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Triskele - Jainas Mor: A unique version of this weapon, the Jainas Mor ("Silent Death" in the Aeldari Lexicon), is utilised by the Howling Banshees' Phoenix Lord, Jain Zar. The Jainas Mor is far more powerful than a standard Triskele. |
Trojan - Trojan: The Trojan logistical support tank is one of the main workhorse vehicles of the Astra Militarum. The Trojan is mainly used to transport supplies from the safety of the supply dump to the front lines.This support vehicle is built using the same chassis and engine as the Chimera armoured personnel carrier, but it trades in its troop space for a supply hold, and possesses an external crane to hoist the supplies out. The Trojan can also be used to transport even larger amounts of supplies than can fit in its own hold on trailers that it tows behind it.Since it is larger than the Centaur utility tank, the Centaur is used to tow smaller siege weapons and trailers. The Trojan is only lightly armed, as it is not meant to be used as a front line combat vehicle.The Trojan is easy to manufacture and is very efficient in its role, but it is unable to tow vehicles due to its rather weak crane system. As such, that task is better left to the Atlas recovery tank.The Trojan's main purpose is the transportation of supplies and other materiel to the front line, and this can include ammunition, foodstuffs, clothing, water, infantry weapons, and just about anything that is needed, as long as it fits inside the vehicle's chassis.The Trojan has several types of trailers it tows behind it, including a munitions trailer, a fuel tanker, and a general supply trailer.The Trojan can also tow weapons platforms such as the Earthshaker Cannon, Medusa Siege Gun, Quad Launcher, and Heavy Mortar Cannon, which may be too large or the terrain to rough for a Centaur to tow into position. The Trojan can carry the large shells those artillery pieces require, so that they may never stop firing for want of ammunition.Trojans can be used as command vehicles and communications vehicles if the need arises, and as minesweepers and bridge layers if there is no other alternative. |
Trojan - Armament: The Trojan is a lightly armed and armoured variant of the Imperial Chimera. The Trojan uses the same hull-mounted Heavy Bolter as the Chimera but removes all other weapons in favor of providing space for supplies.The Trojan can be outfitted with a Pintle-mounted Heavy Stubber or Storm Bolter and a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher to give it some more firepower, Camouflage Netting, Extra Armour Plating, rough terrain modifications, and track guards to give it more protection, and a Searchlight, a Dozer Blade, improved communications equipment, and Smoke Launchers to make it more useful. |
Trojan - Known Regiments That Make Use of Trojans: 61st Death Korps of Krieg Armoured Regiment - Fought during the Siege of Vraks resupplying Imperial forces alongside the Centaur utility tank.28th Death Korps of Krieg Tank Regiment - Galen V Expedition Force9th Dnieper Tank Corps17th Tallarn Heavy Tank Company9th Krieg Heavy Tank Company12th Valhallan Field Artillery8th Valhallan Armoured Regiment597th Valhallan Regiment9th Konig Heavy Tank Company - Colonia Campaign |
Trojan - Adeptus Mechanicus Technical Specifications: Graia Pattern TrojanVehicle Name:TrojanMain Armament:1 Heavy BolterForge World of Origin:Graia, Gryphonne IV, Stygies VIII, Ryza, Voss, M'Khand, Armageddon, Tolkan, Accatran, Lucius, Triplex Phall, Metalicus, Vanahiem, PhaetonSecondary Armament:N/AKnown Patterns:I - MXVIITraverse:10 degreesCrew:1 Commander, 1 Driver, 1 Crane OperatorElevation:-2 to 18 degreesPowerplant:Vulcanor 16 Twin Coupled Multi-FuelMain Ammunition:300 RoundsWeight:3.5 TonnesSecondary Ammunition:N/ALength:6.9 metresArmour:Width:5.7 metresHeight:3.0 metresSuperstructure:90 millimetresGround Clearance:0.45 metresHull:90 millimetresMax Speed On-Road:80 kilometres per hourGun Mantlet:N/AMax Speed Off-Road:60 kilometres per hourVehicle Designation:0427-941-112-TR14Transport Capacity:N/AFiring Ports:N/AAccess Points:N/ATurret:N/A |
Trojan - Sources: Imperial Armour, pp. 43, 50-51Imperial Armour Apocalypse II, pg. 15Imperial Armour Volume One - Imperial Guard & Imperial Navy, pp. 143-146Imperial Armour Volume One - Imperial Guard (Second Edition), pp. 231-234, 246, 253, 267Imperial Armour Volume Three - The Taros CampaignImperial Armour Volume Five - The Siege of Vraks - Part OneImperial Armour Volume Six - The Siege of Vraks - Part Two |
Troupe Master - Troupe Master: A Troupe Master, also known as the "Leaders of the Dance," the "Avatars of the Laughing God" and athair in the Aeldari Lexicon, are the officers of the Harlequins, with each troupe led by a Troupe Master. Amidst the mayhem of battle, the masque's elite leader choreographs the carnage. Each Troupe Master directs their Players with the skill of an impresario and the strategic genius of a seasoned general.It is he that decides where the troupe goes next, what dances are performed, and what messages they deliver. If the Shadowseers are the heart and soul of a troupe of Harlequins, the Troupe Master is its mind and cunning.When performing, a Troupe Master invariably plays the story's hero or major protagonist. In the Dance Without End, the Troupe Master takes the role of the Laughing God himself, striving against She Who Thirsts and thwarting the newly birthed Chaos God's unceasing hunger.Other times a Troupe Master is an emissary for the troupe, meeting with Craftworld Aeldari Farseers, Archons of the Drukhari, Aeldari Corsair princes, or representatives of the Aeldari Exodites. |
Troupe Master - History: Troupe Masters are choreographers of war, directing their comrades' reactions to the changing fates of battle, and ensuring the Harlequins' performance in the theatre of war is as perfect as it can be. By consent of their peers, the Troupe Masters become focal points for the successes and failures of entire troupes of Harlequins. In many conflicts, the most talented will even be entrusted with directing the performance of their entire masque.Troupe Masters are closer to the lead Players of a cast than formal commanders; they are elevated by the will of their brothers and sisters, playing their role until it is time for another to take their place. Troupe Masters act as exemplars for all their troupe's key characteristics, embodying everything it means to be Light, Dark or Twilight writ large.Thus Troupe Masters of the Light will hurl themselves into battle like the headstrong Aeldari heroes of ancient myth, adopting such aggressive, protagonist roles as the Duke of the Hidden Realm, or the Eldanari Prince. Troupe Masters of the Dark, by comparison, are sinister and vindictive, always seeking some way in which to flamboyantly finish off the foe. Troupe Masters of the Twilight, meanwhile, see cycles of transition in everything, often seeming obsessive or insane in their attention to nuance and detail until the precise moment their true genius reveals itself.In performance, the Troupe Master always dances the part of Cegorach, the Laughing God. In combat, a Troupe Master is usually armed with two close combat weapons (one of which is often a Shuriken Pistol), and equipped with a visual disruption Holo-field and Conversion Field emitter. They may also be armed with Vortex Grenades, which they deliver on-target by running forwards alone while the rest of the troupe supplies covering fire. In addition, some Troupe Masters may have psychic abilities.The Troupe Masters of some Harlequin troupes carry a number of lightweight batons, which unfold into a flag bearing the symbol of their masque. This is commonly left as a "calling card" after the destruction of enemy units and installations. |
Troupe Master - Troupe Master Markings: A Harlequin Troupe Master's battlefield garb is often more extravagant than that of the troupe's other warriors, clearly marking him out as a leader in the maelstrom of combat. Whereas Players wear elegantly cut jackets or ritually folded tunics clasped about the waist, Troupe Masters often sport high-collared greatcoats which billow and whirl dramatically with each bone-crunching kick or graceful flick of the blade.Many Troupe Masters display their troupe's rune upon the coat's lapel or hem -- others prefer to use this space to better display the kaleidoscopic patterns of their masque, adhering instead to the Players' practice of bearing their troupe rune upon the shoulder, thigh or knee. The masque rune is usually marked upon a sash, though this is by no means consistently so. |
Troupe Master - Troupe Master Mask: Troupe Masters wear grotesque masks that mock the sinister, ugly face of war. Their ever-shifting features flicker between nightmarish horror and leering, sardonic humour at the mortal plight of their foes. |
Troupe Master - Wargear: Holo-Suit - The Holo-Suit, or dathedi -- meaning "between colours" -- is responsible for this transformation. The device incorporates a programmable holo-field that breaks down the wearer's profile into a fractal lightstorm as they move; the faster they travel, the more pronounced the effect. So it is that a charging Harlequin appears as nothing more than an indistinct, prismatic storm that is nigh-on impossible to hit, allowing them to simply avoid blows that would otherwise lay them low.Shuriken Pistol - Shuriken Pistols are light, compact sidearms much favoured by Harlequins. The slender, graceful lines of these weapons mislead many foes, who discover their lethal stopping power only as a flurry of razor-edged shuriken rip through their flesh. The reliability and featherweight construction of the Shuriken Pistol means that most Harlequins bear them into battle, the Players' acrobatic combat style perfectly complemented by the firearm they wield.Close Combat Weapon (Any Aeldari type)Fusion Pistol (As replacement for Shuriken Pistol)Plasma GrenadesFlip Belt - These devices enhance the Harlequins' agility to incredible levels by making use of the Aeldari's signature anti-gravitic technology. |
Troupe Master - Optional Wargear: Harlequin's Embrace - This weapon shreds its victims with a web of monofilament wires.Harlequin's Kiss - The iconic weapon of the Harlequins, once plunged into the victim's body, this weapon reduces their innards to meat slurry in moments. Arguably the most iconic weapon that the Harlequin masques carry to war, the Harlequin's Kiss is horrifically lethal. This weapon consists of a sharpened tube containing high-tensile monofilament wire, like those used in the Death Spinners, and is worn on the forearm. The Kiss is only effective in close combat. It contains a tightly-coiled retractable monofilament wire which is around 100 metres in length. When activated, usually by a forward punching motion, the wire is violently released. Capable of piercing armour, if the wire penetrates its victim it instantly uncoils and lashes around violently, liquefying bones and internal organs, and causing immediate death in a spectacular and bloody fashion. The wire then retracts back into the Kiss with a rush of gore for another use.Harlequin's Caress - This device sheathes the wearer's hand in a deadly power field.Power Sword - Harlequin power swords are always named after famed weapons from Aeldari myth. Many bear titles taken from the blades forged by the smith god Vaul to appease the god of war Khaine and secure the release of his divine prisoners, Kurnous, the god of the hunt, and Isha, the goddess of nature and fertility. Also popular are the various blades of the legendary mortal House of Eldanesh, one of Khaine's many godly weapons, or the many stolen swords of the Laughing God himself.Haywire GrenadesEnigma of the Black Library - These artefacts are items of incredible rarity, ancient treasures that are carefully maintained and stored within the Black Library. |
Troupe Master - Sources: Black Crusade: The Tome of Excess (RPG), pg. 113Codex: Eldar (6th Edition), pp. 46-47Codex: Harlequins (7th Edition) (Digital Edition), pp. 12, 37, 40-41, 85-88, 137, 159, 172-173Harlequins Painting Guide - Warriors of the Laughing God, pp. 3, 11-12, 30, 36, 40, 44-47, 50, 57, 106-111, 165Warhammer 40,000: Compendium (2nd Edition), pg. 185White Dwarf Issue #53 (31 Jan 2015), "Harlequin Troupe," pp. 4, 10 |
True Sons - True Sons: The True Sons are a large splinter warband of Chaos Space Marines that formerly belonged to the Black Legion and are dedicated to Chaos Undivided. Following the death of their Primarch Horus at the hand of the Emperor during the final battle of the Horus Heresy and the XVIth Legion's subsequent flight from Terra into the Eye of Terror, Horus' Legion continued to worship him as a god. They bowed down before his newly-raised tomb on the Daemon World of Maeleum where the XVIth Legion found its first refuge and made daily oaths of loyalty. The warband known as the True Sons never broke with these traditions, even after the destruction of the Primarch's body in the wake of the Traitor Legions' internecine Slave Wars. Covering their armour in the profane symbol known as the Eye of Horus, the True Sons build effigies of Horus wherever they go, bowing down to them before symbolically burning them. |
True Sons - Warband History: In the closing days of the Horus Heresy, the Traitor Legions retreated before the Loyalists, their Warmaster Horus slain by the Emperor of Mankind and their dreams of galactic conquest denied. With their former brothers in close pursuit, the Traitors fled toward the corrupting embrace of Chaos and into the Eye of Terror. Among these Traitors were the fragmented survivors of the Sons of Horus and their greatest surviving warlord: First Captain Ezykyle Abaddon. While other Traitor Legions lost themselves in the madness and excess of the Warp, Abaddon never forgot the defeat of Horus and the debt of vengeance he owed the Emperor. On Maeleum, a graveyard world of steel and rust, the Sons of Horus raised a fortress. Surrounded by living darkness and the bones of dead Warp-dragons, it was fashioned from the wrecks of decaying vessels long lost to the Warp, with each spire and tower made from the jagged prow of an ancient voidship. The Legion interred Horus' body within a great tomb, where many fell into worship of their fallen demigod.Horus' body hung suspended in a spiralling chamber of bone-white stone, bathed in flickering golden light, his perfect form looking down upon his sons. Reaching up as far as the eye could see, the deeds of Horus were carved into the arching crypt walls, each one depicting a great battle or glorious victory. Each day, the worshippers would gather in the shadow of their Primarch and offer up their oaths anew, unable and unwilling to find a new leader. With their Primarch dead and their Legion on the verge of extinction, the Sons of Horus stagnated. Like many of the other Traitor Legions, the Sons of Horus suffered from incessant daemonic attacks during the early years within the Eye of Terror. There was a never-ending supply of daemons to fight off, and many fell to the uncontrollable influence of Chaos, losing their mind and bodies to possession by these insidious Warp entities.Some within the Legion argued that the Sons of Horus should offer their allegiance to a single power rather than deal with the daemons of many gods. Most, however, warned that the XVIth Legion should never bow to an outside power again; they remembered too well the yoke that the Emperor had placed around the neck of their Legion, and were wary of letting another master hold such power over them again. The martial pride of the XVIth Legion also meant that they would never completely accept a master who did not come from their own ranks, be it the Emperor of Mankind or even a God of Chaos. |
True Sons - The Slave Wars: The wars between the other Legions who had sided with Horus during the Horus Heresy, known as the Slave Wars, raged across the Eye of Terror even as the Sons of Horus ignored the events happening around them, and continued to raise their fortress ever higher, worshipping the corpse of their Primarch. The Sons of Horus had remained largely apart from these conflicts; however, jealous eyes now turned their way. Traitorous forces gathered against them and conspired to rob them of the remains of Horus to further vile and selfish ambitions. The Primarch Horus' body, with its potent genetic information and biological secrets, was a great prize indeed. In a sudden assault, the remnants of the debased Emperor's Children, having grown vastly in power after firmly cementing their terrible pacts with Slaanesh, easily smashed their way through the defences of Maeleum and into the central chambers of the Sons of Horus' stronghold. They stole the body of the slain Primarch from the heart of its tomb and spirited it away, some say with the purpose of cloning it in order to create a new and still greater Warmaster of Chaos. |
