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Transuranic Arquebus - Transuranic Arquebus: A Transuranic Arquebus is a long-barrelled infantry weapon which epitomises the precision and inhuman efficiency that typify the cyborg Skitarii Legions of the Adeptus Mechanicus.Firing a shell of depleted transuranium, a transuranic arquebus can puncture a tank from one side to the other, the resultant pressure wave also pulping any biological creatures that may be sheltering inside.Both Skitarii Vanguards and Skitarii Rangers typically field Transuranic Arquebuses as a special weapon in their squads.
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Trappa - Trappa: A Trappa is a Feral Ork who is a specialist at gathering meat and furs from their homeworld's native fauna for the rest of the tribe.They are excellent at sneaking up on their enemies and set traps for them many solar days in advance. They use three different basic yet often deadly traps, known as Bang Traps, Fire Bombs and Punji Pits.
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Trazyn - Trazyn: Trazyn, also known as Trazyn the Infinite, is a Necron Overlord and the self-proclaimed Archaeovist of the Solemnace Galleries on the Necron Tomb World of Solemnace.Trazyn is a preserver of the galaxy's histories, important artefacts and events, and often "liberates" what he wants from other alien races or even his fellow Necrons so that the treasures may be preserved in his galleries.Often performing his work through mindshackled cat's paws and surrogate body hosts, recent times have forced him to take a more active role in acquiring additions to his galleries lest the historical treasures be lost in the flames of war forever.Trazyn only wages war in order to maintain and expand his collection, often disregarding strategic and tactical considerations in order to do so. However, his actions tend to coincidentally accomplish military goals, and Trazyn's underlings and allies are quick to capitalise on this while the oblivious phaeron claims his prize.Trazyn's obsessive nature means that he is loathe to explore the galaxy himself but his intense desire to gather exquisite artefacts to catalogue forces him to leave his Tomb World behind when there is an opportunity he simply cannot pass up. Furthermore, he is known to often send Necron agents disguised as himself to do his work for him.Many of Trazyn's foes have become startled to discover that the Necron they had slain who they believed to be Trazyn was in fact a Lychguard or a lesser Necron Lord. On such occasions, the real Trazyn works from behind the scenes in order to circumvent direct opposition through stealth and trickery to get his necrodermis-sheathed hands on the latest prize to add to his collection.
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Trazyn - Solemnace Galleries: The vast and numberless vaults burrowed through the Tomb World of Solemnace are crowded with technologies so rare and sublime that any Adeptus Mechanicus Tech-priest would give the life of several close colleagues just to know that they existed. The sunken chambers of the galleries are crowded with artefacts of all forms: the fabled wraithbone choir of the Asuryani Altansar craftworld, the preserved head of Sebastian Thor, the ossified husk of an Enslaver, and a giant of a man clad in baroque power armour, his face contorted in a permanent scream, to name but a few.It is a hoard ever growing, for history is always on the march, and Trazyn strives to keep pace. Alas, few worlds willingly give up the artefacts Trazyn seeks of them, selfishly clutching onto the few meaningful things of their civilisation rather than offering them up to be preserved through the ages. In such circumstances, Trazyn has little choice but to muster his armies and take them by force -- if this results in the destruction of a city, a planet or an entire sector of the galaxy, so be it.Most impressive of all Solemnace's wonders are the prismatic galleries, winding chambers of statuary recapturing events from galactic history that Trazyn deems worthy of preservation, ranging on scale from the last high council of the Idharae craftworld, to the sprawling massacres on Tragus. The prismatic galleries are populated not with mere sculpture, but living beings transmuted into hard-light holograms by arcane technology.Some such statues are nothing less than the original enactors of history, frozen in the moment of triumph or defeat and whisked away to Solemnace to forever stand as testament to their deeds.Occasionally a statue will be destroyed, shattered by a malfunctioning Canoptek Wraith's collision, the collapse of a gallery's ceiling or, as happened on one catastrophic occasion, a fire fight between Trazyn's warrior-servants and the entourage of an all-too-curious Inquisitor (most of whom now constitute their own display in one of the upper galleries), have also led to unforeseen damage.Such events drive Trazyn to frustration, for he must halt his search for fresh acquisitions and seek out replacements.Of course, few of the statues are replaceable, but there are no rules to Trazyn's galleries save those that he himself decides upon. If he decides one of the hard-light tableaus fulfils its function with substitutes -- however inaccurate -- then he will acquire them.Fully one tenth of his "Death of Lord Solar Macharius" gallery is populated by holographic Imperial Guardsmen whose uniforms are three hundred standard years astray from historical fact, but Trazyn cares only for the spectacle, not the details of bootlaces and buttonholes.Once Trazyn has resolved to refresh his galleries, he does so with great urgency, seeking out campaigning armies, vulnerable garrisons or populated worlds with flawed planetary defences.Depending on the scale of losses, replenishment might be achieved by a few simple kidnappings by low-flying Night Scythes, or may need a more substantial mobilisation to process and catalogue portions of the planetary population.Nor are other Necron Tomb Worlds immune to Trazyn's attentions. In his mind, other Necrons are no more trustworthy than aliens when it comes to guardianship of the artefacts he craves. Thus Trazyn makes little distinction between artefacts held on alien worlds and those possessed by his own kind.The resulting indiscrete "liberations" have rendered him persona non grata on several Tomb Worlds. He is forbidden entirely from the catacombs of Mandragora under pain of death, following a long-ago attempt to spirit away the Staff of the Destroyer, and welcomed on Moebius on the strict understanding that his arrival will in some way improve the standing of the ruling Nekthyst Dynasty.These occurrences go some way to explain why Trazyn rarely travels under his own name, but with his true identity concealed by pseudonym. Alas, whilst he fancies these names to be masterful attempts at deception, all are simply plucked from ancient Necron myth or fabled literature, such as Nemesor Koschai or Thantekh the Deathless.That Trazyn is rarely discovered before he is ready to make his move, therefore, says more rather about the insular nature and selective knowledge of other Necron nobles than it does his own aptitude for subterfuge. Even on Ork-held planets, T'au Sept worlds and Human colonies, where his dealings are conducted strictly through mindshackled cat's paws, Trazyn goes to great pains to keep his identity a secret.He knows full well that his activities have come to the attention of certain Rogue Traders and Inquisitors -- after all, the Imperium's tangled history presents something of an irresistible lure to one such as Trazyn. Nonetheless, whilst he remains confident in his ability to outwit the plots and snares of primitive Humans, Trazyn's paranoia is sufficient to force a degree of caution.Trazyn commonly conducts reconnaissance and campaigns through surrogates -- substitute Necron bodies into which he can pour his will by an unknown means of engrammatic transfer. Should the body suffer catastrophic damage, Trazyn's essence simply returns to his "true" form, or otherwise into another surrogate.Not all Trazyn's substitutes are immediately recognisable as such. Indeed many surrogates are actually Necron Lords or Necron Overlords in their own right who, unbeknownst to them, have had their bodies subverted by Trazyn.Should he need to occupy such a body, he can do so as easily as he could any other surrogate -- the regular occupant's will is suppressed for the duration of Trazyn's occupation, and the body itself instantly morphs into an exact facsimile of his primary form. Thus protected from the dangers of a perilous galaxy, Trazyn can go wherever his passion for preservation takes him.Yet these days of caution and plotting are fast passing by. The raucous din of war grows louder in every corner of the galaxy, consuming temples, cities, worlds and even entire races long before Trazyn has had the opportunity to catalogue and "rescue" all that is worth saving.Thus, for the first time in millions of years, Trazyn is mobilising the full might of Solemnace's legions -- the better to secure entire planets from the onset of ignorant barbarians whilst a proper and detailed cultural survey is undertaken.Already a score of the Imperium’s worlds are under occupation by Trazyn's forces, the inhabitants subjugated by his implacable minions, but the undying legions of Solemnace show no signs of stopping.
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Trazyn - Spear of Vulkan: Trazyn has tried twice to obtain the Spear of Vulkan for his collection, a potent melee weapon and one of the nine Artefacts of Vulkan left behind by the Salamanders Legion's primarch for his Astartes sons to reclaim over the millennia after his last known reappearance during the War of the Beast in the 32nd Millennium.Trazyn first sought to take the Spear from its wielder, the Salamanders Forgefather Vulkan He'stan, in 878.M41. However he was defeated in personal combat by He'stan.He made a second attempt during the Tochran Crusade in 943.M41 (see below).
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Trazyn - 13th Black Crusade: As Abaddon the Despoiler's 13th Black Crusade moved to its climax during the forces of Chaos' final assault upon the Fortress World of Cadia in 999.M41, Trazyn the Infinite played the unlikely role of hero, becoming an uneasy and self-interested ally of the Imperium of Man's defenders. Dedicated above all to his obsessive collecting, a victory by Chaos, condemning the galaxy to potential destruction at the hands of the Ruinous Powers, would severely damage Trazyn's ability to find new specimens. To this end, he decided to intervene on the side of the Imperium to try and thwart Chaos' final victory.It began on the Necron Overlord's home Tomb World of Solemnace. The first alarm came from the Bell of Saint Gerstahl. For thousands upon thousands of standard years, it had sat in silence upon its pedestal, content to while away eternity in the vast collection of artefacts possessed by Trazyn. Then, on a day seemingly little different to any other in the unchanging hallways of Solemnace, the bell began chiming with ever greater force -- in full and inexplicable defiance of the stasis vault housing it.The first doleful note it chimed split the vaulted ceiling of the bell's stasis chamber, unleashing a flood of coolant that instantly dissolved the last examples of Ooliac sand-sculpture in existence. The second note triggered a logic cascade within the circuits of Solemnace's master program, causing it to wrongly command each and every one of the Tomb World's Necron Warrior legions to return to stasis-sleep.By the time the Bell of Saint Gerstahl sounded its third chime, the reverberations had grown sufficiently destructive that even the composite alloys of Necron "flesh" could not withstand its onslaught. Trazyn lost five surrogate bodies in his increasingly desperate attempts to bring about silence. After the thirteenth chime -- and just as the collateral damage finally outpaced Solemnace's Canoptek custodians' ability to contain it -- the Bell of Saint Gerstahl finally fell silent.Pausing only to cast the contraption into the depths of the Webway -- where he profoundly hoped it would bedevil the Aeldari as much as it had lately inconvenienced him -- the lord of Solemnace pondered the meaning of it all.Departing Solemnace, Trazyn made for Thanatos, Crownworld of the Necron Oruscar Dynasty and home to the wonders of the Celestial Orrery. His welcome in those halls was less than effusive -- in part due to a misunderstanding over the Oruscar Glyph of Dominance, which had gone missing during a prior visit. However, after bargains were struck and promises made, Trazyn was finally permitted access to the Orrery itself -- if under the watchful gaze of Oruscar Lychguards.As he stepped into the whirling sphere of living metal and holographic light, Trazyn realised something was amiss. The intricate webs that formed the links of the Orrery were under-lit by a crimson stain. It pulsed beneath the weave of worlds like an infection, forcing its way to the surface. Something was coming. Something that would change the shape of the galaxy. Thus far, it had gone unnoticed, but there was no hiding anything from the Celestial Orrery, for it was not merely a representation of the galaxy, but a perfect reflection of it.Trazyn realised the Oruscar had known about the rising corruption for Terran centuries -- perhaps even millennia -- but had made no move to combat it. They could not, for inaction was the price of custodianship. But Trazyn had no such restraint -- indeed, he acknowledged no master save his own amusement. He could act, if he chose. After untold millennia, there was some appeal in playing at selflessness...But where to begin? Where was the cause of the corruption?Trazyn lost track of time studying the Orrery's pathways, searching for the wellspring of the galaxy's woes -- the source of the blight worming its way through the galaxy's heart. At last he found it, far to the galactic northwest, bordering the Eye of Terror. In the Orrery, that world was catalogued as a string of trinary data, whose details Trazyn deliberately forgot. To the Imperium of Man, it was known as Cadia. Trazyn could not recall setting foot there, not in all his travels. To his understanding, it was a drab, grey world, of interest only to the bellicose. On the other hand, if the role of saviour grew tiring, Cadia would surely offer opportunities to expand his collection.The door shuddered, then hissed open. Water crystals formed on the pock-marked metal of Trazyn's body. He didn't even need to examine the status panel to know that Phalanxes ZX/48 through ZX/128 wouldn't marshal for battle any time soon. They were frozen solid. Just like all the others."Why did I ever bring that wretched bell here?" Trazyn muttered, even though he knew precisely why he'd done so.The Shrine World's guardians had been just as desperate to keep the Bell of Saint Gerstahl as the Black Legion had been to destroy it. Thousands of lives, cast into oblivion in pursuit of one singular artefact. And all for nothing, as events had transpired. That story alone made it worth preservation -- or so Trazyn had originally thought. Now, with half his stasis vaults collapsed or ankle-deep in coolant, and his legions frozen at the command of Solemnace's damaged master program...Trazyn keyed the release. The door jerked closed. He could hardly make the journey undefended. Cadia was a near-permanent war zone, and he'd not survived the endless aeons since biotransference by taking unnecessary risks.Perhaps one of his peers would lend him a phalanx or two. Imotekh of the Sautekh Dynasty, perhaps? No...Not after Somonor. In fact, now Trazyn came to consider it, he didn't have any peers left who wouldn't turn him down outright, or else use the opportunity to assassinate him.Then perhaps one of his contacts within the Imperium itself? No. They were too parochial. There had been that one Inquisitor... A shame what had happened to her, but humans took such great delight in killing one another. No, sadly Helynna Valeria would be of no assistance, but maybe she held the key -- or at least invited a certain sardonic justice. His spirits restored, Trazyn headed deeper in the catacombs, searching for one particular vault...Trazyn eventually made his way to Cadia, accompanied by several key items holding portions of his Imperial collection. He made contact with Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl, who had set himself the task of determining how to make use of the Cadian Pylons to close off the Eye of Terror from realspace and save Cadia from the forces of Chaos.The archmagos at first mistook the Necron Overlord for another xenos who had aided him in the past and set him on the path to Cadia, the Harlequin Shadowseer Sylandri Veilwalker.Cawl turned, servo-crawlers scuttling beneath him. The intruder was not the Aeldari Shadowseer. Green eyes blazed from beneath a hood of metallic scale. The power core of a burnished staff glinted."I mean you no harm." The figure cocked his head to one side. "Are those the correct words? I find that no matter which I use, no one ever believes them." He paused. "Wait...What did you call me?"Secondary circuits meshed, retrieving ancient data. A Necron. A soulless embodiment of the Motive Force. A blasphemy against the Omnissiah. Cawl's Arc Scourge slithered to life, energy crackling across its coils. "You are an abomination."The Necron set his staff aside. "'Thief' normally suffices. I prefer 'honoured guest.' But abomination or thief, you and I have common cause."Cawl willed the Arc Scourge's tendrils to war mode, already anticipating the joy of dissection. "Logic dictates otherwise.""Then you don't seek to understand the nature of this matrix?"The Arc Scourge grew still at Cawl's wordless command. This was unexpected. Or was it the abomination's trick to preserve its mockery of existence? "You comprehend its secrets?""I was there when they were first erected. Or perhaps I wasn't. You of all people should understand that memory is a fickle thing."Cawl allowed an angry hiss to rattle through his rebreather. "We share no commonality.""Perhaps. I went to the fires of biotransference in chains. You, I think, have gladly sliced away your humanity piece by piece." The Necron stepped closer, eyes blazing. "But neither of us desires to see this galaxy ripped asunder by the Empyreal Ones. Destroy me if you wish. I will simply awaken elsewhere. Nothing will change. For me, for you ... for this world."Cawl remained silent, probabilities warping and reforming with fresh data. First an Eldar had set him on this path, now a Necron offered to guide his steps. But if the knowledge preserved the Omnissiah's Imperium ... "Show me."Sardonic laughter, dry as dust, echoed around the cavern. "I thought you'd never ask."With Trazyn's aid, Belisarius Cawl began to master the intricacies of the Necron-built pylon network beneath Cadia's Elysion Fields, the largest field of the pylons on the Fortress World. Unfortunately, a massive Chaos assault led by the Black Legion began on the caverns beneath the Elysion Fields where the Archmagos worked. To provide Cawl with more time to complete his work, Trazyn released "reinforcements" from his Tesseract Labyrinths, all potent defenders of the Imperium of Man in days past.At Trazyn's direction, Cawl focussed his attentions on the pylon that served as the command node for the Elysion Fields. With each moment, the tendrils of his machine consciousness wended deeper into the pylon's pathways, his understanding of its arcane constructions magnifying with each binharic calculation. At last, he comprehended the full scope and purpose of the pylon fields, the elegance of a design millennia beyond the advances of the Adeptus Mechanicus.Trazyn the Infinite watched from the shadows, careful not to provoke the Kataphron Breachers tasked with his obliteration should he attempt betrayal. He still didn't know himself if he intended one. The possibilities offered by the immediate future were too tempting, yet too finely balanced. Had he come as thief or a saviour? Did he any longer know how to make the choice? Uncertain, the Necron watched the Archmagos at his work.The western wall of the vast cavern collapsed with an ear-splitting roar. Black-armoured Traitors crashed into the line of waiting Electro-priests, a line that collapsed within moments of the first blow. Abaddon the Despoiler himself hacked and tore at their head, the Daemon Sword Drach'nyen cleaving alloy and bone without effort.Cawl saw none of it, his tri-level consciousness locked in the joys of discovery. Trazyn watched the Breachers' Torsion Cannons rip into the Traitors' ranks, and knew at once the Kataphrons could not prevail. Thief or saviour? The decision had been made for him. At least for the moment.Reaching beneath his scaled cloak, the Necron withdrew a gleaming fractal Tesseract Labyrinth and hurled it into the fray. It bounced twice, the shifting energy fields decomposing into glowing gossamer strands, then its captive dimensions unfolded in a burst of dazzling light, disgorging a new army into the war-torn cavern.This was not a Necron legion, nor even a body of troops drawn from a single world. The Tesseract's contents comprised the merest fragment of Trazyn's Imperial collection, drawn from archives filled to bursting, or storage vaults given over to duplicate exhibits. Some had languished in Solemnace's stasis vaults for Terran millennia, the fleeting centuries passing unnoticed. Others had joined the collection in but recent times, their captivity measured in solar months or years.For Lieutenant-Commander Cerantes of the Ultramarines Legion, barely an eyeblink had passed since the dark days of the Horus Heresy. For his Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts and mortal brothers alike, no guidance was needed save the presence of the blasphemous icons of Chaos, and the Imperium's double-headed Aquila. The Dreadnought Talon at their head, the time-lost Ultramarines prosecuted their eternal battle anew.Others were not so swift to react. The Vostroyan Firstborn's XXI Regiment, taken by the Necron Overlord during one of the innumerable Greenskin offensives along the Segmentum Obscurus, found themselves beset with stasis sickness, their heads swimming as perceptions snapped back into step with reality. But the roar of battle cures many ills of the mind, and the desire for survival transcends all existential doubt. Orders rang out, and the shaken Vostroyans entered the fray, joined by snipers from long-dead Tanith, Salamanders Astartes thought lost during the Klovian disaster, and a lone warrior in golden armour, his scarlet plume and eagle heraldry of the Adeptus Custodes seldom seen so far from the cradle of Mankind on Terra.With the arrival of the impossible reinforcements, the Black Legion assault stalled. His self-appointed duty done, Trazyn returned to the shadows. The role of saviour might perhaps have suited him in that hour, but self-sacrifice was a task he gladly left to organics.Yet there was one amongst the Tesseract-loosed group who did not join the battle, but surveyed it coldly from the fringes. Katarinya Greyfax, Inquisitor of the Ordo Hereticus, was not known for leaping to rash conclusions, for she counted rashness as but one of the many paths to heresy. Her bodyguard, drawn from the 55th Kappic Eagles, had learned this harsh lesson over many standard years of indentured service. Though Lasguns were levelled and safeties disengaged, not a single Scion fired without the Inquisitor's order.The Puritan Inquisitor Greyfax would prove to be the most potent of the Imperial agents that Trazyn released back into the galaxy that day. Though even she had not survived her time in captivity wholly unaltered, as the Necron Overlord soon made abundantly clear when he reappeared to the Inquisitor during a lull in the battle beneath the pylon fields.Greyfax aimed the muzzle of her Condemnor Bolter squarely between them. "Abomination.""That word again." A metal hand gestured lazily across the cavern. "Stop me if this sounds familiar, but I suspect your priorities require re-evaluation.""You sow corruption wherever you tread. Your reckoning is overdue." She pulled the trigger. Or she tried to. Her finger didn't respond.Trazyn opened his palm, a flood of microscopic machines flowing over his fingers. "I'm not a fool. The Mindshackle will not let you harm me."Bile flooded Greyfax's mouth. Anger seared it away. "You've corrupted me! As you did Valeria!""A precaution only. As for Valeria ... She had a remarkable brain. You robbed me of the opportunity for study."Again Greyfax tried to pull the trigger. Again nothing happened. Useless."I brought you here out of common cause," said Trazyn. "I am not yet done with this world, and nor is your Imperium. If you seek to save it, I suggest you focus that formidable certainty of yours elsewhere. Our reckoning will wait."And so it did. Cawl managed to get the Cadian Pylon network functioning briefly, and it even cut the Forces of Chaos' connection to the Immaterium by causing the Eye of Terror to begin to shrink, badly weakening the hold of its daemonic forces upon the Materium. Even the Despoiler was forced to retreat off-planet, angered that its defenders had once more managed to prevent him from claiming the prize directly in bloody-handed battle. But Abaddon would not be denied his prize this time. He used the damaged remains of the Blackstone Fortress Will of Eternity, incapacitated by an assault from the Imperial Fists mobile fortress-monastery Phalanx as an artificial meteorite, which slammed into the surface of Cadia, toppling the pylons and killing most of its remaining defenders. Not only were the Chaos' forces links to the Warp restored, but the Eye of Terror began to grow beyond its former bounds, engulfing the Cadian Gate and the dying Fortress World itself. The instability in the Warp would extend outwards from the Eye of Terror, eventually cutting the galaxy -- and the Imperium of Man itself -- in half, creating the Great Rift.For Trazyn, the cause was lost, and having done what he could, he decided to claim one more prize addition to his collection. He watched the end of the battle for the caverns beneath the Elysion Fields from a rocky perch, aware that history unfolded before him. His taste for the glory of the hero had faded, replaced by the urge to claim a trinket from the momentous hour. Perhaps a thief was all he was meant to be in the end. Metal fingers toyed with another Tesseract Labyrinth, its unfathomable dimensions fit to carry a single trophy from embattled Cadia. But what should that trophy be? So many prizes worthy of preservation clamoured for attention. A stray Volkite Culverin blast shuddered Trazyn's stalagmite, and he retired to safer ground. The Tesseract would wait. Whatever his prize, its historic value would only increase as the course of victory tipped one way or the other.And Trazyn waited til the very end, as the Imperial defenders fled the caverns beneath the Elysion Fields in the wake of Abaddon's catastrophic meteorite strike. As Lord Castellan Ursarkar E. Creed, Cadia's greatest defender and the man who had almost single-handedly kept the Fortress World alive, organised the evacuation of the surviving Imperial forces from the dying world of Cadia, determined to die with dignity even as he tried to save what he could, the Necron Overlord struck.With a shudder, the line of Cadian defenders shrank towards the evacuation fields. The winds rose, stirring the dust-storm to new heights. Suddenly Creed was alone. A flame-chased shadow passed overhead, the cog-toothed skull of the Adeptus Mechanicus emblazoned on its flanks. Las-fire lanced from its prow, provoking daemonic screams from deeper within the dust-storm. Then engines roared, and the transport thundered skywards. The last transport. Cadia was now little more than a graveyard, haunted by the stubborn and the dead.Creed stumbled. Despite the medics' valiant labours, his wounds still bled. He felt his strength ebbing as his lifeblood seeped into the greatcoat's fabric. One last effort. Then he'd rest. One last effort.The storm parted -- not before a daemon, but a metal giant in a scaled cloak. The wind snatched away Creed's hurried shot. Light glittered upon the figure's upraised palm, iridescent polygons billowing in a hypnotic dance."Ursarkar E. Creed." The giant's words slammed down like tombstones. "This need not be your end. Eternity awaits."The giant's laughter followed Creed into darkness.And then Trazyn let the darkness claim him, teleporting back to Solemnace, thief and would-be saviour both.
