixis Sector. The techniques for producing tranq have been carried throughout the sector by crew-scum, criminals, and most importantly the troops of the Astra Militarum.Drinking tranq numbs the body and mind, which provides a very different feeling than being drunk on amasec, rotgut, or other spirits. Though similar in the end result, the effects of tranq are unpleasant, depressive, and require an acquired taste.
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Trans-Hyperian Alliance - Trans-Hyperian Alliance: The Trans-Hyperian Alliance is a major league of the Leagues of Votann located in the galactic core and maintaining territories in Far-space. The Trans-Hyperian Alliance are the furthest travelled of the Leagues of Votann. Many of the Kin Prospects that penetrate deep into Far-space wear their distinctive orange void armour, and their Hernkyn are renowned for both their tenacity and frontiersman's drive to banish the darkness beyond the edges of maps.The Kindreds of the Trans-Hyperian Alliance are scattered far and wide, with many of their holds maintained aboard voidships cruising at the heart of nomadic fleets. Observing a secular cult of ancestral veneration that surpasses the dedication of the rest of their species, the Kin of the Trans-Hyperian Alliance are ever on the move, always seeking new knowledge and conquests to enrich the Votann.Ever-mobile -- and often strung-out and under-strength -- the Kin of the Trans-Hyperian Alliance are no strangers to fighting against the odds. They relish such hardships, however, and strive all the more fiercely to apply their hard-won experience to every conflict, the better to honour the Votann and the Ancestors.
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Trans-Hyperian Alliance - League History: The Kindreds of the Trans-Hyperian Alliance are peopled with explorers and adventurers. They seek out new Warp routes, trade partners and mysteries with an almost compulsive determination, and their Forges labour constantly to produce swift and powerful voidcraft.While they control vast swathes of territory both within and outside of the galactic core, these holdings are far-flung and thinly spread. Many Trans-Hyperian Kindreds dwell in isolated pockets, or maintain their holds aboard nomadic fleets that are ever on the move. The league remains well-connected despite this astrographical dispersion, for lighter voidcraft streak between the scattered Trans-Hyperian Kindreds bearing news of discoveries and threats.Even the league's Votann -- of which it boasts a remarkable three -- are ever-mobile, nestled deep within fortified voidships and accompanied by sizable fleets. Ancient technologies within their Fanes ensure that everyTrans-Hyperian Kindred stays updated with the coordinates of their Votann, the information displayed in a cleverly scrambled manner useless to even the most cunning enemy boarders. The Kin, after all, do not want any foe discovering the existence and location of their Votann by unfortunate chance.The driving force behind the constant striving and seeking of the Trans-Hyperian Alliance is their dedication to the enrichment of the Votann. In this, they come as close as any of their race to genuine religious fervour. A cult of Ancestor worship prevails throughout the Alliance, whose Fanes are always filled with small votive offerings to respected Ancestors. Other Kin find this practise strange and wasteful, but the folk of the Trans-Hyperian Alliance say that doing honour to their Ancestors is "a transaction only of value, never of cost." They view exploration, adventure and battle that way also, driven ever to scatter across the stars and seek out the greatest enrichment -- and material riches -- in their Ancestors' names.The Ancestor worship within the Trans-Hyperian Alliance borders on the puritanical. So wholly determined are its Kin to live up to the impossible standards of their forebears, that they will endure unbelievable hardships and keep fighting to survive and prevail -- even should they be terribly injured.Hernkyn are held in especially high esteem in the Trans-Hyperian Alliance, and a great number of their populace spend at least some time amongst these wandering ranger bands. Only rarely does the entire league rally as a coherent force, and that is usually when one of their wandering Votann comes under direct threat. At such times, the Trans-Hyperian Kindreds cast aside all other considerations, retreating from hard-fought campaigns, breaking oaths with allied powers, and even setting aside Grudges as they race to the aid of the Ancestor Cores they venerate so greatly.