True Sons - Rise of Abaddon: Their fortress in ruins and their Legion decimated, the Sons of Horus stood on the brink of vanishing forever from the galaxy and fading into cursed memory. The XVIth Legion devolved into in-fighting amongst themselves, giving in to dark despair or uncontrolled rage. The divisions between the Legion's captains turned into bitter bloodshed and murder, as order completely collapsed. The salvation of the Sons of Horus came when one of its greatest captains, Ezekyle Abaddon, returned from his Dark Pilgrimage in time to watch the battle from afar. It was in that moment that he saw, with cold clarity, that it was Horus' failure that had led the Legion here, to them tearing each other apart in the blood-soaked ruins of Maeleum. Finally, sickened by how far the Legion had fallen, he stalked through the ruins hunting down his fellow captains, cooling his rage with their final screams. In the end, Abaddon alone remained of the Legion's leaders, demanding obedience from his brothers.Some saw Abaddon as Horus' rightful successor and fell at his feet willingly, while others recognised his raw strength and bowed their heads to his might. A few turned their back on Abadodn, and were either cut down by their brothers or managed to escape into the Warp. With his Legion brought to heel, Abaddon turned his attention to the clones of Horus; he commanded his warriors to extinguish all trace of their former Primarch and free themselves from his shadow. He then personally led an attack on the Emperor's Children that destroyed the body of the Primarch Horus and all its clones, and in so doing, ushered in a new age for the XVIth Legion. The Traitors changed their name once more, this time in reference to the fact that their armour was now adorned black in mourning for the loss of Horus, calling themselves the Black Legion. Through his actions, Abaddon re-invigorated the Legion, reviving the old notion that none could stand in their way and that they would one day inherit the galaxy itself.In the long, dark decades after the death of their Primarch, the Sons of Horus fragmented. When Ezekyle Abaddon proclaimed himself the new master of the XVIth Legion in the ruins of Maeleum, there were those who turned their back on the Despoiler. These Legionaries either remained true to the memory of Horus or forsook all masters, before vanishing into the depths of the Eye of Terror. Most would disappear from history forever, but some returned to challenge the Black Legion, or in time rejoin its ranks. They are known to the Black Legion as the Thrice-Cursed Traitors. The True Sons are one such warband; they have never broken with the traditions of worship of their revered Primarch. Covering their armour in the symbol of the Eye of Horus, the True Sons build effigies of Horus wherever they go, bowing down to them before symbolically burning them. |
True Sons - Warband Colours: The True Sons still wore the dark and murky verdigris green-black colours of their former Legion. Most notably, they covered their battle plate in the sacred symbol of the Eye of Horus. Their armour also still displayed the Cthonian gang-sigils graven into their armour that recorded their notable kills and deeds. |
True Sons - Warband Badge: The True Sons continued to display the Eye of Horus in tribute to their fallen Primarch. |
Truesilver Armour - Truesilver Armour: Truesilver Armour is a type of physical protection used by the Grey Knights for their vehicles.Strands of sanctified silver and iron have been embedded into the vehicle's armour, rendering it unbearable to the touch of daemons and Chaos-tainted psykers. |
Truskan Snowhounds - Truskan Snowhounds: The Truskan Snowhounds are a Militarum Regimentum of the Astra Militarum who emulate the Cadian Shock Troopers.The drilled precision and ardent resolve of lost Cadia's regiments have been emulated across countless Imperial worlds, with many Militarum Regimentos receiving training from Cadian infantry and tank officers. Cadian-derived tactics and uniforms are therefore seen upon battlefields throughout the galaxy.The tribes from which the Snowhounds recruit mastered the art of winter warfare long ago. Aside from being an extremely hardy regiment, the Truskans are renowned for their keen vision.Snipers and sharp-shooters are common amongst this regiment, their skills honed hunting the white animals of their homeworld, the Ice World of Trusk, across snow-drifts and glaciers.Regiments of the Truskan Snowhounds are known to have participated in the War of Beasts on the Sentinel World of Vigilus during the Era Indomitus. |
Truskan Snowhounds - Notable Regiments: 132nd Truskan Snowhounds - Aided the Ultramarines in their battle against the Heretic Astartes of the Crimson Slaughter on the Shrine World of Beati Sedna.602nd Truskan Snowhounds - The 602nd Truskan Snowhounds was deployed to the frozen Death World oddly named Death of Bianzeer in the Bianzeer's Hollow System in the Pankallis Sub-sector of the Octarius Sector to maintain a Cordon Impenetra from the attacks of Hive Fleet Leviathan. Five companies of the 602nd Truskan Snowhounds vanished without a trace during the major combat operations on that world against the Tyranids. |
Trygon - Trygon: A Trygon (Tyranicus subterra-extremis) is a species of Tyranid that is similar to the smaller Ravener and often leads their hordes into battle. Trygons are primarily employed by the Hive Mind as stealth operatives who can emerge behind enemy lines and slaughter foes where they stand.Trygons are capable of digging massive tunnels that lead behind enemy lines and then use their acute senses to detect the presence of enemies above it. The emergence of a Trygon will often herald a larger Tyranid attack as hordes of smaller bioforms like Raveners pour out after it using the freshly created tunnel. Trygons are deadly close combat specialists who make use of their six clawed arms, razor-sharp teeth and a bio-electric field that flows through its armour that can be unleashed in an ionised spray to incapacitate attacking enemies. |
Trygon - Role: The Trygon is a vast, serpentine Tyranid bioform, so colossal that it towers over even the mighty Carnifex. It is a heavily armoured monster, covered from head to tail with a thick carapace of shifting plates. As the Trygon moves, these plates generate a potent bio-static charge that courses along the length of the beast's body and wreathes its bladed forelimbs with crackling power. The Trygon can direct this energy as a lethal high-voltage discharge -- unleashing pulsing arcs of lightning that leave its prey as little more than a charred pile of scorched bones. Called a "bio-electric pulse" by Imperial scholars of the Great Devourer, this electrical energy can be channeled into a sudden, powerful arc that is potent enough to kill by exhaling an ionised spray carrying the charge from the Trygon's gills.A Trygon's claws are not only fearsome in close combat, they also allow it to burrow through practically any material. When a Trygon detects an enemy above, it digs upwards, bursting through the ground with explosive force, its huge claws scything through enemy warriors and tanks alike. Such attacks are hard to detect and harder to defend against, especially on worlds with background seismic activity. Once the beast emerges, only focused heavy-weapons fire can be relied upon to bring it down, for the Trygon's iron-hard carapace is proof against all else.Trygons excavate a massive network of underground tunnels as they burrow beneath the surface of a prey world. Other Tyranid bioforms use the passageways left in the Trygon's wake, scuttling unseen as battle rages overhead. The emergence of a tunnelling Trygon therefore often heralds a larger Tyranid attack, with hordes of creatures pouring out of the tunnel shortly after its emergence.It is possible that Trygons use their natural bio-static charge to also assist with their tunnelling, as their tunnels have been found to be coated with a fused, glass-like silicate layer on the inside created from material that has been fused by a potent electrical charge. This effect acts to stabilise the tunnel walls and prevents them from collapsing behind a burrowing Trygon.Trygons have also been known to dig deadfall traps by leaving a thin crust of soil over a deep, conical hole. Sufficient weight in troops and armour walking across the hole will collapse the roof of the sinkhole and deposit the victims into the Trygon's waiting claws. A Trygon's greatest weakness is probably that it can be baited or misdirected from its primary target while burrowing by the first prey to cross its path. |
Trygon - Trygon Prime: As with many Tyranid organisms, different Trygons display substantial variety; one of the most distinct is the Trygon Prime. These Tyranid bioforms have elongated jaws and containment spines running the length of their sinuous bodies, to better harness and direct their bio-electric discharges.More dangerous still, these Trygons share a strong synaptic link with the Hive Mind and are able to telepathically dominate the will of lesser Tyranid species, essentially allowing them to serve as subsidiary synapse creatures in a Tyranid swarm. |
Trygon - Bioshock Brood: A Bioshock Brood is a group of Trygons who work together to combine and so amplify their own static charges into a single bio-electric field covering the whole brood, rather than generating individual bio-static fields. Bio-electrical lightning arcs from Trygon to Trygon with a build-up of power so great that the generated field can disrupt, absorb, and even deflect incoming enemy fire.When this potent electrical build-up is discharged, it has the power of a raging tempest which reduces targets to charred corpses. Tell-tale signs of an imminent surfacing from a Bioshock Brood include hairs standing on end, the tang of ozone, or unusual electronic static disrupting vox communication channels -- though these warnings usually go unnoticed by te imminent victims. |
Trygon - Ordo Xenos Departmento Analyticus Data: Ordo Xenos Departmento Analyticus RecordDesignationTrygonMain Weaponry4 Scything ClawsCommon Title"Mother Ravener" "Slash-tail"Species NameTyranicus subterra-extremisSecondary WeaponryBio-electric fieldAverage Height7.1 metresAverage Weight9.7 tonnesTertiary WeaponryOther claws and fangsFirst encounteredBeta Anphelion IVRoleSubterranean stealth assaultThreat evaluationVery high |
Tsagualsa - Tsagualsa: Tsagualsa, also sometimes referred to as the "Carrion World," was a planet located on the Eastern Fringe of the galaxy that Primarch Konrad Curze of the Night Lords Traitor Legion chose as his base of operations following the destruction of his homeworld Nostramo.After the Night Haunter's assassination, the world was abandoned by the Night Lords for a new home within the Eye of Terror sometime in the 32nd Millennium.It was later settled by Imperial colonists who became trapped there during the 41st Millennium by a Warp storm. The world was renamed "Darchana," though these settlers were largely slaughtered once the Night Lords returned to reclaim the world for their own. |
Tsagualsa - Horus Heresy: Just before the Horus Heresy erupted, Konrad Curze had been constantly plagued by prophetic visions of the future that haunted him. Following his long absence during the Great Crusade, the Night Haunter's homeworld of Nostramo had degenerated once more into the anarchy and corruption that was its natural state.The primarch eventually returned to Nostramo with his Night Lords Legion to fulfill one of his horrific visions. Judging the people of his planet irredeemably guilty, the Night Haunter ordered the orbiting Night Lords fleet to destroy the dark world utterly with orbital fire from his fleet. This was Nostramo's punishment for its people's return to their criminal ways in his absence.During the Horus Heresy, two Terran years after the events of the Drop Site Massacre of Isstvan V, the Night Lords and Dark Angels Legions were locked in a bitter struggle over the fate of the Aegis Sub-sector of the Thramas Sector as part of the Thramas Crusade.Neither side was able to break the stalemate, so in an audacious attempt to claim victory, the Night Haunter invited his brother primarch Lion El'Jonson to a parley on the barren world of Tsagualsa. Night Haunter wanted to break his brother either mentally, physically or both to obtain his objectives.The primarchs were accompanied by two warriors from their personal honour guards to the parley -- Corswain and Alajos of the Dark Angels and Sevatar and Sheng of the Night Lords. The meeting began amicably enough between the two primarchs as they conversed with relative civility towards one another. This amity lasted until the Night Haunter slandered El'Jonson, and in return the Lion struck his former brother. This further degenerated into an all-out brawl between the two sides.As the Night Haunter strangled the life out of El'Jonson, one of the Dark Angels -- Corswain -- ran his sword through the Night Haunter's back, saving his primarch's life. Eventually both Legions sent reinforcements in response to this incident.Each side dragged away their respective primarchs from the scene of the combat. Both primarchs survived this brutal confrontation and went on to continue the contest between their Legions for control of the Aegis Sub-sector throughout the Thramas Crusade.In the wake of his later capture by Lion El'Jonson and the forces of the Imperium Secundus, Curze was freed from captivity by his brother Sanguinius, ejected from the Blood Angels' flagship Red Tear in a stasis coffin following the Second Battle of Davin. Sanguinius, knowing that he was going to face his destiny at the Siege of Terra, had decided that the Night Haunter should also face his own foreordained doom and so had released him to find it.After several Terran years of drifting through space in the stasis coffin, Curze was eventually recovered and awakened by the crew of the Imperial freighter Sheldroon after the end of the Horus Heresy. After taking control of the vessel, Curze and a sole surviving crewman made their way to Tsagualsa. Upon its surface, Curze waited for several solar days before Talos Valcoran and his 1st Claw arrived. On Curze's orders, the Night Lords proceeded to transform Tsagualsa into their new base of operations.Curze had a grotesque palace built upon its surface, an edifice at first constructed entirely from still-living bodies, though later reinforced with black, bleak stone. Within this fortress of flesh and bone Curze had a morbid carpet made of living faces that eternally screamed, which led past a pool of deepest shadow to the Night Haunter's throne room where he sat upon a throne made from the fused Human bones of his many victims. This corridor was known as the "Screaming Gallery."The captains of the Night Lords would often join their primarch within these dark chambers to plot and revel in the fear and agony they caused. From this new base of operations the Night Haunter's dark hand was still evident in the brutal acts of wanton murder and destruction committed by his Legion across the Imperium in the years immediately after the end of the Horus Heresy.During this time, the Emperor of Mankind had issued the order for the life of the Night Haunter to be terminated at the hands of what eventually became the Callidus Temple of the Officio Assassinorum. Fully half of the existing Callidus Clade operatives were dispatched to locate and destroy the Night Lords' primarch.Eventually, the Callidus Assassin M'Shen located the Night Haunter on Tsagualsa and managed to infiltrate his palace, stealing into his throne room. It is believed by most Imperial scholars that M'Shen was allowed by Curze to infiltrate his palace, as the Assassin strangely encountered no guards between herself and Night Haunter's throne room. Despite Night Haunter's formidable powers of foresight which had already forewarned him of the assassination attempt, he took no extra precautions to defend himself.When confronted by the Callidus Assassin the primarch allowed himself to be killed to "vindicate" his decisions to destroy his homeworld of Nostramo and to rebel against the Emperor, since the Emperor had seen fit to deploy the same tactics against him in order to safeguard His realm. In a twisted way, Curze saw himself as a martyr to the cause of true justice.After the assassination of the Night Lords primarch, the Imperium sought to drive the Night Lords out of Imperial space altogether during the Great Scouring. Although the Ultramarines Legion had been divided into separate Chapters in the Second Founding, all of their Successor Chapters answered the call. Identified among them were the Aurora Chapter, the Praetors of Orpheus, the Novamarines, Genesis Chapter, Silver Eagles and the Black Consuls as well as the Ultramarines themselves. A vessel with the iconography of the Doom Eagles was also seen in the Imperial fleet.Facing such an onslaught, the Night Lords fleet managed to successfully escape from the world but broke up into separate warbands of Heretic Astartes and never operated as a unified Legion again.After being driven from Tsagualsa, some of the Night Lords settled on a new homeworld within the Eye of Terror. This unknown, hellish and perpetually dark planet is a horrific Daemon World where no light ever illuminates the horrible tortures that the Night Lords inflict upon its unfortunate population to fuel their never-ending hunger to experience the fear of others. |