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Trazyn - Rivalry with Orikan: Trazyn has a long-standing rivalry with his fellow Necron Overlord and Cryptek Chronomancer Orikan that began due to their differing ideologies on the past and their agendas for the future. The two engaged in a ten-thousand-Terran-year-long struggle over access to the stasis tomb of the famed Necrontyr phaeron of the Ammunos Dynasty Nephreth and the supposed technological wonders contained within on the Maiden World and Tomb World of Serenade in the Eastern Fringe. Nephreth had left a star map to his tomb via an artefact known as the Astrarium Mysterios. The tomb itself would only open every few Terran centuries or millennia when certain astrological formations aligned.A notable feature of Serenade was the "song" of the planet, which was actually a numeric sequence that was broadcast continuously from Nephreth's tomb. The sequence, "3211-1545-4131-5322," repeated infinitely and would subconsciously influence all of the inhabitants of the planet. Its influence could be seen in almost every facet of life on Serenade over the millennia. To Necrons, continued exposure and investigation of the song could result in the onset of insanity.In an effort to be rid of Orikan as a rival for the tomb's contents, Trazyn unleashed a Genestealer into the depths of Serenade to assassinate the Cryptek. However, Orikan fought off the attack and the xenos escaped. Centuries passed, and the Genestealer, now a Genestealer Patriarch, had created a Genestealer Cult and launched an uprising upon the world. After being overrun with Genestealers, the Imperium was forced to enact an Exterminatus action, transforming Serenade into a Dead World but leaving the Necron stasis tomb deep below still intact. Unfortunately, Orikan was entombed on Serenade during the Exterminatus assault.It took Orikan over 100 standard years to dig himself out, but due to the reality that he had to reset time whenever the timeline produced the same outcome in which Trazyn trapped him, his subjective time spent in the loop was over 2,000 Terran years. Eventually, Trazyn and Orikan were forced to reconcile and join forces when it became apparent that the existence of Nephreth's tomb was simply a myth seeded in Necron culture by a C'tan Shard of The Deceiver, who had manipulated both Necron Overlords into freeing him. Using an Aeldari gemstone provided by Trazyn, Orikan was able to transform into a god-like being of light to defeat the C'tan Shard. yet, despite this temporary alliance, Orikan still swore to one day gain his vengeance upon Trazyn.
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Trazyn - Notable Campaigns: Raid on Solemnace (739.M41) - Following the onslaught of the Tyranid Hive Fleet Behemoth, the xenobiologists and Inquisitors of the Imperium were left with many questions that require answers. One such question brings Inquisitor Helynna Valeria to the ghost world of Solemnace, seeking an explanation for why the world had gone untouched when all other planets in the Hive Fleet's path now lie destroyed. Nothing could have prepared Valeria for what she finds in the silent darkness beneath Solemnace's pitted and barren surface: endless catacombs of advanced technology, long-lost artefacts from the Imperium's history and gallery after gallery of intricate life-size holographic sculptures laid out in silent tableau to commemorate historic scenes, Valeria's party is briefly awestruck by what they discover, but then the entire Tomb World comes to angry life. Wave after wave of Canoptek Scarabs and Necron Warriors descend from all sides and the still air is filled with the whine of discharging Gauss Weapons. Seeking to regain the initiative for her beset followers, Valeria led a charge against the shadowy figure orchestrating the carnage. Sighting carefully, Valeria unleashed a pulse from her Graviton Beamer that reduced the Necron Lord to mangled and fused scrap. Yet moments later, an identical figure emerged from the darkness, hale and undamaged. This time Valeria plunged the Dagger of Midnight's blade into her adversary’s heart, yet even as her opponent’s sparking frame sunk to the ground, another identical Necron Lord strode forwards, trampling the now-faceless ruin at her feet. With that, Valeria ordered a retreat back to the shuttles. Only a handful of the expeditionaries that initially set out to the world survived to reach their destination, and they did so empty-handed. Much to Valeria’s disappointment, the Tomb World of Solemnace kept all of its glorious secrets. Sometime after the conflict, Valeria received a personal hyperscroll message from Trazyn himself, thanking her for sending five regiments of Catachan Jungle Fighters to add to his galleries. Accompanying the message as a return gift was a Hyperstone Maze, one of a series of Tesseract Labyrinths constructed at the height of the Charnovokh Dynasty. It is unknown what became of this gift thereafter, or if Valeria managed to escape its transdimensional clutches and not become another one of Trazyn's prized "acquisitions."Infinite Enmity (878.M41) - Forgefather Vulkan He'stan of the Salamanders Chapter defeats Trazyn the Infinite in personal combat after the Necron attempts to wrest the Spear of Vulkan for his own collection.Tochran Crusade (943.M41) - Trazyn the Infinite claims to have discovered the Song of Entropy -- one of the missing Artefacts of Vulkan -- instigating a solar-decade-long war between the Salamanders Chapter and the Necron forces of Solemnace. Trazyn's claim proves to be a lie to lure Vulkan He'stan into a trap during the Assault of Tochran, where the Necron once again attempts to slay the Forgefather and acquire the Spear of Vulkan. The Salamanders 6th Company fight back-to-back, Bolters and Flamers defiantly blazing away at the surrounding Necrons. Forty Battle-Brothers fall during the fighting, but at battle's end, He'stan defeats Trazyn once more, and the Salamanders stand knee-deep in broken Necron bodies.The Unknowable (991.M41) - Skitarii from Stygies VIII are sent to the diluvian-class world of Magogue when the planet's industry dries up its oceans to reveal Necrontyr architecture. The Skitarii fight valiantly against the Necrons of the awakening tomb complexes, allowing the planet's islander people to evacuate to a man, but are badly outmatched. Only their commanding Tech-priests, hunting for knowledge behind the lines, escape the ensuing carnage. However, in doing so they clash with Trazyn the Infinite. One by one the Tech-priests are collected in stasis fields and displayed as part of a monument to Magogue's fall.The Carnac Campaign (999.M41) – Anrakyr the Traveller arrives on a planet he supposes to be the Tomb World of Carnac, only to find it infested with Eldar Exodites. Realising that the tomb, if it remains, will be buried too deep for him to awaken before the Exodites can themselves summon aid, Anrakyr entreats the Necron Lords and Necron Overlords of other Tomb Worlds for aid. Reinforcements arrive from Mandragora, Gidrim and Trakonn, though the most unexpected of all is a contingent from Solemnace, led by Trazyn the Infinite himself. All this takes time, however, and by the time the Night Scythe fleets deploy the invading forces, the armies of the Alaitoc Craftworld stand side by side with the Exodites. Guided by the prophecies of Farseer Eldorath Starbane and the strategies of Illic Nightspear, the Eldar attempt to stall the Necron invasion with a series of hit-and-run attacks. Their aim is to sever the command structure by destroying Anrakyr and his closest allies, but the Pyrrhian Lord manages to subvert the prophecies of the Farseer through the astromantic analyses of Orikan the Diviner. Though Orikan's divinations are by no means as focussed as those of Starbane, they are sufficient to tangle the skeins of fate and leave many details beyond the Farseer’s reach. So it is that Pathfinders arrive at what they thought to be Anrakyr’s location, only to find him long gone and squads of Deathmarks waiting in ambush. After several inconclusive battles on Carnac’s verdant plains, Anrakyr forces the Eldar to engage in a head-to-head confrontation by marching on the World Spirit shrine. As the tireless Necron legions advance upon its walls, Doom Scythes duel with Eldar fighters in the skies above, Deathmarks ply a deadly trade of ambush and counter-ambush with Alaitoc Pathfinders, and all the while Flayed Ones prowl on the flanks, pouncing on any Eldar foolish enough to show even a momentary sign of weakness. The sides are well matched, with the Necron hardiness countered by the precise strikes of the Eldar. Victory finally falls to the Necrons when Carnac’s tomb unexpectedly begins to awaken, stirred from dormancy by the tumult above. With Necron reinforcements now starting to constantly trickle into the campaign, the Eldar have little choice but to abandon Carnac and its World Spirit to their foes. Anrakyr is grimly jubilant in the campaign’s aftermath and gladly accedes when Trazyn requests the entire World Spirit shrine as spoils of war. For his part, Orikan requests no trophy or payment for victory, and merely hopes that when the flush of victory fades, no one thinks to question the convenient coincidence of Carnac’s awakening.13th Black Crusade (999.M41) - During the 13th Black Crusade Trazyn's collection on Solemnace was thrown into upheaval by the artefact known as the Bell of Saint Gerstahl, which had been designed to sound a warning when Chaos finally threatened to overwhelm the galaxy. The power of the Bell nearly brought the Tomb World down around Trazyn's metallic head, damaging the world's master program. This provoked the Necron Overlord into investigating the cause via the Celestial Orrery, a device used to monitor the galaxy that lay in the possession of the Necron Oruskar Dynasty's Crownworld of Thanatos. While using the Orrery, Trazyn discovered that the Cadian Pylons were holding back the tide of the Warp on the Imperial Fortress World of Cadia, which had become the fulcrum point in the galaxy's conflict with Chaos. Not wishing to see Chaos spread throughout the galaxy and also always eager to claim new items of extraordinary historical importance for his collection, Trazyn ventured to Cadia and aided the Imperial defenders there. Trazyn revealed to Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl how to activate the Necron-built Cadian Pylon network to seal off the Eye of Terror from realspace, but even this was ultimately not enough to prevent the destruction of the planet. Abaddon the Despoiler used the damaged Blackstone Fortress Will of Eternity as an artificial meteorite which carried out a kinetic strike on the planet's surface killing most of its defenders and toppling the pylon network. As Cadia died, Trazyn aided the Imperial defenders against Abaddon;s forces and unleashed a small portion of his Imperial collection against the Black Legion, including the Puritan Inquisitor Katarinya Greyfax. Before he teleported away once he determined that he could do no more to aid the Imperial defenders, he claimed a new prize for his collection -- the badly wounded Lord Castellan of Cadia, Ursarkar E. Creed.
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Trazyn - Notable Formations: Acquisition Phalanx – For Trazyn the Infinite, ruler of the desolate Tomb World of Solemnace, war is nothing more than an opportunity to add new items to his archives. The larger the war, the more impressive the curiosities that can be "liberated". To Trazyn, many treasures are priceless, such as a fragment of a Baneblade’s armour, provided that the Baneblade is of a storied renown and glorious endeavour. Such prizes are more than enough to lure the master of Solemnace and his personal guard into the din of battle, in a formation known as an Acquisition Phalanx that sets out specifically to capture such artefacts. An Acquisition Phalanx consists of Trazyn himself and five squads of his personal Lychguard bodyguards who have a ceaseless loyalty to their master. These Lychguard are most often armed with Hyperphase Swords and Dispersion Shields, as arcane technologies allow the interlocking shields to form a Dispersion Barrier around the formation, protecting everyone within the force field, even if they are not holding aloft their own Dispersion Shield.
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Trazyn - Trazyn's Collection: The following represent a few select examples of what can be found in Trazyn's collection of historical individuals and artefacts on Solemnace:Wraithbone choir of the Asuryani Craftworld of Altansar.The preserved head of the Ecclesiarch Sebastian Thor.The ossified husk of an Enslaver.Brother Cassiel of the Blood Angels Chapter of Space Marines, who had been seconded to the Deathwatch. Cassiel was a giant even for one of the Astartes, and his face had been perpetually frozen by Trazyn's technology in a moment of fear.One of the shrines that had contained the World Spirit of Carnac, a Necron Tomb World that had become settled by Aeldari Exodites during the the Necrons' Great Sleep. In the ensuing Carnac Campaign, the Necrons under Anrakyr the Traveller had reclaimed the planet after their awakening. A portion of the planet's World Spirit had then been claimed by Trazyn.Several regiments of Catachan Jungle Fighters taken during the Acabrius War.A device containing the entire hive fleet that launched the Tyranid invasion of the world of Vuros, which Trazyn himself had sparked in an effort to add a Tyranid exhibit to his collection. Trazyn found himself forced to abandon this particular exhibit after his legions were forced to engage in several full-scale battles with the Tyranids when portions of the exhibit managed to escape on Solemnace.Lieutenant-Commander Cerantes of the Ultramarines Legion, his battle-brothers and several Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts from the time of the Horus Heresy. These Astartes were all slain on Cadia during the 13th Black Crusade at the Battle of the Elysion Fields.At least one member of the Adeptus Custodes.Several regiments of Vostroyan Firstborn, including the XXI Vostroyan Regiment.The lost regiments of the Astra Militarum from Tanith.Astartes of the Salamanders Chapter thought lost during the disaster on Klovia.The last Lord Castellan of Cadia, Ursarkar E. Creed, captured during the final moments before the fall of that Fortress World to Chaos during the 13th Black Crusade.The Puritan Inquisitor Katarinya Greyfax of the Ordo Hereticus and her bodyguard of Tempestus Scions drawn from the 55th Kappic Eagles. After Trazyn freed Greyfax, she survived the fall of Cadia, and went on to become a major participant in the events of the Ultramar Campaign, the Terran Crusade, and eventually the Indomitus Crusade, serving as a loyal commander for the resurrected Lord Commander of the Imperium, the Primarch Roboute Guilliman. After the fall of Cadia, Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl was able to remove the Mindshackle Scarabs from her body during the journey to Macragge at the outset of the Ultramar Campaign that had prevented her from harming Trazyn during the Battle of the Elysion Fields during the final defence of Cadia, though this was not without extreme pain for the Inquisitor.A perfect clone of the Primarch Fulgrim, which he received in exchange for providing 18,000 samples of pure Emperor's Children gene-seed in a deal with Fabius Bile. He also received Perfector Flavius Alkenex and his warriors in this trade.An ancient Aeldari Khainite warrior who fought in the War in Heaven.A 12-metre-tall Krork warboss who also fought in the ancient War in Heaven between the Necrons and the Old Ones. Fabius Bile noted that the Krork's armour was more advanced than any similar wargear the Clonelord had seen on a Greenskin, and was perhaps more advanced than his own power armour.Numerous ancient Necrontyr artefacts such as pots, surgical instruments, smoking pipes and walking sticks, including the cane Trazyn himself used when he still had an organic body. This collection was vandalised by Trazyn's rival, the Cryptek Orikan, as a diversion when Trazyn caught him stealing another one of his exhibits.A thirty-khet-high statue of Trazyn himself in which he has been interpreted as a Space Marine Librarian. This unusual statue was built in his honour by the people of the Human world of Serenade after he assisted in repelling an Ork invasion of the planet, due to the inhabitants of that world mistaking him and his Necron forces for Astartes of the Silver Skulls Chapter.A group of Raven Guard and Salamanders who had been fighting on Isstvan V in the Drop Site Massacre when Trazyn captured them.An antique Dreadnought under assault by Orks who clung to its surface, in the process of beating it with pipes and wrenches.A force of Dusk Raiders trudging in snow.Aeldari Harlequins performing in a wraithbone palace.Portions of the Tyranids' Hive Fleet Kronos and Hive Fleet Behemoth. An Adeptus Mechanicus magos is also part of this exhibit.Clara and Setine Fontaine. Both were heroes of the world of Okassis during the Second Tyrannic War. They were orphaned siblings raised in a Schola Progenium and recruited into the Adepta Sororitas in 968.M41 who had already fought in two campaigns in the same squad of Dominions. They were last sighted on the walls of the cathedral-fortress of Okassis, overrun while fighting against the Tyranid swarms of Hive Fleet Kraken. For his exhibit Trazyn had sewn Setines's right hand, one cornea and most of her organs onto Clara. He had done this to restore Clara for the exhibit, as Setine had not been recoverable so the Necron Overlord had replaced her with a stand in, another Sister of Battle named Magdelena. Magdalena had spent her time in the Sororitas facing off against Heretic Astartes and had fought during the Reign of Blood in the 36th Millennium. The pair were later removed from their original Tyranid hive fleet exhibit by Trazyn and placed into a new one simply labelled "War" in the museum.A T'au Water Caste diplomat who was sent to negotiate with Trazyn.Orikan the Diviner, a powerful Necron Cryptek and Trazyn's greatest rival. He is currently being made part of an upcoming exhibit named after him.A C'tan Shard of the Deceiver
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Trazyn - Wargear: Necrodermis - Like all Necrons, Trazyn's body is built from the self-repairing living metal known as necrodermis. As befits one of his lofty rank, Trazyn's body is of superior craftsmanship and richly adorned, clearly announcing his status and allowing him to repair even the most grievous of wounds in a matter of moments.Empathic Obliterator – The Empathic Obliterator is a unique Necron staff carried by Trazyn the Infinite everywhere he goes. This terrible weapon is rightly feared by his enemies, and there is a dark rumour that the staff contains technology derived from that of the long-extinct Old Ones. When an enemy is slain by the staff, a psionic shockwave bursts forth from his body, potentially killing nearby creatures of a similar mind and purpose. Hence, an entire squad can be wiped out with a single blow of this horrific weapon. The Empathic Obliterator suits the personal combat style of Trazyn, as he disdains physical combat with "inferior" beings of flesh and blood and prefers to cleave them apart with as little fuss as possible.Mindshackle Scarabs – A Mindshackle Scarab is a specialised Canoptek Scarab variant that is one of the Necrons' chief methods for controlling sentient alien races. At the bearer’s command, a swarm of these tiny robotic scarabs bury into the victim’s head and bypass his or her cerebral functions, turning the victim into little more than a puppet under the control of the scarabs’ master. When released during combat, they can be used to force a person to attack his own forces for at least a short time before he can wrest back control of his mind.Surrogate Hosts - Trazyn has many enemies, both amongst and outside the Necrons, and hence has accordingly devised a system allowing him to outlast any assassination attempt. He has implanted within his underling Lychguards, Lords, Overlords and even Crypteks an arcane device allowing him to pour his own mnemonic engrams into their bodies whenever necessary. When he does this, the personality of the one he transfers his consciousness into becomes dormant, and its Necrodermis body adapts to become a copy of Trazyn's own body. Whenever his host becomes damaged or his presence is required elsewhere, Trazyn merely wills himself into another body. This has led to his nickname of "the Infinite", for many of his opponents have fled in dismay after smiting Trazyn down repeatedly only to see him rise again and again.
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Trazyn - In Other Media: Trazyn narrates the faction trailer of Battlefleet Gothic Armada 2.
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Treachery at Port Maw - Treachery at Port Maw: The Treachery at Port Maw was a notable military defeat for the Imperium of Man during the earliest years of the Horus Heresy and what was later designated the Manachean War. It was by the twin assaults of the Traitors on Hive Illum and the Armada Imperialis Port Majoris of Port Maw that the Manachean War was concluded, marking the end of the powerful star system that had been the heart of the Manachean Commonwealth and the establishment of the first Traitor-held domain in the galaxy.As far as the dire events of Istvaan III and Istvaan V revealed Horus' influence within the Legions of the Legiones Astartes, the Treachery at Port Maw is a testimony to how far Horus' treason ran within every other organisation -- military and civilian -- of the Imperium. To Imperial historians, the "Treachery at Port Maw" marks the beginning of a shadow war that has run its course for the last ten millennia, a fifth-columnist's and traitor's war that has since then become the hallmark of another Legion of Traitors: the Alpha Legion.
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Treachery at Port Maw - A Muster for War: The Manachean Commonwealth was an independent dominion forming its own self-governing sub-sector within the Imperium to the galactic East of the Cyclops Cluster. Considered the lynchpin of the Coronid Deeps, it was also the principal axis of Imperial power holding the northern border of the Imperium together thanks to the dual influence of two star systems: Manachea itself - principally the Hive World of Manachea Vysidae - which was in terms of population and industry the equal of any of the great Hive Worlds of the Segmentum Solar, and Port Maw which, while still under construction and expansion, was one of the most powerful Imperialis Armada bases in the northern Imperium. This border sub-sector, geared as it was for war, presented a formidable obstacle to any attack contemplated against it, and few regions outside the heartlands of the Segmentum Solar could claim to be so well protected.Port Maw itself was home to a very sizable fleet, numbering some one hundred and seventy capital and line vessels of the first rank, and nearly a thousand other warships of lesser degree, whose principal purposes were to patrol the nearby Segmenta within the borders the Great Crusade had established; defend its worlds from attack, maintain order and enforce the writ of Imperial law. As part of this peacekeeping force, stationed there at secondary bastions in the Manachea and Numinal Systems, was a combined army of one hundred and ninety-three Solar Auxilia Cohorts of the Imperial Army, forming an independent strategic command of the Excertus Imperialis under Grand Admiral Ospheus LaBray.In practical terms, this comprised notionally some 3,860,000 fully armed, equipped and disciplined soldiers outfitted to the highest standards of the Imperium's human soldiery. As Solar Auxilia, they were trained and experienced both in void combat and planetary defence operations, and represented a significant military force, even when set against the threat of a Legiones Astartes attack. Besides this elite army, the Commonwealth's own emergency defence planning was predicated upon the ability to quickly raise, arm and supply tens of millions of planetary militia in extremis, and this act itself did not seriously impact upon the massive economic output of the sector -- such were the immense labour reserves of Manachea Vysidae and the war matériel its wealth had allowed it to stockpile.Nor was the Commonwealth entirely without the assistance of the Legiones Astartes, albeit in very small numbers. The limited garrison of Imperial Fists stationed in their bastion on Manachea Lux had quickly subdivided itself and sent its Legionaries to act as advisors throughout the Commonwealth, lending their expertise in counter-siege warfare to improve defensive structure and emergency action plans. However, those of the Astartes that had managed to escape the deadly trap set for them on Istvaan V refused to submit themselves to "merely" human commanders and had pursued their voyage, grateful for the opportunity to regroup and re-equip before moving on.The question then immediately becomes: why did this vast and mobile force not come to the aid of the Cyclops Cluster when it was attacked? The answer is a simple one; it was not allowed to. The Warmaster Horus had not allowed it.Long before the first shot was fired on Istvaan V, or even Istvaan III, the Warmaster had ensured that every centre of the Imperial military he could not control or vanquish immediately would be temporarily neutralised so as not to impede his first moves in the planned galactic civil war. So it was that at the time of the Istvaan III Atrocity, numerous elements of the Port Maw Excertus had been deployed to the very edges of their usual far-flung operational range; tied down in chasing half-unsubstantiated reports of privateers or xenos marauders, occupied on deep patrols or even temporarily reassigned to other campaigns or fleets in distant border regions of the Imperium -- whether such reinforcements were truly warranted or not. With the authority of the Warmaster still absolute and uncontested, such actions didn't raise any suspicion or comment. When the rebellion became apparent, orders were modified and warship squadrons and Cohorts of Solar Auxilia recalled at once for a grand muster at Port Maw, but this was a task neither swift nor easy. Marshalling troops also became increasingly more difficult as a great increase in Warp Storms and Warp turbulence was noted which would only gain in intensity as the Horus Heresy unfolded. By 006.M31 matters became ever more dire for the isolated Port Maw Excertus as its fleet elements had spent most of the previous years chasing shadows and were now confronted with a very real and terrible enemy. All across the Coronid Deeps, reports of isolated and unknown warships, civil unrest, outlaw activities, unexplained calamities and xenos raids became ever more frequent -- then came the messengers of the Warmaster, demanding the Dark Compliance of the Cyclops Cluster, the Grail Abyss and even Lethe within the borders of the Manachean Commonwealth. It was only a question of time until such an emissary would be sent to Manachea as well.Yet no emissary came, but that seemed a small relief compared to the dire news that continued to reach Manachea. Many deep range patrols sent beyond the Segmentum border simply did not return, while raiders attacked Imperial outposts perilously close to the borders of the Coronid Prohibition Zone, an area of space where the authorities of Port Maw were forbidden to enter by ancient decree. These raids were tentatively attributed to the Rogue Trader Militant Rom Jhutlannder whose ships had served in the past as outriders and pathfinders for the Warmaster's own 63rd Expeditionary Fleet. However, when the enemy finally manifested itself, it would not be from the quarter expected, but from the western approach of the Commonwealth: a xenos-infested conglomerate of ancient ship-wrecks and trapped asteroids, a Space Hulk which the Manachean Commonwealth had not seen in many decades -- the Orks had invaded the Vlorath Srader System.