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Trans-Hyperian Alliance - Notable Kindreds: Nôthka's Kindred - So hardy and technologically advanced are the Kin, that they have claimed many regions of space viewed by other starfaring species as inimical. Nôthka's Kindred, for example, maintains a hold amidst the calamitous ruin-belt of the Broken Triplets. This trio of worlds were smashed together during some ancient catastrophe, and the colossal quantities of debris from their demise still whirls and ricochets in a vast cloud to this day, trapped by the gravitic anomaly that caused the disaster. Few other peoples could consider such a devastating region home, yet the hold of Nôthka's Kindred -- Sunder Stair -- sits at the heart of the anomaly behind a breathtaking bulwark of interwoven force fields. These both shelter the immense void station that serves as the hold and also maintain clear space lanes for its voidcraft to take in and out of the system. Not only do the Kin of Sunder Stair enjoy the natural defence of the planetary ruin-belt -- which would swiftly cripple invading voidcraft -- but they have also spent Terran centuries mining the exposed innards of the Broken Triplets.Kindred of Liminus Crag - The folk of the Kindred of Liminus Crag are famed as shipwrights of the swiftest voidcraft and atmospheric gunships among the Leagues of Votann.Ukûlak's Kindred - Ukûlak's Kindred have chosen to honour their league's exploratory traditions by having every last one of their Kin serve at least a Terran decade as Hernkyn during their early years.Farsail of Thryk Kindred - A far-travelled people, the Kin of the Farsail of Thryk embark on exploration and adventure with compulsive determination. While other leagues may dispatch large Prospects or Oathbands into the void to bring back resources and knowledge, the Farsail of Thryk Kindred are entirely voidborne and ever on the move. Their hold is an entire fleet of huge voidships complete with fortified city, mining, and factory vessels escorted by heavy warships. In the wake of the fall of the space hulk called the Gallowdark to the Forge World of Bheta-Decima in the Nemesys Sector of the Segmentum Tempestus, the Genestealer Cult present on Bheta-Decima known as the Cult of the Chittering Verse has since managed to finally draw the notice of the xenos they call the "Star-Children," who they believe will soon arrive to save them from the present conflict and usher in their long-promised spiritual salvation. As such, a small splinter of Hive Fleet Leviathan is currently en route to Bheta-Decima, but its bio-ships were detected in transit and engaged by the Farsail of Thryk Kindred of the Trans-Hyperian Alliance league. These Kin seek to trap and then harvest the resources of the splinter fleet, as the Leagues of Votann have discovered that they can render bio-ship organic matter into rare and exotic compounds that can be used in all sorts of highly profitable applications, from new medicae treatments to voidship engineering projects. Scout vessels were deployed ahead of the Tyranid splinter fleet to identify its prey worlds, but the Quicksilver-class Scout Ship Vektrônn's Eye was shot down over Bheta-Decima by the Genestealer Cultists. The ship crashed into the central hold of their Genestealer Patriarch in the subterranean region known as the Seethe, named the Deeprealm. In a desperate panic, the troops of the Chittering Verse, including the Traitoris Militarum Cadian Neo-917th Regiment comprised of Brood Brothers and Genestealer hybrids, descended upon the wreckage of the Leagues of Votann ship and were battling with its Kin to eradicate the intrusion.
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Trans-Hyperian Alliance - League Worlds: Broken Triplets (Hold World) - The Broken Triplets are actually a trio of worlds found in the galactic core where the three planets were smashed together during some ancient catastrophe, and the colossal quantities of debris from their demise still whirls and ricochets in a vast cloud to this day, trapped by the gravitic anomaly that caused the disaster. The Broken Triplets is home to the Trans-Hyperian hold of Sunder Stair of Nôthka's Kindred, a void station that exists precariously yet safely at the heart of the three shattered worlds through the use of overlapping force fields.
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Trans-Hyperian Alliance - CORV Duas: Originally fashioned aboard the hold ship of Urvû's Kindred during the years of the Longest March, these robotic CORV COG units contain shards of psychoactive crystal recovered from a scintillating anomaly of the galactic core. Like escorts around a capital ship, the CORV Duas employ their psycho-amplified resilience to shield their companion Grimnyr from harm. At the same time, the empyric resonance generated by their presence magnifies the fortitude of the Grimnyr's barrier-tech, helping them to ward off harmful enemy manifestations.
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Trans-Hyperian Alliance - League Colours: The Kinhosts of the Trans-Hyperian Alliance wear colours of orange and white.
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Trans-Hyperian Alliance - League Insignia: The insignia of the Trans-Hyperian Alliance is a stylised Kin glyph.
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Transdimensional Beamer - Transdimensional Beamer: A Transdimensional Beamer is a Necron weapon originally designed as a convenient method of banishing unwanted debris, machinery and failed experiments from Tomb Worlds and battlefields into a pocket dimension outside of the normal space-time continuum. However, a Transdimensional Beamer can be used just as easily to exile and banish foes to a long and horrifying death from starvation in the same extra-dimensional space.Transdimensional Beamers take on the form of small pistol weapons, and are most commonly used by Canoptek Wraiths to aid them in their maintenance of a Necron Tomb World. The Cryptek Orikan the Diviner makes use of a Transdimensional Beamer as his primary sidearm.
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Transonic Weapons - Transonic Weapons: Transonic Weapons are a specialised type of weapon utilised by the warriors of the Skitarii Legions of the Adeptus Mechanicus. When activated, these weapons emit a low, insistent buzz that makes stomachs turn and eyes vibrate in their sockets.When they strike armour, these weapons adjust their hostile sonic field to match the armour's resonant frequency, quickly slicing right through it and, in the case of the feared Chordclaw, turning muscle, bone and fat to jelly.
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Transonic Weapons - Transonic Blade: Transonic Blades are stiletto-swift weapons wielded in pairs by Sicarian Ruststalkers, transonic blades are a form of Transonic Weapon that augments the user's own strength to devastating effect.
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Transonic Weapons - Transonic Razor: The Transonic Razor is a short dagger that can be wielded by Sicarian Ruststalkers alongside Chordclaws and Mindscrambler Grenades.
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Transonic Weapons - Chordclaw: The Chordclaw is a deadly, needle-fingered claw that can remove vast parts of an enemy's body in a single, mutilating strike.
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Transubstantium - Transubstantium: Transubstantium is a strategic material known to exist within the hazardous environments of the galactic core that is precious to the Kin of the Leagues of Votann because of its incredibly resilient properties. Only three small deposits of this material have actually ever been discovered by the KIn.One of them was used by the famed Brôkhyr Kôrvyk the Hammer of the Greater Thurian League to fashioning remarkable chest plate known as Kôrvyk's Curiass. Said to be crafted with the direct aid of the nascent league's still-lucid Votann, it is a truly remarkable piece of void armour. It is said that Kôrvyk's Cuirass is as unyielding and resilient as the very spirit of the Kin race.
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