Tsagualsa - At Present: Tsagualsa was resettled by Imperial colonists in the 41st Millennium who renamed the world Darchana. They had been driven to the cursed world by a Warp storm. The nearly-Dead World, with its cold temperatures and frequent silica dust storms, was not a hospitable one, and the new colony's position beyond the light of the Astronomican meant the Imperium had left them to live or die on their own, laying no official claim to the world.The Darchana colony remained unsupported throughout its existence by the wider body of the Imperium, and no Imperial authority made claim to the planet, though the Imperium did acknowledge the colony's existence.The population halved in five hundred standard years, and then it was ended entirely when the Night Lords returned to try to reuse the world as a base. They butchered millions of colonists, leaving roughly one in every ten thousand alive, and used their hideous Warp-knowledge to inflict the death-trauma of those millions on the colony's astropaths.Then, these astropaths' own death-trauma was used to psychically assault other astropaths down an Imperial communication line, burning out innumerable astropathic choris in that region of space. The true cause of this event would remain unknown to the Imperium. |
Tsagualsa - Palace Layout: The original palace (and fortress) of the Night Lords on Tsagualsa is a bleak and terrible place, constructed of dark stone and heavily eroded after the passage of ten Terran millennia.Within the palace's throne room in the time of the Horus Heresy and Great Scouring, a carpet made of skinned Human faces, all locked in a perpetual scream, led to a pool of shadow, where Konrad Curze maintained a throne made of Human bones.The carpet of faces was known as "the Screaming Gallery." The captains of the Night Lords Legion usually met with their primarch there. |
Tsua'Malor - Tsua'Malor: Tsua'Malor is the capital world of the T'au Empire's Velk'Han Sept and the headquarters of the Mal'caor Shi, the T'au Air Caste fleet and other military forces operating in the Jericho Reach. Once a populous and advanced Human world, it was transformed by Earth Caste architects into a shining example of T'au civilisation and enlightenment.Few sights in the Jericho Reach are as magnificent as the skyline of Tsua'Malor's vast Equatorial City. Stretching around the Desert World's circumference, it houses millions of T'au settlers and the great edifices of learning and government.The Mal'caor Shi's ruling council, a small number of Ethereals and ambassadors, gather in the kilometre-high edifice known in the Gue'la (Human) tongue as the "Transcendence".Each caste has its own district in Equatorial City, from the floating tethered platforms of the Air Caste to the bronze-walled fortresses of the Earth Caste.Several billion Humans also live on this world, in the planet's other cities cut from the rocky desert by Imperial pilgrim-settlers thousands of Terran years before.Every city has a T'au quarter of glittering spires and grand pavilions, where the Human leaders gather to listen to the wisdom of T'au ambassadors.One such city, Beldar, is home to the Gue'Retha, a research institute and university to which the T'au transport all the brightest and most talented Humans to educate them in T'au philosophy and technology. Attached to the Gue'Retha is a place which the T'au decline to name, but which Human malcontents call the Lacuna.This underground research facility, it is rumoured, is where the T'au conduct psychological experiments on Gue'la prisoners.The results supposedly help the T'au refine their methods of social manipulation, but no one can be sure since any heard to utter such thoughts vanish, quite possibly into the Lacuna itself. |
Tu'Shan - Tu'Shan: Tu'Shan is the current Chapter Master of the Salamanders Space Marine Chapter.During the Second War for Armageddon Tu'Shan valiantly led his Chapter in the defence of the beleaguered Hive World against the predations of the massive Ork WAAAGH! of Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka, in the process earning the respect of the Salamanders' fellow Space Marines, the Blood Angels, and Armageddon's grateful citizens.Tu'Shan would return to that world fifty standard years later to aid in its defence during the Third War for Armageddon.Tu'Shan has been recognized by the other Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes as a valiant and skilled master of his Astartes and is respected by nearly all.He greatest concern is to protect the lives of the normal Humans of the Imperium -- an unfortunately unusual trait for a commander of the Space Marines. |
Tu'Shan - History: Tu'Shan serves as the current Chapter Master of the Salamanders Chapter and in his relatively short tenure has already earned great respect amongst his Astartes peers and the adoration of the Imperium's citizens.At the outbreak of the Second War for Armageddon in 941.M41, Tu'Shan had held the position of Chapter Master for only three standard years. Due to his relatively new tenure, many believed he would be hard-pressed as a leader doing battle against the mighty Ork Warlord Ghazghkull Thraka.Nevertheless, the humble Tu'Shan willingly acquiesced to the command of the senior Chapter Master in the conflict, the venerable Commander Dante of the Blood Angels Chapter, and fought with distinction during the campaign.While the Ultramarines defended the beleaguered hive cities of Armageddon and the Blood Angels assaulted the Orks head-on, the Salamanders lent their strength to the protection of Imperial supply convoys and refugee columns, ensuring the safety of the civilians caught up in the war. This was a task often neglected by the other Imperial forces fighting on Armageddon.The actions of the Salamanders in defending the Imperial citizens of the beleaguered world from the massive Greenskin onslaught has often been held up as a shining example of the role of the Adeptus Astartes in the protection of the Imperium.During the campaign, it was Tu'Shan who helped rally the scattered and demoralised Imperial defenders drawn from the Planetary Defence Forces and the Astra Militarum regiments of the embattled planet.In battle, Tu'Shan and the Salamanders' elite 1st Company, known as the Firedrakes, were responsible for defending one of the few bridges across the Stygies River against a 1,000-strong Ork Speed Freek column and for fighting continuously for 3 solar days and 4 solar nights.At the end of the campaign, Dante sought out the young Chapter Master and praised Tu'Shan in front of his assembled Blood Angels. This was a supreme gesture on the part of the senior Chapter Master -- for the Salamanders, no greater honour could be bestowed than the respect of their brothers-in-arms.Since that campaign, Tu'Shan has continued to lead the Salamanders honourably. Fifty Terran years later, when Ghazghkull returned to Armageddon at the head of an even greater force during the outset of the Third War for Armageddon in 998.M41, Tu'Shan was one of the first Imperial defenders to respond, leading 6 of the Chapter's 7 companies to the planet's defence, personally leading Firedrakes once more into battle.The Salamanders directed their efforts against the mighty Rok fortresses the Orks had dropped from orbit. Their aptitude for close-ranged firefights proved deadly, and Tu'Shan's Space Marines exacted a heavy toll on the Orks.Tu'Shan is known to have met Commissar Yarrick, the Hero of Armageddon, and it is claimed that the two had an instant respect for each other. Yarrick heartily welcomed Tu'Shan's offer to once again defend Armageddon against Ghazghkull.As before, Tu'Shan demonstrated that he and his Chapter's highest priority was the defence of common Imperial citizens. Tu'Shan fought throughout the war zones of Armageddon.During one notorious incident, an Ork force of 5,000 Greenskins had breached the perimeter of a refugee encampment and taken them hostage, so Captain Vinyard of the notorious Marines Malevolent ordered that the camp be bombarded by the Chapter's Whirlwinds in order to destroy the Greenskins. Nearly 4,000 refugees died as a result, but Vinyard deemed them as acceptable losses.Tu'Shan personally reprimanded Vinyard in front of the entire assembled Armageddon command staff, and reminded him that the first duty of the Space Marines was to protect the citizens of the Imperium.At Hive Tempestora, Tu'Shan prevented the Orks from overrunning the Khatrin Water Purification Plant and condemning the hive city's population to a slow death by dehydration. The hive ultimately fell to the Ork hordes, but Tu'Shan's actions allowed the majority of the hive's population to escape before the hive city was overrun and captured.As before, Tu'Shan's inspiring presence allowed the defenders to hold the vital Stygies bridge and prevent the Greenskins from crossing and reinforcing their forces elsewhere.Tu'Shan, like all the Chapter Masters of the Salamanders, also holds the title of Regent of Prometheus, ruling the moon of the Chapter's homeworld of Nocturne as a feudal demesne of the Imperium.He is noted as being unusually strong and powerfully-built even for an Astartes, and can be easily recognised by both the considerable number of honour scars he bears across his ebon-skinned face and the cloak he wears that was made from the scales of a 300-year-old firedrake salamander slain on volcanic Nocturne. |
Tu'Shan - Appearance: Honour markings cover Tu'Shan's noble countenance, a physical legacy of his deeds writ into his ebon flesh. These are the branding scars that every Salamander has, in keeping with Promethean ritual. Few amongst the Chapter, only the most distinguished Veterans, ever lived to have them seared upon their face.As the Regent of Prometheus, the moon of Nocturne where the Salamanders maintain their fortress-monastery, Tu'Shan wears a suit of ancient Artificer Armour. Two pauldrons sit upon his hulking shoulders, wrought into the image of the snarling fire lizards of Nocturne from which the Salamanders Chapter takes its name.A cloak of salamander hide, a more venerable and honour-strewn version of that worn by the 1st Company warriors known as the Firedrakes, is draped across the Chapter Master's broad back. |
Tu'Shan - Wargear: Artificer ArmourFiredrake Mantle - Tu'Shan wears the hide of one of Nocturne's legendary Firedrakes. Its iron-hard scales are near-impenetrable.Deathfire - This master-crafted Power Weapon was wielded by Primarch Vulkan during the infamous Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V during the Horus Heresy. It was thought lost but was eventually recovered by Vulkan during the Great Scouring.Prometheus - Tu'Shan carried an ornate flame weapon of ancient design.Stormbearer - Stormbearer is Tu'Shan's Thunder Hammer that, according to Chapter legend, is made from the same material as that used to create Thunderhead, the Thunder Hammer of Vulkan. In truth, no one now alive knows who made it, but it is the favoured weapon of Tu'Shan, who as a master smith possesses a vast armoury of hammers, swords, and spears. |
Tuchulcha - Tuchulcha: Tuchulcha is a legendary Daemon World of the Askellon Sector in the Segmentum Obscurus. Centuries ago, the Tuchulcha System was wiped from the star charts. Cut off from the rest of the galaxy by the rages of the Pandaemonium, the system succumbed to the ravages of the Warp, becoming forever home to the forces of the Dark Gods. Like a world trapped behind glass, Tuchulcha appears to be stuck out of time and space.Orbital factories and space stations hang in orbit above the planet, rumoured to hold the riches plundered by the Rogue Trader houses that initially funded the expeditions to the worlds beyond this system. Foolish are those who dare pluck these treasures, though.The world roils and surges as the Dark Powers battle for dominance, but they eagerly pause to toy with mortal visitors. While many consider the planet unreachable, Tuchulcha is far from that. The Warp ebbs and flows around Tuchulcha and it is often thrust back into reality, a waiting house of horrors for any who dare to land there. |
Tuchulcha - History: Every voidfarer in the Askellon Sector knows the sorrowful tale of the doomed world of Tuchulcha; the account of House Roth's folly and destruction is a cautionary tale throughout the sector. What most people do not know, however, is that this devastation was caused by one man -- a man who now attempts to rule the blackened lands of Tuchulcha in the name of Tzeentch.Tuchulcha was initially just a frontier staging area for a large-scale exploratory fleet destined for what lay beyond known space, one involving a number of Rogue Trader houses. Erravan Roth, a minor son in the Rogue Trader House of Roth, became obsessed with the expedition. In an effort to secure a greater place for himself in the House and increase his personal glory, Erravan explored all options available, no matter how forbidden.One of these led him to the Changer of Ways. Tzeentch opened many new avenues for the young captain, granting him wondrous insights to the multitude of worlds that lay beyond and the massive riches they held. Roth used his newfound knowledge to manipulate and alter many of the plans for the expedition, all things that would further the will of the Great Architect.When all the pieces were in place, the Pandaemonium fluctuated, engulfing Tuchulcha and the fleet, and destroying most of the ships. Those that were not destroyed were condemned to a life of eternal battle and suffering on Tuchulcha, all part of Tzeentch's grand plans. Some say that there were warnings, that the Emperor's Tarot revealed that the fleet was doomed to fail, but no one paid any heed to these ramblings.Since the loss of the expedition, Erravan Roth now serves Tzeentch on the world of Tuchulcha. Now known as the Daemon Prince Erravan the Schemer -- his new daemonic name, of course, utterly unpronounceable and a carefully hidden secret -- he leads the forces of Tzeentch in battle against the legions of Khorne, who also battle for this dark world. Whether the former captain knew before the fleet departed of the imminent doom at Tuchulcha, only the herald and Tzeentch can say. |
Tuchulcha - The Lost: The space above Tuchulcha is now filled with the abandoned remnants of the grand fleet. Refuelling depots, orbital shipyards, and other smaller void stations float above the world. Some of these hold great riches, bays filled with treasures brought back by the initial explorers who first set off for the unknown lands. Tales of these waiting treasures have been the stuff of legends for standard centuries, and almost all captains who travel in Askellon know of these lost stations. While few are foolhardy enough to attempt to seek out these items, there are those who would risk anything to gain access.The largest of the lost islands above Tuchulcha is Errant Station. Created as a refuelling and resupply facility, it is now the domain of Nurgle and his minions. Walls, floors, and ceilings -- every inch of the station -- are now home to pestilence hidden behind a veneer of normalcy, and Nurglings caper across the station looking to bring new blessings in the Plague Father's name. The station holds much of the initial treasure found in the worlds beyond Tuchulcha, a tempting destination for those who value riches over their own sanity. Plaguebearers endlessly count these riches, serving as tallymen and attributing a new plague to each of the riches, ensuring that any items leaving the station continue to spread the glory of Nurgle.Long before Errant Station fell, a treasure was discovered that helped to seal its fate. Today, deep in the heart of the station, an ancient door sits in the centre of a cavernous hall. This artefact was found in early probes of a world deep in the fringes beyond Tuchulcha. It was the last standing remnant of a huge city whose name only dead xenos races would remember, its intricate carvings depicting a garden of beauty and seduction. The explorer who found it, Captain Uless Barr, was so taken with the design that he demanded its excavation and removal from the planet.Barr would spend hours staring at the designs, swearing that the garden called to him, inviting him to enter. No one else ever heard these supposed voices, leading many to believe that Barr was mad. Eventually his obsession with the artefact caused House Roth to remove him from his captaincy. Uless Barr would spend the rest of his days confined to a cell aboard a Hospitaller ship, ranting about the garden and how he had to get to it.The Tuchulcha Orbital Shipyards are a less massive object, though they occupy a much larger volume of space. Once the shipyards worked around the clock to produce hundreds of starships and repair components for the exploratory fleet. These manufactoria were prized among the Adeptus Mechanicus for their amazing output, and many Tech-priests clamoured to be a part of their operation. The ships to come off the lines at Tuchulcha were some of the greatest vessels of the Askellon Sector, such as the gigantic cargo haulers Eternity of Empire and His Indomitable Will.When the Pandaemonium swallowed Tuchulcha, the shipyards appeared to be untouched. The countless Servitors continued their work hour upon hour at their stations, following their programmed construction plans. Unknown to the mindless servants, they were given new plans by the denizens of the Warp. Now the factories fashion war engines for the infernal armies who wage eternal war on the planet below. Horrible Daemon Engines are created every day, used by Daemon Princes as they fight for the supremacy of their patron god. |