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Treachery at Port Maw - The Enemy Unlooked For: In accordance with the Coda Navis the invading Space Hulk was designated Red Polyphemus and its unexpected appearance sent the Commonwealth's military scrambling to respond. Space Hulks are immense conglomerations of shattered planetary rock and ancient derelict ships whose navigation is notoriously unpredictable. It was thought at the time that the Hulk had been drawn perhaps to the system's potent Astrotelepathic relay orbiting the system's seventh planet. However, its appearance after a brief but violent storm in the Warp seems too doubtful in hindsight to be considered as mere ill-fortune.While the Orks as a galactic-scale threat within the expansive celestial territory of the Imperium had been subdued by the Great Crusade, on the outer frontier of the Emperor's domains, they still remained a potent if infrequent menace, and the degenerate, half-devolved breed that infested the Red Polyphemus represented the largest concentration of the brutal xenos encountered in the region for nearly thirty standard years. Such a dire menace required the immediate mustering and despatch of an entire battle group from Port Maw to combat, diverting a muster of warships and cohorts intended to deal with the worsening situation in the Cyclops Cluster. By the time the Imperial fleet answered the attack, the Vlorlath Srader Relay was already overrun, and tens of thousands of mutated Orks and gyre-worms had made planetfall on Vlorlath Srader while the Space Hulk itself ploughed madly onwards, forcing the fleet into a dogged and bloody pursuit. In normal circumstances, the aid of a sizable Legiones Astartes force would have been ideally called upon to strike a death blow to the Hulk, but in these darkening times, no such aid was available. This left the Port Maw battlegroup the thankless and dangerous task of attempting to slowly pulverise the gargantuan Red Polyphemus with prolonged, close-range bombardment, rather than board it and destroy it from within -- all the time under attack by the barbaric xenos which infested it like vermin. Without the elite Solar Auxilia Cohorts of the Port Maw Excertus Command, dealing with this catastrophe would simply not have been possible, both in terms of the counter-invasion of the Vlorlath Srader System's colony worlds, and the defence of the taskforce attacking the Ork Hulk, which faced continual suicide attacks and boarding assaults by the savage xenos and their crude but murderous void engines.As the campaign against the xenos dragged on into the closing days of 007.M31, the Hulk finally began to fragment under the bombardment, but the victory's cost had entailed a butcher's bill in lives and voidships lost increasing with every report, while word reached Port Maw and Manachea of the fate that had befallen Lascal -- the destruction of an entire battlegroup of the Port Maw Armada -- and then Dominica Minor, offering a terrible blow to the Commonwealth's morale. The fears of the Commonwealth's defenders now had a name and a shape at last. Calls for military aid were passed on to still-loyal territories to the galactic East in the Coronid Reach -- the only part of the Imperium with which contact could be readily made now that the Astropathic relay of Vlorlath Srader was lost to them. Grudgingly such worlds like Numinal and Agathon gave their accord, well aware that should Port Maw fall, they themselves would have little chance to prevail on their own against this enemy. Orders for general mobilisation were issued, the final stages of emergency plans enacted, defences on the Commonwealth's eastern borders were heavily reinforced and known stable Warp termini to and from the Cyclops Cluster were aggressively laid with Void Mines. Given the ongoing battle within the Vlorlath System occupying a major part of the fleet's strength, the order was given that task forces and patrols were to be recalled where possible from all other posts and rendezvous at Port Maw with the expectation of having to meet head-on what would once have been an unthinkable threat: the direct and massed attack of the Death Guard Legion from the silence of the Cyclops Cluster.It was, unfortunately, all just as Horus had planned.
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Treachery at Port Maw - Treachery: The situation in the Port Maw System was one of extreme and ruthless order holding back a tide of chaos. The shell of the great artificial planetoid on which the vast Imperial naval base and void-forges had been built was choked by a swarm of vessels, both mighty and small, from a score of battleships girding themselves for war, to dozens of cruiser squadrons, countless hundreds of Escorts and thousands of servitor-drone tenders, victuallers and supply ships, troop transports and orbital lighters -- all about their own business as the entire star system stood on a state of high alert. In grim alliance, reinforcing fleets had come from the east, dark bronze warships bearing the fiery lantern-sigil of the Agathean Domain, one of the most isolated of all of the Imperium's clusters of human civilisation, lean pirate-killers from the Cerada Nebula and a trinity of huge storm-grey war-arks from the Mechanicum Forge World of Cyclothrathe, void-automata scuttling across their hulls like macabre insects.Into this morass of vessels, before the border fell silent, had also come the refugees from the storm. Some had been mercantile vessels, other great livestock conveyors or ore transports, fleeing from a dozen different star systems under threat or under attack, and others were warships, the ragged survivors of the battles in the Cyclops Cluster. A handful had fled from as far afield as the murderous void battles at Istvaan, but of these no Space Marine vessels remained long at anchor. Of this flotsam of war, most had been mauled by the enemy or driven past any safe operational ability in the desperate flight to reach safety, and all required aid and assistance of some kind. Some even had arrived in such a parlous state that they had to be scuttled or set to drift at the system's edge so they posed no danger to the vortex of ships that swirled around the port station.This hurricane of vessels, with its complexity and ever-shifting maze of hazards, was far too great a burden than any merely human mind could bear, and control of the vast armada was channelled through Port Maw's Mechanicum Astra Control Panopticon. This powerful broadcast tower, ten kilometres high, jutted spike-like from Port Maw's southern pole. From here fleet orders and beacon signals were relayed, navigational co-ordinates checked and rectified, and centrally controlled Cogitator-maintained data directly fed into the helms of the ships under Port Maw's watch, so as to swiftly reorganise their patterns and avoid collision. This system could, of course, be overridden by the ships themselves, but still represented a terrible vulnerability and so the Panopticon's control frequencies had been proofed against treachery by a complete replacement of cyphers and encryption-djinn following the reveal, first of the Warmaster Horus' treachery, and then changed again with panicked haste after the double blow of yet more betrayal at Istvaan V.This had been of even greater concern as a significant portion of both the Raven Guard's and the Iron Warriors' fleets had made layover for resupply at Port Maw on their way to what would become the Drop Site Massacre, and both had been fully updated on the Port's codes and deployment schedules. All of this was deemed compromised and once again swiftly replaced wholesale and, due to this, the Port Maw Void Augury and geas-override systems were believed by the Armada Command to still be impregnable against outside influence. Indeed, perhaps they would have proved so, except that the spider at the heart of this vast web, the Archmagos Leit Mercuric, Cyber-Ordinator of Port Maw, was already secretly sworn to Horus.
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Treachery at Port Maw - The Web of Deceit: Under the hand of the treacherous Archmagos of Port Maw, a fiendish web of conspiracy and malevolence had been forming and its strands stretched far and wide across the Manachean Commonwealth and its worlds, and out to the dominions of Agathon and the dual suns of Cerada at the furthest extreme of the Coronid Reach. Now its hour was at hand.This conspiracy had many layers and many agencies were bound up within it, from the Traitor Archmagos Astral Mercuric and her acolytes, to several officer cadres of the Imperialis Armada who had been corrupted by strange rites and secret societies brought into their midst while serving alongside the Sons of Horus and the Word Bearers Legions, to turncoats bribed through the more traditional means of festering dissent, greed, fear and hungry ambition, and purposefully planted spies and saboteurs hiding behind identities of murdered men and women. Their numbers, particularly in relation to the billions of men and women under arms in the Manachean Commonwealth, were in comparison very few, but they were well placed, and within such a tainted network, it had been all too easy to ensure that forces and agents loyal to the Warmaster were where they would do the most harm when the time came.Like a fruit, wholesome to the appearance but canker-ridden from within, the Manachean Commonwealth's vaunted defences were already undermined and its fate was to serve as an object lesson not in outright destruction -- as that at the worlds of the Cyclops Cluster had been -- but in the surety of a blade in the back.
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Treachery at Port Maw - The Song of Chaos: At Port Maw, in the flickering actinic light and glimmering brass of the Mechanicum Control Panopticon, a countdown set in motion long before wound down finally to zero. The Mechanicum data-djinn web blazed with a power unheard of, and all over the system Vox-circuits burned out, Auguries were suddenly shrouded in static and Auspex scanners shut themselves down as if to avoid the flash-flare of a nova. The vast swirling fleet that surrounded the Port Maw station was in a moment all but blinded, and in that same moment, the navigational net entrusted to sift safe order from chaos began to lie. Ships collided without warning, showering wreckage in the paths of others, drives flared suddenly to full power, hurling the crews of the runaway vessels to bloody pulp, pulverised by the unexpected and unguarded against accelerations, and flag bridges were swamped with hostile scrap-code.On a hundred vessels, systems failed or misfired as the chaotic signal continued to pulse, and in the others whole decks depressurised or vented into the void, dragging their silently screaming inhabitants with them. The worse calamities the deadly electromagnetic song inflicted, though, fell upon only the lesser vessels; the merchantmen and the light Escorts without the power to resist and to whom an end came swiftly. The greater warships were far too powerful and too resilient to suffer much other than debilitation and confusion from this data-djinn-borne blade in the back, their own fearsome machine-anima immediately reacting against the attack, over-riding or burning out corrupted systems to regain full control. But as they recovered, many of these leviathans of war found themselves suddenly under fire from those they believed allies.For while many reeled, there had been warships prepared in secret for this assault and others against whom the attack had not been directed at all and at whose helms Traitor hands had mastery. Already warships had begun to burn as former comrades opened fire at point blank range before they were aware of the danger, laid low by treacherous strikes intended to cripple rather than kill. Within tightly-formed squadron formations, Vox-broadcasts demanded surrender and some vessels, finding themselves surrounded by turncoats and all but powerless, could do nothing but comply. Elsewhere the initial attack had been anything but successful in subduing those ships that remained loyal, and aboard these, Void Shields swiftly ignited and alarm sirens sounded as battlestations was called with vengeful ire.On the vast conglomerate station complex that was Port Maw itself, fighting had already broken out between Traitor and Loyalist, the station's provost marshals having thwarted an attempted mutiny within their own ranks were now rallying armed resistance to lay siege to the Mechanicum Control Panopticon, which would answer neither Vox-hail or override command, and was the undoubted source of the malign digital broadcast drowning out all others. The frantic provost marshals, unable to make headway against the automated defences which ringed the Panopticon citadel, gave way to the elite white-armoured Veletaris sections of the 905th Lethe Cohort, the "Ash Scorpions" as they had come to be known. Veterans of a dozen ferocious war zones, the discipline of battle had turned these Feral Worlders into a lethally effective fighting force. Blasting through bulkheads with Melta Bombs and tracked Rapier cannon, they worked their way corridor by corridor, cutting down any resistance they met with savage crossfires of Volkite rays and forced a passage through the Maw's labyrinth of tunnels towards the generatora which supplied the Panopticon with its power.As they battled closer to the Mechanicum section, matters became yet more desperate as the station's fabric itself seemed to turn against them and they were forced to bring up Flamer units to scour the passageways of scuttling haemonculites and darting Servo-skulls, driven in frenzied attacks like maddened animals. Breaching their way at last into the great generator vault, they found a vast cathedral-like space, dominated by five enormous, lightning-shrouded plasma coils, each as large as a Battle Titan. Here stood the acolytes of the treacherous Archmagos-Astral Mercuric, hulking Tech-priests as heavily armoured as Legiones Astartes Terminators in order to endure proximity to the radioactive infernos they tended, metre-wide steel spiders which leered with the rictus-dead grins of human skulls from the gantry-ways and webs of cabling that festooned the vault, and scores of blank-eyed Servitors, their flesh scorched cinder-black. Beyond all these, guarding the central control pulpit, was a maniple of iron-grey Castellax Battle-automata, their Bolt Cannons levelled and cycling; a deadly barrier beyond which nothing could pass.Battle was joined. The fate of Port Maw hung in the balance, bravely the Ash Scorpions advanced into heavy fire, rushing from cover to cover as fast as they could as they tried to find a way through the tangle of consoles and companionways to the heart of the generatora. Soon the cavernous vault was filled with a hurricane of shrieking energy blasts and roaring bolt shells. Machinery exploded, companionways buckled, acrid smoke filled the air. Men and automata were cut down alike, steel claws found flesh and bit deep, Flamers gouted their hot breath, grenades clattered and thundered, shredding bodies and sundering metal. Amid the storm, the wall of Castellax automata stood unbreached, their armour scorched and smoking as blasts and shell washed over them like hail across stone until a trio of tracked Rapier batteries emerged from the smoke, the shearing beams of their Laser Destroyers converging on the lead Castellax and sending it to burning oblivion.Sensing that their moment had come, the Veletaris storm sections broke from cover, screaming the ancient blood-cries of their Feral World, and charged the breach in the lethal barricade of Battle-automata. Dozens died before they reached it, torn to pieces by the fury of the Mauler Bolt Cannon of the surviving Castellax, while others were pulverised by the heavy blows of their servo-claws, but like a pack of raptors they swarmed the armoured behemoths, Volkites spitting hellish rays at point blank range into joints and tears in the Battle-automatas' armour. Another of the Castellax fell, thrashing in blind rage as its legs were cut from beneath it, and the Veletaris surged through, crashing into the Tech-priests with a strength born of desperation and sacrifice that could not be allowed to be in vain.Only a single Veletarii Prime, whose name has gone unrecorded, managed to force his way through the tumult and slaughter to the dais of the control pulpit, his Void Armour blood-splattered and aflame. With no time for thought or plan of action, he plunged his Power Sabre directly into the heart of the machine, even as vast steel claws were fastening themselves around his pressure helm. The pulpit dais exploded in a blazing white fireball, murderous arcs of lightning shot from the great plasma reactor cores, ravaging the vault as their emergency protocols engaged, and the misdirected power was vented into the capacitors which lined the wall, burning men and machines caught between them into clouds of cinders.Outside, the interference signal blanketing Port Maw first faltered and then failed.
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Treachery at Port Maw - Triumph and Betrayal: In the void-space around Port Maw sudden, deafening silence cut through the incessant pulse across the Vox and signal network of the Loyalist voidships and in its wake matters immediately became less chaotic and more murderous as battle lines were swiftly drawn between friend and enemy, hails sent and answered, ultimatums and demands for surrender issued and spurned, and command asserted in the face of the crisis.Aboard the titanic Triumph of Reason, the Port Maw Armada flagship -- a huge fleet control vessel re-forged from the twin hulls of two Legatus-class macro-battleships crippled in the earliest years of the Great Crusade -- the attempted assassination of Grand Admiral Ospheus LaBray had been thwarted and an attempted mutiny eradicated with bloody certainty. LaBray was now once more in command of the immense warship and with the malign signal countered, the auguries and strategium-luminator systems of the Triumph -- designed to order and direct an entire Segmentum fleet-of-war if needed -- reasserted tactical control over all Loyalist vessels that would answer its call. LaBray's first order was to the Dictatus-class ram-battleship Kurga, which hung in orbit near the Port Maw station, having just similarly suppressed a mutiny of its own. Awakening to war, it powered towards the now silent Mechanicum Panopticon tower, the six-kilometre-long armatures of the ram-battleship's triple servo-claws extended. The Kurga smashed into the tower, the thirty-metre-long teeth-spikes of its claws piercing its armour and sinking slowly through its guttering power fields, and were joined moments later by scores of rocket-fired Melta-barbed harpoons which speared into the brazen faces of the tower. Its victim secured, the Kurga’s drive burned white hot. The ten-kilometre-tall tower shivered and cracked, resisting defiantly against the unimaginable forces tearing at it, but soon shuddered and gave way as the Kurga’s oversized engines burned like hellfire. The tower broke, a myriad of secondary explosions rippling along its length as it crumbled like rotten wood and was dragged free into the void. The malign signal would not sound again.At the centre of the maelstrom of voidships, Loyalist and Traitor vessels began to break apart, guns firing in fitful bursts, uncertain of friend and enemy. On the outer edges of the vast, slow, vortex of ships, tens of thousands of kilometres from Port Maw itself, the outriders of the great armada were only just recovering. These vessels had not been part of the core fleet at the Maw and comprised dozens of reinforcement squadrons sent to the muster from other systems, along with numerous refugee craft and mass conveyors, around which were small provender and repair vessels that flitted like tiny sea creatures swarming around ocean leviathans. Here, removed from the heart of the treacherous attack, the carnage had been less extreme and the mutinies fewer, but still the anathema signal from Port Maw had blinded and deafened them for a time and now most were bewildered and uncertain of just what the catastrophe unfolding before them meant, uncertain of who was firing on whom, or why.At the outermost edge of the maelstrom of warships, and all but unnoticed in the confusion, one of the great war-arks of Cyclothrathe, which had so far taken neither side in the anarchy, now triggered its manoeuvre jets and came about. The colossal barrel-shaped vessel slowly turned and pointed its prow towards the opposite edge of the spiral arm of outer ships to the still unengaged warships of the Cruiser squadron sent from distant Agathon to answer Port Maw's call. Not one of these vessels bore a Traitor inside and to them the battle yet had no seeming cause and no clear side to choose. The Cyclothrathine war-ark, designated Arithmetic of Violence, silently broke apart, its ten-kilometre-long hull plates separating like the petals of a colossal flower in the storm. Revealed within in place of internal decks were row upon serried row of inert void torpedoes, which, as if lit by a single torch, ignited their plasma drives with a golden blaze of fire. They burned across the void to the Agatheans, smaller ships caught in their path obliterated instantly, and struck home like the obliterating fist of a god. The sudden searing flash of a score of mighty warships dying at once in fire was so bright, that in that instant it burned visible to the naked eye even to the dark edges of the system's Ort-cloud. And there in answer, a gigantic black warship came to life.
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Treachery at Port Maw - The Ravens: At the same hour that the first footfalls of the Titans were sounding at Hive Illum on Manachea, at Port Maw open void battle had now erupted between those ships that had turned fully Traitor and those who had remained Loyal, while all across the artificial planetoid station below them, civil war was being waged with bloody conviction. The Traitors' plan had proved only partly effective in conquering the Loyalist fleet from within or forcing its surrender, and now the malign influence radiating from the Mechanicum Panopticon had been ended, the Loyalists were rapidly gaining strength.After the bloody and chaotic skirmish, those warships that remained mobile had broken away and parted into two battle lines, forming thousand-kilometre-long crescent formations mirroring each other in orbit round the Maw, each now staying their range and keeping the bulk of the artificial planetoid between them and the enemy as they manoeuvred to form up. Around them hundreds of wrecks and stricken voidships cascaded, reeling with damage or drifting paralysed as bloody struggles raged on within them for control. Neither force had such overwhelming superiority yet that a direct attack on the other would guarantee victory without severe losses, but both knew that to attempt to flee -- to turn away from the enemy and run -- would be to secede the entire strategically vital star system and all it contained to the enemy. The fate of Port Maw and its vast armada hovered on a knife's edge.As the two battle lines fell into a deadlock, from the darkness of the outer system came a new and unexpected threat. The dark fleet answered no hails, broadcast no identification cyphers, but came hurtling on at near relativistic speeds like a dagger hurled at the heart of Port Maw. In the strategium of the gargantuan Loyalist flagship, the Triumph of Reason, Grand Admiral LaBray awaited impatiently as his sensorium officers strained their Auspexes to get a firm report on the incoming fleet. Some form of masking technology was being employed that scattered and defused the scanning beams, making a definite fix on the vessels impossible to attain. LaBray likely knew, as many of his rank did, of the rumours of such arcane devices being employed by the secretive Raven Guard Legion -- a Space Marine Legion which remained Loyal, but was reported destroyed at Istvaan V.Could this be a Raven Guard splinter fleet, the survivors of that cataclysmic battle? If so why did they not answer, why did they not identify themselves? These questions could not be readily answered. But however effectively their true nature was shrouded from LaBray's Auspexes, while operating at such intense acceleration, their engines burning bright with plasma thrust, they could not hide their number; there were twenty vessels by their drive flares, at least half of which were capital class by his savants' estimations, meaning LaBray's own fleet outnumbered the interlopers by a margin of four for one. It was a force which alone he could overwhelm, but if it joined with the mass of the enemy now matching him in orbit on the other side of Port Maw, would likely tip the balance in the Traitors' favour. Without hesitation LaBray gave the order, and the vast crescent of his armada turned and began to arc toward the stranger-fleet on an intercept vector, their own engines burning bright.The distance closed, thousands of kilometres flashing by in mere seconds, and behind the Loyalists the Traitor fleet followed suit, but it would be LaBray's ships that would meet the newcomers first, that was now inevitable. The solar minutes ticked by until it was reported that the incoming ships were now close enough to be within visual range of the flagship's occularis, and LaBray immediately ordered the image up before him. It was only then that he realised the depth of his mistake. The vanguard of the incoming ships were indeed Legiones Astartes Battle Barges of the Raven Guard, or at least had been; two modified Dagon-class Grand Cruisers bearing the sable heraldry of the Primarch Corax's Legion now torn and burned in the fires of battle, but what came after them was not of the Raven Guard. The monster rose up behind the Battle Barges, making them seem as mere frigates in comparison to its nightmare magnitude. It was a ship no Imperial captain could ever have failed to recognise at first glance, it was a war machine few vessels could ever hope to match, but what its presence portended was darker still. It was the Vengeful Spirit; it was the flagship of Horus.