Tuchulcha - and the Damned: Not all who were aboard the ships above Tuchulcha were lucky enough to be killed by the Great Storm. Some of the vessels crashed to the planet below, stranding thousands on the surface. These refugees were initially able to use the supplies they recovered from their crashed ships. Many had no idea what had happened, and they expected to be rescued in short order. They were not ready for the skies to open up and the hordes of daemons to come pouring through, plunging the world into darkness.For Terran years, the survivors held out against uncountable odds, living a desolate existence as the daemon armies razed the planet. By the sheer blessing of the Omnissiah, many Tech-priests were still operational, and became instrumental in keeping one large group protected. Using their arcane knowledge, the Adepts were able to repurpose one ship's Gellar Field to protect a camp of many hundreds against the rampaging daemons.The Tech-priests knew that power resources were limited, and worked day and night to keep the field maintained. Ecclesiarchy priests worked constantly as well by adding their fervent prayers to the field, knowing that the Emperor's Will was just as powerful in keeping the daemons at bay. |
Tuchulcha - Life on Tuchulcha: Despite the Warp-tainted nature of Tuchulcha, somehow humans manage to survive in this place of madness and insanity. Rationally, this should not be possible -- but a Daemon World is, by its very nature, a realm of the impossible. Laws of physics are mere suggestion and whim there. The initial survivors' auspex readings could detect no breathable atmosphere after the Warp devoured the planet, yet breathe they could.Gravity itself shifts capriciously, especially within the myriad caves that wind through mountain ranges like maggot-trails through fruit. Stablights can illuminate the darkened caverns, but also bring forth screams of pain as the light burns the rock and blood drips from the wounds. A cry for help might go unheard metres away, yet be detected clearly on an orbiting ship. Many of the survivors have not eaten in what seems like solar decades, yet somehow remain physically alive. What Tuchulcha has done to their psyches and souls, though, is something else entirely. |
Tuchulcha - The Lords of Tuchulcha: All manner of daemons call Tuchulcha home, but the forces of Khorne and Tzeentch hold the most sway. The minions of these gods wage constant war, with the forces of Slaanesh and Nurgle drawn into battles as nothing more than pawns of the other two members of the Chaos pantheon. The Lord of Battles' hatred of magic and psychic spellcasters brings him into conflict with Tzeentch often, and his forces see those of the Changer of Ways as easy skulls for their master's throne. However, Tzeentch's forces are not as easy to overcome as the Blood God believed.This back and forth war has waged for Terran centuries, with each god gaining the upper hand for a time before the other then rises to ascendency. This back and forth chess match forces the Daemon Princes in charge of the daemonic legions to come up with new and more elaborate schemes (or more aggressive attacks in the case of Khorne) to overcome each other. This eternal hatred and never-ending war allows the various humans on the world a chance of survival, as the daemons' attention is focused on their rivals far more than on the human beings still planetside.Eventually, though, the modified Gellar Field fell and the daemonic forces of Tuchulcha overran the camp. Some of the humans escaped the ensuing slaughter, fleeing to the mountains and the cave complexes within, where they hide from the endless wars the daemons wage across the surface. Some are alive there today, as time flows differently on the Daemon World, even changing in pockets of altered chronologies from cave to cave. The humans who still exist on Tuchulcha hold out against unbelievable odds, always hoping for the day when they can escape the living hell they have been thrust into. Some do manage to leave the planet, disappearing in unexpected Warp-breaches to reappear elsewhere in the sector, or picked up by daring captains searching for the treasures all know are hiding somewhere on the planet. |
Tuchulcha - The Legions of Khorne: Led by a Daemon Prince known as the Lord of Wrath, the minions of Khorne constantly scour the landscape looking for victims of their blood sport. Packs of Bloodletters prod baying Flesh Hounds forth, seeking out those who would try to escape their fury. Alongside these daemons are mighty war engines crafted in orbit using twisted technologies, bringing destruction on a massive scale. Everything that fights with the Mark of Khorne is dedicated to the sole purpose of nonstop slaughter and devastation.The Lord of Wrath was once part of a triumvirate of Daemon Princes of Khorne who sought to rule Tuchulcha. Over the timeless aeons, though, the other members -- Vae'ora the Eternal Blade and Skalla the Hideous -- were banished by the machinations of their arch-foe, the Changer of Ways Guirros, or left for more bloodworthy battlefields. Only Etrell the Furious remains, commanding innumerable legions with one purpose: to bring skulls to the Throne of Khorne, with the skulls of Tzeentch's servants the most valued.A master of bloodshed and violence, Etrell is a Daemon Prince of contradictions. Unlike the bellowing Bloodthirsters under his command, this Lord of Battle relies on tactics to reap carnage and crafts elaborate battle plans to achieve the most casualties possible in an engagement. This frequently angers the other daemons he leads, but Etrell could not be bothered. All that matters is bringing more skulls to Khorne and blood for the Blood God. |
Tuchulcha - The Horrors of Tzeentch: Unlike the raving, blood-crazed servants of Khorne, the daemons of Tzeentch on Tuchulcha are masters of magic and other abilities that they use in their constant struggle for dominion over the planet. The forces gathered here in incalculable numbers are under the control of one being -- the Lord of Change Guirros. Serving at this mighty daemon's side is Erravan the Schemer, the former member of House Roth responsible for the fall of Tuchulcha. Guirros gives the Daemon Prince a great deal of sway over the forces of Tzeentch on the planet, rewarding Erravan for bringing about the fall of the world. Erravan sometimes even adopts his earlier human visage to travel within Askellon, there to weave new schemes for his master.The schemes and plots carried out by the minions of Tzeentch on Tuchulcha are convoluted and beyond the ken of mortal understanding. It may take Terran centuries or longer for a seemingly insignificant stratagem to play out, which in turn is a smaller piece of a larger puzzle. War rages everywhere on the planet, but Tzeentch's generals avoid direct battle where possible, and attempt to manipulate events subtly using sorcery and psychic abilities to great effect. For Tzeentch, however, mere victory on Tuchulcha may be not be the final goal, for there are no ends to the twisting schemes of the God of Change. |
Tuchulcha - The Great Beyond: Travelling past Tuchulcha lies a region of space unlike any other in the Askellon region. Countless worlds and systems lie in this part of space, all waiting to be explored and plundered. This was the basis of the doomed expedition fleet, and many still hold great interest in these unknown worlds.Initial scouts sent into this region before the expedition reported worlds unlike any other. One held floating islands of earth suspended upon mighty thermals. Another is covered in vast oceans plied by mighty leviathans with crystal scales worth more than many worlds' Imperial Tithes. A world of snow-covered lands held palaces of deep blue marble, ancient homes to long-dead aliens. While many dismissed these tales as nothing more than spacefarer fancy, many believe them to be true. It is this desire to explore (and exploit) these worlds that consumes many to this day. |
Tulian Aquila - Tulian Aquila: Tulian Aquila was the first Chapter Master of the Doom Eagles, a Second Founding Successor Chapter of the vaunted Ultramarines Legion. |
Tulian Aquila - History: Tulian Aquila was a Veteran Battle-Brother of the Ultramarines Legion who served during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. He was a Sergeant at the Battle of Calth, stationed alongside his company in the city of Ithraca.When the traitorous Word Bearers Legion struck after taking control of Calth's orbital defences, only Sergeant Aquila and two other Battle-Brothers survived the orbital barrage.During the subsequent fighting, Aquila was moved by the sacrifice of one of his Battle-Brothers and came to the realisation -- even though he himself was already dead -- that he had a duty to protect the innocent and to suffer so that they did not have to.Later, then-Captain Aquila went on to become the first Chapter Master of the newly created Doom Eagles Chapter during the Second Founding.The Doom Eagles quickly embraced their Chapter Master's sense of fatalism and came to accept that death was inevitable.They believed and that every mission performed on behalf of the Emperor must be pursued with both fervour and zeal in defence of the Imperium and its people before one's life was spent. |
Tumulus Samael - Tumulus Samael: Tumulus Samael was a Heretic Astartes Chaos Sorcerer and Sorcerer Lord of the Black Legion who led the forces of Chaos into another incursion onto the strategically vital Adeptus Mechanicus Forge World of Graia in the wake of the events of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine in the hopes of transforming it into a Daemon World which he could rule, similar to the plan once orchestrated by his predecessor Nemeroth.Samael's plot was prevented from coming to fruition after he was slain by the Ultramarines Sternguard Veteran Malum Caedo.Samael was the primary antagonist of the 2023 retro first person shooter video game Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun. |
Tumulus Samael - History: Several standard years after the events of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine on the vital Forge World of Graia, the Sternguard Veteran Malum Caedo and several of his brethren from the Ultramarines Chapter's Veteran 1st Company were sent by the Inquisition back to Graia on a mission of great importance.Since the Ork and Chaos invasions of Graia that had been unleashed upon the Forge World by the machinations of the Chaos Sorcerer Nemeroth several standard years before, the Inquisition had kept Graia closely watched for the emergence of further threats. Inquisitor Seibel of the Ordo Malleus revealed that rogue Tech-priests of Graia had experimented with the remains of the late Inquisitor Drogan's unstable and unique Warp-based power source -- a small cylinder wreathed in potent blue energies -- and the experiments had resulted in the opening of a Warp rift that allowed the forces of Chaos to once more invade the Forge World. Malum Caedo and his Sternguard Veteran Squad were tasked with retrieving the power source with the aid of a Servo-skull that had once belonged to Drogan.When the Ultramarines made planetfall, their Drop Pod was severely damaged during the descent and crash-landed on the planet's surface, leaving Malum Caedo as the sole survivor. As Caedo valiantly fought his way single-handedly through the Chaos forces, including Chaos Cultists, Heretic Astartes and Daemons, it was discovered that the Chaos incursion's leader, a Chaos Sorcerer named Tumulus Samael, sought the power source for his own nefarious plans to transform Graia into a Daemon World under his control and the orbiting battle-fortress of the Graian Crown into a Warp-based weapon. The sorcerer had already managed to learn the location of the power source fragment and Caedo raced to stop him.When Caedo reached the Adeptus Mechanicus vault containing the power source, Samael appeared and gloated that he had already taken the power source. The sorcerer and his minions attacked the orbital void station above Graia and used the power source to enlarge the Warp rift that threatened to engulf Graia and the entire sector.Malum fought his way through the void station before finally reaching Samael, and after a grueling fight, the Sternguard Veteran managed to slay the sorcerer. Inquisitor Seibel arrived at the void station soon after and retrieved the power source for the Inquisition. Without the power source, the Warp rift began to close, but Seibel warned that there were still many Chaos forces left active on Graia, and Malum Caedo prepared for the trials he had yet to face. |
Turbo-Laser Destructor - Turbo-Laser Destructor: The Turbo-Laser Destructor, also called a Turbolaser, is a much larger and very powerful version of a Lascannon. It uses complex optical devices and heavy power input to amplify the laser beam into a wider, more potent beam of laser energy. The beam carries enough punch to explosively vaporise its impact point in an area-of-effect blast.Turbolaser Destructors are found on various war engines, such as Thunderhawk gunships and several classes of Titans, including Warhound, Reaver and Warlord -class Titans.Imperator-class Titans also use Turbolaser Destructors as close defence weapons. |
Turbo-Laser Destructor - Notable Configurations: Single-Barrelled - A single-barrelled version of the Turbolaser is sometimes mounted on some patterns of Thunderhawk gunships utilised by the Adeptus Astartes.Double-Barrelled - The double-barrelled version of the Turbolaser is the most common variant, utilised by Warhound-class Scout Titans. These weapons are also sometimes fitted to the carapace hard points of larger Reaver-class Battle Titans and Warlord-class Battle Titans. |
Turbo-Laser Destructor - Laser Blaster: A Laser Blaster is essentially a triple-barreled Turbolaser mounted onto a single hard point. These weapons are commonly found on Reaver-class Battle Titans and Warlord-class Battle Titans.An Imperator-class Titan can mount one or more Laser Blasters on its massive carapace hard points. |
Turbulent-class Heavy Frigate - Turbulent-class Heavy Frigate: The Turbulent-class Heavy Frigate is a heavy naval escort vessel utilised by the Imperial Navy within the Calixis Sector. |
Turbulent-class Heavy Frigate - History: Imported from the Scarus Sector for use as heavy naval escorts during the early days of the Angevin Crusade, the handful of Turbulent-class Heavy Frigates surviving in the Calixis Sector never returned, some say because they found the tumultuous Calixian region more to their tastes.Intended to drive ahead of the main fleet and engage rival scouting units when encountered, the history of the Turbulent-class has been characterised by aggressive and piratical actions against the Emperor's foes.Although rare, the Turbulent has gained a reputation as a "lucky" class. Turbulents have participated in many of the most glorious naval actions of the sector, whilst coincidentally either surviving or not being involved at all in the most disastrous.Some armchair admirals dismiss the Turbulent, citing its comparatively inefficient energy weapon transfer systems and deriding its antiquated internal communication network of brass vacuum pipes and electric lights.However such mockery is best done behind closed doors, as several of the senior admirals in Battlefleet Calixis served aboard these feisty ships. |
Turbulent-class Heavy Frigate - Dimensions: Hull: Heavy EscortClass: Turbulent-class Heavy FrigateDimensions: Approximately 1.9 kilometres long, 0.3 kilometres abeam at fins.Mass: Approximately 7.5 megatonnes.Crew: Approximately 25,000 crew.Acceleration: 4.3 gravities maximum sustainable acceleration. |
Turret Emplacement - Turret Emplacement: A Turret Emplacement is a small, static strongpoint used by the Astra Militarum and various Planetary Defence Forces. The emplacement mounts a single weapon that is crewed by a few specially trained Imperial Guardsmen or plantary militiamen, usually numbering two or three personnel.These static emplacements are commonly used to defend important strategic locations, along with providing protection for their own mounted weapon. These emplacements are usually placed near locations that require static defences, such as Adeptus Administratum structures, Adeptus Astartes forward command bases and strategic locations, bridges, starports, Adeptus Arbites precincts, munition storehouses, and fuel depots. Turret Emplacements can also form integral parts of defence lines and trench works. |
Turret Emplacement - Construction and Combat Role: Turret Emplacements are very versatile and are designed to accommodate the turret of many standard Imperial Guard vehicles, from Leman Russ Battle Cannons, to Chimera Multi-Lasers. They can also be used to mount Tarantula Sentry Guns, or specifically designed turrets made for use solely as emplacement weapons. The Turret Emplacement can be armed with just about any heavy weapon in the Imperium's arsenal. The inside of a Turret Emplacement is small, stuffy, and cramped with barely enough room to operate the turret. Fortunately for their crew they are much larger than they appear, with much of the emplacement located underground.The underground portion of the emplacement features separate compartments for ammunition storage, communications equipment, ventilation and air filtration machines, a Plasma Generator to provide power, and small living quarters used by the crew as a sleeping compartment and for storage of their rations and other equipment. The underground location of these vital compartments makes Turret Emplacements difficult to destroy. Also, Turret Emplacements forming a defensive line around a strategic location, such as the approaches to cities and spaceports, can be inter-connected via underground tunnels. These subterranean tunnel networks can connect Turret Emplacements together or to other defensive structures such as pillboxes and heavier static fortifications. Many Turret Emplacements also feature secure hidden exits connected to escape tunnels, allowing the crew to safely evacuate in case of catastrophic damage to their turret.The biggest problem with Turret Emplacements is their inability to move, as they are permanent structures. The location of an emplacement must be precise, as the turret must have a line-of-sight to engage its target but must also be well protected with natural terrain features lest it simply be targeted by enemy artillery or airstrikes and be destroyed. The structure must also be placed in an area that is not prone to flooding, as an emplacement is useless if filled with water. |
Turret Emplacement - Armament: Turret Emplacements can be armed with a wide variety of turret-mounted weaponry, most commonly the turret weapons taken from Leman Russ main battle tanks or Chimera transports. The most common Turret Emplacement mounts its turret upon a metal structure that houses the turret ring and electric motor used to rotate the turret. This structure is also the location of the primary entrance and exit into the emplacement. There are other, less common types of emplacement in use such as those made out of rockcrete. The Turret Emplacement is capable of being armed with a set of twin-linked Heavy Bolters, a Heavy Flamer, a Battle Cannon, a Multi-Laser, a Lascannon, an Autocannon, twin-linked Autocannons, a Plasma Cannon, a Plasma Destroyer, a Missile Launcher or twin-linked Missile Launchers, a Multi-Melta, a Demolisher Cannon, a Vanquisher Cannon, or an Inferno Cannon. The emplacement can also mount a Tarantula Sentry Gun armed with twin-linked Heavy Bolters, a Multi-Melta, or twin-linked Lascannons. It is also believed that the Turret Emplacement can be armed with fixed versions of the Hydra Flak Cannon, Manticore Missiles and launcher, or an Earthshaker Cannon. The emplacement can be covered in camouflage netting to better conceal it from the foe and can also be equipped with a searchlight to illuminate and blind enemy targets during night time attacks.Turret Emplacements used by the Adeptus Astartes are few and far between, this is due in most part to the way the Astartes wage war, acting as assault forces that seek to destroy their enemies as quickly as possible rather than long, drawn-out campaigns. When the Space Marines do need to make use of static emplacements they always turn to either Tarantula Sentry Guns or Turret Emplacements outfitted with Tarantula Sentry Turrets, this is so no Space Marines are needed to man the turret. Space Marine Turret Emplacements outfitted with Tarantula Sentry Guns are almost always armed with either twin-linked Heavy Bolters for anti-infantry defence, or twin-linked Missile Launchers for anti-armour duty. It is probable, although unrecorded in Imperial records, if the Astartes make use of any other Tarantula Turret weapons upon their emplacements, such as twin-linked Lascannons or Hyperios Air Defence Missile Launchers. |
Turret Emplacement - Adeptus Mechanicus Technical Specifications: Turret Emplacement Vehicle Name:Turret EmplacementMain Armament:VariableForge World of Origin:All Known Forge WorldsSecondary Armament: Known Patterns:I - MXIVTraverse:360 degreesCrew:1 Gunner, 1 LoaderElevation:Variable (See above)Powerplant:N/A (Generator for Electricity)Main Ammunition:VariableWeight:2.5 Tonnes plus WeaponsSecondary Ammunition:N/ALength:4.6 metresArmour:Width:4.6 metresHeight:1.3 metres plus TurretSuperstructure:160 millimetresGround Clearance:N/AHull:N/AMax Speed On-Road:N/AGun Mantlet:N/AMax Speed Off-Road:N/AVehicle Designation:0427-941-4134-TE006Transport Capacity:N/AFiring Ports:N/AAccess Points:Crew Door, turret hatchTurret:Variable |
Turret Emplacement - Also See: Sabre Gun PlatformTarantula Sentry Gun |
Turret Emplacement - Sources: Imperial Armour Volume One - Imperial Guard and Imperial Navy, pp. 198-202Imperial Armour Volume Five - The Siege of Vraks - Part One, pg. 166Imperial Armour Volume Six - The Siege of Vraks - Part Two, pp. 144, 189Imperial Armour Volume Seven - The Siege of Vraks - Part Three, pg. 187Dawn of War - Winter Assault (PC Game)Dawn of War - Dark Crusade (PC Game)Dawn of War - Soulstorm (PC Game)Dawn of War II (PC Game)Dawn of War II - Chaos Rising (PC Game)Dawn of War II - Retribution (PC Game) |
Turtolsky - Turtolsky: TurtolskyIndustrial WorldVostroyaHalo StarsSegmentum ObscurusVostroyan FirstbornAstra MilitarumEmperorIn truth they fight to absolve themselves of a terrible shame incurred by their ancestors over ten millennia ago when, during the dark days of the Horus Heresy, Vostroya refused to come to the aid of the Emperor's Loyalists or the Warmaster Horus' Traitor Legions, opting for the safety of neutrality in the galactic civil war.Like its parent world, Turtolsky is a centre of industry, providing raw materials and auxiliary manufacturing capacity for the great manufactoria of Vostroya. Vostroya's moon was referred to as Vostroya 0.1 until the middle centuries of the 37th Millennium. Adeptus Administratum Scrivener Adept Turtolsky was assigned the task of recalculating Vostroya's tithe to the Imperium in alignment with the Adeptus Tithe clarification call in 997.M36.Given a small research base and a motley assortment of Administratum cast-offs, it took Turtolsky nearly 190 standard years to resolve the calculations, by which time the call had been rescinded. Vostroya 0.1 was eventually renamed Turtolsky, in honour of the Scrivener Adept. |
Tuska - Tuska: Tuska, who styled himself the "Daemon-Killa", is the Ork warlord who is the leader of an Ork WAAAGH! that currently battles eternally before the Brass Citadel, the heart of Khorne's domain in the Realm of Chaos in the Warp. |
Tuska - History: Tuska was once a powerful Ork warlord famous for his many battlefield trophies. Tuska liked nothing more than pitting his strength against something larger than he was.In 890.M41, Great Boss Tuska's flagship Kill Kroozer Gorejaw was invaded by a Daemonic entity as it carved its path through the Warp. When Tuska learned that a towering, many-headed nightmare was slaughtering its way through his crew, he strapped on his Power Klaw and sprinted towards the sounds of battle, bellowing his warcry. Meeting the beast head-to-head on the Gorejaw's bridge, the resultant crash between Ork and Daemon was titanic, but when the fighting was over Tuska had a new set of horns with which to adorn his trophy rack.Following his encounter with the Warp-beast, the Great Boss rounded up as many Weirdboyz as he could, and utilised them to help bypass the Imperial defences around Cadia in order to invade the Eye of Terror in his search for more Daemons to fight. These Ork invaders of the Immaterium soon attracted the gaze of the Blood God Khorne when they plunged headlong through the Eye of Terror in search of fresh carnage.Their dangerously unhinged warlord, the self-styled "Daemon-Killa," had already made his mark upon the Eye by bringing battle to several Daemon Worlds devoted to Khorne's rivals. The Ork warlord proved unstoppable until his WAAAGH! crash-landed on a flesh planet belonging to a mighty Daemon Prince high in the standing of Khorne known as the Blood Prince.Battling the creature and his Daemonic hordes, Tuska suffered many deep wounds and his Boyz took heavy losses. Just as the Blood Prince was about to finish Tuska, his Weirdboyz managed to distract the Daemon using their psychic powers, giving Tuska enough time to impale the creature between its legs with his Power Klaw before being killed himself.The remainder of the great warlord's vast Greenskin horde was eventually slain to an Ork by the wrathful Blood Prince and his minions, but his joy in the murderous spectacle was such that Khorne himself ensured the Greenskin crusade rose once more on the very next dawn.History repeated itself over and over again as the Orks fought tooth and nail, never once showing signs of surrender or despair. The Blood God was so impressed by their limitless battlelust that he eventually took the Orks into his own domain in the Realm of Chaos.In the shadow of the Brass Citadel, his elite Bloodletter generals battle against the Daemon-Killa's undying horde on a daily basis. Each cycle, great clouds of fungal spores are released by the dying Greenskins to take root and flourish in the bloodstained foothills of the Osseous Peaks. Yet more Orks are born, grow to maturity and charge into battle once more.This suits the Daemon-Killa just fine, for he has finally found a good fight that never ends. Such endless cycles of bloodshed are also most pleasing to the Blood God. After all, the one true constant in the galaxy is that of endless war -- Khorne himself has made sure of it. |
Twin-linked - Twin-linked: Twin-linked weapons are two ranged weapons of any type that share the same targeting information and fire actuation link. This system allows the linked weapons to be fired in tandem, increasing their destructive power.Twin-linked weapons are most often deployed by the forces of the Imperium of Man, and most types of Imperial ranged weapons deployed on armoured vehicles or aircraft can be twin-linked.T'au Battlesuits and Craftworld Aeldari vehicles such as War Walkers have been seen making use of twin-linked weaponry, as have Orks that are wealthy and strong enough to bully one of their Mekboy engineers to upgrade their Shoota.Even the Tyranids have started to outfit some of their larger bioforms with two versions of the same ranged Biomorph to improve the bioform's chances of hitting its target. |
Twin Heavy Bolter - Twin Heavy Bolter: The Twin Heavy Bolter is an Imperial weapon that is essentially 2 Heavy Bolters twin-linked to fire as one weapon. A Twin Heavy Bolter is often deployed as part of the standard weapons load-out of the Primaris Space Marine Repulsor grav-tank. |
Twin Lascannon - Twin Lascannon: The Twin Lascannon is an Imperial Laser Weapon that is essentially 2 Lascannons twin-linked to fire as one weapon. A Twin Lascannon is often deployed as part of an alternate weapons load-out of the Primaris Space Marine Repulsor grav-tank, replacing its standard Twin Heavy Bolter. |
Twisted (Short Story) - Twisted (Short Story): Twisted is a short story published in the Horus Heresy Series. Twisted was originally published simultaneously as a part of the anthology novella Blades of the Traitor and as a stand-alone e-book. It was later released as an audiobook as part of the Black Library's Audio Week 2015. It is now also included in the War Without End anthology novel. |
Twisted (Short Story) - Synopsis: Since he was crippled by rebel treachery on Sixty-Three Nineteen, Maloghurst the Twisted has continued to serve the Warmaster Horus as his closest aide and confidant. His loyalty has remained constant, but the XVI Legion has changed, for rivalry and personal ambition now run rife, and although Horus' authority is supreme, his Equerry's is certainly not. When a daemonic plot to infest the Vengeful Spirit comes to light, Maloghurst reluctantly turns to the few allies he has left: the mysterious Davinites. |
Twisted Blades - Twisted Blades: The Twisted Blades are a warband of Chaos Space Marines. They were once a Loyalist Chapter of Space Marines of unknown origin and Founding, known as the Graven Fists. They were corrupted after entering the Eye of Terror in 321.M37 as part of the Imperial Abyssal Crusade. It is unknown what they endured during their sojourn into the Eye, but by the time they made their way back into realspace, they had become the warband of Chaos Space Marines known as the Twisted Blades. |
Twisted Blades - Abyssal Crusade: Following the Ecclesiarchal Purges of 321.M37, a dozen star systems were engulfed by Warp Storm Dionys, its echoes rippling along the spiral arms of the galaxy as it raged through the Empyrean. Records of mutation and Chaos Cultist activity quadrupled overnight. Worse yet, it was not only the citizens who were affected by the sudden influx of Chaos. Many of the Space Marine Chapters with homeworlds affected by the Warp Storm found that the secret imperfections in their gene-seed were writ large upon their new recruits, giving rise to a wave of disturbing manifestations both physical and psychological. The Graven Fists were one such Loyalist Chapter of Astartes that had been affected by these Warp Storms.When the Ecclesiarchy heard of this sinister tum of events, Saint Basillius the Elder demanded that all those Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes whose homeworlds had been touched by the Warp Storm be rendered unto his judgement. Such was the elder's influence with the High Lords of Terra that within a standard year this had come to pass. After a series of stringent tests and prognostications, hundreds of Chapters were deemed unaffected by the Warp Storm. No less than thirty were found wanting. The Judged, as these fallen Chapters came to be known, volunteered for a redemptive Penitent Crusade. The most militant of their number demanded the right to purify their tainted flesh in the fires of battle, to make a noble end from tragic misfortune. To the surprise of his closest advisors, Saint Basillius agreed to this proposal. He saw it fitting to send the accused into the Eye of Terror, taking the fight for the Imperium's future to the Daemon Worlds inhabited by the Traitor Marines.A representative from each of the doomed Chapters held an emergency Council of Dismay to discuss the proposed Crusade. After scant hours of debate, they acquiesced to Basillius' demands, for they believed that martyrdom was preferable to an existence of suspicion and doubt. The last few days of 321.M37 saw a solemn procession of Strike Cruisers and Battle Barges pass through the Cadian Gate into the Eye of Terror, relay systems dormant and heraldic colours obscured by black mag-plates. One by one, the Chapters of The Judged disappeared into the iridescent dust nebulae that surrounded the Eye. As the massive Space Marine flotilla entered the Eye of Terror, they were set upon by a massive Chaos warfleet. The resultant battle was so fierce that the ships of The Judged were forced to retreat and were scattered to the furthest corners of the Eye.Chapter after Chapter fell to the perils of the Eye, for the Abyssal Crusade had entered a hell from which very few emerge unchanged. The true account of what occurred within the Eye to the Graven Fists is unknown, but most of the tales of the Chapters of The Judged ended in tragedy and sorrow. By the time they reemerged from the Eye many standard centuries later, the Graven Fists were no more, for they had become the Chaos Space Marine warband known as the Twisted Blades, wholly dedicated to the service of the Ruinous Powers. |
Twisted Blades - Warband Colours: The Twisted Blades warband's colours are not listed in current Imperial records. |
Twisted Blades - Warband Badge: The Twisted Blades warband's badge is not listed in current Imperial records. |
Twisted Helix - Twisted Helix: The Twisted Helix is a Genestealer Cult native to the Civilised World of Vejovium III located in the Pahr Sector of the southwestern Segmentum Ultima. Unlike other Genestealer Cults, the leaders of the Twisted Helix deliberately sought to mix the alien genetic material of the Tyranids with that of Humanity in a quest to improve themselves biologically.This is because the leaders of the Twisted Helix are the ruling corporate nobility of Vejovium III, a world wholly dedicated to the production of pharmaceuticals and biomedical products used across its sector and by the wider Imperium. Incidentally, this commercial reach has allowed the Twisted Helix to spread the Genestealer's Curse to an unknown number of other planets in the Emperor's domain.Ultimately, what sets the cultists of the Twisted Helix apart most others of their corrupted kind is that they did not have the Genestealer Curse thrust upon them, but instead voluntarily took it into their society through extreme medical experimentation. They now harbour unnumbered bio-horrors amongst their ranks that surpass even the terrifying Human-xenos hybrids found among the more "natural" Genestealer Cults.The Cult of the Twisted Helix are doubly cursed. Though they had a chance to fend off the tendrils of the Genestealer taint, they chose instead to embrace it for curiosity's sake, and so were damned by their own hand. They have only delved deeper into intellectual abomination ever since; their masters are deranged artists of bioengineering, while the faithful act as their all-too-willing canvas.Twisted Hetix cultists excel in the arts of insane alchemy and dark experimentation. Their neatly attired Biophagus progenitors create monstrous hybrids of all sizes and shapes, the energies of forbidden biochemical concoctions boiling through their veins to lend them uncanny strength, speed and resilience. |