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Treachery at Port Maw - Conquest: The warships of the Sons of Horus cut into the Loyalist battle line at its apex, smashing into it head on, the turncoat warships of the Raven Guard being sacrificed to soak up the fury of the Loyalist guns as they closed. The Traitor spearhead of warships cut into the Loyalist fleet like a lance, piercing it bodily, splitting the Loyalists' defensive formation in two like an axe cleaving meat.At the apex of the spearhead, the Vengeful Spirit came on through the blast waves of flames and debris ahead of it like a beast of ancient myth made real, its armoured prow smashing aside Loyalist cruisers like toys, its many-decked broadside batteries smashing shields and cracking open hulls with contemptuous ease as it passed. Along its darkly armoured flanks, strange symbols writ as if by a colossal hand seemed to flicker and fade, as if pulsing to some terrible heartbeat and the void around it appeared to twist and recoil. The juggernaut-ship plunged on through the Loyalist vessels, dealing death as it went, unstoppable. The gargantuan Battle Barge of Horus had one goal, one true target; the Triumph of Reason protected at the heart of the Loyalist armada, and the focus of its command and control.Its quarry in sight, the Vengeful Spirit made as if to ram the vast double-hulled Triumph of Reason, but as it closed -- the guns of both hunter and prey blazing savagely -- the Vengeful Spirit’s engines flared and it spun suddenly on its axis -- a manoeuvre which at that velocity should have been fatal for any ship of its size -- the manic and unexpected turn smashing to dust two hapless Escorts that found themselves in its path, while a bastion frigate that caught the full blast of the Vengeful Spirit’s engines as it swung was flung burning into the void. The space between the two gargantuan warships seemed to distort and shudder as the ship of the Warmaster violently arrested its progress so that it now flew above and alongside the Triumph -- matching her course and velocity. In response to the seemingly impossible manoeuvre and the threat now looming vulture-like over the Triumph, the lumbering giant below her tried to throw herself aside to evade what was to happen next or at least try to bring her own broadside to bear, but she was too slow and it was too late. Vortex missiles, rare and deadly weapons of the Dark Age of Technology, spat from the Vengeful Spirit’s broadside launch tubes and exploded in ghostly spheres of silent nothingness that tore away the Triumph of Reason’s Void Shields like paper and cracked open the decametres-thick hull plating beneath them like splintering ice. Seconds later, the Dreadclaws and Kharybdis of the Sons of Horus followed, punching through the weakened hull in a score of places and spilling out a cargo of death within. Gunships and assault rams followed, forcing their way into flight bays and hangars, crash-landing in a storm of fire and shell.Throughout the Triumph emergency alarms sounded "repel boarders", security bulkheads slammed shut and weapons cages were flung open to arm the thousands of crew, from the lowliest galleys rating to the highest astrogator. The elite Solar Auxilia of LaBray's own Lifeguard Cohort rallied to meet an invader that was already within their iron walls, and soon corridors and gun decks were filled with the din of battle and the screams of the dying. Quickly, the Sons of Horus assault forces smashed their way into the core of the vast and labyrinthine double-hulled warship, killing with controlled savagery, viridian-hued Legion Breachers locking shields to march down on automated gun stations that turned the air in front of them into hurricanes of shellfire, heedless of their punishing losses. Elsewhere, Sons of Horus Reavers turned crew decks into blasted abattoirs, headless bodies strewn in their wake as crew, Servitor and armsmen alike were slain without mercy by Bolter and blade.At defensive chokepoints and at the gateways to vital compartments, the Solar Auxilia Lifeguard made their stand as black armoured Terminators thundered inexorably towards them, maintaining disciplined volleys of las-fire of such intensity that the sable ceramite of the Cataphractii began to glow a dull ember red and their gilded chasements ran molten as hot wax. In the bowels of the Triumph, armoured locking mechanisms were thrown open, cryo-chambers vented and at LaBray's command the last line of his gargantuan flagship's defence was set loose upon the enemy; Ogryn Charonites - hundreds of them. Mutilated, cybernetically-augmented monsters, fueled by rage and combat stimulants -- barely controllable -- the process that created these beasts of war were themselves based on techno-arcana many had thought better abandoned to the Age of Strife. But such creatures were still maintained under Imperial dispensation to the masters of the Solar Auxilia, a weapon of dire resort that was unleashed now against the Sons of Horus. The hulking, surgically-armoured Abhumans towered over a Space Marine, and their augmetic fists could crush Power Armour as easily as bulkhead plate.Even against the superhuman warriors of the Sons of Horus, in the confines of the Triumph’s passageways and engine decks, the Charonites proved deadly, smashing into their ranks and sending them flying or ripping them apart like over-cooked meat. Bolters hammered the Charonites at point-blank range, blowing out bloody chunks of their chem-infused flesh, Chainswords slashed and wheeled, but to seemingly no effect, and the insane Abhumans ploughed on, heedless of the wounds that would have killed even a Legiones Astartes many times over -- even headless they sometimes continued to murderously flail around them until life was torn from bodies smashed beyond recognition. Force was met with force, savagery with savagery, and soon the Traitors' attack began to stall as casualties mounted on both sides. For the briefest moment, a glimmer of hope came to the embattled survivors of the Triumph of Reason, only to die as the eerie screams of reality being torn open echoed all across the Loyalist flagship as the Vengeful Spirit’s second wave of attack teleported on board, and with them came Horus.Horus, the Warmaster, Primarch, God of Battle; nothing could stand before him. Into the thickest concentration of Charonites he charged, his black-pelted cloak streaming behind him, his maul, Worldbreaker, crushing the Ogryns as if they were inert figures of gore-filled porcelain rather than the nightmares of Old Night made flesh. In him his Legion found new vigour, a dark power seeping into their souls which hurled them at the enemy once more like the devils of ancient lore. Seeing that all was lost, LaBray led the last of his personal Lifeguard in an attempted break for the ship's fighter bays, hoping no doubt to escape to another Loyalist vessel, but even in sight of the launch bays they were cut off. Denied even the glory of a last stand, LaBray and his party were torn apart in a savage crossfire, his half-incinerated body only later identified long after Warmaster Horus had moved on from the war ravaged star system. As a tide of murder, Horus and his sons crashed through the Triumph of Reason, obliterating all in their path, until at last, the command decks were breached and the Strategium broken open, and all within slaughtered without deference to rank or title. Before Horus, the human crew of the Triumph of Reason simply cast down their weapons in despair, but such submission did not save them. From the corpse-strewn bridge of the Loyalist flagship, the Warmaster addressed the surviving Loyalist fleet, his voice burning across the cold void to the very depths of Port Maw where the fighting raged on still. To those who resisted him, this god of death offered mercy and praise of their valiant, if deluded, struggle: submission and service to him would spare them, only this. They would be his now and forever, or they would be exterminated utterly.Leaderless, broken, and alone the Loyalists were now confronted with the same unimaginable force that had cowed and butchered countless star systems in the name of the Emperor, and had no answer to its inhuman power. One by one, save for a handful such as the Kurga who fled into the darkness, the Loyalist ships struck their flags, dispersing their shields and cutting their targeting Auspexes and thereby surrendered. Within the myriad corridors and vaults of the great station complex itself, the din of battle died away to a dreadful silence, broken only by the cries of the wounded and the dying.Port Maw and everything in it now belonged to Horus Lupercal.
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Treachery at Port Maw - Aftermath: The conquest of Port Maw opened the way for the progress of the Warmaster's hosts, beginning what would later be called the March on Terra, a succession of campaigns and conquests that would see the Traitors creep ever closer to the Segmentum Solar and the Imperial Palace on Terra itself. Horus and his Legion would not stay long on Port Maw or indeed the Manachean Commonwealth as the frontline still needed to move further, soon reaching shunned Gyrién, storied Dwell and even the vaunted Fortress World of Molech whose defences stood even greater than those of Manachea. All would be conquered and fall before the Traitors' implacable advance.The outcomes and repercussions of the Treachery at Port Maw were many. First and foremost, the fall of the Manachean Commonwealth and Port Maw marked the foundation of a true secessionist empire, an almost functional Traitor-held domain that had been carved out from the flesh of the Imperium. It would be on Port Maw and not on Manachea that Horus would establish this new domain, given the stricken and blood-bedecked Triumph of Reason over to Taloc Thorne, a former line Captain of the Sons of Horus and the newly proclaimed Tyrant of Port Maw who was given power and authority over this new realm, to rule it and defend it in the name of Horus. Renaming the mighty vessel The Lash, the former flagship became a sombre, blood-bedecked throne room for its new ruler. Given troops drawn from those Solar Auxilia Cohorts recruited on the Sons of Horus' own homeworld of Cthonia -- six full cohorts of Chtonian Jackals -- and an entire battle company of Astartes, this new ruler would impose a Dark Compliance on both Port Maw and the worlds of the former Manachean Commonwealth. With the conquest of Port Maw, the Traitors gained a strong naval stronghold and perhaps most importantly, the necessary facilities to rearm, reequip and repair their war-weary or stricken warships for the long and undoubtedly punishing push to Terra. Within a few short solar days, envoys of the Dark Mechanicum -- to whom the anchorage points and ship-fanes had been given over -- had reconstituted the Maw's operational capabilities; with the damaged Sons of Horus Strike Cruiser Oblivion -- which had been damaged during the final assault on Hive Illum -- believed to be one of the very first vessels to be repaired there.Secondly, the corruption of much of the troops and vessels of the Port Maw Excertus had considerably added to the Traitors' ranks, most notoriously in naval might where it was estimated that more than a hundred vessels had rallied or been forced into the service of the Warmaster. Of these mighty vessels and troops Port Maw was quickly stripped -- deemed secured -- to fight in other campaigns or foreign star systems as the civil war spread through the Imperium. Yet, for all the advantages it had brought -- including the ultimate death of Grand Admiral Labray and the capture of his flagship -- the Treachery was not a total victory for the Traitors.On many occasions, the turncoat elements of the Imperium's military branches had been kept in check despite benefitting from an overwhelming element of surprise. Even though having suffered few casualties and even added to its ranks, the Traitors were now far more fractious than they had been before. With many of the turncoat vessels and troops despatched to fight on other fronts -- perhaps as a result of Horus' lack of trust regarding their true allegiance -- Port Maw was now left far more vulnerable than it had ever been before, Horus leaving but a skeleton fleet of perhaps seventy vessels of the line behind him to impose order and the bloody quotas he demanded from the worlds he had conquered. Whilst this fleet was more than enough to keep the Dark Compliance within the Port Maw and Manachea Systems, they proved desperately too few to truly control the vast expanses of the Coronid Deeps. With so few vessels and troops at his disposal, Taloc Thorn could also exert little authority over those independent factions that had allied themselves with the Warmaster and that began pursuing their own agendas almost as soon as Horus had left rather than to follow his orders. Most notoriously amongst these was the Cyclothrathine Mechanicum which shunned the duty to protect and man Port Maw as much as it dared in regard to pursue its own war of conquest in the Coronid Reach with the conquest of the Agri-world of Numinal or the colonies of the Cerada Trinity, whilst the reaver-Knights of House Ærthegn led their own raids in the Grail Abyss.The successful escape of a single Loyalist Cruiser -- the Telemachus -- and its return to the Agathean Domain would also have dire consequences for the Traitors, spurring the retired hero of the 60th Expeditionary Fleet, Ireton MaSade, into action. Seizing power from the weakening grip of its planetary rulers, Ireton MaSade would put the entire star-system on a war footing, pursuing a war of vengeance against the Cyclothrathine Mechanicum he considered solely responsible for the death of his beloved grandaughter -- the Telemachus’s captain, Jocasta MaSade. This course of action, which would ultimately lead to the famed Liberation of Numinal and open a secondary front behind the main lines of the Traitor's advance, funneling important resources and troops and further destabilising the entire region.
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Treachery at Port Maw - Notable Vessels: Triumph of Reason (Unique Battleship, Unknown Class) - The Triumph of Reason was a vessel with a long and twisted history. Built from the wrecked hulls of two prior Legatus-class Battleships that had been mauled early on during the Great Crusade, the Triumph of Reason was easily the biggest ship in the entire Segmentum Obscurus Armada. Rebuilt after a unique pattern, the Triumph of Reason was designed from the start to become the flagship of the entire Segmentum Armada and much weight and space was given over to communication and Auspex devices. Stationed at Port Maw for the greater part of its career, placed under the command of Grand Admiral Ospeus LaBray for much of its early years, the Triumph of Reason was equipped with countless cryo-chambers to harbour Ogryn Charonites, the only troops at the admiral's disposal that would prove superior to traitorous Legiones Astartes in case of boarding actions. The Triumph of Reason would participate in the early hours of the Horus Heresy at the notable Treachery at Port Maw where it would assume control and command of the entire Port Maw Armada and its allies once the destruction of the Mechanicum Panopticon at the heart of the treachery had been confirmed. It would be from the bridge of the Triumph that Grand Admiral LaBray would coordinate the battle against the Sons of Horus fleet, even engaging the infamous Vengeful Spirit of the Warmaster Horus himself. Outmanoeuvred by the Vengeful Spirit, the Triumph of Reason came under attack by Sons of Horus boarding parties and even the Archtraitor Horus Lupercal himself after the first assault wave had been nearly thrown back by the hundreds of Charonites held in the Triumph's bowels. Seized from within and with LaBray being killed in his failed attempt to abandon ship, the Triumph of Reason would remain at Port Maw for the following years of the civil war, its communications hub needed to replace the destroyed Panopticon. The once-proud Imperial vessel became a glorified if macabre throne room for Horus' chosen regent, a Sons of Horus line Captain by the name of Taloc Thorne, who renamed the battleship "The Lash" and took the title of the Tyrant of Port Maw.Vengeful Spirit (Gloriana-class Battleship) - The Vengeful Spirit was a towering Gloriana-class Battleship modified to confirm to the Scylla Pattern and that served faithfully as the Luna Wolves' -- and later the Sons of Horus' -- flagship during the entire Great Crusade. As flagship of the XVI Legion, the Vengeful Spirit was also the personal warship of the Warmaster Horus Lupercal, harbouring his command centre and throne room, its hull being adorned by the Warmaster's own emblem; the Eye of Horus. More powerfully armed than nearly any vessel in service of the Emperor, the Vengeful Spirit would become a dreaded sight during the dark years of the Horus Heresy, preying on Imperial star systems with its powerful engines which made the colossal battleship a far quicker predator than most readily believed. By the time of the Manachean War, the Vengeful Spirit’s transition to a flying temple to the Dark Gods had already begun, its once proud hull defaced with ritual and esoteric symbols several hundred feet wide and in all likelihood painted with human blood. Present at the events known as the Treachery at Port Maw, the Vengeful Spirit would lead the Sons of Horus into the developing battle between Traitors and Loyalists of the Port Maw Armada. Approaching covertly behind two captured Raven Guard Battle Barges, the Vengeful Spirit would almost immediately head for the Triumph of Reason, the Loyalist flagship which it badly mauled before sending boarding parties to capture the pride of the Port Maw Armada. The Warmaster himself would be forced by necessity to join the boarding actions, as his troops were being slowly overwhelmed by rampaging Ogryn Charonites Grand Admiral LaBray had released as a last line of defence. Turning the course of the battle by himself, Horus was however denied the satisfaction of slaying the Grand Admiral. The Vengeful Spirit would leave the Port Maw System carrying the Warmaster all his way to the Battle of Terra and his final confrontation with the Emperor of Mankind. The Vengeful Spirit still roams the galaxy, having found refuge in the Eye of Terror with the Black Legion of Abaddon the Despoiler.Arithmetic of Violence (Mechanicum War-ark, Unknown Class) - A gigantic vessel of nearly ten kilometres in length, the Arithmetic of Violence was only one of a trio of such vessels present at Port Maw during the events of the Treachery. Secretly in league with Horus for many years, the Cyclothratine Mechanicum had infiltrated the Port Maw muster under the guise of loyal servants of the Emperor. When the blanketing signal was released from the Mechanicum Panopticon Tower, the Arithmetic of Violence used the surrounding pandemonium to manoeuvre itself into perfect launch position for its devastating complement of plasma-torpedoes. Blossoming like an unholy flower, the Arithmetic of Violence shed her long hull plates and revealed row upon row of void torpedoes that annihilated the allied fleets of Agathon, Numinal and the Cerada Trinity in a single devastating volley -- for their crews and captains had not been corrupted or infiltrated and remained staunch Loyalists of the Emperor. Yet the Arithmetic of Violence failed in its task as one lone survivor -- the Telemachus -- remained and would escape from the system to carry news of this betrayal to its homeworld.Kurga (Dictatus-Class Battleship) - The Dictatus-class was an ancient class of ram-battleship that had slowly become obsolete as the Great Crusade wrought on. The Dictatus-class were almost primitively barbaric in their design as their main role was to ram enemy voidships and shred their hulls like an ancient seaborne predator with their enormous jaws -- a tactic that seems more suitable for the dreaded Orks than the Emperor's soldiery. Mounted on a set of hydraulic platforms, these triple gigantic servo-claws -- each one of them nearly six kilometres in length -- comprised a row of nearly thirty-metre-long teeth-spikes, while its "mouth" supported scores of rocket-powered Melta-barbed harpoons not unlike the more massive Ursus Claw that was the pride of the World Eaters flagship, the Conqueror. The Kurga was present at the Treachery of Port Maw from which it remained one of the few Imperial warships that succeeded in making good its escape despite having to crush a mutiny on board. It remains famous to this day for having shred and ripped off the Mechanicum Panopticon tower which Traitor elements had used to sabotage the Armada's communication network and targeting arrays. The Kurga would go on to fight with distinction in the years after the Treachery, its powerful drives and unorthodox tactics proving a valuable asset in the dark years to come.Telemachus (Unknown Class, Cruiser) - The Telemachus and her sister-ships -- all veterans of the former 60th Expeditionary Fleet -- answered Grand Admiral Ospeus LaBray 's call after the costly destruction of the Space Hulk known as the Red Polyphemus. Battlefleet Agathon send an entire squadron of Cruisers to the gathering Imperial armada at Port Maw. The Telemachus ' captain was none other than Jocasta MaSade, grandaughter of the famed Ireton MaSade, former Imperial Commander of the Agathean Domain and future hero of the Imperium. The Telemachus was the sole survivor of the eight Agathean Cruisers send to the great Armada Imperialis muster at Port Maw, its sister-ships all falling prey to the treacherous attack of the Arithmetic of Violence during the infamous Treachery at Port Maw-incident. This single act of violence would trigger a gruesome war of vengeance between the forces of the Agathean Domain and those of Forge World Cyclothrathe. Despite her wounds, the tenacious Jocasta MaSade refused to leave her bridge, urging her crew to fight on. It was only once the Telemachus had escaped the trap set for her that Jocasta MaSade let herself be examined. Alas, by then the damage had been done and the valiant captain died from blood-loss. The arduous journey back home would however set events in motion that determined the Agathean Domain's participation in the Horus Heresy.
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Treaty of Mars - Treaty of Mars: The Treaty of Mars, known as the Treaty of Olympus Mons to the Adeptus Mechanicus, is the formal name given to the binding agreements that regulate the coexistence of the Imperium of Man and what was then the Mechanicum of Mars since before the start of the Great Crusade. The treaty was signed in 739.M30.To prevent a wasteful and costly war between the Imperium of Man that was forged on Terra in the wake of the end of the Unification Wars in 712.M30 with the techno-empire that had evolved on the Red Planet during the Age of Strife, the Emperor of Mankind proposed a generous compromise that would cement the alliance and collaboration between both entities for the next ten standard millennia.The Treaty of Mars granted political autonomy to the Mechanicum of Mars and its Forge Worlds scattered across the galaxy as well as an exception to the Imperial Truth so that the Cult Mechanicus' adherents could continue to practice their faith in the Machine God.The Imperium would provide six houses of Navigators and new choirs of astropaths to the Mechanicum so that it could unite its far-flung empire of lost Forge Worlds and continue its sacred Quest for Knowledge across the stars.In exchange, the Mechanicum would supply the Imperium of Man with the weapons, starships, materiel and technicians required to initiate the Emperor's Great Crusade to reunite all of the Human-settled galaxy beneath the banner of the Imperium.To symbolise the alliance created between Terra and Mars that marked the true birth of the new Imperium, the Emperor changed His personal sigil from one of a raptor and lightning bolt -- the Raptor Imperialis -- to the Aquila, a two-headed eagle whose heads represented the twin foundations of the new Human interstellar government -- Terra and Mars, Imperium and Mechanicum.
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Treaty of Mars - Age of Strife: In times long past, during the Dark Age of Technology, both Terra and Mars maintained separate interstellar empires and collaborated peacefully for the benefit of all Mankind. The onset of the Age of Strife would shatter this amity, as Terra descended into techno-barbarism.On Mars, the situation became even more dire, for the Red Planet's terraformation was still incomplete. Because of the lack of maintenance of the planet's infrastructure during the conflicts that consumed Mars in that period, its atmospheric radiation shields and oxygen generators soon disintegrated, allowing deadly solar ultraviolet radiation to destroy the fragile Martian ecosystem and wiping out the sparse, genetically-engineered vegetation which had taken millennia to cultivate.As other toxins spilled into the environment from the degeneration of the world's great macro-industrial complexes, Mars returned to being the red wasteland that had characterised its past. Plagues caused by high radiation levels slew most of the population and many of the survivors devolved into mutants or ghoulish cannibals.Faced with total extinction, a new idea began to spread among the surviving Martian people, a belief system that made a religious faith out of the preservation of the technical knowledge required for their continued survival -- the Cult Mechanicus dedicated to the Machine God.The devotees of this faith, the so-called Tech-priests, sought out ancient technology scattered across the Red Planet that was needed to rebuild temporary radiation shields, atmospheric generators and weapons to defend against the rad-mutants, insane automata and the dangerous artificial general intelligences or "false minds" that had claimed the wastelands as their own.The cult demanded absolute devotion from its followers, for only by selfless dedication and often personal sacrifices could the needed archeotech be recovered or the planet saved. Under the direction of their Tech-priest leaders, the cultists set about restoring order to their world.They built new subterranean shelters to protect themselves from the radiation storms that now scoured the Martian surface, and constructed new oxygen generators and food processing machines to enable them to live beneath the protective shielding. Yet there were few shelters even for the Tech-priests and none for unbelievers. Marauders and mutant raiders tried to force their way inside the hurriedly constructed underground warrens. Many of the cultists died defending their shelters and some of these early settlements were destroyed, but the survivors emerged all the stronger and more determined.The Martian people interpreted their survival in the face of tremendous odds as a vindication of their belief in the dogma of the Cult Mechanicus and the divine protection of the Machine God. Their resolve and devotion to the cult soon became unshakable as the Age of Strife wore on.While rival techno-barbarian warlords battled over the remnants of the once-great civilisation of Terra, the Tech-priests built Mars anew, and the first temples and forge city settlements dedicated to the Machine God were erected amidst the crimson sands as the Tech-priests cleared away the mutant tribes and insane thinking machines with the tools they recovered from the surface.The Tech-priests scoured the ruins of Mars for surviving advanced technology which they enshrined within the greatest of the cult's holy places, the Temple of All Knowledge. In time, the towering forge cities of the Cult Mechanicus' magi rose into the pink sky, as advanced technology and industry returned to Mars for the first time in centuries.Now unified under the theocratic alliance of Cult Mechanicus theocratic overlords known as the "Mechanicum" and its ruling parliament, the Priesthood of Mars began to dispatch Explorator fleets blindly into the still-turbulent Warp without the aid of Mars' long-dead thrall-Navigators.The Tech-priests even plundered the surface of war-torn Terra when the opportunity presented itself in hopes of discovering lost technologies as part of the continuing Quest for Knowledge. Facing resistance to their quest on the Terran surface, the Mechanicum soon became bitter enemies with the techno-barbarians which plagued the devastated Earth.In the meantime, each new world discovered across the galaxy by the Mechanicum's Explorators that survived their blind jumps into the currents of the Immaterium was colonised and rebuilt in the image of Mars itself, transformed into a planet-wide manufactory known as a Forge World, where industry was the only true religion.
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Treaty of Mars - Emperor of Mankind Comes to Mars: When the Emperor of Mankind finished uniting the feral techno-barbarian tribes of Terra during the Unification Wars in 712.M30, He was already aware of the existence of the Cult Mechanicus on Mars and the vast, if fractured stellar empire it had colonised.Realising that waging war against Mars and bringing the Cult Mechanicus to heel with His new Imperium and its atheist Imperial Truth would be a long and wasteful battle, the Emperor journeyed to Mars in peace with an outstretched hand and made first contact with the people of the Machine Cult in 739.M30 at the summit of Olympus Mons, the greatest mountain of the Red Planet.When the Emperor first emerged from the ancient and refurbished Terran voidship he had crossed to Mars in, surrounded by all the glory and magnificence His psychic abilities could conjure, many of the Mechanicum's Tech-priests present immediately believed Him to be the Omnissiah, the mortal incarnation of the Machine God long promised by Cult Mechanicus prophecy.The Emperor eventually earned an audience before the Mechanicum's parliament of governing magi led by their Fabricator-General. The arrival of the Emperor set off political turmoil across the Red Planet, for having expunged any trace of mutation in their own gene-stock long before, the Martians were at a loss to explain the glory of the immensely powerful psyker who strode amongst them.Capitalising on this, the Emperor spoke of the legendary times long past in the Age of Technology when Terra and Mars had worked together to form the core of an illustrious interstellar Human federation, and told the Martians that He intended to build a new Golden Age for Mankind in the form of His nascent Imperium of Man.To this end, the Emperor invited the Martians to join Him, proposing to them the terms of a generous alliance backed up by the veiled threat that He would unleash His genetically-enhanced transhuman warriors of the Legiones Astartes upon the Red Planet if the magi refused Him. The Imperial proposal granted political autonomy to the Mechanicum of Mars and its Forge Worlds scattered across the galaxy as well as an exception to the atheistic Imperial Truth so that the Cult Mechanicus' adherents could continue to practice their faith.The Imperium would provide six houses of Navigators and its astropaths to the Mechanicum so that it could unite its far-flung empire of lost Forge Worlds and continue its sacred Quest for Knowledge more easily across the galaxy. In exchange, the Mechanicum would supply the Imperium with the weapons, voidships, materiel, engineers and technicians required to initiate the Emperor's Great Crusade to reunite all of the Human-settled galaxy beneath the banner of the Imperium.The Martians, realising they had much to win by placating the Emperor, and even more to lose if they opposed Him, agreed to the terms of the proposed alliance after some bloody internal strife, an agreement aided by the reality that many amongst the Mechanicum already believed Him to be the Omnissiah.Unable to abandon the religion which defined their existence, the Martians proposed a compromise that the Emperor agreed to with some reluctance: He would be presented to the masses of the Cult Mechanicus as the Omnissiah, the living incarnation of the Machine God, the long-awaited living repository of all knowledge and wisdom who incarnated all of the values of the cult. Despite being a direct contradiction to the Imperial Truth, the Emperor understood that being presented as the avatar of a god was an acceptable evil in order to secure the Cult Mechanicus' assistance, and that attempting to force the Mechanicum to accept the Imperial Truth could wait until the end of the Great Crusade.At the same time, the Emperor imposed an exigence of His own upon the Mechanicum. Well aware of the sad story of the Men of Iron, the "false minds" who ruled the Martian surface during the early Age of Strife and the inherent danger and vulnerability of certain technologies to the corrupting influence of Chaos, He forbade the Mechanicum to pursue certain types of knowledge, foremost amongst those the development or study of Silica Animus; machines that possessed full self-awareness and were totally independent of Human control.The Emperor listed a number of machines and technological concepts that could lead to the combination of technology with the sorcery of Chaos, and ordered those subjects to be considered taboo, and not to be researched by the Tech-priests under pain of execution. Since many such forbidden technologies already existed in various magi's forge cities or lay hidden beneath the sands of Mars, the Emperor ordered the ruling Fabricator-General of the Mechanicum to seal all such devices within a special cache that only He or His trusted representatives could open, known as the Vaults of Moravec.The Mechanicum grudgingly acquiesced to this arrangement, but the restraint on the Tech-priests' sacred Quest for Knowledge, even the pursuit of dangerous knowledge, would create festering resentments within the Cult Mechanicus that would later reemerge during the Horus Heresy over 200 standard years later.The terms of this political and economic alliance were then formalised in a binding agreement called the Treaty of Mars, known as the Treaty of Olympus Mons to the Tech-priests after the place on the Red Planet where the Emperor had first trod their soil. This treaty would inextricably bind together the Imperium and the Cult Mechanicus for the next ten standard millennia.To symbolise the alliance created between Terra and Mars that marked the true birth of the new Imperium of Man, the Emperor changed His personal sigil from one of a raptor and lightning bolt, the Raptor Imperialis, to the Aquila, a two-headed eagle whose heads represented the twin foundations of the new Human interstellar government -- Terra and Mars, Imperium and Mechanicum.Although this foundational alliance was later threatened during the Horus Heresy and the Schism of Mars, it ultimately endured across the millennia.In the 41st Millennium, the Mechanicum, now known as the Adeptus Mechanicus in the wake of the purge of its Traitor elements during the Horus Heresy, is still an almost autonomous entity within the Imperium, spared most of the attention of the Adeptus Ministorum and Inquisition by the dictates of this ancient treaty which laid the very foundation of the Imperium.
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Tremor Cannon - Tremor Cannon: The Tremor Cannon is the primary weapon of the Astra Militarum's Banehammer super-heavy tank. The Tremor Cannon is a potent weapon adapted from a Squat design: it fires large self-propelled rockets with an incredibly hard tip which are designed to burrow themselves a set distance into the ground before exploding. The underground detonation creates a powerful shockwave much larger than the shell's explosion, which will impede the progress of any unit caught within it. Infantry will be thrown down and shrouded in dirt, while tanks will become bogged down and trapped by the shifting soil.While the Tremor Cannon shell itself does relatively little damage, it is the side effect of the underground explosion that is invaluable, pinning the opponent in place and making him vulnerable to sustained bombardment by the other artillery elements of the Imperial Guard. Additionally, since the Tremor Cannon is much smaller than other super-heavy tank primary armaments, the Banehammer possesses a large empty hold, which can be used to either transport a small platoon of Imperial Guardsmen, or house a cramped but fully functional headquarters equipped with powerful Vox-casters and tactical arrays from which the officer in charge can lead his troops. While the shockwave of the Tremor Cannon is moderately efficient against heavily reinforced fortifications, it makes short work of lighter defences like trenches and similar earthworks, collapsing them outright and burying any enemy attempting to take shelter within them alive.
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Tremorstave - Tremorstave: A Tremorstave is a Necron weapon used only by Cryptek Geomancers. Indeed, it can be considered their signature weapon and symbol of office. Taking on the appearance of a simple stave with an ornate head, its shaft encloses numerous gyro-engines, gravitic-flux generators, and other sophisticated devices to form a weapon as deadly as it is unconventional.When a Cryptek drives the tip of his Tremorstave into the ground, a wave of seismic energy is released, travelling in a straight line directly towards his intended target; splitting the very ground open and sending shards of stone and sprays of dirt blasting out with deadly velocity. The fissure created by the Tremorstave is approximately one metre wide, and enemies standing nearby are hit by an invisible concussive energy wave.When the wave reaches its target point within a range of roughly fifty metres from the Cryptek, it explodes with fantastic force in a wide area, leaving behind a large crater. The forces unleashed by a Tremorstave can plunge enemies to their deaths, whilst knocking survivors sprawling from the sudden quake.
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Treyen - Treyen: TreyenFeral WorldAchilus CrusadeOrpheus SalientJericho ReachImperialThe primary star within the system is entering into its last stages of life, and as such solar flares are beginning to spread a blanket of radiation around the planet.This stellar activity has a nasty habit of causing long-range vox transmissions to be unreliable at best, but it also seems to have an equal effect upon the communications of the Tyranids on-planet. Treyen was chosen as a suitable battleground by the leaders of the Orpheus Salient for these specific peculiarities.
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Treyen - History: When the Achilus Crusade first encountered the planet Treyen, it was found that the natives there worshipped their sun as a god. While this deity provided them with warmth, he could also bring terrible vengeance upon them when he was angered.The Ecclesiarchy had little trouble in slightly altering the perceptions of the natives so that the God-Emperor of Mankind was seen in the same light as their false sun god.He would provide them with warmth, shelter, food, and protection, but if they ever angered Him or His chosen representative, He would strike them down with a furious anger the likes of which they had never seen before.While the Departmento Munitorum was attempting to calculate what the planet's tithe grading would be, it was discovered by an adventurous group of Astra Militarum guardsmen that the large native beasts had a unique pelt that, when skinned, had the ability to change colouration with the lighting.With this discovery, the planet's primary export was quickly changed from baseline foodstuffs to luxury goods. Rumour has it that General Derian Arkelius himself has his crusade dress uniform made from the hide. No one has seen this uniform, but it would fit his public persona.After classifying and settling the planet, a small defence force was left behind, mainly to hold off any Orks tempted to raid this deep into the crusade's battleline. Much of their time on planet was spent with very little to do, as the native population was fairly tame and had nothing but love for the God-Emperor.Occasionally there would be a small uprising by one of the tribes that had been displaced when the Astra Militarum claimed certain land as their headquarters, but savages with swords and axes do very little against trained Imperial troops with lasguns.
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Treyen - The Arrival of Hive Fleet Dagon: At the beginning of 815.M41, the small garrison received a rather abrupt wake-up call. Lord Commissar Vance Theren and Battlegroup Cerberus arrived in-force to stand in the way of a new xenos threat that was approaching.When Theren landed, he exited his lander quickly and set up a command post inside the Astra Militarum headquarters for himself and the rest of the Triumvirate that commanded the Orpheus Salient.Immediate orders were given to begin erecting defensible positions. Swarms of Mechanicus servitors skittered off of the lander in his wake and began stripping the compound of all materials needed to enhance the base's defence.Over the next two solar weeks thirty-three full regiments of the Astra Militarum, almost the entirety of the Orpheus Salient complement, landed with the Scintillan 84th and General Derian Arkelius at their head.Artillery pieces were quickly placed in defensible positions. Sentinels and snipers were sent to reconnoitre the surrounding terrain. Lord Commissar Theren barricaded himself in his command post with General Arkelius in an attempt to find a way to effectively hold the line at Treyen.It wasn't until the fifteenth day that Theren received three communications. The first was from the Lord Admiral Anastasia Arkelius, saying that if the shadow being cast in the Warp was any indication, the Tyranid force -- which would later be designated Hive Fleet Dagon -- was massive. The second came from the Dark Sons Chapter of Space Marines. The 1st Company with its squads of Terminators would be arriving in three solar days.The third was from his fleet Astropath. The Tyranids would arrive in only two solar days. When the hive fleet arrived, Lord Admiral Arkelius proved to any doubters exactly how she had achieved her position. Fully one-third of all Tyranid vessels were destroyed in the naval engagement above Treyen.Her fleet was badly damaged, but she was still able to order her picket ships to provide close fire support for the upcoming battle. On the ground, despite the situation in orbit, the task ahead of the sixteen million guardsmen seemed hopeless.What appeared to be a monsoon of living monstrosities began pouring out of the sky and wave upon wave of hungry xenos beasts rushed towards the Imperial battle lines. For twenty-four solar hours the entire planet of Treyen was a battlefield. Millions of guardsmen were killed, and even more were wounded.Eighteen solar hours into the engagement, streaks of light came hurtling towards the planet's surface. Over the communication system came a message telling Lord Commissar Theren to order a full counterassault in exactly one solar hour. Attached to the message were the authorisation codes of the Deathwatch.Precisely one hour later, the Tyranid horde fell into absolute disarray, and Lord Commissar Theren sent planet-wide orders to begin the counterassault. Five hours later, Lord Commissar Theren met up with the Deathwatch Kill-teams that had been inserted on the planet via Drop Pod.These Kill-teams had destroyed the largest Tyranid bioforms, thus disrupting the creatures' ability to communicate with one another. With no enemy leadership in place, the Astra Militarum was able to take advantage of the Tyranids' confusion and drive them back into an open area where the fleet in orbit could bombard the xenos.When compiling his after action report, General Arkelius noted that if the Tyranids had continued engaging the fleet in orbit, it would have been impossible for the Deathwatch to get close enough to be successful. By committing to the all-out attack too early, the Tyranids had cost themselves the battle.When the Dark Sons arrived the next day, they were quickly able to hunt down and remove all obvious signs of Tyranid infestation. All three Astra Militarum commanders were acknowledged for their bravery and skill in handling what would normally have been an impossible situation.The one drawback was that the attacking Tyranid force had now splintered apart. One part moved towards Hethgard, and the other appeared to be heading for Tryphon. The Deathwatch are currently keeping a very close eye on Treyen, as they need to make sure that the planet is thoroughly cleansed.
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Triad Ferrum Morgulus - Triad Ferrum Morgulus: The Triad Ferrum Morgulus was the name in High Gothic given by the ancient Mechanicum to the first three Titan Legions ever raised by the Collegia Titanica upon Mars -- the Legio Mortis, the Legio Ignatum and the Legio Tempestus.Originally raised during the Age of Strife, long before the birth of the Imperium of Man, they were created by the Mechanicum through the application of arcane knoweledge recovered from the Age of Technology to aid its Tech-priests in retaking the surface of the Red Planet for Mankind from the Cult Mechanicus' ancient enemies -- the Cy-carnivora, maddened thinking machines and feral Human mutants.They later served as some of the most potent Primus and Secundus-grade Legios of the Collegia Titanica and the models for all of the Titan Legions raised by other Forge Worlds settled by Mechanicum colonists across the galaxy.The Legio Mortis and a great portion of the Legio Tempestus would serve the cause of the Warmaster Horus and the treacherous Fabricator-General Kelbor-Hal during the Horus Heresy, while the Legio Ignatum and the rump of the Legio Tempestus would remain loyal to the Emperor.
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Triad Ferrum Morgulus - Member Legios: Legio Mortis ("Death's Heads")Legio Ignatum ("Fire Wasps")Legio Tempestus ("Stormlords") / Legio Tempestor ("Thunder Raptors")
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Triarch - Triarch: The Triarch was the ruling triumvirate of the ancient Necrontyr Empire before the outbreak of the War in Heaven over 60 million standard years ago.From the earliest days, the rulers of individual Necrontyr dynasties were themselves governed by the Triarch, a council of three powerful phaerons. The leader of the Triarch was the phaeron known as the "Silent King," for he addressed his subjects only through the other two phaerons who ruled alongside him.Nominally a hereditary position, the uncertain life spans of the ancient Necrontyr ensured that the title of Silent King nonetheless passed from one royal dynasty to another many times over the course of the Necrontyr's history.The final days of the Necrontyr and their biotransference into the undying robotic Necrons occurred during the reign of Szarekh, who would prove to be the last of the Silent Kings.Following the War in Heaven, when the Necrons revolted against their C'tan masters under the leadership of Szarekh, the two other members of the Triarch were slain, and no other Necrons ever took their place before the Triarch was disbanded following the start of the Necrons' Great Sleep.Whilst the Silent King Szarekh returned to the Milky Way in 744.M41 from his long sojourn in intergalactic space to help his race meet the challenge of the Tyranid assault on the galaxy and the rise of the Imperium of Man and the growing threat of Chaos, he has made no move as yet to recreate the Triarch.
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Triarch - Ankh of the Triarch: All Necrons bear the mark of the Triarch, a brand upon their necrodermis skin that binds them to their race's ancient heritage.In the 41st Millennium, the absence of the Silent King and the long years of the Great Sleep have transformed the Ankh of the Triarch into a reminder of faded glory.Some Necron Dynasty nobles still see the symbol as the foundation of the Necron Empire to be reborn, others merely as an echo of a long-dead age. However, the Ankh remains a symbol of the Necrons, and even those who have lost faith in its power still bear it on a cartouche adorning their metallic torso.Despite cosmetic alterations, the shape of the Ankh remains unchanged, each exacting curve and line perfectly reproduced. Each dynasty also has its own glyphs,variations on the Ankh that identify its soldiers aspart of a particular phaeron's armies.These symbols are sometimes worn alongside the Ankh of the Triarch, but are usually secondary in size and placement, mirroring the ancient relationship between the dynasty's phaeron and the empire's governing Triarch.
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Triarch - Triarch Praetorians: The Triarch was served by elite Necron units known as Triarch Praetorians. The Triarch Praetorians are a specialised caste of Necrons who serve as the judges and enforcers of ancient Necrontyr law.They are tasked with ensuring that every Necron dynasty upholds the terms of the ancient codes of law of the Necrontyr Empire to ensure that they are never forgotten nor ignored. From their initial creation in the eons before the War in Heaven to the end of the 41st Millennium, their task has remained unchanged, and they strive endlessly to see the Necrontyr Dynasties of old restored.In the ancient Necron dynasties, the Praetorians were responsible for maintaining the Triarch's rule and to ensure that wars and politics alike were pursued in accordance with the ancient codes of behaviour of the Necrontyr. As such, they acted outside the traditional political structures, and held both the right and the means to enforce their will should a Necron Lord, Necron Overlord or even a phaeron's behaviour contravene the edicts of old.However, the Triarch Praetorians also held a higher responsibility: to ensure that the Necron dynasties never fell, and that their codes of law and order did not vanish into the darkness.In this, they eventually failed. To all intents and purposes, the War in Heaven saw the destruction of the Necron dynasties. Though the Triarch Praetorians fought at the forefront of that cataclysm, their efforts were simply not enough.That shame of failure hung heavy on the survivors and drove them to forsake the blissful forgetfulness of hibernation. As the final sparks of the War in Heaven burnt out, the last Triarch Praetorians withdrew to the Necrontyr's ancient seats of power on the Northern Galactic Rim, preserving what they managed to safeguard of their ancient codes, laws and strictures from the vengeance of the Aeldari.Triarch Praetorians often rode to battle in the hexapedal combat walkers known as Triarch Stalkers. Like an enormous mechanical spider, a Triarch Stalker looms over the battlefield with its multiple slicing limbs and devastating weaponry.Triarch Stalkers are often piloted by a high-ranking Triarch Praetorian and are primarily employed against enemy heavy armour and to provide close fire support to other Necron units.
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Triarch Praetorian - Triarch Praetorian: The Triarch Praetorians are a specialised caste of Necrons who serve as the judges and enforcers of ancient Necrontyr law.They are tasked with ensuring that every Necron dynasty upholds the terms of the ancient codes of law of the Necrontyr Empire to ensure that they are never forgotten nor ignored.Unlike other Necrons, Triarch Praetorians are not vassals of a particular Necron Lord or Overlord. As in ancient times, they possess the right to censure nobles who act against the interests or dictates of the Triarch and the Necrontyr codes of honour.From their initial creation in the eons before the War in Heaven to the end of the 41st Millennium, their task has remained unchanged, and they strive endlessly to see the Necrontyr Dynasties of old restored.Luckily for the rest of the sentient races of the galaxy, Triarch Praetorians are a rare sight on the battlefield. Often, their only contribution is to determine whether an opponent is an honourable one according to the ancient Necrontyr laws or not, and to remind the commanding Necron Overlord or Necron Lord to act in accordance with them should it be the case.Only when a Tomb World is rediscovered, or when one comes under attack, will the Triarch Praetorians take the field en masse, to ensure the new asset integrates seamlessly with existing ones, or that it is correctly defended.
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Triarch Praetorian - History: In the ancient Necron dynasties, the Praetorians were responsible for maintaining the Triarch's rule and to ensure that wars and politics alike were pursued in accordance with the ancient codes of behaviour of the Necrontyr.As such, they acted outside the traditional political structures, and held both the right and the means to enforce their will should a Necron Lord, Necron Overlord or even a Phaeron's behaviour contravene the edicts of old.However, the Triarch Praetorians also held a higher responsibility: to ensure that the Necron dynasties never fell, and that their codes of law and order did not vanish into the darkness. In this, they eventually failed. To all intents and purposes, the War in Heaven saw the destruction of the Necron dynasties.Though the Triarch Praetorians fought at the forefront of that cataclysm, their efforts were simply not enough. That shame of failure hung heavy on the survivors and drove them to forsake the blissful forgetfulness of hibernation.As the final sparks of the War in Heaven burnt out, the last Triarch Praetorians withdrew to the Necrontyr's ancient seats of power on the northern galactic rim, preserving what they managed to safeguard of their ancient codes, laws and strictures from the vengeance of the Aeldari.From their concealed fortresses, the Triarch Praetorians plotted for that day, many Terran millennia distant though it was, when the Necrons would emerge to dominate the galaxy once again, when the laws of old would once more hold sway.Yet they knew there was a good chance that the untested stasis technology would fail, and that their sleeping kin would never wake. So it was that the Triarch Praetorians came to travel widely throughout the galaxy, masquerading as grim-visaged gods on countless primitive worlds.They brought the codes of the Necrontyr to credulous primitives, reshaping cultures according to their own ideals. Few civilisations wholly embraced the Triarch Praetorians' teachings; many more were exterminated by wars, natural disaster or the vengeful outriders of Alaitoc Craftworld, who were ever determined to see the Triarch Praetorians fail in their mission.Nonetheless, the Aeldari ultimately failed at this task as well, and fragments of Triarch lore and archeotech survive on worlds not trod upon by Necrons in many thousands of years.In the late 41st Millenium, as the Necrons stir ever more into wakefulness, the Triarch Praetorians have sensed an opportunity to expunge their failure. They are travelling across the galaxy, Tomb World to Tomb World, rebinding the sundered pieces of the Necron Dynasties. It will be a long and interminably slow process, for the galaxy is vast beyond imagining, and the locations of many Necron worlds have simply been lost to time.Yet the Triarch Praetorians have patience enough for this impossible search and a burning determination to see their ancient task fulfilled and civilisation restored. Once a Tomb World has been contacted and bound into the newly-founded dynasties, a host of Triarch Praetorians is assigned to that world in perpetuity, to govern its protocols and act in its defence.So it is that formations of Triarch Praetorians are often found at a battle's forefront in the defence against invaders and campaigns of reclamation alike. Even could he do so, no noble would refuse such assistance, for extreme age has little dulled a Triarch Praetorian squad's combat skills.When taking the field, Triarch Praetorians seldom fight in a battle's initial waves, preferring to hover above the fray on Gravity Displacement Packs. From here they watch carefully, not only for the moment at which their intercession will have the most impact, but also to observe the foe's actions.Though Triarch Praetorians share the usual Necron contempt for any race that is not their own, they are ever watchful for an opponent marked millennia ago by their influence, and sometimes proclaim such creatures honourable foes against whom the codes of battle must be observed. This can prove frustrating to an army's commander -- such niceties are an unwelcome impedance to the battle's prosecution - but it would be a bold Nemesor indeed who overruled the wishes of a Triarch Praetorian in so blatant a fashion.
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Triarch Praetorian - Role: Fitted with the same high-quality necrodermis bodies as Necron royalty, Praetorians are differentiated by their tails and the rib-like Gravity Displacement Packs mounted to their spines. Triarch Praetorians usually carry Rods of Covenant, symbols of the dominion that the ancient Triarch holds over the Necron dynasties and the galaxy.Much more than symbols, Rods of Covenant are powerful and versatile weapons whose crackling energies may be expended in devastating short-ranged blasts, or released with staggering force upon striking an enemy in melee.Triarch Praetorians are sometimes instead armed with Voidblades and Particle Casters. Voidblades inflict horrendous damage in each strike as the weapon phases between different dimensional states, severing molecular bonds and causing a chain reaction of atomic disintegration.Like all Necron Particle Weapons, Particle Casters fire nearly invisible bursts of anti-matter granules that react explosively with matter.The Praetorian Triarchs serve as heavy shock troops in Necron armies. Wardens of the Necrontyr traditions, they wage war in an exemplary way, embodying the belief that the right warrior in the right place at the right time can turn the tide of battle and deliver victory. When a group of them decides to take the field, they will often remain in reserve, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.Once the decision to commit has been taken, they will appear seemingly out of nowhere near their intended targets, brandishing their Rods of Covenant, and reducing their victims to dust with fell blasts from their ornate staves of office.
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Triarch Praetorian - Notable Formations: Lawbringer Phalanx – When the vermin of the lesser races run wild, a thorough scouring is required – often on a planetary scale. In such times, the High Judicators who guide the Triarch Praetorians in their work will breach their ancient vaults and retrieve an Apotheosis Orb. An Apotheosis Orb is similar in function to a Resurrection Orb, but vastly superior in form and function. Whilst the orb functions, nearby Praetorians can use its energy to infuse themselves and their weapons with fresh strength and resilience. Triarch Praetorians are implacable warriors under normal circumstances; the presence of an Apotheosis Orb transforms them into a nigh-unstoppable crusade. Only by shattering their leading Triarch Stalker, in whose control panel the Apotheosis Orb is nestled, can the foe have any hope of victory. A Lawbringer Phalanx formation typically consists of a single Triarch Stalker leading two or more squads of Triarch Praetorians.
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Triarch Praetorian - Wargear: Necrodermis Body - Like all Necrons, the Triarch Praetorians possess a self-repairing body primarily built from the Necrodermis metal substance. As befit their lofty statute amongst the Necrons, their body is sturdier and more durable than that of the average Necron.Gravity Displacement Pack - A Gravity Displacement Pack is a piece of ancient Necrontyr technology which allows a Praetorian to swiftly hover over a battlefield. They are similar to the Imperium's cruder Jump Packs.Rod of Covenant - A Rod of Covenant is a staff-like device which serves as a Praetorian mark of office, and doubles as a potent weapon: It can cut through armor better than the most potent of Power Weapons in close quarters, and also deliver short-range energy attacks that can pierce through even Terminator Armour with contemptuous ease.