Twisted Helix - Origins: The Cult of the Twisted Helix has spread far and wide through the most sinister of methods, for it uses the Imperium's limited understanding of biomedical science against itself. Its original site of inception is Vejovium III, deep in the southwestern regions of the Segmentum Ultima; the planet is technically a Civilised World, but it was long ago overtaken by the industry of the macro-alchemical distilleries that manufacture its exported medicines.So influential have these complexes become -- and the dynastic corporations that rule over them -- that everywhere the Vejovian skyline is ridged with enormous medifactoria. These appear, when viewed from the hive aristocracy's spires, like the laboratory of some godly sage -- spiral glass pipelines and chimneys belch strangely-coloured smoke alongside vast alembic structures and cooling towers. Given the influence they have over the lives and even anatomies of the populace, the divine comparison is an apt one.The war leaders and Biophaguses of the Twisted Helix think of themselves as a new breed of god-like being, their clay the flesh and blood of those around them, and their creations a blend of Human, alien and voidstuff. These they see as nothing more than experimental subjects, and every skirmish, hostile takeover and even large-scale uprising purely another test bed from which to draw firmer conclusions about their experiments thus far.They have created works of mad genius in their quest for the perfect life form, yet seek daily to surpass them, for nothing short of galactic domination will satisfy the power-mad maniacs who rule the cult's medifactoria behind a façade of intellectual curiosity.Vejovium's rulers long ago cracked the secrets of dulling the Human mind. After the costly Doxencrafter Rebellions of the late 38th Millennium, the planetary governor commissioned an inhibitory chemical that could be mixed into the food paste and corpse-starch of his citizenry's diet. The spread of this potent chemical saw the populace rendered docile, even bovine in its apathy to anything but the strongest stimulus. Though those visitors who saw this for the horror it was did everything to bring some manner of justice against the rulers of the cult, they were always undermined, kidnapped or shouted down by those with controlling interests in the planet's industrial fortunes.With Vejovium supplying so many of the medi-packs, Apothecarium supplies and void sickness pills to the Imperium's military bodies across the Pahr Sector, the investigations never plumbed the depths that would have unearthed the conspiracy spreading at the heart of the planet's fortunes.Ironically, it was this deadening of the psyche that was to prove a temporary salvation for Vejovium's people. When a clutch of Purestrain Genestealers, intended as fodder for more extreme experimentation, reached the planet via the Imperial black market, the first of the stevedores to meet one of the Tyranid vanguard organisms face-to-face was no easy prey for his would be corrupter.His narcotically-dulled mind proved resistant to the strange hypnotic effect of the Genestealer's psychic aura -- and, on instinct, closed the airlock in which the beast and its kin lurked, slamming the reinforced door shut just as the creature's ovipositor darted out to graze the glasscrete.The incident was reported to the on-duty overseer, of course, and from there the message reached the highest hive city spires. At a worryingly steep cost in the lives of their "volunteers," the leaders of the industrial cult laid low their Genestealer prisoners -- after assailing the airlock with radiation baths, poison gas, sonic destabilisers, and even acid mist they eventually resorted to a hail of bullets that not even the Purestrains could survive. They subsequently dissected the very xenoforms that had sought to infect them.Over the course of hundreds of exhaustive experiments, the medical overseers of Vejovium III learned how to extract the pure germ-seed of the Purestrain Genestealers from the cellular genomes of those who have been blessed by the Genestealer's Kiss. At the behest of the shadowy individual known only as the Prime Specimen, possibly the cult's Genestealer Patriarch, the implications of this discovery were exhaustively researched.It was eventually concluded that they stood on the threshold of a new evolution -- that the xenos gene-pattern was the path to true biological perfection, and perhaps even immortality. Under strict test conditions, the aristocracy of Vejovium injected the stuff of the alien into their veins, and began their transformation into something resembling Neophyte Hybrids.In essence, though they had at first evaded the curse that sought to infect them, the lords of Vejovium instead voluntarily started their own transformation into alien monsters at a far later stage of the standard Genestealer brood cycle. Sure enough, after many hideous by-blows and aborted experiments, they birthed a new clutch of Genestealers with which to further their agenda -- albeit a brood given life in the sterile tubes of a secret medifactoria rather than the incubatory anatomies of infected hosts. These in turn infected new infestation sites, and the Vejovians slowly began to resemble a Genestealer Cult like any other.So it was that the Genestealer Curse took hold upon Vejovium through a new and disturbing vector. Obsessed with their discovery, the Prime Specimen and his peers widened their research time and time again, venturing into the most bizarre territory in their search for new bioforms that would reinforce their delusions of godhood. They became convinced that to seed their concoctions throughout the people would be to secure their undying loyalty, even worship.Subsequent experimentation led to methods of incorporating the pure Genestealer germ-seed into the curative syringe vials that form a major part of Vejovium's interstellar medical exports -- and from there, into the veins of millions of unsuspecting Imperial citizens. Every recipient is rendered susceptible to the brood curse that is sure to follow; those with constitutions stalwart enough to resist are often given compulsory vital supplements in pill form, and later given reinforcement via a midnight visit from one of the cult's "independent vectors" -- Purestrain Genestealers.Over the years, the imperfections of these bio-alchemical experiments have resulted in a great many alien-Human hybrid monstrosities lurching from the laboratories of the Twisted Helix. Aberrations, multi-limbed hybrids, hunchbacked brutes and conjoined terrors are common in the ward-cells in which the cult keeps its shocking secrets. In times of insurgency, when the Prime Specimen can only achieve his aims through violence rather than subtlety, these monstrously unique hybrids are released by the thousands.Injected full of steroidal serums and painkilling salves, they make excellent shock troops, and the Biophaguses who goad them to battle learn much from their performance in live fire -- or their grisly demise, should their tortured metabolisms finally give in to the experimental adaptations heaped upon them.For every star system conquered through horror and violence, there is another that the cult has brought into the fold through the careful application of medicarium exports and subsequent mass indoctrinations. This process, expertly refined and industrialised on an interplanetary scale, has seen the Twisted Helix spread its manufactured version of the Genestealer's Curse across the Vejovium System and beyond. |
Twisted Helix - A Single Shot: In the 41st Millennium, the first Sanctus of the Twisted Helix, Astrid Xeneca, infiltrated a crowd of Imperial pilgrims upon Immortis IX. From the courtyard of the famed Ivory Basilicanum, she planted a dart from her serum needler in the jugular vein of the Arch-Cardinal Vidderminster just as he was mid-speech on his balcony.The needler, customised to fire a glass tube so thin it bypasses the arch-cardinal's electromagnetic saviour shield, delivers a potent cocktail of hypertrophic enzymes. Specially concocted by Xeneca's Biophagus brother, the enzymes go to work with astonishing speed.In front of a millions-strong audience of adoring Imperial faithful, the Adeptus Ministorum leader swells up like a balloon and bursts in a splatter of gore just as he is proclaiming the immunity of the pious man to the insidious scourge of the xenos.It is a blow to the political stability of Immortis IX that leads to the appointment of a new arch-cardinal from off-world, new trade deals, compulsory medicae visits, and ultimately the new Wars of Faith that lead to the planet's downfall. |
Twisted Helix - Elixir of the Prime Specimen: The constant experimentation conducted by agents of the Twisted Helix has led to a great many claims of having created the perfect bioform. The finest bio-alchemical concoction to come from the distilleries of Vejovium III, known as the Elixir of the Prime Specimen, contains the rendered down essence of the Great Spined Beast, manufactured from the corpse of a captured Tyranid wrecker organism that the cult gave much to acquire. Those who imbibe the resultant elixir swell with physical power, their muscle mass increasing to grotesque levels even as their minds fill with bloodlust. |
Twisted Helix - Cult Psychic Discipline: Mutagenic Deviation - The hybrid psykers of the Twisted Helix have learned to send trigger impulses through the cult's Broodmind, which awaken rampant mutagenic strains within the bodies of the faithful. Those affected sprout chitinous blades, wicked fangs and lashing tendrils with which to bloodily dismember their foes. |
Twisted Helix - Canon Conflict: In the 8th Edition Codex: Genestealer Cults the description of the Twisted Helix cult says that its homeworld of Vejovium III is located in the eastern region of the Segmentum Obscurus. However, the map of Genestealer Cult locations in the galaxy on pg. 34 shows that Vejovium is actually located in the southwestern region of the Ultima Segmentum. For canon purposes we are assuming the map was correct while the text was not. |
TX-4 Piranha - TX-4 Piranha: A TX-4 Piranha is a type of lightly armoured combat scout skimmer used by the Tau Fire Caste - a mobile weapons platform that is capable of great speed and manoeuvrability. Using its jet-thrusters and anti-gravitic engine, a Piranha is a fast moving craft that is extremely hard for a foe to hit, its twin crew well able to hug the terrain and make the best use of any cover. Furthermore, a Piranha's weaponry allows it to punch well above its own weight, either using its Burst Cannon to slaughter enemy infantry, or using a Fusion Blaster to blow apart battle tanks many times its own size. Along with a nose-mounted main armament, a Piranha carries two Gun Drones -- either retained on the vehicle to add firepower, or detached into AI (Artificial Intelligence) mode to perform some other mission. When operating as lone hunters, Piranhas are dangerous enough, but it is when they are fielded in teams that they become truly lethal. |
TX-4 Piranha - History: The first time the TX4 Piranha was initially encountered and identified by the Imperium was during a diplomatic mission on the Tau Sept world of Dal'yth, where it was being used as an unarmed diplomatic transport vehicle for Water Caste negotiators. However, it was during the Taros Campaign that the Piranha was first field-tested in a military application, and has subsequently been code-named the "Piranha" by the Imperium.During the Taros Campaign's Battle for Hydro Processing Plant 23-30, Piranhas were widely deployed in support of Remote Sensor Towers already in the area to provide Seeker Missile support. This caused the 114th Cadian Regiment's relief column to be constantly harassed by missile strikes and day-long battles were fought between Chimeras and Piranhas. This led to the relief column being delayed long enough for Tau Hunter Cadres to overrun the plant. Piranhas also played an important role in the desert warfare on Taros, harassing enemy forces with the support of Hunter Cadres and eventually pursuing the Tallarn regiments of the Imperial Guard as they withdrew back to their landing zones in the closing stages of the campaign.Since the Taros Campaign, the Piranha has been upgraded in terms of armour and armament, and has proved notably successful as a support asset for Pathfinder Teams. Piranha's have been a favourite of the Fire Caste since their introduction during the Second Sphere Expansion, swiftly proving worthy of the praise being heaped on it. Places within Fire Caste Piranha training programs are highly contested, and those who successfully graduate enjoy enhanced status amongst their comrades. |
TX-4 Piranha - Construction: The design of the TX4 Piranha consists of a sleek and light design of a central, open-topped chassis that can seat two crew members. A Piranha is powered by complex dual anti-gravitic and jet-propulsion motive systems so that the vehicle almost glides over a planet's surface. The anti-gravitic engines generate "cushions" of air upon which the Piranha floats, and its armoured bulk is then driven forwards by its two powerful jet engines mounted on the sides of the main chassis. By manipulating the anti-gravitic plates so that the Piranha is pointed slightly skywards, a Piranha pilot can gain extra lift from the Piranha’s engines to clear the many obstacles and terrain that often litters a battlefield; obstacles that more mundane tracked vehicles can never hope to traverse.Two winglets are mounted on the side of the main engines. Each of these winglets fulfils a role similar to that of the lift fins on a Devilfish chassis, providing extra lift to keep the vehicle off the ground and also providing space for two recesses specifically designed to carry a Gun Drone. Mounted on the front of the central section of the Piranha is a chin turret, which can be fitted with a Burst Cannon or a Fusion Blaster. The armour of the vehicle is made from a dense nano-crystalline metal, named Fio'tak in the Tau Lexicon, that is light, malleable, strong and corrosive resistant, reducing the weight of the vehicle whilst also providing excellent protection. A Piranha carries two crewmen. The crew member in the front seat is the pilot, while the crew member behind him operates the chin-mounted weapon system. However, when the Piranha is used in a non-combat role, the second seat is often reserved for important Tau dignitaries such as an Ethereal. |
TX-4 Piranha - Tactical Role: Piranhas are used in a wide array of capacities, and formations range in size from lone vehicles to a team of up to five working in conjunction. These agile craft have countless uses within the Tau military: their speed and heavy firepower allows them to serve in capacities as varied as armoured escort, reconnaissance in force, tank hunting, flank attackers, supply line raiding, mobile reserves or even, in extreme circumstances, sudden-strike assassination.Larger schools of these deadly skimmers can use their Burst Cannons to annihilate enemy infantry units, while smaller formations are ideal for eradicating scouts or dealing with unexpected enemy squad deployments. Lone Piranhas that are equipped with the deadly Fusion Blaster are proficient hunters of enemy tanks. Using its speed, the skimmer will attempt to manoeuvre so as to target enemy vehicles in their more vulnerable side and rear armour. During an attack run, Piranhas are a blur of motion, and the crew are more likely to trust their speed and jinking ability over any amount of armour. Using its jet-thrusters and anti-gravitic engine, the Piranha glides over a planet's surface, and its twin crew are well able to hug the terrain and make the best use of any cover.Piranhas are usually found supporting Hunter Cadres in the niche role of acting as a light combat, raiding, and reconnaissance vehicle that can harass infantry and armour alike. Piranhas commonly clash with enemy scout forces during missions, and have been used by the Tau to provide armoured fire support in defence of an area by acting as part of a rapid-response force for Tau Pathfinders. In a reconnaissance role, the Piranha is a direct match for an Imperial Guard Salamander as it can tackle other light vehicles. This is a desirable asset since first contact with an enemy is often a clash between scout forces. It is thought that the Fire Caste observed and learned from the Imperial Guard's deployment of Salamanders how to deploy and use Piranhas, and have adapted the same tactics for their Piranhas. However, this is pure conjecture by Imperial observers.On the battlefield, Piranhas often seem to be everywhere at once -- hurtling over friendly troops to counter-attack approaching infantry, racing along the flanks to launch devastating enfilades at enemy armour, or streaking from behind cover to destroy vulnerable foes. After so many training drills that stress using coordinated attacks and mutual fire support, Fire Warriors are well accustomed to the thrum of a Piranha soaring just over their head and they no longer turn to follow the sudden swoosh of air as they streak past.Piranhas have the ability to bring firepower quickly to wherever it is needed, but they are even more dangerous when working in conjunction with Pathfinder Teams. Using Marker Lights, Pathfinders often set up Piranha strafing runs, ensuring that the skimmers' volley of fire is as devastating as possible. In return, Pathfinders that find themselves in danger of being overrun can request quick strikes by Piranha teams to help wipe out approaching enemies or, at the least, buy time for the Pathfinders to reposition.Piranhas are also commonly equipped with potent Seeker Missiles, allowing them to strike at enemy armour from long range with the support of other Tau units outfitted with Marker Lights, such as Pathfinders. Piranhas are lightly armoured, however, and their only true defence is their speed and manoeuvrability. Piranhas have also been identified operating as armoured support for teams guarding important strategic locations such as Tau airfields; where they act as a rapid response force. In this way, they act as security where heavier combat vehicles are not generally required. In peacetime, Piranhas can also fulfil the role of an armoured personnel carrier, transporting important Tau diplomatic officials and Ethereals to and from locations where they are needed. |