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Triarch Praetorian - Optional Wargear: Voidblade and Particle Caster - Some Triarch Praetorians favour the combination of a Voidblade and a Particle Caster over their Rod of Covenant, sacrificing the larger weapon's potent firepower for additional combat aptitude at close quarters. Particle Casters are a form of particle pistol weapon which emits streams of miniscule anti-matter particles that detonate on contact with matter. They are incredibly reliable, needing only enough energy to maintain the containment field that prevents the anti-matter from detonating within the weapon's mechanisms. Void Blades possess a gleaming black edge which flickers in and out of existence. They can cause molecular bonds to disintegrate in any foe unfortunate enough to be struck by them.
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Triarch Praetorian - Sources: Apocalypse: War Zone Damnos, pg. 61Black Crusade: The Tome of Fate (RPG), pp. 116-117Codex: Necrons (5th Edition), pp. 38, 81-82Codex: Necrons (7th Edition) (Digital Edition), pp. 51-53, 157
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Triarch Stalker - Triarch Stalker: Triarch Stalkers are a form of hexapedal combat walker utilised by Necron Triarch Praetorians in battle. Like an enormous mechanical spider, a Triarch Stalker looms over the battlefield with its multiple slicing limbs and devastating weaponry. Triarch Stalkers are often piloted by a high-ranking Triarch Praetorian and are primarily employed against enemy heavy armour and to provide close fire support to other Necron units.
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Triarch Stalker - Role: While the Triarch Stalker can mount a wide array of anti-infantry and anti-armour weaponry, it is most commonly employed as a dedicated tank-hunter that roams far ahead of the main army. When a Triarch Stalker advances, it does so with a speed and surety that belies its jerking gait. Indeed, it can cover all manner of terrain with a deftness and precision seldom found on the walkers of less advanced races. Able to navigate dense jungle and mountainous terrain as swiftly and sure-footedly as open plains, Triarch Stalkers can easily outmanoeuvre more cumbersome tracked vehicles, the better to unleash their withering firepower against the thinner armour presented by the target's flanks and rear. As such attacks are much more effective when the enemy is taken unawares, Triarch Stalkers rarely indulge in sustained fusillades. Instead, they prefer to employ hit-and-run tactics; launching one or two salvoes of fire and then skittering away onto the shadows before the enemy can react to their threat.On those occasions when a Triarch Stalker is deployed in the heart of Necron battle lines, its main function is to provide close fire support, and it is typically equipped with a Heat Ray -- a multi-purpose fusion weapon. If an enemy tank stalls the main Necron attack, one focussed blast from the Triarch Stalker's Heat Ray is sufficient to end the threat. Similarly, if dug-in enemy infantry is hampering the Necron advance, a Triarch Stalker can break the deadlock. The pilot simply sets the Heat Ray to dispersed beam, and sends clouds of scorching plasma swirling into every crevasse to boil the enemy alive.Should the Triarch Stalker's firepower prove insufficient for the task at hand, it can instruct nearby Necron phalanxes to add their firepower to its own, and even transmit targeting data to ensure these augmentative volleys are as accurate as possible. Only the toughest and bravest of foes can withstand such a barrage -- others are driven screaming from the battlefield, or mown down by the pinpoint salvoes.Such a difference does a Triarch Stalker's presence make that habitual foes of the Necrons have learnt to prioritise its destruction. To guard against this, each Triarch Stalker is protected by layered Quantum Shielding. Though a determined assault can still breach these potent energy fields, it normally buys the Triarch Stalker enough time to withdraw. With their durability thus enhanced. Triarch Stalkers are increasingly deployed at the head of vanguard forces to bear the brunt of the enemy's counterattack until the main body of the Necron army reaches the battle zone. They are as much of a symbol of the Triarch's power as they are deadly warmachines in battle.
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Triarch Stalker - Notable Formations: Lawbringer Phalanx – When the vermin of the lesser races run wild, a thorough scouring is required – often on a planetary scale. In such times, the High Judicators who guide the Triarch Praetorians in their work will breach their ancient vaults and retrieve an Apotheosis Orb. An Apotheosis Orb is similar in function to a Resurrection Orb, but vastly superior in form and function. Whilst the orb functions, nearby Praetorians can use its energy to infuse themselves and their weapons with fresh strength and resilience. Triarch Praetorians are implacable warriors under normal circumstances; the presence of an Apotheosis Orb transforms them into a nigh-unstoppable crusade. Only by shattering their leading Triarch Stalker, in whose control panel the Apotheosis Orb is nestled, can the foe have any hope of victor. A Lawbringer Phalanx formation typically consists of a single Triarch Stalker leading two or more squads of Triarch Praetorians.
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Triarch Stalker - Armament: Triarch Stalkers are primarily armed with a main weapon located under its main hull. This weapon can be any one of the following:Heat Ray - A Heat Ray is a weapon that can either be fired in a focused beam, which can devastate armour with fusion-based Melta energy, or in a dispersed beam which acts like a Flamer and can burn enemy troops out of cover.Particle Shredder - A Particle Shredder functions by emitting a stream of miniscule anti-matter particles that detonate explosively on contact with matter. Particle Weapons are incredibly reliable, needing only enough energy to maintain the containment field that prevents the anti-matter from detonating within the weapon’s mechanism, which is composed of normal matter. Blasts from a Particle Shredder can cover a wide area, and are effective against both infantry and light vehicles.Twin-linked Heavy Gauss Cannons – Heavy Gauss Cannons are devastating weapons best used to penetrate heavy armour. They are the same weapon as that mounted on a Heavy Destroyer.All Triarch Stalkers are also equipped with the following:Targeting Relay - Triarch Stalkers are equipped with advanced targeting relay systems to transmit targeting data and enhance the accuracy of other Necron units shooting at the same target as the stalker.Necrodermis - The armour of Triarch Stalkers is made up of the same living metal Necrodermis that makes up all Necron bodies and vehicles. Its remarkable regenerative properties allow it to automatically repair damage to itself; whether this is the regeneration of parts of its hull, the reknitting of metal plates, and the reconnection of circuits and other delicate systems to bring its weapons online again. Many a foe has celebrated prematurely after landing a solid hit on an Triach Stalker only for it return its lethal firepower after a few moments of repair.Quantum Shielding - Triarch Stalkers are protected by a layer of Quantum Shielding which exists only at the moment of deflection. It can deflect the first shot that would otherwise penetrate the Triarch Stalkers armour, after which it cannot be used again for some time.
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Triarch Stalker - Ordo Xenos Departmento Analyticus Technical Specifications: The technical specifications for this Necron unit have not been obtained or released by the Ordo Xenos.
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Triarch Stalker - Sources: Codex: Necrons (5th Edition), pp. 9, 23, 39, 81-82Codex: Necrons (7th Edition) (Digital Edition), pp. 51-52, 158Imperial Armour - Volume Twelve - The Fall of Orpheus, pg. 99&_requestid=366316 Games Workshop Catalogue - Necron Triarch StalkerWarzone: Damnos, pg. 61
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Triarchy - Triarchy: The Triarchy is the name given to an alliance of three Space Marine Chapters -- the Angels Numinous, Red Seraphs and Charnel Guard -- located in the Imperium Nihilus who are all genetic descendants of the Blood Angels.
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Triarchy - History: Two of the Chapters of the Triarchy, the Angels Numinous and the Red Seraphs, were the successors of the Blood Eagles, a Blood Angels successor that had torn itself in half during an unknown conflict. The two halves of the Blood Eagles then formed their own Chapters, which became the Angels Numinous and the Red Seraphs.Those two Chapters joined with another Blood Angels successor in the region, the Charnel Guard, to form the alliance of Sanguinius' sons known as the "Triarchy." Though allied, the Angels Numinous and Red Seraphs Chapters were noted to agree on nothing.It was a tradition of representatives of those three Chapters to meet at the abandoned homeworld of the Blood Eagles to determine a course of action that would involve the entire Triarchy. The ritual words were always spoken by the Triarchy representatives before any conclave could begin.At one such conclave held after the birth of the Great Rift during the Era Indomitus, Ynoch of the Red Seraphs, Jagudir of the Angels Numinous and Mordath of the Charnel Guard gathered to discuss how the Triarchy would deal with their growing isolation in the Imperium Nihilus, as the Chapters were unable to cross the Great Rift and were coming under increasing threat from xenos and the forces of Chaos.They decided to reject their traditions, and rather than defend their shrinking domains they would seek out the foes of the Emperor in the Dark Imperium and fight aggressively even if it meant the death of their Chapters. And they promised that if they could find Roboute Guilliman's Indomitus Crusade, they would join it.
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Triarchy - Traditions: The Chapters of the Triarchy were noted to be very bound by their traditions. For instance, any decisions made by the Triarchy had to be decided at a conclave held at the abandoned homeworld of the Blood Eagles.The three chosen representatives of each Chapter would arrive in a single warship and transport down to the surface. Before the conclave could begin, each battle-brother was required to declare his victories to the gathering, balanced -- as the old tradition demanded -- by his miseries.The attending brothers were always expected to be honest with each other at a conclave. They were not required to speak every truth out loud, for there were shames that should never be spoken even amongst family.But it was agreed upon ancient oaths of bloodletting between the Chapters that no falsehoods would be told when the Triarchy's representatives gathered.Every conclave was expected to begin with a ritualistic opening formula to be said by the three battle-brothers. One battle-brother began the ritual by intoning, "We are Three Chapters, drawn from Two Bloodlines, born of One Legion."The other two were expected to reply in turn, "We are Three, drawn from Two, born of One."
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Triaros - Triaros: The Triaros, also known as the Triaros Armoured Conveyer, was the primary armoured battlefield transport of the ancient Mechanicum Taghmata during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras of the late 30th and early 31st Millennia.The Triaros eschews the more commonplace Standard Template Construct (STC) designs and instead relies on a number of unique technologies held as arcana by the Magos Autokrator of the Taghmata and never divulged for wider Imperial use, even by the Legiones Astartes.
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Triaros - Construction: The Triaros was designed for use in hostile environments, incorporating multiple galvanic traction drives for increased maneuverability in rough terrain.The Triaros' capacious storage bay can be hermetically sealed if needed, which allows the vehicle to be used in toxic environments and even in hard vacuum and on the surfaces of lifeless worlds. The internal bay is outfitted with numerous specialised couplings for the recharging and cold-sleep of Tech-thralls and light Automata.The vehicle is capable of transporting up to twenty Tech-thralls or light Automata. The vehicle's defences are comprised not only of thick brutish armour, but layered techno-cant warding and interlocking energy shields, particularly around its seemingly-exposed control dais, as well as its independently animated weapon servitors.The Triaros' chassis design and powerful on-board reactor system is very similar to that of the Krios Battle Tank, although it is unknown if the Triaros is a variant of the Krios.
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Triaros - Armament: The Triaros is armed with a number of smaller weapon systems for defence against enemy attack while it delivers its cargo to the battlefield. The vehicle's main weapon is a set of pintle-mounted twin-linked Mauler Bolt Cannons, although it is also armed with two Volkite Sentinels, one on each side.These slaved weapons systems are controlled independently by their own servitor-brain. These defensive weapons are found on a number of larger Mechanicum war engines, most commonly on the Triaros Armoured Conveyor.Each Volkite Sentinel is a pintle-mounted Volkite charger which can be fired in addition to any other weapons the vehicle may be carrying.One of the more remarkable features of the Triaros, however, is the powerful reactor-fed Shock Ram, a massive frontal ram incorporating powerful anabaric projectors and disruption field technology akin to that used in power weapons, which it uses to destroy anything it comes into contact with.The Triaros can also be outfitted with several upgrades or attachments, including Extra Armour Plating, up to two Hunter-Killer Missile Launchers, Smoke Launchers, a Searchlight, Blessed Autosimulacra, or a Flare Shield.
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Triaros - Variants: Karacnos Assault Tank - The Karacnos Assault Tank is a widely used variant of the Triaros Armoured Conveyor that sacrifices transport capacity for greater firepower. The Karacnos is the Mechanicum Taghmata's primary dedicated assault tank. The name "Karacnos" is derived from the tank's main armament: the Karacnos Mortar. Mounted on two separate mobile armoured shutters, the Karacnos Mortar is a fearsome weapon using sensitive and highly destructive radiological warheads designed specifically for use against organic life. A volley from the Karacnos effectively scourges an area of any organic enemies, leaving its infrastructure and resources intact and ready for the Mechanicum to acquire. As a secondary weapon-system, the Karacnos Assault Tank features two rear-mounted, self-targeting Lightning Blasters which switch almost instantly from the resting position to battle-readiness at a single command. This makes for greater versatility on the battlefield, as the Karacnos can serve both in the role of a mobile artillery platform and as a proper assault tank, a duty it is perfectly suited for thanks to the protection of its Shock Ram.
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Triaros - Adeptus Mechanicus Technical Specifications: The technical specifications of the Triaros Armoured Conveyer are a guarded secret of the Martian Priesthood and as such, the Adeptus Mechanicus has not made them public.
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Triaros - Sources: The Horus Heresy - Book Three: Extermination (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pg. 224Forge World - Triaros Armoured ConveyerForge World - Karacnos Assault Tank
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Tribune - Tribune: The Tribune was a variant of the Victory-class Battleship, specially constructed in the orbital shipyards of Primarch Rogal Dorn's adopted homeworld of Inwit. This warship would most famously serve as the flagship of Captain Alexis Polux as a part of the Imperial Fists Legion's Retribution Fleet sent to Istvaan III to help bolster the beleaguered Loyalists. But due to the vagaries of the Warp, the fleet became trapped and was instead drawn into a vicious void battle, later known as the Battle of Phall, which took place following the start of the Horus Heresy in the early 31st Millennium between the Imperial Fists Retribution Fleet and their bitter rivals, the Iron Warriors.
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Tribune - History: The Tribune was born in the orbital yards of Inwit in the years after the coming of the Emperor when the Inwit Techwrights built ten Battle Barges as tribute to the Emperor and in honour of Rogal Dorn's command of the VII Legion. The Tribune and its nine sisters were variants of the Victory-class and all displayed the hand of Inwit's weapon-craft and mentality woven into their fabric. Heavily armed and armoured, it was a ship made to give and take damage in the thick of a battle line, its design and precise configuration honed by decades of the Legion's experience in void combat, and communication and command systems woven into its structure that showed the intent that the Tribune and its sisters would lead the Imperial Fists in their later conquests.
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Tribune - Horus' Perfidy: During the opening days of the terrible conflict that would become known as the Horus Heresy in later years, the Warmaster Horus launched his treacherous attack on the world of Istvaan III against the Loyalist elements within four of the Space Marine Legions that turned to Chaos, including the Sons of Horus, the Emperor's Children, the World Eaters and the Death Guard. It is believed by Imperial savants that the Loyalists made up approximately one-third of the combatants at Istvaan III. This devastating and tragic campaign came to be known by Imperial historians as the Istvaan III Atrocity. During the initial orbital bombardment of Istvaan III, 70 Loyalists of the Death Guard Legion and the Imperial Saint Euphrati Keeler led by Battle-Captain Nathaniel Garro had commandeered the Imperial frigate Eisenstein and, evading the Traitor forces of Horus, were able to escape from the Istvaan System into the Immaterium, after being told what was happening on the planet.The Eisenstein was badly damaged by the Death Guard Battleship Terminus Est during its escape from Istvaan III and it was assaulted by undead minions, including the first known Plague Marines of Nurgle while it was within the Immaterium. This assault by Warp entities forced the ship to make an emergency blind-jump and emergence from the Warp. The repeated traumas left all of the frigate's astropaths dead, and its lone Navigator was mortally wounded. However, Garro managed to attract the attention of passing Loyalist starships by setting the vessel's Warp-Drives to self-destruct and ejecting them from the starship. The Imperial Fists Legion's massive mobile fortress-monastery Phalanx and the Legion's fleet had been becalmed in the Warp for some time due to the waxing power of the Ruinous Powers as the Heresy began, and his Navigators sensed the detonation of the Eisenstein's Warp-Drives. Charting an immediate course for the location of the detonation, Dorn met with Garro, who explained to him all that had happened with the Traitor Legions. Dorn was reluctant to believe Garro's tale, but overwhelming proof from a Remembrancer (journalist) named Mersadie Oliton who had escaped from Horus' flagship, the Vengeful Spirit, and Garro's dogged insistence finally convinced the Primarch of Horus' perfidy.
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Tribune - Retribution Fleet: When Rogal Dorn had seen the evidence of his brother’s treachery in the Istvaan System, he had wanted to go and confront Horus himself, to hear the Traitor’s confession and bring retribution with his own hands. But duty had held him back: duty to the Emperor and the Imperium that Horus now sought to destroy. He and his First Captain Sigismund set course and returned to Terra, but not before Dorn had sent his sons as emissaries of his anger. He had named it a Retribution Fleet; 30,000 Imperial Fists Legionaries comprised of 300 companies and over 500 warships had struck out towards Istvaan III, a third of the VII Legion, a force great enough to subdue a hundred worlds, bearing a brother’s wrath. Captain Alexis Polux of the 405th Company was attached to this Retribution Fleet under the command of veteran Captain Yonnad, Master of the Retribution Fleet.When the fleet had translated back into reality on the edge of the Istvaan System, the power of the Warp Storm caused Geller Fields to fail as hulls sheared into fragments and burned in the fires of their own reactors. Some ships had reached safety, but many had died, their corpses spat out of the Warp to freeze in the void. Two hundred warships lost, their remains left spinning in the light of a forgotten star. The Imperial Fists had found Captain Polux in the remains of one of those broken wrecks. He was one of the few survivors. Nearly 10,000 Imperials Fists were gone, a staggering loss that was difficult to grasp. Now only 363 warships remained - a force that was still one-fifth of the VII Legion’s full strength. Yonnad had not survived, and since Polux had been designated as his successor, the right of command of the remaining Retribution Fleet fell to him. Though he felt deeply honoured he also felt completely alone. The truth was that he did not fear the responsibility of such a heavy burden for Yonnad was the Legion’s finest fleet master and Captain Polux his best pupil. But the new Fleet Master had doubts that he was the best choice, for there were other men that had survived the wreck of the fleet that were more worthy: commanders with more campaign experience, higher in the rolls of honour, and more skilled at arms. But the Imperial Fists followed form and order to the letter, something not so easily set aside.The Imperial Fists’ warfleet established a base of operations in the Phall System. The two habitable planets of Phall were unremarkable agrarian worlds, lightly populated and of no great strategic importance. For reasons they could not ascertain, the Warp was calm in this region and the Imperial Fists found that they could navigate to and from the system with some surety. With their Astropaths blind and as time wore on, the Legion’s commanders had grown increasingly frustrated. Though a few amongst the senior captains and battlegroup commanders might chafe at Polux's orders, the majority of the fleet’s commanders could not fault the young fleet master. The fleet was vulnerable, and an attack was likely.
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Tribune - Wrath of Iron: The Primarch Perturabo and his warfleet sat waiting patiently in the Istvaan System, awaiting new orders from the Warmaster. Their patience paid off, as they soon received word from the Warmaster that over 300 Loyalist warships were caught in a backwater system like fish in a whirlpool. A fleet of ships pinned in place and waiting for extermination, and here were all of those ships' dispositions and characteristics, listed and laid out for him. Though he knew that this was a fleet of one of the mighty Legiones Astartes, this wasn't just any ordinary fleet. This was a fleet composed of the Iron Warriors' most hated rivals, that of the Sons of Dorn. The information had been gathered first-hand by scout elements in the system. But in the Lord of Iron's mind, he knew that the intel that he had received from the Warmaster was too perfect..too neat. How could the Warmaster have achieved such a thing? It was daunting in its implication. Perturabo realised that this was no random event, this had been planned before the Iron Warriors had come to kill the weakling Legions of Istvaan V. But then what else would he expect from the Waramster? Perturabo thought of the massacre they had just committed, of the the Legions they had butchered. They were weak and destroying them had been nothing more than another task to be completed. But the Imperial Fists were rivals of old, arrogant pretenders to honours and reputations they had bought with lies. The possibility of breaking Dorn's sons was a prospect so rich the Primarch could almost taste it. This was obviously a part of the price of their allegiance to Horus. The chance to break one enemy bought by the deaths of others.The Iron Warriors' Captains questioned the Lord of Iron of how they would be able to engage the Imperial Fists through the tumult of the raging Warp Storm. Perturabo responded that their passage would be possible, for the Warmaster had guaranteed it. That anyone could make such a guarantee staggered the Primarch's subordinate commanders. Warsmith Forrix, one of Perturabo's vaunted Triarchs, cautioned the Lord of Iron that if the Imperial Fists suspected the possibility of an attack that they would be prepared. But Warmsith Berrosus, the 2nd Grand Company commander interjected that if it was First Captain Sigismund who commanded the Imperial Fists Fleet, than he would not sit patiently in his cage. Sigismund would make attempts to break through the storms, making them less prepared, and more vulnerable. Perturabo believed that without a doubt, Sigismund commanded this fleet, for his brother Primarch would not have trusted this fleet to another. Berossus offered to to take his fleet, an equal number of ships, to launch an immediate attack to break the Loyalist fleet. The Lord of Iron struck down the Warsmith's request, informing his subordinate commanders that the Imperial Fists must not simply be broken, they must be ground to nothing. Dorn did not deign to come himself, therefore his favoured pup would bleed for him. All of the ships currently under Warsmith Berossus' command would go, but it would be the Lord of Iron who commanded the attack himself.
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Tribune - Surprise Assault: The attack led by Perturabo was sudden and overwhelming. From his flag ship the Iron Blood, the Iron Warriors Primarch commanded the first one hundred ships burst into reality at the same moment. The Iron Warriors vessels brought their weapons to bear, firing as one and destroying many of the Imperial Fists' vessels. Initially, the Imperial Fists' fleet fragmented under the attack. Flame-wreathed battle-barges pulled back, trying to outpace the guns of the Iron Warriors. Heavy cruisers staggered their flight, first one taking fire then the next, while faster strike cruisers tried to cover the heavier warships as they pulled away. As the golden fleet broke into pieces the Iron Warriors continued to press forwards. Smaller ships crippled targets, and then larger ships delivered the killing blows. It was methodical and merciless, like a siege drill eating through rock. Plunging his fleet into the midst of the Loyalist fleet, Pertuabo’s strategy was to scattering the Imperial Fists' fleet formation and then to destroy it piecemeal. His plan was dependent upon the loyal ships not being able to fight back quickly enough to break the momentum of his thrust. However, Captain Polux and his fleet commanders quickly recovered from the shock and suddenness of Perturabo's attack and fought back.Despite their long sojourn at Phall, they had been kept in a state of constant battle-readiness. This policy paid off for the Imperial Fists as they began to concentrate their fire at the leading ships of Perturabo’s fleet. It was what the months of planning had been for, the hundreds of hours of training. The Retribution Fleet was ready to resist an attack, but they faced an enemy far greater than Captain Polux had ever planned for. The Iron Warriors had taken losses, but their strength remained. If the Imperial Fists had broken in the first moments they would have died. If they attempted to fight the Iron Warriors head on they would have been slaughtered. The Iron Warriors knew their weaknesses, the Imperial Fists theirs. The Iron Warriors had hoped to find the Loyalists unprepared, but they had not cracked after the first attack. The Imperial Fists defence had snapped back into place like the cogs of a clockwork mechanism.As the lead ships were battered the following ships of Perturabo's fleet broke off their attack to regroup. This gave the Loyalists the chance to go on the offensive but before they did so, the fleet's Astropaths relayed a critical message to the loyal commanders. Finally, they had succeeded in making contact with Terra and the Imperial Fists had urgent orders to return there, by the will of their Primarch Rogal Dorn. These orders came with the highest priority. They Imperial Fists were not to let anything delay them. Coincidentally, a passage seemed to have somehow opened up in the storms, though the Imperial Fists were not sure how long it would last. If they were to obey their Primarch's orders, they had to withdraw while there was a chance of making it through the storms. Embattled against the Traitors of Perturabo and his Iron Warriors Legion the Loyalists had an opportunity to force the issue and launch a counterattack against Perturabo’s fleet, perhaps dealing a wound to the enemy so severe that the Iron Warriors might never recover. But they had their orders; it was the will of Rogal Dorn that they return post-haste.The battle had become a slaughter. The Imperial Fists were running. Squadrons of ships tried to keep the Iron Warriors at bay while the others made for clear space and the possibility of escape. Freed of the pressure of attacks, the Iron Warriors fell on them. The Contrador and Polux's command ship, the Tribune, met in an embrace of fire and punctured metal. The Tribune fired every remaining weapon at the closing Iron Warriors ship. Macro-shells, lance beams and plasma jets flicked across the narrowing distance and broke over the Contrador's shields. The return fire blew out the Tribune's gun decks and gouged a long wound in its side. The Contrador closed until it was drifting alongside the Tribune’s wounded flank. Assault pods and boarding torpedoes slid across the gap. A weak flurry of turret fire reached out to meet the swarm of assault craft and hammered a handful into wreckage. The rest came on, unconcerned and undeterred. They hit in a wave, punching through gold-plated armour and disgorging their cargo into the guts of the Tribune.
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Tribune - Blood Price: Though Polux knew that the Tribune was as good as dead, he would claim its death price. With the Tribune lost, Polux ordered the remaining units aboard to withdraw and jump to Terra as ordered. On the external hull of the Tribune a hundred assault craft boosted into the void like a cloud of fireflies; the Tribune's contingent of Imperial Fists left their fortress for the last time. The 30 members of Polux's personal strike force were still with him, waiting. Before he departed he nodded to the enginseers. There was a flash of light and the Tribune's teleport chamber vanished from around us. Precisely five seconds later the enginseers performed their last duty. They never questioned the Fleet Master's order, never showed the slightest doubt or emotion at what was asked of them. The Tribune's plasma reactors overloaded. For a second the Tribune held its form, a golden fortress floating in black night, then it detonated. The Imperial Fists still on board were vaporised and their Iron Warriors enemies with them. Tongues of plasma licked out from the sun-hot core. Vast lumps of armour plating rode on the growing sphere of hot gases. The blast wave hit the Contrador, and broke fields and burnt out its sensors and range finders. Imperial Fists attack craft descended upon it a moment later like the vengeful spirits of the dead.The killing began to slow. The Retribution Fleet was no more; only the crippled and dead remained. The Iron Warriors ships had stopped firing on their victims, as if the overwhelming firepower of the earlier battle had left them spent. Surrounded Imperial Fists remnants fired all they had into the face of their enemies. Some managed to strip the void shields off an Iron Warriors ship; some even put wounds into their hulls. But the Iron Warriors came on, shrugging off damage like a bull grox trampling a dog into the dirt. They swarmed their remaining enemies, their boarding pods clustering on golden hulls like ticks feeding on cattle. Their boarding parties struck plasma reactors, shutting them down and letting the ships choke to death without power. Life support systems, artificial gravity, and weapon systems went silent. Then the Iron Warriors left and the cold of the void reached into the lightless hulls to do its slow and silent work. A few Imperial Fists ships remained, fighting to the last, a shrinking cluster of resistance that became smaller by the second. They fought to the death, firing on enemies with undimmed fury, covering limping comrades even as the Iron Warriors brought them down. When the Tribune exploded amongst the last Imperial Fists ships few of the Iron Warriors took note. The Contrador had their kill, and the Primarch had the head of the Imperial Fist who had dared to stand against him. That the Contrador lingered at the site of its victory drew no suspicion. And so, sustaining horrific losses, the Imperial Fists Retribution Fleet withdrew from the massive void conflict and made good their escape.
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Tributors - Tributors: The Tributors is a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter of unknown Founding and origin. Almost nothing is known about this Chapter in the Imperial records.
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Tributors - Chapter Colours: The Tributors' Chapter colours are not listed in current Imperial records.
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Tributors - Chapter Badge: The Tributors' Chapter badge is not listed in current Imperial records.
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Trident - Trident: The Trident is a Titan-grade melee weapon used by some Warlord-class Titans that originally served to bring rebellious Titans under control, but can prove extremely effective against an unsuspecting hostile Titan. It is a low-velocity barbed spear attached to a massive chain or cable that is in turn connected to one of the Titan's weapon hardpoints.It is thrown at a rebellious god-engine's legs. Slow enough to ignore void shields, it will hammer deep into the leg, and the Titan who threw it will then move backwards and rotate at speed in the hope of tripping the rebellious god-machine, taking it out of a fight without damaging it irrevocably. Once prone on the ground, the rebellious Titan can be accessed and deactived with much less risk, for it will not be able to rise or bring its armament to bear.
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Trident (Iron Warriors) - Trident (Iron Warriors): The Trident was the name given to a senior advisory formation within the Iron Warriors Legion that existed during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. It consisted of three officers known as "triarchs" who were senior Legionaries, usually of the rank of warsmith, who served as the Primarch Perturabo's chief advisers in military matters and as part of his retinue.Triarchs served until they died or lost Perturabo's confidence in their judgement. They were in some ways similar to the Sons of Horus' Mournival, though the Iron Warriors primarch was not one to create tight bonds of friendship with his advisers as Horus did before his corruption by Chaos.
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Trident (Iron Warriors) - Notable Triarchs: Kydomor Forrix - Forrix, called "The Breaker," was the first captain of the Iron Warriors Legion.Erasmus Golg, Warsmith of the 11th Grand Company - Erasmus Golg was the captain of the Iron Warriors 11th Grand Company during the Horus Heresy. Following his Primarch's Edict of Decimation, Erasmus Golg strove to epitomize the ruthless efficiency that Perturabo sought in his warriors. Golg was a brutal commander whose only punishment for failure was death. He eventually ascended to the prestigious Trident alongside Warsmiths Forrix and Harkor. Deemed flawed but useful by his primarch, Golg was placed in command of the battle barge Contrador during the Heresy. During the Battle of Phall, Golg was one of the primary Iron Warriors commanders, but in the closing stages of the battle he was killed by the Imperial Fists Captain Alexis Polux, who also took control of the Contrador. His place on the Trident was later filled by Barban Falk.Harkor, Warsmith of the 23rd Grand Battalion - Harkor was warsmith of the 23rd Grand Battalion and a member of the Trident until the close of the First Siege of Hydra Cordatus, when Harkor ordered his forces to make a bloody but successful push against the Imperial Fists defending the Cadmean Citadel. While Harkor's orders did lead to the close of the siege, his forces were largely bogged down and the attack cost his Grand Battalion many needless casualties, as well as disobeying Perturabo's direct orders and battle plan; Harkor was summarily stripped of his rank by the uncompromising Lord of Iron. Harkor's position as warsmith and membership of the Trident were immediately filled by his former subordinate Kroeger.Barban Falk, Warsmith of the 126th Grand Company - During the Horus Heresy, Barban Falk was a warsmith of the 126th Grand Company who was part of Perturabo's select triumvirate of advisers called the Trident and was known for his abnormal and imposing size and strength, even for an Astartes. He was appointed to serve as a triarch alongside Kroeger in the aftermath of the First Siege of Hydra Cordatus and Battle of Phall that saw the Trident's Harkor and Golg disgraced and slain, respectively. Later it was during a pitched battle in the depths of an Aeldari tomb citadel that Falk was contacted by a Daemonic entity. He used the Warp entity's power to focus and command his Iron Warriors. After the escape from the Aeldarir tomb world of Amon ny-shak Kaelis, First Captain Kydomor Forrix called Falk by name, and Falk replied, "I no longer know that name, I am simply the Warsmith." By the time of the Siege of Terra Falk had become aloof from most material concerns, insisting on simply being referred to as "The Warsmith" and scoffing at the demands or goals of his superiors such as Forrix. Forrix feared that like the Daemon Primarchs, Falk's true loyalty lay with Chaos' broader agenda for the galaxy and not with simply gaining victory over the Loyalists on Terra.Kroeger, Warsmith of the 23rd Grand Company - Kroeger was a warsmith and later captain of the Iron Warriors Grand Company under the command of Barban Falk, "The Warsmith," during the Siege of Hydra Cordatus. Kroeger originally served as a trooper in the 23rd Grand Battalion under the command of Warsmith Harkor during the Horus Heresy. After Perturabo stripped Harkor of his rank for disobeying orders during an assault on an Imperial Fists citadel on Hydra Cordatus, Kroeger was promoted to Warsmith and given a spot in the Trident, passing over Toramino. Kroeger proved to be an outside-the-box thinker while on the Triarch, often preferring the most brutal and simplest tactical options, a concept that appealed to Perturabo after the Battle of Phall. He still retained much of his sense of honour, being disgusted by the corrupted state of the Emperor's Children Legion after they were consumed by the worship of Slaanesh. Kroeger did not want the position he was promoted to, and was the victim of the constant scheming of the ex-Triarch Harkor. While on Iydris, Kroeger began to succumb to a level of bloodlust despite attempting to protect Perturabo from the machinations of Fulgrim. In a frenzy while fighting Aeldari Wraithguard, his forces slew Harkor. During the Siege of Terra Perturabo placed Kroeger in charge of the operation to capture the Lion's Gate Spaceport, something which shocked Kroeger's fellow Triarch Kydomor Forrix. Perturabo appreciated Kroeger's bluntness, and hoped that he could use it to subvert Rogal Dorn's expectations that the Iron Warriors would unleash a complicated assault plan. Kroeger's initial offensive failed in the face of the Emperor's psychic shield that wrapped around the Imperial Palace, but as part of the operation Forrix and 1,000 Iron Warriors were sent behind enemy lines as part of an infiltration operation. During the renewed attack on the Lion's Gate Spaceport, Kroeger engaged Imperial Fists commander Fafnir Rann in combat and wounded him. Over time, Kroeger's blood lust only grew stronger, until he finally became a Khornate Berserker in service to the Blood God in the centuries after the end of the Heresy.
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Triplex Galatia - Triplex Galatia: Triplex Galatia is a Dead World that was once a major Forge World of the ancient Mechanicum located in the Triplex System of the Triplex Sector in the Ultima Segmentum. This Forge World was also home to the Legio Victorum ("Foe Slayers") Titan Legion.Triplex Galatia was devastated by the Dark Angels Legion at the time of the Thramas Crusade during the Horus Heresy for siding with the Traitors. They rained destruction upon it until nothing but a lifeless wasteland remained.
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Triplex Galatia - Origins: Triplex Galatia was the first of the triple Forge Worlds of the Triplex System to be established. The story of its birth was long lost to history in those ancient days of the Age of Strife when the Explorator fleets of the ancient Mechanicum set forth blindly into the void, seeking fertile new lands in which to grow and expand.For long centuries, it would reign as the overlord of its local space, its dominion assured by the strength of the Legio Victorum I, the "Foe Slayers," and the sheer productivity of its Tech-priests.It would only be with the arrival of the Emperor that it would stumble and fall behind its sibling forges, for Mars took a hand to curb the power of this new rival and petitioned the Emperor to take only the Legio Victorum II for His Great Crusade, sealing the remaining two slivers of the Legio to the defence of the Triplex System.This would see Galatia cut off from the riches of the Great Crusade, which would flow instead into the hands of its sister world, Triplex Phall. Denied the glory of war and the spoils of victory, Galatia turned inwards and its tech-adepts began to walk forbidden paths in search of power, paths long forbidden by the decree of both Mars and Terra.
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Triplex Galatia - Horus Heresy: So it was that when the representatives of the Warmaster Horus and of its brother forge, Triplex Phall, sought to turn the Tech-priests of Triplex Galatia to their cause they found a ready ally, one more than prepared to throw off the shackles of the Imperium.With the promise of rich rewards from the Warmaster himself, Galatia began to slowly stockpile weapons of war built to new and fearsome specifications, shipping the more orthodox examples of their craft to the Imperium in order to keep up the pretence of loyalty that had been thrown across the system like a shroud.History has often suggested that Galatia, despite its new hidden allegiance, did not take a hand in the death of Triplex Thule and kept its warriors and Titans absent from the fratricidal conflict.Yet, it remains guilty of the lesser sin of standing by as the Legio Victorum III and the warriors of Thule died, and of stripping bare the corpse that remained of its brother Forge World, unleashing at last its Heretek hosts once the battle had been decided in order to seal its pact with the Traitors.Galatia's triumph would be short-lived. For though the bones of Thule would nourish its industry and fuel the construction of new armies and voidcraft in anticipation of the Traitor conquest of the Eastern Fringe of the galaxy, the arrival of Lion El'Jonson and his Dark Angels would seal the fate of the darkened forge of Galatia.Utterly destroyed by the Dark Angels' Dreadwing, its shattered surface would stand as a warning of the fate of Traitors and a token of the I stLegion's wrath that Triplex Phall could neither forget nor ignore.Even by the end of the Horus Heresy, Triplex Galatia remained largely unvisited, for few wished to risk calling down the I stLegion's censure upon themselves despite the riches and technological secrets that lay buried in the ruin of Galatia's pride and ambition.
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Triplex Phall - Triplex Phall: Triplex PhallForge WorldAdeptus MechanicusTriplex SystemTriplex SectorUltima SegmentumLegio VictorumTitan LegionRecently, when the dire threat of the Tyranid Hive Fleet Kraken threatened the Segmentum Ultima in 992.M41, Triplex Phall was one of the first worlds to fall under the Great Devourer's shadow.Though the Mechanicus forces of Triplex Phall bravely defended their world and ultimately survived the alien onslaught, the cost was high.
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Triplex Phall - History: Far to the galactic east of Terra lies the Forge World of Triplex Phall. Located in the furthest reaches of the Ultima Segmentum, in the Eastern Fringe, this Forge World has grown autonomous through long periods of isolation.For much of the Great Crusade, Triplex Phall was one of the Forge Worlds that helped to mass-produce much-needed arms and equipment for the military forces of the expanding Imperium of Man.
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Triplex Phall - Horus Heresy: At the outbreak of hostilities during the galaxy-wide civil war known as the Horus Heresy, the Eastern Fringe was the site of the conflict between the Night Lords and Dark Angels Space Marine Legions.The Night Lords had been sent by the Arch-traitor, the Warmaster Horus, to destroy and harrow extensive strategic resources in that region where Horus held little sway, denying them to the Imperium as a potential source of reinforcement or attack against the Traitors' flanks once the Warmaster's push towards Terra began.These elements were grouped principally around the Triplex Sector, and key among them were three stubbornly independent and now Loyalist Forge Worlds: Triplex Phall, Triplex Galatia and Triplex Thule, which between them accounted for almost all of the Loyalists' large warship-building capacity in the Ultima Segmentum (and had indeed supplied both Ultramar and Nocturne with much of their Legions' fleets).Secondly, the proximity of the Thramas Sector to where the Dark Angels Legion had been despatched before the civil war's outbreak also served the purpose of drawing them into battle to defend its vital worlds and keep them from coming to the aid of Terra. The conflict between the Night Lords and the Dark Angels came to be known as the Thramas Crusade.During this campaign, the murderous Night Lords succeeded in destroying both Triplex Galatia and Triplex Thule and wounding Triplex Phall grievously before going on to undertake a campaign of terror and bloodshed that left a trail of murdered worlds in the Night Haunter's wake.During this time, Triplex Phall, along with the Forge Worlds of Voss and Telastoria, mass-produced and laterally sourced-out the most advanced and adaptable las weapon designs available for the elite forces of the Imperial Army's Solar Auxilia. Since that bygone era, Triplex Phall has continued to show its worth as a productive and vitally important Forge World of the Imperium.
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Triplex Phall - Recent History: The Tech-priests of Triplex Phall have discovered many pockets of worlds on the outskirts of the galaxy settled during the Age of Technology. Many of these lost colonies were Knight Worlds -- home to houses of Nobles such as Grymm and Roland -- and no few of them yielded technological secrets such as caches of old STC designs, or unique archeotech created in Mankind's golden age.A great many Triplex Phall designs appear throughout the weapons and equipment of the Astra Militarum, and their fabrication secrets have never been shared. Even delegations from Mars have been forced to return to the Red Planet empty-handed, or with blueprints that they soon discover are missing vital details.Although Triplex Phall pays homage to Mars like all other loyal Forge Worlds, this disobedience has prompted Mars to permanently deploy several Skitarii Legions to accompany Triplex Phall's Explorator fleets and alert the Red Planet should further rich veins of technology be discovered.The tactic has proved fortuitous, as Triplex Phall has suffered a series of invasions, and the extra troops greatly assisted in the Forge World's defence. First, a splinter of Hive Fleet Kraken was eradicated, followed by a concerted attack by a Plague Fleet led by Typhus, and finally a Daemon incursion.All three attacks made planetfall, but were driven back before the foes could establish firm beachheads. This success was in part thanks to Triplex Phall being home to the Titan Legion Legio Victorum and having the support of over a dozen knightly households.
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Triplex Phall - Notable Campaigns: Second Tyrannic War (992.M41) - The Eastern Fringe was subjected to a second major Tyranid hive fleet assault in the form of the invasion of Hive Fleet Kraken in 992.M41, initiating the Second Tyrannic War. As Triplex Phall lay directly in the path of the encroaching Hive Fleet, the Forge World brought all its might to bear, including its Skitarii Legions and the Legio Victorum. Though Triplex Phall survived the onslaught of the Great Devourer, the price was no doubt a steep one.Plague Wars (ca. 111.M42) - Following the fall of Cadia during the 13th Black Crusade, Warp Storms of a magnitude not seen since the Age of Strife wrack the galaxy. A great Warp rift tears the fabric of reality, forming from the Eye of Terror and stretching all the way to the Hadex Anomaly in the Eastern Fringe, effectively cutting the galaxy in two. Every Forge World is cut off from its Explorator fleets and, for a time, from each other. All suffer invasions and raids as emboldened xenos and Chaos forces test them, probing for weaknesses, eager to destroy the bastions of Mankind's empire. No fewer than seven Forge Worlds are destroyed altogether and several more remain missing, buried beneath fierce and impenetrable storms. At the urgent call of the newly awakened Ultramarines Primarch Roboute Guilliman, over a dozen Forge Worlds, including Mars, Ryza, Metalica, and Triplex Phall, sent reinforcements to Ultramar. There they aid the Avenging Son's armies in defence and counterattack against Chaos Renegades and the Death Guard during the Plague Wars.
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Triplex Phall - Triplex Phall Iconography: The warriors of Triplex Phall bear the icon of a stylised skull, crown with a cog icon, both of which are reminiscent of the sacred symbol of the Cog Mechanicum.
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Triplex Phall - Triplex Phall Forge World Colours: Like other Forge Worlds, Triplex Phall maintains its own Skitarii forces to protect its interests, annihilating the enemies of the Tech-priests, and fighting at the vanguard of the Quest for Knowledge.The Tech-priests of Triplex Phall and their Skitarii wear muted dark grey robes, with the inside accentuated with the deep crimson of Mars.The pale yellow toothed iconography which rings the hoods, sleeves and hems of their robes is reminiscent of the teeth of a cog, a symbol of sacred significance to the Tech-priests of the Cult Mechanicus.
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Triplex Phall - Manufactoria Capabilities: Triplex Phall is notable for the production of various Sentinel walkers utilised by the forces of the Astra Militarum, including the utility Triplex Phall Pattern Sentinel Powerlifter and Triplex Phall Pattern Sentinel that is outfitted with a rocket pod.
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Triplex Phall - Sources: Codex: Adeptus Mechanicus (8th Edition), pp. 13, 22, 35Imperial Armour Volume One - Imperial Guard and Imperial Navy , pp. 8, 156Imperial Armour Volume One: Second Edition - Imperial Guard, pp. 10, 221, 226The Horus Heresy - Book Four: Conquest (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 146, 247The Horus Heresy - Book Nine: Crusade (Forge World Series), pp. 21, 37-38
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Triplex Sector - Triplex Sector: The Triplex Sector was a sector of the Imperium of Man located in the Eastern Fringes of the Ultima Segmentum that was home to the three Forge Worlds of the Triplex System and the Legio Victorum Titan Legion.The Triplex Sector was dominated by swathes of barren star systems, largely uninhabitable and empty.At the time of the Horus Heresy in the early 31st Millennium it was a wasteland of ore-rich worlds among old, dying stars and a few scattered clans of Abhuman miners and prospectors, which was far from any established trade route and cut off from the more populous sections of the region by fierce Warp Storms.Sitting at its heart was the system of Triplex, its triple Forge Worlds the centre of all industry in the sector and the greatest prize in the Eastern Fringe.With Triplex, a general might control the entirety of the eastern half of the Imperium of Man, for it rivalled great Anvillus in power, and many aspiring warlords cast their gaze upon this prize as the Horus Heresy erupted.After the battles of the Heresy only one Forge World, Triplex Phall, survived into the 41st Millennium, its tech-priests and Titan Legion loyal servants of the Emperor.
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Triplex Sector - Triplex System: The Triplex System located in the Triplex Sector was the beating heart of the Eastern Fringe at the time of the closing years of the Great Crusade. This system was considered one of the greatest industrial hubs in the entire Imperium, rivalling even great Mars and Anvilus in the capacity of its forges.By its labour had the Great Crusade won the distant stars of the east, and it was by the products of their manufactoria that civilisation was sustained in those hostile systems that sat at the very edge of the galaxy.Home to the three-fold Legio Victorum and several hundred militant taghma, the system was also one of the greatest concentrations of military force in the east.The few inhabited worlds and scattered mining colonies in the sector were held in thrall to Triplex by the threat of its anger and the necessity of its protection in the face of the terrors that lurked in unknown space.It was a nascent power that strained at the bonds of the Emperor's law and the dictates of distant Mars, one that saw in Horus' rebellion a chance for their own ascent even as they professed their loyalty to the newly-founded Imperiem.
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Triplex Sector - Triplex Galatia: The Forge World of Triplex Galatia was the first of the triple Forge Worlds to be established, its birth long since lost to history in those ancient days when the Explorator fleets of the Mechanicum set forth blindly into the void, seeking fertile new lands in which to grow and expand.For long centuries, it would reign as the overlord of local space, its dominion assured by the strength of the Legio Victorum I, the Foe Slayers, and the sheer proclivity of its tech-priests.It would only be with the arrival of the Emperor that it would stumble and fall behind its sibling forges, for Mars took a hand to curb the power of this new rival and petitioned the Emperor to take only the Legio Victorum II for His Great Crusade, sealing the remaining two slivers of the Legio to the defence of Triplex.This would see Galatia cut off from the riches of the Great Crusade, which would flow instead into the hands of Phall. Denied the glory of war and the spoils of victory, Galatia turned inwards and its tech-adepts began to walk forbidden paths in search of power, paths long forbidden by the decree of both Mars and Terra.So it was that when the representatives of the Warmaster Horus and of its brother forge, Triplex Phall, sought to turn them to their cause they found a ready ally, one more than prepared to throw off the shackles of the Imperiun.With the promise of rich rewards from the Warmaster himself, Galatia began to slowly stockpile weapons of war built to new and fearsome specifications, shipping the more orthodox examples of their craft to the Imperium in order to keep up the pretence of loyalty that had been thrown across the system like a shroud.History has often suggested that Galatia, despite its new hidden allegiance, did not take a hand in the death of Thule and kept its warriors and Titans absent from the fratricidal conflict.Yet, it remains guilty of the lesser sin of standing by as the Legio Victorum III and the warriors of Thule died, and of stripping bare the corpse that remained of its brother Forge World, unleashing at last its Heretek hosts once the battle had been decided in order to seal its pact with the Traitors.Galatia's triumph would be short-lived. For though the bones of Thule would nourish its industry and fuel the construction of new armies and voidcraft in anticipation of the Traitor conquest of the Eastern Fringe, the arrival of Lion El'Jonson and his Dark Angels would seal the fate of the darkened forge of Galatia.Utterly destroyed by the Dark Angels' Dreadwing, it would stand as a warning of the fate of Traitors and a token of the I stLegion's wrath that Phall could neither forget nor ignore.Even by the end of the Horus Heresy, it remained largely unvisited, for few wished to risk calling down the I stLegion's censure upon themselves despite the riches and secrets that lay buried in the ruin of Galatia's pride and ambition.