TX-4 Piranha - Known Tactical Formations: Firestream Piranha Wing - When a number of Tau Hunter Cadres fight together, they make use of a higher-level scouting force consisting of a number of Piranha squadrons. These so-called Firestream Wings are often called "Piranha Swarms" by Imperial troops. The are responsible for not only scouting terrain ahead of a multi-cadre force, but also disrupting enemy forces. The primary function of a Firestream Piranha Wing is to hunt and eliminate isolated enemy forces. These Piranhas are often fitted with Seeker Missiles, and their chin-mounted Burst Cannon is replaced with Fusion Blasters; making them exceptionally lethal armour hunters, especially when homing in on Marker Light targets acquired by other units. For this reason, the wing often includes a Tetra scout speeder team to support them in their hunt. A lone Piranha leads the formation, whose crew are a specially designated Target Acquisition Team trained to optimise the firepower of their comrades' craft by spotting vulnerable prey for elimination. The formation's lethal assault is enough to utterly shatter lone enemy formations and eliminate enemy scouting forces wholesale. However, during extended combat operations, the Piranha crews can withdraw; undergoing swift repairs and taking on fresh Drone replacements at their base before plunging back into the fight. The Firestream Wing's secondary function is to disrupt the deployment of enemy forces. They achieve this through a highly complex communications array mounted upon the wing's command vehicle. This array gathers sensor data from all of the Piranhas in the wing, and decrypts any communications it intercepts and identifies. The orders contained in the signal are altered, the encryption re-applied, and the signal reconstructed before being transmitted onwards to the intended recipient. Should the signal prove impossible to replicate, the system is capable of jamming any type of communication it can detect. The re-transmitted signal is intended to disrupt enemy orders, changing dispositions without the enemy command being aware of the subterfuge. Enemy units will often find themselves deployed kilometres out of line, and either ambushed or unable to take part in the battle. Soon, the entire enemy army is in disarray, allowing the Piranha wing and following Tau units to engage the enemy entirely on their own terms. The Tau have become so adept at this process that they can analyse and jam almost any signal, and succeed in disrupting even entirely alien forces whose technology they have not encountered before.Firestream Piranha Squadron - Piranha Firestream Squadrons are intended to provide heavy supporting fire for beleaguered Tau ground forces. They carry extra ammunition for their weapons, but only have a limited amount of fuel. Should a Tau attack falter or a defence line start to crumble, Firestream Squadrons will quickly be despatched from a large central reserve to stabilise the situation, screaming swiftly into battle and using their firepower to stem the enemy attack, before returning to their base to refuel and have any losses replaces before going to battle once more. A Firestream Piranha Squadron consists of five Piranha squadrons as standard.Infiltration Cadre - Infiltration Cadres are expected to advance into harm's way to locate high value strategic targets to attack -- they serve as the eyes and ears of the Fire Caste. Usually operating deep behind enemy lines, the warriors of an Infiltration Cadre are prepared to fight unsupported against superior foes, using every iota of their skills in stealth and evasion to stay alive while hammering the enemy with fire. However, a properly deployed Infiltration Cadre is never truly isolated, for by activating their intervention request beacons or concentrating their Marker Lights in a neutralisation lattice, the Cadre can call in massive reinforcements to screaming volleys of Seeker Missles to turn the tables upon their foe. Infiltration Cadres are usually made up of three Pathfinder teams, two teams of XV25 Stealthsuits, and a TX4 Piranha squadron. |
TX-4 Piranha - Primary and Secondary Weapons: A TX4 Piranha is primarily armed with an underslung nose turret weapon and a hull-mounted secondary weapon system. The nose-mounted primary weapon can be one of the following:Burst Cannon – A Burst Cannon provides rapid-firing suppressive anti-infantry fire that can harass and mow down enemy squads. A Burst Cannon can also act as a fearsome self-defence weapon that can complement the fire of supporting squads.Fusion Blaster – A Fusion Blaster is an anti-vehicle Melta Weapon effective against a range of light and heavy vehicles, and allows a Piranha to fulfil a tank-hunter role on the battlefield. However, a Fusion Blaster can also be used to great effect against heavily armoured infantry.Piranhas are also armed with two Gun Drones which ride with the vehicle in specially designed recesses. These Gun Drones are able to lend the Piranha their additional weight of fire to pin down enemies, or can detach themselves from the Piranha to move off independently and perform missions of their own. |
TX-4 Piranha - Upgrades: TX4 Piranhas can also be equipped with any of the following Tau vehicle upgrade systems:Automated Repair System - Automated Repair Systems consist of dispensers which release tiny maintenance Drones which swarm over damaged weapon and drive systems, repairing them in the midst of battle.Advanced Targeting System - An Advanced Targeting System assists the vehicle's gunner by identifying targets of particular value or danger, and plotting fire plans to counter them.Blacksun Filter - Blacksun Filters allow the vehicle's gunners to accurately see and target enemies in low-light conditions.Decoy Launchers - Decoy Launchers are a form of defensive measure that is mounted near the engines. They are capable of firing clouds of reflective strips and sophisticated electronic decoys, which are combined with flare and chaff launchers to protect the vehicle's thruster arrays from enemy missiles.Disruption Pod - Disruption Pods display distorting holographic images in the visual and electromagnetic spectra to make the vehicle harder to target.Flechette Discharger - Flechette Dischargers line the hull of the Piranha and fire high-velocity flechettes at infantry which try to assault the vehicle.Point Defence Targeting Relay - Designed to provide superior covering fire for nearby Fire Caste units, a Point Defence Targeting Relay automatically targets and engages enemies that try to assault the vehicle or nearby friendly units.Sensor Spines - Sensor Spines feed data to an advanced ground-following flight control system. This allows the vehicle to avoid hazardous terrain that could otherwise damage the vehicle's drive systems.Target Lock - A Target Lock computer automatically identifies potential targets and plots fire plans accordingly. This grants the gunners more choice and accuracy in engaging various targets.Targeting Array - Computer-aided Targeting Arrays are sophisticated targeting systems that aid the gunners' aim in firing upon enemy targets. |
TX-4 Piranha - Optional Weapons: Seeker Missiles - Piranhas can also optionally have up to two Seeker Missiles in addition to their primary and secondary armaments. Each Seeker Missile is most effective when fired and guided by Marker Lights. Seeker Missiles are especially deadly when mounted on Piranhas, as their ability to rapidly position themselves on the flanks of a battlefield allows the Seeker Missiles to strike at more vulnerable side or rear armour of enemy vehicles. |
TX-4 Piranha - TX-42 Piranha: With the success enjoyed by Piranha squadrons during both the Taros Campaign and other conflicts across the expanding Tau Empire, it was inevitable that other vehicles based on the design would soon emerge from various Tau Septs. The TX-42 is the newest incarnation of the original Piranha, intended to fulfil the role of a heavy gunship designed for frontline operations in support of Tau armoured units instead of a lightly armed reconnaissance craft. Compared to its progenitor, the TX-42 carries a much heavier weapons load, including twin-linked Rail Rifles, twin-linked Missile Pods, twin-linked Fusion Blasters or twin-linked Plasma Rifles. TX-42s retain the ability to carry a small number of Seeker Missiles into combat, which can then be launched by other Tau Empire units using the Marker Light network to direct their weapons fire.The TX-42 also features a reworked crew compartment, providing much greater protection to the two-man crew enclosed within. Although the compartment remains open, the increased armour allows the TX-42 to brave weapons fire that would have quickly destroyed the Piranha, allowing it to deliver pinpoint heavy weapons strikes in even the heaviest fighting.Still in the prototype stage of development, the TX-42 has yet to be mass-produced. In fact, it has so far been reported in use only amongst forces originating from the Sa'cea Sept. These forces are expanding through the Perdus Rift region as part of the Tau's Third Sphere Expansion and appear to be conducting tests of this new vehicle in combat conditions. Should these tests prove successful, it is likely the design will quickly spread to Tau cadres across the Empire. |
TX-4 Piranha - Notable Pilots: Ghovah - The most famous Piranha pilot was Ghovah, from the Vior'la Sept, who claimed over 1,000 kills during his service fighting for the Tau Empire. His most famous victory, however, occurred after his retirement from the frontiers to a training position. An Ork invasion thrust Ghovah back into battle when the Greenskins attacked Vior'la's largest moon. Only Ghovah s half-trained Piranha cadre stood between the mechanised greenskin army and the destruction of the vital food producing moon base. With Ghovah leading the way, the Piranha squadrons darted in interweaving patterns to attack the columns of ramshackle Ork vehicles. Piranhas with Burst Cannons concentrated on the lightly armoured Warbikes and Trukk transports, while the Fusion Blaster-equipped skimmers dealt with the heavily plated Battlewagons and tanks. The Orks broke off their drive towards the Earth Caste agri-centres and attempted to engage Ghovah's Piranha teams. In the ensuing battles, the agile skimmers feinted and fled, setting the Orks up for repeated counter attacks. The greenskins finally broke when, even while losing control of his crippled Piranha, the elder Tau steered his vehicle straight into the Warboss's battlewagon, causing it to erupt in flames. Ghovah’s unstinting skill and sacrifice were noted and he was, posthumously, named a hero of the Tau Empire. |
TX-4 Piranha - Ordo Xenos Departmento Analyticus Technical Specifications: Serial Number85673-908461Main ArmamentBurst Cannon in chin turretDesignationLight SkimmerVehicle CodenamePiranhaSecondary Armament2 Gun DronesVehicle TypeGrav-SpeederCrew2 (Pilot, Co-Pilot)Traverse120°Weight4.5 tonnesElevationFrom -46° to +5°Length5.7 metresAmmunition2000 roundsWidth6.4 metresArmour TypeNano-Crystalline AlloyComposition Unknown to the Adeptus MechanicusHeight2.4 metresMax Recorded Speed160 kilometres per hourSummary:Light Combat Vehicle; Can also mount a Fusion Blaster and Seeker Missile Rack |
TX-4 Piranha - Sources: Apocalypse: Reload, pg. 46Apocalypse Warzone: Damocles, pg. 54Codex: Tau Empire (7th Edition), pp. 26, 92Codex: Tau Empire (6th Edition), pg. 47Codex: Tau Empire (4th Edition), pg. 39Deathwatch: Rites of Battle (RPG), pg. 195Imperial Armour - Apocalypse, pg. 80Imperial Armour - Apocalypse (Second Edition), pg. 82Imperial Armour Update 2006Imperial Armour Volume Three - The Taros Campaign, pp. 181-183Imperial Armour Volume Three - The Taros Campaign (Second Edition), pp. 152-153, 263War Zone Damocles: Kauyon, pg. 185War Zone Damocles: Mont'ka, pg. 187 |
Tyberos - Tyberos: Tyberos, "The Red Wake", Reaper Lord of the Void, is the Chapter Master or "Shade Lord" of the Carcharodons Chapter of Space Marines and ship's master of the fabled battle barge Nicor. He also serves simultaneously as Company Master of the Carcharodons' elite 1st Company, better known as the "Red Brethren."A giant, even for an Astartes, Tyberos dwarfs even his fellow void brothers. He is utterly immovable, a vast, silent presence whose pronouncements are always final. In battle, it was a special privilege for his fellow void brothers to witness the elemental destruction unleashed when the master of the Carcharodons was called upon to render bloody judgement upon the enemy.It was his practice to distribute the Veteran brothers of his 1st Company among the other companies of the Chapter, to serve as both fearsome force multipliers and as his eyes, ears and enforcers. They ensured that all Carcharodon fleets did not stray from their Chapter loyalties.Tyberos served as the Force Commander of the units deployed as part of their unlooked-for and savage intervention in the Badab War. He often led his brethren Terminators of the elite 1st Company in bloody assault after bloody assault, carving a path of mangled corpses through the Secessionist Astartes forces of the Badab campaign with his twin artefact gauntlet weapons, Hunger and Slake. |
Tyberos - History: During the Badab War, the mysterious Chapter known as the Carcharodons arrived without warning in the Maelstrom Zone in 910.M41, unlooked for by either the Loyalists or Secessionist forces. The sudden appearance of their fleet on the edge of the Golgothan Wastes initially caused considerable alarm on both sides.Led by their baleful First Captain Tyberos, also known as "The Red Wake," the Carcharodons were the subject of considerable suspicion by the Loyalists upon their arrival. Surprisingly, their presumed commander Tyberos offered his cooperation with the Inquisitor Legate responsible for prosecuting the Badab War as well as Lord Commander Carab Culln of the Red Scorpions Chapter who served as the overall commander of the Loyalist Astartes forces.Tyberos presented them with the Notices Patent of his Chapter, affirming its rights and titles issued by several High Lords of Terra and Inquisitors long dead. To verify his identity, Tyberos even submitted personally to psychic probing and gene-sampling by the Inquisitor Legate's staff.Entering their final bitter stages of the campaign both the Inquisitor Legate and Lord Commander Culln knew that such a force would prove invaluable in pressing the attack and bringing the conflict to a swift and absolute conclusion.The Inquisitor Legate vouched for the Chapter and Lord Commander Culln accepted the Carcharodons into his line of battle, though he was still wary of their loyalties and deeply concerned that their long voyage into the darkness of the outer void had led them to significantly deviate from the Codex Astartes. Despite misgivings as to the Carcharodons' methods, Culln was unable to deny the Chapter's effectiveness.During this conflict, Tyberos gained a dark fame for his brutal combat prowess and the two ancient relic-gauntlets with which he carved a path of mangled and shredded corpses through the Secessionist forces. Tyberos led his elite Terminator Squad in bloody assault after bloody assault, their savagery unmatched throughout the Badab War.Those that witnessed the ferocity of the Carcharodons' commander tell of a blood-splattered killing machine that left a path of destruction and mangled bodies in his wake. Based upon the battle barge Nicor, Tyberos was often seen at the forefront of every assault leading the Chapter's Veterans of the elite 1st Company.This Assault Terminator Squad was equipped with Lightning Claws and led by their deadly commander in bloody assaults against all those who would defy the will of the Emperor. |