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Triplex Sector - Triplex Phall: Triplex Phall was the second of the Triplex System's great Forge Worlds, and the only one that would survive the ravages of war in the Eastern Fringe after the end of the Heresy.Though it had begun as little more than an adjunct to Galatia, its parent forge, Phall had grown swiftly during the years of Old Night, developing both an impressive industrial base and a significant martial tradition.Driven by a stubborn pride and a desire for greatness, Phall had long stood at the forefront of Triplex's wars, defending it from the threat of xenos invasion and expanding its small domain across the sector.By the time of the Emperor's arrival, the Legio Victorum II, the Foe Hammers, had grown to rival that of Galatia and would win the honour of representing Triplex among the armies of the Great Crusade.The spoils of their victories as part of the Emperor's vanguard would see Phall grow to eclipse its erstwhile brethren, gaining resources and glory from across the galaxy and catching the eye of the Warmaster Horus himself. Indeed, Phall would become one of the main shipyards for the vast fleets of the Great Crusade outside of the Sol System itself.Under Horus' patronage they would become the foremost power in Triplex and the Eastern Fringe, assuming a belligerent and prideful air in their dealing that brought about the ire of Mars, which had once favoured them.The archmagi of Mars would work to isolate Phall and Triplex, denying them access to technology and influence within the strange network of the Omnissiah's servants as they sought to ensure that none could challenge their dominion amongst the ranks of the many Forge Worlds.It was this quiet campaign waged against them that would set Phall to the research of technologies forbidden to them by the dictates of Mars, aided by Horus and representatives of those scattered forges that had struck bargains with the Warmaster, as the magi of Phall sought advantage in their struggle against the Martian ascendancy.In retrospect, this seems one more gambit orchestrated by Horus, seeding rebellion and dissent across the Imperium that he might later wield as a weapon. What might have become of it had it been left to fester can only guess but, with their research incomplete and ambitions not fully realised, Phall and Triplex would be brought to heel by the Dark Angels.Phall was spared the full extent of Lion El'Jonson's wrath only so that it might repay the hurt it had done the Imperium with the labour of its manufactoria and the life-blood of its warriors; a price it was bound to pay were it to avoid the fate meted out upon fallen Galatia.Its vast wealth and grand armies were bled dry in the prosecution of the Lion's campaign against his brother, the once-magnificent halls bedecked with trophies of the Great Crusade reduced to soot-stained assembly lines for the Loyalist cause.The proud archmagi of Phall were humbled and set to labour under the oversight of Dark Angels forge masters, their work examined for any sign of treachery or deviance, while the princeps and Titans of the Foe Hammers were sent into the most dangerous warzones of the war to pay their penance in death.By the end of the Thramas Crusade, Phall was much reduced in power and strength, its mere survival such a struggle that it posed no further threat to the political dominance of distant Mars.After the Horus Heresy, the Triplex Phall became the primary homeworld of the Legio Victorum. From there, the Legio Victorum started to amass an enviable Roll of Honour as its ranks swelled with newly constructed Titans.Though the Legio has had losses in its ten thousand year history, it is a matter of some pride that the oldest of its Titans, the Primus Malachi, is still fighting against the enemies of the Machine God.
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Triplex Sector - Triplex Thule: The smallest of Triplex's three Forge Worlds, the tale of Triplex Thule is born and ended in tragedy. It was founded by tech-magi cast out of Galatia in its early days for the practise of an extreme branch of Mars' orthodox doctrine that abhorred and condemned even the primitive servo-automata still in production amongst the Mechanicum's scattered worlds.Their obsession with the purity of mechanical devices and the subtle blending of man and machine in the form of servitors and MIU links put them at odds with the rulers of Galatia, who trod an increasingly deviant path in their research and lust for power.Thule would grow only slowly, starved of resources and shunned by their siblings, having reached the lowest grade of Primaris-ranking by the time of the Imperium's arrival at Triplex.Driven to struggle against their brethren for every last shipment of ore and batch of new subjects, Thule had long engaged in a hidden war with the other Forge Worlds of Triplex, one fought by a small Taghmata of heavily-modified servitors and the agents of the Malagra sect rather than by the Titans of the Legio Victorum III, the Foe Breakers.It was a conflict that would only intensify after the Emperor inducted the warriors of Phall into His crusade and gave it access to all the riches of the wider Imperium.As it had always done, Phall held its newfound wealth at arm's reach from the tech-magi of Thule, both a taunting reminder of the power Phall held and a mocking promise of what they might enjoy should they bow before Phall as Galatia had chosen to do.Stubborn and convinced of the rightfulness of their cause, the rulers of Thule refused to buckle beneath the growing influence of Phall. When the emissaries of the Warmaster Horus came in secret to offer them Horus' favour for their loyalty, the archmagi of Thule spurned them as servants of Phall and its sneering Hereteks.The hidden war then took a more savage turn, with bombs and data-phage infections wreaking havoc on outposts of both Forge Worlds as well as upon Thule itself.It would be Thule's retaliation, the assassination of a Phallian archmagus by a trio of Malagra adepts, which would set the pyre for the final tragedy of Thule's tale. In the opening months of Horus' rebellion, open war would arrive in Triplex as Triplex Phall took up arms against its least sibling, setting the Legios Victorum I and III to open battle.As with any war between brothers it was fought with a vicious and unrelenting spite, with no mercy offered or expected, and by the time of the Night Lords' arrival in the system, there would be little but ruins left of the once-proud Forge World of Triplex Thule.
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Triplex System - Triplex System: The Triplex System is an Imperial star system located in the Triplex Sector of the Ultima Segmentum which was the beating heart of the Eastern Fringe at the time of the closing years of the Great Crusade. This system was once considered one of the greatest industrial hubs in the entire Imperium, rivalling even great Mars and Anvilus in the capacity of its forges.By its labour had the Great Crusade won the distant stars of the eastern region of the galaxy, and it was by the products of their manufactoria that civilisation was sustained in those hostile systems that sat at the very edge of the galaxy.Home to the three-fold Legio Victorum and several hundred militant Mechanicum Taghma forces, the system was also one of the greatest concentrations of military force in the east. The few inhabited worlds and scattered mining colonies in the sector were held in thrall to Triplex by the threat of its Forge Worlds' anger and the necessity of its protection in the face of the terrors that lurked in unknown space.The Triplex System was a nascent power that strained at the bonds of the Emperor's law and the dictates of distant Mars, one that saw in Horus' rebellion a chance for their own ascent even as they professed their loyalty to the newly-founded Imperium.
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Triplex System - Notable Planets: Triplex Galatia - Triplex Galatia was the system's second-largest planet. It was the first to be colonised and was the most prominent of the worlds of system before the Horus Heresy. It is in the 41st Millennium a Dead World that was devastated by the Dark Angels Legion at the time of the Thramas Crusade during the Horus Heresy for siding with the Traitors. They rained destruction upon it until nothing but a lifeless wasteland remained.Triplex Phall - Triplex Phall was the system's largest world. It remains a bustling major Forge World of the Imperium in the 41st Millennium and the homeworld of the Legio Victorum.Triplex Thule - TTriplex Thule was the system's smallest planet.
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Triplex Thule - Triplex Thule: Triplex Thule is a Dead World that was once a major Forge World of the ancient Mechanicum located in the Triplex System of the Triplex Sector in the Ultima Segmentum. This Forge World was also home to the Legio Victorum III ("Foe Breakers") Titan Legion.The smallest of the Triplex System's three Forge Worlds, it had a great rivalry with its brother planets in the system, which ultimately ended in tragedy during the Horus Heresy when Thule was destroyed in a war with its sibling world, Triplex Phall.
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Triplex Thule - History: Triplex Thule was founded by tech-magi cast out of Triplex Galatia in its early days for the practise of an extreme branch of Mars' orthodox doctrine that abhorred and condemned even the primitive servo-automata still in production amongst the Mechanicum's scattered worlds.Their obsession with the purity of mechanical devices and the subtle blending of man and machine in the form of servitors and MIU links put them at odds with the rulers of Triplex Galatia, who trod an increasingly deviant path in their research and lust for power.Triplex Thule would grow only slowly, starved of resources and shunned by its sibling Forge Worlds, having reached the lowest grade of Primaris-ranking by the time of the Imperium's arrival in the Triplex Sector.Driven to struggle against its brethren for every last shipment of ore and batch of new subjects, Triplex Thule had long engaged in a hidden war with the other Forge Worlds of the Triplex System, one fought by a small Taghmata of heavily-modified servitors and the agents of the Malagra sect rather than by the Titans of the Legio Victorum III, the Foe Breakers.It was a conflict that would only intensify after the Emperor inducted the warriors of Triplex Phall into his Great Crusade and gave it access to all the riches of the wider Imperium.As it had always done, Triplex Phall held its newfound wealth at arm's reach from the tech-magi of Triplex Thule, both a taunting reminder of the power it held and a mocking promise of what they might enjoy should it bow before Triplex Phall as Triplex Galatia had chosen to do.Stubborn and convinced of the rightfulness of their cause, the rulers of Triplex Thule refused to buckle beneath the growing influence of Triplex Phall. When the emissaries of the Warmaster Horus came in secret to offer them Horus' favour for their loyalty, the archmagi of Triplex Thule spurned them as servants of Triplex Phall and its sneering Hereteks.The hidden war then took a more savage turn, with bombs and data-phage infections wreaking havoc on outposts of both Forge Worlds as well as upon Triplex Thule itself.
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Triplex Thule - Horus Heresy: It would be Triplex Thule's retaliation, the assassination of a Phallian archmagos by a trio of Malagra adepts, which would set the pyre for the final tragedy of Triplex Thule's tale. In the opening months of Horus' rebellion, open war would start in the Triplex System as Triplex Phall took up arms against its least sibling, setting the Legios Victorum I and III to open battle.As with any war between brothers it was fought with a vicious and unrelenting spite, with no mercy offered or expected, and by the time of the Night Lords' arrival in the system during the campaign of the Thramas Crusade, there would be little but ruins left of the once-proud Forge World of Triplex Thule.
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Trisagion - Trisagion: The Trisagion was a part of a triumvirate of unique Imperial Abyss-class Battleships of special configuration, created and built in the early 31st Millennium. This vessel was constructed in secret during the latter years of the Great Crusade by the Renegade Dark Mechanicum faction loyal to Kelbor-Hal, the Fabricator-General of Mars' Mechanicum. This vessel was constructed for the Word Bearers Space Marine Legion, who were secretly ordered by the rebellious Warmaster Horus to bring their unfettered wrath down upon their hated rivals, the Ultramarines Legion. Following the destruction of his former flagship, the Fidelitas Lex, at the hands of an Ultramarines' retribution fleet during the Purge of Nuceria in the early days of the Horus Heresy, the Word Bearers' Primarch Lorgar took the Trisagion as his new flagship.
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Trisagion - History: During the opening days of the Horus Heresy, Primarch Lorgar had ordered his two most trusted advisors, First Chaplain Erebus and the Dark Apostle Kor Phaeron, to unleash their unfettered wrath against the Realm of Ultramar. This was done in retaliation for the humilation the XVIIth Legion had been forced to endure by being forced to kneel in disgrace before the Emperor and Roboute Guilliman and his Ultramarines on the world of Khur at the Emperor's orders during the Great Crusade. The purpose of the Word Bearers' invasion of Ultramar in the Eastern Fringe of the galaxy was to tie down the XIIIth Legion, which administered the region as its Imperial fief, and prevent the Ultramarines from reinforcing their fellow Loyalists as the Traitor Legions marched relentlessly on Terra itself. To this end, Lorgar commissioned the Fabricator-General of Mars, Kelbor-Hal, in the construction of a mighty vessel of unique design, built on a scale never before seen by man. This gargantuan warship, the largest ever built by the Imperium, was christened by the Word Bearers with the name Furious Abyss. The Furious Abyss was to be manned by one thousand Word Bearers Astartes. They were led by Fleet-Captain Zadkiel, a devout and zealous follower of the Word of Lorgar. He was charged by the Dark Apostle Kor Phaeron to lead the assault upon the Ultramarines homeworld of Macragge, where they would strike the first blow for the Word Bearers against the hated Imperium of Man. But ultimately, Zadkiel failed in achieving his objective when the Furious Abyss was boarded by a small ad hoc force of Loyalist Astartes who had learned of the Word Bearers' role in Horus' rebellion and who proceeded to sabotage the massive vessel and destroy it before its array of formidable weaponry could be brought to bear against the worlds of Ultramar.
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Trisagion - Shadow Crusade: In the meantime, the Word Bearers' invasion of Ultramar proceeded to achieve a monumental victory at the Battle of Calth. The Ultramarines Legion was badly crippled by the Word Bearers' assault at Calth and no longer presented a viable threat to Horus' plan to drive on Terra. Erebus had managed to complete his blasphemous ritual on Calth's surface, which summoned the beginnings of the sorcerous Ruinstorm to the galaxy's Eastern Fringe -- a monstrous Warp Storm larger and more destructive than anything space-faring humanity had witnessed since the days of the Age of Strife. Simultaneously, with the Word Bearers' assault on Calth, Lorgar and the more reliable Word Bearers under his command launched a second offensive, a joint Shadow Crusade with his brother Angron and his World Eaters Legion into the rest of the Realm of Ultramar. They would go on to lay waste to the Five Hundred Worlds with reckless abandon, slaughtering twenty-six worlds in rapid succession. This was to ensure the success of the sorcerous Ruinstorm, which would ultimately split the void asunder, dividing the galaxy in two and rendering vast tracts of the Imperium impassable for centuries, effectively cutting Ultramar off from the rest of the Imperium.
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Trisagion - Assault on Armatura: During one of their early campaigns, the joint Traitor fleet was to assault the War World of Armatura, a vitally important planet that fed the Ultramarines Legion with recruits and munitions. Its close-orbit played home to immense Imperial shipyards. Orbital bastions of linked gantries and docking maws drifted above the placid world. Above and beyond the shipyard was the first concentric ring of void defences. Here, weaponised satellites and fire platforms bristled with turrets, alongside independent landing decks for fighter craft in lockdown. Beyond those, the true defences began. These were literal castles in the sky: great fortress-stations with their own racks of fighters and entire battlements given over to plasma batteries, laser broadsides and ship-killing Lance arrays. In highest orbit, the outer sphere of satellites was a three-dimensional spread of solar panels, clockwork engines and slaved Servitor brains all connected to vast long-range weapons arrays. Amidst that outermost defence sphere waited the Evocati fleet. While the Legion mustered at Calth, the XIIIth Legion’s War World could never be left undefended. The Evocati was comprised of several thousand Ultramarines drawn from a dozen Chapters of the Legion, awarded the highest honour of all: overseeing the operations of Armatura and the training of new recruits, commanding an Imperial fleet to rival any other.It appeared that Lorgar's plans to assault Armatura were for naught, for to attack the War World the Word Bearers would need a vessel to rival anything humanity had ever wrought. The Word Bearers had possessed such a vessel once -- the Furious Abyss. But it had been destroyed days earlier, close to the same moment Kor Phaeron's expeditionary force had struck Calth. Its corpse was probably still a shadow in the skies of Macragge, a monument to the Word Bearers' failure. Lorgar had told Zadkiel he was foolish to attack Macragge, but the Fleet-Captain was so keen to bathe in glory, for all he ever heard were the whispers begging for revenge for the humiliation of the Word Bearers on Khur. So the Aurelian had indulged him. But Lorgar had been underestimated, for he had planned for just such an eventuality. He had been planning the events that led up to the Horus Heresy for nearly half a Terran century. Lorgar's foresight became apparent when a vast trident of dark metal emerged from Warpspace near Armatura, a great warship whose shape was immediately familiar to the Word Bearers fleet approaching Armatura.The starship that emerged into reality was a reflection of the slain colossus once called the Furious Abyss. A veritable city of monasteries and cathedrals rose from its back with the reverence of clawed hands sculpted to clutch at the stars. Where most Imperial Battleships were spears of crenellated intent and iron-ridged might, this was a fortress in space, borne on the back of a great trident. The central tine served as the vessel’s core: dense at the stern, encrusted with massive engines and tapering towards the prow, where it formed a pointed ram the size of lesser vessels. The trident’s adjacent tines formed smaller blade-wings, each one barnacled with laser broadsides and Macrocannon batteries. If one were to clad the concept of spite in iron and set it sailing amongst the stars, it might approach the image of what burst back into the universe in that moment. It was, in every way, the Furious Abyss reborn. This mighty vessel was the Blessed Lady. This colossus was named for the Word Bearers' former Confessor, Cyrene Valantion, the Confessor of the Word, and the lone survivor of the destruction of the Perfect City of Monarchia at the hands of the Ultramarines on the world of Khur. The Blessed Lady easily eclipsed the Gloriana-class Battleships used as flagships by most of the other Space Marine Legions. But Lorgar's final secret was yet to be revealed. He had not had only two of these mighty vessels built in the Mechanicum shipyards orbiting Jupiter. As a second Warp-slice ripped across the stars near Armatura, another colossus was revealed. This was the Blessed-Lady's twin sister-ship, the Trisagion. The pair of Dreadnoughts rivaled even the Imperial Fists' Primarch Rogal Dorn's precious Phalanx in size and firepower. Lorgar had secretly had three of these mighty vessels built for the service of the Word Bearers.The Blessed Lady and her twin sister, the Trisagion, made a mockery of Armatura's orbital arrays, dismantling one of the best-defended worlds in the Imperium with barrage after barrage from their howling, flashing weapon decks. The ships’ size and scale rendered all countermeasures obsolete. For the first hour, nothing could punch through their Void Shields. Nothing even managed to scrape their skin. It took the combined firepower of a battle-station, two orbital defence platforms and a suicidal ramming from an Imperial warship to finally penetrate the Blessed Lady's shields. She sailed on, oblivious to the thousands dying within one of the flaming monasteries on her back, for their agonies made no difference at all to a crew composed of half a million men and women, all singing the praises of Logar and the Chaos Gods. The Word Bearers mighty Battleships made a mockery of the Ultramarines' defences and helped crush the Evocati fleet and win the day at Armatura for the Traitors.
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Trisagion - Purging of Nuceria: During this campaign of destruction, Lorgar had come to realise that over the course of their Shadow Crusade, Angron's temperament and mental stability had steadily grown worse. The cortical implants known as the Butcher's Nails were killing him faster than Lorgar had originally imagined, faster than anyone realised. The rate of degeneration had accelerated very quickly in the months after the Battle of Calth. The implants had never been designed for the peculiar genetics of a Primarch's brain. Angron's physiology was trying to heal the damage produced by the implants as the Nails bit deeper. To save his life, Lorgar convinced the Lord of the World Eaters to go back to his homeworld of Nuceria, which lay near the Realm of Ultramar in the Ultima Segmentum. The overlords of the gladiatorial games on that world who had first hammered the foul device into Angron's skull would know more of the implant's function than the Traitor Legion's savants and the Dark Mechanicum. The two Primarchs would learn all that was known about the Nucerians' insidious cortical implant technology, and then they would burn that loathsome world until its surface was nothing but glass. Angron would finally take the vengeance he pretended to no longer desire. Whether Angron fought him, hated him or trusted him mattered little to Lorgar, who intended to drag Angron into the immortality that he deserved from the Dark Gods, whether he wanted it or not.Twenty-seven days after the Conqueror and the Fidelitas Lex left Armatura in ashes, they broke from the Warp at the edge of Nuceria’s star system. The Trisagion was waiting for them. Once on Nuceria, Angron paid his respects to his fallen brothers and sisters amongst the Nucerian gladiators he had once fought beside, whose bones now lay exposed to the elements on the Desh'elika Ridge where they had died. The painful memories of that day, long ago, were too much for the Primarch to bear. After paying a visit to the city-state of Desh'ea to see who ruled the Nucerian city-state that had once claimed to own him, he became enraged when he was told the tale of how he had fled at the Battle of Desh'elika Ridge, and the subsequent massacre of the rebel army in the mountains. The rebels had died to a man in his absence. Enraged by the lies that had been told about him over the last century, Angron ordered his Legion to kill everyone in the city. Then they were to kill everyone on the planet.As the World Eaters and Word Bearers lay waste to Angron's homeworld, the Traitors' fleet sat patiently in orbit, awaiting the completion of the murder of an entire world. Without warning, Roboute Guilliman's Ultramarines retribution fleet, which had been tracking the rest of the Word Bearers Legion in the wake of the Battle of Calth, finally caught up to the Traitors upon Angron's homeworld. The XIIIth Legion warship Courage Above All, Guilliman's temporary flagship, broke Warp at the system’s edge, at the head of a large void armada consisting of 41 vessels. The Ultramarines armada looked wounded, cobbled together from separate fleets. It was not a dedicated interdiction war-fleet, but clearly a ragtag strike force, a lance thrust to the enemy’s heart. Guilliman himself had done the best he could with limited resources. The XIIIth Legion's Cruisers and Battleships ran abeam of the enemy fleet for repeated exchange of broadsides, offering targets too big and powerful to ignore, while the rest of the Ultramarines fleet used calculated Lance strikes from safer range. The armada then divided its assault potential, doing its utmost to destroy Lorgar's flagship Fidelitas Lex, and attempted to take the World Eaters' flagship Conqueror in a boarding action.Meanwhile, the Trisagion held its own despite the number of enemy vessels arrayed against the Word Bearers' fleet. The great Abyss-class Battleship was like a fleet unto itself. However, Lorgar's flagship, the Fidelitas Lex, was already a ruin, its armour pitted and cracked, its Void Shields a memory. The cathedrals and spinal fortresses barnacling along its back were gone, laid waste by the Ultramarines' incendiary rage. The XIIIth Legion's armada attacked in strafing runs and protracted exchanges of broadsides, trading fire with the superior warship and accepting their own casualties as the cost of bleeding the bigger vessel dry. Each assault left the Lex weaker, firing fewer turrets and cannons, taking punishment on its increasingly fragile armour. But she fought on. Crawling with smaller ships, the Lex lashed back with its remaining Macro-cannons, rolling in the light of its own burning hull. Guilliman guided the battle from the command deck of Courage Above All, and had decided that the Lex would die first, killed in the death of a thousand cuts and swept from the game board, while the Conqueror would be boarded and killed from within. In the course of the battle in Nucerian orbit, the Conqueror could not rise to its sister-ship’s defence. Both Traitor Legion flagships fought alone, starved of support and suffering the endless attacks of the XIII Legion’s ragged armada. Salvation Pods streamed from the Lex’s sides and underbelly, along with heavier Mechanicum craft and bulk landers. With the Legionaries of the Word Bearers already on the surface, the ship’s human population fled in the vessel’s final minutes. And still the great vessel fought -- rolling, turning, raging. But the Lex's destruction was inevitable, as the flaming wreckage of the once-proud flagship crashed to the planet's oceans below.With the defeat of the Ultramarines and their Primarch on the surface of Nuceria at the hands of Lorgar and Angron, who had ascended to become a Daemon Prince of Khorne as a result of Lorgar's machinations, the Ultramarines retribution fleet recovered its troops and then withdrew from the system to lick its wounds. Following the completion of the Purge of Nuceria, Lorgar took the Trisagion as his new flagship. The ultimate fate of the Trisagion following the void battle at Nuceria is unknown in the fragmented Imperial records currently available from this time.
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Trisagion - Armament: Likes its lost sister-ship the Furious Abyss, the Trisagion possessed a formidable array of weaponry, with hundreds of laser batteries that ran the length of both of its sides. It also possessed an experimental weapon: a Plasma Lance embedded in its prow, developed as a direct fire, close-range weapon for ship-to-ship combat, which was able to fire at point-blank ranges. The Trisagion could also deploy psionic mines when in transit through the Warp, to collapse stable Warp routes behind it when being followed by enemy vessels.
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Triskele - Triskele: A Triskele is a deadly Craftworld Aeldari ranged weapon composed of three blades that can be thrown in a great, coruscating arc that slices through anything in its path before returning to its owner. Only Exarchs of the Howling Banshees Aspect Shrine wield them.The weapon can also be used as a Power Weapon in close combat and is highly effective against even the most heavily-armoured foes.
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