Tyberos - Appearance: Tyberos wears a pattern of Tactical Dreadnought Armour that has been heavily modified to suit his stature. Dozens of brass bonding studs gleam atop slab-plates of grey ceramite, layered over blocks of plasteel reinforced with rods of adamantium.A skull, the bone yellowing and ancient, dangles from a chain at the giant's waist, its eye sockets as dead and soulless as the black lenses of the Red Wake's boar-snouted helm.Tyberos is never seen outside of this archaic suit of Terminator Armour, but when revealed his face is a corpse-white nightmare with half the bones of his face exposed in a bloodless grimace while his eyes are a soulless, depthless black.When he communicated with the other Loyalist Astartes commanders during the Badab War, he never spoke above a soft whisper that always carried the promise of death.More terrible yet are the two great gauntlets he always wears. Named Hunger and Slake, these ancient Power Fists combine wicked power talons with twin-linked underbite chainblades.The carnage they can unleash had to be seen to be believed. The entire suit of ancient battleplate throbs with the vast power necessary to keep its thick servo bundles active, and the very air in the Red Wake's presence feels alive with the potency of the supreme predator. |
Tyberos - Wargear: Terminator Armour (Modified Pattern)Hunger and Slake - Tyberos' modified Terminator Armour is equipped with a pair of unique Lightning Claws with which he has developed a murderous degree of skill. Named Hunger and Slake, each of these heavy gauntlet-like devices of uncertain origin combine barbed power blades and an inner maw fitted with underbite mechanised chainblades that make use of adamantium teeth. These gauntlets' pattern and manufacture are unknown to the Tech-priests of Mars. How Tyberos acquired these archeotech weapons is a matter of conjecture. However, it is whispered within the Chapter that this pair of ancient Lightning Claws once belonged to the Raven Guard Legion's 18th Chapter -- the very same Terran formation that was exiled to the Outer Dark by Primarch Corax himself after he assumed command of the XIXth Legion. This expeditionary fleet was tasked to bring the light of the Emperor to the Ghoul Stars, and later became a Renegade Blackshield force known as the Ashen Claws. Unknown to the wider Imperium, this group of Renegades managed to survive into the modern era, and still had dealings with the Carcharodons to trade for technology or new recruits. Sometime in the past, during one of their bartering negotiations, Tyberos was provoked into a duel with the Ashen Claws Chapter Master, Nehat Nev. Following the brutal and presumably bloody fight, the "Red Wake" emerged triumphant, and claimed Hunger and Slake as his prize. Since then, the Renegade lord still seethes at their loss, and continues to provoke the Carcharodons' ire whenever the Chapter is forced to deal with these Renegades.Teleport Homer |
Tylos Rubio - Tylos Rubio: Tylos Rubio was an extremely powerful Space Marine psyker during the Great Crusade era of the early 31st Millennium, who had once been a Codicier of the Ultramarines Legion before the Emperor of Mankind’s formal decree at the Council of Nikaea had banned the Astartes Legions' use of psykers, including their own corps of Librarians.Honouring his oath to the Emperor, Tylos surrendered his Librarian panoply and wargear, and returned to the lines as an ordinary Battle-Brother. He would later be recruited by Nathaniel Garro, a former Death Guard Battle-Captain, during the infamous Battle of Calth to become one of Malcador the Sigillite's Knights-Errant. Later, he was chosen as one of the eight Astartes who formed the core of the Grey Knights Space Marine Chapter. |
Tylos Rubio - Horus Heresy: 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 had repudiated their oaths to the Emperor and turned to Chaos, including the Sons of Horus, the Emperor's Children, the World Eaters and the Death Guard.Having successfully purged the remaining Loyalists from the Traitor Legions, Horus plotted the next stages of his insurrection against his once-beloved father, the Emperor of Mankind. When word reached Terra of the Warmaster’s treachery at Istvaan III, as a result of the flight of the frigate Eisenstein under the command of Battle-Captain Nathaniel Garro and a small group of Loyalist Space Marines from the Death Guard Legion, the Emperor ordered the deployment of 7 Loyalist Astartes Legions to the Istvaan System to bring Horus to account for his actions.It was while Horus made his plans for what would become known as the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V, that the Warmaster sent word to the XVIIth Legion's Primarch Lorgar that the time had come for his Astartes, the Word Bearers, to strike against the Imperium. The Warmaster was keenly aware of the bitter hatred that Lorgar had for his brother Primarch Roboute Guilliman and his XIIIth Legion, the Ultramarines, who had once humiliated the Word Bearers by destroying their city of Monarchia on the world of Khur at the Emperor's orders during the Great Crusade.Horus told Lorgar that he had fed Guilliman false intelligence in regard to a possible threat in the Segmentum Tempestus, far to the galactic south of Terra that stemmed from the Orks of the Ghaslakh Empire. Horus had ordered the XIIIth and the XVIIth Legions to muster and meet at the world of Calth in the Ultramarines' Realm of Ultramar, in order to conduct a massive joint campaign of extermination against the Ghaslakh xenohold, a common mission for the Astartes during the final days of the Great Crusade.It was at Calth that Lorgar launched a surprise attack on the Ultramarines whilst they were gathered for the campaign against the Orks of Ghaslakh that would never begin. The XIIIth Legion was caught completely unaware while the Word Bearers seized the advantage of surprise to completely annihilate their hated rivals. This treacherous campaign came to be known as the Battle of Calth or the Calth Atrocity.There were many portents of the tragedy soon to unfold upon Calth. Given the extraordinary thoroughness with which the XIIIth Legion maintained its readiness, it might have been considered tragic, or incompetent, that so few were heeded. Before the attack on Calth, those gifted with psychic abilities suffered severe headaches and pain behind the eyes. One such gifted individual was Tylos Rubio. He ignored the mysterious pain, chalking it up to nothing more than fatigue after having gone without rest for several days during the preparation phase for the coming campaign against the Orks.It had not been possible to shut down higher mental functions and sleep, or at least remedially meditate, a common form of rest for the genetically-engineered Astartes. This mysterious pain was actually a warning sign broadcast through the Warp of the impending approach of the Forces of Chaos. But Rubio and all of his former Librarian comrades ignored the headaches. Few would survive the coming assault long enough to regret it. |
Tylos Rubio - Battle of Calth: After arriving in the Sol System with the terrible news of the Warmaster's betrayal, Garro, his fellow Death Guard Astartes and a number of other Loyalist refugees, were all placed in a fortress on Luna that belonged to the Sisters of Silence whilst the Emperor determined whether they were truthful or were simply further pawns of the Chaos Gods. Garro was eventually approached by Malcador the Sigillite, the acting Regent of Terra, who told him that the Emperor needed men like him to help form a new Imperial organisation outside the boundaries of the existing Imperial bureaucracy. Under the Sigillite's own seal, Garro was tasked with finding 7 other Loyalist Astartes from amongst both the Loyalist and Traitor Legions who were utterly devoted to the Emperor and his Imperium in body and soul. These Space Marines would eventually form the core of what would later evolve into the Grey Knights Chapter of Astartes, the Chamber Militant of the Inquisition's Ordo Malleus.Garro’s first mission was to war-torn Calth, a battle-scarred Agri-World located in the Veridian System. The Loyalist XIIIth Legion, the Ultramarines, were engaged against their treacherous former brethren from the XVIIth Legion, the Word Bearers, in a great contest of the Heresy known to history as the Battle of Calth. Garro slipped past the Word Bearers’ orbiting fleet and down to the surface of the war-ravaged planet. He was looking for the Ultramarines' 21st Company, under the command of Captain Erikon Gaius. During his mission for the Sigillite, when questioned as to which Legion he belonged to, Garro consistently referred to himself as a "Knight Errant" and the member of a "Legion of One." The 21st Company had been last sighted on the western outskirts of the city of Numinus. They had been at the forefront of the first Word Bearers assault and it had been their burden to witness the deaths of too many of their Battle-Brothers at the hands of the Traitors and their daemonic allies. They were now a company in name only. Their Captain had managed to rally them in the face of the brutal losses. With words and deeds he had led them into the fray, and they claimed back in blood a steep price from the Traitors, but not enough. They were cut off from their kinsmen, holding one of the mag-lev railroad approaches to Numinus City.Garro sought out Battle-Brother Tylos Rubio amongst the Astartes of the 21st Company, an extremely powerful psyker who had once been a Codicier of the XIII Legion before the Emperor's formal decree at the Council of Nikaea had banned the Space Marine Legions' use of psykers, including their corps of Librarians. Captain Gaius had been killed in a Word Bearers' assault when a large force of Traitor Marines and Chaos Cultists nearly overwhelmed the 21st Company’s battle lines.Garro arrived before the next assault and found Brother Rubio. He explained to the perplexed Ultramarine that he was there on the orders of Malcador the Sigillite and that Rubio must come away with him. Rubio refused to leave his Battle-Brothers in the face of annihilation unless so ordered by the Emperor himself. Much to Rubio’s surprise, the honourable Garro respected his decision and agreed to stand and fight with him against the Word Bearers.In the final assault, the Ultramarines were driven back in the face of overwhelming numbers, and sought cover within a cave. They were hard-pressed by the elite Word Bearers' Cataphractii armoured Terminators. Brother Rubio was sorely tested, and forced to restrain himself by his sacred oaths to the Emperor from using his innate psychic abilities, even though he knew that by doing so he could have saved the lives of many of his fallen Battle-Brothers. Facing imminent death, Rubio felt that he had no other choice and unleashed a powerful psychic attack, driving the enemy back with the full force of his powers. The tunnel collapsed in the process, burying the attacking Word Bearers Cataphractii Terminators under tons of rubble.The survivors of the 21st Company had been saved and the sole passage to Numinus had been denied to the enemy. Yet using his powers had cost Rubio dearly -- his honour before his Primarch and his Emperor. Garro told him to be grateful that he had saved his Battle-Brothers' lives. As he approached his fellow Ultramarines, they averted their eyes and as one turned their backs, shunning him.Rubio had disobeyed a Decree Absolute of the Emperor, and for that, there was no forgiveness. Garro drew his Power Sword Libertas and Rubio spun at the sound of it, fixing Garro with a furious glare. Garro held the sword out, the point down towards the ground. He had Rubio place his hand upon the blade to take an Oath of Moment, to dedicate himself to the orders of the Regent of Terra and put aside all other claims upon his honour. Rubio swore upon the blade, for he had little other choice, and became one of the Sigillite's primary agents, the Knights-Errant. |
Tylos Rubio - Istvaan III: Several Terran years later, Tylos Rubio accompanied Garro, and another Loyalist Astartes, a former World Eaters Captain named Macer Varren, to the devastated world of Istvaan III, to recruit the seventh and final warrior of their new fellowship -- Garviel Loken, a former Captain and member of the Mournival of the Sons of Horus. Though Istvaan III was now a barren graveyard of a planet, appearing devoid of all life, somehow Loken had survived the Traitor's final orbital bombardment and eked out a bleak existence on the planet's blighted surface amongst the ruins of the capital of Choral City for several years.Loken had been driven mad by the horrors he had experienced and believed that he had been rejected by Death itself. He experienced a form of amnesia and could no longer recall his own name, taking upon himself the new identity of "Cerberus," believing himself to be the sole remaining champion of the Emperor and Loyalist in the galaxy until he was confronted by Garro and his fellow Astartes.After their arrival on the surface of the planet by Thunderhawk, Rubio, Garro and Varren encountered a handful of what they believed to be human survivors who spoke of a beast that hunted them. Taking matters into his own hands, Garro went to the lair of the so-called Beast of Istvaan III, and on discovery of the long-dead headless corpse of Tarik Torgaddon, he was attacked by the unkempt, nearly-psychotic "Cerberus."During his fight with Loken, Varren urged the mad Astartes not to endanger the civilian refugees nearby. Garro wanted to put the insane Astartes out of his misery, but Varren argued that they had already lost too many brothers to Horus' treason. After a lengthy battle, during which Cerberus escaped, Garro and his companions discovered that the human "survivors" of the virus-bombing of Istvaan III were in fact daemonhosts who had been transformed into undead Plague Zombies of Nurgle when the terrible consequences of the bombing had weakened the barrier between the Immaterium and Istvaan III, allowing the Plague Lord's influence to reign supreme.Garro and his Loyalist Astartes managed to defeat the foul creatures with the aid of Cerberus; however, once the undead had been destroyed, Garro and Cerberus had one more one-on-one combat match, as Loken mistakenly perceived the group of Loyalist Astartes as Traitors who had come to kill him. It was during this final fight that Garro managed to reach through the amnesia and fractured awareness of Cerberus to the core of the good man that remained deep within his psyche, reminding him of who he truly was, and that the Emperor still had a use for him in rooting out the corruption that was staining the Imperium.Aware of his true identity once more and how he had come to be stranded amidst the ruins of the Choral City of Istvaan III, Garviel Loken joined Garro and his team. With his assemblage of warriors now complete, Garro and Loken left Istvaan III for Luna to receive their first mission from Malcador the Sigillite. Rubio's fate after the Horus Heresy remains unknown. |
Tylos Rubio - Later Actions: After the majority of the Blood Angels Space Marine Legion and their Primarch Sanguinius disappeared in the Signus System and were presumed lost, Rubio was sent by Malcador the Sigillite to Baal to meet with Warden Arkad, the acting Regent of Baal. Arkad and twenty fellow Blood Angels stood guard on their Legion's homeworld, desperate for news of their brothers, but all travel and communication with the Signus System has been effectively blocked by the malignant Ruinstorm that had been summoned into being by the Traitors and now stood between the two systems.Surprised by the arrival of Rubio, the Knight-Errant had the misfortune of being the bearer of bad tidings: by order of the Regent of Terra, the Blood Angels Legion were hereby ordered to disband and have their Legion's resources divided amongst the remaining Loyalist Legions. Warden Arkad and his battle-brothers vehemently protested the Sigillite's command, arguing that as long as a single Son of Sanguinius yet drew breath, they could indeed rebuild their Legion. But due to serious time constraints, the Loyalists could ill-afford letting such valuable resources fall into the hands of the Traitors.Rubio sympathised with his cousins' outrage and the pain over the disbandment of the Blood Angels, for he knew what it was like to lose a Legion, having been exiled from his own due to his violation of the Emperor's Decree Absolute when he utilised his powers to save Captain Garro on Calth. The Knight-Errant went on to explain that a new organisation was being formed in order to counter the dark powers that Horus Lupercal had aligned himself with.Disregarding the Sigillite's messenger, Warden Arkad and his Battle-Brothers vowed to undertake a suicidal journey in order to find their missing Primarch or carry the fight directly to the Warmaster himself. When Rubio attempted to stop Arkad, the Librarian came close to being slain by the remaining Blood Angels, but was miraculously saved by an unexpected astropathic message received from the Signus System, stating that Sangunius and the Blood Angels yet lived. Warden Arkad ordered Rubio to depart Baal, for he would have to return to the Sigillite empty-handed. Satisfied that the Blood Angels had survived, Rubio was only too happy to do so. |
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